Last Wednesday 23rd November, we had our band skills assessment which was with louis thomas, lauren power, hollie bloomer, marley mason and alex hancox. As a group we decided come together was going to be our cover, and for our original we choose one of mine which was in 6/8, we went through so many obstacles towards the song, because it had been produced in a record studio and couldn't figure out the chord it took us 2 band skills lessons until we could actually figure out the verse and chorus, but we still hadn't figured out the middle 8 part by this time , we only had a week so Rob                                                                                                                                                                                                            then helped us figure out the middle 8th part .  With a week left, i had booked rehearsals , making sure everybody was able to attend, beforehand, although when it came to the room booking a few of our band members didn't show up, which showed lack of participation and unreliability , which gave us lack of instruments and sound towards my original in particular and made us query the assessment and get nervous for the assessment, the unreliable people in our band prepared last minute which brought us down as a band , the commitment towards the performance was appalling which made me really upset , as i was excited to finally be able to use one of my originals for something. Although on a positive side some of the band members who were reliable and giving up their time for my piece to come together and to keep it up , i will definitely reconsider them in a band because they are trustworthy , although next time i now have a clear intention on who to have in my band next time and what to prepare i was really disappointed, seeing some of the people i trusted wasn't working hard enough for me , but now at least i am able to build a better team band that work together efficiently for next time, on another side people who wasn't even being assessed in my band made more commitment than people who were being assessed which brought me to our assessment day , last minute one of our guitarists who had never turned up to any rehearsals, had to be taught the chords by our pianist last minute which made it more difficult for me because we wasn't able to go through the parts we struggled with because we had to go through it all just to teach her, i know for sure next time i will only rely on the people who managed to turn up to every rehearsal and even asked for extra time to make sure the piece was perfected and the ambitions ones.

The aftermath caused me to be really upset, when it got the assessment i was not happy at all with the result performance , first of all the other singer that asked me if she could do lead for come together when i suggested it would be an ideal plan for me to do it because she hadn't been for weeks and she finds it hard to remember all the lyrics, but given the fact we were singing my original i let her take over and have the responsibility to learn the lyrics for come together, but when we finally got to the rehearsal the first time i heard the sing and practice the song, she suddenly forget her lyrics which made me really hesitant , i learned the lyrics as back up , but she insisted she did it as well as that she didn't know the harmonies for come together and i did so she thought it would be easier for her , even though i tried to teach her the harmonies in first week of been given the assessment, but after rehearsal when she had forgotten her lyrics she said it was a mistake and she was nervous which i understood because i was terrified of what was going to happen in assessment, then Sarah came and told us we had 10 minutes left which frightened me to death, i was shaking so much sweating dripping, because i knew we wasn't prepared because of the lack of commitment, and last minute we were told a guitarist we had never had before or been told about before was with us which shocked me , as he didn't know my original , so he done ‘ come together’ and that is it, when i was listening to his guitar part it was out of key and untuned which distracted us the vocalists and the band, and as i encountered that near the ending i had to cover the other vocalists words because she had forgotten the lyrics , this was no surprise. Then when we moved onto my original it was much better, but the other vocalist messed up her bv’s she done the wrong ones which made the song sound out of tune and eery which i was really disappointed in because in rehearsal i directed her them and it sounded better in rehearsal which was really devastating.

Overall next time i will make sure i sing alone as i work better that way and don't need to worry about that and i will make sure not only is there reliable people in my band but that we all work together and get along so there isn't no arguments and were all happy with each other , and so others don't have to take credits for the work i put in unless they're going to work as hard as me to get the same result as me , not just me doing all the work and putting so much effort in, but on plus side i  was really happy that i managed to put in my hard work within a short amount of time.                                                                                                 

In stylistic awareness , my first goals i set myself to Joe was to be able to explore and try different variety of genres and come out my comfort zone, so that if i had a gig and was asked to sing in a certain style or as close to the original as possible i would be able to today , not only is it an entertaining lesson and really enjoyable it helps me do what I've always wanted to do, but i didn't know where to start.

