When hearing the client brief I was at first apprehensive as I had little knowledge writing music on my own or collaboratively. However, the premise of writing a radio jingle sounded like a unique way of getting us to work together.

The part of the project I found most interesting was listening to each group’s individual jingles, as everyone took a different approach towards how they structured their tracks and incorporated their own style.

Working with people writing a track was something that I have never done before and I found it a very good experience as everyone had their own input and communication was good between us. This project was also the first time having someone else recording us which was enjoyable as the techs were very nice and helped reduce the stress of setting up recording equipment.

I would have liked to develop my lead lines in the track a bit further as it was quite basic and took me a while to find a sound I liked. If I were to do this project again I would spend extra time learning new scales and licks to add more flair in my playing.

I felt the most successful part of our project was how quickly we came to an idea that we all liked and this allowed us to practice our jingle more and make it more tight between the groups. We encountered a few issues, such as Jordan’s lack of skill when he was playing with the drums, however we worked it out and he felt much more comfortable once he started playing the acoustic.

If I were to do this project again I would probably try to give more input during the brainstorming sessions, as I feel that I would have felt more comfortable putting forward ideas, however I did miss the session which was spent figuring out what the structure of the jingle would be.

I feel that my role in the group was good as I feel more comfortable playing lead than rhythm, although I feel that I let the group down slightly due to missing sessions, such as the brainstorming session and turning up late to the recording. Next time I will ensure that I am punctual to make it a better experience for the group as a whole.

Overall I enjoyed this module. It was a good opportunity to meet some people that I otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to. Additionally I enjoyed that the module was a small preview of the world of commercial music, which is a field of music that I would consider taking up as a career.

03/11/10

Our recording slot for our jingle was at 11am. I came to the session over an hour late due to some issues at my flat, which resulted in me missing most of the session.Lewis, the bassist was also absent as he fell very ill two days prior.

By the time I arrived the group already had everything recorded. Dan substituted in for bass which resulted in the original bassline being lost. However he played the root notes of the jingle and it still sounded very good.

The technicians that recorded us were very friendly and I quickly got set up after arriving. I felt nervous at first as I was already late and everyone was watching me, however I overcame this and recorded a couple of takes to ensure that there was enough material to work with. After a couple of takes we were finished with recording and awaited the final product.

I felt that the recording was very successful, however I felt that I let the team down quite a bit due to how late I arrived.

28/10/19

This session was very uneventful as we already had the structure of the song worked out, so we spent our time rehearsing the jingle as much as possible so that we all knew exactly what we had to play for the recording.

I believe this session went well because by the end of it we had the full jingle and we were happy with the final product. I finally had a lead line I was happy with and I feel it worked well with the feel of the track.

23/10/19

By the time this session came along Lily had the lyrics finalised and Dan came in with a backing track that he created for us to play along to, as we couldn’t get a drum part figured out. As the session went on and we got more comfortable, James decided that he would hop onto the drums. It didn’t take long before he could play along to the track and even started putting in his own fills to add to the track.

“New welsh music Every Saturday ….. BBC radio wales Every Saturday without fail New music for you to hear Born in Wales from far and near Caneuon Cymru ar y brig Gyda Adam Walton, grandewch yn llu 10 till 1 in the late night Every kind of style” The finished lyrics.

In this session I struggled to think of lead lines for me to play as I am still inexperienced with improvising and solos, however Dan gave me some suggestions and it didn’t take long before I started to get more comfortable with playing along.

I feel that this session went well as now we had an effective percussion section which allowed us to progress further with the track. At this point the jingle sounded pretty much complete.

17/10/19

During this session we decided to work on the second section of the jingle to further develop it. At this stage we pretty much had the whole structure of the song sorted out and decided. During this session Jordan was playing drums, so that we could add some percussion into the track. Being a guitar player, he did struggle with the timing of the track as well as keeping consistent with the beat. We also decided that I would play lead guitar for the jingle so I started to play some licks over the chords.

I believe this session went very well as the jingle was starting to come together as a whole so early on in the project. The only downside I would say was the issues with getting the drums to work, however it wasn’t too big of an issue as Dan decided he would make a backing track for the next session.

10/10/19

Having missed the first rehearsal session due to illness, this was the first time I played with the group. Dan had already put together an idea for the jingle, which included the chord structure and drum pattern. They showed me how to play it and we started practicing it. Lily started working on lyrics and we carried on developing the track.

Lily started to come up with some ideas for lyrics for us to use. We decided that as we were creating a jingle for a Welsh radio station that we would add some Welsh lyrics into the track.

I enjoyed this session as it was a good way for me to get to know more people from our course and the jingle was fairly easy for me to pick up and get up to speed with the others.

27/09/19

In our first session we were given our task and were split into random groups. We came up with a band name and started to discuss what instruments we would be using for the jingle. The original ensemble included: Vocals, Bass and guitars.

I was looking forward to starting this module as it was my first time working collaboratively on creating a track and would allow me to further my skills in writing music.