Music Production

5/23/23, Written 5/23 @7:36 PM Hours spent 5, total hours 92   Today was an all day event, approximately five hours spent learning the same song I learned as yesterday. I made a lot of progress, but unfortunately my ring and middle finger on my right hand developed blisters. I learned the whole guitar accompaniment for the song and started to sing over it but now it’s almost impossible to fingerpick and I’ll need to give it a break for the next couple of days. I tried to add harmonica over the fingerpicking but it’s very challenging and I wasn’t able to do it. Hopefully someday soon that will be possible. I contemplated continuing my second song sketch but I didn’t feel like it. 

5/22/23 (Written 5/23/23 @7:28 PM) 3 hours spent, 87 hours total This day, now that I had a recorded song, I mostly practiced other music. I started working on my fingerpicking technique  on guitar for most of the duration, learning Bob Dylan’s acoustic  rendition of Baby Let Me Follow You Down. As I’m new to fingerpicking, it proved to be a challenge but I persisted and ended up getting the intro down to it. The finger pattern stays roughly the same throughout the whole song but Bob varies it a bit. I followed a YouTube channel to help me with the pattern. I felt a little bored because I was done with my song and a little sad that senior project is  all over. I would’ve recorded more songs (covers most likely) but Scott seemed  burned out with it all when I went over to him. Song I was learning: https://youtu.be/QgJ9oUX1pbA

  With my first  (and only complete) song ready, my second week was a race to start recording. I did not expect the process to be so slow. I wanted to record my guitar, vocals, and harmonica only in one track but looking back on it, if I started recording them separately from the get go, I would probably have a more complete recording in terms of instrumentation. It was thrilling to record my song as I was doing, it was almost like performing it live because if you mess up you have to restart. That is why Scott told me to perform it as if I am in a pub or restaurant, where I would have to improvise if I forget lyrics. I ended up doing this on a few of the takes. I also learned how each recording is different, you can never replicate the same recording exactly. This is similar to acting for me, as I can’t replicate a performance, what comes out comes out. During this week I started experimenting with writing another song. I ended up finding a nice chord progression and started writing l

  5/20/23 (Written 5/21, 11:15 AM) .5 hours spent, approx. 84 hours total I couldn’t believe it was the final day when Scott told me at the end of the day! I actually didn’t even know it was the final day until he reminded me when I came to record. Since I was over the minimum hours, I slept in and didn’t do anything project-related until 1:00. When I got to the studio, Scott said that it was too late to add other instruments to the mix because multi-tracking takes a lot of hours. I was initially disappointed, but I came to realize that I learned important lessons in this project, namely that  things take  time. We spent about a half an hour reviewing two takes of my songs. I was then tasked to listen to them on my own and decide which of the two takes I prefer. 

5/19/23 (written 5/23/23, 11:14 AM) 83 hours total, 4 hours spent Getting to the music studio at around 9, I only spent around two hours total on my project before the afternoon. I felt confident in my song playing-wise. I ran through it a bunch of times, practicing playing my song all the way through with a metronome. When the afternoon came around I finally got around to recording it. We did another three or so takes of the song, none of them were perfect. I came to realize that it takes skilled musicianship to be able to play a song all the way through on beat without messing up, especially when guitar, vocals, and harmonica are being recorded all in one. We spent about an hour and a half recording. It was the second to last day and after that Scott said for me to play the instruments on separate recordings for the next day. 

5/18 (Written 11:19 PM) 8 Hours (79 total) I got to the recording studio at about 8:30. I started working on a song using a chord progression and riff that I had worked out on my guitar last night. I got a melody and started writing lyrics to it. I did this for a couple of hours, alternating between practicing my established song and working out my new one. I returned to the studio later today after lunch, 2:30 PM this time. However, I practiced for an hour again until band recording came along. Recording was very challenging as I didn’t have the lyrics memorized! Looking back, that was the crux of my problems. If I had my lyrics memorized this would’ve been a lot smoother. I came up with a semi decent recording, but I will try again tomorrow with the lyrics memorized.

