DANIEL BEATTIE
Professional Music Brief 1
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This blog will outline my creative process in responding to the briefs set in the Professional Music Brief 1 Module and developing my personal portfolio.
Brief 1 - UNFCCC Glasgow Climate Change Conference 2021 (COP26) - It's Not Over Yet
The first stage in my creative response to the COP26 brief was to conduct research into the COP26 event and more specifically, The Paris Agreement, and event and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as a whole. The purpose of my research was to inform the creative direction of our project by utilising factual information pertaining to COP26. I sourced official COP26 data and collated statistics and key points which although not conveyed directly in the final outcome for the brief, "It's Not Over Yet", were instrumental in understanding COP26 and forming a creative response to the climate change crisis. (The Paris Agreement, 2021)
Once the research had been completed, the creative practical work for the brief began. I initially formed ideas which would serve as the basis for the compositions used in the final outcome. Initial group dicussions led to an agreement on the theme of the music being generally uplifting, as opposed to the more obvious doom and gloom themes of the climate change crisis.The aim of "It's Not Over Yet" was to show that there's still time to make a difference in terms of Climate Change and so I wanted my compositions to reflect this musicall. For that reason, the compositions are purposefully textural and dreamy, making use of spatial effects such as reverb and delay to emphasise those qualities. I hoped to use this hopeful sound in order for the listener to form an emotional connection to the music and the project. (Odena, 2012) The compositions also use 3/4 or Waltz timing. This proved quite problematic initially because Ableton is generally set up for 4/4 timing though I was able to work around this by using a triplet grid to sequence the compositions.
All of the composition was done using the Ableton Live 10 Digital Audio Workstation software. I use the software as it allows me a lot of flexibility in how I approach music production and audio engineering. Using Ableton Live, I was able to build up multi-layered compositions by playing and programming my parts into the sequencer. (What’s new in Live 11 | Ableton, 2021)
Ableton Live Project
I made use of traditional Scottish, Gaelic & Celtic instruments such as the Fiddle, Bodhran and Celtic Harp as
well as more traditional band sounds such as the electric guitar and drum kit. (Ross, 2021) Unfortunately I neither have access to these traditional instruments nor the training and ability to play they are programmed from samples using the Native Instruments Kontakt Sampler. The electric guitar parts however were all performed by myself. In some parts, I also used an EBow (Electronic Bow) to produce an infinite sustain effect. My use of the electric guitar and Ebow in the composition was inspired by the work of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. (Eno, Eno and Lanois, 2005)
Kontakt Sampler
Final Compositions
Final Brief 1 Submission - It's Not Over Yet
Brief 2 - Restorative Justice - Telescopic Murmur
When Brief 2 was being set, I immediately had the idea of doing a rap song with one of my classmates, Amar. Amar and I had been discussing collaborating and the brief provided a perfect opportunity for us to do that.
As rap is essentially poetry with music, I thought the concept would work well with the theme of Restorative Justice. Through Amar's lyrics and performance, we sought to look at how the cold nature of the Justice System can affect people, while still leaving room for the listener's own interpretation. (Hamad et al., 2020)
In line with our interpretation of the brief, I wanted the music and beats to feel mechanical but also musical. The melody was inspired by a sample which I pitched down and chopped to create a new melody from it. The heavily altered sample served as the melodic basis of the instrumental. I composed harmony and incidental parts as well as utilising sampling and creative effects processing for other elements of the instrumental. I made heavy use of Ableton's sequencer along with software synthesizer plugins such as Arturia Analog Lab to compose the instrumental. Analog Lab emulates vintaeg analogue synthesizers and keyboards such as the Mellotron, Roland Jupiter 8 and ARP 2600.
Ableton Live Project
Analog Lab
For this brief, I worked remotely for the most part. I composed and produced the instrumental from my home studio while Amar wrote the lyrics and vocal delivery from his home studio. We stayed in contact throughout however, demoing the song and giving eachother feedback throughout the song-writing process. Eventually we got to a demo version of the song we were both happy with and we used that as the basis for the final vocal recording which was done at UWS Ayr Campus Studio. During that session, I shared recording engineering duties with Jamie MacPherson and Arron Taylor while we recorded Amar's vocal performances of both songs of our Telescopic Murmur project.
Recording Session
Final Composition
Final Brief 2 Submission - Telescopic Murmur
Brief 3 - Charity Event - UWS Christmas Bash
For Brief 3, I was part of a group of 8 students tasked with creatively responding to the brief of planning and holding an event for a charity of our choice. We chose Drake Music Scotland to be our charity as their mission statement of aiming to "transform people’s lives through the power of music" resonated with us as Music students ourselves.
Our response to the brief took the form of a charity concert which was to be held in the UWS Student Union. As part of a smaller sub group with 2 other students, I was a live sound engineer. This involved assisting in planning how best to utilise the space, liasing with artists and handling the technical aspects of stage mangement and live sound mixing. The event was unfortunately cancelled due to the potential risk of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
Project Planning - Asana & Zoom
For all three briefs, I used the project management platform Asana to co-ordinate with the groups I was in and ensure that the projects were well organised, ran smoothly and that each member of the group was aware of their roles and could update the other group members with their progress. My groups also had regular meetings via Zoom to further plan, co-ordinate and delegate tasks.
Asana
References
Odena, O., 2012. Perspectives on musical creativity: where next?. [ebook] Glasgow: The University of Glasgow, p.206. Available at: <https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/76389/1/76389.pdf>
Ross, R., 2021. 10 Traditional Scottish Musical Instruments You Should Know About. [online] Loudbeats.org. Available at: <https://loudbeats.org/instruments/scottish-musical-instruments/>
Ableton.com. 2021. What’s new in Live 11 | Ableton. [online] Available at: <https://www.ableton.com/en/live/>
Hamad, R., Shapland, J., Kirkwood, S., Bisset, C. and Edginton, E., 2020. Designing and Implementing Restorative Justice in Scotland 2020. [ebook] Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh: School of Social and Political Science, p.2. Available at: <https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/assets/pdf/Restorative_Justice_Toolkit_121020-min.pdf>
Eno, B., Eno, R. and Lanois, D., 2005. Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno - Apollo - Atmospheres & Soundtracks - B1 - Silver Morning. [image] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAoZMdwauDo&list=PLGwE1ohMHeyIBZeUJtcgSp-fqmNwxnKWx&index=8>
Unfccc.int. 2021. The Paris Agreement. [online] Available at: <https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement>
Beattie, D., Chhina, A., MacPherson, J. and Sinead, E., 2021. It's Not Over Yet. [online] B00373730.wixsite.com. Available at: <https://b00373730.wixsite.com/itsnotoveryet?fbclid=IwAR1AX6HPUdH3ggA6hwjFyoQhYtNxSnKz98xlfbqB7Nrd9kBfZAiWqjIBzXs>
Beattie, D., Chhina, A., MacPherson, J. and Taylor, A., 2021. Telescopic Murmur. [online] B00373730.wixsite.com. Available at: <https://b00373730.wixsite.com/telescopicmurmur> .
