Aaron Dainton's Blog

3 Greatest strengths

Creating catchy melody lines

Variations of chord progressions

Choice of instruments

3 Songwriting improvements

Improve mixing and mastering

Writing lyrics

Creating live sounds to use

Your Name: Aaron Dainton

Song Title: Misery Business

Songwriter: Hayley Williams & Josh Farro

Recording artist (performed by): Paramore

Tempo (BPM): 173 bpm

Genre / subgenre: Alternative Rock

Time

Section

Notes (on production / instruments / atmosphere / what is happening)

Lyrics (if any)

0 - ’14

Intro

Very thin texture and completely cuts before the start of the first verse where the song becomes a lot thicker. Gives off a mariachi band vibe.

‘14 - ‘47

Verse

Very thick before vocals come in for around 10 seconds. Vocals aren’t really sung but more spoken with the thick instrumental behind it.

‘47 – 1’17

Chorus

Thickest part of the song, vocals are now being sung with every instrument supporting. Drum kit does a fill just before the vocals come in.

1’17 – 1’40

Verse 2

The texture of the song thins right out just before the second verse comes in with a repeated drum rhythm throughout the song

1’40 – 2’16

Chorus

This is almost an exact repeat of the first chorus, however, towards the end of the chorus the texture is thinned right out leading into the bridge.

2’16 – 2’27

Bridge

The vocals are very much kept quite monotone with minimal movement included. The drums are played at a rapid pace and the dynamics are increased throughout the bridge leading to the guitar solo.

2’27 – 2’50

Guitar Solo

The vocals drop out and leave the song to just the drums and guitar with the drum kit holding the same rhythm to emphasize the movement played by the guitar

2’50 – 3’32

Breakdown leading into chorus

There is a breakdown which is just the drum kit and vocals leading into the final chorus of the song which starts thick however ends with a long note from the vocals with a slight solo and then ending abruptly.

Song Title: Easy on me

Songwriter: Adele Adkins, Greg Kurstin

Recording artist (performed by): Adele

Tempo (BPM): 142

Genre / subgenre: Pop

Time

Section

Notes

0-‘12

Intro

The piece opens with a simple monophonic line which immediately sets the tone for the rest of the piece.

’12 – ’46

Verse 1

The introductory chord progression is continued underneath the vocal melody that Adele is singing. The minor key and lack of movement in the piano really allows the listener to focus on the lyrics that Adele is singing which adds to the emphasis of the message that Adele is getting across.

’46 – 1’26

Chorus

Once again the piano is very minimal, however this time Adele focuses more on showing of her vocal talent with sustaining the notes. It also adds more emphasis on the message shes getting across and almost begging to have you “go easy on her” and relieve the pressure.

1’26 – 1’57

Verse 2

Adele keeps the same theme throughout the song by replicating the same piano line in the second verse. This may point towards the lyrics once again by calling out for the listeners to focus on them and not give her as much slack. As I mentioned before, when you listen and focus on the song it is very difficult to not take into account what Adele is feeling and the minimalism of the piece almost hypnotizes you into feeling the same way.

1’57 – 2’38

Chorus

The chorus is once again repeated in almost the exact same way except for the final line. This once again reinforces Adele’s message throughout the song of asking her fans to take it easy on her by sustaining the note and keeping the piano underneath with minimal movement.

2’38 – 2’54

Bridge

Throughout the bridge, the piano repeats the chorus line, however with the way the track was mixed, Adeles vocals are noticeably higher than the piano so you can only notice it in Adele’s breaks. It really does emphasize how Adele feels and did feel whilst writing/recording this song.

2’54 – 3’44

Chorus

The track finishes on a chorus which again helps to set in stone the idea of Adele and her struggles. Half way through the last chorus it gives Adele one last chance to put as much emphasis on the message as possible and she does this by performing a difficult run which takes her from the bottom of the scale right to the top which just showcases the talent she has.

Song Title: Versace On The Floor

Songwriter: Bruno Mars

Recording artist (performed by): Bruno Mars

Tempo (BPM): 174

Genre / subgenre: pop/contemporary R&B

Time

Section

Notes

0-‘41

Verse 1

This verse is mainly vocal dominated with minimal backing from a synth.

41’- 1’04

Pre chorus

The pre-chorus really builds the mood for the song, its easy to listen too and just settles you. It gives off a really retro like R&B style. However, listening to the lyrics you can tell that this is right in the middle on an intimate moment and the simplicity of the accompaniment really refelcts this.

1’04 – 1’29

Chorus

The way the instruments move in this song reflects the actions that are taking place. In the pre chorus it suggests that Bruno is hinting towards getting intimate with somebody, and as the song progresses into the chorus. It’s like he has accomplished that and he’s telling the story of how. This is a common throughout the song almost as if he’s telling this private story.

1’29 – 2’10

Verse 2

Once again this verse is focusing on the lyrics with nothing really changing in the instruments. However now added is light choral backing to really set the mood. Focusing on the lyrics, it really emphasizes the picture that Bruno is trying to paint.

2’10 – 2’32

Pre-Chorus

The music in the pre chorus almost suggests that Bruno mars is getting frustrated as he isnt yet getting what he wants, however it almost shows in the music how the song is building towards its climax.

2’32 – 2’57

Chorus

This once again is very similar to the previous chorus with not much movement in the instruments, potentially showing how hard Bruno is working to seduce this woman.

2’57 – 3’39

Bridge

This is the first time the music changes in the entire song. There is a slight solo at the beginning of the bridge which brings the song to its climax and hinting that bruno has finally got what he’s been waiting for throughout the song. Followed by the lyrics, suggesting that whatever action he has just partaken in he wants to do again.

3’39 – 4’18

Chorus

For the Final assessment I was partnered up with Felicity, however, it wasn’t all plain sailing, initially I didn’t have a group in which I was placed in the group that had already formed which included; Sacha, Brandan, Lucy, Ed and Tyler, initially we knew this was going to be difficult due to the fact that there were 4 vocalists with only 2 instrumentalists. The first two sessions spent were with that group in which it was advised to me that I got in touch with felicity to potentially form a group with her. 

Initially we were placed in a three with another one of our classmates, however, on our first and only rehearsal we were informed that he was going to be pulling out of our assessment, this made our lives that even bit more difficult. 

The communication between the group wasn’t the best and due to us not being together in the lectures it meant that it was backs against the wall in preparation to the final performance. 

The first time we met up, we had an agreement that felicity was going to write the main song and I was going to add a baseline which I would play on my midi keyboard as well as creating a drum loop that would match along with both songs. 

As part of this module In the second semester, Gary decided to put us into random groups and perform a cover of a recognisable song in preparation for the upcoming final assessed performance. for this task I was in a group with Sacha, Anya, Josh and Ed. 

Our first session together was mainly deciding who was going to do what in the group and what song we were actually going to cover. we established from the start that Ed was going to play piano, Josh was going to play the Saxophone and Sacha, Anya and myself were all going to sing. we decided that we would create a groupchat and brainstorms ideas into it as we had limited time in our first session. collectively we decided that we would perform Kickstarts by Example, however, we would put our own spin on it and drastically slow the tempo down and introduce a Sax solo into it. 

For this task Arthur and I decided to team up to tackle it. The most difficult part about this task was definitely the communication between us and the decision of what roles we would each partake in. this is because of all our lectures at the start of the semester being online due to covid. The lecture was based on Mantras, Performing the sample and melodic assemblage. immediately after our lecture, Arthur and I hopped into a discord call and got straight to work. we immediately decided to take a relaxed view on what we could sample and include humour on which we found would give us a good motive to get it done and it was fresh in our minds due to it being trending on the internet. 

The samples we took were from our favourite clips on YouTube, along with a bass line and melodic assemblage that we created ourselves. One difficult part of this task was sending the clips we were creating back and forth, because Arthur was going to be playing the guitar we decided to do the logic document on his side of the call, as it was easier to create the plug-in, this meant we couldnt work as effectively due to us having to wait for the clips to be sent over - resulting in unnecessary breaks.