I've Moved!

Well not in real life, but digitally. You can find all my new content and blog posts at my new website davidwoodwardmusic.com .

Resonate Album is Live!

After a great deal of hard work, the Resonate album is live on all major music platforms! Check out the following links to hear it for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTGTNWFA4sg&list=PL7Qz7WSgiydh-PIPbI-HgrsHx1tqB8MT5

davidwoodwardmusic.com

Realizations (WR 26)

Originally, it had been my goal to write and produce five songs for my final product. After careful thought and discussions with my mentor, we have decided that it will be best to stick to four songs. Heres why; The main reason is that it is much better to have four amazing songs, then five 'okay' songs. My mentor Jonathan said that in todays music world, people would much rather a fewer song album with all of the songs being outstanding. This can be seen in many successful artists nowadays. A lot of artists are releasing shorter 5-6 song albums with each song being very high quality. This tied into a factor of time lead me to make the designs to only produce 4 songs and spend my remaining time perfecting the songs I have and also working on the two videos and marketing the album.

FPN (WR 25)

The countdown for the days left until final presentation night (FPN) has been posted in the ISM classroom this week. As of Friday, there was 37 days. That means it is crunch time to get everything ready and prepared for FPN, the most important night of ISM. Final product has to be finished, I have to prepare my 45-60 min presentation, invitations need to be created and sent out, and so much more needs to get done for that night to be a success. This past week, I worked on creating the design for my invitation and started writing the introduction to my presentation. For the invitation, I decided to get a little creative and create a little record with a sleeve (seen below). I think this will work out very well and be a great way to invite people to my presentation. This weekend I plan on creating the invitations and distributing them.

Party (WR 24)

Every mentor visit is a chance to learn and explore new ideas. Each visit I am continually learning and getting better at my craft thanks to the guidance and wisdom of my mentor. This past mentor visit, the first thing Jonathan had me do was listen to Beethoven's 5th symphony. At first I didn’t see how listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony was relevant or would help me with music production. Then the more we listened and talked about it I saw how important it and vital it is for a producer to understand classical music.
This past visit, we talked about how music should be like a party. A party with many people all in their own groups about the house. Each group is talking and having their own conversations, talking about various different things. Then you, the listener, walks into the party. At first everyone stops to greet you, then they go about their normal conversations. You then walk around hearing bits of every conversation. This is exactly how music should be, except with instruments instead of people. The piece starts with a main theme, then breaks out into many different musical ‘conversations’ between the different instruments as you the listener walk around and hear different bits of each conversation. All the while each conversation is going on you just hear the closest one the clearest. When Jonathan said this, it all made sense to me. Just like a mix, there is multiple things going on and when you want to introduce a new idea, the other ideas shouldn’t stop but should keep going lower in the mix. Similar to a party, when you exit one conversation it doesn’t just end, but just gets softer and replaced by the new conversation.

Looking Forward (WR 23)

There is a month and a half left until FPN (final presentation night). To some, this is a reality check but to me this is a checkmark. I feel good about the position Im in. In regards to my final product, I have almost 4/5 songs complete. This means I just have one and a half songs to complete. Technically, I am a little behind on the calendar I created but this is fine because I built in extra time to compensate. I am learning that with creative projects, they often take longer then expected because of how the creative process works. This is also something my mentor warned me about earlier in the year so I feel prepared. All in all, things a going great I just need to spend some time on the project and it will be complete very soon. "Rome wasn't built in a day"

"Break" (WR 22)

This past week I was fortunate enough to have the entire week off of school for spring break. This was a great opportunity for me because it allowed me time to get a lot of stuff done and be very productive. Even though it was spring break, it was hardly a "break" for me. Every day I was productive and I spent a great deal of much needed time working on ISM related things. The first couple days I spent working in my home studio on my album. I got a lot of great songwriting, production, and mixing done. I even started working on the 4th song (out of 5). Then on Wednesday, I got the chance to spend the entire day working at C - Factory with Christian Chavarria, an associate of my mentor, recording and producing one of his up and coming artists. This was a great experience and I got to meet/hangout with some really cool people. Then on Friday, I once again went up to C - Factory to meet with my mentor. We worked on some of my projects, talked, and I also got to sit in on a session with one of his clients. Overall, it was a great week and I got a lot of much needed stuff done.

