Approaching this project was tricky for me as I have never recorded my own music before. As I said in one of my first posts, listening has been a big part of my research and was my first point of call for getting going. It has enabled me to pinpoint the sounds I’m interested in. My creative vision was to produce an EP similar in style to Lara Somogyi’s work but keeping in mind my other musical influences. But how have I gone about developing this project?
Well, I think my main process in finding my sound has just been experimenting with my harp and pedals. Throughout this year, I have just booked practice rooms when I have felt in the mood to be creative and improvised on simple chord progressions. I usually play with my pedals to find sounds I like and improvise with melodic lines, minimalist rhythmic patterns and extended techniques on the harp such as percussive taps and thumps on the soundboard, xylophonic plucks and harmonics.
A method I tried for getting work done was to dedicate time in my calendar to think about this project. Before this I was constantly thinking about ideas for my project throughout my day. I hoped that having set times to think about my project would help me clear my head. However, I found that I never stuck to my designated times and found it was suffocating my creative thoughts. I eventually turned to noting down my ideas in my notebook.
A big part of this process has been journaling. My sister has a textiles and design business and released notebooks at the start of my project. I thought it would be handy to have one for my project so I bought one from her. I started using it in December to jot down ideas about my recordings. I now bring my diary with me everywhere and write down ideas when I feel inspired and as soon as I have them, it has been a big part of capturing the development of this project. Here are some things I write about:
Project ideas
General thoughts about how the project is going
Details about recordings incl. compositional elements and technology
To do lists
Supervision notes
Part of my creative process has been considering the meaning of my EP. I tried to initially base it off a particular environment such as elements of my home in Wales. However, I feel that it was forcing an idea into this project and it needed to happen naturally. I have come to the conclusion that I want people to reflect and think within themselves and also create their own interpretations of my music much like the music of Brian Eno. So far the meaning of my EP for me is that I have gained more confidence in my musical abilities and I hope this continues.
Check out my sister’s website to see the notebook I use and her other designs: https://www.charlottemariedesigns.co.uk/
Comments