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Second Project, Week 3
This week I managed to finish all the tracks I could fit into the 25 minutes. I’ve put the EP up for download on Bandcamp and I’ve set a plan to release a track a week on Soundcloud in order to keep the exposure the EP gets going for as long as I can.
Finishing the EP took quite a lot of work, but I’m very proud of the results and I think the audience response I get over time will have been worth the work I put in. There are 9 tracks on the EP each of which took me about 5 hours (or the equivalent of) to finish.
Promoting the EP has been interesting as there are very few people who are interested in the genre, let alone getting into the work of a complete unknown within it. I found posing on Reddit and 4Chan to be the best places I could share my work and even then the audience response has been minimal. I’m hoping this will end up being a slow burn and down the line I’ll be able to keep releasing more work and will be able to cultivate an audience.
‘Ebooks’ the track I released last week has gained 100 listens in that time and I’m proud to see that. Though it only has 11 favourites so I’m not sure how many people are actually listening the whole way through. I posted ‘Ebooks’ to Reddit over the weekend and received one comment, which had moderately positive feedback in it.
Outside of this and a bias review from my friends, I’ve had a very limited response to the EP. This is fairly disappointing as my original goal was to reach 1000 streams, which is still easily achievable, I will likely have to wait a little longer than originally projected unfortunately. With that said, I fully intend to carry on making Lo Fi Hip-Hop for a long time to come and will likely see success in one form or another with later releases.
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Second Project, Week 2
During this week I’ve managed to make a start on about 10 different tracks, 2 of which are finished. I’m quite happy with how both of them have come out and I’ve uploaded the first track, ‘Ebooks’ to Soundcloud. I haven’t done any marketing for the EP yet as I hope to finish the work before I rush into anything, I have told some friends and family that I’m working on an EP and played them ‘Ebooks’ and the feedback from them is positive, but as always there’s a bias from friends and family.
Ebooks uses a sample of the intro from John Cameron’s Liquid Sunshine and a vocal track taken from an anime called Psychopass. The voice clips don’t carry any meaning to, but they influenced the name of the song and I feel they add an atmosphere that an instrumental version wouldn’t have by giving the feeling that people are talking on either side of the listeners head. At the time of writing Ebooks has 2 plays on Soundcloud, both of which are myself and my friend Jack, who requested a link to the track.
The other tracks I’m working on are all well under way and I should be able to keep to my projected 3 weeks. The EP itself has a name and artwork now. I’ve decided to go with the name ‘Empty Night Sky’ and I have a picture that reflects this title quite well in my opinion.
By next week I hope to have a full release of the album on Bandcamp and some feedback after posting the work on Reddit/4Chan having given people a chance to listen to it.
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Second Project.
For the second project I have chosen to write an EP of Lo Fi Hip-Hop tracks. I’m aiming to have 25 minutes of music created using samples and original drum beats with the occasional addition of a vocal line (in the form of a speech or traditional vocals). Lo Fi Hip-Hop simply refers to Hip-Hop with a low fidelity sound to it. commonly it sounds like there’s a vinyl crackle in the background and the music is very spacious with a heavy low end and a compressed top end, leaving a lot of space in the middle of the mix. The music is often played over edited video from anime (Japanese animation) which is supposed to give a context to the music and visa versa. I’m hoping to have this project completed within 3 weeks, give or take a couple of days.
I’ve made a start on finding songs to edit into samples and because of this I’ve been able to decide that I want to stick to around 90 BPM for each track. I will likely have a little more variety for the actually EP but 90 BPM is an easy standard to start writing at even if I then increase or decrease the tempo. It’s also the standard for a lot of Hip-Hop beats. The tracks I’d like to create are inspired by artists like Jinsang, Hisohkah, Joji and the instrumental side of MF Doom’s work.
I hope that in completing this EP I’ll be able to grow a following and keep releasing music in this genre long into the future as I see a lot of potential for it as an art form (I wrote a whole dissertation about the subject...).
This week I’ve been pooling the resources I’ll need to start making the beats and samples. I’ll be working in Logic Pro and I have a lot of experience using the Flex Time editor which will give me the ability to manipulate the songs I decide to use into samples. To find samples and get inspiration for drum beats I’ve been using Youtube and simply searching “LoFi Hip-Hop Samples”. This search turns back countless playlists full of examples of the genre, songs commonly used in samples and loops of breakbeats to download and use in the your own tracks. In addition to this, Apple provides a library of royalty free loops that include a lot of Jazz piano loops that are perfect for the genre, so if I’m lost with what I need to do I can use those easily enough.
