Epq Doc Grade C

EPQ: Motivational Song for a Footballer

In my project I aim to create a motivational song which will allow footballers to push themselves, I will do this by researching in football magazines, online articles and asking semi-pro footballers on their opinions to give me an insight on what components are vital in my song.
Motivation is a process which controls a person’s behaviour to a certain extent, this may be in response to an occurrence e.g. Feeling hungry motivates you to eat something. I want to take advantage of this and use strategies to increase motivation and therefore drive performance. I would measure this by observing the footballers behaviour for example how he felt he performed, how long he/she lasted before fatigued, This cannot be carried out empirically because this technology is not available.
Many footballers need motivation to perform well, if not they can risk losing their team a game. I want to be able to boost a footballer’s morale at times of need.
Chris Carling quotes ‘In soccer, nothing can affect performance as dramatically as a sudden loss of motivation. Without the motivation to succeed a player cannot survive the challenges soccer can throw up.’
Liz McColgan, London Marathon Winner says “Competing successfully in any sporting event is as much about the mind as the body. I like to use music with different tempos to help me with my training - it's easy to get into the beat and helps you relax more at speed.” This tells me that one song cannot be created and named the ultimate motivational songs as many songs help motivate athletes in different ways but I can try and create a song to motivate footballers to the best of my ability.
I started by reading a book called ‘Damn You’re Selfish’ by Jack Spades, the most important information I got from this book was that building friendships with teammates and thinking in a ‘us’ mentality instead of ‘me’ mentality is key for excelling performance. I will take on-board this advice and use I reference to teammates in my song to encourage this mentality and therefor increasing performance.
I then asked five semi-pro footballers what motivated them to perform well. They answered team speeches and music. I then asked ‘what type of music?’ The majority replied R&B/Hip-Hop and the minority said Indie, they were no other genres stated. I gathered from this information that I would make my song an R&B track that would include motivational speech.
I had never created an R&B instrumental before and wanted the beat unflawed so I ask a friend of mine to create this for me, he Named the instrumental ‘Motivation’ and uploaded this to YouTube so I could download this as an MP3 format in order to add vocals to the instrumental.

I used a program named ‘Audacity’ to add vocals to my song; this is a free Cross-Platform Sound Editor. I started by importing my instrumental, after listening to it repeatedly I decided to start the song off with a motivational speech to boost morale.

I searched for public motivational speeches. I found a speech that was considered to be one of the best motivational speeches, I agreed. The speech was named ‘I am a champion’, I was inspired by this and therefor decided to name my song ‘Champion’, the speech already had music in the background so I could not put the speech on my song as it would create a demoralising sound clash, so I used the powerful ‘I am a champion’ chant in my chorus to give my song a sense of team spirit which from my research I have seen plays a big part in such a competitive team game.

‘Champion!’
‘Champion!’
‘I am a champion!’
‘I am a champion!’

Then wrote my lyrics around this, remembering to use motivation sentences such as ‘You’re never over’ to create emotions of self-belief. The lyrics I wrote for this were typed on word whilst listening to the instrumental repeatedly. Here are the lyrics, the grammar has not been modified and is exactly how it was when I recorded them Reece Senior – Champion Lyrics

you’re a champ don't forget it
Don't try half hearted
,you'll regret it
Gotta move through your darkest moments
Your never over
Remember Rome wasn't built in a day
'And where there's a will, there's a way'
The same way you can be who you wanna be
You lead the way and tell ‘em come follow me
And if they can't keep up, up he stamina
And if they're not faster, up your speed
That way you can guarantee you'll have everything that you need
You’re a warrior, don't let it worry ya
Your 1st class football courier
You here to claim you’re avengance
So pay attention ‘cause glory doesn't come free
Train till your legs can’t pick you up
Train till your feet have the perfect touch
Train till your clubmates feel the rush
You’re not giving up you've came to far from the bench to front of the field,
Gotta keep your thoughts strong have a mind of steel
Gotta keep focused ‘cause you play how you feel
(And then we'll snatch victory …Yes we will) Working your way from the bottom to the top you can't stop you’re a champion
Aching everywhere but hard work doesn't scare you you’re a champion

I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfilment that all that he holds dear, is that the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious .....Vince Lombardi

I used a Samson CO1U to record my vocals, this is a USB studio condenser microphone which I used to record at home.
I structured my vocals in layers to add affects such has ‘Ad Libtums’ which is where you record the same verse twice, each in a separate layer to add emphasis to my song.

Two layer of the same verse, known has ad-libs
Two layer of the same verse, known has ad-libs

After recording the song I felt the end needed another motivational speech so I researched more speeches and came across a speech from a film names ‘Best Shot’ and decided this would be perfect to put into my song.

I then recorded my self stating a motivation speech from ‘Vince Lombardi’, a successful American Football coach.

After this was completed I handed it to 3 of my participants (one of them which said they preferred indie) which I questioned at the start of my project, I asked them to listen to the song whilst exercising and give me feedback on the song. They all said the song was motivational and drived them to push themselves harder.