Diary entries

Change of musicians Over the course of this project I've had to change the people in which i collaborated with. At the beginning the plan was to work with two other musicians. Jaymie Porter (Bass) and Rhys Battle (Drums) having my self playing the guitar. However there were two main issues that had rose the prevented me from doing so. The first was the lack of motivation these musicians had to practice which led to them not being able to play to the standard I wished them too. Although the drummer did have knowledge on how to drum I found that he was just not willing to dedicate him self the way I would of wanted him too.  This came apparent to me during rehearsal sessions where he had repeatedly failed to of learned his parts. The situation with the bassist was much worse as he just did not know how to play bass. Although that is what he considered to be his main instrument it was apparent that he was not committed nor efficient in his instrument of choice. Not only was it a prob...

Problems with Recording Over the recording period of the EP we faced two major fuck ups. The first being that when recording takes for the first time the Macbook we were using died and we lost a lot of takes we were initially thought were recorded. For the second time of recording we assured that the Macbook was plugged into a charger before recording. However the second time of recording it turned out that even after assurance from one of my tutors who was playing bass on the EP (Ali Smyth) that he had failed to press the record button and all takes we had played were lost. This was unfortunate as once we had found out that this was the case it was to late to continue recording.  However after these first two failed recording sessions the rest ran smoothly.

Im yet to address why the EP changed so drastically. The more I guess I could say dominant reason was that I just feel that the more soulful funkier songs i wrote just sounded more creative and had more substance behind them but secondly the musicians i was working with prior weren't able to fulfill what was expected of them also not having a blues rock vocalist to work with was also very limiting. However i am very pleased with the change and i still feel challenged by writing in a new genre of music that i enjoy listening to and creating.

On our first day of recording the EP someone forgot to press the record button and we lost a few good takes of the first track. I found this frustrating but you know what can you do. So next time we go to record im going to double check just to be one hundred percent sure everything is running smoothly.

The genre of the EP has had a drastic change over the past few days of writing and recording. I scrapped the 3 blues-rock track for 3 more funkier/ soulfully founding songs, as I personally think they sound better.    With this change of genre comes a change of musicians used on the EP. I now have a vocalist on the EP (Lucia) use my tutor on the bass and a drummer from my class on the drums. (Nathanial).

Upon revisiting the Arctic Monkeys album "AM". I found out that Josh homme produced the album. From this I found that he has produced other records for example The Stroke's debut album was produced by Josh Homme. I can hear a consistency in his producing and I'm interested into finding out more into how he writes and produced music.

Rather than work as a band on this project i decided to write all music alone and any musicians I collaborated with I used as session musicians rather than band mates. I did this as I enjoyed being able to creatively develop my ideas individually and make a project I am happy with rather than making sacrifices with the creative direction of my EP. I did this as the drummer and bassist I was meant to operate with preferred to do a Pop Punk album rather than my genre of Blues Rock

I lacked inspiration on Friday and decided to take a trip to Tate Modern on the south bank to hopefully obtain some inspiration from other artists. Although i enjoyed the Picasso exhibition I found i was disappointed when exploring the rest of the of the gallery as I felt more weirded out then inspired. On the other hand I did find inspiration from the architecture around the south bank. the people and the over all atmosphere.  I also went to Camden Lock on the Sunday and found that more inspiring as i felt the sub culture within Camden lock was something i could more relate too.

I have decided to use two drummers on the EP rather then one. To get a more unique sound to the tracks and to obtain different styles of drumming. I've halved the songs between them. Having Rhys play on the opening and third track of the EP, and Nathanial playing 2nd and the jam track

I have decided to add a pianist to two of the track on the EP. I've asked Aaron to play keys on the opening track and jam track on the EP. On the opening track the purpose will be to carry the guitar and just add a thicker layer fo sound to make the track sound fuller. However on the jam track Aaron will play the main part of the track section of the track

My biggest inspiration when it comes to writing, creating and playing music is John Frusciante. He uses a funk guitar technique of instead of playing individual notes playing all strings whilst muting the notes he doesn't want. This technique is also used by Cory Wong of "Vulfpeck". I hope to combine that technique some how with Dan Auerbachs riffing on pentatonic scales style of writing together in order to get a sound that will sound yet unique but also emulate the sound of my inspirations. To do this I will first need to gain a better ability of Frusciante's muting technique to become more fluent with i

Recently I have been interested in the typical codes and conventions of Blues rock music and how i can break these rules to obtain a more creative project. As individuality and creativity is vital to me as a musician I have been trying to listen to other artists who combine multiple genres together that aren't typically associated. For example Tyler the creator's record "Scum Fuck Flower Boy" combines the likes of Jazz and hiphop together in an excellent way. Also a lot of Lo-Fi hiphop uses jazz melodies and chords over hiphop beats. I am a fan of hiphop beats and do hope to in-corporate these kinds of beats into my music

Over the past 2 weeks I have begun doing rough demos of the song I wish to write and record. Through doing this I have been able to obtain a clearer idea of what the tracks will sound like when completed. I have recorded these demos by using a audio interface and plugging my guitar into Logic Pro X for all guitar and bass parts and for the drum and any other parts i've used a midi keyboard to record

Upon checking up on my action plan I have come to realise that creating a music video is a unrealistic expectation to have in the short of amount of time I have. Due to having to write, record. master then actually shoot and have the video edited I have decided to drop this idea in order to hopefully enhance the quality of the music without feeling rushed and have enough time to comfortably write and create. With this said all other things on the plans at this point are still to go ahead

During a guitar lesson last week my tutor discussed how I write music and how I am stuck in the first position of scales. He showed my exercises I can practice in order to free up my playing to get more interesting sounds and to enhance my music writing capabilities. Since the lesson I have been practicing those exercises and it has allowed me to write more creatively and more fluently

During a guitar lesson yesterday my teacher was showing me how small details can greatly enhance the sound of a lick/song. He did this through showing my the lick in "Black Dog" written by "Led Zeppelin". During the lesson he showed my how Jimmy Page plays the song with minor details and how much greatly it changes the track with simple techniques like just holding down strings to allow them to ring out and how to bend into a blues note. I am yet to practice the lick in more depth but I intend to take these small details into consideration when writing from now forward

For a period of time I was finding it difficult to write music and finding inspiration. I had a discussion with one of the teachers at college and was given advice about to get over the slump I was in. I have took his advice into mind and it has helped me write more music, and since then I have found it easier to find inspiration and i'm writing more music.

The part of this project that worries me the most is the mastering and production stages of the EP. To overcome these worries I have discussed to the music tech teacher at college on running a few workshops/lessons on how to master a track. Incase I still haven't figured out to master a track to a high standard I have also asked a year two music tech student to master the tracks for me. If i do have to use him I will have to write up a brief for him. 

During a practice/writing session yesterday I heard the tone of an electro-acoustic guitar through a distorted amplifier. I thought the tone of the guitar would sound great on my EP and perfectly serve the music. However neither I or the college own a left handed electro-acoustic guitar. So I will either have to purchase my own or request a right handed guitarist to play the parts I right for me

Upon practicing a lot more than before the start of the project I have noticed the muscles in my hands aching a lot more then what they where prior to the project. Upon discussion with one of my teachers I have now learnt how to stretch out my hand in order to be able to play for longer durations of times without the ache being over whelming.