#cpsaprocessbinder

[clarkprocessbinder-blog]

As I was working on my third song, I’ve started figuring out my true process for writing and creating melodies is starting with a theme/phrase idea and a chord pattern.

For this specific song, I wanted to emulate a very typical/chainsmoker sounding/pop/edm song! I feel like dance breaks have become synonymous with pop music. At the time I was thinking about this song, I was working on a paper about library anxiety in college students. This phrase, library anxiety, struck me, as it deals a lot with how I’ve been feeling recently. All of this work has made me stressful and anxious, and feeling these anxieties each week adds up. I also wanted this song to show the social norms of college life, including parties and having to talk and be sociable with everyone 24/7. This also, metaphorically, in a sense is library anxiety. I also work at McKeldin late nights from 2am-5am, so libraries and anxiety are all up in my mind.

I made the melody and lyrics last night at midnight, and my roommate was asleep, so in order to remember my ideas, I had to document them in the bathroom! this is the chorus where I say “Tomorrow I bet that I’ll have library anxiety,” meaning that tonight I’m willing to forget about my stresses in college and party but tomorrow morning I’ll remember that same stress of “library anxiety.” I think it’s really cool to talk about these personal feelings of my tiredness and stress this semester.

[clarkprocessbinder-blog]

Check-in

My project seems to be going well. I’ve had a really weird week mentally, but i’ve still found some time to work on my project. I’m currently finishing up my survey questionnaire about peoples’ music tastes and preferences, and I’m planning on sending it out via email and Google Form this coming weekend. 

The current survey is as follows:

Do you like listening to music?

Where do you usually listen to music?

streaming on a phone/computer

listening to a physical CD

listening to the radio in the car

I only listen to records… I pride myself in indulging in the finer things that life brings me.

I use music to… (check all that apply)

influence my mood (to make me sadder or happier)

help me focus on school/studying

have background noise

What kind of genres of music do you tend to listen to?

Pop

Rap/Hip-Hop

Electronica/Dance

Indie/Alternative

Rock

Classical

Other (Please list)

Do you tend to pay more attention to lyrics or the instrumental of a song?

lyrics

instrumental

beat

it depends what song I’m listening to

Do you like current pop music? (i.e. Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, Migos, Cardi B, Taylor Swift)

Yes

No

Think about a song you’ve listened to in the past week. What song stands out to you as memorable to you personally? (it can be anything! a song, an advertisement jingle, etc)

Why does this stand out to you?

it struck a chord with me

I thought it sounded cool

I like the lyrics of the song

I just heard this song a lot, and i began to really vibe with it

try no mc

Pick a song from this list of the most popular songs in the country (as of 2/4/18) that you personally enjoy

Perfect — Ed Sheeran

Havana — Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug

Rockstar — Post Malone feat. 21 Savage

Finesse — Bruno Mars & Cardi B

Bad at Love — Halsey

New Rules — Dua Lipa

Thunder — Imagine Dragons

No Limit — G-Eazy feat. Cardi B & A$AP Rocky

Too Good at Goodbyes — Sam Smith

I thought that these questions would help convey people’s music preferences, as well as what they deem “catchy.” I’m planning on dividing up these questions in two parts to elaborate more about preferences and trends I see from the first survey!

[clarkprocessbinder-blog]

Final Learning Agreement

CPSA 250: College Park Arts Scholars Capstone: Solo Project, Spring 2018

Name: Clark Mitchell

Email: clarkmitchell@me.com

Advisor: Harold

Weekly Meeting Time: WED 5pm

Purpose/Mission Statement:

I hope to learn more about writing and producing music, as well as how different factors of a song help contribute to a song’s overall “catchiness.” I plan on releasing a collection of songs that effectively capture different factors of catchiness.

Learning Objectives:

1. I will create a survey to learn more about people’s trends in regards to their own music listening.

2. After gathering survey data, I tend to categorize similarities in people’s music listening, including different factors of catchiness, like overall subject or the production of a song.

3. Learning more about overall factors that help create earworms, I will begin to conceptualize, write, and produce songs that will embody certain characteristics of catchy songs.

4. I will release, as well as promote the project online for people to listen and to enjoy, and analyze any findings for ArtsFest.

Workshop Process:

I want to begin this process by conceptualizing my own music-listening habits. For the past year, I’ve been using a website called last.fm to further track what I listen to, and what music I’m drawn to. I will develop two or more unbiased surveys that track people’s trends with music listening, as well as try to find out what kind of music and what kind of song characteristics they prefer. Having two surveys, instead of one survey, will allow for a more in-depth analysis of what people like when they listen to music. It’s somewhat hard for people to have a sense of what they find catchy in a song, and creating a follow-up survey will help specify further what kind of music catches. I will also research about the psychology of the earworm, and see if that plays any factors in what deems a song catchy. After I analyze what I have found in the surveys, I will begin writing and creating broad concepts for each song. I will self-produce and record every song. When the project feels complete to me, I will release the work online, as well as promote the collection online and offline. I will present this body of work through a presentation at ArtsFest that tracks any broad findings and for people to listen to the project.

Resources:

Last.FM/Spotify – tracks my own music listening

GoogleForm – documents survey findings

MS Excel – plan to use this to put in every single person’s music trends and to see broad trends and concepts

Garageband/Logic/Audacity  - music software to record and produce project

Soundcloud/Tumblr/Bandcamp – current websites to release music to the internet

Project Timeline:

JANUARY 2018 – APRIL 28 – CONCEPTUALIZE/WRITE/PRODUCE THE PROJECT. This project, to me, is breathing and living, and I personally do not want to hold myself to any deadlines. Since I started the proposal for this project, I have seen myself conceptualizing, writing at every step of the way; however, to make sure the project is finished to what I feel is complete by April 28, the following dates and deadlines will help benchmark what I feel will get this project ready by ArtsFest:

FEB 12 – Advising meeting with Harold

FEB 15 – Revise learning agreement, submit on ELMS

FEB 15 – Finish developing the first survey, release survey on Google Forms.

FEB 21/28 – present First Look at presentation during CPSA250, Wed 5pm

FEB 25 – Close survey, begin analyzing survey #1

FEB 25 – Develop survey #2 from survey #1’s results

MARCH 6 – Close Survey, begin analyzing second survey

MARCH 13 – Finish conceptualizing big picture themes for songs, start writing MARCH 14-APRIL – Advising meeting #2 with Harold

MARCH 20 – begin producing/recording

APRIL12/APRIL 19 – Present second look during CPSA250 APRIL 15 – Try to finish the project

APRIL 20 – Release project/finish any supplementary visuals for the project online

APRIL 26 – Finish ArtsFest exhibition setup, presentation, practice presentation

APRIL 28 - ArtsFest

MAY 2 – Project Pitch/Academic Showcase presentation “Dress Rehearsal,” during CPSA250

MAY 4 – Academic Showcase

MAY 9 – Final Advising meeting with Harold

[clarkprocessbinder-blog]

...

I decided to start this tumblr, focusing on my beginning inspirations for the kind of music I want to write and produce. I believe each of these pop songs have somehow done something that deviates from the norm. A huge part of this project is to test my limits in keeping a balance between art that is deemed conventional and unconventional. What can I do with 3 minutes and 30 seconds that no one has ever done before? Although my main intent is to see what parts of a song help the song itself “stick” in the listeners’ head, I personally want to try and gauge a good balance between conventional and unconventional.

(via https://open.spotify.com/user/127970926/playlist/2naagYSC7lVMGzEtQJpg9O?si=iexk8Lh5SniCDUHbU8jsqQ)