Evaluation of the end-of-term performance.

What did YOU contribute to your group? 

Within my band, I take on the role of the bassist and the sonic link between the rhythmical and melodic elements of any band. Importantly that was my main function and brought 'to the table' with other musicians, but additionally, other roles that I fulfilled would be a mixture of communicator, motivator, and negotiator. As much as I don't naturally fit into the leader role sometimes, and as I am in a large group we all open up to group suggestions which we either do in person or through our online group chat. Throughout this term, we have been exploring decades from the 1950s to the 2000s, our challenge was to pick out a cover from that decade and then secondly create a creative cover in the style of that decade. All of us discussed what songs we wanted to do and allowed each other to choose a song. I think I am a good communicator as I will discuss with the band what is or isn't working with a certain song, for example, the group suggested 'Footloose' as our '80s cover, and after looking and trying the bassline, days we had left to the performance. I told the group, that realistically we were not going to get that song polished and ready to perform, so we all re-discussed and changed our decision.  

Discuss – do you think it is important to have a balance of roles within the band?  

Within the band, there are three vocalists, a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. Different roles did occur within the group, as the three main vocalists took the roles of the leader, especially Emily who was good at organizing and coming up with creative material. As well as Charlie who is our drummer, he was motivating to get work done; even when the rest of the group was tired, he would always have a happy persona and a positive attitude throughout the musical journey. Ollie who is the guitarist, is a quiet member of the band who is a gifted guitarist, but he sometimes lacks a little bit of confidence, which is absolutely fine as we all work together. We urge him to experiment by turning up his amp and creating loud noises which we would love for him to do with the guitar a bit more. Ollie is a really lovely guy who always has a good attitude to practicing and learns the material quickly, his role is as the negotiator, as he brought his song suggestions to the group. To be the most productive best our performances, we always aimed to practice our weakest songs first and see what mistakes were made and then fix them, so we feel a lot better about the song. 

Not all rehearsals are always productive, as we may not have any motivation or ideas circling at that moment, but normally if someone has something to suggest we would text one another about the idea. Normally, we would play a song that we all know well to get us in a good mood, and therefore that may lead to being productive. Therefore, no roles were assigned, but people naturally fell into them and we all got on as a group.

Discuss what YOUR main STRENGTHS were in the band. 

Some of my main strengths would be knowing my part well and keeping a positive attitude throughout rehearsals. Every two weeks, we did a live performance called an LPW, in front of other classmates. It is important to do my part confidently, and as we don't have a lot of time, using home practice can save time in rehearsals. That would be one of my strengths as I listen to the track and then learn it. Sometimes it's not the whole song right away, especially if the structure is confusing, but I at least like to learn the opening verse so that we can work on it as a group in sections. The organization is really important, as it is all about saving precious time as a band and knowing that I have got my part sorted, which releases any stress. Therefore my attributes did help my progress and development, by confidently knowing what I am supposed to do and having a positive approach to rehearsals.

Discuss what YOUR main WEAKNESSES were in the band.  

My main weaknesses were particularly when it came to the performances rather than the rehearsals. I believe sometimes being anxious can affect your overall performance, when I perform I sometimes feel worried I am going to get a note or chord wrong or go out of time with the drums. Confidence and self-reassurance are important, and as I've kept performing I have felt way happier, and so, therefore, I can relax on stage. As well as experimenting and going out of my comfort zone with different songs and the techniques that they adopt, I enjoy going out of my comfort, which isn't seen as a negative but it's more of something that I need to do more often and get used to.

What do you think the main strengths and weaknesses were of the others in your band? 

Within the group, we are all strong musically and know how to play our instruments very well. The strengths within the group would be that we all come up with similar ideas, in a way that we are all on the same page with the plan on what songs we want to do. 