The biggest challenge I face currently is getting rid of drums in some of the song I’m trying to sample. This is a long process and for a lot of people it involves days of work which I don’t really have time to commit to currently with all the other work I have to get done. With any luck, adding an EQ to make the original drums as lacking as possible will add to the Lo Fi effect of the songs I’m producing.
The tracks themselves are likely going to range in lengths depending on how pressed I am for time while working. I don’t want them to outstay their welcome, but if I end up having one track that lasts 5 minutes and the rest are 1 and a half/ 2 minutes you know what happened.
I hope that by next week I’ll be able to add the finishing touches to at least 10 minutes worth of music and start thinking about the EP itself (I.E artwork, names and distribution).
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John Densham - Working as a Freelance Music Practitioner
Week 6
We played the gig today, I feel our performance could have been better, but it was definitely better than previous gigs have been. We had a huge issue where Laura (the drummer) doesn’t have any breakables (cymbals, snare drum or kick pedal) and the band that was lending us their breakables didn’t show up because their singer was ill. So I had to call my friend James to get him to bring all of his breakables to the venue so we could play. The other band (The Trusted) didn’t show up until an hour and a half after they were supposed to play, so we ended up just sitting around not being able to do anything until they showed up. When they got there it was all very smooth, they got on and off stage with little fuss and we got to play our set in full despite the delays. We’d never played Train Wreck - Our latest song - live before as we’d only written it a week after our last gig (in September...). Unfortunately Luke’s partner only recorded part of the song, but here’s the video of the intro and first verse;
https://www.facebook.com/BadMajesty/videos/1465170140163848/
I had issues looking up from my guitar as I knew I would, but I felt I played a lot better looking down than I would have looking around and getting distracted. My guitar playing still isn’t as strong as I’d like it to be and I’ve noticed after this gig that I do get distracted very easily and can loose my place in the song entirely if I don’t snap back to it. I also find that I look bloody miserable no matter what I do on stage, so I think it’ll come with time, but I’m still going to work on my presentation on stage.
As a group I think we’ve come a long way from when we first played live together in December of 2015 and that we’ve all gained a lot of confidence in our abilities as musicians. I feel that we could do with a lot more time spent working on music inside and outside of College as we never seem to be able to sit down and come up with ideas together.
I definitely need to work on my playing as I still find I’m making mistakes even after playing nothing but the songs for the gig for 5 weeks and having learned most of them long before hand. I prefer playing rhythm but I feel learning to play lead or even just learning to improvise could help improve my playing significantly. Subsequently I’m going to spend an hour a night working on either music theory or improvising around the scales I know or will learn. I’ve found that I have to set myself very strict goals or I don’t do anything about what I need to do, I noticed this especially when trying to sort out the backing vocals with Kira as I ended up not singing for a significant part of the gig. I fully intend to carry on practicing as I have been while implementing the learning of new techniques and reading up on music theory to try and boost how easily I can play live.
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John Densham - Working as a Freelance Music Practitioner
Week 5
We had the final rehearsal before the gig and I think we’re definitely ready to play on Monday. We’ve got all the songs down and I have worked out vocal harmonies on the songs that Kira wanted me to sing with her. My guitar has just got back to holding it’s tuning almost 100% of the time and I feel that I’ve made some progress on standing and playing and not looking like I’m bored out of my mind. I intend to practice over the weekend to make sure I’m keeping my hands going but I don’t want to over do it. Luke has made posts on Instagram and Facebook;
As I thought, not too many people have said they’re going, but I’m not overly worried about it. I’m sure I’ll be nervous before going on stage but at the moment I’m feeling quite confident that we’ll give a good show.
I don’t really have any goals for next week as I’ll be playing the gig in two days, but the main one is to turn up on time and to play to my best ability. I’m also going to keep practicing with the sheet over my guitar to try and look up from my guitar more, as I’ve said previously, I intend to do this for as long as it takes me to get into a mindset where I can actually look like I want to be on stage.
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John Densham - Working as a Freelance Music Practitioner
Week 4
This week we had one rehearsal that Mark (the lead guitarist) couldn’t make it to, we managed to get through each song without too much issue but I still feel that we need to rehearse more than we have and the gig is only a week away. I’ve been working on playing standing up and looking away from my guitar by putting a sheet over the neck so I can’t see my hands and standing in front of a mirror to help me see what I actually look like from an audience's perspective. I feel a little more confident in my ability but I imagine I will need to keep doing this as I’m still struggling to look like I’m enjoying playing. I’ve set my guitar up with new strings and adjusted the internation to make sure that my guitar works as well as it can on the night.
