Literature review

The Editors of encyclopaedia Britnncia (10-19-2014) ERYKAH BADU AMERICAN SINGER SONGWRITER (online)

available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erykah-Badu (accessed 28/4/17)
 SU,MMARY
Overall this article explains how Erykah started in the music industry, her educational background,  where she came from, her first album and how she made an affect in the music industry. The Article explains that Badu didn't have much of a musical background, but on the other hand she had done  dance and theatre in college. She dropped out of college in 1993 to pursue her dream to become a famous musician. She ended up creating a band named Erykah free with her cousin, while working as a waitress and a drama teacher. In 1995 she had an opportunity with her band to open for D'angelo, which was able to catch Badu enough attention to get signed to a record label. In 1997 Erykah first single called On&On was released and gained a lot of popularity, a month later she had also released her first album called Baduizm which  reached number 2 on the billboard. The same year she had won 2 Grammy's, four soul train awards, and 2 NAACP image awards. Her second album Mamas Gun(2000) sold decently well because of singles such as bag lady. In 2003 her 3rd album worldwide  underground was released, it is a collection of songs that were said to be an  EP (extended play). In 2008 she released another album called  New Amerykah . Part One:4th World War which used a lot elements from the funk genre and also used a lot of conscious lyrics. A second part of the album was released in 2010 ( New Amerykah . Part two: Return of the Ankh) and it gained a lot of controversy for Erykah walking naked through Dealey plaza for won of her videos where president
John .F.Kennedy got shot. I was influenced by this article because it explained in small detail how she
had gradually made her way up the ranks through the music industry,  how she was influenced by
many old school artist, how she used elements from different genre to create her own sound and lastly how she includes conscious lyrics within her music.

LUX4RT(Published on 9th Oct 2016) Lauryn Hill available at : accessed 1/5/17)
SUMMARY 
This interview was based on the true understanding about Lauryn Hills debut album Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.  She talks when she was producing the album she didn't think it would make that much of an impact then what it actually did, as she said she was trying to express herself through her music . Hill was trying to find her unvidual voice, because I believe she was so used to relying on other group members to back her up, but as a solo artist you have to be more independent and rely more on yourself. Lauryn said that she was really excited to use other elements from different genre,  from old school songs Doo Wop,  harmonisation and contrast them together to make her own sound for the new generation. The reason why I was intrigued by this interview is because I was able understand the background more clearly from the artist perspective. I also wanted to understand the deeper message she tried to give out to society at the time. She wanted to embrace women hood and show the beauty, and power women are capable of having. That is why I wanted to relate some my songs with Hills first album.

by Editorial staff  (October 22nd 2013)  Summary and Analysis of phenomenal woman By Maya Angelo (online)  available at https://beamingnotes.com/2013/10/22/summary-analysis-phenomenal-woman-maya-angelou/ ( 7/6/17)

Summary
This article breaks the poem phenomenal woman into 4 stanza, and explains in deep detail the true  meanings of the poem. in the first stanza it explain that Maya begins with showing hatred upon  stereotypes. It gives a description of her not having the typical perfect body but she has still been successful in life. It explains that her secret is meant to be here confidence, posture, smile, and the she moves her hips. Maya explains that her body is an expression of womanliness. She finishes the first stanza with explaining she is a phenomenal woman. the word phenomenal is meant to describe her physical structure as well as personality.
Stanza 2: In the second stanza it talks about Maya explaining that she doesn't have much of a feminine features, but men fall for her like a swarm of bees. As she knows she is a phenomenal woman she embraces it everyday
Stanza:3 in the third stanza she says that men are still inspired by her, but she also says that her secret is not unique, is only exposed through her body movements and expressions. Her unresolved mystery makes her so intriguing to men, but Maya says she is a woman phenomenally.
Stanza 4: In the last stanza Maya tries to explain to her readers why she walks with her head held high. She also says she doesn't need to be loud to catch attention is only her body movements and expressions that make her phenomenal woman. This poem is influential to me because it gives a clear understanding that their is more to beauty than the physical appearance, and how you should embrace who you are as person because everyone is unique. I used certain elements from this poem to create one of my songs called African Queen. The song is based on uplifting coloured women and understanding how precious they are as people.


MangoldProject (published May 19 2017) Neo Soul Chords for Beginners: Simple Principles for Voicing Them (accessed 1/6/17)
It talks about how to create Neo soul chords. You must use either the 7th,  9th and 13th chords, also the chords are mainly clustered notes. You choose a scale and take only the 7th, 9th, 13th.  The rules of chord voicing are : You can move them up and down an octave, you can double any note an octave without changing the chord itself. Throughout the video gives examples of neo soul chords and how to create them.




LUX4RT ( published October 10th 2016) Lauryn Hill | Interview | Full  (accessed 1/6/17)

In this interview Lauryn Hill talk about the process and development of her first album. She also talks about about her band and what she was going through at the time of her producing Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Hill explains that you have to be independent an unique to stand out in the music industry. She talks about the messages of her music in deeper detail.  I believe that Lauryn Hill made a big affect within the Neo-Soul genre as well as the music industry,  so I think that its really important to understand her point of view and her mindset behind the creation of her albums.

fmp diary

Week 4: In this week I had to sort out the harmonies within my songs because they were out of tune. I also decided to include a bass in 2 of my songs which were African Queen and Free. I have sorted out my case study and literature, I am hoping to complete the rest of my course work.