The main leader would be Emily S, and she's good at leading the group as well as opening out to each of us, and asking what should we do to make the songs even better. This goes to all of us, as we speak out if we believe that something is not quite right. As a whole, we are all honest with one another if we want to work on something and can be comfortable within each other's company. Emily is always really keen to get work done, and prioritizing what songs need to most work. As we group we set a challenge to make our own 90s creative cover, and Emily was quick to get chords and lyrics down, as well as communicating to me and Ollie successfully about the chord progression and making our instruments sound 1990s. 

As well as Ellie who is another female vocalist, joined our group a little bit later and easily fitted into the group nicely. Ellie's strengths would be her communication during practice sessions, and learning each song at home before coming to practice to save the time we have as a group.

 Archie is another strong singer, he's always helpful and on board with guitar sections and helping Ollie gain confidence. Especially as were thinking about doing a 2000s original and Archie was quick with getting a rhythm and lyrics down. Therefore the vocalists all work well together to discuss who does what verse and choruses and overall the songs always sound nice and harmonized.

Charlie P is another one, who is good at keeping the mood and environment energetic, especially as it can get quite stressful when learning the songs, as it takes longer for different people to learn the chords and material.  Overall Charlie always brings positive energy to lessons and practice.

Ollie P is a really good guitarist, he is always patient with others and is quick at learning songs. On certain occasions, when we've decided what songs to do in rehearsals, Ollie is quick on board with finding chords and getting most of the song on the spot.

One weakness for all of us as a group would be being productive, as the whole group tries our best to be the most productive that we can, but it's difficult when all the others have to learn the chords in a lesson because we have decided what songs to play during rehearsals when instead we should have done that over the weekend via our group chat. Therefore, by learning it at home first and then bring what you have learned to class.  Such as Ollie P who is our only guitarist, puts some pressure on him to learn quite a lot of material as well as having the confidence to be loud and relaxed. He had gone out of his comfort zone,  Time management can also be seen as a weakness, due to certain situations we've left it quite late to choose a song and therefore it becomes quite stressful to learn a song quickly, but I like to see it as a challenge sometimes. Therefore

What we have done this term

Throughout this term, my fellow band selected songs from each decade starting from the 1950s to the 2000s. We would therefore perform the song by using techniques that were used in that decade. Such as for me as a bass player, I looked closely on the walking bass for our 1950s cover ‘Fever’ and how that came about in the 1950s, as the technique was typically used for jazz singers but further developed into rock n roll. For our creative cover, we chose 'Locked Out Of Heaven' by Bruno Mars, this song is catchy and groovy and it was interesting how we would tackle it. By slowing the bassline down and keeping intact with Charlie's drum tempo, which was a swing pattern, the song began to sound the 1950s. Our first LPW in front of other classmates was at first daunting, but after performing both songs I felt confident and the rest of the group felt the same, as were still getting use to playing with one another. Within project one, we were assigned to create a documentary, featuring rehearsal videos and interviews of how we think rehearsals are going and what we can improve on.

For our second LPW, we moved on to the 1960s where are cover was the iconic 'Twist and Shout' by The Beatles, and our creative cover was 'All The Good Girls Go To Hell' by Billie Eilish. The Beatle's cover is a very upbeat early rock song, and the bass line is quick in tempo, at first I found it difficult to keep up with the drum rhythm. But I took time in my own space to listen to the song and play the bassline along with the track. For our creative cover, we wanted to start a dark route, by making the song hard and psychedelic rock. Billie Eilish is a profound singer and the lyrics to her songs are extremely dark as they discuss suicide and youth mental health. It was important to incorporate layers to this song, starting with the piano and slowly the toms of the drums and then the bass and guitar with the combination of the great vocals. I liked playing this song as it is eerie with the build-up to the chorus. Our second performance did not go as well as we hoped, I think it partially was due to us being underprepared and too relaxed, we did not practice our 50s songs as we were mainly focusing on the '60s which I think was a mistake and led to the 'Locked Out of Heaven' being untidy with the beginning and end. Therefore, we knew that we had to focus on the songs we didn't feel confident with and seek about the weak spots, such as we didn't realize that my bass was in a different key to the piano and that had to be fixed.

