Planning, practicing and more..

So I haven't posted on this blog in a while so I thought I'd upload one about everything that's been happening recently...

So far we've been playing around with different song ideas for the album, making up recording session sheets and equipment lists. We decided that everyone would choose a few songs each that they'd like to perform whilst the rest of the group do the recording, and when someone else performs the other people in the group record and so on...

I came up with two songs that I'd like to perform which were Coldplay's Charlie Brown and Owl City's Vanilla Twilight. I chose these songs because I felt they were powerful and were songs that I could play well.

Alie asked me to play the piano while she sings. She's chosen four songs; Kate Voegele - Kindly Unspoken, Simple Plan - Save You, Avril Lavigne - Fall to Pieces and Mcfly - She Falls Asleep (Part 2).

So far I've been tidying up a few parts on my songs and been practicing the Kate Voegele song as it's a lot harder than the other songs so getting a head start would be the best idea. I've really enjoyed learning this song because its so much different from anything else I've ever played before, although it's been a challenging trying to learn the bass notes and trying to find a way to place the music on the piano without having to turn any pages. In the end I came up with some random idea and its worked so far. 

Anyway, with regards to the planning we've been writing out a recording session sheet for our first recording which will be Coldplay - Charlie Brown and Owl City - Vanilla Twilight. We wrote out an equipment list which didn't consist of much however we've chosen what we think would be the best microphones and placement to get the best possible sound. Next I drew out a floor plan of where everything is going to go and drawing up all the connections so it makes it easier for everyone on the day instead of running around deciding where everything goes on the day. The floor plan benefits us because it'll save us loads of time leaving us more time to record and get it right. 

Floor plan of the live room at college for our first recording session of just the piano. 

I'm really looking forward to performing the first songs for our album and I can't wait to start recording everyone else! 

This is what my arrangement of all the sheets for the Kate Voegele song looks like on my piano! I finally managed to figure out a suitable way to make it so I can read everything in one go! 

Thanks for reading,

Chazzy!

Introduction...

First off I study music technology at college and we're currently doing our final major project (FMP) where we have to keep an up-to-date portfolio of all the stages that we go through until we get the finished product.

The finished product has to consist of an album with various songs that all together have to add up to thirty minutes worth of recordings. 

So far we've been split up into small groups of up to four of five people and each had to come up with a record company name and logo for our group, we collectively decided on the name 'Gamma Mouse Records'. We've also been planning and discussing possible song choices and who we're going to record for our album. However, one of our group members, James was missing today so we had to work around it by listing song choices made by everyone else and at a later date this shall be further discussed with him. So far this has been fun and I can't wait to get stuck in recording and finish this project! Hopefully the outcome will be a great one! 

On a slightly different note, in college we now have a BRAND NEW STUDIO! Today in our practical session in the studio we went through how to use the new equipment such as the order the studio has to be set up in, different ways of using the desk and how to record a whole drum kit with one microphone! More details on that will be added in the next blog. 

Thanks for reading,

Chazzy!