#md5320

Rehearsal Strategy Write up:

How often did you rehearse?  Once or twice a week. 

How long were your rehearsal sessions? 1.5 Hours

Where did you rehearse? University rehearsal rooms/ my house (Cheltenham/Bristol). 

How were your rehearsals structured? 

Set up what I needed (equipment e.g., mic). 

Write down a list of things I need to do in the rehearsal and tick off as I go.

As I rehearse, I record the session. I make sure I listen back for mistakes, and I improve. 

I use what I like from the recordings. 

How often did you rehearse on your own?

As I performed many of my performances by myself I did mostly all the rehearsals on my own. Sometimes I would ring/bring a friend along for another ear for the positives and negatives. 

How often did you rehearse in a band? 

Only four times that I had rehearsed within a duo. 

Have you spent time rehearsing individual parts of songs and how did you rehearse them? 

When working with Daisy I would work on my own parts of the song/s such as, lyrics, and melodies. I would also help her if needed. Before going into the session I would rehearse by making a mind map or write lyrics beforehand. When in rehearsal I would easily make melodies and make them fit towards the brief and what was being worked on in the session. Whether this was by myself or in a group/duo. 

How has you time management affected your performances? 

I feel that my time management was good, and I made sure I disciplined myself into making these deadlines for the performances (planning + rehearsal sheet). When it came to performing there were struggles where I couldn’t perform so I had to reschedule these performances to a later date. This was due to uncertain circumstances. 

How did the tasks impact your rehearsals?

The tasks impacted my rehearsals well. The tasks inspired me and made me want to rehearse. Whether this was working alone or in a group/duo, it was a good environment, gained loads of experience, and experimentation. 

How have your rehearsals impacted your performance? 

With rehearsing 1-2 times a week I felt I could’ve done more practice within the performances. I felt that most of them were rushed and seemed non- professional if this was to be performed in front of a public audience.  However, the feedback on them was good from friends and I have time for improvements. 

What has prevented you from rehearsing and how can you work round this?

                                                 Chapel Questions

My performance 

How have you responded to the Chapel?

I think that the chapel has amazing acoustics to perform in, however as I have never performed in a church before I felt slightly overwhelmed. I loved that the natural reverb bounced off the walls, it was incredible and complemented my vocals.

What original music did you perform and why?

Daisy and I performed one of our songs called ‘Happier’ which, is written by me. It’s about a relationship that is toxic. I performed this song due to the emotional attachment I have with it and that I really wanted to share it with the audience in an emotive environment.

What instruments did you use and why?

 Daisy and I used raw vocal and acoustic guitar. I feel there’s something vulnerable, authentic, and intimate about someone playing and singing with a guitar. 

Discuss how the music is played - technique (instrument / mic etc), dynamics, tightness, feel etc.  Did it fit or respond to the space

The acoustic guitar was played gently and strummed which added to my soft reverbed vocals and added to the vulnerability to the song. It reflected the space well as it is already a calm environment. 

Emotional impact - how does it make you feel? Do you think it matches the artist's intention?

I feel I am quite an emotional person in general and I reflect emotions onto others through my vocals. Teddy could tell that my performance was emotional due to the song lyrics and the way I sang from the heart. We choose to be seated in order to create an intimate and emotive space for the audience. Being on the same level allowed the audience to relate or connect to my story, music and relationship. I hoped that I would create a sense authenticity.

What is your overall thought of the performance? Did it go well? How could it be improved? Did you enjoy it?

I think it went well, hearing the recording back. However, I couldn’t hear myself that well on stage, so next time I would do a longer soundcheck. I get very nervous still when performing. Working on my confidence skills and trying to be more open to the audiences responses, might help me improve in the future.  

Kai, Jack, Adam, and Alex

How have you responded to the Chapel?

Compared to my performance this rock performance by Jack, Adam, Kai and Alex was impressive. They used the chapel to an advantage by making loud noise which, was reflected by the acoustics of the chapel. 

What instruments did you use and why?

They used bass, guitar, and drums. 

Discuss how the music is played - technique (instrument / mic etc), dynamics, tightness, feel etc.  Did it fit or respond to the space

Played with loads of distortion on the guitar. Drums played with force with loads of cymbals. The whole space felt full of sound and reflected the space well. However, for some the sound may have been too loud, which would of detracted from the song.

Emotional impact - how does it make you feel? Do you think it matches the artist's intention?

I love rock music and felt a connection. The guys, especially Kai, connected to what they were playing.

What is your overall thought of the performance? Did it go well? How could it be improved? Did you enjoy it?

