E.P. Project Write up !!Hip-Hop Song Write up !Original Idea!So for my first E.P. Song I decided to make a track in a completely different genre which im used to making. Putting me out of my comfort zone and seeing how well i performed in making this track. I knew little about making this genre of music and thought that by starting a track for the E.P. project in this style i would learn a lot more about this genre and what works and what doesnt. Maybe if it went well i could implant this style of music into my other tracks. !!So I began to make the song and came up with a chord progression which was pretty simple and catchy. You can see this chord progression in the screenshot below. As you can see the progression starts on the D chord then moves to an F and then to an A. A rather simple but effective progression which this track is based around. These chords start off the track and are played by a Violin which has been run through and arpeggio. This section of the track is called the Introduction and runs from bars 1 to 17, you can tell this through the use of automation and variation added to the track to lead into the chorus section.!!!I found this chord progression to be catchy but maybe slightly repetitive and i could of added more variation to it instead of relying on the melodies to variate the song. I used this chord progression as it gave the song a more uplifting and happy vibe, i could of used some minor chords to make the song a bit more serious and change the tone of the song. !!!I also choose this chord progression bc i had some ideas for melodies before i made the progression so i wanted to make it around the melodies so that everything went and no clashes and everything in the song was musically correct.I used plug-ins and other techniques to vary the chord progression so it wasn't so repetitive and this worked to a point, i did vary the rest of the song but the choruses are very similar which could be viewed as a negative point but i liked to add more variations in the verses/Bridge parts of the song which are later on in the track. The chord progression below was the original idea that i had and i wanted to expand on it by adding melodies and creating instruments and generally producing the track to see what i would make in the end. I thought that the layout and structure of the song was good as i took influence from many popular pop songs with the two choruses, a bridge, then final chorus. The only thing i slightly altered was having 1 long verse instead of 2 verses i thought this worked well as in that one verse the build up was very sufficient and progressed the song on well i think adding an extra verse may have dragged the song on too long, its length being around the 4 minute mark already i thought that this was adequate timing.!

!!!Introduction!!Before the chorus however there are a few build up techniques i used to add to the suspense of the track which are. I added a part of the drum beat which includes the kick and clap in these drum patterns shown below. Also There is a rising synth which is added which has an automated lowpass filter applied to it so that it acts as a riser to build up momentum going into the first chorus. The kicks have short intervals between them as i wanted the kicks to be clear and punchy to then lead into the chorus were more percussion is added, The kick is one of the main elements to this songs and drives the song through most of the different sections so i decide to add it into the introduction but not to have it too complex as in other parts of the song it is heavily varied compared to the kick pattern used in this section of the song. The Clap on the other hand isn't really varied and is there to add another layer to the song. I did this as the Kick drum is very low on the frequency range around the 100Hz mark so i needed another drum part which was of a higher frequency. I could have choose Hi-hats in this section but i found the claps to be much more !effective.!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kick

Rising Synth

Clap

!!Choruses!The choruses are the most busiest part of the song as like in most songs but different to the introduction it contains various other instruments and melodies which drive the choruses and keep the listener entertained. This melody starts on the note C then goes to a B and then an A. The second part of the melody goes higher to add variation and adds to that uplifting feel of the track this is done by adding an F to the start of the melody. !!!The Drum beat, like i said earlier, the drum beat varies a lot moving from just a simple kick and clap beat to a more complex beat which contains Shakers, Hi-Hats and a Snare drum. However theres lots of change to the beat but the kick pattern is fairly similar still keeping that short interval between 2 of the notes however adding a third kick to almost transition into the next loop of the drum beat. The Clap and Snare are ordered until the end of the loop were they follow the same style of transition. The Hi Hats are varied between 2 hits and 3 and also there is a shaker towards the end of every loop. Also in the chorus there are more instruments added to the chord progressions and melodies which are pianos, Blip synths, Saws and other atmospheric synthesisers. Some of theses are ran through an arpeggiator. The 2 Choruses ranged from bar 17 to 33, 67 to 83 and 99 to 115.!! !

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!!!!Verses & Bridge!The bridge section in this song is the main part where all the build up happens the instruments are stripped down to bare basics and then added in one by one to then transition into the final chorus. The main segment which differentiates this section of the song is the electric guitar i used which starts on an A goes to an E then to a F and finishes on another E but in a higher octave as seen below. Also i used and arpeggiator in many parts of the song in particular the bridge to vary the melodies up so that it didn't get to repetitive here were some of the settings as you can see from the right. The brigade spans over bars 83 to 99 and gradually adds momentum as it goes along id did this by filtering out a snare roll and then automating it so that it almost acts as a riser into the next sections of the song. I used this !technique at the end of the bridge and over! other sections of the song.!!

