Proposed Brief Essays Example

The creative aim of this project is to record, edit, and produce a CD of original music, performed by my band. For these goals to be met, a schedule of activities to be completed, and a list of group, or band member responsibilities, was generated. Following this guide step-by-step would ensure a successful completion of the final project, in a total of 19 weeks. The following outline was created to support both progress, and professionalism during the production and release of the Album, titled “TITLE OF YOUR ALBUM HERE”.
The band included six players, including: Lead singer, Manos Tirokomakis, Bassist, George Mantas, Drumer, Teo Makris, Guitarist, John Leopol, and myself, Christos Mavridis as pianist and sound designer. The band was comprised of session player, who came in from Athens, Greece to record the songs I had composed, and so, I took the lead role as sound engineer, recording, mixing and mastering the final tracks. I also took the lead in terms of management, creating the time scale for the project, organizing PR, and scheduling the band when appropriate.
The first major milestone for the project, or the tasks that need completed in week one and two of the project, included setting the release date and track guide for the album. It was essential that we know, going into the project, how long we had to lay and edit the tracks, and how many tracks needed to be completed in order to successfully complete the project on time. This included deciding what format to record songs in. These must, specifically, be completed before beginning to schedule any recording time, or PR opportunities.
Next, we will turn to PR, and pre-recording activities. These tasks must be completed in week three and four of the project. This will include booking recording sessions, completing pre-production work, finding an artist, and deciding the PR images which will double as CD artwork, confirm PR, and listing industry targets for release. These tasks must be completed before recording begins, in order to ensure that all the planning for the production and successful release of CD are completed.
Recording the album is perhaps the most important single milestone in the process, but will be completed very rapidly. All recording sessions will be scheduled for, and completed, during week four and five of the project.
In week five, we will begin both actively promoting the album and continuing work in the recording studio. Promotion of the album will include both traditional PR and plugging, and the multiple strategies must be coordinated, and finalized. This will also include confirming tour dates for the tour to follow the album’s release, and setting live performance dates and locations. The release of the album will require a tour. The tour will, more specifically, be fix on during the project’s sixth week, with all the details regarding the cities, the hour, and the dates of performance. These details need to be completed, or mostly completed before receiving the final mixes back from the study, and reviewing the masters, in week six.
After all the album is recorded, is sent to be mastered the press will be informed that the band will release a CD soon, launching the publicity plan for the album. This will happen, during the eighth week, and marks the project’s half way point. The last 10 weeks of the project will focus on completing promotion and distribution of the finished album including service press tours, meeting with radio targets, advancing copies to industry targets, engaging in live dates around the release, and arranging pre-orders and early sales. Culminating in the final release of the album in week 19.

Minor Song

Generally, the piece titled, Minor Song is written in G minor. As a formal analysis, the song is a musical progression created from eight bars of introduction, formed from a long melodic phrase of four bars of guitar-solo, followed by another long melodic phrase of four bars of guitar and percussion duet. This introduction is immediately followed by, the first incidence of the eight bar chorus. The chorus leads into the eight bars of first verse, another eight bars of chorus, then eight bars for the second verse and then another eight bars for the last chorus and a short tale of four bars, like a coda for the whole melody. The lyrics serve as a request to see the world from others person’s point of view, a better world, where all the rules can be broken, where there is peace and souls are free.
Considered more critically, Minor Song is a song about both invitation and longing, so the song opens with a set of independently repeated chords, played on the guitar alone, and a pulsating percussion to create a truly pulse-like rhythm reminiscent of a heartbeat.
For a lot of the song, only the guitar and percussion play together, and then as the song builds towards its climax, the volume and intensity are increased by allowing additional instruments to join the chorus, so that the instrumental accompaniment matches the escalation in the fervor of the lyrics, and the vocal melodic line.
It was important to me, from a songwriting perspective, to ensure that the lyric and the text really fit together. When writing this song, I first composed the opening four bars, and then worked to construct the melody as I authored the lyrics. This builds a clear relationship with the two. Chords, which were used to build the harmony, and the rhythmic dynamics of the percussion were added later, to complete the piece.
In terms of basic mechanics, the song has a four bar introduction, and an eight bar chorus, that uses two repeating bards to create a pattern for the two short phrases of dialogue. These are then grouped together to build longer melodic phrases, and to really extend the vocal line. The chorus, more specifically, relies on a preponderant conjunct melodic notation, with only two leaps. The chorus continues directly with the first verse formed from a long melodic phrase of four bars of melody, and then another long melodic phrase of four bars of speaking text, with a lot of distortion, and a continual obsessive bass line formed from three ascending notes, ending the first verse with a long outburst.
After the bridge, which uses only instrumental accompaniment to carry the theme, the chorus is repeated again for emotional effect. After the third chorus is played, the piece ends with a short coda, where the use of electronic enhancement, which varies significantly from the rest of the melodic structure, or instrumental accompaniment, stands as a symbol of finality, or a lover leaving.

