Solo composition

unit

By Joe Wright

My aims

Full 25 minute album

The aim of this unit is to create 25 minutes of original music in my personal style, whether it be on an instrument, written
sheet music or vocal recordings all 100% created by me. Before started this unit I recently started using a producing software
called fl studio 12 I began using this because I want to create and release my own songs, mixtapes and albums. However if I
do not know how to produce I will need to have a producer or work with a producer to create my music and that will require
more time and will also cost me money.
Despite the unit just being to create 25 minutes of music I do not want to just make the music I want to present it in a way
that fully shows me as an artist and presents the music in a way that it is seen as a piece of art by a respected artist and not
just 25 minutes worth of music for an A level unit. As a result of this I want to turn it into a full album, including a name for
every song, album cover and an album name.
The album is going be a combination of the genres Hip Hop and R&B and some parts of the album will take ideas from Trap
music which is a more specific sub genre of Hip Hop. The reason I am putting so much extra time into this unit is because I
want to use the music I am creating for my own personal use afterwards, this is why I am very specific in the quality of the
music I am creating. Even if I dont use the music for myself there is a possibility I can sell the tracks to other musicians. This
is all possible due to copyright, because once I have put phonograph copyright on my audio creation I have full ownership
over the recording and nobody can legally copy my work. However I can sell the ownership to someone who wants it, usually
artists who do not produce themselves therefor they need to buy music off of other artists. This is why it is such a useful skill
to have in the music industry as it means I can have smaller costs as I dont have to pay another producer as I make my own
music, but it also means I can generate greater revenue.

My Inspiration #1
The Weeknd-The Beauty Behind
The Madness

I do not have a direct influence on my composed pieces, as I personally want my music to be

so unique that it will not be referred to another musicians work. However I will still take
ideas and concepts of artists and styles from different genres of music. There arent
particularly any artists whose style of music I favour, I prefer the styles of specific albums or
mix tapes. This is because an artists style can change dramatically from one album when
compared to the style of another.
My first album of inspiration is The beauty behind the madness by The Weeknd, which was
released in late 2015, this album falls under the R&B genre, which is part of the style of
music I wish to create. I personally like the style of this album because in this album The
Weeknd sings in a very vibrant, light way in some songs and then in others there is a very
clear dark and almost haunting sound to his voice. The whole albums theme is very dark and
all songs contain obvious emotion throughout.

How did I use this?

One of my pieces that I have created titled R&B #3 follows the style of The Weeknds Beauty behind the madness album, I have still
predominantly maintained my own style throughout the piece however I have taken inspiration and influence from the album to create a
darker sounding track. One thing that I have taken from The beauty behind the madness is having a dark, filtered guitar. I have achieved
this by using several after effects on my recorded sound of the guitar, the first effect which I added was a parametric EQ 2 this is a
sound equaliser which means it allows me to filter out the higher frequencies of the sound wave created by the guitar, as a result of this
the guitar sounds muffled and more atmospheric and haunting sound. The next effect I used was fruity reverb I used this on the guitar
and several other sounds in the piece to drag out the decay time of the sound in order to make it darker and smoother, as the decay time is
longer it will allow sounds and notes to overlap leading to a darker more emotional sound. I have also used both of these effects onto my
808 kick drum to give it even more bass than usual and make it a hard hitting booming kick so that it can really carry the beat of the
track. This guitar is also very similar to the single wicked games by The weeknd, this is because this song also has a dark guitar, the after
effects are also very similar to those I used on my guitar, however the difference is that the guitar in this song has an electric guitar and
mine is an acoustic. The other difference is that the guitars primary wave has been changed to a buzz saw wave, this means that it has a
very bitty broken up sound whereas mine has a sine wave and I also turned mine to be a legato sound which causes a wavy pitch bend in
between notes and pitch changes.
I have also created The Weeknds style as in several of my pieces I have used the plugin called GMS I have done this and then once
again matched this sounds style to what I did to the guitar by making it a sine wave, this way none of the sounds vibrantly stick out to the
others and they all blend together to create a mysterious sound, which is my original intention.

