Audition Portfolio

Kyouran Hey Kids!! (creative cover)

(The Oral Cigarettes): For my first solo I had 

performed a Jrock song - where I transcribed my own sections, to add more flavour and dynamics to the guitar composition whilst still keeping the original foundation key. 

This performance I chose as I'd be less comfortable performing it - being a rhythm driven song; having a slight funk-esque vibe, with parts having bass slapping applied to my guitar, and the sections I had written having things such as rapid finger-picking etc.

Pros: I transcribed the majority as moreso - a creative cover to showcase different technique and capabalities such as slap technique and fingerpicking. Showcased a more rhythmic side to my performing capabilities, exploring an unconventional structure of song - being a jrock song, in which I am very fond on their abstract chord structures and rhythmic emphasis in both pop and rock music.

Cons: Whilst the performance was pretty smooth - as there was only one take, I did not want to rush and so was slightly behind on certain sections, when compared to the backing track. I could have stood up and had more of a stage prescence but wasn't feeling during the week - something that as a performer in music, should not be a problem -and to improve upon.

Overall Feedback From Peers: For both performances - there was only praise for the technical and melodic proficiency of my playing - as expected. And again as expected an improvement to be made would be stage presence - which personally I could have accounted for particularly in the first song.

0:07: Kyouran (Original Version)

Aviator (solo) (main performance)

(Polyphia, ft Jason Richardson): For my second solo I had performed the entirety of the solo performed by modern day virtuoso Jason Richardson of All That Remains, aswell as the chorus melody performed by virtuoso Tim Henson, of Polyphia. The entirety of the solo was copied however performed at an irregular pace due to trying to remember each individual note, pausing at time, learnt within a 2 week time frame along with coursework etc. This showcased my technical proficiency and is the highlight performance, having a hardtailed guitar I chose to add extra melodies to the intro and end for my own flare :)

Pros: My better performance, this is my style of playing - despite being a 'virtuoso' piece, I felt comfortable in my performance - playing fairly smoothly for a first take - given I had left myself 2 weeks to learn the piece from scratch. The vibrato and melodic choice that I improvised in the intro and finale was beautiful and just played from sincerity which worked out well - my sweeping, string skipping, legato and alternate picking was very accurate too - despite some bends being slightly too sharp out of nerves :)

Cons: I could played more perfectly - on autopilot - which meant i was not focusing on playing faster than I could/more accurate. Some bends were too sharp due to nerves. Finally - as I had to learn the entirety of the solo in a very short time, there were slower moments to remember the notes - particularly in the alternate picking run during the middle of the solo section and somewhat in the intro. (No whammy - hardtail). 

Another piece of feedback on the notes given had been to focus on the slight inconsistencies in the timing of the first song - that I, as mentioned, was aware of.

2:12: Aviator (chorus+solo)