Today myself and Ryan improved upon the development to our research proposal before the regular weekly meeting’s with Dave on Fridays.

Our main focus today was to focus upon narrowing down our target audience for the EP. Further research for the first track was undertaken, developing the rudimental elements which we want to incorporate throughout a lot of the  recorded snare drum sections within the marching snare style format. We also took a brief look at the approaches in which would be taken in regards to promoting each section of the EP as an individual art piece rather than a collective collaboration. We felt that taking this element into consideration, it would increase the overall target market for the EP. By attempting to use a range of radio outputs, we feel that this will be the biggest source of media promotion, drawing attention for listeners to check out all supporting online material. Key radio stations including 6 Music, and Resonance FM are well known for playing a vast array of experimental music. These stations will provide a large audience who are familiar with types of music regularly played on the stations, and we feel that some of the tracks on the EP could draw interest to their listeners.

Alongside Ryan, I have been looking into examples and ideas for inspiration in both performance elements of the pieces and further techniques and mixing styles used for specific genres of music. Some of the links below have provided vital inspiration for the progression in the writing process of each track.

Track 1: As this piece is focusing upon marching snare elements and similar jungle rhythms, I have been able to take ideas and inspiration from both Textual and visual analysis. My main inspiration for the first track of the EP has been that rudimental book from drumming icon Buddy Rich. This book contains a variety of drum rudiments and snare rolls in a musically written format which can be practiced and performed to a click track or to backing tracks of music. Coming from a sight reading background, I have been able to relate to some of the featured rudiments within the book and combine the use techniques including various types of paradiddles, flams and ghosted notes to use within my performance aspects and elements of the first track. This has further helped in practicing technique and could count as the part of the pre production process for the EP.

 

Video’s on YouTube including that of the Drum Marine Corp have shown examples of how some of the rudiments demonstrated in the Buddy Rich book are used in practical manner. One video in particular of the Swiss Drum Corps demonstrated many of these rudiments performed in a effective manner and further reflected similar elements in which myself and Ryan are hoping to achieve with the first piece.

 

(Top Secret Drum Corps – Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJVdnMAGIt8

 

Track 2:  With this piece focusing upon sampled sounds I have conducted research into both production elements of sampling and retriggering drum sounds, combined with the playing styles of many drummers associated around the popular genres. Programs including that of Drumagog 5 and Steven Slate Trigger offer the option to retrigger selected drum sounds with a variety of different velocity sensitive samples which can be manually programmed into an electronic triggered drum set. Software including these programs will prove crucial to use throughout the second track of the EP, enabling the freedom to create custom drum sets out of digitally manipulated sound effects and open the option for the use of loops, samples and sections of acapella vocals.

As we will be combining drumming elements of four popular genres of music, I have drawn inspiration and interest from a variety of popular drummers, covering a range of genres including that of R’nB, D’n’B, and Dubstep styled genres. These genres can often combine the use of speed throughout various sections whilst maintaining the relaxed groove of the song. Two of the main drummers I took inspiration from included that of famous zildjian artist Arron Spears, famously known for many of his performances with Usher.

 

Aaron Spears – (Caught Up) Live at the Modern Drummer Festival 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtbWVfcZyJc

 

A further inspiration included that of later Pendulum drummer KJ Sawka, who often performs both with the band and stages solo appearances utilizing the use of sampling and DJ software throughout his performances.

KJ Sawka – Live at the Dub Land Underground 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbmeEO4NgZE

 

Track 3: I began to look into areas of research for the third EP piece focusing around a more street cultured aspect of drumming. As this piece will be performance based leaving little to manipulation in editing, my main inspirations included that of focusing upon the popular drumming theatre group stomp and that of both American and Brazilian based street drummers. This helped to gain an insight into what different object we may be able to use to achieve particular percussive sounds within this section of the EP

Stomp Live (Part 1) – Brooms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7aYQtIldg

The Stomp Musical Theatre Group

Street Drummers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_levPdO3zE – (Street Drummer with buckets for drums)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG1kgKJkf8c – (Best Street Bucket Drumming!)

 

All blog updates have been written throughout the course of the project development between Janurary and March 2013. Dates as follow:

 

04/01/13

Today myself and Ryan established the original basis of our idea for the second audio project of semester B. We established the idea to create a Percussion based EP based around a variety of different recording techniques and music styles for each track. For our next meeting, we have decided to set the task of researching into different drummers and playing techniques ready to begin developing our ideas for each piece and furthermore begin the planning of  development and project outcomes outcomes created from the completion of the EP.

07/01/13

Development into drumming ideas and foundations for the first track of the EP were established at our meeting. We decided that each piece should develop around a set theme and type of percussion performance style, progressing to different styles in each track flowing evenly throughout. The arrangements of the first piece were discussed, with the conclusion of a naturally recorded drumming performance being captured, based around rudimental styles of drumming similar to that heard within marine corp and marching snare styled drum performances.

08/01/13

Today I emailed module supervisor Dave McSherry with our initial project idea and furthermore to arrange our first meeting. After a meeting with Dave, the intentions of the project were set in a rough format.  From the feedback given, we decided to develop upon the meanings and purpose of the overall project needing more depth. We began to start developing ideas of tying the purpose of the project in regards to target audience and the way in which the final product would be broadcasted to the general public.

15/01/13

Myself and Ryan have began the first stages in preparation for the week four project presentation. The beginning elements of our project addendum have began to take place. Today we established an aim for the project, creating a four track EP focusing upon different elements of Lincoln culture. Although this original idea is very vague at this point in time, we both feel that the ideas for each track throughout the progression of the project will develop in a more detailed manner. The ideas for the first tracks have been established, with the first piece focusing on more natural processes of drum recording. The second piece will develop and change towards the use of electronic style drums, incorporating the use of samples and loops triggered by drum pads. Both of these pieces can demonstrate a change within technology and music culture throughout the years, inspired by elements of Lincoln city lifestyle. The third piece will focus upon a street culture associated with drumming. The aim of this piece is to show how many musicians and street buskers use different objects and items to create sounds within a percussive way. Ideas for a fourth piece are yet to be developed.

25/01/13

Today myself and Ryan continued researching into elements of drumming, drawing inspiration and ideas for development amongst a variety of different musical and percussive styles. Sources including that of internet magazines, drumming forums and drumming videos throughout online media including YouTube and Vimeo were used to help improve upon our original ideas for composition and rhythm development of the first two tracks. We had our second meeting with Dave, creating an establishment that target audience and reach will need to be taken into deeper consideration for the project. From this feedback, we decided to consider elements to incorporate within the project including combining the use of live performance elements into some of the tracks, in particular the street drumming track on the EP. We began looking into ways in which we could attract an audience from multiple media platforms including radio and online sources. From the research conducted, myself and Ryan came to the conclusion that an online would be the key effective basis for all elements of the project to be tied together, all on one easily accessible location. Furthermore the use of radio promotion including channels such as BBC radio 4 and other experimental radio stations such as Resonance FM may develop a way of promoting the project and developing an audience outreach prior to the EP’s release.