My performance 

I really enjoyed my performance. Due to the circumstances of me not being able to perform at the university, I created my own stage set up. The theme I wanted to go for was a ‘Tiny Desk’ concert aesthetic, as it’s something intimate and cosy. I liked how my pink and blue in motion lighting turned out, as it seemed to achieve my goals of making the room more intimate and somewhat comforting for the audience. I felt I also portrayed this in other ways, such as me sitting down almost entirely throughout the performance except for one moment where I stood up. Hard work went into making the backing tracks for this performance. As I didn’t have any PA system nor microphone, I had to record the performance on GarageBand and put reverb on my live vocals and backing track vocals.  Even though this performance wasn’t in front of a live audience, I felt that mistakes were still made, whether this was vocals, piano or me dropping equipment. There are improvements to make however, I don’t see this as a fault, I see it as being authentic. If you can show mistakes and be able to move past them, it’s a good experience and it’s a good form of learning growth for people going into the music Industry. Another thing I thought was good about my performance was my speaking on stage. I felt I was good at introducing songs however, I could be more open to conversation with the audience. I believe this is due to me feeling unconfident within my performance. Further things to improve on would be to change lighting in-between songs. As I feel that lighting represents feelings and reflects onto how the audience might feel. I also felt that my stage presence could’ve been used to more of an advantage if I had built the stage better. However, there wasn’t much space to move around. If this were to be live in front of an audience, I would consider doing these improvements. 

Cherry Smoke

My Performance:

I really enjoyed this performance. I felt I did a good job at portraying a relaxing listening environment with the lighting, visual background and me sitting down throughout the performance.  As a singer with little piano skill, I decided to make a synth instrumental version of the acoustic song from the AV performance for some experimentation. I chose the synth instrument because I felt it challenged me and put me out of my comfort zone. As the original song was acoustic, I made sure I used many instruments that changed the genre to dance/pop. I made sure to add in many synth keyboards, playing chords or melodic melodies. Due to certain circumstances of me not being able to perform live, as well as being a solo band member (singer), I didn’t have the capability to perform a song live with an instrument in front of an audience. I felt like making a backing track suited me best for this task. The rehearsal process consisted of me making the backing track and singing over it to make sure it was appropriate to perform. I felt like I could’ve pushed myself more during this task.  I’m not a good skilled piano player but felt I could’ve got a synth keyboard and played live.  However, pushing myself to make a synth backing track was difficult as I have never done anything like it before. My overall thoughts of my performance went well as I feel as if I achieved my ‘tiny desk’ concert aesthetic. Due to the circumstances on me not being able to perform on stage, the way to improve next time will be to have the advantages of the lighting, visual projector, and choice of live instrument at the university. Even though I believe my voice suits ballad/acoustic music, I feel that this was a great opportunity and experimentation to push myself into different genres. 

Jack and Michael's Performance:

My performance:

I enjoyed both of my performance’s. I played two of my favorite songs that I’ve written. One around me growing up with my sister and her battle with mental health and the other is about a past relationship. These were both very emotional songs for me to perform. The visual I had created for this performance is simple yet meaningful. Having my name on the screen as the songs were telling my story which, makes it seem more personal. When I had written both songs it was at a time that I had taken the photograph of me for the visual. An emotional time for me and it seemed convenient to do so. I edited the picture and put an old camera effect onto the screen while reflecting the song around my breakup. I wanted my overall performances to consist of colour and an old vintage-style visual effect.  I hope this changed the impact of my performance by making it seem intimate, hoping to immerse the audience. I have used these visual aesthetics as I feel the idea of a ‘vintage-style’ performance will allow the audience to understand the concept of the performance I’m trying to accomplish. I believe this style will make the audience feel emotional and perhaps immersed within my songs. As not being able to perform on stage due to certain circumstances, I had to construct my own lighting by using a color lamp, which worked somewhat perfectly. I didn’t want to stay on one colour so, I switched in-between colour’s for the first song to show hopefulness and change. However, on the second song I stayed on a pink lighting as that’s one of my main aesthetics. I believe that with everything I added into the performance, I achieved the emotional and impactful effect I wanted to portray. 

Kai's Performance:

Loop Pedal Performance

My performance

The performance felt very simplistic as it was only less than a minute long. However, I played the piano quietly/ soft and towards the end I seemed to come to a crescendo. I feel like I didn’t have much stage presence nor commanding any attention from the audience due to concentrating. I positioned the audience and camera, so I was looking at them to make it clear and intimate. I believe the stage set up and lighting could’ve made the ambience better. My overall impression on my performance wasn’t my best. After struggling with timing and not understanding the loop pedal, I feel like I could’ve experimented and gone further with this.

Jack and Michael