Lottie Scraton, POM

‘Braaam’

Click this link below to find the first task - incorporating at least 2 ‘braaams’. (30 seconds)

https://soundcloud.com/user-424772701/1-braaam 

Click this link below to find the second task of ‘braaam’. (45 seconds)

TASK 9

Project Evaluation 

For this Networks assessment, I was in a group with Chloe Hepburn, Sam Burgess, Jake Scott-Jones and Ross Teal. With our performance, we wanted to incorporate the idea of using social media as a stimulus for music, therefore, we decided to base ours on a dating app, but set in the future, to make the idea more interesting. For our performance, we created four fake Facebook profiles, two to match and two to not - we made these deliberately sarcastic and funny, in order to be more creative with the music. We set up a table and chairs and included decor, such as a candle, wine bottle and glasses, to emphasise the idea of a dating app and above this was the projection of the slideshow with the fake Facebook profiles. To add to the idea of a dinner date, we handed out menus to the audience, the starter being the first couple ‘Benson and Brittany' and the main course being ‘David and Lauren.’ The idea for the performance was that we would play a song to match each individual’s personalities. We purposely made one couple match and one that did not; for example, both of the couple’s songs that did match were in harmony and sounded pleasing to the ear. The couple’s songs that did not match, had a slight dissonance.

We thought the idea was quite creative, so we thought to keep the instrumentation simple, with Ross on the bass, Sam on the cajon and spoken voice, myself on keys and vocals, Chloe joined on vocals as well and Jake was in charge of the slideshow and technical parts of the performance.

As a group, I think we worked well together, however, some members of the group were sometimes  unreliable when we met up for rehearsals or to do the work in general. Three of us out of the five sometimes waited two to three hours on occasions for the two to turn up to meetings. On the other hand, once we were actually all together, we all worked hard and very well together and pitched in ideas for the performance. The rolls for the group were that Sam was the 'television host’ in a way, so he made the script for when we had to speak. Chloe and I also decided what kind of songs to include or some simple lyrics to sing for the profiles, however, the rest also put their ideas in too. I was in charge of what to play on keys and the chord progressions I used, along with Ross who made up his bass parts. Sam and Ross thought of the development of making menus as programs for the audience, to emphasise the dinner date idea. When thinking about the fake Facebook profiles, myself, Sam and Chloe came together to make ‘Benson Hearts’’ and ‘Brittany Louise Jones’’ profiles, while Jake made ‘David Brown’s’ and ‘Lauren Richards’’ and was also in charge of making the slide show for the projection and the menus. Although we had our individual work to do for the performance and a couple of us worked together on a certain task together, we all pitched in our ideas, whether we used them or not - there was not anyone who did not have a task to do.

To improve our performance, we could have added in more instrumentation or made more profiles if we had time for more. We could also include some audience participation to make the performance more engaging.  On the other hand, I overall think our performance was very successful, creative and entertaining to watch and that, when finally together to work, we went well as a team.

TASK 8

Manifesto/Process Development

The Process

Our Manifesto

The idea for our performance has slightly changed, however, we have stuck with the same concept.  Our aim for our performance is to show how the future of dating could be achieved by integrating the idea of harmony in music with harmony in people. For example, if it is a successful match, it will be represented by harmonious music, whereas, if it is not successful, we will represent it with dissonance.

Development

Since the proposal, we have developed our ideas further for our performance.

At first, we were going have actual people for our set design to show that they are on a date, however, we wanted to emphasise the use of social media, so we then decided to change it by only using the fake Facebook profiles to represent the people instead.

Another thing we thought of was making some menus as programs to give to the audience, for the performance. This was an idea in order to give the audience a better understanding of our theme and the idea we are putting across.

TASK 7

Project Proposal 

PROJECT NAME

Harmonious Hook-ups

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Sam Burgess -  Cajon Lottie Scraton - Keys/Vocals Chloe Hepburn - Vocals Jake Scott-Jones - Tech Ross Teal - Bass

Presentation (Projection)

Instrumental composition

Programme (Menu)

THEME/STIMULUS 

the rationale for your project

We want to show how the future of dating could be achieved by integrating the concept of harmony in music with harmony in people. For example, an unstable relationship would be represented by dissonance whereas a compatible match would be musically tuneful.