We explored a range of genres, i enjoyed doing 'Motown' and ' indie/alternative' but i also found ' reggae'  a challenge but also very interesting, and in future i will definitely explore with reggae a lot more . punk was also very different to what i had experienced before , and none of us wanted to go up and sing , but Joe challenged us to all go up together and when we got into the song , we found it was really fun , it was different to what we all experienced before , and it needed a lot more technique to make sure our voices didn't strain.

Although this Thursday 1st December, our challenge was to re-create the Christmas song ' merry Xmas everyone' by Slade , to one of the styles we had studied, and our group choose rock n roll, there was a variety of problems and obstacles, because we were so used to hearing it in the pop way it made things difficult , first of all we changed the chords and changed the way it was sang, we listened to some rock songs to get and idea of how there sung , but it was so difficult to implicate our voice to the genre and we found it extremely difficult , so from this lesson we learned we need to explore each of the styles from class in more detail, to make sure we can do it properly for any song learn the styles in more depth , by the end of the year i hope to achieve this and make sure i can sing in any way and version so next time we get a task similar to this its easier to do.

Another blog, showing my goals and aspirations throughout is about band skills

in week 4, formative assessment for band skills was to  singing rolling in the deep, as it was my first week i was so prepared and having noticed i had already messed up my first formative assessment in technical development i wanted to improve in band skills, so i prepared every night for 30 mins to make sure everything was good i also sang it with a metronome to keep in time, and i was prepared, but because it was only the 4th week of knowing everyone and that i wasn't used to the new environment i was extremely terrified of performing even though i had put more preparation into it and had nothing to worry about i was still sketchy about going up and i wasn't ready when she called my name , my nerves build up till the point i was shaking and trying any way to take my mind of it, when i started singing i wasn't thinking about anything else apart from making sure i remembered my lyrics, which distracted my performance side of the task, had i had been less nervous i would of been able to put in some dance moves and performance in as well as ambition towards the song, when i got my results it wasn't bad i passed but i wasn't going to rest my case until i got more than a pass i wanted to push myself further.

Further to that day , i attended a workshop which was evolving around the nervousness of performance and how to improve that, and be more confident with who i was. When i went to it, i found it really useful, it helped me get more experience on stage as well as do some exercises to release tension, and it really worked.

Then furthermore , i had a tutorial with Sarah which didn't only help me with my lower notes but she was really helpful for my confidence booster, i told her about my past experience and how it was hard to believe a comment from someone about my singing ever since, and its hard to come to terms with performing because of it, as well as being able to believe in who i am , i'm myself and being confident with my singing , so she gave me a challenge, which was to say thank you to people comments they appreciate me instead of ' no i'm not', as well as get up and perform more at places.

Recently , i received a gig through ACM, at music gateway , which should also be able to boost my performance confidence , and stage fright, as well as show who i am as a person and be able to feel comfortable on stage.

Band skills goals and aspirations- 

From week 4, till now i was not able to move around on stage and feel indulged by the stage, but practicing over the weeks of ACM, and getting used to my surrounding, made it more approachable, i'm still not where i want to be but by the end of the year , i'm hoping to receive tiny gigs and do some busking to get more confident 

As part of my practise diary feedback, i was told that i wasn't referring back to the lessons as much, and reading all the comments from Becky, and asking her about it, how i make sure to secure my grade, and i realise that my blog posts had no comments on my goals and aspiration and how I'm making sure to keep up to them so before tomorrow i am making sure i have posted everything i need before my resubmission deadline.

