Rehearse your repertoire and gather feedback/ constructive criticism on how you could improve and further develop your ideas. Write/ VLOG a weekly evaluative reflection of your repertoire's development. Include in your evaluations how you overcame any problems, what went well, how you could improve, and your plans for moving forward.
Discuss any learning resources (lead sheets, tabs, youtube vids, other musicians) who have helped you learn and develop your parts.
Reflect on any challenges within the material and how you approached these.
Rehearsing repertoire effectively (either solo or with other musicians).
Reflection on any developments or improvements you have been able to make as a result of any feedback session - either from teachers or other musicians.
Types of evidence for this blog could include:
Written blog entries, response videos, filming/recording yourself practising certain techniques and discussing them, listening diaries, audio recordings.
Evidence:
Blog detailing the development of your original compositions and rehearsals.
Weekly Evaluations of the work you have conducted.
Deadline: Friday 22nd November (Week 10- Term 1)
In this week we were put into bands by are tutor and were told we need to create four to six songs mixing genres using genre blend techniques but first had to pick and make sure we were going to be playing the correct instruments. Ash are other vocalist decide to do vocals instead of bass so tom one of are guitars decided to play bass as he has a large intrest into the instrument and wants to widen there pallet on instrument they are at a good enough level at playing. I decided to carry on my role as one of the two lead vocalists. After this as a group we decided to sit down and think of what genres we all like playing or are interested in playing. We then came up with. four songs were going to compose which each have two different genres. We tried to pick some opposite genres but also picked some which we believe would be extremely successful and we believed we could make something really interesting with the combination of them two genres. After doing this we made a vote on which one out of the four songs we fought would be are favourite and metal country came first we we decided to spend this week looking into that song in are practical lessons and i decised to do research into country music as it is one of my favourite genres of music.
In are first rehearsal we sat down as we had just mixed groups one and two together so i didnt know well some members in my group i had been placed in. We wanted to hit the ground running so the first thing we did was we sat in a circle intruduced are selves and said what instruments we played. After doing this we realised that one of the members usually played bass howether really wanted to follow the side of singing as he had focused on that very much throughout the summer and wants to work on on it. This worked out quite well as one of the guitarist wanted to start playing bass and lucky we had two guitarist so we decided to start with that and see how it goes but try not to change and confuse it. We then sat in a group and decided what genres we wanted to blend as this is a hard decision so we believed it would make are lives easier if we do that now instead of doing it later on so it means we have a safe plan for each song we decide to make. We decided we want to make four songs and each of which only has two genres howether they are very different as its all about showing how well are creative skills as a group work together. We started of by asking around what peoples favourate genres were abnd after a while we got some songs we wanted to start working on. We decided to start on the first song as it was in are eyes the most simple the genres being Metal country. I already had a idea in my head as i had seen country rock which might be similar so i had a starting point which I explained to the band. I was abnle to really help tom as i had experiance looking into country bass lines for my own personal research as wanted to make a country album and i listen to alot of music. What i explained to him is a decent amount of songs like tenessee wiskey were the basses is playing a completely different grove to the guitarist however it fills the song up and doesnt clash and i wanted to incorperate that style in the songs but we needed to look into metal and i knew due to ollie the guirtarist playing style alot of the metal aspects would come from the bass so we had a chat as a group and decided to not use this technique completely.
As we started we struggled to get a starting point so i explained to the band that the aspect of country is the songs have a simple 4/4 time signature So george the drummer started with that which didnt take long as i know the most about country tom (bassist) asked me what a simple chord progression was and i asked honestly and said i didnt know so we looked it up and 1,4,5 it the most common chord progresion. After this tom and ollie both being guitarist and basist got to work and after coming up with something they sat down and help keifer with what to play for his part of the song. We new it would need to get alot heavier so this chord progresion works nicely.
After listening to the song that the group had come up with as a starter we asked ollie (guitarist) if he could use distortion on the guitar to give of motal aspects. After this the band came up with a soft verse section to which me and ash made vocals to. We were then able to start working and expeimenting on ideas for the breakdown. A key aspect was speeding up the tempo and proceeding to. increase distortion and play alot harsher. We were able to create both instrumental aspect of the song and come up with some verses for me and Ash to sing. We originally asked the band to make the verse part of the song very slow and relaxed as ash came up with the idea of having a brake down in the same place as the chorus.
