Industry and social media - Work experience
The blog post MUST include
- your current or previous employment
- Jobs you have or will apply for in future
- How you are actively working outside of ACM to increase your skills and employability for work experience in music or the arts
- How you are using the industry and social media module to increase your skill sets and professional portfolio
My current/ previous employments
I was previously employed to an agency who would issue me part time waitress jobs kostky happening around Christmas time this occurred from the time period of 2016( November) until 2017 (Januaray) but I wasn't only doing Christmas shifts I was also given part time shifts at wisely gardens wherever required
I am still currently employed with my mum helping her with little tasks she works as a full time cleaner at the leisure centre but is also required to count earning of the leisure centre and account it to the safe at the end and is sometimes eligible to work as receptionist but I mostly help with the cleaning tasks on Fridays as apart time thing.
I also only recently got employed to a 5* hotel as a waitress because of my previous experiences the field, I started this job on 22nd October 2017, and am now working part time the job involved a numerous of of roles and isn't like the waitress job I had before, the job involves more technicality.
Jobs you will apply for in future
In future i am planning to take a PGCE so that I am not only qualified in music but can do some teaching as well which will enable me to have a stable part time job alongside being a musician
I also plan on applying to work on cruises over the summer to gain some experience for myself on stage and general feedback from public audiences
How am I actively working outside of acm to increase my skills and employability in music
Currently I am enrolled onto a songwriting development course at River studios which enables me to work with a producer find my sound and write some songs as a top liner because I am not the best at writing backing melodies or tracks but I can easily write lyrics and I'm also not the best at my guitar skills there very limited, I have been doing this for a year and a half, my next session is 20th November 2017
I also am collaborating with a guitarist which has only recently become a thing to remake covers and work on making my original materials live. We bohenjoytheme styles and can appreciate music as a whole including different styles at tthe moment we are working on recreating "my kind of woman" my Mac Demarco.
I have also managed to finally organise a lesson of guitar a week to increase my guitar skills so that I can work on my own making songs and bringing my songs to live if ever there was any issues.
I am also due to perform a gig in Portsmouth very soon with another guitarist who used go be at acm.
I am also organising everything including photos, videos if necessary and any changes to make before releasing a single.
How am I using the industry and social media module to increase my skill set and professional portfolio
Currently in the module we were set the task of creating a music video with a track to interpret it, within this I have collobarsted with 3 producers who are into dnb which is something new I'm going to try we are following guidelines of " Wilkinson - afterglow" with female vocalist incorporated into that track I want to be able to make sure I can follow the same steps to making a successful vocal track with the dnb genre. With our music video we decided our theme would be "love" about a girl and a boy who are having a difficult time and resolving it by dojnghis we thought we could add different colour paints for diffrenr moods for example purple would be bruises. And bright colours would be happiness. This will increase my skill set with collaboration and networking as well as trying our different genres.
Tuesday, 14 November 2017
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Unit 11 - Project 2 Task 1: Identifying progression opportunities
Career choice-
The ultimate career choice/area i would like to involve myself is to start off with some session singing for example- cruise ships, abroad to engage my stage presence and gain more confidence performing to a wider audience than just other pupils, i would also do this by going out doing some busking but my ambitions lie in being a professional singer and a creative artist (songwriting) in my own right i would also like to be signed to an independent record label.
Progression- An area of progression which best suits me and what i would like to achieve is Higher education i feel this may open many doors and opportunities for the future if not in the path i originally plan to succeed in then in many other aspects of my life and further education from diploma can teach me many more things about what i have to come and ill still be able to get the support and benefits i need before entering the music industry .
Alternatively , the career choice after diploma education moving straight into the business and music world i feel isn't suitable for me because i have a lot more to learn before feeling comfortable going straight into the industry , going to a music institute and staying on for degree can also allow you to do session work on top of education, and can find as many opportunities for students as you would on your own anyway so it is a very beneficial choice, for me individually to also create links and contacts.
Advantages of progression route-
The advantages of my progression route include gaining more experience and being around the right connection for my future career as well as learning new things and opening up opportunities to the world of goods, as well as this staying in education longer also has an advantage of having more time to figure out the next paths to my career.
Disadvantages of my progression route-
The disadvantages of my progression route include being in debt in the near future and having to pay it off in amounts , and having more work to focus on for my career as well as completing more than one assignment.