  5/17 (Written 5/18, 10:51 PM) Hours: 8 Total Hours 71 This day I actually started my session by brainstorming other song ideas. I thought of writing a song about both of my deceased grandfathers, one of whom died four years before I was born and the other this year. I spent a solid couple of hours from 9 AM doing this, and then I went to lunch. After I got back from lunch I continued working on playing my song for about four hours. This was pretty much the same as the day prior: blowin’ the harp, playing the guitar and singing  all in unison. I tried my best to stay on time  with a metronome to prepare for the recording session which would happen the next day. This was a challenging endeavor as I was juggling multiple instruments at once while remembering lyrics. 

5/16 (written 5/18 10:49 PM) Hours spent: 7 Total Hours: 55 This day I got to the music studio at 9:30.  Right away I started practicing my song. For the first hour I worked on guitar and singing at the same time. Then I started trying to play guitar and harmonica at the same time. I built off what I did the day prior and started to come up with melodies to play over my guitar on the harmonica. The most challenging part about this was keeping a steady strumming pattern while I blew into the harp. I did my best to combine single notes, chords, and bends on the harmonica to create some sort of melody. I drew inspiration from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen in this regard. My subsequent  band recording session was spent doing other stuff. After that I continued to play for about an hour before calling it quits. I surprisingly spent a total of about five hours doing just harmonica, singing, and guitar all in one. I love implementing the harmonica into my music and it’s hard to

  5/15/23 8:06 PM Hours spent: 6 Total Hours: 48 Today was solid. I had another subpar sleep so the first couple of hours I spent practicing other songs on my guitar. I then moved onto my song by 10:30. At this time I worked on a strumming pattern and some general riffs to be played over the guitar (by a saxophone, me.) I recorded all these as demos to be referred to later so I can decide which to use. I then finalized the bridge melody and a  chord sequence to be used during that bridge. Following a nap after lunch, I continued working on my bridge for a half an hour, then I had band recording. Following band recording, I fiddled around with my harmonica to see what I could play over my guitar. Scott has said what I am thinking, that I need to get moving with the song so I can record as time is starting to dwindle. That is going to be major motivation for me tomorrow. 

  This week I learned a ton about the art of songwriting. I have been a musician for almost all of my life but I have only just begun to write my own compositions. I learned (mostly on my own) about song structure and a bit of music theory. I also learned about using capos on my guitar to make playing easier. Not everything happened as I would expect it to. I expected (rather naively) to have written at least a few more songs and I would’ve expected to have started recording by now. I now realize that songwriting as a beginner can be a long and tedious process. I am surprised that I was able to write a song in the first place (ironically, considering I was expecting to write more.) It always felt like something I couldn’t do, that was too far out of my reach. I thought I didn’t know enough music theory, but I’ve learned that while music theory definitely helps, all of the intricacies are not necessary for songwriting in its essence. I definitely enjoyed the process as it has been very

  The big takeaway from this day was that songs don’t have to be about the writer’s life. Hours: 4 Total hours: 42 This day was slightly better than previously but still not super productive. I went to the music room at 8:30 AM. Again, for the first couple of hours I played other songs for fun. I then shifted right to my song and tried to rewrite lyrics to it (that were more about my life after hearing the songs from the day before.) I came back to the music room after lunch and went back into the lyrics but got bored and moved to working on other songs until band recording happened. During band recording I came up with a bridge section. Also, Scott provided me with the insight that songs don’t all have to be super personal. For instance, I changed my song to be about me and he said that wasn’t necessary; not many of  Bruce Springsteen’s are about him. I then had qualms about whether to use my first or second set of lyrics and Scott came up with the idea to record both versions. I then