NETWORKING MEANS

in what way is this a networked performance?

Use of social media profiles, represented by instruments which are a full band collectively but divided between the two comparing profiles.

SONIC AESTHETIC  Sounds we will hear/how we’ll play them What relationship do they have with our rationale? Drum Kit Bass Keys Vocals

We will play them as a divided band setup, separated either side in a sense that they represent the two individual Facebook profiles. Using the concept that each note, in pitch or rhythm will represent a particular interest or hobby that will be highlighted as we read out the facebook profile.

Once the personal motifs have been established, the two will be played together. Rehearsed beforehand, the two phrases will either come together harmoniously as a full piece or dissonant and musically displeasing

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

What do we you need and where are you getting it from?

Provided by Uni:

Projector

Four microphones

Small table

Two chairs

Bass Amp

Drum Kit

Keyboard

PA System

Provided by us -

Laptop

Decor

Initial Rehearsal Schedule

When are we meeting?

Friday 18th May 

Tuesday 22nd May

Wednesday 23rd May

Thursday 24th May

TASK 6

Remote Locations

https://vimeo.com/272360956

TASK 5

Collaborative Software

https://vimeo.com/272378490

TASK 4

Alternative Stimulus for Music

For this task, myself, Chloe, Ross, Sam and Jake walked around the university campus and listened out for the different sounds we could hear.

https://soundcloud.com/user-511741826/task-4-alternative-stimulus-for-music

This is what we heard:

People talking

Wind/breeze

Trees rustling

Geese/ducks

Sound of water from the lake

Footsteps on the gravel path

TASK 3

For this task, Ross, Sam, Chloe and myself thought of the idea of using the social media platform, Twitter for inspiration. We are going to look at the top five stories on the Twitter search page and then, for the performance, we will choose one and write a song about that story, as we thought that social media is a good way to use as a form of songwriting.

For example, we will write an instrumental part which includes myself on keys, Chloe singing, Ross on the acoustic guitar and Sam rapping.

TASK 2

Engaging Performers and Audience

My group (myself, Chloe, Sam and Ross) thought that a call and response performance would be most appropriate for this task. We thought we would aim this task at people who may not necessarily play an instrument but are obviously still able to be involved in a music-making environment. Us performers would be instruments such as keys, guitar, bass, drum and vocals; we thought we would keep it simple for the audience by playing a four chord song, just so it’s not too complex.

TASK 1

https://vimeo.com/271692711

For this task, myself, Chloe, Ross and Sam performed a series of complex clapping patterns. With this, we each took it in turns to start an improvised beat and then, one by one, the rest of the group came in with a different rhythmic pattern to create one big one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo_ztjJ8lnE

Music for Music Image

Critical Evaluation

Commercial Project Brief

For the commercial project brief, I did ‘Restrict’, a film about a girl who dies from an overdose and wakes up wondering where she is. When I was planning, I thought about the instruments I could include and what would suit the style and the emotive mood of the film.

In order to gain influence, I mainly looked at very piano driven music from films, such as Untouchable. One of my biggest influences was Ludovico Einaudi, an Italian pianist and composer. His emotive piano music is simple yet so effective, which was what I wanted my music to be for this film because I did not want to over complicate it, since the film is quite dramatic itself.

Because of this, I decided I definitely wanted to involve the piano, plus violins and cellos because they can  provide a sad and melancholic mood and sound. To add to this feeling, I composed the music in the aeolian scale (natural minor) of A minor.

The first scene starts off with the girl lying on her side, alone and still. To reflect this, the solo piano starts off in a higher pitch, with some reverb on to give an atmospheric feel to it, playing an open fifth, to show the girl’s vulnerability and loneliness and already giving off the somber mood. In addition, the tempo is also very slow, indicating that the film is going to be about something sad. When the girl wakes up and starts moving, the music shows this by picking up a bit with more movement of the piano; this also hints to the audience that the film is gaining more action. When the girl looks into the light, the instrumentation develops, as the violins come in and also a counter melody on the piano, to add to the texture of the music.

I also wanted to add the very high pitched tone of the piano to mirror the light that is shining down on the girl.