In week 4 it was formative assessment week, i had been practising over the week making sure i had those scales right, and suddenly when it comes to the assessment i froze and forget everything leaving me in a bad position , i realise i sould have pushed myself to learn the 1.5 octave scale in more detail , during the assessment i sang an arpeggio instead, and i had taking that encounter for the next  time, when my feedback came i had already realised my mistakes although i wasn't going to let that pass me without managing to get it right so first of all i booked a tutorial with Becky to discuss about what i done wrong , and asking her for some help with the scale , i was really disappointed in myself during that assessment but it was a lesson learned and in every practise i do i make sure i use that warm up so i can remember it for future reference , and i find its a really useful exercise to get my chord closure for my voice because i like doing licks when I'm singing which Becky also told me in a tutorial we had, but i need to make sure i do straight notes during my warm ups,

present day - 1st December 2016

From week 4, my goal to strengthen my lower notes is become much better , i am really happy at where Ive come from week 4 to now because i practised everyday got more tutorials with Abbie and Sarah which also helped me , although for next term i really want to work on tongue twisters which i find really difficult by the end of that term i want to make sure i can nail tongue twisters as Sarah said it will help me with my diction when singing which was given in recent feedback from an open mic audition that i need my pronunciation be be better. I am currently still improving my lower notes with exercises such as 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 which has really helped me i got given this from a tutorial with Sarah.

To create my band page , i started of as the leader of the band as well as the lead singer, i started off by thinking of the name , i came up with the m1raclez because we wanted a twist to ' mircale' and added the ' s' to show were a team and work together in unison . Miracle came to my mind when we were rehearsing and realised how different each and one of us are on our instruments with our licks on locals and extra piano riffs on piano and so on , but we fit together so perfectly as if its a miracle, miracle also represents us as a band because we bring something different to a live showcase a diff rent kind of original, although before we were thinking of ' tweedledee' because like Tweedledee and dumb as Louis would always ask silly questions but then we wanted something more inspiring and unique so it made us come up with ' m1rcalez' we added the 1 instead of 'i' because there is  only one miracle band and its us and the 'm' at begging is also the lead singer which is me ' matlinda' my first names letter . The logo was drawn on my leg by my best Friend who is taking art in college, i decided that a moon with a fade , as its bursting out will describes us emotionally as dark as the song is(original)  , and that we think outside the box, it also shows that the night sky fascinates us as well as having a portrait of what we do mostly, and that its a hidden side to us that isn't discovered until

Last Tuesday, 8th November, i unfortunately had to miss music culture but for a good cause i was invited to a ' Surviving the music industry' day with Sam Bailey, which i was really exited about my dad drove me all the way to Leicester, to the day specifically , after having a talk with her that day and listening to how much stress she went through and how hard she had to work dropping managers included and how tough the industry is it really helped me realise a lot, i had a one to one conversation with her and asked her a few question the harsh reality of the music industry was pointed out to me and from that day i have been working harder and harder to achieve what i ant its not as easy as everyone thinks there is a lot that goes on behind closed doors that nobody sees or realises which we learned about Sam, i was lucky to be given the opportunity despite how far it was my dad kindly took me there because it was a chance i just couldn't afford to miss and he thought so to, he loved it as well as me and it helped him realise a lot for me as well .

Tonight , i have been practising Christmas songs because on ACM's music gateway i was assigned a project for a gig , and i emailed the lady with a link of my material and she pleasantly offered me an hour slot , full of Christmas songs, so i am making sure i can try to memorise them and get them pitch perfect before the 5th and 7th which are the 2 days I'm doing for her

After a second tutorial with Sarah Geary, i also let her listen to my original song which i sang at open mic UK and she said similar views as Abbie as well, she worked out that on my high parts i was really competent in the vocals and that because i was so terrified and nervous you were able to tell that my low vocals wernt working as efficiently , because i wasn't concentrating on them as i was to nervous and concentrating on my nerves more than my performance , Sarah also mentioned about my pronounceation of words and diction wasnt correct so we tried so tounge twisters , and later thag day i booked room 14 to practice myself with the microphone so then i could hear myself propally and the exersizes sarah gave me to do i went and done them , and then practiced more songs

