Context
For my final project I have decided to create a hip hop instrumental album with 2 tracks, including album artwork and a promotional poster, in collaboration with an artist/photographer. I chose to do an instrumental album because I hope to work with rappers and other hip hop artists in the future as part of a record label production team (i.e a label producer). I feel that this album is a good way to showcase the skills I've learned over the past year at college and in my own time. Since the start of the course, I have learned a lot about composition and audio production that I believe will help me create quality music for this project. I have also learned about the value of promotional artwork, and the basics of launching a album to a music platform, specifically Soundcloud.
Issues
I feel that the issues that will arise during this project will be time constraints and the overall production value of the project. I feel like getting songs completed on time to a schedule will be a problem because the sound might not be right or the mixing may take longer than expected. Also the production value might not be amazing as I still have quite a lot to learn in terms of mixing and composing. Also because I'm not actually working with other artists to create this album, another constraint is that I won't get the full experience of what it's like to work as a producer for a record label. However, there may be a possibility of finding other artists and asking them to
Planning & Production
I believe that the time it will take to complete this project will be around 8 weeks or 2 months. For weeks 1 & 2 I be completing research into what makes a good instrumental album and the styles of hip hop that I will be drawing from. This will involve finding music videos and analysing the songs, picking out what I think works and what doesn't. Week 3 will be research into launching an album on my chosen platform, and how marketing and promotion affects the image of the music, and also what works when promoting music. Weeks 4 to 5 will be when I compose, mix and hopefully complete the tracks for the album, with week 6 giving me time to go back and change what I didn't like on both tracks. Week 7 will be looking at artwork created by the artist I have chosen to work with. Week 8 will be the release week.
Practical SkillsFor my project I will be required to do a lot of composition work and mixing. During my college course, I have learnt how to mix tracks properly using EQ, reverb, compression and other techniques that allow me to manipulate the sound. I have also learnt basic composition skills like how to create effective chord progressions and how to create emotion during a song.
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ResearchThe research I have planned for this project is to look into examples of the style of hip hop I plan to compose, looking at artists from the hip hop genre of New York Jazz (Boom Bap). I feel like this will help with my project as it gives me a look into the styles that I can build on with my own compositions. The sources I will be using are videos and songs, writing an analysis of each song I choose.
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Evaluation
The way I intend to evaluate this project is progressively. I have decided to write up a blog post for each week of the project analysing how the week went, what I could do better for the next week, and whether or not I managed to keep to the time frame. I also plan to write an overall evaluation piece once the project is complete to evaluate the overall outcome of the project. I also intend to post blog updates in the event of changes to the project as it progresses.
Presentation of Project
How I intend to present this project is by using this site to document all aspects of the project. There will be a page where I document the progress of my compositions for the album, which I will present as screenshots with a little written work explaining the techniques I have used. On that page I may also present any artwork that has been decided for the project. Once the project is completed I will be uploading it to Soundcloud, a music platform I have chosen, as a playlist which will be linked on this site. I also hope to have a promotional poster which will be uploaded to social media, which will be linked also.