week 1
On Monday we gathered as a group and decided to rehearse our first song being Im In Love with A Monster by fifth harmony and although we knew how to play most of the song the bridge section was a struggle as we couldn't remember what order the chords went in. We eventually figured that section out, but it was then down to the song being plain and boring and our transitions into each section were very sloppy. On Tuesday we decided to do the same song again as we weren't happy with how bland and underproduced our version sounded so we requested a little bit of help from Liam and we decided Gabe would play some lead guitar and I would stick to a backbeat strumming pattern. On Gabes lead guitar he would play the bass riff in our newly added section, which was our build up, he would also play arpeggios in the bridge section and join the back beat in the verse and the bridge, it was safe to say it wasn't amazing yet but it was a start. On Wednesday it was a different type of session we started by doing a risk assessment to see what danger there are around the hub just to maintain safety throughout the year. We also learnt how to coil cables safely to ensure that none of them break throughout the year. However, at the end of this session it was time for us to do our first performance of the song to our classmates for some constructive criticism and considering we don't have a bass player at the time the performance went quite well. It was safe to say we had improved from the previous day. On Thursday it was our first session with Oscar on bass and we got him in on how our version goes and it was safe to say it sounded more powerful and the bass really elevated the song to make it sound fuller and the idea was get Oscar comfortable on this song and start the next song on Monday. After this we did our first performance as a full group, and it sounded amazing compared to previous days. https://youtu.be/yW92UJhix4w https://youtu.be/B70SyYB108M https://youtu.be/SUdU8rzBctg
Our transitions from section to section where very sloppy and needed work as we were all coming into late. We worked on this by giving the song a listen and counting the beat we should come in on to make it sound like the original track. The song was plain and boring as both guitars where doing the same thing throughout the whole track. We worked on this by requesting some help from Liam and we added some lead parts such as arpeggios and one guitar following the bass part in sections and a build-up section into the song. We didn't have a bassist for the first 3 days due to there not being enough to fill out each slot in each band We solved this issue by borrowing Oscar from the other group to help our songs sound fuller and create more presence
In this week i have learnt what my bands strengths and weaknesses are, and we plan to work around them and be brave and work on our weaknesses as a group. I also learnt that a few simple changes to a song can make the song sound a million times better
My target for next week is to have our second song ready at the end of the week so we can get started on the final song and start to think about balancing levels and making everything sound nicer. My second target is to try and add some backing vocals to our songs to make the song sound abit better.
Week 2
On Monday we had a new addition to the band and her name was Erika and before we started on our second song, we got her up to speed with ‘I'm In Love with a Monster’ and it was just a case of repeating the song a few times until she got the use to it. Then after it was time to start on our second and it was hungry like a wolf by Duran Duran and it started well as me and Gabe new the verse parts however, coming into the chorus part we struggled with the chord progression as didn’t know if we was actually doing it right in the song so I had a listen to the song and sussed it out and it turned out we was doing it right and we powered on however, we came to another struggle in the instrumental section as there’s a lot of ambient noise and we didn’t know how to fill it out so the song came to a halt on this day. On Tuesday we was back at the studio and we decided instead of going through I’m in love with a monster we would just power on and get straight into hungry like a wolf but the same problems where occurring yesterday in the same spot so we took a step back from playing and figured if I played a triad and used a whammy bar it would fill it out nicely if I did that for 4 bars so we tried that and I went as planned and we powered on through as the song was the same towards the end. After this we decided to spice the song up abit because me and Gabe felt it sounded abit plain as we was both doing the same thing so I decided in the chorus I would add triads and Gabe would stay on the power chords however we ran into another problem we would struggle with because we was coming back in to early on the chorus but we would leave it there for today. On Wednesday it was time for us to try and figure out the timing on the chorus for when we come back in and it was on beat two of every 4th bar but unfortunately we still seemed to struggle with it and it was getting very frustrating so we played it how we knew it for now and decided we would have little look at our 3rd song which is vampires are a stronger but… by the artic monkeys but unfortunately we couldn’t play it as me gabe and harry hadn’t learnt it yet so our goal was to have a small run through tomorrow. On Thursday our main goal was to have a rough run through of our third song as we had learnt the first part of the song so we decided we have a whack at it but we ran into our first problem we didn’t know when we came out for a certain part of the song so we struggled to come out in time so we had re group and listen to the song as a band again to wrap our heads around on what lyric we need to be ready to come out on. Eventually it did work and then we knew where we needed to come out but another problem was we didn’t realise there was two chorus in the second half of the section we had learnt so we was coming out to early but that was a minor mistake fixed by the end of the session. https://youtu.be/9qsJx4rOP0k https://youtu.be/QNBQIZQts5o
Our second song sounded to bland and plain. We added ideas to the songs such as triads and using a whammy bar to make the song abit more interesting to listen to. We wasn’t very familiar with our parts in our other two songs. We stop playing out down our instruments and gathered in as a group to listen to the songs to become more familiar with our parts. We struggled with timing in certain sections. We kept trying as a group to make it resemble the recording in the chorus section to keep some authenticity.