  This was another down-point in my project’s trajectory. Not much was accomplished during that day. Hours spent: 8 Total hours 38 I woke up groggy and tired just past 8:00. I got JJ’s breakfast and headed over to the studio by 9. Once at the studio I felt really tired and unmotivated so I started playing standard tunes on the acoustic  guitar (I was working on a Bob Dylan song, America [the band] and Cat Stevens.) I don’t count this towards my hours, as it was unstructured and had little to do with my song. I took a nap for an hour or so after lunch and finally got to my song by 1:30. I made little progress though, and by band recording I had almost nothing more to show for my time. I spent an hour with Scott analyzing popular  songs, however, which I count towards my hours. These songs were amazing lyrically (along with everything else, of course) and they really told stories. This made me realize that my bridge could have lyrics and I could have a solo section in addition to the bri

If yesterday was a struggle, today was a success. I made great strides on my first ever song and am getting more excited about recording it!  Published: 5/11/23 (6:23 PM)  Hours spent: 8 Total hours: 30 Compared to the previous day, this session was a hit! Because breakfast ran late due to Earth Day, I came to the studio at 9:30. I started working on my chorus as Scott told me to do. I came up with a solidified chorus in terms of lyrics and melody, and in an hour’s time I moved on to the verse. By the time lunch came around I had a full two verses, and two choruses. I felt quite pleased with myself during my lunch break. After lunch I took a quick break (learning popular guitar songs, and working on scales) and in an hour’s time I returned to my song. I realized I wanted a bridge and had some chord ideas for it, but I wasn’t quite sure what the lyrics would be. I scratched the bridge part by 3 to move on and practiced playing my song to perform for Scott. At 3:30 I went up to Scott and

 Published 5/11/23, 6:09 PM (For 5/10) Hours spent: 8  Total hours 22 (by this point) With all creative processes, not everyday is going to bring miracles. As a new composer, this must be the less pretty side of songwriting, where you have to muscle through and keep pushing forward when things get tough; in this example I almost wanted to give my song up entirely.  This particular day I got to the music room at 8:30ish. Now that I had a song concept in terms of chord progression and a basic melody, I set out to continue to write my melody and lyrics. The day was a struggle compared to the first two as I had a poorer sleep, thus less motivation. I managed, however, to come up with a concept for the first line of  a verse and a different chord progression for that verse. I worked right until 12, however, much of that time was spent playing the progression over and over. After lunch, I had band recording, in which I showed Scott my song (which was not that improved compared to the first t

  5/9/23 9:01 PM Total time: Seven Hours, fourteen total Today I got to the studio earlier, at around 8:45. After shaking up some sleep, I went to an acoustic guitar and worked on some two string triad exercises that will help me come up with melodies (using the given scale degrees, it also helps with  identifying individual  notes on the fretboard.)  After doing that for about twenty-twenty five minutes, I went right into working out my song. I fiddled around with the chords and came up with a basic melody. Close to 10:00 I went outside with a notebook and journaled some lyrical concepts. I really dug deep into some ideas around stuff I have dealt with in the past. I then started writing lyrics to those themes. After a quick lunch I returned to the studio at around 1:00 and for an hour I fiddled with my song more, working out some of the lyrics I came up with to my new melody. I decided this part would be my chorus. I felt very happy about the first couple of lines. At 3:30, I met wit

 5/8/23, 5:00 PM, Seven hours total I got to the music studio at around 9:30 and went right into some guitar practice for approximately 30 minutes (including warm ups and playing some songs I know.) I then moved onto Saxophone for about 45 minutes. I did an established warm up routine and then played some jazz standards I have been working on. At around 11 I went into a whisper room and started noodling on the guitar to find the chord progression for an original song. I came up with two basic chord progressions by about lunchtime. I returned an hour later and finished my session noodling on guitar some more. I experimented with some more “minor” sounding songs but kept revolving back to the first two progressions I had worked out. After activities at around 4:30, my mentor, Scott King, gave me some tips and gave me a capo to make the chords easier to play. (I only have videos and I can't post them for some reason, they won't load.)