I still haven’t been able to make a video of myself playing any of the songs as I can’t find a fix for the crashes I’ve been having on my video software and other software I’ve tried doesn’t sync the video and audio properly.
I hope that next week we can have one more rehearsal before the gig and get everything sounding as good as it can. We’re also going to need to make an announcement for the gig on social media but as it’s a monday I’m not expecting a huge turn out of people.
My goals for next week are to practice until I have a consistent level of playing without having to think too much about what’s coming next in the song. To make sure We have the setlist solidly in our heads and to make create social media posts on as many platforms as I can to try and get as many people as I can to come to the gig.
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John Densham - Working as a Freelance Music Practitioner
Week 3
The band came to my house to rehearse the whole set, we took a lot time on individual parts of our original songs. In total I believe we spent around 2 hours just working on the chorus and transitions from verse to chorus and visa versa for Train Wreck and for Cry Harder. I managed to play and sing while standing but found I was still looking at the guitar more than anything else so I still need to do a lot of work on this. I had intended to get a video of us playing at least one of the songs in a rehearsal but there wasn’t a good opportunity to setup a camera as we managed to stay completely focused for the full 6 hours we were playing. We would definitely benefit from at least one more rehearsal for the covers and I imagine that will definitely take place next week.
I also tried to record myself playing Supermassive Black Hole, but my editing software kept crashing, instead I have the audio file; https://soundcloud.com/john-wafflecat-densham/supermassive-black-hole
By next week I’d like to have all the songs completely sorted and know that we would all be ready to perform even without rehearsing next week or the week after. I would also like to work on the vocal harmonies (as I didn’t get to it this week) and I still need to work on my stage presence, which is becoming increasingly difficult as I can’t practice it by performing on an actual stage.
My goals for next week are much the same as they were last week. I feel I need to do a lot of work on my performance and I don’t feel as confident as I could about playing live.
As I said at the end of my first post, I’ve only just rejoined the College, I’ve been given a lot of songs to learn on bass for next week and I will have to learn new songs each week from now, so my posts are going to be quite light on content due to trying to learn both the songs for the Nambucca gig and learning the bass lines for 20 other songs for a gig in December.
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John Densham - Working as a Freelance Music Practitioner
Week 2
Last week Bad Majesty was booked for a gig at the Nambucca on November 14th. Since then I’ve learned the covers that were part of my goals and have made a start on learning the backing vocals which are only necessary for two or three songs of the 7. I’ve been finding it very easy to learn the rhythm guitar parts for the covers and I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble getting to a point where I’m happy to play them live. I have been practicing playing standing up and not looking at the guitar while I’m playing but this has proven to be a lot more of a challenge than I’d hoped it would be, I feel like it’s going to be a long term goal each week as my stage presence is very weak.
A facebook event has been created on the Shadowcomplex (the booking team that got us the gig) page and quite a few people have agreed to come. https://www.facebook.com/events/360850847596897/
We have yet to rehearse the songs as a band and we have some work to do on the original songs to tighten them up as well as getting the covers to a high enough standard to perform them. My goals for next week are to;
Rehearse with the whole band, to practice singing & playing at the same time for each song and to work with Kira on vocal harmonies.
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John Densham - Working as a Freelance Music Practitioner
Week 1
This blog is for part of a course I’m taking Access to Music. It’s to document and start to create a portfolio of my skills and growth as a musician. The first 6 weeks will be about a gig I’m playing at with my band Bad Majesty at the Nambucca. The gig is on the 14th of November 2016. Currently I feel that I’m a very average guitarist, I find that I am not as consistent as I’d like to be or even feel I should be. I’ve always been very lazy when it comes to working in groups or in a band as I don’t have the knowledge I think I need to write music with everyone. I’m working to remedy this and hopefully the changes I’m aiming to make in myself will come across in later posts on this blog.
For this gig we have a half hour slot (7 songs) and are the last band on in the evening. We’re playing 4 original songs and 3 covers, the set looks like this;
The Pretender (By The Foo Fighters)
Cry Harder (Original -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJWkmSAqt70)
Maybe Tomorrow (By Stereophonics)
Gentlem’n (Original -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TxOpEQg1Qg)
Dani California (By The Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Train Wreck (Original -- No video yet)
Blurry Eyes (Original -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWrHA2cG7yE)
My goals for this week are to:
Learn Supermassive Black Hole and Dani California to a high standard (I already know The Pretender).
To work on playing standing up with more confidence.
To learn the lyrics in the backing vocals of the covers.
The first few weeks of this blog may be a little bare as I’m only just getting back to College and have just gotten over a depressive episode and I’m not fully back into the mindset of being able to just sit down and write about my thoughts yet. I hope this will change over time.
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