After engaging in a tutorial with abbie, she made me realise what i need to do to enhanse my lower vocal chords and get them to work propally as i had been struggling to go low in rolling in the deep at band skills, and for my own original song which i showed her , she had given me simular feedback to open mic uk judges , i needed to do more ' guh' sounds and be doopy with the sound so when i got home that day in my bedroom i was working on her feedback as much as i could to reach my lower vocals which was my aim from the start of acm, i found her exersizes really worked well and i still do them everyday

For stylistic awarness week commencing 7th , i went to my freinds house who knew a lot about indie
/alternative and happened to be a massive fan of the Arctic Monkeys, helped me come to terms with the new song for the week ' you only call me when your high" we went through it verse by verse learning it slowly i really enjoyed learning it and i was exited to perform it for joe at stylistic awareness, i went into stylistic awareness with an open mind to learn a volurntered to be one of the first to go up , joe complimented my singing which made me feel like i had done a great job, and i really loved experimenting with the genre i can say that i will definatlely be singing more indie songs after realising i was actually really good at it , just goes to show experimenting trying new things can come out with good results :),my composition was also in the style of indie .

I had to practice some punk songs to get used to the style before stylistic awareness so i managed to search up some punk songs and practiced some sex pistols , i found that punk was really hard attack with the vocals but really enjoyable , when i had my stylistic awareness lesson that thursday i was shcoked at how much fun we were all having together but were terrified to all go up, so joe made us all go up altogether and we sang our hearts out we sang ' white riot' and got to figure out what they were singing about and how they were being political and trying to make a point through their music, after signing punk i figured it wasnt really for me because i was tired after just one song but it intreiged me to listen to punk more and understand it

Before the perfomance took off i had 30 minuites to practice my performance before the area final show, when i was practicing beforehand i made sure i was doing the correct breathing exersizes , breathing in and out from 1 - 27 which is the highest i can reach at the moment , as well at helping with projection it also allowed me to help control my nerves as i was terrified to face the audience and judges, after my breathing exersizes i done my 5 tone scale with lip trills to warm up my vocals then moved on to the 1.5 octave with a ' bah' sound to close my vocal chords which helped me get ready for the sound check and then the actual performance overall it was a great afternoon!

Youtube video from open mic uk audition

Competition- open mic uk (audition)

On Sunday 23rd October, i was at my regional finals of a competition called open mic uk , i managed o get to the area finals and received some brilliant feedback. Every step of my journey at the open mic u competition was amazing i loved every moment of it and i cant wait till my next audition, many people came up to me and said they loved my original song which i performed and it made them very emotional which i was proud of , also following the judges feedback i have been working on my diction for the next audition , although i still lack stage confidence which i hope to build through my time at ACM in band skills.

Today i was really exited at the fact i had been invited to an industry careers day by my singing teacher who worked at the ministry of sound,as well as getting an email from acm about the oppurtunity  he said it would be very useful and i would enjoy myself, when i attended with my dad we sat down and listend to a presentation from interesting a keynote speech which i found really interesting, because she spoke about having a dizzy massive massive massive massive music and undertaking it in university but when she came out she massive know where to start or where to go she had to work hard for where she got, from naz's speech we were followed by bbc introducing expert in management where she spoke about how she came to her job and the didn't that were opportunities to artists , also there was a guy called available from his own company and independant one , which spoke about how he worked with massive rascal and how he made dizzy who he is today and told him is was better to take the independant route because he dizzy lose much and could still get just as much , and how different it was to be on wouldn't labels to major labels and so on.. this was independent especially following what we had been talking with tobias in industry practice class

