Sacha Smith @sachasmithh - Tumblr Blog

MD6322 - An Evaluation of Your Professional Development During The Process:

Overall looking back at this process, I feel I have learnt a lot in the sense of my professional development. I have managed to create a sustainable and well thought out project, that I am proud of. I also think it is important that I chose something I have a passion in and something I care about, as I could see myself going through with a project like this and be happy working for something like this. My knowledge in market research and the sustainable development goals have improved massively, and it has made me realise how important these goals are in day-to-day life. I find it cool that I can relate my project to sustainable goals, and it makes me feel more professional knowing more information about them.

It has also been nice to be able to pick out what my skills are and identify them as what makes me who I am and what I am good at. I will be taking what I have learnt from this project and from this module and be applying what I know onto my next tasks and projects, and hopefully I can do it with more confidence. To improve my idea for next time I would try and come up with some more ideas as to how I can make my idea sound more unique and less like it’s just another idea like all the other ones.

#MD6322

MD6322 - Business Model Canvas Sketches:

The following 'Business Model Canvas' plan shows my ideas on how MUSICALLING will work within the music education sector.

Key Partners:

Gloucestershire Schools Partnership – as they are in alliance of 39 primary schools in Gloucester

The Cheltenham Education Partnership – they are a partnership with secondary schools, local organisations and charities.

Key Resources:

Access to schools

Access to musical equipment and instruments

Music Tutors/Teachers

Key Activities:

Private music lessons with your preferred musical instrument

Value Propositions:

Help bring as many students into music as possible

Give students the opportunities to get involved in music and discover passions

Make every student feel equal

Anti-discrimination

Customer Relationship:

Email – For any enquiries

Website – For information and again any enquiries

Social media – To keep up to date with any recent news

Channels:

Social media – Instagram, facebook, website

Posters around schools

Customer Segments:

Students that are interested in free music lessons

Upcoming musicians

Cost Structure:

Buying any equipment if needed

Costs on promoting – Posters, cards, promoting social media

Paying the private tutors for their time

Travelling – tutors travelling to and from schools

Revenue Streams:

Funding – Money I receive to help fund paying the private tutors

Income – Money I might receive from schools that want to use our organisation

Social media following

Donations – Anyone that wants to donate to the organisation

#MD6322

MD6322 - Enterprise Reference Points and Relation To My Project, Initial Market Research and Evolving Ideas:

I did a lot of research on the sustainable goals that I chose to fit my project around, but I also researched what was like my project idea out on the internet, seeing if I can get any inspiration, but also just to see if my idea what actually out there already and what makes my idea different.

It's hoped the programme will make music education fairer across Wales, with a focus on learners from low-income households and under-repres

^ Funding into music education has trebled by the Welsh government.

A new and free music resource aims to help teachers overcome a lack of time, budget and specialist knowledge when planning lessons.

^ Classroom 200 has been launched by the music education charity and Royal schools of music.

Donate your unwanted musical instruments so that new students can start learning and playing at our academy.

^ You can donate instruments on this website; however, I want to create one so that its only for school purposes only.

It was interesting doing research on the topic I have chosen, as it has clearly had kind of done before, so it was interesting gaining more knowledge on my project idea. I didn’t realise before researching that there was already an idea to have a music bank that gets instruments donated to them, but I do want my idea just to be for school purposes only. I just want to make sure my project idea is slightly different; however, I do think mine is a bit different as I would want to provide private 1v1 music lessons so the students can feel more progress.

#MD6322

MD6322 - The Sequence of Creative Development:

For my project I wanted to make sure I really researched around ideas I could possibly make a project around. I was originally researching around the climate action and life on land and below water, to see what has been affecting these goals. I was looking at music festivals and looking at how bad they are for the planet and environment. So, I was thinking of creating my own festival plan that would make way less effect on the environment. As it would be very important to educate people on not supporting environmentally friendly festivals. I came up with a few ideas of how I could make a festival a little more environmentally friendly, for example using rainwater for all the toilets at the festival instead of using fresh water just for toilets, it’s a waste of water.

