RATIONALE - FMP

Since I joined college in September 2015 I have learnt a lot of useful skills and improved my general knowledge of music. I feel that I am still learning an awful lot and I hope to utilise what I've learnt in the near future. I can use what I have learnt and put my skills towards the Final Major Project. I am in a band with Charlotte, Kit, Marco, Rowan and Jack for my FMP. We are covering two songs and writing 4 original tracks. I'm interested in songwriting and performances.

First off, I believe that my bass playing has improved massively. I wanted to become a better bassist. This was one of my aims when I joined the course, Music Performance and Production, in September. I've learnt valuable lessons in how to actually groove with drums as well which is easily one of the most important lessons I and any bass player could ever learn. Marcus, one of the Music teachers at College, taught me in a pod lesson that I need to try and work with the drums more and to listen to the kick drum. He showed me what to play on bass, whether to push or hold back. The most important thing is to play along with the drums. You can see from the videos that I have improved and learnt to listen and groove with the drums. The result of me learning that has made me a lot more confident in being able to play with a whole band. It's developed my listening skills and made me aware of not just what I'm playing but all of the other instruments within the band. This helped me with deciding what I'll do for my FMP because it made me confident in playing with anybody.

Due to how much I feel I have improved since I joined college in my bass playing I feel confident enough to work with whoever I want. My confidence is universal in my band, therefore we are writing 4 original tracks. I've become better at songwriting now that I am better at bass, therefore this will help with the FMP because we have to write 4 original tracks.

I have already worked with Charlotte and Marco in separate bands but its a new experience working with the other members. I hope that I will be able to work better with Charlotte and Marco, to write more originals and to improve on writing music with them. I think that so far my songwriting has improved and that there is more focus on melody as shown in the two videos. The first track was an old original I helped to write when I was in a band with Charlotte and the second is one of our new original songs that I again helped to write along with Charlotte. I believe there is an improvement in terms of songwriting and I have gained more knowledge with chords and tried to put that to use. We have learnt a lot of different chords like Major and Minor 7's in Marcus' lessons. In Preadolescent, our new original which is the second video below, we use a lot of the new chords we've been taught like Major 7's, Dominant Chords and so on.

It's important to me that I have learnt a lot in relation with the bass guitar but I have gained knowledge on how to perform when on stage. Before I joined this course I had trouble with actually doing performances because I lacked the confidence. I had only done one performance before I joined the course, but I am now able to comfortably go on stage and move around with confidence. Nick, another one of our Music teachers, taught us that we need to move around and what to do on stage. Nick told us that a lot of what you do on stage depends on the song that you're playing. If its an up tempo rock song that its best to move around. The most important thing I've taken from doing performances is how its simply made me confident and it's managed to influence my decisions with my FMP because I'm interested in doing performances with bands.

Our work on Cubase, sequencing work, has been very useful and I've learnt lots of different new techniques that I wasn't able to do before I joined the course. I had previously used cubase and was familiar with how to do basic writing but I am now able to manipulate the different instruments within cubase. I learnt all sorts of new skills in Marcus' lessons where we were set different tasks like using samples, putting music to a short film and writing originals. I find that writing music on Cubase is very easy and useful for me and it has massively helped me out and its improved my songwriting level. All of the useful skills I learnt during my sequencing lessons managed to help with deciding my FMP. We have to write and we will end up recording in the studio, at least one song, therefore my skills I learnt from Cubase and the sequencing lessons will be very useful in my FMP. Working in the studio has also been important because I've learnt how to record and setup a whole band which is going to help again in my FMP. Phil and Nick have taught us how to setup microphones, how to use the mixing desk, mastering techniques and how to get the best sounds out of your instruments.

As I stated earlier, my listening skills have improved a whole lot since college because I am able to listen and hear what the instruments are playing. Not only that but I am aware of the different chords that are being played. Marcus would play a chord and ask everyone in the lesson individually what type of chord was being played, whether it was a minor, major, dominant or Augmented chord. This helped with improving my listening skills therefore I know what to play on bass when Rowan is playing all sorts of different chords. This is going to help in my FMP because I'll be aware of what everyone is playing on their instruments and I'll be able to understand what key the songs are in.

Stage rigging has been a completely new experience for me. I went into this course only knowing what a jack lead was and an XLR. But thanks to what I learnt in Nick's lessons I am now able to strip down a whole stage and set it back up. This influenced my decision with my FMP because it made me realise that I would be able to setup stage equipment with confidence. My newly gained knowledge in stage rigging is going to be very useful with my FMP and in the future.