Hellooooo, so Gus and I thought it would be a good idea to let the first song sit for a couple days so that we don’t get sick of it and also so we can listen with fresh ears next week. So we started work on another song. This time, we started the song with bass and drums. It’s still very bare bones but I definitely like it. Next week we’ll try to record the first song fully and get a mix out for y’all to hear.
Hello, so Gus and I have been continuing the song we started last week. We’ve been trying to flesh out complete verse, chorus and bridge sections. It’s probably about time we start trying to write a melody and lyrics for it which is going to be hard for me since I have zero experience with that. Draft coming soon.
Dominic DiGesu
4/14/20
Critical Reflection #1: What I Know vs What I Don’t Know (CR1)
My senior project is about making music. My essential question is how can I tell a compelling narrative/tell a story through music in a time of quarantine. I know I am not the first to record and produce music apart from other musicians and production people. I have heard stories of famous musicians recording in different locations and having the record mixed in yet another location. In these situations, the people involved are generally very seasoned professionals. I am still a music making novice; as a result, there is a lot about music making I don’t know, which is exacerbated by the challenge of distance composing.
I know that good music tells good stories. For the story to work, rythums, beats and sounds that resonate across a wide audience lay a foundation for lyrics that tell a story. I am confident in my ability to set the instrumental base. What I don’t know and am exploring is how to write compelling lyrics to sit on top of the base, and how to seamlessly layer the music and lyrics in the production process. I also know that good music is generally as a result of collaboration. Gus and I spend hours face timing, playing each other music, experimenting in different keys and with different instruments. So far it is working, even though sometimes our internet cuts out and there are disconnects in our process. The reality is that we have started with the aspects of music making we both know best and are most comfortable with. What I don’t know is how this collaboration will work when we get to the more challenging parts of the process, where we both have limited experience or less confidence in our skills. Distance collaboration may be more challenging when are in learning mode. On the same note, I know that Gus and I get along well and we generally agree. What I don’t know is what will happen when there is a difference of opinion or when we want to take things in different directions. It is harder to resolve differences over a computer screen.
Hello, so now that Gus has shown me most of the basics, we started a song. We started off with this synth part that Gus wrote and kept adding more instruments on top of it. I can’t tell if it’s good or not yet since it’s still fresh. We’ll post a draft of it by next week!
For senior project, Gus and I are making music over the internet. Our original plan was to make music in person, but with covid 19 that’s definitely NOT going to happen.
The last two days have been spent learning the basics of logic and figuring out how to work over zoom. Gus is already very experienced with logic so he’s been a great teacher for me. We’ve mostly been working on making drum tracks and finding good drum samples since we can no longer record actual drums anymore. He’s also showing me the basics of mixing and teaching me how to use compression, eq, etc. We plan on starting our first song this week, so we’re looking forward to that and we’ll post it here for you all to listen to when we can. alright thats all see ya next time.
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