Critical Analysis
I performed 3 originals in the summer gig for my end of year project. I am comparing my work to India Arie, because I wanted to relate to an artist who performs vocally as well as instrumentally, and who is also part of the neo soul genre. I believe India Aries stage presence is more exciting and upbeat then my performances, because she has more experience and confidence. I am also still developing as an artist and need to improve on my performance skills . I believe I Lack the ability to be confident on stage which also affects the way I perform instrumentally. Most occasion I'm unable to perform to my full potential because I'm either nervous or not prepared to my fullest. I believe India Arie is more experienced on stage as well as on the guitar.
Overall Im not satisfied with my performance mainly because I allowed my nerves to control what I gave to the audience, which wasn't to my full potential. I believe that I am nowhere near India Arie as an artist because I have so much to develop and learn in music. I believe that my music relates more to the neo soul genre because I was able to incorporate certain factors from the genre within my music. I think I would like to relate my music to artist such as Lauryn Hill, Erykah badu and India Arie because I was influenced mainly on their songwriting techniques and instrumentation. I struggled with performing live vocally and instrumentally at the same time because my low self-esteem restricted me to do as good as I could. I would like to be more lively and confident on stage, as well as be more strong vocally, so I won't rely heavily on backing vocals. In the future I would include more instruments, improve the harmonise and change my playing techniques on the guitar. To develop my confidence I believe in future performances I should consider doing solo for certain songs, to boost my confidence and have more faith in myself.
I believe that India Arie improvises more with guitar, but on the other hand I restricted myself from doing that because I am not as skilled as her, as well as I am frightened that it wont be as successful. India vocally wasn't as strong to her full potential most likely because she was a little nervous. Her performance was more upbeat then mine because she was confident and the type of vibes she created with her music impressed the audience. I relied Alot on my backing vocals where as India was just used her voice and the guitar. I believe that I have the potential to be on the same level as India Arie, but right now I still have a lot to learn practically and theoretically.
Research
The key areas of my research are finding out the backstory, production and songwriting techniques of musicians in the neo soul genre. for my research methods I used primary and secondary research.
Primary Research
For my Primary research I decided to do a interview with people who witnessed my performance, and had also listened to my original songs before hand. I also wrote question on how I should improve in the future and their opinion of my overall performances and songs.
Secondary Research
My secondary research was based on artist that I was influenced throughout the whole project such as Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and India Arie. I wrote about their background, my opinion about their songwriting techniques, and how their music and first albums influenced me.
I have been able to include certain factors of my research into my music such as influential Poems, Songwriting techniques and instrumentation. The poem that influenced my original song African Queen was phenomenal woman by Maya Angelo. Overall the poem talks about how Maya Angelo embraces her female beauty, not only through her physical appearance, but through her knowledge and intelligence. I included those factors but instead of talking about women as a gender, I wrote about African females. I wanted to embrace African beauty and show how strong and powerful they are. Black woman have been degraded for centuries and still to this day, so I wanted to bring knowledge through my music, so others can learn to love themselves for who they are. Songs such as on & on By Erykah Badu, Doo Wop By Lauryn Hill and video By India Arie are my main influences for my the creation of my lyrics. My work has not been completed sufficiently because I wasn't able to organise as great as I should . I wanted to create an EP as well as create a band so I could perform it live, but there wasn't enough time to do both at the same time. I also wanted to experiment much more with my music but I wasn't able to do that because, I was frightened that I might over complicate things and fail to reach my goal. I believe that my research is good and I don't need to include anymore. The only thing is that I believe that I should have been more thorough with my research. I have learnt that I should include more instruments and be more confident in my practical as well as experimentation. I have also learn that I should organise my time better In the future.
Technical practical skills
Songs such as Video By India Arie and come to the light By Jill Scott, influenced guitar techniques I used such as plucking,Hammer on and strumming. Songs like Doo wop by Lauryn hill, Apple tree By Erykah badu and video By India Arie are my main influenced the creation of my lyrics. All these songs are similar in the sense that they all talk about something that is inspirational, or you are able learn from them. In the song Doo Wop By Lauryn Hill It talks about how women pretend to be something they are not, just to be accepted by men as well as in society. In my song free I talk about how I want somebody to love me no matter what anybody thinks. I also talk about how I want to be 'free like the air and see' because they are not judged by nothing and no one. In video By India Arie It talks about how women should embrace their inner beauty, and should love themselves no matter society thinks of them. In My song African Queen I tried to include similar factors but my song was about African women and how special they are not just physically but mentally. In my music the main word I wanted the audience to connect with was love, because I wanted to show how love can be powerful in different ways.
In the beginning of the course I wasn't able to perform in front of anyone and I used to hide behind the singers, because I didn't want nobody to see me. I believe my instrumental techniques and vocals have improved since the beginning of the course. I am also capable of playing and singing at the same time. I believe that my performance has greatly improved over the last year, but I believe there is still much progress to be made with my confidence and performance skills.
Project management/ working methods
I struggled with organisation, experimentation and Creating a structure with my band. My
organisation skills wasn't the best, as it was my first time structuring a band. I wasn't able to do much experimentation because I was frightened that if I spent too much time trying to change my music, it might not be as successful as I would want it to be. I believe that I completed what I wanted to include within my research, but I also believe I could researched deeper into the artist I chose. I believe that it was a constant rush to complete a large amount of work in a short amount of time, That is the reason why I decided not to create an EP while forming a band because I believed that the ending result wouldn't be as amazing as it should be. On a daily basis my band and I would perform and practice to make sure everything is up to scratch. we would also work out the issue as long as we could until we figured it out.
Collaboration
Amina Saasaa was the bass player of the group, Morgan Lundy was the drummer, Kessana Bryan and Sade Joseph were the backing vocals of the group. I did have more collaborators before but I had to drop i few people out, because they were not reliable or I had too many people. It was great a experience to collaborate with these people. It was also interesting how I could combine people with different views in music, and fuse their techniques with mine. With any group you will have disagreements, but we would always have a solutions for our issues.we would spend at least 10-15 minutes in the beginning of our practice time to ask people in our group what we need to change, and whether they feel comfortable with what they are doing
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