Progress (WR 21)

Ambitious goals yield great results, but only after you put a lot of time and hard work forth. This year I have set a goal to write, record, and produce my own album/ep. For me this is a very ambitious and I know that if I waste any time, I will not get it done. That is why I am currently working very hard and spending most of my available time working on it. I play to produce a total of 5 songs and I am just finishing the 3rd. This is very encouraging to me because when I first started I thought there was no way I would finish. Now I am seeing tangible results and real progress. All I need to do now is keep up the pace Im going at and with a little help from my mentor I should be right on track to finishing on time.

Home (WR 20)

This past Friday I went on my 5th mentor visit of the year. Every time I go on a visit I am learning and experiencing many new things and ideas. This is especially true for my most previous visit. We talked and discussed many topics, but two main ideas stuck out to me. The first idea we talked about was the concept of a countermelody. The second takeaway I had was the idea of ‘home’ within a song.
The first big thin Jonathan explained to me is the importance of having a countermelody. To put it in context, we were working on one of my songs and there was a long guitar solo. He said that while the solo was good, there should be some things added to support it so the listener does not get board. Jonathan had a really good analogy to illustrate this. He said the guitar or main melody should be like the road of a road trip. Most of the time you are focusing on the road, but every now and then you look off for a moment to see a mountain or lake. The counter melody is the mountain/lake. Its something that distracts the listener for a moment but doesn't take away from the road.
The second takeaway I had was the idea of having a ‘home’ in a song. Jonathan said that every song should have a solid home, but the song should have a good amount of time away from home so that when you return to home, it truly feels like home. He said its just like a real home, your home doesn't feel special until you have spent time away from it. Like when you go on vacation, and then return to home it really feels special to be home. In a song, Jonathan explained that you can achieve this by having parts of the song that feel unusual so that when you return to that home, it feels special and has a greater emotional impact.

Final Product Calendar (WR 19)

One assignment that was due this week was the final product proposal and calendar. The proposal is simply an overview of what my final product will be and the calendar is the schedule of dates of when each segment of the final product needs to be completed. When I was completing the calendar, I had a couple of eye openers. The first and most important is that I do not have as much time as I thought I had. I initially thought, "I have plenty of time, its not due until the end of the year" which is partly true. The project is due at the end of the year, but that is only about 2 months away. I now know that if I want to complete this album (my final product), I need to start ramping up the amount of time I spend working on it. This means putting my other projects on hold for a few months and focusing on this album. Another thing I realized from completing the calendar is that planning ahead is very crucial. For example, I want to have physical copies of my album at FPN (final presentation night). For this to happen though, I have to have the album complete and sent off a couple of weeks prior to make the copies and get it published.

Original Work (WR 18)

This past Friday, the Original work project was due. For this project, I had to do primary research and write a report summarizing my findings. I decided to conduct an online survey asking people about their musical preferences and how/why they like to listen to music. I then gathered the 130 results and looked for correlations and links between different factors. I ended up finding some important links, some of winch even surprised me. Once I had looked over all of the data, I then wrote an assessment about my findings. Along with the assessment, I created numerous graphs to aid the assessment and give the reader a deeper understanding about the data and the correlations between the data. Besides a few printing issues, the project went really good and I learned a lot about how/why people listen to music. Now the reason I decided to conduct this survey was to better prepare me for my final product (album). I now know a lot about what people prefer in a song, what kind of music videos they like, how most people listen to music, etc.

