katleho-200078-blog

[katleho-200078-blog]

Overview - entry 7

Here is a picture of the files of my beats and also the pictures of the full layout and structure of all the three beats. This was a journey, and I’m proud for making beats that I’ve never really tried to make. This project has taught me that beats of all genres share the same characteristics, the making of melodies, sharing the same instruments sometimes and even the same sort of drums. They are the same stuff but every beat can make you feel a different way, and that is the same as us, we are all humans with arms and legs, but its what we do individually that makes us different.

[katleho-200078-blog]

Give way to your worst impulse - Entry 6

Give way to your worst impulse. - Entry 6

Last Week I worked on an R&B beat, It was successful if I do say so myself. I then started working on the indie beat. My worst impulse in this situation might be overthinking things, Always thinking I need to add more to make the beat more “perfect”. I spent the whole of Monday listening to Indie artists, both Indie and alternative indie. Being an over thinker resulted in me using a lot of instruments for this beat but then removing some. I listened artists such as, The neighborhood,No Vacation, Sales, Helado Negro, Claire and many more wonderful artists.

Tuesday is when I started thinking of the type of instruments that I would be using for the beat. I decided on using guitars because they are a very common instrument that I kept on hearing repeatedly in almost all the songs.

I used a piano. I Used a bass guitar inspired by the band “The Neighborhood” I especially love the way they use the bass guitar in the song “Sweater Weather”. A few other other Instruments like synths and drums. As usual I had to start with the melody first and I started with that on Wednesday, I made the melody and thought I was done and had the idea of carrying on with the rest on Thursday, but I woke on Thursday and had so many new ideas to add on top of the melody, so Thursday was a part 2 of Wednesday. Friday was the fun part, and the fun part for me is adding the drums, Indie has a simple drum pattern in it’s genre but I tried to make it a little bit more interesting but still keeping it interesting. Saturday was arranging the different sounds, basically constructing the beat.

[katleho-200078-blog]

Be Extravagant - Entry 5

Be extravagant - Entry 5

Last week I worked on Making a Lo-Fi instrumental. After working on that, it gave me the inspiration of working on a R&B beat, I treated the R&B beat totally different from the Lo-fi beat, instead of being simple, I ended being extravagant and going way over, using a lot of melodies and drums and effects. Working on the R&B beat was fun, early in the week from Monday to Wednesday I listened to a lot of R&B artist and also more alternative Rhythm and Blues artists. I spent Thursday working on a melody, I worked on all the melodies that were going to be in the beat. I went back to my church and went on the keyboard to lay down some chords so that I could take the chords and go home on my software and make it better.

After getting the chords I went back to FL Studio (The software ) and added more to the melody.

Friday consisted of me adding just a little bit more to the melodies, kind of like a counter melody. Saturday was adding the drums and merging the melody with the drums to make it a full song, drum patterns and melodies for an R&B instrumental are very much different, they use different step counts and many more. So trying to make a whole new genre directly after another genre is slightly difficult but this assignment has taught me how to challenge myself. This beat was my favorite.

[katleho-200078-blog]

Do we need holes? - Entry 4

Do we need holes? - Entry 4

I see this questions as, “Do we need to add more to the beat, to maybe make it sound a bit more full or is it full already?” The answer is no, we do not need any holes, with this Lo-Fi beat i made, after making it I looked at the themes and after reading this one I thought to myself maybe more will be a good idea, maybe I should add more instruments, but when you look at most of your favorite music, a lot of them are simple and so for this one, It felt right being simple. For my Lo-Fi beat I had to go to my church and use the instruments, I am not a pro when it comes to instruments but I can create something small, write down the chords and then go home on my software and make it sound more advanced based on the chords I wrote down. With this beat, I had the main melody be a piano. So I laid some chords down.

Usually I only need one instrument to get me going, usually being a piano. after that I went home copied the chords onto the software and made it more fancy.. Added 3 layers of soft guitars drenched in reverb to make it sound spacey and wide. I then added a flute, Kick, Shaker, Snare and Bass Guitar. Here is how it looks.

[katleho-200078-blog]

Abandon Normal Instruments - Entry 3

Abandon normal instruments - Entry 3

The theme abandon normal instruments sounds pretty self explanatory, however after reading this theme it started to mean something different to me. I felt like it was saying “Explore more, don’t just stick to what you are use to, try and jump out your comfort zone.” After reading this, I discovered that, Hip Hop might be too easy for this project, and not fun at all, so I have come to the conclusion that the genre or style of music that makes me feel, different, happy and in a safe place, is a combination, of Lo-fi, R&B and Indie. I have realized that music can’t entirely be boiled down to only one favorite genre or style of music. When you have only one genre that you focus on, you become very closed off from trying new things, music isn’t just sound, it is a way of life. Therefore if you can only be attracted to one style of music, you live a more basic, bland and simple life, liking only one style of music, means you aren’t adventurous, nor do you like taking the time to learn new things. That is why I was unable to just choose one specific genre of music that I would like to follow. I love many more genres and style of music, but I would have felt overcrowded with just so much if chose all. So I have come to the conclusion that the three instrumentals that I will be making, will be Lo-Fi, R&B and Indie.

[katleho-200078-blog]

Don’t be frightened to display your talents - Entry 2

Don’t be frightened to display your talents - Entry 2

After listening to most of the genres, I decided that it would be a good idea to base my 3 beats on the Hip Hop genre, I mentioned in week 1 that Hip Hop was my specialty and that is what this theme is based on, the theme being “Don’t be frightened to display your talents.” I worked on the Melody on Monday and Tuesday, the melody consisted of the chord progression, counter melodies, I had a second and third counter melody for different parts of he track to make it more interesting. Wednesday to Friday was me working on the drum pattern, I added a kick drum, snare, clap, hi-hats, congas and 808′s ( 808 is the bass, pronounced “eight o eight” ). My Hip Hop beat was based on Travis Scott, He is the person in the first picture that I posted on week 1. Travis Scott, much like “The Migos” and “SNOT” have a very dark emo Hip Hop/trap vibe, which is how I constructed my melodies. I wanted to make this beat dark but also vibey. For my next beat that I will be working on which will be next week, I might go for a Rae Sremmurd Hip Hop type beat. Rae Sremmurd make a lot of melodic styled Hip Hop beats, They kind of give me a dreamy vibe. Here is a picture of the Rae Sremmurd brothers.

[katleho-200078-blog]

Music For The Soul

Courage - Entry 1 I decided that this week I should listen to music that inspires me. For my creative project I decided that I will be making an album/ EP (depends on what you like to say). The album will contain three songs, I’m listening to songs this week from many different genres hoping to find one I like the most and I can replicate that style. You might be wondering why I named this week courage. I named this week courage because listening to other peoples music can make you feel very insecure about your own, and not only with music, other artists that create might at some point feel insecure about their work, might feel insignificant compared to others. What I want to say is that it is not true. Everyone starts somewhere, but you can not grow, unless you believe in yourself and have some courage. With that being said i will be looking at various genres that I’ve been listening to all my life such as, Hip Hop which is extremely big in my family and something I am already use to creating, R&B which I am not so use to creating, Indie, Indie is new for me, I only started listening to the genre this year but I love it, Pop, the beats I make are usually trap or Hip Hop but sometimes have a pop feel to them and many more other genres. I’m really excited to go down this journey and make something really great. 

These are artists that Inspire me: