EXP- Progress Reports - Week 13

Week 13

Targets -  This week I plan to finish all research and literature review by Tuesday, then my bibliography will follow shortly as I'll have all the research done and won't need to add anymore to that. I plan to do this by the latest Thursday so I'm not leaving everything till the last day.

Summary - I was able to finish all my research and literature but I finished them on Wednesday, I left my bibliography till Thursday as I was still checking if there was anything I could add. I also added extra case studies.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 12

Week 12

Targets - I plan to finish my literature review, do my video deconstruction and bibliography. Also If I could find time I would try to work more on my fourth track to see whether I would be able to finish it before the deadline on Thursday.

 Summary - I was unable to finish my fourth track this week so I could only hand in three, this is due to my time management, I should have left the last week as a week to master my fourth track or just finish all my tracks a week before the deadline was due. Furthermore I managed to work more on my literature review and since I'm still finding more information to research, I will leave the bibliography to the last week as i'm certain how to do that.

Next Week -  Next week I plan to finish all research and literature review by Tuesday, then my bibliography will follow shortly as I'll have all the research done and won't need to add anymore to that. I plan to do this by the latest Thursday so I'm not leaving everything till the last day.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 11

Week 11

Targets - I plan to finish my third track and develop my fourth track, since I was able to work on my fourth track so swiftly in just one week I believe I will make the deadline for the practical work. Furthermore whilst I'm not working on my practical I would be able to add more to my literature review. If all goes to plan my practical will be mastered for the deadline.

Summary - This week I managed to finish my third track by adding the electronic drums and acoustic drums, as that was all that I needed I didn't bother trying to be too much creative as I still had to work on my fourth track, with only one week left I tried to add drums and bass to it but time was running short, also our lesson slots had been changed and we were asked to set up a gig so I running out of time to do what I had planned, I added what I could but ultimately my fourth track wasn't finished. As I put all my effort into trying to finish the fourth track I didn't have time for my literature review.

Next Week - Next week I plan to finish my literature review, do my video deconstruction and bibliography. Also If I could find time I would try to work more on my fourth track to see whether I would be able to finish it before the deadline on Thursday.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 10

Week 10

Targets - This week I plan to finish off my third track as I'm running short for time, this means adding the electronic drums and acoustic drums, once that is done I will just need to make sure the levels are correct and that track will be finished. I plan to do my literature review next week as well so hopefully I'm not packing too much into one week.

Summary - This week I was able to make a start on my literature review, I wasn't able to finish my third track as once again I was short on inspiration, I listened to more alternative R&B songs to try and jolt an idea to mind for the drums so hopefully by next week I will have the inspiration to finish the third track. Rather than finish my third track I decided to make a start on my fourth track, I was already running out of time so another week without at least starting my fourth track would be very risky. For my fourth track I was able to get the chords done very swiftly, I added a few tom hits but nothing special.

Next Week - Next week I plan 100% finish my third track and develop my fourth track, since I was able to work on my fourth track so swiftly in just one week I believe I will make the deadline for the practical work. Furthermore whilst I'm not working on my practical I would be able to add more to my literature review. If all goes to plan my practical will be mastered for the deadline.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 9

Week 9

Targets - My targets for this week are to do another couple case studies, preferably on the creation of synths that ended up being the back bone of the first alternative R&B track. Furthermore I also hope to work on the third track more, I plan to develop the electronic drums and possibly add acoustic drums I also plan to add more to the melody, whether that means layering it with another instrument or developing it so there's more information in it.

Summary - This week I managed to layer the melody with another instrument, since there was just a synth playing the melody before I decided to add a flute type instrument to make the sound less harsh, but I wasn't able to add any acoustic drums and I only added a small amount of electronic drums as I was low on inspiration this week. However I was able to do both case studies, these case studies will be going towards my research had helped me figure out what I could do with the skill on creating synths. Since there are so many routes you can take when it comes to creating a synth. Furthermore I learnt how to read into the circle of fifths better as I had to when sorting out the melody. As I had hoped to work more on the elctronic and acoustic drums this means I will have to work on that next week which could hinder the progress of working on my fourth track.

Next Week - Next week I plan to finish off my third track as I'm running short for time, this means adding the electronic drums and acoustic drums, once that is done I will just need to make sure the levels are correct and that track will be finished. I plan to do my literature review next week as well so hopefully I'm not packing too much into one week. 

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 8

Week 8

Targets - My targets for this week are to make a case study for the differences in musical elements between contemporary and alternative R&B, I plan to do this by listing the songs I listened to and pointing out the elements I find are similar and those that differ and why I think they differ in the ways they do and why the similar elements are unchanged.  I also plan to make a start on my third track, this track will by the second alternative R&B track. I will start off with the chords using the Persian Rugs inspired synth I created, then I plan to add electronic drums.

Summary - This week I got more done than I had originally planned, I had the chords and electronic drums for the third track ready, I also managed to play in the melody for the third track. I wasn't sure whether I would have time for that so for practical worked this played out well. I also finished the case study for the musical differences between alternative and contemporary R&B. I listened to numerous songs from the two types of sub-genres then chose 3 for each I could best use as an example to break down.

Next Week - Next week I plan to do another couple case studies, preferably on the creation of synths that ended up being the back bone of the first alternative R&B track. Furthermore I also hope to work on the third track more, I plan to develop the electronic drums and possibly add acoustic drums I also plan to add more to the melody, whether that means layering it with another instrument or developing it so there's more information in it.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 7

Week 7

Targets - My targets for this week are to compare a new set of songs to use in my research and further develop the melody in my second track, add a bass line and add a few more instrumental elements which would finish the track.

Summary - This week I managed to get the second track finished, as planned i added the bass line and developed the melody the way I had hoped, I added more percussion and a mixture of both electronic and acoustic drums although due to my time management I feel I rushed the creation of this song. I still aim to work to 4 tracks but if any problems occur I might have to settle with 3 tracks and put a lot of detail into the third track, at the very least with 3 tracks I can still compare the differences and similarities between alternative and contemporary R&B. I also found more similarities and differences when listening to the set of music I had planned to listen to this week, which I will include in a different post dedicated to the comparison of the genres.

Next Week - Next week since I have been gathering the information on the differences between alternative and contemporary R&B I would like to put it into a case study, I have most the information spread across notes so all I need to do is type the information onto blogger. In addition I would also like to make a start on my third track, I plan to use the same synth I created based off the track Persian rugs as I feel that is my goto alternative synth for chords.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 6

Week 6

Targets - My targets for this week are to listen to both alternative and contemporary R&B songs and compare the two genres, this would help me with musical ideas on the creation of my own version of the genres and give me a clear understanding of the differences. I also want to work on a background synth for my second track, so hopefully comparing the genres will give me some inspiration.

Summary - This week I managed to listen to a variety of different alternative and contemporary R&B songs and compare them, one of the two songs I will be using as my example I listened to is PARTYNEXTDOOR - Persian Rugs and the other being R. Kelly Ignition. I compared the two songs to find out the difference between alternative and contemporary, I also did this with a range of the different songs. In PARTYNEXTDOOR's Persian Rugs I found the chords being played had a two bar loop and were slightly out of time, they were the same throughout without variation. Musically the contemporary track Persian Rugs had a lot of space musically, the drums were fairly simple, they were electronic drums and the hi-hats were in semi quavers with effects that actively changes the rhythm. With R. Kelly Ignition, musically there wasn't much space for anymore elements to be added, the drums tended to be acoustic drums but were similar as they were quite simple drums, just a kick drum, clap and soft hi-hats in the background. Also R. Kelly's Ignition's chord sound like a piano rather than a synth that is playing in Persian Rugs, this is also the same for the bass line, which in Persian rugs seems to follow a similar pattern to the keys. This week I didn't manage to do as much on my second track as I planned however I was able to make a background synth.

Next Week - I plan to finish the second track by adding more drums to the arrangement, both electronic and acoustic, a bit more percussion and develop the melody further. I also plan to listen to another set of songs to compare and use as research which will help in finishing my next two tracks.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 5

Week 5

Targets - My targets for this week are to make a start on my second track which will be a contemporary R&B track, I would like to make a start on the chords as that's how I find it easiest to start a track, furthermore I also plan to work on the drums for the track, I plan for the drums to be mainly acoustic drums as that's how I picture Contemporary R&B tracks and the tracks I have researched mainly follow this trend. Whilst I will be focusing on acoustic drums I also plan to have a small part of electronic drums as thats my style.

Summary - This week I managed to get the chords for the first track done, below is a preview of the chords. I've made a start on the drums but I doubt they will be the drums I include in the final mix of my track.  I didn't get much done this week due to being unwell.

EXP - Progress Report - Week 4

Week 4

Targets - This week i aimed to finish the first track completely, and make a start on my second track. For the first track all that needed to be done was the last section of hi-hats and kick drums. For the second track I aimed to start the chords and melody.

Summary - I finished the first track and below is a preview of the song. This track is to be one of the songs classified as alternative R&B, I'm classing it as alternative R&B due to the synthesiser playing the chords and use of electronic drums. Both contemporary and alternative R&B can have electronic drums, however I think most alternative songs will have electronic drums. I wasn't able to make a start on my second track as I was still researching traits that contemporary R&B contains.

EXP - Progress Reports - Week 3

Week 3

Targets - My targets for this week are to gather more research on peoples views on alternative and contemporary R&B, for example what people may think triggered R&B splitting into two genres. I aimed to look at online articles and other websites I could use.

Summary - I was able to find articles, one of which I found on the independent website and it explains there's more to alternative R&B than what meets the eyes or ears, below is a screenshot of the title. I found there was a trend the quite a few articles felt the need to explain that alternative R&B is a lot more complex than people might have originally thought, this may be because many people think alternative R&B is just the younger generations version of R&B, whilst in some ways this is correct, alternative R&B is a lot more intricate than that.

EXP - Progress Report - Week 2

Week 2

Targets - My targets for this week are to incorporate ideas from existing alternative and contemporary artists, last week without planning to I created the synth that was based off of the track called Persian Rugs. Furthermore as I didn't get as much research on the differences between the musical elements in the two sub genres, I aimed to look into articles online that view the music as the public does, this meant researching what people think lead R&B to split into these two sub genres.

Summary - This week I was able to make a start on one of my alternative tracks, I used the synthesiser I created last week and was able to play in some chords that give it the kind of feel I was looking for in an alternative track, . This gave me a good start in my track as for me it helps to start off the track with the chords. Furthermore this also inspired me to create a synthesiser that would play the melody, I named it breath as it gives a lot of space in the track which is what I find is common amongst alternative tracks. In addition I also used the Chinese Dizi Flute I found within Logic's sounds and altered some of the effects to give it more of a spacious feel. The synth Breath and the flute play the exact same notes. All screenshots can be found below. Also there is an example of the track below. Moreover I also found that over the years R&B was slowly losing its fanbase until artists like Frank Ocean and more alternative artists came forward.

EXP Progress Report - Week 1

Week 1

Targets - My targets for the week are ; to make a start on researching the differences between the Alternative and Contemporary R&B and what artists categorise themselves as the different types of the genre. Furthermore I would also like to make a start on playing the keyboard part of the track that will be on the first track I will be doing for the EP. 

Summary - This week I made the synthesiser that will be play the keys in my first track. I named it Persian Rugs because part of my research was listening to alternative music, Persian Rugs is a song by the alternative R&B artist PARTYNEXTDOOR and the keys played in that song give me the same feel and made me think it gave the track as much space as the synth I made. Below is an example of the synth I made and the track the idea came from.

In addition finding the alternative R&B artists was made easy thanks to this website. http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/alternative-r-b-ma0000013375. This website lists the artists who recognise themselves as alternative R&B artists so you don't have to decide whether they are contemporary or alternative using your ears. Furthermore through my research of differentiating whether some artists were alternative or contemporary, I genuinely found that the contemporary artists tended to be artists from older generations whereas the alternative artists were the up and coming artists. However there are still up and coming contemporary artists but the majority you'll find are contemporary. Moreover, whilst that website is handy for finding alternative artists, I disagree with some of the artists they classify as alternative and so do others. I struggled to find musical ideas that helped classify a song as one or the other type of genre.