!Skirmish - E.P. Song 2!Original Idea!So in this E.P. song i tried to do something a little bit more towards the genre of music i make which is cinematic/film music and i created this dark track which is centred around this one chord progression which starts on a continuos E note and then alternates between the notes B, G and another E in a lower octave. You can see this chord progression in the screenshot below. These chords start off the track and are played by piano which has various effects on it such as reverb to give it that open effect. I found this chord progression to work well and i could of added more variation to it by adding all the various melodies played by the other pianos, violins and other synths. I used this chord progression as it gave the song a more dark and gloomy feel. I decided not to add a third note as it took away to the dark feel to the song and brightened the piano which i didn't really want, i relied on the melodies to mainly progress the track. !The melodies i made were fairly simple but i focused more on the actual instrumentation of the track and decided what synths to add to give the track that electronic edge and then what orchestral pieces to add to the track to give it that cinematic feel in the end i chose a violin coupled up with Saws and pads. I also again used the technique of using an arpeggiator but this time in a different effect using the plug in to create arpeggios in a higher octave which alternates from the current octave in which the midi file is and then you can programme it to your chosen octaves.!

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Bass Notes

Main Melody

!!Introduction !This part of the song is called the Intro and runs from bars 1 to 17 which if you remember rightly was also the same introduction structure as the last song. I used the same layout as it worked well in the first song and it seemed like a successful formulae so i decided to keep it. Before the chorus however there are a few build up techniques i used to add to the suspense of the track which are. Introducing new melodies which are also part of the chorus one at a time so that the track gains momentum and there is always something new being added throughout the track. !!At the very start of the track you here the chord progression as well as a melody together which is shortly accompanied by another piano which has been run through an arpeggiator. I could have added all the piano parts at once but i decided to add them most of them individually so that the song is more layered and so that you can clearly hear the songs progression through the introduction, choruses,verses and bridges. You can see this in the image below, and as well as that there is a drum fill just before the chorus to give the chorus that punchy transition to make it obvious that more things are going to be added such as the drums. I developed the original idea by adding this introduction structure as i was then able to create melodies around the original notes of the progression. In the introduction you can see my ideas progress just in the opening 17 bars. I didn't have any problems developing this idea as i had plenty of tools at my disposal, i used a keyboard to figure the melodies and use the arpeggiator as previously mentioned to manipulate them which gave the introduction another layer before the chorus hit with all the other instruments which then varied the track even more. The suspense in this area of the track is definitely one of the best introductions i had made in this E.P. project because as the chorus hits it adds another element to the song as a whole. !

Choruses!The choruses in this particular song start at bars 17 to 41 and 77 to 93. This is a significant change to my pervious E.P. track as it has a far longer first chorus and the overall structure after the chorus is vastly different. In total before the chorus hits there are 4 channels actively playing where as there are 14 channels that make up the chorus. !!Some of these channels are added gradually into the song using one of the techniques i was talking about earlier which helps with the progression and drive of the track. You dont want your listener sitting listening bored as nothing much has happened in your long chorus so i decided to use as technique i commonly use in most introductions or verses and applied it to the chorus which i think turned out very well as every few bars something new is added and the chorus isn't ridiculously long its around about double to triple the length of a normal chorus so i was able to apply this technique with no problems. !!However even though this technique works well if i had used it for a second time it would have made the track sound boring and predictable so in the second chorus i made it shorter and i made it so all of the elements of the chorus were played from the very start which definitely is not what you expect when listening through the song. I think this formulae works well as is it follows the rules of never have the same structure twice, a lot of common dance songs do not follow this technique and therefore become boring and repetitive so i didn't want my cinematic piece to become like that so i decided to change the second chorus so that it was different from the first. !!!!!!!!

!Verses & Bridge!In this track again i stuck to the original structure of the first song as it seemed to be successful by only having 1 verse but making it longer to build up momentum going into the final chorus. Different elements are added in and taken away such as. Only 1 piano stays which is the main progression but he other pianos are eventually added in later, the main synths but some of them are removed such as the saw synth and also the drums and some of the violins are taken out of the equation and are added in later in the verse to add tension. !!!!! !!!!