Cellos then appear, for more atmosphere, as the camera spins around the girl, who looks confused as to where she is. This part is also an indication to when the film starts to build up and when the girl seems to feel frantic and panicked. Just over two minutes into the film, the girl finds that she is trapped and this is where one will feel the panic in, not only the girl, but in the music because this is where the tempo quickens up to convey the girl’s mood.

My aim in this film was to really enhance the feelings and emotions in the girl through my music. I wanted it to follow her and to make it sound like that is what is going on inside the girl’s head.

In a lecture, we had to put our own music to a scene from Twin Peaks. This really helped me with thinking about how the music could fit in with the scene and reflect the mood or what is happening. In my version, I used music to reflect an action of the golden orb and took that idea for something similar to that in ‘Restrict’. For example, around three minutes into the film, the girl sits down and showed this in the music by making the dynamics quiet and soft, with just one single chord on the piano. I thought this would be effective because I have shown the action of the girl through music.

References:

Einaudi: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/islands-essential-einaudi/440480946

Untouchable Soundtrack (an example of my influence and some of my favourite music by Einaudi) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWcWgBCPj1c

Audio-Visual Artwork -

‘Observe’

Sleep Paralysis - ‘a temporary inability to move or speak that occurs when you’re waking up or falling asleep’

My idea for the audio-visual artwork, was to base mine on sleep paralysis and show an observation of it, from my own perspective. I thought I could reflect the frightening and strange feeling of it through my music by making it sound eerie, to hopefully show an idea of what it is like.

I wanted to convey an image of what sleep paralysis feels like and perhaps looks like. Therefore, I included black and white clips of things that I associate with nightmares, since that is what sleep paralysis is to me. I looked up short films about sleep paralysis on YouTube and took inspiration from there. For example, ‘Sleep Paralysis - Short Horror Film’: the close up shots of the eyes or face and the dark lighting. One of the main inspirations for the image of my film was the American Horror Story title sequences from the different seasons. I liked the way the different clips flash on the screen and that there are lots of shots of different images; because of this, it has a very strange and frightening effect. This gave me the idea of including something similar to this in my film because it reminded me of how odd sleep paralysis feels.

The short clips I filmed were trees, a bedroom, an alleyway, eyes rolling back and a hand looking tense and twitchy. In order to create a nightmarish image and to show the feeling of being trapped, I made parts of the film (on iMovie) stutter to make the viewer feel uneasy and tense. I have also repeated the same clips all the way throughout the film, but in different orders for a messy look, to show the nightmarish image I wanted to create. The repetition of the clips also shows how sleep paralysis can make you feel feel stuck in sleep, being not able to move. To make it more dream like, I changed the filter and lighting on different clips.

For the music and sound, I thought of the sound design lectures we had with Paul Jones and when I put sounds to the coal plant video. Because of what ‘Trapped’ is about, I wanted to make it like a horror film, therefore, I had strange sounds I could use from Logic in my head.

The film starts out quietly and still with the sound effect ‘Trailer FX 2’ a ‘buzzy’ effect, to show an isolated and dark bedroom. When the close up shot of my face comes in, the sounds of ghostly whispering enter, which I managed to download from a website called ‘FreeSound’. I thought this gave the film a scary and dream-like effect, which is exactly what I wanted. Because I was aiming to make a horror film, I thought of the typical sounds you would hear, therefore, I included a repetition of the root note on the tubular bells for a church bell sound. This plays all the way through the film because I thought it adds more tension and atmosphere.

To add more melody and texture, I included a repeated motif on ‘magical bells’ from Logic Pro X and panned it to the right, so it sounds more distant. This gives the film a much more creepy feel and builds the texture.

I used ‘Ethereal World’ whenever the eyes open, to make it more dramatic. However, I did use more of this sound nearer the end of the film for a big build up. In addition, ‘Behold’ and ‘Lucid Dream’ comes in around half way through to expand on the texture and especially, the tension. For an even bigger climax and build up, I included an ascending scale of ‘Airways’ on Logic and panned it to the left because it sounds very haunting and I thought it could put the viewer on the edge of their seat. This leads up to the end of the film where all of the sounds have a sudden dramatic stop, reflecting a sleep paralysis sufferer, finally waking up from their nightmare.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gWsM3p0I5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c3VVJb562Y

https://freesound.org/

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think I managed my time with these films rather well and managed to keep on top of them. However, I think I could experiment more with melodic pieces of music, in order to improve ‘Restrict’. This is because I sometimes struggled with coming up with a part of music for some sections of the film.