We had a lot of problems with the fact many people in the group wanted to play in different instruments howether this is actually a problem because there were people who were put in the band to play that instrument. We had to get around this problem so we asked people first what instrument they play and if its different what they wanna play. We realised that some people wanted to change this being bass to vocals and guitar to bass. the bass was fine as we asked and everyone agreed and we had a spare guitarist so that was ok. The next one was the changing from bass as we found this out before tom said he would want to change to bass after so we had a problem. I had no problem having another vocalist but after comunicating it was soughted.
We started the week by working again on what we wanted to do for the breakdown but we werent sure if we were showing of aspects of country and especially metal becaise the music seemed very much to soft and knowere as heavy as actual metal music I had listened to for inspiration shown to me by Ash. We asked are peers for advice and for them o listen to are music and tell us wether it sounded like the two genres and if not what genres they did sound like. What they told us was it didnt have nearly any aspects of metal, then we asked about what genres it reminds them of to which hey answered it sounded alot like soul music compared to country for example the guitar tone and the piano organ and the vocal aspects showed this the most. We asked another one of are peers and they told us it sounds more like punk than any other heavy style of music so we decide to scrap are last ideas and go along with this and adapt with it.
We worked on the verse at the start of the week to get that finished so it was ready for us to move on from as we wanted to finish the songs in sections. Me and ash came up with with some finished lyrics for the vocals for two verses as we were going to use the breakdown as a chorus in a way. We wanted the breakdown to show of the aspects of punk and we believed the best way of doing that is having a breakdown as without this we cant speed up the tempo. Another reason is that the two genres are so different doing this allows us as a band to show of the aspects of punk. Me and ash decided not to use lyrics in the chorus ash then said that this will allow us to show of the punk aspects through the instruments.
We were able to change are song to two different new genres sucessfully and were able to come up with a fulll song that only needs touching up to be finished for example cues to when come in and make it alot more professional and performance ready. At the end of the week we then did a performance which i believed went well howether when it got to certain parts of the song the band made some mistakes which is understandable as it was there frist time playing as a band together. I also made some mistakes with the vocals due to my voice was very strained due to alot of performances and rehearsals out of college. We decided to completely change the drums for the breakdown and we decided to keep the heavy playing through out the end of the song and also added a build to show more aspect of the heavy side of the song to show of the parts of punk we tried to add to the song.
We had to deal with the fact that are song wasnt in the correct genres that we said it was. We spoke to are teachers and asked what genre they believed the song we were playing was and they said completely opposit genres to what we were trying to symbolise We deallt with this problem by asking what genre are music did sound like and we asked a couple teachers aswell to see if they have simillar answers. After doing this two teachers said they had more aspects from soul and punk compared to anything. The way we dealt with this was we decide to chang are plans on genres and for this one time change them to the genres we were told it sounded like meaning we could carry on what were doing and not have to completely change it which would effect time.
We stated working on are original song number 2 trying to come up with a idea, the forst thing we ad was thew teo genres we were trying to make the song sound like and these were Glam rock and funk. We started of with trying to get a starting bases for the song so we came up with. verse with aspects of rock and other genres and then planned on after this changing it to these genres by adding aspects of that song. We wrere able to make a verse and later on in the week we worked on changing it to glam rock but didnt finish and were able to add aspects of funk through the bass line for example Tom (bassist) used octives in the bass line to give it that walking bass vine to show of funk aspects. We struggled trying to find the exact sopund we wanted and the reaso for this beng no many of us had ever listened to glam rock and that style.
This week we had a similar problem to the weeks before with our second song, starting to sound like genres. We decided we didn't want to play or hadn't picked for this song. For example, we wanted to go for a Glamrock funk vibe and instead we got quite a dark soft song which, as the other vocalist in the band described was a lot more like bands like the cure. We believe that the reason for this happening was no one in the band had done much research on the genres. We had picked beforehand meaning no one had a good understanding of both genres in general let alone how to play styles of that genre. We knew the way to proceed in this situation. What's the try and change the song we had already written into the styles we had picked in the first place, unlike what we did for the first song, otherwise this would become a occurring problem. Add to focus on just making songs and then trying to figure out what genres they were. They do what we are supposed to do which is be creative and blend genres we had picked beforehand. I also wanted to be more involved with the lyrics, so I asked Ash the other vocalist what the song was about.
At the start of the week we looked into the genres that we had and what we come up with. We're very pleased with the song we had created however we started to realise like the first song it didn't seem like the genre we had picked we strugled the most with trying to get aspects of Glamrock. Reason for this being the genre has loads of aspects of different styles of music. For example, if you songs by David Bowie, you can see that they have a very rock 'n' roll styled rhythm to the songs where is our son was very much slow and quite gloomy. After listening to some Glam rock on my head, I noticed the majority of the music is very upbeat and positive which is the complete opposite to are song as it is about Frankenstein we all sat down as a group in rehearsals and thought of different ways.
