This Piece “Gradual Rise” reflects my collected efforts this month. Coming back from the holidays left a thick residue on my workflow. I wanted to capture this feeling and express my process of overcoming it. Many of my influences come from Detroit-style deep house and East coast rap. I would categorize this composition as a house/rap hybrid. This composition could be used at the beginning of a movie. 

​

This song is filled with rhythmic percussion to express my different emotions throughout this journey. My song follows a 4/4-time signature. The first sixteen bars are eighty-eight beats per minute. A simple kick on the one and three bars. Paired with the snare on the two and four bars. The second half of the song follows a tempo of one hundred twenty beats per minute. I layered several toms and hi-hats to capture my progression throughout the month. The tempo change creates rhythmic bounce and fresh energy.

 

This project is in the key of b flat major. The first sixteen bars follow a chord progression of  (ii,vi,V,iii) (ii,vi,V,iii), (I,ii,IV,iii) (I,ii,IV,iii). A piano panning left and right is playing this harmony of chords. They capture a rise of hope and give the listener a positive perspective. The melody of the first half carries an upbeat swing. The second sixteen bars follow a chord progression of (IV,I,iii,vi) (IV,I,iii,vi) (IV,I,iii,vi) (IV,I,iii,vi). These chords are being played by a soft synth. It makes the listener feel like they are floating through space. This progression reflects a new hope. The melody of the second half shapes the energy of the song with homemade synth sounds. 

​

My two synthesizers sit on the opposite side of the spectrum. The first one is a soft bell oscillating with a gentle white noise, making it sound like waves crashing. My second created synth is brass sounding like a synth, paired with bass. I grabbed two female vocals from the apple loop library and threw them in the sampler. I altered the pitch and placed them in the perfect spots for my song. I also recorded my own vocals. I freestyled both of my verses to give an organic feeling to the song.

 

I used both dynamic and time-based effects on vocal tracks. For dynamic processing, I used a compressor to bring my vocals to life a little. I also added a Desser to reduce the harsh frequencies that slipped pasted the pop filter. For my time-based effects, I added a Chroma reverb to Bus 49 and an Echo Delay to Bus 50. I used both buses on my vocals to broaden the layers of the song and bring more flavor to the sound.