week 9 and 10: SET TASK 4
for todays session we got given another brief. our brief was to get into groups and write a song for another artists which is a song pitch so we are writing a song specifically for a recording artist (artist must have been in uk/us top 10 chart in the last 5 years).
for this task, we were put into groups and i was with brandan, tyler and ellie. we went into a practise room and then listed our skills. we had me and brandan on lyrics, toppling and vocal harmony and then ellie and tyler worked on the instrumental which was piano and bass. with our skills put together, the artist we decided to write for is lewis capaldi. he usually has slow pop ballads in a verse, prechorus, chorus, verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, chorus structure. the piano part is usually quite understated with the main vocals the focus. his lyrics are normally based around love or being left alone.
me and brandan used the shared note feature again to collaborate and write our lyrics. we started by deciding the theme of the song which was someone not loving us when we want them to. we both had pre made lyrics which fit this theme so we merged and shuffled them around to fit into a song! this process was fast and enjoyable; me and brandan work well together!
lyrics: when was it that you fell out of love w me was it the last time you walked down my street
maybe if you were honest in the first place you would be stood right here next to me
i couldn’t see a chance of change wanted to clear my name & do it all over again i now have myself to blame
i don’t know how do you always know when it’s finally time to let go
was the love you gave me real? was it only just for show?
i couldn’t see a chance of change wanted to clear my name & do it all over again i now have myself to blame
so can you tell me? did you get me? did you see me? did you love me?
(final chorus) i couldn’t see a chance of change wanted to clear my name & do it all again i now have myself to blame that you don’t feel the same
while we were doing that, ellie and tyler were coming up with some chords. we needed to fit that timing together but after we had that sorted, me and brandan got to work thinking of a melody. funnily enough and and brandan sang the same melody at the same time without even singing it beforehand to each other which made us laugh but made the melody writing easy. at the end of the first session, we had the lyrics, chords and verse melody down, we just needed to work on the prechorus, chorus and bridge!
we then came into our next rehearsal ellie was ill so couldn’t make it in! we got the chords that she had created but felt like it didn’t fit to the song so i went into the piano and came up with new chords! the new chords are: verse: bm, d, g x2 prechorus: bm, d ,bm, a, d, g, bm, a chorus: bm, a, d, g x2 bridge: g,bm, a
the new chords meant the chorus needed an extra 3 lines to it in order for to to fit better so brandan quickly added this! couldn’t see a chance of change wanted to clear my name & do it all over again i now have myself to blame no longer feel the same i think i’m going insane
with the new chords, i got to work trying to come up with a melody. i struggled to play and sing at the same time and also the chorus didn’t seem to fit so we asked josh to be a session musician for us. he happily said yes and when he got into the room i managed to have the melody sorted so it was all about putting it together and running it through. after running it through a couple of times, we decided to have 2 rounds of the bridge slow and then have the next 2 bigger which gave the song more depth.
overall, this song isn’t my favourite song i have written but there are elements to it that i love and has taught me a lot. i have learnt how to work effectively within a group and how to overcome challenges when things don’t come to plan. i learnt to step up and push myself out of my comfort zone by playing the piano. i also learnt its okay to ask for help with certain things such as asking for josh to play the piano for me. i personally love the chorus and bridge part of the song, i think it definitely captures a pop feel to it. while this song doesn’t appear to be tailored to lewis capaldi, it has given more of a shawn mendes vibe which still fits the brief. after listening to some of shawn’s songs, we came to the realisation he structures his bridges similarly to ours! he often repeats the bridge 4 times with the last two louder which is what we did here!
if i could do anything differently, i would change the melody of the verses. i don’t think they were developed enough and in the recording i was out of tune due to the fact it was out of my range. while the song is in the range for a male singer, i couldn’t sing it properly which makes the demo sound off! however, i am proud that i was pushed out of my comfort zone and helped my group push through when things didn’t go to plan.
https://soundcloud.com/anya-smith-458839725/song-for-an-artist-song-final/s-F5KG2FwMJck?si=37592e70e6614a14a24ab31e95a86041
-25/11/21 + 02/12/21