After being given this advice we decide it would be a good idea to try and tweak the song instead of make a new one to save time. We started off with drumbeat, we asked are drummer George if it would be possible for him to speed up the tempo and give it some texture making it upbeat. As I'm experimenting by listening to some songs with George and the band we were able to make a similar style to the songs we are listening to which we know our Glamrock. As tom had already made a baseline extremely funky we decided to leave that be as it works with the drum already after some minor adjustments. The guitar had a different style as it was quite bluesy so ollie tried to make something for the mean time but ash gave him some songs for research as we werent expecting hm to make it straight away. We also relised to give the aspects of this genre we would have to change the lyrics and also the rhythmn as it was in a way the opposit of the genre.
Much like week two we had a similar problem with the fact we have made a song in the wrong genres however, we do problem differently this week due to time we had set for ourselves on the song. Instead of cutting corners we wanted to do it correctly and decide to take the song we are created and actually turn into the genres we had picked. Obviously this wasn't going to happen in one rehearsal session however, we were also given by our someone who listens to the genres some songs to listen to for inspiration for example, helping only actually come up with a guitar riff and that was the easiest way to help him do that I'll give him some support making sure he does it correctly, so we dont have to repeat the process as it was very evident that a lot of people in the band didn't know about these different genres or some more than overs. This was allow us as a band to succed for a song making a genre blended song correctlly instead of poorly like the first and having to change the ideas last minute and this allowed us to suceed as a group.
Due to terrible illness i wasnt able to go in this week and i sadly was so ill i wasnt even able to do research on different music like we had said. I believe though after coming in on the last day of the week they had come up with some ideas for song three and decided to move on from song two as they were still struggling and didnt want to work on it without me so they decided to work on the next one. To not confuse me they stuck to the genres we had agreed on so they decided to to do jazz and country howether they werent sure on the country aspect so the decided on using jazz as the startig point as we had experimented with it before and then when im better look at a second genre to blend and incorperate into the song.
In this week we made a fully finished jazz song that we havent yet incorperated into it another genre howith we have made a incredible starting point. We also made the song with no problems in showing what genre the song was and to everyone we showed told us it was very jazzy which is a great sign i believe it helped the people in the band new a lot of information about jazz from maybe personal research outside of the course or maybe a genre understanding of the genre.
For this caught up on the song I missed out last week band made as I was ill. Come up with a cool jazz song that was a finish and a come up with us for the chorus. I love the sound of the song and it definitely showed aspects of jazz which is perfect as we were worried it was going to be like the other two songs I would have to work on it to make it sound like the genre. After listening to the song, I found out that I should come up with some lyrics alongside Ash to get along with the song and thanks for the rhythm of the song. It was very easy to come up with some ideas. After talking to the band about what other genre to do the song with we originally we going to play country music after talking to Jordan and Judith. They thought it would be a good idea to do hip-hop as it would allow George on the drums to show off his talent and allow him to use some trap beats. They implied that I should come up with a rap for the s, as that would be the best way to show up that style of genre to make it very clear, but that is what we were trying to portray as the songs before they do this as well. Although at the end of the week I wasn't able to come up with some ideas that I believe we're good enough.
After explaining this to my teacher, he said the best way to do it for this week is just show off the aspects of jazz and then the next week focus on trying to add a hip-hop style techniques for the song. He said the best way to portray this in a similar aspect would be to do scat. I then agreed. I looked into some scouting ideas for this song as it all depends on the different rhythm and tempo song is being played at. Scattered is when you make Rhythmic noises, however, they are not words and I improvised as that's usually what happens and it all depends on the mood during that day. After practising some of this we did an LPW which is a performance and we performed all three songs that we had already to the class and I experimented by scating start with the band and got loads of good feed back to the point we might keep the scatting but just do a rap and a chorus befor hand. The performance went amazing for stage presents and there were only a small amount of minor mistakes through out the performance so was very sucessful and people were able to identify the genres.
