UNIT 12 (Task 4): Develpoment Record

Week 1

This week I practiced two original songs I wrote on piano in preparation for an open mic the next day. I also practiced on Tuesday, the day of the open mic night in Wantage. I will be performing my own songs more often as I write new ones so I can gain confidence in performing my originals seeing as it's what I want to do in the future.

On Wednesday I filmed a over of Melanie Martinez's 'Pacify Her' so I could post it on my YouTube channel and share it on my other social media's. Even though no one is watching me when I film covers or original songs like this, I feel like it is good practice for upcoming performances as I know people are still going to watch it. I chose this song because the chorus has some high notes that challenge but do not hurt my voice, and growing my vocal rang is something I am aiming towards as I practice different kinds of songs more.

'Pacify Her' cover - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj-Bq7W1F5A

Week 2 This week I hoped to finish writing an original song. On Monday I worked on the first verse and wrote the chords, lyrics and came up with the melody for the chorus. I tried to make sure that the melody of this song wasn't too flat, because I feel like some other songs I have wrote can sound not very distinctive and unique. I write acoustic style songs that might not seem as up beat as a typical pop song but this is because I like to make the lyrics I write the main focus of the song and tell a story almost. So I am working on being able to make catchy melody but not too up beat that it distracts from the lyrics an the story they tell. For the chorus I mapped out which lines rhyme with which in the first half of the chorus and used that to know what should rhyme in the second by putting an 'A', 'B' or 'C' at the beginning. All lines beginning with the same letter will rhyme.

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When I am writing songs I use my phone to write down the lyrics as this way I can move around and remove lines and words more easily than if I was handwriting them. I also tried to add small riffs and an upbeat guitar tempo to this original as I really want to improve my guitar playing as all I can do is standard picking but I would like to be able to do the kind of strumming and playing styles that I see artists such as Ed Sheeran doing. This is something I will practice a lot.

At the end of the week I message a man I know who runs regular Farmers Markets that I sometimes busk at, another thing I want to start doing more regularly, and arranged to perform at a Didcot Market next Saturday.

Week 3

This week I started another original, as I like to have a few in progress at the same time so that if one doesn't turn out how I like, I have others to work on. I am pleased with how this one turned out because so far I have managed to make it more upbeat and catchy than other sings I have written, but it still has the meaningful and acoustic sound that I like.

I also practiced for Tuesday's open mic and Saturday's Farmers Market, writing down what songs I could play and practicing the ones I was least confident with first. On Tuesday I went to the open mic I attend regularly and performed three covers. The following days I practiced my set list for Saturday as well as learning and filming a cover to post on social media. I chose to cover 'Symphony' as it is a popular well known song that many are familiar with and it also tested my vocal range. As I am looking for more events to attend, I am putting more time into my social media music accounts. I have started to do more covers by singing over the top of an instrumental instead of playing an instrument, something I won't do too often as I don't just want to be seen as a vocalist, but I do find that these covers give me a chance to focus on my breathing techniques and improve as a vocalist.

My Farmers Market performance on Saturday was cancelled last minuet as they didn't have power to the stools and therefor I couldn't play as I required power for the speakers. I think this was a good learning curb, as not every event I have played at or was supposed to play at, has gone to plan. In the real world some things don't work out and especially with something like these events sometimes these things can't be helped.

Week 4

On Monday I came across an artist on YouTube, Jasmine Thompson, who has a similar style to me, is around my age and is going down a similar path to me with music. One of her originals 'Old Friends' is a song I decided I wanted to cover as I find it very comfortable to sing as I think that it suits my voice. I found out some of the piano chords by ear, and some of them online.

I filmed a cover of this song on Thursday as well as practicing some of my originals that I wrote on piano for the next time I am at an open mic and want to perform them.

I spent a lot of this week searching online for local events that I can perform at and emailing or messaging the organizers on Facebook. I have come across some open mics in Oxford that I am going to check out as well as some local events ran by youth clubs and town organizers.

Week 5 This week I played piano at an open mic. I played 'Old Friends', a song I learned and recorded last week, an original songs and another cover of 'Closer' by The Chainsmokers. I am really working hard on my songwriting aspect of things so that I have lots of original songs to perform.

I came up with a new melody riff for an original on Monday night and completed the song Tuesday night. If I focus all of my time and attention over a few hours on a song then I can sometimes complete it quickly as I don't want the inspiration to wear off, I have learned that if I start a song and come back to it a few months later, the emotion I was feeling that inspired the song has worn off and I find it hard to write the song, or I don't like what I have because it's an incomplete song that I can no longer relate to and don't know what to do with it. Whereas if I have a completed song I have managed to capture the emotion in it because I wrote it wile I was still inspired and therefor the emotion stays in that song.