This week I learnt that in order for us to complete a song we need to be abit more familiar with our parts as a group and I also learnt that we should be more optimistic and open to new ideas as a group to spice songs up and add our own little spin to the song.
One of our targets as a group next week is get the timing right on hungry like a wolf to keep in touch with the song Our second target is to have all 3 songs completed and ready to be able to just practice them back to back as a group and to possibly start thinking about setlist timing at the gig
Week 3
On Monday we picked up where we left of and began paying “perhaps vampires is abit strong but...” - artic monkey and due to me having no time to learn it over the weekend Gabe helped me out and organised the drum solo part of the song he explained my parts to me very well and very clearly which helped me out and once we had all parts down it was time to sort the drum solo part out and by the time we fitted that part in we had realised we had ran out of time top rehearse all 3 songs as we had put all our focus into this last song as a group and thankfully it was smooth sailing with no issues. On Tuesday it was a case of just picking up where we left off with the song and continue to rehearse the setlist in order as we knew all 3 songs we were required to do. However, we ran into another issue which was pointed out by our drummer we was still playing the drum solo section 3/4 when it was now in 4/4 but that was a quick easy fix for the group and it was time to move onto the guitar solo ending in “perhaps vampires is a bit stronger but...” by the artic monkeys and we came to the decision that me and Gabe would lead us in by shouting all you people are vampires but luckily me and Gabe went home and learnt the parts we needed for the ending and it went quite well so it became a case of adding the ending to the song. As we was running through the setlist we ran into another issue with “Hungry Like The Wolf” by Duran Duran and we was coming in to early on the chorus parts when we are meant to come in on beat two of every bar so our next goal was to fix that which after a few attempts with counting the beats in our heads it became a staple in our heads. At the end it was time to run through the songs and although it was still scratchy and unpolished we could comfortably consider it an improvement from last week's performance. On Wednesday we just ran through the setlist as we had all of our songs ready to go. We did this because we wanted to make the songs tighter as a group. In this session we started to think about our running list time and we timed it for there first time and it came to thirteen minutes and thirty seconds so we had to shave at least 30 seconds off so we tried being quicker getting into the songs and we also worked on some transitions so we decided to work on a transition between the first 2 songs which where “Im In Love With a Monster” and “Hungry Like a Wolf” we did this as it was needed to shorten our setlist down a slight bit so what we did was at the end of the song as i am changing channels on the amp harry would continue on the hi-hat with a 4 count into the intro of the song. By the end of this session out setlist time came down by 15 seconds so we decided the next day we would work on another transition. On Thursday we ran through the setlist again and our main focus was to sort a transition between “Hungry Like a Wolf” and “Perhaps Vampire is a bit strong but...” And our idea was that we would let the guitar feedback a bit then i would go into the riff with harry and this idea worked for the song and brought the running time down a bit more. We did this in order to not run into other peoples time. https://youtu.be/McY3chdNAKQ https://youtu.be/RT3Roe5l5c4 https://youtu.be/gsgCvNjVuHA
We struggled with the timing change in perhaps vampires is abit stronger but We solved this by listening to the song to found out how the timing changed and we would implement into the ending We struggled with set list time We changed this by making songs slightly faster and making transitions into each songs which shortened our set quite abit
From this week I have learnt that with good communication between a group and staying calm things can go a lot smoother than normal and things will be done a lot quicker as a group
My first target is to join into the song well with my parts and make my parts tighter And our second target is make sure we make the set faster as a group
Week 4
On Monday our group jumped straight into it by working on the setlist but unfortunately Oscar was ill this week so we had to work without a bass player however, we pushed on to make sure our songs where tighter and transitions where faster. We did this as our running time was still a bit to long for the allocated time we had so our idea was to keep running the setlist through to make sure thing where a lot cleaner in the songs. By the end of the session the running time had come down to our allocated 13 minutes and the songs started to sound a lot tighter but we still wasn't happy with how clunky the transitions felt between the last to songs but we would save that for the next day. On Tuesday we came into the session and our soul focus was on the transition into the last song as we thought it was very clunky and empty for our performance. We did this as we felt the transition felt to empty, so when we was all struggling for an idea harry came up with the idea that instead of us creating feedback we would let harry go straight into the drum and I would come in with the opening riff straight after as it was a lot quicker than our previous idea so we ran through this at least 5 times and the group started to understand so we finally went through the setlist properly and it surprisingly knocked another 30 seconds of the running time for us and the session ended positively. On Wednesday we did our usual setlist running and we did this to tighten the songs but unfortunately we was still missing Oscar but we ran through the set 4 times and the songs sounded tighter and better. On Thursday we did the same thing, but we decided to try sound checking to make the levels balanced so everyone was heard and i helped Gabe with amp settings. We did this as we wanted good tones for each song and a balanced tone so we didn't take up time changing the settings at the gig so after all of this we ran through the set and it was our best time going through the setlist. https://youtu.be/u1UBY-e67kU https://youtu.be/U6_zWDVa6kc
We didn't like our transition into the last song Harry came up with an idea to start with the drums and the riff comes in straight after it and it knocked another 30 seconds of the setlist. We needed better guitar tones Me and gabe decided we would mess around with the amp settings to make the sound perfect so it didnt need to change for each songs.
