My submission:
"My life from seed to vegetable"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1flhklg ... sp=sharing
In my submission I try to tell the life story of a vegetable. It is also possible that it's a story about me. Hard to say. The original plan was to make this song much longer, but due to time constraints, I had to keep it short.
In any case, musically, this is an ever-changing story. The verses I use to describe the inner life of a plant don't repeat themselves. So obviously one of the challenges for me was to maintain the feeling that the end result is one cohesive piece and not just a bag of improvisational melody lines. I tried to solve this problem by gluing things together with a strong chord progression. (Expressed in key of Am: Am E7/G# A7/G Fm Edim B7/D# E7/D Am). It has a pretty strong natural color, it's a little lonely and sad, and it's sophisticated but still natural. So perfect for describing the inner life of a cabbage.
On those parts where I try to describe the surrounding world I switch to different chord progression. (Expressed in the key of F: Bb Am, Gm7 C7/G F). In this song I use these progressions in a couple of different keys.
I typically don't want to add explanations to the music because it should be able to do the work on its own. However, I found out pretty quickly that - unlike Vivaldi - I can't paint clear pictures of the seasons with sheet music. So, due to my musical shortcomings, I decided to add explanations. Here is what I tried to convey in the different parts of the song
► Show Spoiler
Starting from
0:0
External forces are working: the seed is planted.
0:12
The seed wakes up, it begins to germinate
0:28
The shoot starts to grow and develop.
0:50
The sprout grows and looks like it has many possible paths to choose from.
1:17
Life is precise and determined, and seems to follow a larger plan.
1:40
Also the surrounding world is present in plant's life. It's beautiful and nice place to live in.
2:00
Phase of rapid growth: the young plant wants to be a "rebel without a cause" and tries to create something new and own. But it doesn't understand that vegetables don't have ability to create abything new, so it is just repeating simplified ideas from it's youth.
2:17
Maturity: the plant becomes an adult, mainly maturing, but no longer growing. The plant doesn't try to be so creative anymore. Although it shames the stuff it created as youngster, it doesn't recognize it doesn't have anything more to offer. Most of the time it just repeatsthose old ideas, maybe more easily and skillfully than before - but still - the same old stuff.
2:28
Old age: the surrounding world is relaxed and beautiful place again. The mature vegetable feels happy by just watching the wheels go round. Momentary winds and storms of the life don't affect it at all. At times, he is even proud of what he created as a teenager.
2:40
Harvest time: external forces participate again to the outcome of plant's life.
USE TOOLS
► Show Spoiler
DAW: Reaper
Drums: SSD
Bass: three instances of Massive Synth + Modo2 + Trilian
MusicBox: Kontakt
Electric guitar: Real electric guitar
scratching of the strings: Real electric guitar
Pedal Steel: Impact Soundworks
Saw like synth: CherryAudio
Key Board with wah-wah: Kontakt Clavinet
Vocal: Real
Reaper statistics
Peak: -2.3
LUFS-I: -14.4
What I learned: When an idea comes, you should be quick to produce a good enough version of it. If you start thinking too much about small nuances, the song will starve to death. I wonder how many good songs have died for nothing? In this case, I just had to post it now and see later how many little good ideas I managed to screw up in the overthinking this.
