Individual Composition

For my individual composition I wanted to create a soul and gospel influenced sound as this has had a strong influence within my musical experience and I wanted to portray this as I felt this would be a lot more comfortable for me.
To start off composing my individual piece, I played around with playing a variety of different sequences and struggled with making them sound soulful or like a gospel song. Instead I came up with a slow ballad sounding tune.

I always find myself struggling to create a build up in my compositions, so I looked at a few artists, that influence me, to see how they build up in their instrumentals:

• Jessie J - Breathe

In this song she uses the same piano sequence over and over and creates a build up by starting off with just piano then adding a few sound effects to go into a strong drum beat.

• Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You

Alicia Keys starts off with just a piano sequence in her into then introduces a subtle beat and uses a slight change in her piano sequence by putting more emphasis on the chords and builds up more in the use of her vocal projection.

From this I decided to have a slight change in my piano sequence for my chorus and bring in a drum beat toward my second verse to create my build up. 

To write my lyrics I looked at:

• Adele - Someone Like You 

• John Legend - All Of Me

Both of these songs are in the style of telling a story and expressing emotions, so I decided I'd write about something I felt very connected to, as cheesy as this felt, I wrote about my current situation with my partner, about how even through the arguments and petty fall outs, we have a connection that is stronger than anything we go through.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

Siting here thinking about the way we started,

And I had no idea,

That you would mean this much to me,

And I,

I just have to let you know,

That I'd never need,

I'd never want,

Anyone else because,

I know your smile,

I know your eyes,

And the beauty you've hidden behind them

Chorus:

You always keep it real with me,

And I will always keep it real with you,

And that is what this is all about,

Yes it is

Verse 2:

It's not about the times that I let you walk away,

When I still have something to say,

It's not about the times that you turn back and scream,

That you just don't care,

Cos I know your heart,

The way it beats,

And I believe that it belongs with mine,

For eternity,

Yes I believe,

That you were made for me

Chorus:

You always keep it real with me,

And I will always keep it real with you,

And that is what this is all about,

Yes it is

Bridge:

And that's what makes us real,

And that's what makes us work.