Mentor Visit 2 (WR 17)

On Monday January 19th, I went on my second mentor visit. I met up with Jonathan at his studio in Dallas. When I arrived, Jonathan told me that today we would be working on a project for one of his clients. It was a latin/pop song and our task for the day was to record acoustic guitar. We started by setting up the mics and line checking the patches. Jonathan showed me so much that I did not know before like how to position the mics, what mics to use, how to get good levels, etc. He then grabbed his guitar and went to the live room and I got to run the studio. I was in charge of recording him play. One really valuable thing I learned was how to operate ‘punch-in recording’. Punch-in recording is basically starting recording the channel after the session is playing. I did not know how to do this prior, but I now do and will be using it a lot because of how handy it is.

While we were working, Jonathan mentioned that he would be out of town for the next two weeks because he is going to NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants). This is really cool to me because I've always wanted to go to NAMM and now I personally know someone that has gone, Jonathan even played at NAMM last year.

Research Survey (WR 16)

For part of my original work, I decided to do some research on what peoples music preferences are. I set up an online survey of 12 questions. The goal of the survey is to find out exactly how people listen to music, and why they listen to music. I asked questions such as, "What platform do you most frequently listen to music on?" or "What device do you most frequently listen to music on?" to find out specifically how most people listen to music. I also asked questions as to why people listen to music. An example would be "In a song, what is the most important to you?". I also asked some questions about how/why people follow bands/artists on social media.

Now all this information is great, but how does it help me? This information is going to help me gather real life information, and apply the results to my planned album release at the end of the year. For example, I am planning on making a music video for one of the songs on the album. I had no idea what kind of video to make, so I asked "In a music video, what is the most important to you?" and most people have been saying that they would rather see a storyline related to the song. This is just one example of how I am going to use the data and there will surly be many more uses for it.

Mentor (WR 15)

Over the break a lot of exciting things happened to me in regards to ISM. The biggest being that Jonathen Camacho from C-Factory Productions said yes to being my mentor! Jonathen is one of the best music producers in Dallas and I am very excited to get to work with him all year. He produces all kinds of music ranging from latin, pop, rock, and so much more. You can read more about Jonathen and C-Factory here (http://christianchavarria.wix.com/c-factoryproductions).

Another exciting thing that happened was that on this past Saturday, I got to visit my mentor for the first time. The first thing I experienced was Jonathen working with a client. They were in pre-production and had just created a scratch track. Once his client left, Jonathen then took the time to help me with some of my songs. We worked on mixing them and basically rebuilt them from the ground up. He showed me all the things I was doing great, and all the things I need to fix and improve on. All in all, this has been a great break and I got a lot of productive stuff done.

Research Showcase (WR 14)

This Tuesday is the 2014-2015 ISM research showcase. At this event, I will be displaying all of the research I have been doing this entire semester. This will include having my presentation board, portfolio/binder, my atmosphere, and of course myself. I have prepared all of these things in advance and they should be all ready to go, despite some expected last minute changes. Theoretically all I have to do is show up!

There is a great amount of planning and preparing that will go into the showcase on Tuesday. First, I  have my display-board (Seen below). I put a lot of time into it making sure everything was perfect. I also have updated my portfolio to include every assessment I have done so far in ISM. This includes; All my research assessments, interview assessments, weekly blogs, and all of the other various assessments. Finally, I have been preparing my 'atmosphere' for the table. While most people put snacks or refreshments, I am going to have a 'create your own song' element to my display. I will have my portable studio setup, and allow people to record their own short song. This will be great because it will give people a realistic idea of what music production is. Now, with every detail in place, all I have to do is show up. 

Display Board (WR 13)

There is no greater feeling then completing a big project, and then stepping back and it looking great. This is the feeling I had once I finished my presentation board. I had been working hard on it last week, and finished it today, Sunday, after hours of work. I certainly learned a lot throughout this whole process. The biggest thing, is that things don't always go exactly as planned. I had created a mock-up sketch prior to starting and was sure my board would look exactly the same. That didn't end up happening. The first thing I noticed was that the text was much bigger than I had planned. After realizing this, I had to rearrange my board and even leave out some parts to fit everything in. The next thing that I had to change, was the color of the titles. I originally thought they would be silver, but that color wasn't dark enough and so I switched to black. Finally, I had thought it would be a cool idea to have two stripes go across my board. After getting some different opinions from classmates, I decided to scrap them. They didn't add a whole lot and just took up too much valuable space.

