I have chosen to do a songwriting and production course because both are subjects that I really enjoy doing, am good at, and what I would love to be doing for the rest of my life. I’ve a lot of experience in doing both, and have gone from writing simple songs from a young age to actually working on more complicated songs, experimenting with different time signatures and more in depth chord sequences, and have also started working on producing them using logic such as Fruity Loops and Logic Pro X.

Due to constantly being surrounded by music from a very young age, I have been able to develop various different skills regarding music. I never learned music theory growing up, which led to me being able to learn how to play by ear, as well as being able to learn songs very quickly for various projects just by listening to it lots and copying it on whatever instrument I am using. Following up from this, a key skill that I have, which I actually learned I had during college, is that I am relatively good at picking up new instruments. I went from never having played the bass guitar before, to getting a Merit performance grade in playing it in the space of just a few months. I would like to think of myself as having quite a melodic ear, meaning during my writing process, generally tend to come up with some catchy melodies in doing so, both with vocal lines and riffs too, this writing ability comes hand in hand with my skill at Logic. Albeit I’m not a world class producer, I do have the ability to create good quality recordings using Logic Pro X, which will only improve during my time studying production, if given the opportunity.

Over the past 12 months or so, I’ve had a lot of experience writing and performing original songs both inside and outside of college. Inside of college, I wrote and sung 2 original songs for the assessed college gig. The song “Dancing” was written in response to an assignment of writing to a brief, in this case that brief was in the style of 50s rockabilly music, a style of music I had never really listened to much of, but managed to get a Distinction, getting marks in every single part of the success criteria. The second song, “Truth” was written as a free composition, this song got a high merit in the end. Outside of college, however, I’ve had much more gig opportunities as a solo writer and performer as opposed to alongside a band. I’ve done gigs with a local food festival called the Movable feast, as well as an introducing gig with Heart Radio. From these gigs, I’ve been asked to perform at a birthday party and at other music festivals and to be a featured performer at some local open mic nights. I’ve also busked my original material in a partnered busk day with Liverpool One, in which I performed for a small crowd, and got some very positive feedback.

Over my few years as a singer/songwriter/performer, I’ve gained some great achievements as a musician. This includes producing a good quality EP to Spotify and iTunes and receiving some extremely positive feedback from people such as Blood Brothers star Con o’Neill, who have said that they would love to purchase more of the type of music that I produce, as well as people who have listened to me perform live and have gone on to download my music.

So over the years I’ve had lots of experience writing and producing music, however would definitely be able to further expand my skills as a songwriter, performer and producer, which I’m sure a degree level course would definitely be able to do, and vice versa I feel as though my unique style and ear for music, joined with my professional experience gained from LIPA would make me a great asset to said course.