My Inspiration #2
Bryson Tiller-Trapsoul

My second album which inspired me to create the style of music I have was trapsoul by Bryson Tiller, this album is
in a genre trap soul, this is a new combined-genre created from this album by Bryson. This is personally one my
favourite albums to listen to and as a result of this I decided to take inspiration from this album and add and change
elements to what I perceive as my style. One song that I have taken direct inspiration from is the song exchange. I
like this album as it is a very unique style as it is the first ever album to officially be of the genre trapsoul. The
majority of the songs on this album carry a message to Brysons partner, I think this is good for the album as a whole
as it carries a message and in my opinion it is very creative that Bryson used the album as an outlet for what he
wanted to say to her. This album also has a very atmospheric sound, this is created by using a large amount of reverb
and equalising on the track, however I personally like Brysons approach to making these atmospheric songs as most
artists would just use a similar amount of reverb on their voice as they do on the track however Bryson just equalises
out the higher tones by creating a low pass filter. As a result of Bryson not reverbing his voice to a major extent it
allows for a more crisp sharp sounding vocal, despite this there are parts in songs where his voice is heavily edited
with many layers of reverb, chorus and equalising however these are not the vocal melody created by Bryson later
over the track these are used musically as part of the actual track to be sung over in the studio. An example of this is
in the song I previously mentioned called exchange.
This album has two major selling songs (hit singles) in Dont and exchange with Dont being the single that first
got Bryson his exposure in the music industry, due to the viral success of this Bryson had enormous hype leading up
to the release of exchange causing this to also be a huge financial and commercial success for Bryson.

How did I use this?

I have used the style of this album and the genre trapsoul to help me create my music by taking the very basics of the style, I have not
as such taken the fine details and the style of songs in particular. The way in which I have done this is through using a heavy kick drum
to lay the mood of the tracks however space the kicks apart from one another. This instantly creates a more atmospheric song that
ultimately causes the song to become more focused on the actual musician, this is the opposite to what trap music is normally about
because trap music is bouncy and energetic with little vocal input and usually can be carried by the heavy drum orientated beat.
However if this was all Bryson and I did to our songs then they would not be considered to be in the trap genre at all and would only be
soul or R&B, however to ensure the song will still fall under a sub genre of trap I have used a bouncy snare drum and in some cases
layered multiple snares, by doing so this causes the song to maintain its hip hop feel. In hip hop the snare drum is essentially what
controls the vocalists flow as they time their lyrics in time with the snare drum. This is how they transfer the songs energy fluently.
In order to create a full song whilst maintaining the very spaced out kick drums and snare drums, I added enough reverb to them so that
they are fuller sounds, this is effective as it means that the decay time of each kick is longer therefore there will be a shorter gap
between each kick. This is also effective in creating the atmospheric style I have previously spoken about when it comes to the album
trapsoul. In addition to this, much like with my weeknd inspired song I use piano and guitar melodies to fill in the gaps so that there
is a constant throughout. Another similarity is the style of guitar that I used as they are both very dark and layered sounds, therefore the
guitar can be used to set the mood of the track depending on the key, alteration of the tuning and the chord progressions that I choose to
use in my piece to suit whatever I see as fitting to the mood and message I am trying to create with my piece.

My Inspiration #3
Frank Ocean-Blond

This album is a very recent release as it was available to the public on the 20 th of august 2016, since
the release of this album Frank Ocean has very quickly became one on my favourite artists. This is
mostly because of how unique he is as there isnt a single album that sounds like blond. In my
opinion this is one of the most emotion filled albums Ive ever heard, however they arent your
typical emotional songs as they dont have a clear intention or message, they are all very open to
interpretation. There also isnt one common message throughout the album as it opens with a song
called nikes this is a song about how Frank thinks the majority of people are materialistic.
Another song; solo is essentially a contemporary love song. The genre that this album falls under
contemporary R&B and psychedelic pop, this is what makes this album so unique is its strange
combination of genres.
In my opinion the album is very artistic, this is because Frank doesnt create his music to be
commercially and financially successful he creates his music as an artist, he does this by creating
music that he personally wants to listen to, and they all are very important to him and contain a
meaning and Frank has a very personal connection with his music.