I was also looking into my other idea which would be how I could come up with an idea on how to create some form of education to be assessable to all students regardless of their backgrounds. I think it’s so important to make sure everyone feels included when it comes to education, and especially when it comes to school as people can feel picked on if they stand out in any way. Therefore, I decided on the idea of creating free music lessons to students who might be financially disadvantaged and couldn’t afford private lessons outside of school. And to also create a music bank, which means to set up a place that public can donate their old or unwanted musical instruments so that we could provide the students their own second-hand instrument if they wanted one. By creating this idea, it means more students get the chance to be exposed to music and music instruments, giving them the opportunity to potentially discovering a passion of theirs.

#MD6322

MD6322 - Initial plans and ideas:

Initially I had a couple ideas for this project, as I have a few passions. Looking at the sustainable goals I was thinking about creating a project around Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land as these are super important to me when researching these topics and seeing some of the things that really effects the planet. And then I also wanted to create a project around Quality Education and Reduced Inequalities. As equal education is also a passion of mine as I think it’s so important that everyone gets the same education opportunities.

#MD6322

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Links

Beacons:

https://beacons.ai/sachasmith

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

@__dakota__

TikToks:

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7090571343342734597?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7093615613439970565?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7094187215806287109?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7094413769476017413?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7095695504767552773?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7096213178551389445?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

https://www.tiktok.com/@__dakota__/video/7105154645680540933?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7105206809069569541

One Drive Folder to TikTok's:

https://connectglosac-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/s1805723_glos_ac_uk/Eh6u05L_o0VJliWigOT8P-IBSQPLgs-BonAE0d9rsKtYmQ?e=ar1PUv

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Overall Update

Overall, it has been fun doing this project, there has been a lot of setbacks but overall I have enjoyed getting involved with this project. The TikTok I have created for this I actually think I might carry on, outside of the module, therefore it will be less pressure and hopefully I will care less about what people will think.

I ended up only creating TikTok's as that's what felt right to do at this moment, I still want to create sound cloud demos and do a mixtape with other students but I think I will start by doing that in my spare time so I feel less pressure and panic.

The TikTok's I have created are ones that I really enjoyed singing to, it was interesting because I thought there would be loads of TikTok duets to choose from, but there actually isn't, I felt really limited to what I had to choose from, so I tried to find ones that were good and that I wanted to sing to.

I’m happy I stuck to my theme in the end because when I look at my page as a whole I think it looks really cool with the consistent LED lights in every video.

Like this:

I also went for the simple bio of “Just for fun:)”, I thought this was cute instead of writing something like “For a uni project”.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Struggles and Drawbacks

This module and project has actually been a massive challenge for me, I don't like being in the public eye or being centre of attention, even though sometimes it might look like I want to be. I have really pushed myself out of my comfort zone as I never would have dreamed I’d make a TikTok with my face on it and singing. I know I haven't used my real name, but anyone that would come across my TikTok that knows me, would recognise me straight away. This has been something that has played on my mind the whole time during this project, what other think and what they have to say about it.

I know that is a bad mind set to have, but it is difficult to not think like that especially when I have voluntarily put myself out there. I think me thinking this way has really held me back in the project, as I feel I don't want something on social media that I’m not perfectly happy with. Therefore this has been a drawback as for my TikTok’s I feel I could have posted a lot more I just wasn't happy with them, making me not want to post them as I was scared of other peoples opinions. So this has really set me back from posting more, which has therefore also set me back from pushing me even further out of my comfort zone. I feel like if I posted a TikTok that I thought wasn’t good enough, there could have been people out there that did find it good enough, therefore I shouldn't have been worrying so much.

Growing up I wasn't allowed social media until I was 16, which is really late these days, and I got bullied for not having it all throughout my school years, so when I eventually got social media at 16 I realised that I hadn't actually been missing out on anything as it is a very toxic and hateful environment to display yourself on. So since then I have been private on Instagram and therefore never thought I would make a public TikTok for everyone to see. So in that sense I am proud of myself for not only displaying myself on TikTok but also my singing.