My experience/experiences
Many of my experiences have been supported by my diploma course in music at Academy of Contemporary Music which include-
- live performance ( solo and in bands)
- stage presence ( what to do on stage - dance wise)
- basic studio skills (MIT sessions)
- Industry knowledge
- Vocal technique ( technical development classes)
Outside ACM-
-Gigs in my home country abroad during summer
- Gig at star
- Both gaining more confidence to wider audience
-Working with river studios producing learning about studio
- Basic guitar skills
My Skills-
Skill include
- Vocals ( backing vocals , harmonies, vocal arrangements, lead vocals)
- Genre specifics ( i.e- Jazz, indie... basic knowledge of rearranging voice to fit styles)
- Basic guitar skills i.e- chords
- Song writing skills ( lyrically )
- performing in bands
- Basic productions skills i.e. reverb on vocals, how to make drums quieter and louder so on...
My Qualifications-
GCSE's - 5 GCSE at grade C OR above
Level 4 - Dance qualification
High Pass at 1st year of diploma
Level 3 vocals Trinity
Appropriate requirements for the course/courses( music business , performing arts, song writing, Creative artistry ) i would like to enter -
- For performing arts route - requires a via in person audition or video link clip of you acting a scene from them which would be given in person on the day and a song of your choice. the minimum amount of 112 ucas points . It also required EITHER a levels, Btec extended diploma at DMM or Btec diploma at D* D* or equivalent although applicants who do not meet the requirements may be considered if they have aptitude, enthusiasm and motivation but on an individual basis but may be asked in for an interview and it will be necessarily to have a portfolio
- For songwriting route the minimum requirements include and virtual audition and assessment , a requirement of 32 ucas points, 2 A levels at E or above or btec level 3 equivalent and 5 GCSE's from A*-C must be good at English and have a C in English language.
- For music business course the requirements is a levels , btec extended diploma, or international qualifications such as baccalaureate at 104 ucas points . You sould also hold a grade C or above in english& maths or a suitable equivalent such as Level 2 key skills, functional skills, or adult numeracy/literacy but applicants with C or aove grade will be prioritised. Although the requirements are listed other applicants will be considered if they do not have qualifications but show and demonstrate their suitability for study through appropriate skills and experience.
- For the creative Artist course you will need the minimum or 2 A levels at grade C or equivelent posing a minimum of 160 ucas credits , audition as required. Candidates must also be able to demonstrate fluent english spoken language skills, as well as provide evidence appropriately to study , although students who don't necessarily have these qualifications may need to provide prior relevant experience or education.
Available institutes that accommodate my career choice and requirements from each
ICMP- icmp is located in London and offer a BA hons degree in songwriting
which is designed for individuals who would like to become songwriters in future it looks for determined individuals and is a 3 year course but may be completed in one if a participant would like.
To get onto the Level 4 first year of degree the minimum amount of ucas points to 2017 is 80 credits
and requires your to auditions with 2 original pieces of your choice either accompanied or backing track. Applicants must demonstrate their skills appropriately.
University of Southampton (Solent) - To get onto the Acting and performance course which involves acting and singing a wide range of genres the course is able to offer west end experiences. You need a minimum of 112 UCAS points to be able to get onto the course, the course lasts 3 years overall , it also includes trips. It is located in the centre of Southampton and the course is a BA (Hons) in acting and performance. You will also be required to audition a scene and a song which you may be asked to prepare beforehand or alternatively on the day you show up, this is to show who you react under pressure, although there is audition information when you apply. You will need to have a BTEC extended diploma at DMM , A levels or Btec diploma at D*D*.
Metropolis ACM- A Course at Metropolis is run through ACM for the creative Artistry route which is a 2 year course in either music and creative artistry or in songwriting and creative artistry which will extend your knowledge and skills to discover the inner artistry and covering songwriting, evaluating and improving songwriting skills effectively, as well as this is also improves your performance, business and production skills or teach you them newly. Although to study at metropolis students MUST have certain modules in addiction to mandatory modules. The minimum amount of UCAS points required to study at metropolis include at least 2 A levels at C or above or an equivalent for example Btec which amounts to 160 UCAS points. You must also be able to demonstrate good English skills and speak English fluently, as well as structure arguments to study on Level 4 , but students can also access this course if they show relevant past experience and prior education.
