Making Sense Of It All

So September has arrived and I have so many things to put into place. I have tried my damnedest to get finished tracks in place with feedback on all of these, but in reality only one has been publicly aired, and although feedback has been on the whole positive, the track isn't typical of the processes I have put in place. Of course this is useful in that I have something to test my typical process against, but I have no other finished products against which to make comparisons. This in turn provokes further examination of the processes - why do I not have product? Many reasons spring to mind: session musician availability, attempting to produce too many tracks at once, experimenting with methods etc. I am still pushing forward and hoping to have some more finished tracks within the week. I have a backing vocals session with Shaz Stacey tomorrow but then I have a number of mixes to complete and not enough mix engineers! Anyway...

Lots of evidence of how this has all come together (almost!) is now within my grasp, so I have begun to collate and analyse it. I have annotated my progress notes and research notes and next I will read through my highly entertaining blog posts and project proposal and begin to put everything into perspective.

Some things I have learned about myself:

1) I am not a mix engineer!

2) I can create songs I like from disparate ideas and form an overall creative vision for them!

3) I can be unproductive when trying to juggle too many things.

4) I have started to delegate effectively but need to do more.

I will also need to decide on my final academic approach. I can put together a method for collaborative writing and production as per my proposal, and can observe and reflect on features of collaborative writing as set out by Dr. Joe Bennett (stimulus, consensus etc.) I can analyse my songs in terms of structure, harmony, lyrical content etc. against those I analysed when doing initial research for this project, but I still have loads of practical work to do as well as the academic stuff.

Some tasks to get straight onto:

1) Backing vocals session tomorrow to give myself some nice rounded sessions to complete!

2) Record drums and mix Controversial - Make plan!

3) Final Mix for That Thing on Wednesday - book room!

4) Hassle session singer to complete Mamacita for mix.

Further Tasks:

1) 1000 Ways To Want You - Mix

2) You Got Me - Mix

3) Get more feedback and pursue current reviewers

4) Get feedback from those involved in the process (questionaire)

5) Sort website and look at business going forward (including drawing up writing agreements and getting on a publishers books)

So it continues... it is late now and my brain has given up on me....expect heavy blogging for the next 2 weeks!