Looking Ahead (WR 12)

There is one final event for ISM this semester; Research Showcase. At Research Showcase, we will be displaying ourselves and all the research we have been conducting this semester. With this in mind, the next couple of weeks will be all about preparing for this event. I have already previously created a mock-up of what I hope my display board to look like, I now just have to create it. Even know I have a plan, I will still need to put it together and make adjustments as needed. Another aspect of Research Showcase is creating a atmosphere at your table. Most people simply put cookies or drinks out, but I am not most people. I plan to bring my home studio setup to show off my work, and also have a 'create your own song' activity. People will be able to walk up and within a matter seconds create their own song. I am still working out the exact logistics, but I plan to have it all setup within a week and have people test it before the showcase. This is a very different and unique idea that is sure to set me apart and hopefully leave a lasting impression of those in attendance.

Wrapping up (WR 11)

This previous week, we did not have a whole lot going on in ISM. We were mainly focused on finishing up/tying any loose ends of the second six weeks. The main thing this included was posting the video we took of our research presentation to our class website. We did this so that our peers could watch our presentation and give us come constructive feedback/criticism. This will be very helpful moving on because I will get some suggestions to what I can make better for the next couple of speeches, both in class and at research showcase/final presentation night.

Speaking of research showcase, this next six weeks will be all about preparing for it. Looking ahead, I plan to conduct my last research interview, create my display board, and prepare for the research showcase. For those of you wondering, the research showcase is a night (Tuesday, December 16th at Heritage High School) where all of students involved in the ISM program will be displaying themselves and all of the research they have done all of the first semester. I am very excited for this night because I will get to display all of the stuff I've been working on so far. Personally, I will also get a 'checkpoint' where I can see where I am at, and compare this to where I want to be. Then, I will address this and make my goals for the next/final semester in ISM.

Time Flies (WR 10)

I accomplished two things this week. Each one of them ended a chapter of my life just as a period ends a well written sentence. But the thing about periods that makes them interesting, is what lies after. The first major thing that ended, was Marching Band. Although I love it, Marching Band takes over a season in my life. During this season, I have little to no free time to work on projects outside of school. Now that this season is over, I can not wait to get back to writing/producing music; both at home and with my future mentor.

The other big thing I accomplished this previous week was giving my research presentation. For this assignment, I had to give a 10-12 minute presentation about all of the research I have been doing. At first, I felt overwhelmed at the idea. I didn't see how I was going to talk for 10 minutes, but once I began to make my slide show I saw that I could talk about my topic for hours if I had to. During the actual presentation, I even went over the time limit by a few seconds. The most important I learned through this whole process is that having a strong introduction and conclusion is the most important part of a speech. It is the first/last thing the audience will hear and probably the only thing they will remember. 

Research Speech (WR 9)

This week in ISM my main focus has been preparing for my research speech this Wednesday. For this assignment, we have to give a ten to fifteen speech to the class over all that we have researched so far. At first, I was pretty nervous and I did not think I could talk for fifteen minutes straight but the more I work on it the easier it seems. I'm actually having to cut out parts because it is too long! The first step I took was making a google slide (powerpoint) presentation. This is where I made somewhat of an outline for my speech. After making the presentation, I now know all of the content I want to include in my speech and the general flow of the whole presentation. The only thing I have left to do is write a strong introduction/conclusion to my speech and rehearse it a few times.

This upcoming week other than present my speech, I plan to schedule my 5th and final research interview and begin to choose a mentor. I am really excited to choose a mentor because I believe that this is when experiences of ISM really start to begin.