How did I use this?

From this album I have taken several inspirations in terms of ideas I am inputting into my music, the main thing that
I have used into one of my pieces is using a major lack drums on the track. I have still used a snare drum however
instead of having two snares per bar which would be found on the 2 nd and the 4th beat I have only placed a snare on
the 3rd beat per bar. Usually I would do this when I put the tempo into double creating the effect that the tempo is
half of what it actually is, however maintaining the high tempo allows me to have a much faster pace kick drum and
hi hat, I can use this to create hi hat rolls without having to alter the step of the beat and slicing sounds. My reason
behind changing the frequency of the snare drum is because I wanted this song to be quite slow, by doing so I can
put the focus of the song on my voice therefor create a more emotional track with more meaning to it.
Another idea I have taken from this album is using a very detuned sine wave as what is making the leading chords, I
did this by using the plugin GMS and altering the wave from to sine and also changing the resonance and altering
the cut off point so that the sound is more muffled and this allows for a smaller energy transfer meaning the track is
far more fluent than if the energy transfer between chords it makes the song feel very disconnected. I also used a
high level of reverb onto the GMS to allow each chord to overlap. Sine waves arent usually used when it comes
R&B and Hip Hop but I think that

My Inspiration #4
Post malone

Unlike all my other inspirations towards my music, this is an artist not just a specific album. Mostly
because he hasnt actually released a full length album yet, although he is releasing stoney his first
studio album on the 9th of December 2016. however this is also because I like all of his music not a
specific mixtape or single, the reason I like Post so much is because he doesnt stick to one genre and
doesnt trap himself into doing certain things as he was raised through country and folk music in Texas
and as a result of this he incorporates features from this style of music into his own. The majority of his
music falls under the category of Hip Hop but also Contemporary rock, this is a very strange and unique
mix of genres however it has made him extremely successful and popular over the past couple years. His
major hit was White Iverson which is currently sitting at over 220,000,000 views YouTube as of when I
wrote this. I personally think that the way post sings and raps over tracks is his best selling point and is
what makes him so individual. This is because he has taken his style from the folk music genre and then
turned it into a Hip Hop style, another thing I also like about Posts songs is that he plays some of the
instruments in the tracks and performs live with a guitar and also a piano.

How did I use this?

Post has given me several ideas to include and use in my own music such as using a guitar in other ways in my songs than what I am
already, this is because in my other songs I have been picking the strings when recording guitar to create a more melodic feel to the song,
this is because I have already got several layers and musical chords in the piece so it allows for me to have many layers to my music
without over crowding it. This is good because it allows me to be constantly changing the song in order to give the effect that the track is
evolving each time, this will make the track more interesting and will not be anywhere near as repetitive as if I didnt have as many layers
and it was the same 16 bars over and over again. However after listening to post I am going to use a constant strumming pattern on a
guitar throughout the song with just the drums over it, this will be very effective as it isn't very often you see a Hip Hop track that has a
guitar playing throughout the song. It will also be an effective way to have an ever changing track without having to use loads of layers
and many different sounds this is because having a complex melody lead the track I wont get stale or repetitive as it will have the
potential to be a song on its own without any drums or added sounds after the guitar.
Another part of Posts style I have taken inspiration from is how he uses the beat to mould his vocal melody, this is because most
musicians and Hip Hop artists follow a very strict flow which causes them all to be the same. However Post was a singer first before he
found out he wanted to make Hip Hop music and because of this he takes into account melodies and even when he is rapping it is in his
singing voice therefor it allows him to have loads of freedom with his voice as he can scale up and down various notes in order to create
a more interesting listening experience for the listener. Where as normal rappers rap like they talk, this makes it much harder to play with
pitch and tone in your music. I much prefer to constantly stay in my singing voice because I think it sounds a lot better and really suits the
tone of the music I am trying to create.

