Using your research and your practice diary, create a set of programme notes to
accompany your recital. Your notes will take the form of a short summary of the song,
original artist, style, rationale for song choice, the changes you have made to each song
and why, and how your final repertoire showcases your instrumental skills, creativity and
versatility as a performer.
Introduction- For my solo performance i have chosen 3 songs to sing which will last around 12 minutes. The songs that i have chosen to sing are: Ex's & Oh's by Elle King, Bad Guy by Billie Eilish and lastly i will be singing Rooftops by Lost Prophets. Each song that i chose to start with have all been quite upbeat/ happy songs whereas with the changes that i have made, they will sound more emotional and will all also be slightly longer than the original versions. To successfully change all my songs i had to get really creative with my choices of song and also style changes, the way i have interpreted these songs could be different to everyone else but i really focussed on how much i could physically change these songs as a vocalist which did prove quite a lot harder than i thought it would be in the beginning.
Ex's & Ohs- Elle King
Ex's & Oh's is originally a pop-rock upbeat song sung by singer Elle King, originally this song is quite a fast, danceable song but with the changes that i have decided to make within the song it will be a much slower intimate version played on piano. The reason i decided that i wanted to turn this song into a slow jazz version was because i really love when an audience can connect and understand a song on a deeper level. I think that the original version of the song does give off some emotion but i definitely prefer turning songs into more slow emotional versions. For this song i have one of my classmates/ best friend playing alongside me on piano for this song as playing instruments is not one of my biggest strengths ( i will be learning how to play piano within the next few weeks in order to accompany myself). Emily plays the piano in a way that brings out the best in my jazzy vocals when im singing the song, there are lots of pauses when she plays and it feels very bouncy and overall like jazz. The original length of this song is 3 minutes 45 seconds, i sing it more relaxed than the original version therefore when singing it through with Emily if she plays through it quite slow compared to the original. The original version of the song was written by Elle King and Dave Bassett and was released 9 years ago in 2015. During my preparation for this song i did run into a few problems, one of them being that i couldnt practice through this song as much as i should have done towards the start of the project. This is something that couldnt really be helped at the time as during the start all of us were mainly focussing on our band projects, despite this i still think that i should have personally make more of an effort to practice the song with Emily my accompanier.
Bad Guy- Billie Eilish
Bad Guy by Billie Eilish is originally a Pop/alternative genre which was sung by Billie Eilish and written by herself and her brother Finneas. Her brother Finneas also produced this song for Billie, the song runs for around 3 minutes and 30 seconds and was released in 2019. Overall this song isnt a particularly fast song or a slow song so there were many things that i could do to this song in order to change it. The way in which i have decided to change Bad Guy again is to turn it into a much slower jazz version played on guitar by one of my classmates and fellow bandmates Lucie. The reason why i have chosen to change this song into the style of jazz is because alike to my first song Ex's & Oh's i want my audience to feel like they can connect with the song in more of an intimate way. Within this song i have made quite a few changes such as the tempo, when practicing with Lucie we both realised very quickly that we were going to have to slow the tempo in order for me to add a more jazzy swing to it whilst im singing the song. Within this song, i have also added a scat section after the second pre chorus of the song, i decided to do this after doing my genre research on jazz and found a video of Ella Fitzgerald doing scat singing within one of her songs. During my preparation for my second song again in the same way as my first song, i didnt rehearse with Lucie enough during the early weeks of this project. This then caused me to struggle in the later weeks a bit as when i should have performed in front of the class i didnt do it as i knew i wasnt prepared enough therefore i didnt manage to get many videos showcasing my progress throughout the entirety of this project.
Rooftops- Lost Prophets
Rooftops by Lost Prophets is a upbeat rock song originally which runs for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and was released back in 2006. As this song is quite a fast paced rock song i decided that i wanted to turn it into a slower ballad. Again one of the reasons i have decided to turn it into a ballad is because i think that i sing that style stronger than most others. I feel like ballads really tend to evoke emotion from the audience and this is what i want to happen when i sing the song in this different style. The way in which i have changed the song is that i have completely slowed the tempo, i also sing it quite breathy kind of inspired by Billie Eilish. Casey plays guitar using some soft strumming and also some finger picking to make it feel more emotional and powerful lyrically. Me and Casey also had the idea to use a capo which will make it a bit higher for me to sing, more in the style of common ballads. If i could change anything about the way i have gone about practicing this song it would be to have made a timeline at the start to figure out when i would have time to work on it. I dont feel like specifically for this song that i have been working on it enough ( practicing with casey). A way in which this could have been avoided from the start would have been to create a timeline at the beginning so that i knew when Casey would be available to practice with me. Another thing i should have done was to have Casey record herself playing the guitar for me at the start so that i would have been able to play along to that whilst at home practicing as when i have been practicing i have only been able to do it accapella.
Conclusion- Overall throughout this project i feel like i have been super creative in the way i have changed my songs, my main objective was to pull in the audience with the emotion showed through the lyrics and my singing. I think that i have successfully changed each song to a point where they are performance ready and am happy with the stage i am at. Overall the only thing i would change if i was to do this again would be to make a timetable of when Emily, Casey and Lucie would be available to practice as i didnt get to practice as much as i ideally would have.