#7

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
13th November 2014

Process Journal #7

Today we started a new unit based on different roles in a real live studio, bringing reality into the class we currently take to face reality. Moreover, there are four roles that you could get in a real live studio and we were told that by the end of the first lesson we would have our roles. The choices were four, they consisted of being a producer, songwriter, musician, and engineer. At the end of that lesson all the groups were made up, however me and Taji didn't have a role. We would figure out the very next lesson that we had the role of executive producer, in hindsight I wish we were able to choose our roles cause I really love fusing poetry with music, which means being a songwriter would've been my best option. Albeit, I really dreaded the second lesson as we spent all of it trying to understand our roles on youtube; if that lesson was subrogated with one where we could try and guess our roles, then we would be shown the videos to see how wrong we were, in that way we could learn from our mistakes. As the lesson went on our knowledge grew (thank you Mr. Ball) so, Taji and I chose that we would just divide the four groups between ourselves. I took over SMD, G.O.A.T and the little practice room in the classroom, which would later on become my office. 

There is no feedback (barely started my job)

Photo of Mr. Ball explaining to us our roles:

#23

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
3/6/14

Process Journal #23

My aim is to finish half of my song, since I have two weeks left. My aim for next week is to finish my song ; the musical part and the producer part. Meaning the panning/volume/EQ will be all done at ready to be presented. This lesson I had one major problem, which was the BPM for the intro, I worked day& night trying to make the song have alternate BPM's throughout it.Sometimes you try and fail which happened to me.I feel as though no vision in the beginning lead to all these problems that I have encountered. I genuinely wish I could go back in time and scream to my old self to plan in the future because now I'm honestly really worried for what the teacher will hear, and hope he will forgive me since I'm not musically talented.What I learnt this course is that you have to emphasise on the planning process on anything that you will create, an architect can't create a house without blueprints, WHICH SHOULD BE EMPHASISED WAY MORE IN MUSIC PRODUCTION. Anywho I would like to thank Mr. Ball for teaching me as I will have to sleep in my grave tonight after listening to what I have </3. Any new thing part I try to add to my intro or to my song generally becomes slower which is a major problem because I'm new to all this musical terms and rules meaning I'm new to making music with a certain beat per minute. This has caused a major crash to any new music I'll be making in the future!!!!!!!!!!! The problem is that Mr. Ball himself couldn't help me, even when he tried to with the manual it didn't make any sense. Also the second lesson my Logic X Pro started having problems with sound thankfully it fixed on its own later. 

Advice:

" Make your intro/ending longer" Ella

Thank you Ella for reminding me about the 3 minute minimum

"It's not that bad except for the newest thing you added" Darwin

Thank you darwin, the newest thing I added was the music that I thought was nice until the set BPM changed it.

"You have to find a solution to the BPM mistake" Mr. Ball

Thank you for allowing me to be so independent, which I will begin to cherish :) 

Photo: (BPM and the types of instruments im using -.- *face palm at my stupidity*)

#22

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
27/5/14

Process Journal #22

My aim for this week is to write lyrics for a whole song. I'm being asked to be creative while making this song. Nothing worked except for writing poetry, which can be turned into a  song with a bit of modernising. My lyrics are very shameful, because I expected more originality. However you can't expect perfection in such a short time, since beautiful things take time to perfect. Also it's hard to write a song with such a genre. For those of you who don't know, my genre is alternative for now meaning it can change in any moment since the intro was very general and open. I can specify my genre when I finish part a + b. The only reason I'm so focused on the lyrics is because I've hit a stump with the musical part to this song. As you can see not much has happened this week since my juices haven't been working in my brain, but it isn't so surprising seeing as I'm not a musical person to begin with. My lyrics are very dark because that's what I can express for now, which helps me predict that so will my genre and the rest of my music.

Advice on lyrics:

"I expected more from you" Habiba

I honestly love how you have such high expectations from me, I hope I will meet them once the lyrics are completed and altered. 

" It's not that bad" Samid

It's good to know that even the simplest of words can boost my self-esteem thank you Samid

" I don't see it flowing with the music you have" Jibrail

I agree Jibrail, but you haven't heard my final product so please don't judge me. 

*No picture of the lyrics because I need to fix it before I am prepared for anyone online to judge it*

Video: (on how to write hit songs)

#21

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
17/5/14

Process Journal #21

My aim for this week is to start on my chorus, which is complete. My aim for next week is to be halfway done with the chorus, which would be complete if I was able to tell the future. This week we were welcomed back from the WWW break and we were told to, as always work on our song. I was welcomed late as I was absent on Sunday. Anywho I started working on my song seeing what I could add to make the chorus spicy and intriguing. I realized that my best choice was to make a mix of a hint of classical while still hitting it retro with the Low Down Dub. I chose to add a string ensemble using the chords of C Major root position, 1st & 2nd inversion. This really made my song more lovable, which I didn't know I was capable of. Other than that I decided to think of creating a mode (which is going by scale, but choosing a different key to begin with). What didn't work this week is that I've really hit a stump while trying to make a song. I can't find anything to go with the chorus because its very unique and complex. Meaning it's hard to add anything that really clicks with my funky chorus.