Even though this project has been super daunting, I feel as if I have learnt a lot and it has been a great experience.

Consistency Struggles

Choosing the theme with only using LED’s in the background has also set me back a lot, as I have to wait until my room id dark to film, which means normally all my housemates were in bed, and then I felt like I had to sing quieter which also wasn't good. It also meant that when I went home I couldn't film then either as I was also now OCD about my feed should look and I didn't want a video not to match my feed. So I had to wait 3 weeks when I went home for easter to film again back at uni. So next time if I did this I wouldn't choose such a hard theme to keep up with as it was probably hindered me more than it has helped.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Updates

As for updates I have created some TikTok duets with my new theme I wanted to create, and I think it looks good having a consistent theme throughout, here are a few examples of what it looks like:

This is the first TikTok I've posted, and as you can see if has not been massively popular, but it still has 60 views which is better than nothing.

And this one is the second TikTok I've posted and it has done really well, its got 806 views, 97 likes and 3 comments, this has really shocked me, especially for it being my second only TikTok I have posted so far, so I reckon this video reached the For You page for a lot of people, which actually used to terrify me but now I’m actually really excited! super cool!

I just love the LED’s in the background of the videos I think it gives an original twist onto my videos.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5320

Presentation Pitch

In this session we had to pitch our project idea over to the class and Gary, with what we've come up with and what we are getting up to. Here is what my presentation looked like:

I think from making this I realised what theme/vibe I wanted to go for, in my drafts I had videos that were just filmed randomly at different times in random places but I think I decided to make them more consistent with a theme that viewers would enjoy. So in my branding slide I have a picture of LED lights, and I have some in my room so I think this will now be my theme, singing with the LED’s in the background.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Teams Call / Brand Idea

This week I had a teams meeting with Gary to discuss my ideas and what I was thinking and what he was thinking, it was actually really helpful as it clarified a lot of things. Once I told him about my TikTok duets idea he also agreed it would be a good idea, he suggested filming it in different locations to see how the sound changes, and I suggested a church would be a good place as it would have great acoustic’s. I then told him what name I was thinking of and brand etc and he liked it,

I had a couple videos in my drafts, but I hadn’t posted them yet as I wasn’t 100% sure on them. But I think after having a chat I realise what vibe I wanted to go for.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Brand Values

This is all about who we are as a brand and what branding we would like for being a creator.

We also came up with some values we think we have and don’t have and this was quite an interesting task:

For the actual branding I started off with what my logo/name would look like. And I went with the name ‘DAKOTA’ as that is my middle name and I think it looks pretty for a brand name.

Above you can see I was trying different fonts but I preferred this one the best as its wide, thin letters and nicely spaced out.

As you can see all my branding above, I love the logo I came up with as its simple get catching to the eye, and I also liked hoe I didn't use my first name, which I like as it'll give me a bit of privacy. I also picked my colour scheme of what I’d like to achieve on the platform of my choice which in my case is TikTok, I think those are my colours as an artist. I like where my brand is going it looks cute and very me.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Project Ideas

This week was more about us more into detail, to look at creators branding and ideas they do to create content. We then had to get up our lists we created the other week and try and come up with some projects that we could do based on what we like to do and what our hobbies are etc.

So, some ideas I came up with were:

TikTok duets

TikTok duets I think is my number 1 project idea, as I have always wanted to create TikTok duets just always been too scared to, as I don’t like showing my face publicly like that. I think I am also just scared of people I know from back home seeing my TikTok as they won’t know it’s for a uni project, and that scares me I don’t know why. I shouldn’t care what other people think but I think it is just a little nerve-wracking.

Teach people riffs on YouTube

As I love vocal riffs and runs so much, this could also be a potential idea as it means I get to practise my riffs but also get to try and teach other people, so this could be interesting.