Week 5: The majority of the week I practiced with my band and tried to improve faults in my songs before the concert.

Gig Evaluation

 First Gig

The first practice gig occurred on the 31st January in The 139 room. My band (soulfoul trigger) was the first to perform. We only performed one song which was our original called ( Need that kind of love). The pros of our performance is that the vocal harmonies where on point in the beginning of the song, and the Bass, drums and piano where on point. The cons where that our synth player (samarth) was out of time throughout the piece, Kessana was too quiet when she sang, I sounded to strain when I sang, and we didn't show any sign that we either excitement or enjoyment to the audience. Band 2 where  entertaining to watch, one of their songs where (One dance by drake) which was  the only issue I had with their performance was some of the singers where out of tune other than that it was a great performance. 

Actual Gig
The gig occurred on the 14th April at 6:30, The first performance was done by Sugar puff fairy band and the songs they performed where wicked game, one dance and never forget. Overall their performance was extremely good, my favourite song out of 3 is one dance because they where able to make it their own which sounded unique. The last performance was my band (soulful trigger) we did have a few technical difficulties and the mini brief was out of tune but we still carried on with the performance. overall our performance was decent it could have been better. The pros and cons of our performance as a band is that we did have more communication then our previous practice gig and we seemed more alive and energetic on stage. The negative side of our performance is that samarth was not able to hear himself out of tune on the mini brief (synth) and also out of time with the rest of the band,vocally I wasn't as good as the previous performance because I allowed my nerves to overpower my performance. I think overall our concert was the best out of all the other concerts we have done.
  

listening analysis

Whitney Houston was extremely flat, out of tune and tone deaf. She was attempting to hit the high notes by straining her voice, which sounded so awful. It seemed as if she was shouting instead of actually singing. In the first clip it is showing a comparison of how good she was before, but even in that clip she made a slight mistake by hitting the wrong note near the end.


Mariah Carey is distinctively out of tune and very flat, neither is she attempting to sing the correct notes. she is also out Breath and is forcing herself to sing Mariah also had so many voice cracks. it seems that she has damaged her voice over the years with the way she sings.


 If you forward the song to (2:40) the microphone suddenly turns off due to technical difficulties, but before that incident occurred she did sound strained in certain areas.


Track1
In the first track the audio error was the drums its sounded very distorted.To fix the error I would either redo the drums or I would repeat listening to the track again and remove the unwanted sounds that's not needed.

Track2
You can hear the metronome ticking which is used to help the guitar be on time. There is also a few pauses between the vocal and guitar. I would remove the metronome out of the song.

Track3
The first error in this track is that you can hear coughing and unwanted sounds within the audio. I would either redo the recording and try and make less noise, or I would just edit out the noise. The main vocals are not panned out properly and you can only hear from the right side. The vocals are not very clear either. I would make the vocals much more clearer and let the vocals be panned in both ears. The vocals in the second verse are muffled and are out o tune. I would re-sing and possibly use auto tune to improve the vocals. There is a guitar riff which is out of time with the other instruments. I would redo the guitar riff so it doesn't sound out of time. There is a moment when the vocalist stutter causing delays, it seems that the vocalist had forgotten the lyrics. I would make sure that they either have lyrics with them or they know it well. At the end of the song there is a pop sound. I would remove that as its not needed in the song and it doesn't correct.
 

Film

 FILM




The clip overall is a journey going from London to New York and how Unique NewYork is as a city. As the song went on It had a gradual increase in volume which was beneficial for me, as I wanted a dramatic effect. I began with a slow motion clip and then gradually include different fast clips until the beginning of the verse. I wanted to show different activities, shops and food you could experience in New York to keep the audience more interested. Near the end of the song I included clips such as :  a rainy day, clouds and me walking to symbolize the end of the journey. The clouds define me going in a airplane to go home, The rain defines the miserable the weather I will encounter when I get back to London, and walking clip define how long draining the journey ahead will be.

Solo/ Rehearsal Diary

week1

my group focused mostly on figuring out the riff chord and the lyrics. We also working out what to do for the cover, we have decided to choose the song Cranes in the sky by Solange. Our rehearsal didn't show any weakness because we were all improvising so we did not need to plan before. We also figured out what type of genre and storyline we wanted for our original. We have decided to include the Mini Brute in our original song. For my Solo performance I have decided to do a cover on Just like a star by (Corinne Bailey Rae. The chords a simple so I have decided to include different plucking techniques to make it sound like my own. I know the chords very so I'm trying what type of technique I want to include.

Week 2
We started performing the cover we have chosen Cranes In The Sky, and we have also began on our lyrics for our original song . There wasn't any weakness within the group as everyone was fully prepared for the class. we have also decided the type of genre we want to relate to is Neo-Soul. We have included the VT3 (voice transformer) within our original song.  For my solo I have included another which is written by a youtuber named Leah Suh, the song is called What if .