Last thursday , before half term i attended the sould workshop , i was so glad i went to it , i was debating weither to go because of the time and when i went i fianlly realised how fun and exiting it was and what a brilliant choice i made, i enjoyed myself so much, it was so lively , i met some new people and networked with them, found out i had a lot in common with some , i will in future like to attend simular ones and more soul workshops, i went up and done Bvs, and i really enjoyed myself , i was also practicing new things at the same time , which followed my stylistic awareness lessons on trying something new, so as well as doing something industry related i was also practicing and learning new things at the same time

Today i went to the studio, to create a new song , we managed to make a full song with instruments but are in the middle of perfecting the lyrics and demolishing any parts that could be better we hope to have my 2nd song created for my album by the next studio session . I spent 6 hours in studio from 10-4 , it really intrest's me to learn new things within my singing and also learn new things about music and instruments , i really enjoy my studio session i will keep my blog updated with my next session :)

On wednesday the 5th of october we had a band skills formative assessment, the night before i was stressing out and trying to prepare with all my nerves i had and butterflies running through me, shaking, my dad calmed me down told me i would be alright and to breathe in and out. The next morning i was terrified to go in , and to make it worse my train was late so i was stressing more. When i finally got to college i was getting reassured by my friends that i'd be fine but i was still intimidated of what could happen , i walked up slowly , when it was my turn , shaking in panic inside then the band started playing i wasn't ready but luckily enough i went straight into it then, when i started singing i felt so comfortable and like i belonged to that, and even though i had a cold i managed to get through the whole song and i was so proud of myself for remembering all the lyrics, i managed to hit my higher notes for deep in a comfortable zone and not making the mistake i made a week ago by making it clear when im turning from head to chest voice, i managed to keep to my targets , i enjoyed the performance and overall it was an amazing experience to have.

Project group blog

Section 1 – My personal targets

Last week I set out to improve on my communication within band and being able to improve on theory skills.

I felt that I achieved improving on ym theory skills, because i now have a better understanding at pentatonic scales and chromatic scales, i also found it hard to learn time signatures at the beginning but then that was resolved as i got more support from it.

I felt that I did not achieve communication within band skills because we hadn't had much practice and i feel as if  Next week i will be able to hopefully achieve that as well as theory skills, and because we have a formative assessment.

Section 2 – Preparing for assessments

(Next week there are formative assessments in Band Skills and Technical Development)In Band Skills I’ll be performing Rolling in the deep by Adele

My strengths in this are the higher parts of the song My weaknesses to work on are lower notes as well as projection and the emotion to the song. To achieve the best results, I need to remember to keep my mouth lose to the mic In Technical Development, I am required to play basic warm up scale for example broken arpeggio My strengths in this are my chromatic scales My weaknesses to work on are breathing skills. To achieve the best results, I need to remember to breath in and out carefully wherever there are breaks and draw breaks on extracts so i have enough room to breathe

Section 3 – Practice updates

This week I have been practicing rolling in the deep ready for my formative assessment Something new thing I learnt this week was how to use my blog.

Practice diary-
Today i practice some basic breathing techniques , to improve on running out of breath in songs and i also decided to do some exersizes for my lower part of my voice because i struggle a lot with that, i lowered my larynx to do perform it better , i sang rolling in the deep ready for my formative assessment next week , and done a variety of other songs involving the lower part of my voice for example callum scotts dancing on my own .

What have I been practicing this week?

1)

In college (Technical Development; Band Skills; Stylistic Awareness):

Any new skills learnt?

In everything, new theory skills , new genres

What went well?

Learning how to be in band, getting up singing gaining more confidence

What could I improve?

Be more prepared

What went well?

New theory skills learnt

What / how could I improve?

Expand of theory skills

2)

Personal practice:

Any new skills learnt?

Body warm ups for singing

What went well?

Homework set

What / how could I improve?

Try and blog more J

3)

What are my targets for next week (remember to apply the SMART rule)?

S- to be able to improve in general skills within theory for example in stylistic awareness with the Johnny be Goode get into the feel of the style and experiment

M-