ASMR music therapy session

ASMR is huge on TikTok at the moment, so I thought I could always jump on the bandwagon and create music therapy sessions by using ASMR, I think this could be popular as people love ASMR and love feeling relaxed.

TikTok series on learning something – guitar?

This is also quite a cool idea, to do a TikTok series on how to learn something, this could be anything however I think that is it pretty cool that I am actually trying to learn the guitar at the moment, so while I’m trying to learn, I could film it and see what the interaction is like.

it was good to go through some ideas so that I can get brainstorming on what idea I like the most.

#MD5325

Making Music In The Creator Economy - MD5325

Investigating The Creator Economy

Today’s session we investigated what the creator economy is and how people use it to help them achieve the goals they want and to be known more across different platforms.

Some examples that we looked at were, Pink Pantheress, Yoga with Adrianne, and other different platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Twitch and Instagram.

There are a lot of creators that rely on just social media which I personally think is risky, as something could go wrong or the platform, they are using could accidently delete crucial content. Imagine having a million followers and then waking up one day and they were all gone because of glitch the platform had or something, it’s just crazy.

On the other hand, social media is crazy for that reason as it is mad that you could upload loads of TikTok’s, but you only need 1 to go viral to help you build bigger platform. TikTok is very random and sometimes it just doesn’t work, meaning just no one is seeing your videos as they aren’t getting shown anywhere or not the FYP, or the algorithm could help you out and post a random video of yours on someone’s For You Page (FYP), and from there it could blow up.

We also had to write a list of things we were interested in just in general life, so this is mine:

Singing

Trying to learn new riffs and runs

Learning Guitar

YouTube

TikTok

Covers

Music Therapy

Beauty and massage therapy

Teaching

House parent at summer school

Barista job part time

Gym

Netball

#MD5325

Music Performance - MD5320

Task 7 - Final Performance Manifesto

Our final performance I think portrayed everything we wanted it to within us as a band. You can really see in the video that it looks much more put together and we look as one as a band.

Our final stage set up was Josh in the middle on the piano and us 4 vocalists around him with 2 on each side. We as vocalists were sat on high stools while Josh was on a lower seat at the piano. I think this worked really well with our vision as we got to look down at josh playing piano, but it also meant we had a clearer view of each other, because we were tilted in slightly it gave off the more intimate vibe.

I made sure this time the visuals suited the 3 songs, what with only having the picture at the beginning only shown for about 5 seconds and then it fading into the clouds, last time I edited it so that the colours changed every 3 loops of the clouds, but I decided this time it needed to change more frequently so I decided to edit the colour every loop of the clouds, not necessarily change colour drastically but just subtle enough that it blends in nicely with the next loop.

The clouds represented feeling calm and relaxed which we think suited us best, it was for our audience to connect with our music and find peace as we sang. The lighting we had for our stage also matched our visuals which was good and tied it all in together. We also made sure it was more lit up so that the audience could see us clearly and therefore could connect with our faces and stage presence.

Another performance I got inspired by is ‘Summer Walker, Usher – Session 32/Come Thru (Live)’. In her performance she also sits on a stool and has a big screen behind her which is also clouds. She has pink ambient lighting on the stage and on her but outside of the stage it is black, she has created an intimate stage and that is also what we wanted to achieve.

From previously struggling with sound difficulties, sound checks and not hearing ourselves properly. We made sure for our final performance we got a proper soundcheck and that we could hear our vocals in the PA, what we struggled with last time was that we couldn’t hear each other’s vocals as the piano was too loud in the PA, and its crucial for not only singers but for when we are singing 4 harmonies as we need to make sure we can concentrate on our own harmonies so it sounds perfect.

Overall, I’m super happy with our final performance I think it went really well and I can visibly see how far we have come as a band. I think we have finally found our musical identity and who we are vocally and who we are vocally within a band.

Here is our final performance:

https://youtu.be/GrwQicy76EI

#MD5320

Music Performance - MD5320

Task 6 - Developed Performance

Completing this performance felt like a massive sigh of relief, I felt like this performance was 10x better than our last. Everything just felt much more together what with our songs, our stage presence, our confidence, and our stage design. I felt less awkward and more confident with what I was singing and how confident we then felt as a group. I think the group didn’t expect it to go so well so because of that it gave us a huge confidence boost and from that we then knew we could smash it the next time.