Week 3
We have changed the cover as we thought it was too difficult and a few uncomfortable performing their parts within the cover. The new cover we have chosen to do now is called pink matter by Frank Ocean. We have sorted out our first original song we just need to include more technology into it. In my solo performance I have include another song called lost without you by (Robin Thicke). I have decided I use the verses from Just Like A Star and What If and I will use certain parts of lost without you as the repetitive chorus. 


Week 4
we have created a new orginal song named do you know and we have completed both he 1st original song and cover, the only thing we have to do is include more technology and enhance it to make it sound better and unique. It took sometime to get everything connected and by the time we had completed that we only had a small amount to actually

Week 5
 As a group we were rethinking to include Cranes in the sky Solange our previous cover, but again we did struggle with the tempo and he drumming pattern. We have change the Pre chorus of our 1st original song. we are trying to include more harmonies within or 2nd original. we went through all our songs today and everyone was fully prepared. for my 2nd solo song I have chosen Aint No Sunshine by Bill Withers.

Week 6
 we performed only the original to out class and we received written feedback.

Week 7
Performed all The songs still need to work on the harmonies, we have included a guitar solo for Reece in our 1st original song. went through all the songs today. Solo performance practicing all the songs and using different plucking techniques.

PERFRMANCE PLAN PRODUCTION/ CHLOE RESEARCH

EQUIPMENT

VT3:designed for the same instant gratification as its predecessor authentic‑sounding robotic vocals or a passable imitation of Stephen Hawking, look no further than Roland's VT3.is a Voice Transformer, which can transform and modulate the sound of a human voice, by connecting a microphone and sliding and turning knobs on the machine Marco is using the vt3 n our first original song.

MiniBrute:MiniBrute is a monophonic, pure analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Arturia, a French synthesizer software and hardware company that uses modern technology to increase its depth of its sound. The synthesizer uses a single. Samarth uses this synth in all of our songs except our cover of pink matter Frank ocean.

Overdrive WAH:
The WAH overdrive is an audio signal processor that is used to enhance electric instruments by increasing the gain. Distortion is mainly used for electric guitars  but can also used for different electric instruments. Guitarists that play electric blues generally use an overdriven sound by increasing the guitar amplifiers to high volume. Reece is using this overdrive with all our songs.

TECH SPEC






Who Is my Artist inspiration?
There are countless of artist who have inspired me over the years through music, but my top 3 artist who have been my icons are; Bob Marely, NAO and Erykah Badu. I wasn't able choose one artist because every artist I have mentioned has distinctively effected me as a person and as a musician. For example Bob Marely is well known for promoting human rights, historical factors and metaphoric meanings within his music. He is also one of the found makers of the Reggae genre. As a musician he has greatly motivated me to create music that has a meaningful, storyline that everyone can relate to and learn from. Erykah Badu Is very Unique in the way she performs and creates music, hence why she is well known because she is different. she is also a Neo-Soul artist which is the main genre I would like to relate more with. Both Marely and Erykah promote African awareness and African beauty within music, which is something I would like to do in the future.

NAO Uses a large amount of technology to define and create her music. She uses Auto-tune and voice transformers to make her voice have a eccentric sound to it. Her music seems to be a combination of soul, electronic music, R&B and funk, but she likes to call her music 'Wonky Funk'. The reason why she is an inspiration to me is because she combines different types of genre together to create her own type of music. I wouldn't like to be in one type genre because after while you will restrict yourself from exploring and creating new things within music. I believe she motivates me to think outside of the box.



Chloe/Context Research
SAMPLING
. Sampling within music is the use of sound recordings that have already been created before.
. Sampling developed by experimental artist using loops or vinyl records and manipulated it.
. The Hip-Hop genre was the first popular genre to manipulate and experiment with turn tables and vinyl records.
.Sampling is not only experimenting with pre-existing music, it can also be your own recordings of everyday sounds.
. recreating a previous song is also sampling.

MPC (music production controller)
. MPC's are electric musical instruments that were design by Roger Lynn.
. It began as a powefull drum machine but now has the ability to sample sound recordings and apply MIDI instruments.
. artist that use MPC within their music: KT Tunstall, Sergio Flores, Tricky Stewart, Mike Phillips, DJ Wasabi, and DâM-FunK etc


Daft Punk
 Daft punk are a French duo that formed in 1993 by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They gained a large amount of popularity during the late 90s and were also part of French house movement. Within their music they use elements from genres such as; funk, House music, Techno, Disco, Rock music and more. Daft punk live setup uses ;  Ableton live software which are controlled with Behringer BCR2000 midi controllers. Moogs which are used to distort samples, trigger loops, filter, EQ in and out and destroy and deconstruct synth line. Studio equipment  that daft punk use: Roland S-760, Roland TR909, Universal \Audio Apollo Quad firewire, Neve 88R Mixing, AKG D MkII professional kick drum microphone and mnay more.


In this video Ed Sheeran loops both his vocals as well as the guitar, creating layers throughout the song. This technique is useful, because you don't have to rely heavily on backing vocalist and instrumental players when performing live.