Evaluation

Throughout this project I have (as everyone else has) been hindered by the pandemic. I was personally hindered by the fact the I couldn't play with my band and therefore it was missing that collaborative element. Furthermore the best I could do on my own was a recording on my phone of me playing a song. I solved this by getting a mic and audio interface to get a more professional sound quality (even though it took 3 weeks to get here so I was cutting it pretty close) and I did collaborate with my guitar teacher on the songs that I was covering. We managed to get into a regular schedule of lessons on Microsoft teams. My first task was the project proposal which went fairly well and I felt that I articulated my plans for the collaborative practical project fairly eloquently and used acceptable vocabulary throughout it. Personally I think I should have added more references (in all parts) and I should have been more specific when discussing what I was doing for the practical project. Finally I should have looked into how I could add more of a collaboration aspect to the proposal. 

For task 2 We had to record some kind of collaborative track. I was originally going to record a number of original songs with the rest of my band but the virus outbreak kind of put a stop to that. So instead I recorded some covers of songs that I had recently been playing on my phone but that wasn't really cutting it so I got a mic and an audio interface. I then used pro-tools to record it and I think they didn’t go too badly because I applied the recording techniques we learnt in production to my recordings (mic positioning and such) and I have been playing Neon non-stop for the past year (sorry if you are sick of hearing about this song) so it was pretty well rehearsed as was Shepherd of Fire. I also did well on the guitar tones , I managed to do this by adding delay to a clean tone for Neon and an over-the-top distortion tone for Shepherd of Fire to get the signature Avenged sevenfold sound. I made it into a collaboration by getting my mom to film the performances while they were being recorded. Looking back, I could have added more of the solo for Sheppard of Fire in, I could have tried to collaborate musically with some people for the band but it would have been difficult with the delay that you get over video chat and finally I should have been more accurate with my lead part of the Hi-Ho silver lining song because for some reason ,no matter how many times I tried I couldn't get it sounding how I wanted it to sound so I just went with the best I had. 

With Neon I had been practicing it with my guitar teacher for a number of months and so I have a passible level of understanding in the feel of the song and I also have a good idea of John Mayer's guitar "habits" (his way of playing) both of which I implemented in my playing of the main riff and the improvisational section. The slap pattern took a while to get down because he is playing the bassline, guitar rhythm and proccusion all at the same time and that is why I think it is a fairly difficult song to master.  

For Neon I could have improved it by doing countless things. While listening back to my recordings they were generally in time but I noticed in some sections there was inconsistences in my timing and overall playing so I should have practised with a metronome beforehand to improve my timing and my overall mastery of the track. I also could have used a backing track while recording the track instead of just using it during practice, because I think that would have raised the accuracy by quite a lot. Lastly I think that I could have added some kind of an overdub or backing track just so that it would sound more professional and this would also get rid of the inherent repetitiveness of the repeated riff. 

I learnt Shepherd of Fire on my own by ear which took me a bit longer to get the basics down than with Neon but then getting it to sound decent was a way faster process once I had actually figured out the tuning and the notes. The next challenge was the solo which at times, I struggled with and it took me a while to make a mental tab of it. However once I got a rough idea of the solo, I tried improvising with the solo and this made the actual solo way more playable for me. The tone and effects weren't too bad and I managed to get an A7x-esk tone by completely overdoing it on the distortion but keeping the volume on the amp low and turning the input volume on the mic up high. I also added a subtle amount of delay. Lastly the mic positioning wasn’t half bad. I did this by slanting the mic at an angle to the centre of my amp keeping so that the edge touched the cab so that it picked up the full sound. 

For this track (Shepherd of Fire) I could have added a few things to bring it to a more professional level. I could have added a backing track or I could have done the rhythm and lead separately and then added them together. This would have added more of that collaboration element in( I was still figuring out pro-tools so I just recorded me playing guitar without any editing or overdubbing). I also could have tried to play the solo more accurately instead of improvising the phrases that I couldn't figure out by ear (even though my improvisations weren't bad I think it would've been better to have a full cover of the song just for perfections sake. Finally I think I should have tried to add the vocals because I have been taking vocal lessons for a few months so I am fairly confident that I could pull this one off or at least Neon. (Shepherd of Fire has some very shouty vocals so I'm not completely sure about that one)