The bridge section in this song is the main part where all the build up happens the instruments are stripped down to bare basics and then added in one by one to then transition into the final chorus. in both the bridge and verse there is a section of drum rolls which are a variation to the normal drums which can get a bit repetitive playing over and over so i varied them like I did with most of the instruments in this track.!!!

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Verse

Bridge

House Lupus & Bumfluff - E.P. Song 3!!Original Idea!So for my third E.P. Song I decided to make an experimental track using samples from one of my favourite television shows house. This Put me out of my comfort zone as i had to find samples on youtube and the box sets and cut them up into little snippets to be used in the track i had to isolate the speech and try my best to take out things like background noise and music. I had never done anything like this before so i didn't have much experience in making this genre of music and i thought that i would learn a lot more about this genre and what works and what doesnt.!!So I started to make the song and came up with a chord progression which worked. You can see this chord progression in the screenshot below. As you can see the progression starts on an A then moves to an G and then to a D. A rather simple but effective progression which was themed around the theme music of the programme house These chords start off the track and are played by a piano. This section of the track is called the Introduction and runs from bars 1 to 19, daily similar to the last set of songs which had short introductions but slightly different in that its 2 bars longer.!!!Like the first song I found this chord progression to be catchy but repetitive and i could of added more variation to it instead of relying on the melodies to variate the song. I used this progression to have somewhat of a representation of the programme but bc the House theme is in a different genre the progression maybe didn't fit as well as i had hoped. I also choose this chord progression bc i had some ideas for melodies before i made the progression so i wanted to make it around the melodies so that everything went and no clashes and everything in the song was musically correct.!!!I thought that the layout and structure of the song was good as i took influence from many popular pop songs with the two choruses, a bridge, then final chorus. The only thing i slightly altered was having 1 long verse instead of 2 verses i thought this worked well as in that one verse the build up was very sufficient and progressed the song on well.! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introduction !!In this songs introductions its sticking to the structure idea of having a short introduction and also again it uses a technique of building up the song before the chorus by thee addition of extra melodies and instruments. In this case however there are some speech clips from the TV show House which are being used to also help with this build up in the chorus as they start to be used around the 9 bar mark in the 19 bar long introduction. However there are no drums in this part of the song which is something i built up in the last song. !!!I believe that my improvements on my original progression are seen mostly in the introduction as you can clearly hear the melodies that go well with the progression played by the synths and violin. !I first recorded them in via a keyboard seeing what notes worked and didn't work and then i started to play around with the notes that did work by putting them in a sequence. Then i began to sort out octaves to put them in so that the song had some sort of dynamics to it. The Melodies in this song are based around the original idea and vary between the notes A,D and E. This can be seen in the image below. !!The arrangement of the introduction can also be seen to the right, in this particular song as it is in the dance genre the suspense and momentum of the track in my opinion needed to be well emphasised. I attempted to do this with the addition of synth in the introduction with synths that sound like they should be in the TV Show. This worked well and i was pleasantly surprised by the build up working well as !without the drums i original didn't think it would work but i tried experimenting with my original techniques and found a way in which it !worked !!!!!!!

Choruses!The choruses in this particular song start at bars 19 to 49 and 95 to 131. This is a significant change to all of the other EP tracks as this track due to the genres nature has a higher tempo around the 180BPM mark. This track has far longer choruses and some of these channels are added gradually into the song using one of the techniques i was talking about earlier which helps with the progression and drive of the track. !!In the pictures at the bottom you can see my drum patterns and you can see how ive adopted them to fit into this genre of music and how different they are from my previous patters. For instance the Hi-Hats are much more frequent in this track as it is somewhat drum and bass influenced which requires a higher tempo and generally more Hi-Hats and kicks etc. The Snare is set in the style of a simple beat and it hits on the 2 and 4th beat of every bar. The drum pattern to the right is the kick and is in a very similar style to the sabre drum but is on the the 1st and half way into the 3rd beat creating a nice sounding drum and bass pattern.!!Finally The vocals still continue in the chorus section and are used to populate the chorus and keep it entertaining and avoid it from getting boring so i used a wide array of samples from the show to help with that. !!!!!! !!!

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!!!Verses & Bridge!!in This track i thought as it is an experimental song that i could also experiment with the structure of the song so what i ended up doing was this. I made the verse section very long but inserted a drop type section instead of a bridge which lead tho the final chorus of the song and then there was a brief outr and then it ended. Different elements were added in and taken away such as. I decided to do this as a lot of songs in the drum and bass genre have different structures and layouts therefore i decided to try this and in my opinion it worked because of the comical sample i inserted in the drop which filled out the empty space.

Verse