Overall I enjoyed all aspects of this project, However not to the fullest extent that would have been possible in the usual functioning of the college and myself as a musician and student, The restrictions put in place due to Coronavirus had a big impact on how I (and others) were able to undertake and complete this assignment, With all things considered I still managed to learn, overcome difficulties and make the needed adjustments to produce some good results from home without the normal access to studios, classrooms and other musicians.

 

The proposal was something I found enjoyable and useful as a logical and procedural worker and thinker, Ultimately I did not follow the proposal detail for detail at all, However the layout and planning of the processes the project would require and in what order still proved to be functional and useful, the timescale side of things is where I fell short and could have put in more effort to stick to, Regardless it was good getting a experience of setting out a structured plan for a musical project and (attempting to) stick to it, I hope to have more success in this area in the future.

 

Collaborating with others and with technology albeit with restrictions in place was essential for good execution of this project and what it entailed, ultimately a few factors made the type of and amount of collaboration I had planned for not possible, I would have liked to had more musical parts from other musicians to work with and put into the songs I produced however technologically and equipment wise this was not possible, and I made the decision early on to perform any parts I could myself and make the best possible arrangement for the parts I could not (Vocals, Songwriting) to collaborate with another student, as discussed in the track evaluations this ended up working well in spite of what was not a good outlook in terms of vocal track sound quality and usefulness without a proper microphone and other studio equipment I would usually be able to use. I found sending ideas back and forth and giving and receiving feedback on songs as I created and changed parts enjoyable and feedback helped push me to try new things and make changes I may not have undertook of my own accord.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the practical elements of this project, Practicing, Recording & Producing acoustic / physical and electronic instruments was something I got a lot out of and a great deal of satisfaction from, especially when getting the guitar and bass parts just right in Flowers. Learning mixing skills and working around issues that arose with a limited tool set was a great exercise in my problem solving skills and has given me more confidence and interest in music production as a whole going forward, the idea of setting up equipment, recording, and then mixing songs or albums for a whole band or a solo artist is something I am eager to try as soon as possible, this is very exciting for me going forward in terms of finding out exactly what area of music I want to specialize in and really focus on.

 

Aside from the issues and areas for development already discussed in the two final tracks individual evaluations I am overall happy with the music that has came out of the end of this project, I would like to add more songs to Flowers to create a complete body of music, and would like to return to October in the future and similar songs with a more advanced skillset to produce music for a whole release in that style too.

 

The most prominent negative & disappointment for me in the scope of project 3 is having only completed and presented two tracks, I would have liked to have ended up with 4+ songs to present to tutors, myself, peers and others – Restrictions and difficulties in the current climate aside I could have acted quicker and adjusted how I was working sooner to have produced more end result work / songs then I did, Although I have groundwork for 5 or so songs some completely written by me that I look forward to developing and adding to in the future, and what I have experienced and learnt throughout the last part of this academic year will help me achieve that.

 

I look forward to my next musical project, be it academic, independent, or with others and have lessons from this project to take forward into the next, I look forward to repeating what has worked and changing what has not. Project 3 certainly gave me perspective into how important the many different components of music knowledge are important when creating music for the end listener, all of the areas covered in this academic year popped up at some point and re-iterated the importance for me to develop a diverse and broad skillset even in a instance of undertaking a specific or single minded task.