Screenshots above and below from the Logic files of ‘Restrict’ and'Trapped’.

Music for Moving Image

Audience and Market Research

In this write-up, I will be identifying the different types of platforms I would use to promote my music and the kind of target audience I would aim my music at.

Target Audience

Firstly, in order to promote my music in an efficient way, I would think about who my music would appeal to the most. My EP consists of two tracks, one with vocals and piano, called ‘Fine’ and an instrumental with solo piano. Because my music is very piano driven, my target audience would be to whoever enjoys listening to melodic piano music, whether it be a young adult or someone older. My song ‘Fine’ deals the theme of mental health and in particular with the feeling of anxiety. However, it has a reassuring message in the chorus. When I was writing this, although it is quite personal, I wanted it to reach out to anyone who suffers with any form of mental health issues and hoped it would provide any sufferer with a reassuring message. With the instrumental track, my thoughts behind it link with the idea of dealing with mental health. I wanted to show a sort of journey through the music by making it sound emotive and melodic. The track ends on a major broken chord, deliberately sounding hopeful to reflect feeling happier and more hopeful when dealing with mental health issues.

Radio

Since I am a student at the University of Gloucestershire, an easy way for me to promote my music would be on Tone Radio, the local radio for the University. An advantage of this radio station is that it is very much involved with students and therefore, student events. Tone Radio would give me an opportunity to share my work with fellow students and lecturers who have not yet heard my music. I think my work could be different from other’s because I love writing instrumental pieces on the piano, so it would be an alternative piece of music for members of the university to listen to.

https://www.toneradio.co.uk/

Soundcloud

I think putting your own music online is crucial if you want an opportunity to promote it or to try and get yourself noticed. I think it is best to start out small and work your way up, so I thought of using Soundcloud. This is because it is a good way of following other like-minded artists and liking and commenting on each other’s tracks. You can also repost other people’s uploads, therefore  SoundCloud is a useful way of getting noticed by other artists.

If I gained a large amount of followers on Soundcloud, I would create playlists for my instrumental tracks and vocal tracks, to keep a good order and so people can also see clearly the type of music I write.

YouTube

YouTube is a huge and popular platform for anyone around the world to share anything they want. In my opinion, YouTube is such a great space for musicians to share their work. We have artists like Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and Tori Kelly who are now just a few of the most famous artists in the world and have gained so much success just from posting videos of themselves performing original songs and covers on their YouTube channels. Another good example of a ‘YouTuber’ is one of my favourites, Dodie, who inspired me to write about mental health for my EP. She posts her own very personal original songs on YouTube and now has a couple of EPs out, one of which includes an instrumental; so I would definitely use YouTube as a platform of promotion. Like Soundcloud, you are able to like and comment on each other’s videos and also subscribe to one another’s channels, which is when YouTube notifies you when that particular channel has a new video up. I think liking and commenting is such a good way of getting yourself noticed, not just by the artists who are uploading their music, but by their subscribers too who are also commenting on their videos.

Facebook

In order to promote my music on Facebook, I would create my own music page. This would be a good way of sharing my work, since I have a lot of friends on Facebook to show it to. I would invite my friends and family, who I have on Facebook, to make them aware of my page and to follow my music. People who see my page would be able to share what I have posted, therefore, making more people aware of my work and what I do. I would also keep my followers updated on my music and upcoming events and gigs I might be playing.

I am fortunate enough to know people who have created their own photography company called ‘Cut the Cord Media’, who have taken photos of me at a few local gigs in Cheltenham and have shared these on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CutTheCordMediaa/?ref=br_rs). This has obviously benefitted me and will, I hope, continue to help promote myself as a musician and therefore, my work as well.

Gigs/Live Events

Since living in Cheltenham and being a music student here, there have always been opportunities for myself to perform local gigs in pubs such as the Frog and Fiddle, The Strand, The Swan etc. I do think that performing your music live gives the audience a real taste of what you are like as a musician and can possibly give you an opportunity to sell physical copies of your work, if you still do not have any music on online streaming sites yet.