Improvements needed to facilitate course-
-Songwriting skills
-Guitar skills
- Extra instruments - piano
-Production skills further development
- EPK and Website portfolio
- Try and reach at Least Merit but preferably Distinction in final year of ACM
Qualifications I would like to achieve at University and realistic goals to support it-
I would like to gain a BA (hons) in not only one course but a few for example Music Business alongside Acting and performance , to qualify for this i will need to make sure i not only complete my Level 8 theory in voice but also they and set myself goals to gaining a Distinction in my last year of ACM
Friday, 7 July 2017
evaluation 2 - Finalished ( RE DONE)
Evaluation
Focus points of evaluation
-performance
-
- Rehearsal process
Reflection of project proposal
Initially, i said in my proposal that i would like to try different things i haven't before for example, singing jazz pieces and i spoke about how successful my live lounge went, which made me come to the idea of trying more jazz for example but also in my artist interview i didn't meet my targets of trying different thing so i wanted to take it upon myself to focus on that for my final performance. Another pointer i put on my project proposal was about my performance side of things and how when reflecting back on fake love the only factor i was disappointed in was my mic technique and performance i stood there looking very timid and nervous which in fact i would of liked the opposite so i took it upon myself to set a dance routine for my final diploma showcase in which i wrote in my proposal. Overall with my targets i am very disappointed with myself for not sticking with ' Ain't misbehaving' as i feel that would of not only met my targets but would of pushed me to limits and challenged me vocally , and i was pleased by the fact i was still not coming out my comfort zone to try new things like for example singing indie , but i really hope i can take this on board and focus purely on this target next year. On the other hand as for the dance side and performance side i felt i improved a lot , especially in my last song when i was not only making contact with the singer singing with me but dancing along , even thou it wasn't a set routine i felt that when i improvised my dancing i let more comfortable with what i was doing on stage and in general, it made m less weak with the way i performed instead of being nervous turning the adrenaline into excitement. Becky, in my feedback commented on how i managed to successfully be more comfortable on stage with introducing my songs as well as performance wise. After the performance, because my tutor Tom as well as Aly know how nervous and shaken up i get by the fact of being on stage they said i managed to complete something well out of my comfort zone which not only improved my confidence humongous amounts but also made me very proud of my achievements. From the negatives in my performance i would say not performing to the best of my ability that i can do at home , is something i can still work on coming back I'm September. But because had another singer , this was another main reason i wasn't able to do as much as ild hoped because ild originally planned to do 3 different songs of different genres to show each different side of me and my vocal ability , i will make sure i carry on trying different genres so that i can contend with my target and make sure i reach it as i am very ambitious in doing so. An unfortunate thing for us as a band was that because we had trouble with musicians we had to tackle obstacles such as switching guitarists 3 times but not only that we also originally decided for my original song to be on piano as it is more of a piano based song although Louis wasn't prepared and had no time , he also didn't turn up to a rehearsal which put a negative into the situation as well as our guitarist being a vocalist who was also focusing on his own assessed band. luckily for me, Keith was well prepared and learnt things major ally fast which gave a positive affect to my performance of my original song., even if it wasn't what wed hoped with piano , it still turned out better than expected.
( part of our rehearsal timetable ) Because our guitarists was on his own band , we made sure we created a timetable as part of our action plan, although i felt we didn't quiet keep to it and went of track which is some of the main factors our rehearsal process wasn't as good as expected. eventhugh i left my weekends free on the timetable i made sure was still working on the weekends on harmonies for example and my riffs that i was finding difficult as well as focusing on written work. Ild have hoped we could of had more rehearsal time.
Our Rehearsal progress
In our rehearsals i started of as a solo artist which in fact didn't end up occurring , i start of with Izak as a guitarist. I would of hoped i would stay solo but i was happy that i cared about someones Else's grade and supporting them throughout their joinery as well as mine.