From this session i learnt that if you come together to practice over and over again you can make your songs even tighter with transitions into the sections of each song and the transitions into each song
My target is to improve my stage presence with Gabe and the rest of the group And my second target is to make sure i am switched on for these transitions.
Week 5
In Mondays session our goal was to improve our stage presence and have fun on stageand we practice this throughout the whole week so we ran through the setlist andthought about what fitted the stage presence for each song we did this because a keypart to your performance is having fun on stage and enjoying your time on stage. So westarted with “I’m In Love With a Monster” and we ran through the song, once we haddone this we decided that our stage presence should be abit more laid back compare tothe other songs in our setlist as we was going in running order so me and Gabe thoughtwe would give abit of movement but not to much interaction with each other in the songand the girls would give the most interaction out of the band. After this we moved onto“Hungry Like A Wolf” and once we had ran through this song we decided this song shouldhave far more interaction between the group and we would have fun together as a groupon stage instead of our individual stage presence so and me and Gabe was brainstormingideas for this song for what we could do to interact with each other as a group. In ourfinal song “perhaps vampires is abit strong but…” we ran through this and as it wasultimately our heaviest song in the set and our big finisher the stage presence would beramped up to look like we was a full indie band and our movement would follow similarstyles to the artic monkeys especially in the instrumental section. As we had reach ourultimate aim we decided to run through the setlist a few more times as we felt the songscould be every tighter now that Oscar was back.On Tuesday our goal stayed the same and it was to improve our stage presence as a groupbut our focus was on our second song “Hungry Like A Wolf” me and Gabe was just goingwith the flow for this song as we didn’t have any ideas that would really get us involved asa group however me and Gabe thought it would be abit of fun if we jumped in the chorussections of the song but due to having a loss of energy at the end of the song we wouldonly do it in the final chorus as a grand finish. Apart from this we repeated what we haddone on previous days and decided to keep running through the set as a group.On Wednesday our goal was similar but we decided we would do it like a properperformance. We did this as it was great practice for the group for getting on and offstage quickly so the gig was smooth sailing. So what we did was we would let the othergroup play first and the change over would be smooth sailing by making sure we wastuned up before hand and ready to go and making sure our sounds where balanced asquick as possible. Then we would run straight into the set and do it with our transitionsand stage presence like we was actually performing for our audience, then after this wewould quickly get off stage ready for the next group to come on and timing this meant wewould be just about fine for the gig so we continued practicing this and it got a lot quickerfor the group to get on and off the stage which meant we would finish inside ourallocated time.In Thursdays session the goal was to practice sound checking as a group so we knew whatwe was in for on gig day. We did this as we needed to be quick in sound check to get asmuch as we could done due to us only have 15 minutes to sound check. So we quickly gotonto the make shift stage to practice sound checking and we did this by running ourloudest section of our loudest song and after doing this we started to move levels aroundtill it sounded perfect and once we was happy we ran through a full song as a group to seeif it sounded good and it did.https://youtu.be/ayk2yueozxkhttps://youtu.be/OIFrESuf
We struggled to elevate stage presence We adapted to this issue by thinking of ways we could fit the stage presence around the era of the song and how the song feels tonality wise. We struggled to get on and off stage quickly We fixed this by continually practicing in a gig setting to make sure everything was smooth sailing and eventually we got a lot more consistent with getting on and off stage.
This week I have learnt that sound checks and stage presence are important to your performance Because on stage you aren’t just playing you are performing to your audience and you want to be entertaining and being good at these things separates you from a standard group and a good group.
My first target is to apply all the knowledge I have gathered from this week and previous weeks to my performance in the upcoming days to put on a good show. My second target is to not get nervous at the gig and have as much fun as I can when performing.