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Project 4, Session Diary 1: Planning & Rough Idea

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Week 1, Monday 24th of April
Goals:
Have a clear idea and end goal of what kind of song I want to write. Create a cohesive plan on how to approach the writing process, the recording process, the mixing and finally the mastering process
Write chord progression on the piano, write down the inspiration for the lyric writing process
Resources:
Piano, Midi keyboard, DAW (FL Studio), YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Microsoft Word
Diary:
During this first week, I wrote my Project 4 proposal and part of the task was to complete a “Project action plan and timetable” this really helped me to set deadlines for myself and get a clearer overview of when I needed to start working on a certain task.
Till now I’ve held in all the self-set deadlines and I’m on the right path to completing my work and handing it in on time. Having a timetable like this will also be very crucial to securing enough studio time because I can book it ahead of time to ensure that I am able to use it during the times I need it.
I was in Austria until the 26th of April and during my stay, I had limited capabilities to write music because most of my gear was in England so I focused on creating a chord progression, vibe and basic idea of the track and where I wanted it to go.
I wrote down lyric ideas and a lot of my inspiration for the emotional vibe of the song and which tracks and artists especially inspire me. During this process, I listened to a vast amount of songs of different genres to pick out elements which I like and try to combine them.


I also practiced playing the piano because I want to be able to actually play the song live with a band, this is mainly to challenge myself and go out of my comfort zone.
Currently, I have a basic arrangement with the main chord progression, a topline melody, some percussion and ambient background foley samples, a string-like synth lead which adds tension to the rather melancholy vibe and an arpeggio to support the chord progression.
We are obliged to have at least 4 original audio recordings in our final submission and because of that I have already spoken to Lauren Walton, she will sing the vocals on the track and take the lead with the lyric writing process. Additionally, I will record some electric guitar which Jonny Sands will play.

I plan on using some creative techniques involving outboard gear like re-amping to run synths and other instruments through guitar pedals and also using my Korg Volca Bass to record some synth parts.
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