We all reflected on what happened and what we needed to improve on but also looked at the positives of what we did well. Fever is one of our best performances, as we're tight with the dynamics and knowing where the key change happens. After the last LPW, we knew what we needed to work on, which was the starts and endings of each song, starting with 'Locked Out of Heaven'. As I listened to the song at home, I counted how many choruses there were until the song ended, so I knew when to stop playing. While we were perfecting each song we had already learned, it was time for us to move on to our '70s songs. We found it difficult to decide what songs to choose for our cover and creative cover, as there was such a broad choice and many songs we liked but had to make it sound 1970s.

 For our cover we chose 'Hotel California' by Eagles, which has a groovy bassline and I really enjoyed learning in my own home practice. For our 70s creative cover, I suggested doing Katy Perry's 'I Kissed A Girl', As well as enjoying learning songs into rock n roll, and turning the song into the punk genre. My research included listening to 1970s punk music who were the popular bassists within that genre and time, and what techniques did they use. The first rehearsal sounded good, and were all quick to learn our parts which was a confident feeling. Our third LPW went so much better than our previous one, within my part I didn't feel like I had any mistakes and we had positive feedback after we had performed. The only limitation for that performance would be our transitions and quickly getting ready to perform, our group took too long to get ready especially as we needed an acoustic guitar to plug in and ready to go. Therefore organization would be a key lesson.

Preparation for our end-of-term concert was being approached, and we had strong ideas for what we wanted to perform. It was time for our 1980s now and we were struggling with what to choose for our cover The first choice was 'Footloose' by Kenny Loggins, but I noted that it would be a difficult song to learn in the little time we had allowed ourselves. For the creative cover, we all felt strongly about turning pop songs into rock songs, so we chose to do 'Toxic' by Britney Spears. Finally, we chose to do the infamous Guns n Roses anthem 'Sweet Child O Mine' which was a major challenge. We did not allow ourselves enough time to learn this mega song and limited it to 2 hours altogether. When it came to the LPW, we all didn't feel confident about it, but still gave it a go, with Ollie trying his best to get the famous Slash solos down. As the song ended we knew we could bring ourselves back up by doing Toxic, which went so much better and left the energy on a high note. After the performance, he began to create our setlist and tec-rider for the end-of-term performance, organizing what should go first and last. As well as what we needed for the performance such as lighting and additional instruments.

In my own practice, I was looking at what I needed to work on in my own performance. Such as looking at Toxic, which was a relatively new song that we had learned and I wanted to get the structure correct and certain key changes.  A couple of days before the performance, we went on to our '90s songs and the others really wanted to do 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus. I already knew the song on bass beforehand, so it was quick to learn with the other band members. We decided to change the setlist around and swap Billie Eilish's 'All The Good Girls Go To Hell' for 'Teenage Dirtbag ' as we thought it sounded more strong. 

The Performance

Preparation for the performance, included all of us doing some rehearsals during our lessons but not overdoing the songs and tiring ourselves out and taking it steady. The actual performance that evening went well, positively there was no mess up in terms of playing the wrong chords or singing the wrong lyrics. But I made the mistake of putting my bass into a guitar amp by accident. It therefore made my guitar have loud distortion, which could be seen as a bad or good thing. My first thought as I started playing was that I had plugged into the wrong amp and I wasn't sure where to go. Therefore, my lesson would be to ask and check where I am meant to be. Other than that our first song 'Teenage Dirtbag' went fairly well, as the drums were loud I couldn't hear any of the others play, I think the last two songs were the best ones and they were loud and energetic, ending our set with our best song 'I Kissed A Girl'. In the end, we had feedback from the performance and knew that Teenage Dirtbag wasn't our best song, but the creative covers were well chosen to go last. Therefore our first college performance went well and we all were supportive throughout the term to get to where we are.