We faced some problems with coming up with different solo ideas for the song for example we wanted both guitar and piano to have a solo and they struggled to come up with ideas we explained to them to have it be improvised as that way it all depends on your mood and the audiance cant judge you as it all has been created there and then. We also struggled with lyrical ideas for thew rap but as i said decvided for now to switch it out with a scat instrumental and thats when the boys both did there solos when i cued them in
In this week were going to take are fourth genre blend and try to make a instrumental part of the song however not lyrics due to most of the band also doing a lot of work on solo performances and course work. Due to me going to universitys we werent able to make lyrics and i wasnt there for the performance in the tv studios however spoke to the band so i still had a good understanding for the next week so i know what we need to do.
In this week we were able to take time on making are forth song but also trying to make are intire set finished so it is ready fdor next weeks performance. We started by looking at the two genres we have chosen to merge. These were pop and regae. Straight away we all asked if ollie woukld be able to play whatever chords we come up with in a of beat rythmn and quite sudden strikes. As it was pop we asked george if he could play a joyful 4\4 beat and change to the ride from the high hat with whatever he comes up with. After the band came up with a verse of some kind we wanted to make the instrumental for the chorus before making lyrics so me and ash helped the band and we were able to come up with coriagraphed parts of the song and the instrumental with out lyrics already sounds extremely catchy and i know will pull in the listeners. We tried to get a point in the song were we were all in sink however due to not having lyrics we said we would wait till we had them. My band while i weas away did a live performance performing are second song, thanks to this they werent able to finish the song so it will have to carry on to the next week even though this is the week of the final performance. Doing the tv studios was amazing as it means more people have been able to see the performance.
Due to my abcense we had alot of problems with getting ar 4 song ready howether i contacted the band while i was away and explained to them what to do if there were any problems they would contact me in the group chat and i would do the best i could to help or give my opinion to the matter. They listen to me thanks to the fact that i have quite a creative mind set like the other vocalist ash. We also struggled with making the song catch and up beat, we dealt with this thanks to the drummer george being able to make a drum beat without any help that was up beat that wer all could work of this helped us massively.
As a band due to problems we had a week to finish are fourth song we had only just really made a starting instrumental section. however in this week we can try to finish are song and complete set of our four songs. Were also going to try to make sure if any part of are set is slightly wrong or needs to be worked on we will. We also are going to review are performance and say what we could do better.
As a group we knew we were short on time so we decided the band would see what they could come up with a chorus and the part they had already made was going to be used as a verse as it work quite well. I sat with ashand said i cou;d make some lyrics to do with a party. The reason for a party is it is a common subject in pop music so would be easy for us to show of the aspects of pop in the song aswelll as regae as its about being with friends and mainly positive. I was able to come up with a verse to start us of. We asaked the band to keep looping what they were playing and tweeking so me and ash were able to come up with some rythmns for the vocals and different ideas. Ash took the lyrics and changed the lyrics ever so slightly so they could be split up. They way he did this was he took the bars and split them up and then made works that would ryhme and it worked extremely well. As it is pop it needed to have catch chorus and i came up with the idea of singing the lyrics at a fast tempo as ash is very talented when it comes to singing songing in a fast tempo rhythmn.
After I suggested some lyrics we had come up with the chorus there was a section were ash attacked three words in the chorus powerfully and the band decide to take advantage of that and pause inbetween each word making it even more powerful and hooks the listener straight away. We described it as a mini brakedown were everyone in the band is in sinc and it was the best thing when we were trying to make the chorus catch as when you listen to it one time through your body makes you naturely sing along the second time. In the next rehearsal we decided we were going to repeat the chorus as its simple to show its pop and regae uses this technique aswell. We fought we would end with two chorus which the second one is full of energy to show the audiance it is the last section of the song.
We then at the end of this day did are finished performance for all are genre blended songs. When playing every song we didnt make many mistakes apart from were there originaly was a rap in the song i had to use the jazz technique Scatting becaise my lyrics turned of and i didnt know them of by heart saidly. I know for future referance i need to learn all the lyrics for the song before the performance so nothing like this would happen again. Are last song which we had made that day actually was one of the best songs in the eyes of the audiance they said it was the song we sould record in the studio as it was so catchy with the chorus and showed of the genre blending of better than the other songs. Not only other students said this but tutors aswell.
We didnt have enough time to make a secondary chorus for the song. The way we dealt with this problem was we decided to just repeat the firstverse as we tried it all the way throgh and it sounded fine, however it would be alot more finalised and profesinal if it had a secd new verse. We also rushed the struture and didnt have a finalised structure for the song meaning people were slightly underprepared as the song hadn't tecniqually been finished. The way we dealt with this is before the performance we actually sat down as a group and came up wit the stucture so everyone new so we couldnt make any mistakes.