Pressure Project 3: Soundscape of Band
Posted: April 9, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Pressure Project 3 Leave a comment »For this pressure project, we were tasked with creating a two-minutes soundscape that represents part of our culture or heritage. I chose to center my project around my experience in band. My original plan had been to take recordings during rehearsals to create the soundscape. None of my recordings saved properly, so I had to get creative with where I sourced my sound.
Upon realizing I did not have any recordings from rehearsal, I had a moment of panic. Fortunately, some of our runs from rehearsal are recorded and uploaded to Carmen Canvas so we can practice the music for the upcoming Spring Game show. I also managed to scrounge up some old rehearsal recordings from high school and a recorded playing test for University Band. I had also done a similar project for my Soundscapes of Ohio class last year, and still had many of my sound samples from that (the first and likely last time my inability to delete old files comes in handy).
Then I had the idea to use videos from the Band Dance, meaning I had to scour my camera roll and Instagram so I could screen record posts and convert them to mp3 files. This process worked quite well, but it was no small task sorting through Instagram without getting distracted. It was also a challenge to not panic about having no recordings, but once I found this new solution, I had a lot of fun putting it together.
I spent about the first hour finding and converting video files into audio files and putting them into GarageBand. I made sure everything was labeled in a way that I would be able to immediately understand. I then made a list of all the audio files I had at my disposal.
The next 45 minutes were used to plan out the project, since I knew going straight to GarageBand would get frustrating quickly. I listened to each recording and wrote out what I heard, which was helpful when it came to putting pieces together. I also started to clip longer files into just the parts I needed. I made an outline so I knew which recordings I wanted to use. It was a struggle to limit it to just what would fit into two minutes, but it was helpful going in with a plan, even if I had to cut it down.
During the next 45-minute block, I started creating the soundscape. I already had most of the clips I needed, so this time was spent cutting down to the exact moment I needed everything to start and stop, and figure out how to layer sounds to create the desired effect. About halfway through this process, I listened to what I had and was close to the two-minute mark. I did not have everything I wanted, so I cut down the first clip and cut another. I did a quick revision on my outline now that I had a better understanding of my timing.
The last half hour was dedicated to automation! I added fade ins and outs in the places I felt were most necessary for transition moments. I wanted to prioritize the most necessary edits first to ensure I had a good, effective, and cohesive soundscape. I had plenty of time left, so I went through to do some fine tuning, particularly to emphasize parts of the sound clips that were quieter but needed to have more impact.
I wanted my soundscape to reflect my experience. As such, I started with a recording from high school of my trio rehearsing before our small ensemble competition. This moment was about creating beautiful music. It fades into the sound from my recorded playing test for University Band last year, where I was also focused on producing a good sound.
There is an abrupt transition from this into Buckeye Swag, which I chose to represent my first moment in the Athletic Band, a vastly different experience from any previous band experience I had. The rest of the piece features sounds from sports events, rehearsals, and the band dance, and it includes music we have made, inside jokes and bits, and our accomplishments.
I wanted to include audio from the announcers at the Stadium Series game because that was a big moment for me as a performer. I marched Script on Ice in front of more than 94,000 people in the ‘Shoe, performing for the same crowd as twenty one pilots (insane!). My intent with that portion was to make it feel overwhelming. I cut the announcement into clips with the quotes I wanted and layered them together to overlap slightly, with the crowd cheering in the background. I wanted it to feel convoluted and jumbled, like a fever dream almost.
In creating this project, I came to realize what being in band really means to me. It is about community, almost more so than making music. Alex pointed this out during the discussion based on how the piece progresses, and I was hoping it would read like that. At first, it was about learning to read and make music. When I got to high school, I realized that no matter where I went, if I was in band, I had my people. So over time, band became about having a community, and it became a big part of who I am, so I wanted to explore that through this project.
Aside from personal reflection, I wanted to share the band experience. My piece represents the duality of being in concert and pep band, both of which I love. There is a very clear change from concert music to hype music, and the change is loud and stark to imitate how I felt going to my fist rehearsal and first sporting events with the band. By the end, we are playing a high energy song while yelling “STICK!” at a hockey game, completely in our element.