Our rehearsal wasn't as good as we expected because we had originally started of as Izak as a guitarist who was in fact fantastic although because he was on holiday for a week and didn't come back till Wednesday evening we didn't have a chance to rehearse in which fact tom our leader helped us by giving us another guitarist who was working solo , so was able to multitask and work at home as well as help us. Although we didn't arrange a rehearsal on Tuesdays and Fridays, Oscar unfortunately had work for some of the rehearsals but we were so desperate to get some Rehearsals done that we asked Keith another vocalist who can play guitar as well to step in for us , not only did he help me vocally but he also approached my vocals in another way as i originally started of with 5 songs in mind and two as back up, i showed Keith my song by my inspirational artist ' Dua Lipa' - thinking bout you although straight away he recognised it wasn't good for me because of how low she starts , so i decided to show me my second option of nobody love tori Kelly, in which he suggested could be improved and turn out to be a good performance , so he helped me with my vocals begin accurate and precise.
I would say that the few rehearsals i has with Keith was really effective, as he knew how to make it vocally challenging and change up dynamics to make it more interesting , but he could also help with warm ups to help with the areas i was stuck on for example with diction Keith suggested i tried some tongue twisters and directed me through them which really helped me personally, with many difficulties i was facing. Not only did Keith help with the cover songs he also helped find more stable Bvs for me even thou they were stable he used the guitar to find the perfect 5th of ' judge me ' and ' i would judge you to' which i found really successful in the performance.
Although the performance was a success there was still little issues throughout the journey and in the performance that could be fixed for example , i spent a long time to pick a guitarist and stick with them as well as , my set list as i was tied up with songs that would show me vocally , and i would start songs and not finish them which i felt wasted a lot of time .
In order to improve upon my vocals and bus, i feel i need to not only sing along to tracks and try and find perfect 5ths but to also , try and find a song with harmonies in which could improve my technique by ' copying' or by using the scale and harmonising with that . Another improvement i could make is within my licks and riffs , in which when i had a tutorial with Becky she suggested i looked at Natalie Weiss and her videos of breaking down riffs , which would not only help me sing riffs but help me pitch every not correctly.
In my performance, i know that Lauren messed up on some of the Bvs of my original which did initially put me off although i didn't let this stop my i carried on , i also ended up making a mistake in my bvs, in her song singing the counter melody of ' i got issues you got them to' and coming in to early although i didn't let this stop me , i feel that if we were more prepared and well rehearsals we would of had a more successful performance.
The performance
In perspective , i felt that our performance went well personally i met a few of my targets which makes me one step closer to achieving what i would like in future , although there was many problems and issues that occurred for example in my original song i would of have liked to have just me singing ' we never thought you'd be the one' because it detracted the emotion that line had as Lauren was singing it in another key and also not in sync with me which was disappointing, but personally i would change the time i came in with my bvs in her song as i came in early but i felt she could of played it off better and just carried on.
i also felt the chemistry between me and Lauren on stage could of been better taking all issues outside the stage out of the performance and connecting with each other for example singing at each other and looking at each other more to connect with each other i felt this wasn't achieved and should of been very cruital, i also felt she could of performed more to give more energy ti the performance which would of helped hold me in place a bit more, instead of being optimistic.
In the performance , i realise i didn't speak much only at the beginning when introducing my original song, i feel as if i should of introduced all the other songs and included the audience with the final performance song as they could of felt detracted from me and i should of also said something along the lines ' join in if you know the lyrics' for the chorus because not only would it have had an impact on the chorus but it would of helped balance my nerves more and gain even more confidence than i did.
On the positive side, i felt that i did use all the techniques learnt in rehearsal to give a vocally pleasing performance but not only that , i also managed to change it dynamically despite the fact i was so used to hearing the original and found it difficult to change the melody which Rodger had suggested to keep the audience in the lurch. i felt my tone was really good and i was in time with the guitar. But another factor is on the second verse nearly sang another ' when you lay down to rest' even thou its only in the first chorus but i did feel as if i played it of well and managed to carry on .
The final song could of been more stronger vocally especially with the riff, i was very disappointed in the way i gave it out as when rehearsed i tried different ways i managed to sing it significantly close to how she does it when practising with her but without i failed so Aly my tutor helped me discover other options which i forgot to do in there performance
I also felt for the final performance the 'HEYs' leading up to the riff wasn't very good as they were at different volume levels and it wasn't smooth , so i need to make sure i work on run ups as well as riffs.
