Project 1 evaluation

I felt like the role I fulfilled in our band was mostly being one of the motivators of our group, although we all worked quite well at motivating each other. If people were not performing to their best of abilities, I would suggest to play a song that we all know very well. Therefore, hopefully lifting the atmosphere of the group.

I also played a role in arrangement, by assisting with arrangement of songs to play in our set, what parts people should and should not play in songs, and the structure of the songs.

Of course, my main role in the band is the drummer, the very heart part of any band. The role of a drummer is to create the sense of time and feeling of Rythm and groove of the band.

In many of the songs we have played, I have proved that I play an important role. Such as times in songs were there are breaks that are hard to count. I will usually play a small fill to keep everybody on track.

I think it is very important that everybody in a band has a role, as to keep one person from trying to handle everything at once, and to give everyone in the band a sense of purpose outside of the instrument they play. This not only splits the job of running a band evenly, but gives a role that fits the person accordingly.

It will also stop more than one person from trying to be the leader, which can sometimes lead to clashes of ego. But I felt in out band that we were quite democratic, of course some people are naturally louder.

Situations like this in a band can lead to dysfunctional Teamwork and overall productiveness for the band members. It has definitely proven that separating roles leads to a more functional band. It also revealed hidden qualities that each band member had. For instance, who is a good leader, who is the best at arranging, and who has the “best sense of humour.” Humour can often lift the atmosphere.

My main strength in helping manage the band, was in the arrangement. Generally, such as helping people figure out their parts to play in a song, what order songs should be in our setlist, placing people in their positions on stage, and sometimes helping people find their roles in the band.

The reason why I took on this role is because, I feel like I have very good attention to detail. I feel like this role helped our band in transitions between songs, if people must switch instruments, deciding which songs should go first and last in our set list. It makes it sound smooth and professional. Having a well-planned out setlist helped a lot in how we wanted our performance to feel for the audience.

I do have some experience working in a band with lots of different people, as I’ve been going to some kind of Rock group for quite a few years so I think it was valuable.

I think I am also good at introducing interesting ideas to make a song more exciting, surprising for the audience and the band as well. As the drummer, I'm able import ideas into songs such as different rhythms and fills to make the song sound unique and more engaging.

Occasionally I might find myself overplaying with the song, this is a weakness because it may throw other people of tempo or confuse them on where they are in the song. When this would happen, I would try to look round at the band to see if they were with me or not. I would then go back to try and play the basic rhythm of the song. To improve for the next performance, I will try to stick to the original material of the song. But if I do branch off a little bit I will try and agree about it with my band mates about this beforehand.

I sometimes struggle with on stage communication, as sometimes I’m not totally listening to my bandmates. It may also be because of any kind of the ear protection I wear all times if I'm drumming. Communication is very important to me and the band in genral, just in case any one of us find ourselves getting confused when changing songs. To solve this problem, I have tried to get up off the drum kit and speak to people directly in-between songs.

I think speaking up to my fellow members about communication onstage is something I might want to make them aware of. I will ask them to speak up more and check we can hear each other.

Cat – vocalist

Main strength - Very good at projecting her ideas and speaking out to the rest of the band. Amazing vocalist, able to sing in a very diverse amount of music genres. Her vocal range is astounding and even if we are not in the original key of the song, she is able to make it sound as if it was written that way.

Her main role in our band, was being the leader. She possesses a very strong sense of leadership with her, which definitely shows when she Is running the band. I found it interesting to see how she gets everybody on the same side.

Weakness – Can get distracted quite easily: Using her phone, if somebody else walks in the room, and genral conversation. Vocal cues in songs, are not very clear: if the song changes sections from chorus to bridge. I tried to suggest more prominent cues to Cat, so that the whole band could tell where we were in the song.

Felix - Bassist / vocalist

Main strength –Felix is, like me, part of the rhythm section of our band. The bass is easily heard through other instruments, and Felix proves this. Although difficult parts may throw him off occasionally, once he has learnt it thoroughly, he has no problem reciting them during song rehearsals and performances.

I admired Felix persistence in learning difficult passages.

Weakness - Felix sometimes has difficulty in accepting suggestions from other members but he was able to overcome this once we all began to trust each other.

Fran - keyboards / vocalist

Main strength- Fran is very experienced in more than just keyboard. His genral musicianship shows in his playing and performance. His stage presence and energy are definitely something people will notice and remember whenever we perform. In a lot of songs, we chose to add to our setlist, there were little to no tabs or tutorials for them. So, a lot of the time he will resort to improvisation, the most amazing quality of his musicianship.

Weakness-Fran had injured himself when performing one of our favourite songs to play. Foxy lady by Jimi Hendrix. He had either sprained or fractured one of his toes when he landed on it in a strange position. To me this shows, that occasionally, to much energy could make anything He had trouble walking around,

but we stepped into help him.

Megan - rhythm guitar

Main strength- out of all of us, Megan has learnt and progressed the most in terms of where she was when the band projects began. She is very capable of learning any song you “throw” at her. Megan is also very good at being a backing vocalist in many of our songs. Megan is mainly the

Weakness -

Tom - lead guitar

Main strength - Tom is extremely well skilled on his instrument. He learnt most of the songs in the setlist without the use of tab or video tutorial. He mostly learns them by listening to the original song, then writing down the structure and genral chords of the song. Toms main role is teaching. He is always helping out other on any song. He is very patient and eager which makes him the best at what he does.

Weakness- Tom likes to noodle a lot on his guitar, which will make it very hard to talk to other members. But he usually stops if the conversation involves the whole band. He will persist with ideas that may not make a lot of sense, until you either agree with him, or the majority of the band disagree. However not all of his ideas are problematic, in some cases they may help to make a song more engaging and fun to play.