Feedback: (on intro)

"it's a good into that hooks the listener to keep listening till the end" Reem

"The introduction is a great hook" Yara

"I think you need to make sure that Elastic lead and Low down dub align together. After that I like the string ensemble that keeps attacking and the intro." Habiba

Video on the uses of EQ:

#20

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
27th April 2013

Process Journal #20

My aim for this week is to complete 30 seconds of the intro, which I've successfully done. My aim for next week is to start the chorus. This week as always we were asked to continue working on our songs as they were due in the end of the year. So as always I started working on my song. Remember the melody I made last year with the piano? Well, I kinda removed that. I saw it as a complete waste of creativity and lacking the hook that my old melody (Low Down Dub) had. Also I removed the second melody because I realized the Low Down dub can be an intro end and middle since viva la vida never changed their melody from the beginning to the end. Let I remind you that Viva La Vida was a wonderful song, which won 2 grammy awards (more than the band Queen). What didn't work this lesson was that I was very distracted because all I could think of was WWW. Furthermore what distracted me was the fact that I wasn't given a piano as there was a shortage and had to get used to musical typing, which wasn't that hard. Moreover what didn't work this week is that I get bored easily and some lessons I have no inspiration while at other lessons I get a sudden urge to create 5 songs at once, this can lead to many days of inefficiency, which is a trait of mine I hate, but cannot control sadly. 

Feedback: (on which melody is better)

" I think it's really up to you, anyways you should choose one genre so I'm going with the Low Down Dub" Ella

Thank you Ella for your input :) I chose the Low Down Dub because my genre is pop funk not classical

"The piano melody is just horrible, no offence" Shahad 

Thank you so much for being frank with me Shahad, I agree with you 100%

" I feel like the piano melody isn't very pleasant to your audience and who you're attracting" Maha

You are correct Maha my audience is teens myself included why would I listen to classical music over pop????

Viva La Vida:

#19

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
20th April 2014

Process Journal #19 

My aim for this week is to add strings to the melody. My aim for next week is to have my intro at least 30 seconds with a variety of instruments that creates a very harmonic sound that makes the listener keep on listening. This week we were instructed to continue on with our work as we have to finish the song before school ends so we better get working. I continued working on my song, specifically the intro as I felt I needed to add more to it to hook the listener, I just love to go out of my way to go overboard and make things more beautiful than they are. I believed that the Low Down Dub at the time wouldn't be my melody because it was a synth and I didn't want to go down the Electro path. My melody consisted of three chords, which I shouldn't mention as non of them were in the c major scale leading to an off scale bit in my song. My new "melody" only helped mebody (<- see what I did there) to shut down as it couldn't continue listening to my song, yes it was that bad! The second lesson Mr. Alcodray was invited to our class to show us how to work a vocorecorder. After he left he left with instructions on how to use the vocorecorder incase we would forget. In that same lesson I attempted to use the vocorecorder with the lyrics of stronger by Daft Punk, it made the song horrid, but I think if I went a little more electro the vocorecorder would be perfect with it. Maybe I shouldn't judge the vocorecorder so fast as I haven't tried all the types of sounds allowed to be recorded through, after that I will judge the vocorecorder as a whole. For now I should focus more on autotune as I can't hit the low keys, which is what I want for my song and as I've said before a song without lyrics isn't the best it can be. JUST TO BE CLEAR I DELETED THE MELODY THAT WAS SO HORRID THAT MY EARS BLED.  

Feedback:

"The second melody is not needed because it doesn't fit with the genre" Shahad

I can finally see the light and I agree with you Shahad. The second melody was just experimenting, because experiments lead to conclusions and statements instead of hypothesises.

"The piano part is off tune" Darwin

I agree Darwin, the second melody wasn't connecting to my key (C Major)

"You should think about sticking to the synth" Sara

Thank you Sara, but thats my choice. I was going to stick with the synth after I heard my piano skills anyways.

Picture of Mr. Ball helping me with LOGIC!:

#18

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
13th April 2014

Process Journal #18

My aim for this week to make a melody for my song or at least start it. My aim for next week is to add a bass to the melody I hope to complete and to add in trumpets or another form of band tool. What I'm being asked to do is finally go solo on making my own song. I can choose any genre and everything thats in the song is made by myself. For the beginning of the week Mr. Ball welcomed us by teaching us about engineers where he asked me to time him for 10 minutes, meaning only 10 minutes of the lesson would be deducted by Mr. Ball talking. This week I started using Logic X Pro on my laptop to make the song, I made a melody using Low Down dub. I also added a backing, which blends in with the melody perfectly using Gritty Funk. It took me a long time to add the backing because I always want to go overboard meaning I want a lot of things to stand out. This can cause a disturbance to the listener as they will be confused by the ruckus that is being played; I need to learn to tone it down because 5 simple instruments playing at one time is way better than 2 instruments trying to steal the lead from each other at the same time. Moreover this week was mainly experimenting as I had to start from scratch and it's really weird having so much freedom, leading to valuable time being spent just on the genre I wanted, which in the end is pop funk. I believe Music Production is a very great class to tone down and do something you actually enjoy while being very educational and I value each minute I spend in that class greatly, I'd have to thank Mr. Ball for that.

Feedback:

"It’s catchy and the melody is good. Also the backing of the drums is nice. - Reem AbdulMajid"

Thank you Reem for your time and wise words, I'm glad someone enjoys my music other than myself :)

"The melody is very funky" Samid

Thank you Samid, I'm happy you said the word funky as my genre is pop funk.


This is my melody and backing together in Logic X Pro: