Case Study on individual songs

Miles Davis So What

Miles Davis' So what starts off in D dorian mode which means it uses the notes of the C major scale but starting on D. After 8 bars it switches to E dorian which has 5 flats and returns to D dorian after 4 bars, this sequence replays throughout the song. Since Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album is mainly improvised, a lot of people doing covers or trying to replicate the song will have to add their own improvisation. Below is the chord sheet of Miles Davis' So What. Many people will say that the riff in So What, is what makes the improvisation so interesting, due to how harmonic it is. I think many people think the riff plays this role so well because between the bass and the rest of the instruments, even though they're not playing at the same time, it's almost like a conversation being led by the bass. So the bass plays what is known as the antecedent phrase, this phrase is followed by the consequent phrase which is played by the rest of the instruments. This is a really interesting aspect that Miles Davis added to the majority of his songs on Kind of Blue, i wish to add this idea to my own work and maybe slightly change the mode it's played in. It was reissue produced by Michael Cuscuna and the remix engineer was Mark Wilder. It is said that So What was recorded in two days and in one take even though the band were given little instructions and we're newly formed. His band for So What consisted of Julian Adderley who played the alto saxophone, John Coltrane who played the tenor saxophone, Bill Evans who played the piano, Paul Chambers on the bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. 

Nina Simone Feeling Good

Nina Simones feeling good doesn't change key, it plays in G minor as seen below, this pattern is the same throughout the song. I think this is done because the instrumental is fairly simple but the singing is what holds the thickness of the song. The song was written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. It was produced by Hal Mooney. Furthermore in my piece which will be influenced by Feeling Good I plan to make sure the vocals play the key part they do in Feeling Good. I think this is important because without the vocals i don't think the song would be as powerful as it is or hold the smooth jazz feel it has. The other sheet of music below is  a look at how other people may try to play feeling good but in D minor which is quite interesting.

Herbie Hancock Cantaloupe Island
Much like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock's style is very improvised. However whilst Miles Davis uses a modal style of Jazz, Herbie Hancock uses a range between the bebop jazz and electronic fusion. He is said to be one of the most renown artist for electronic fusion as from early in his career he used a Rhodes electronic piano and continued to increase his collection of synthesizers.

Dj Set review 2

Second DJ set review

During my second Dj set, a lot of my songs stopped playing, were clipping and chopped the audio. This made me panic a bit during my performance so getting onto the next song took a bit longer than i had hoped but after watching my set i feel my recovery wasn't as long as I thought. I liked the way i used some of the effects however next time i will want you use a wider range within reason. Furthermore next time i will ensure the songs i play will work beforehand to prevent and mistakes in the set. In addition i will take on the advise and practice switching between songs to keep the energy and make the transitions smooth.
In my DJ set I used effects such as the flanger, the reverb polar and beat slicer, throughout my set I mainly used the flanger, however i did use the reverb on certain songs. In addition I also used the high, low and mid filters, i think this worked well however i think should use less of this during my sets.

Research Plan

Research Plan

What is your project?

My project is an E.P of three tracks which will individually based off of; Miles Davis for the first track, Nina Simone for the second and Herbie Hancock for the last. I will research these individual artist, the origins of jazz and how jazz has evolved.

What do you need to research and why? 

I will research Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Herbie Hancock, I will look into their chord progressions, bass lines and melodies and take influence from their songs and use it in my E.P. I will research the origins of Jazz so I know why it was so big with the previous generation, which artists made it the genre so big and how Jazz has evolved and changed to fit into the current generation. I will also look at how the artists had their songs mixed and how they structured their songs.

Where and How can you find this information?

I can find these resources, through articles both online and offline, books, interviews, album sheets, previous reviews on albums, biographies and research that has already been done.

Context Article - How I have been using technology in my work

How have I been using technology in music

Logic

I use the software Logic in my music, but there are many effects and inputs that originate from different technology. For example I use reverb, compression, equaliser and more. Since i'm not a performer It doesn't seem fit for me to use a looper, however we use pioneers for our Dj sets and I am very interested in drum pads and other sorts of pads and I wouldn't mind using that in my performance.

Dj'ing (Pioneers)

Whilst we are Dj'ing we use pioneers with a Mac, this allows us to load the songs of our choice onto the pioneers so we can mix them together. The Pioneers we use have effects so whilst we are mixing the decks we have the option to add different effects and sounds to our tracks that we added in. I have been influenced by different artists which change the way I perform my sets, I use some of the effects to make it sound like I'm using a drum pad. 

Drum Pads

I'm interested in the Alesis Samplepad Pro Percussion Pad. If there are any pads like this within the music department I would like to get my hands on them. I think there are multiple possibilities with drum pads

Context Article - Contrasting artists

Contrasting Artists

Diego Stocco

Diego Stocco is an artist that likes to make music from literally anything, you can see from the videos below. In the video "Music from a Tree" he smooths the branches of the tree and uses different parts almost like a drum kit. This is inventive as i'm sure there are barely any artists that do this at all, furthermore its music that sounds like music. he uses microphones to different parts of the branches and uses various objects including his hands to make different sounds from the tree.

The video "Music from a dry cleaner" proves my point further, out of all his videos from making music from non traditional methods this is my favourite as he uses almost everything as percussion and produces sounds similar to a bass guitar which I think is amazing. In addition you can tell he is passionate about music as he states "you can really make music from anything".

It's not hard to tell Diego Stocco is experimental, in almost every video on his Youtube channel he surprises you more with his creativity. In the video "Bassoforte" he produces a kind of rock song from one "instrument" he created. For him to have such an idea to create something completely unconventional is extraordinary. He calls this instrument the "Bassoforte" a mix between the bass and pianoforte.

Zoe Keating

Whilst searching for my second artist to research to find I stumbled across Zoe Keating and surprisingly I enjoyed her music. She uses a looper to sound like a "Cello Orchastra" to say shes able to do this by herself shows how well looping can be when use it to its full potential. Within her looping there are overdubs and some artists may not agree with overdubs even if they are live. Furthermore the reverb on her looper plays in her favour. 

Looping Pros and Cons

Contrasting Views on Looping

For Looping

Quite a few people have said that looping makes things a lot easier when you feel as if you need another you, whether it's that the group your with isn't up to standard, you have an idea that only you can express or that working in a band just isn't for you, looping makes things a lot easier once you've learnt how to loop. Many people like to use loops because its a lot cheaper than hiring people to fill in the gaps for you, just because you might not feel like working in a band doesn't mean you can't stimulate the feeling of one. They also show an artists skill to be able to sync to a rhythm and change instrument swiftly. Personally i am for looping as i think if you don't have the funds to hire people to play instruments, you're able to loop well and you're a solo artist, they can help out a lot. However i do think some looping competitions is done to show off rather than for the musical aspect which i don't agree with as i think music should sound good whenever it can.    

Against Looping

The majority of people that dislike looping often call it cheating or dislike that in certain cases some artists will keep one loop throughout the track, which i see no issue with however it can be seen as playing with a backup track which many musicians shun. Furthermore many musicians are against looping as they may be getting replaced by looping rather than hired to play a gig with an artist. 

Playlist Plan

My Individual Plan

How will we present our music?

We will present our music by each of us presenting a minimum of 3 tracks to be placed in a playlist for our audience to listen to. We are going to use Youtube and Soundcloud to post our music online but rely more on Soundcloud. We're going to share our music on other social media websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where we can post short snippets of our music and post a link where people who are interested can access the playlist with ease. Further more we are going to have individual art work for each of our tracks but have a similar background, so that it's obvious each person created their own, but it is still part of the same playlist, however I think it would be more efficient to chose a logo we all agree on and just have our names on the artwork on our individual tracks.

How will we reach a bigger audience than the Decades Project?

We will reach a larger audience than the decades project by using hashtags and other sorts of tags available on social media, this will widen our audience by both making it easier to find music relevant to them and knowing what type of music they will hear. Further more we will reach a bigger audience by choosing a specific time and day to upload our music onto social media, this will help because we chose this specific time as this is the time most people who use social media will be online so this will maximise our views. Moreover we will also share our music onto other social media with links to the Soundcloud post or Youtube post to increase our audience. In addition we will also use different art work on our playlist, on the Decades project it was the college's logo "WKC" this time we have agreed on a logo and have our own names on our individual tracks. 

What Research has led us to this decision?  

The research that led us to this decision was research we individually found by posting on social media and seeing what time got the most views. In addition we also knew what time to upload by looking into youtube accounts and sound cloud accounts that upload at specific times to increase views. Further more it was a mutual agreement to upload at the specific time.

Provide Examples of Contemporary Musicians that have influenced our plans for the project.

Artists such as "Bonkaz", "Chris Brown", "Bryson Tiller" and many more contemporary artists use different social medias to promote their music, they choose a specific time that they know the majority of their followers and main audience will be online, so it gets more publicity. Furthermore almost all contemporary artists today use artwork when uploading their work or even on cd's and records.

Provide Details from Class meetings.

http://wkcmiles.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/playlist-plan-class-meetings.html

What is my role in the project?

In the playlist project we all had similar roles of adding input and ideas of how to make this project more successful than the Decades project. Furthermore i added the ideas of hashtags and different uses of tags to make it easier to find our music. Furthermore we agreed we will all share the playlist on our different social media websites for more views.

What technical equipment will we require?

As we are posting on social media we won't need too much technical equipment, we just need a computer to upload our playlist and our own devices so we can share the playlist to our individual accounts.