Personal targets for myself
- I feel as if because my harmonies are not as good as they could be that i need to make sure I'm analysing what I'm doing recording myself doing lead and trying to figure out harmonies from brain as well as using piano and for example harmonising with the major scale and trying different things, as well as reviewing videos with harmonies in them such as destiny child's song ' girl '
- I also need to work on my technique in riffs and licks as i feel really weak with what I'm doing at the moment and my approach to them although i tried my hardest with the tori Kelly song ' nobody love' and the riff i still didn't manage to get it so my tutor Becky Morton suggested i look at Natalie Weiss who breaks down riffs and helps correct every note, over the summer i will make sure i try to at least target myself to 5 episodes of hers.
- Lastly , i need to work on my very low notes especially as i wasn't able to perform Dua lipa's song ' thinking bout you' by doing this i need to train my lower range in doing ' food'
- And finally, i need to make sure work on my twang placement which will not only help with forsetoo vocals but will help with my resonance and placement and not being so airy in my vocals when singing which is something i struggle with a lot , the exercises i need to complete is exercises such as nasty neighs.
Focus points of evaluation
-performance
-
- Rehearsal process
Reflection of project proposal
Initially, i said in my proposal that i would like to try different things i haven't before for example, singing jazz pieces and i spoke about how successful my live lounge went, which made me come to the idea of trying more jazz for example but also in my artist interview i didn't meet my targets of trying different thing so i wanted to take it upon myself to focus on that for my final performance. Another pointer i put on my project proposal was about my performance side of things and how when reflecting back on fake love the only factor i was disappointed in was my mic technique and performance i stood there looking very timid and nervous which in fact i would of liked the opposite so i took it upon myself to set a dance routine for my final diploma showcase in which i wrote in my proposal. Overall with my targets i am very disappointed with myself for not sticking with ' Ain't misbehaving' as i feel that would of not only met my targets but would of pushed me to limits and challenged me vocally , and i was pleased by the fact i was still not coming out my comfort zone to try new things like for example singing indie , but i really hope i can take this on board and focus purely on this target next year. On the other hand as for the dance side and performance side i felt i improved a lot , especially in my last song when i was not only making contact with the singer singing with me but dancing along , even thou it wasn't a set routine i felt that when i improvised my dancing i let more comfortable with what i was doing on stage and in general, it made m less weak with the way i performed instead of being nervous turning the adrenaline into excitement. Becky, in my feedback commented on how i managed to successfully be more comfortable on stage with introducing my songs as well as performance wise. After the performance, because my tutor Tom as well as Aly know how nervous and shaken up i get by the fact of being on stage they said i managed to complete something well out of my comfort zone which not only improved my confidence humongous amounts but also made me very proud of my achievements. From the negatives in my performance i would say not performing to the best of my ability that i can do at home , is something i can still work on coming back I'm September. But because had another singer , this was another main reason i wasn't able to do as much as ild hoped because ild originally planned to do 3 different songs of different genres to show each different side of me and my vocal ability , i will make sure i carry on trying different genres so that i can contend with my target and make sure i reach it as i am very ambitious in doing so. An unfortunate thing for us as a band was that because we had trouble with musicians we had to tackle obstacles such as switching guitarists 3 times but not only that we also originally decided for my original song to be on piano as it is more of a piano based song although Louis wasn't prepared and had no time , he also didn't turn up to a rehearsal which put a negative into the situation as well as our guitarist being a vocalist who was also focusing on his own assessed band. luckily for me, Keith was well prepared and learnt things major ally fast which gave a positive affect to my performance of my original song., even if it wasn't what wed hoped with piano , it still turned out better than expected.
Our Rehearsal progress
In our rehearsals i started of as a solo artist which in fact didn't end up occurring , i start of with Izak as a guitarist. I would of hoped i would stay solo but i was happy that i cared about someones Else's grade and supporting them throughout their joinery as well as mine.
Our rehearsal wasn't as good as we expected because we had originally started of as Izak as a guitarist who was in fact fantastic although because he was on holiday for a week and didn't come back till Wednesday evening we didn't have a chance to rehearse in which fact tom our leader helped us by giving us another guitarist who was working solo , so was able to multitask and work at home as well as help us. Although we didn't arrange a rehearsal on Tuesdays and Fridays, Oscar unfortunately had work for some of the rehearsals but we were so desperate to get some Rehearsals done that we asked Keith another vocalist who can play guitar as well to step in for us , not only did he help me vocally but he also approached my vocals in another way as i originally started of with 5 songs in mind and two as back up, i showed Keith my song by my inspirational artist ' Dua Lipa' - thinking bout you although straight away he recognised it wasn't good for me because of how low she starts , so i decided to show me my second option of nobody love tori Kelly, in which he suggested could be improved and turn out to be a good performance , so he helped me with my vocals begin accurate and precise.
