FMP - EVALUATION

Critical analysis 

Compare your work to professional work in the same area. Are you satisfied with your work in comparison?

 Comparing my work with professional work is very interesting because I can see what I need to learn and also what I need to improve. At the beginning of my project, I started looking at Justin Quiles music as a reference to help myself with the composition of "Nine letters" that It was aiming to be in reggae and trap, a mixture as part of my experimentation. So, I can say that I am satisfied with my work because is the first time that I record a song from my own composition but obviously his professional recording sounds much better and also it teens to be more commercial and labeled which is a thing that I did not add to my composition. However, I would have liked more to get a better sound in my vocals recorded, but It is important to contrast that this is process of learning so, I feel proud of myself for bringing to life the ideas that I had in my head.

  

   The professional work is more complex but at the same time It comes from very creative experimentation, so If I compare my work with the professional one, I could say that my work was aiming to be professional because I used time management and collaboration with others to help me to improve my ideas. As well as the recording session that I arranged with some of my classmates and also partners from others courses as part of collaborative target for this project.

      How does your work fit into the music industry? Provide professional examples.

  In my opinion, I think that my work fits into the music industry as a song for a tv show, romantic and dramatic movie or also as song for a soap opera's introduction. For example, I can visualise my song as a backing track of a emotive scene of a soap opera or maybe as a backing track for a tv show based on a reality of joining couples or something like that. To be honest, that is what I imagine that my songs might work in. 

      

           What areas have you still struggled with?
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     The areas which I think I am still struggling with are the editing of the vocals and also the mastering of the sound of a entire song to make it sound professional. Also, to achieve a proper time management because sometimes I would like to complete a project in a limited time but because my bad time management sometimes the project is not finished at that deadline. So, I still need to work in my time management and completing all my targets.

      

 With hindsight, what would you do differently?

    I would do different my way of mastering my compositions. I definitely need to study more about mastering and also to read more books about recording techniques and composition techniques. Also, I think that I would have done a better performance, because I know I could have done it better. In addition, I need to improve my commitment with the rehearsals and trying to get better control of my way of playing guitar, piano and also singing. I would have done a different performance of billie jean in salsa version, preferably it was aiming to be in an instrumental live performance with most of my classmates in there, but unfortunately the arrangement of the whole people to rehearse together was so hard and unsuitable. 

How will you improve in the future?

  To be honest, I think that I will improve in the future by practicing more often, rehearsing with more people, studying more musical production theory and music theory.

  However, It is very important to contrast that I need to record more cover and composing more songs to learn how to get a really good sound quality and learning how to release my own material.

   being more specific, reading books about professional audio mixing, edition of audios, going to professional studios and interacting with people who are more engaged with the music businesses and industry. i think that the improvement comes by the learning of new experiences and practice, so that I what I think is going to help to achieve all what I am aiming for the future.

Research

·       What were your key areas of research?

My key ares of research were looking at books of recording techniques, rehearsals and recording stuff at home.

·       What research methods did you apply?

My research methods were looking for music on youtube about genres that related to my composition and the ideas I had as part of my experimentation. Also, the rehearsals and the collaborations that helped me to improve my performance. I think  that most of my research was my own practice on logic pro x and the rehearsal rooms. Reading some books about composition of reggae and pop.

·       Have you been able to synthesise your research into your work?

yes, most of my research was the result of my work, the development of my own track by taking references from web-sides and also youtube were good sources to synthesise my work.

·       Do you feel that you completed sufficient research?

No, I think that I should have done more research about using pedals and effects for the edition of my songs. Also, I think that it was not enough because I should have looked for information about how to get better tuning at the time of singing.

·       In hindsight, are there other topics you should have researched?

Yes, there are other topics such as the research about the history of reggae and their roots, also about the composition techniques of the pop, reggaeton and trap music. What instruments are mainly used in the genres that I mixed in my compositions.

·       Are there other areas you would have liked to research, but did not have time?

Yes, I wanted to compose a song in bachata but I could not because there was not enough time  to complete a good recording, so that bachata genres takes more instrumentalisation and time for editing.