Short Time Living

The second song I would select as a “single” from this album, with a very traditional rock sound, was Short Time Living. This piece starts with a four bar introduction that is traditional, in that it uses the same chord progressions, and baseline percussion that have been used by many of the rock greats. In that, and in the overall stylization of the vocals, my songwriting style was one that mimicked the artists of the 90s in the United States, like Coldplay, and paired it with lyrics that held deep personal meaning for me.
The melodic pattern of the chorus is divided in two long melodic phrases, identically on the melody, maybe with just some small adjustment of eights, to fit with the lyrics. The whole length of the chorus is eight bars, being a dynamic and dancing chorus, different from the verse, providing with a lot of energy due to the change of the rhythm at the percussion section, and played in a louder dynamic then the rest. This creates a focus, or emphasis on the text of the chorus’s lyrics.
In a detailed analysis, the two long melodic phrases of the chorus are also divided in two short phrases each. The first short phrase contains a fusion between conjunct and disjunct melodic motion, however, in the second short phrases only the conjunct melodic motion is presented. This makes it easier for the vocalist to sing the melodic line, as it creates a step by step vocal progression in the melody.
After the end of the chorus, an instrumental rift is presented, for only four bars. On the forth bar, which serves as a preparatory phrase to the second verse, the percussion increases in intensity, creating a bridge between the instrumental part and the verse, and allowing the second verse to serve as a kind of musical climax.
The four bars from the second verse are identic, regarding the melodic line and the instruments used, but the next two bars, that here are shorter because the first verse contains only four bars. This differentiation is significant, interesting, and creates a more unique total piece. It also allows for presentation of a completely different harmony, generating a big change in the melodic line
I started with the lyrics in this case, individually written like a poem, and then used inspiration from various influences, as mentioned before, to create a familiar, but completely new, melodic line. After constructing the basic melodic line, I started to create the vertical line, including details like the instrumental chords and the vocal harmony, and the percussive and dynamic texture.

Medusa’s Crime

Medusa’s crime is written in a fundamentally different genre than the other pieces on the album, using an alternative rock sound, with a grunge edge, to deliver a lyric that is really a lash out against unrequited love, or a personal “Medusa” figure. However, the song carries a strong techno inspiration, and a dance-song beat, despite its use of minor melodic trends, and grunge fundamentals in order to create a passionate and angry pieces.
This piece has an introduction of eight bars, of pure instrumental melody. The introduction is divided in two distinct parts, represented by a primary four bars followed by a contrasting second four bars. The first long melodic phrase employs a heavy electronic sound that increases the overall intensity of the track, leading into the vocals. More specifically, the first two bars are percussionless, while the second two bars depend on a heavily pounded out rhythm, that sets the song’s angry dynamic. When the vocal lyrics first begin, the lead singer remains barely above a whisper, but the band uses the full instrumental selection, and pairs their dynamic playing with a frenetic pulsation from the percussion and a huge dynamic from strings to create a matched intensity with the quiet passion of the vocalist. This builds to nearly a scream as the song pulses towards its climax, delivering all the angst, hurt, and anger possible in the short track, while maintaining the danceable qualities.
The specific songwriting techniques used in this song focused on the melody and the timbre utilized. The different changes in the songs construction, offers the song a range of sonorities that are in a continuous changing to alter the intensity of the track and increase the sense of a musical idea or melody. The way in which the chorus is divided in two, by only changing the voice and adding resting sings, and use of voice in whisper, gives the piece a new interpretation and intensity, without a significant variation in the melodic line.