Project by: Jack Trowbridge (11th Grade), Luc Dunlop (11th Grade), Zander Lu (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Nick Wight
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Ann Carroll, Kara Luce, Preethi Thomas-McKnight

Description of the Project:

For the past two months, we wrote and recorded a song. This entailed many steps. There were the expected steps, like the conception of ideas and the consolidation of said ideas into a coherent form. Then, there were the unexpected ones: recording through SoundTrap (since we couldn’t record live), late-night video calls to discuss what to re-record, and the most rewarding step: seeing our final product uploaded onto SoundCloud. Our project culminated in a piece of art we could call unequivocally ours.

Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):

Our song “Sheer Luck” is available to listen via SoundCloud! Check it out here:

Credits:

• Jack T – guitars, vocals, editing & production
• Zander – bass, vocals, lyrics, cool artwork
• Luc (aka Tempo Man) – drums, human metronome
• Nick Wight – production, mixing, musical advice, all-around awesome guy

 

Final Reflection on Learning:

“Done is better than perfect” – Nicholas Wight, 2020

As Nick put it, this song is still a work in progress. We did all the necessary steps to get a version uploaded to SoundCloud that we were proud of, but it is far from finished. Given the limits of having to work via video chat and SoundTrap, there are parts that we wanted to flesh out more but couldn’t, particularly in the middle of the song. When we see each other in person, there will be parts of the song that we will want to change, as live performance is a totally different realm than recording from separate spaces.

The final product was also limited by our technology. For example, Luc had to record an entire drum kit (which is usually the hardest band instrument to record) with one microphone in a non-sound-proofed room. And although it served our needs for this project, SoundTrap was far from the best software for recording, mixing/editing, and finding cool sound presets. Re-recording some of the material when we get back to the Charlton Street studio will definitely produce a more refined product.

Most of the process came to us in the final weeks of the project. Having hard obstacles and deadlines induced a lot of the creative process, partly due to the sheer amount of time we spent. Up against the clock, we realized that we could go on modifying the piece. We could keep working the recordings and refining them, but there was a limit to productive editing. At a certain point, we had to accept that it was “done”, at least for the time being. The deadline also meant that we couldn’t put anything off until the perpetual “tomorrow”; it had to be done. This meant a lot of hard work and late nights listening and editing in SoundTrap; lining up clips, shaving them down, and noting what had to be redone. 

The Highlights! Words from the Band

Zander: A highlight for me was coming up with and sharing ideas. It was very fun to see where we could take musical phrases; what we could change to make them more complex, powerful, or richer. What could we do to give a line a more complete sound? This was the part that best emulated being in the same space together. It was the part that made it feel like we weren’t actually confined to our separate houses.

Jack: My favorite part of this project was seeing the pieces come together one at a time, even if they weren’t exactly how I envisioned them. It was totally mind-blowing listening to the parts that Zander and Luc recorded over the ⅞ guitar riff that I wrote. That riff, and all the other parts of the song, could not have been brought alive by the spirit of collaboration that we all went into this project with.

Luc: The highlights for me were the late-night talks. We would go on Zoom or Facetime and bring different ideas into these calls. These ideas spanned from riffs or beats that we made and wanted to share, to the makeup of the song meaning where to put the chorus and the other building blocks of the song. We talked for hours throughout the days and it was a lot of fun. Though we got a lot of work done we had fun during those talks and connected a lot. This was the first step in making us into a real band.

Moving Forward

We were initially hesitant with how online songwriting collaboration would work, but we realize that although it isn’t perfect, it is a totally viable way to work together. Instead of solely relying on physical proximity to write songs, we will use tools like SoundTrap, Logic, and Voice Memos to record ideas when we are separated. This is something that we hope to continue in the future.  We all really enjoyed coming up with original music, and plan on doing more of this type of work over the summer. There are other ideas that we have had floating around for a while, and doing this Honors Project has given the experience, the confidence, and the technology to explore them to the fullest over the summer!

 

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

The Coronavirus pandemic forced us to restructure our approach to this project. We know from playing in classes and preparing for Coffee Houses that we work strongest when we are in the same room; each of us can hear what the others are playing and can feed off their energy in real-time. This allows us to have a vision for a song and to put the different parts together. However, the technological limitations of our current situation prevent us from playing in sync, fundamentally altering our songwriting process.

To accommodate having to work online, we shifted our focus to include digital recording. Nick pointed us to SoundTrap, a collaborative recording software. We have used the software to record our own ideas and share them with each other, which is much more efficient than sending voice memos or Logic Pro X files back and forth. Although SoundTrap is not as technologically advanced as software like ProTools or Logic, it is very intuitive and convenient for sharing ideas over distance.

To begin the songwriting process, we talked about the kind of music we like, and the direction we would like to take our composition. Each of us listens to a different genre of music. While we enjoy the music the others listen to, our musical influences are unique to each individual. We shared some artists that we had been listening to whose techniques we would like to incorporate into our composition, such as the ones below:

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

Over the past few weeks, we have recorded many different ideas and uploaded them to SoundTrap for each other to experiment with. The ideas draw on genres ranging from classic rock, blues/funk, and progressive rock. Here’s a snippet of a guitar line we are building on:

 

 

And here’s another, with Jack building off a drum idea that Luc recorded:

 

 

The main struggle for us has to do with putting the pieces together. We may have a solid idea for a single verse or section, but we may not know which harmonic direction to take from there.

We talked to each other about individual strengths and weaknesses. Jack admitted that while he can come up with interesting lines or riffs, he isn’t as good with adding chords or harmonies. Luc’s strength lies in understanding the groove of our compositions; he has a great ear. He can lay down a fitting rhythm to anything after hearing it just a few times. He is, however, working to improve his grasp on music theory related to pitch. Zander is the most technical with his instrument, which allows him to be freer to visualize where to take ideas. Additionally, he has the deepest understanding of music theory.

Finally, we discussed whether or not we thought lyrics are necessary for what we have so far. Additionally, we discussed the quality of the lyrics and how we would intend for lyrics to interact with the instrumental part of the song. We unanimously decided that Zander was the poet. He’s the one most comfortable with writing lyrics, especially having taken a poetry English class. If we find lyrics fitting to a particular song, Jack and Zander are both willing to sing them.

 

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

In these last 3 weeks, we finalized the song’s form, lyrics, and instrumentation, and we recorded every part using the online recording software SoundTrap. The software allowed us to “collaborate” by critiquing the parts and giving feedback on how to make the next take better.

We started by recording “scratch takes,” where each of us would record a rough idea of what we will play. The “scratch takes” were so pivotal in our process because they enabled us to hear how all the pieces fit together. There were a lot of changes made to the song’s form as a result, as you can see from our evolving form charts below:

Once we had a vague idea of how the pieces fit together, we began re-recording each part to refine them musically. We had to re-record quite a few times (at one point, the SoundTrap project had over 30 tracks!). Those re-recordings thrived off of the feedback we were able to give each other. This really was a collaborative project, not just the work, but also the sentiments too were fueled by working together.