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·       What have you learnt that you can apply to your future projects?

I learnt how to do a good panning and also how to give a good balance in the structure of a song. I learnt to get more confidence about sharing my own ideas, my own likes and opinions. I have learnt how to do a research about a topic that you are interesting analytically and also what points to look at to get good sources of information.

Technical/Practical skills

·       How has your research informed your practical work?

My research informed my practical work by taking the information found on my musical sources of youtube and bringing them to the rehearsals. Most of my composition started in the rehearsal room after looking for artist who performed theirs songs mixing genres and that is how I started rehearsing the first times to practice on my songs based on my research.

·       What skills (new and existing) have you developed in order to complete your project?

I have developed a better hearing and tuning, as well as the confidence for composing. I have gained more creativity to crate new melodies according to my theoretical learning about major scales, minor scales, blues and relative minor scales. All this kind of musicals stuff learnt during this academic period helped me to create my songs.

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·       Do you feel your practical skills have developed sufficiently during the course of the project?

Yes, but I still need to improve more my tuning and my way of rehearsing. I need to gain more confidence about my way of singing and my pitch. However, my skills for playing piano and guitar have improved positively. I feel proud of that because at the beginning of the year I did not know how to play the piano and over practical time I developed my skills and now I can play songs and also composing melodies easier by using the piano. 

Project management/working methods

·       What problems did you encounter during the FMP? How did you overcome these problems?

I had some problems to get in tune with my song 'I wanna know you' for my performance but I had some help from some of my classmates who helped me to get in tune and also they helped me by performing with me the song as an ensemble. Other problem was the structuring of my song ' nine letters' because the whole song had the same feeling and there was not a clear difference between chorus and verses, so my tutor helped to fix that by giving me his feedback about what he thought. The recording of the vocals for my song was also a big problem because I did not know how to edit them properly , so I asked help to one of the production students who helped me to edit them and recording them in one of the production rooms from the college in one session arranged by us as part of the mutual collaboration.

·       Have you completed all of the work you intended to create for this project?

Yes, to be honest I finished the three tracks that I was aiming to produce and recording. Also, I am satisfied for the results that I had in my performance. I know I could have done better but I feel good for developing better my skills and also for collaborating with lot of people.

·       Did you discover that you had tried to do too much over the course of 1 term? How did this affect your project, did you reduce the scale of your work?

No, I discovered that to research deeper about a topic and also to experiment more properly in your composition is something relatively much harder that the first term so, in this FMP was affected a bit for the work from the first term because I had a vision of what this work could be but anyway I did not reduce my scale of work, even I increased my rehearsals and I tried to do it as best as I could compared to the last terms.

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·       How did you make use of the access time that is available to you?

I used most of my access time to masterise better my songs, to get a better feedback from my tutors and to rehearsal with the classmates who I was doing my collaborations. However, I did not use that time to do a research about the sources I was needing to look for to complete my literature review and my written work.

Collaboration

·       Who have you worked with to complete your project? What role did they fill in your project?

I have worked with ojwal who is one of the students from level three music production who helped me to record the vocals for my songs and also to edit them. I have worked with Ashley who is in my course , helping her by playing the guitar in three of her songs. I worked with Melika, Kiano and Ashely who helped me with the performance of my song ' I wanna know you'. I worked with Sifa by playing the guitar in two of her songs, also by playing the guitar in Moneth's song and Kenya's.

I played the piano and singed with ashley and Melika for Paulo's song ' In my blood by Shawn Mendez'.

·       Describe the collaborative experience. Was it enjoyable, or did you encounter problems?

It was innovative and enjoyable because everyone's ideas were enriched by the practice and the collaboration. I felt really engaged with these collabs because to be part of someone's idea was really exciting. I did not have any problems with my collaborations, even most of my classmates were suitable and available for helping me and also I was available for helping them in their songs.

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·       How did you overcome any problems with your collaborators?

By arranging more rehearsals and more session in the production rooms to solve any mistake that we had to fix. The commitment and honesty of my classmates about the collaboration was the key to achieve good results.