For our final performance I think we will work on our harmonies so we have them on lock, which will hopefully give us even more confidence. I will also adjust the visuals so they will fit 3 songs and it looks perfect.

Here is our performance:

(The audio didn’t work for our video until 4 minutes 30 seconds)

https://youtu.be/aSHCVDFTgpI

Here is the feedback we received:

“This was a successful performance that was well-rehearsed and planned. It is clear you have developed ideas and techniques throughout the module and it is good to witness the engagement with previous feedback.

The vocal performances were all very good and well supported with the piano. The level of confidence is evident, and the group worked well together. The harmonies have been well designed and help create a sense of timbral progression and audience engagement.

Aesthetically this was a step in the right direction with all performers visible and a sense of balance across the stage. This helps to increase the stage presence, audience engagement and sense of confidence. The 2 level approach with high singers and low pianist could be developed or balanced further, more space on stage could help this and although impractical for this performance it could be worth moving the drum kit for the final performance.

The use of visuals was also good, providing a textural bed without detracting from the presence on stage.”

#MD5320

Music Performance - MD5320

Task 5 - Set List and Stage Plot

The feedback we got from our last performance was:

Liked the aesthetic clouds, maybe change the image

Change who’s singing maybe 2 people sing at the same time not just 1 or all.

Have different clouds and change faster

Be confident

Have a dance routine?

Write tech sheet and send it with time to spare

Does your group have a name?

Do you have a dress code?

Change visuals for each performance

Different singing techniques, try a capella?

Experiment with 2 harmonies at time or in unison?

After our last performance we got this feedback back which is above, we wanted to change what our next performance will be like so we really took it on us to improve and change as many things as we could.

I took on board the visuals feedback as I knew I was in charge of that, so Anya helped me and she came up with adding a group picture at the start of the visuals which would fade out into the cloud visuals, we have a cute group photo that I then put on the start of the visual as I think it looked cute and it showed the audience who we were as a band. I also changed the colour effects on more clips so it would look like it was changing more than just every now and then. I think this works well and ties it in together a bit more.

We also all agreed we needed to change the staging as we didn’t think us standing at the front gave off our vibe as standing only looking at the audience didn’t seem very intimate so we wanted to change this, and we figured out a way that it would seem more intimate as a performance and how we had sung together as a group. So as you can see below we changed it so that josh was in the middle this time and not on the side, and us 4 vocalists where on either side of josh, 2 on each side. We felt like this would work better as then it felt more like a band formation, it would also mean us as vocalists would be able to look at each other while we sang.

We also agreed that we would change our dress code into something that looked more in unison, so we agreed we’d dress in all black. I think having such a simple dress code makes a massive difference and will make us all more confident.

For the feedback for the songs, we wanted to change those as well, so for ‘I built a wall’ we wanted to change this so that we were more involved and it wasn’t just people singing 1 at a time, so for the verses we made those into duets. So, Anya and Rose sung the first verse, then me and Brandan sung the second verse, Anya and Brandan on the third verse and then me and Rose on the fourth verse. We think this is a great idea as we felt like the song felt more as one and better for a group. We also decided to cut the bridge as because it was only Anya singing it, it didn’t really feel like it fit the song, so we got rid of it, and we think it improved the song.

And for ‘couldn’t see a chance of change’ this also got changed a lot as Anya added 2 more harmonies, she added a lower harmony that Rose ended up taking and then she made another that was slightly different to how its normally sung. We also agreed that instead of signing separately again we should try get more people singing at the same time, so while me, Rose and Brandan sing our lines, Anya harmonises on top which sounds really good. In our feedback it also mentions we should try a capella, so it was suggested that we should start the song with an a capella chorus, which switches it up and makes it different. So this also worked really well.

#MD5320

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