Journalists/Blogs

Finally, I would send my music over to a blog or magazine. I found a website called The National Student, which is a lifestyle blog, most likely aimed at students or younger people, hence the name The National Student. As mentioned before, Dodie was my influence for writing my EP and I happened to come across an album review of her EP ‘Intertwined’ and a live review from when Dodie performed at Bush Hall, London.

http://www.thenationalstudent.com/

http://www.thenationalstudent.com/Music/2016-11-21/album-review-intertwined-by-dodie.html

http://www.thenationalstudent.com/Music/2016-12-08/live_review_dodie_bush_hall_04_12_16.html).

Overall, I think the platforms I have chosen are realistic for me in order to promote my music because I have picked easy, accessible and free sites that anyone will be able to use. I also chose these because I would want to start out small and hopefully build up by gaining more followers on these platforms. Over time, I hope that I would be able to promote my music on bigger platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, which would widen my audience even further.

Link to my EP on SoundCloud:

Twin Peaks - Golden Orb Scene

Music for Moving Image

One of our first tasks we had to do was to create our own music for this game ‘Frogger’. I wanted mine to be simple yet catchy and for it to fit in well with the game, by using a simple four chords progression in C major. I thought it shouldn’t be over complicated because video game music isn’t, it should be a bit of fun.

Blog Entry 4 - Guest Speaker

This week we had a guest speaker, Malaki Patterson, who is the creative director from The Music Works, an organisation based in Gloucestershire (Cheltenham, Gloucester and Cinderford mostly) who work with and help people by using music. Malaki spoke to us about the considerations in his job and because at The Music Works, they help a lot of vulnerable people, all potential staff/applicants have to pass DBS checks. This is a vital thing for them to do because of, like I mentioned before, how vulnerable the people they help are.

The Music Works provides a variety of facilities such as: three studios around the Gloucestershire area, they work in places like hospitals and schools and provide music making lessons on iPads and tablets.

Blog Entry 6 - Summative Reflection and Statement

‘Boom, Bap, Bash and Biddle’: The Human Drum Kit

For this assessment, we had to put on a ten minute workshop in groups for the participants in our class. I went with my friend Leah Bullock and we decided to do our’s on a ‘human drum kit’. There were many aspects of this that we had to consider when creating our workshop and the activities within it. Leah and I aimed our workshop at teenagers of fourteen to nineteen years old who suffer with anxiety. We wanted this workshop to be all about having fun, people working together and feeling positive when doing so and to understand that it is okay to not take yourself too seriously.

Because our workshop was based on a drum kit, we decided to take the parts of a drum kit, bass drum, snare, cymbals and tom toms, and create the sound they make with our own voices; for example, the sounds we chose were boom, bap, bassshh and biddle. At the start of our session, we had the participants introduce themselves in the circle and make any sound effect they liked; this was to put our participants at ease and to warm themselves up. Next, we introduced the sounds of our drum kit: boom, bap, bash and biddle and had them repeat after us. After this, we numbered them one to four and made all the ones and twos to go with Leah and threes and fours with myself. The ones were the bass drums, twos were snares, threes were cymbals and fours were tom toms. We decided it would be fun to create a beat together: Leah made up a beat by pointing at the bass drums and snares, while I made one up by pointing at the cymbals and tom toms to create one big beat. After we showed them our beat, we asked the participants if one of them wanted to conduct a beat and thankfully, one of them did. Lastly, for a bit of fun, we showed them the beat of the Eastenders theme song by using our snares and had them do it with us. This was to try and help them understand that it is okay to have fun and not take yourself seriously when acting in a funny way.

When creating this workshop, there were some things we had to consider. Because it was aimed at teenagers who have anxiety, we made sure that the whole session was done in groups so that people wouldn’t think they were doing the activity on their own and that the could have fun as groups. For the warm up, we had people make a sound effect after introducing themselves. We understood that by making a sound effect with your voice could be embarrassing or daunting to some people, so we emphasised that it could be any sound they liked, even if it is just using your hands or feet. As I mentioned before, we wanted the participants to feel relaxed, at ease and to just have some fun during our session, so Leah and I made sure we were positive and energetic throughout.