Mash Up: A Review
‘Redhead redemption: Ed
Sheeran (Kaplan, I. 2011) interview was the reason why I got inspired to write
my own song, but after many attempts of trying to write a song I decided to
look at making a mash up. All popular tunes, regardless of
genre, are based on chord progressions. Even if a song consists mostly of
single-note riffs or an acapella vocal line (chords and overall harmony are
still implied or alluded to by the melody. Understanding chords, and the way
they relate to each other, is pretty much the foundation of all pop
songwriting. (Scharfglass, 2014) When choosing a song I looked at one of my
favorite songs by the ‘Animals’- house of the rising sun. I looked at their
chord progression and chose another 2 songs that fit the same chord progression.
My final choices were:
Animals- House of the rinsing sun
Noisettes- Don’t upset the rhythm
Mackelmore- Thirftshop
I figured out
the chords on piano and guitar and started to piece the songs together, making
sure the transitions between songs flowed nicely together and everything fitted
well. The chords that I found worked with all 3 songs were
G#m B C# D#-4
G#m B C# D#-8
G#m B C# E G#m B D#
G#m B C# E G#m D# G#m D#
I played alongside Aston (Male vocalist) whilst he
played the chords on guitar. I found it really difficult to sing whist playing
so when I was editing the song I sang over it as if it was a backing track and
then editing it in to fit the tempo and timing.
I thought my
song was really well thought out, I thought my process leading up to creating
the song was very strong, as I had done a lot of research and made sure I could
properly make up a song just from chord progressions.
When playing my song to the audience I found that the
quality after editing it was really poor and it made the song sound very weak.
In the past I have never really sang before which
meant when I was singing to the track I was really nervous and didn’t project
my voice. Playing it back to the audience I found myself to have gotten a
little embarrassed because I don’t like the fact of listening to the sound of
my voice, I found that when I was sat as an audience member listening to my
song it didn’t match up to my expectations, especially the quality. My process
and my research was really strong behind the song but I feel as though I could
have done better when it came to editing and piecing the song together.
The reaction from the audience made me feel slightly
more comfortable as everyone is aware that I’m not very confident in singing,
because I got the reaction I did I feel as though I should have tried a lot
more harder to make my voice sound better by researching more techniques and
practicing more vocally.
If I could have done it next time round I would
research more into my voice and look at techniques and training to help my
voice get better, maybe even take up a few vocal lessons just to ensure that I
improve. (vocalist, 2001)
Overall I feel as though I have done well to create a
mash up of songs using the chord progressions but there is still a lot of room
for improvement with my vocals and editing ability.
References:
The write stuff: Chord
progression to get you started (no date) available at: http://www.guitarworld.com/node/19542
(accessed: 2 June 2015)
Kaplan.I. (No date) Redhead
redemption Ed Sheeran. Available at http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/ed-sheeran
(Accessed: 2 June 2015)
Vocalist.org.uk (No Date)
Breathing, Pitch, Fitness, Posture- Vocal Exercises for singers at vocalist.
Available at http://www.vocalist.org.uk/exercises.html
(Accessed: 2 June 2015)