My Inspiration #5
Travis Scott-Birds In The Trap Sing
McKnight

My next album that inspired the music I am creating is The birds in the trap sing McKnight by Travis Scott,
this album is also a very recent release as it was available on apple music on the 2nd of September 2016. and it is
classed as a Hip Hop album but it is in the sub genre Trap. Despite this being such a recent release it has
drastically changed the way I create my bassline in my songs, it has also had a big impact on the style and feel
of some of the tracks I am making. Travis style is very dark and almost sounds broken and disorientated, he
adds after effects onto almost all the sounds in his tracks and even over his voice to make it all distorted and he
also adds a lot of detune.
Throughout this album the mood changes constantly depending on who is featured on it, some songs also
change very quickly from one mood to another he can make a song go from being very dark and slow to quite
light and faster paced. However even when it is lighter tones in a higher key and upwards progressing chords
the distortion of the music causes it to have this discrete dark tone to it and any of his songs even the happiest
song on the album Wonderful featuring The Weeknd could be change very easily to be a darker song.

How did I use this?

On my song currently titled RnB #4 I have used the idea of the amplified, dirty bass much like the one Travis Scott uses in his music.
In order to make this bass I used the plugin GMS again, then I chose to use a buzz saw wave form this is because it makes the edges
of the sound rough and creates a harsher sound. I then increased the detune levels of the GMS so that it becomes very distorted and is
very dissimilar to the original sound. After the sound design I have to decipher the chords, to do this I mostly use trial and error, I start
off by picking a single note I want in the chord progression, after this I create my scale starting from this note then I create copies of
this scale and place them in the octave above and the one below. After creating this template for notes in the key of my chosen note I
mute the sound of all these notes so that they dont play when the song is playing. After choosing my chord progression I move it into a
low octave so that it now a bass sound.
To further develop this sound I used after effects, the first I used was fruity chorus this allows me to have three layers to this sound ,
it takes the sound waves of the sound and splits it into three different layers, the lowest, mid and the highest frequencies, by doing this
it creates the effect that there are three similar sounds of different pitches playing at once. By doing so it allows your sounds to be
different and in my opinion its the small tweaks to sounds that make your music better than others.
Travis also uses an 808 kick in all of his songs, which I have used in all of my pieces in this album. I have done this because they have
a long decay time meaning that I can chose to either use them at a quick pace and change it so that the sound cuts itself and have a
hard hitting kick line. Or I can have very spaced out kicks and the decay time will allow for the song to still feel full and not have any
empty space. I also use the 808 kick because if you use it a sub level then it is really effective at creating a great punching bassline.

Ongoing Evaluation

My first research into composition was to listen to multiple albums and to discover the sounds that I like and that
I would want to compose in. During this process I have aimed to find similar sounds in different albums and take
inspiration from this to fine tune my own sound, I have also looked for sounds that necessarily wouldnt go
together but I try to experiment with these contrasting sounds and styles in order to create something new.
I am using FL studio to create my compositions. I have developed my skills through trial and error to create the
sounds that I want to make. To create the sounds I like need a lot of filtering and effecting which I have
continuously researched and tried out new ideas to achieve the effects I want.
I have tried to continuously be creative in this genre and to think outside the box. I take ideas from other genres
and try to implement them into my music, this is because I dont believe that if your create a genre of music you
are trapped in the walls of that genre, because for example most artists who make hip hop music will think they
are limited to drums and a piano melody or maybe one other instrument. However I want my music to have
many layers and not be restricted to a genre because it really is just music, the song is whatever the artist wants it
to be.