I would say that the few rehearsals i has with Keith was really effective, as he knew how to make it vocally challenging and change up dynamics to make it more interesting , but he could also help with warm ups to help with the areas i was stuck on for example with diction Keith suggested i tried some tongue twisters and directed me through them which really helped me personally, with many difficulties i was facing. Not only did Keith help with the cover songs he also helped find more stable Bvs for me even thou they were stable he used the guitar to find the perfect 5th of ' judge me ' and ' i would judge you to' which i found really successful in the performance.
Although the performance was a success there was still little issues throughout the journey and in the performance that could be fixed for example , i spent a long time to pick a guitarist and stick with them as well as , my set list as i was tied up with songs that would show me vocally , and i would start songs and not finish them which i felt wasted a lot of time .
In order to improve upon my vocals and bus, i feel i need to not only sing along to tracks and try and find perfect 5ths but to also , try and find a song with harmonies in which could improve my technique by ' copying' or by using the scale and harmonising with that . Another improvement i could make is within my licks and riffs , in which when i had a tutorial with Becky she suggested i looked at Natalie Weiss and her videos of breaking down riffs , which would not only help me sing riffs but help me pitch every not correctly.
In my performance, i know that Lauren messed up on some of the Bvs of my original which did initially put me off although i didn't let this stop my i carried on , i also ended up making a mistake in my bvs, in her song singing the counter melody of ' i got issues you got them to' and coming in to early although i didn't let this stop me , i feel that if we were more prepared and well rehearsals we would of had a more successful performance.
The performance
In perspective , i felt that our performance went well personally i met a few of my targets which makes me one step closer to achieving what i would like in future , although there was many problems and issues that occurred for example in my original song i would of have liked to have just me singing ' we never thought you'd be the one' because it detracted the emotion that line had as Lauren was singing it in another key and also not in sync with me which was disappointing, but personally i would change the time i came in with my bvs in her song as i came in early but i felt she could of played it off better and just carried on.
i also felt the chemistry between me and Lauren on stage could of been better taking all issues outside the stage out of the performance and connecting with each other for example singing at each other and looking at each other more to connect with each other i felt this wasn't achieved and should of been very cruital, i also felt she could of performed more to give more energy ti the performance which would of helped hold me in place a bit more, instead of being optimistic.
In the performance , i realise i didn't speak much only at the beginning when introducing my original song, i feel as if i should of introduced all the other songs and included the audience with the final performance song as they could of felt detracted from me and i should of also said something along the lines ' join in if you know the lyrics' for the chorus because not only would it have had an impact on the chorus but it would of helped balance my nerves more and gain even more confidence than i did.
On the positive side, i felt that i did use all the techniques learnt in rehearsal to give a vocally pleasing performance but not only that , i also managed to change it dynamically despite the fact i was so used to hearing the original and found it difficult to change the melody which Rodger had suggested to keep the audience in the lurch. i felt my tone was really good and i was in time with the guitar. But another factor is on the second verse nearly sang another ' when you lay down to rest' even thou its only in the first chorus but i did feel as if i played it of well and managed to carry on .
The final song could of been more stronger vocally especially with the riff, i was very disappointed in the way i gave it out as when rehearsed i tried different ways i managed to sing it significantly close to how she does it when practising with her but without i failed so Aly my tutor helped me discover other options which i forgot to do in there performance
I also felt for the final performance the 'HEYs' leading up to the riff wasn't very good as they were at different volume levels and it wasn't smooth , so i need to make sure i work on run ups as well as riffs.
Personal targets for myself
- I feel as if because my harmonies are not as good as they could be that i need to make sure I'm analysing what I'm doing recording myself doing lead and trying to figure out harmonies from brain as well as using piano and for example harmonising with the major scale and trying different things, as well as reviewing videos with harmonies in them such as destiny child's song ' girl '
- I also need to work on my technique in riffs and licks as i feel really weak with what I'm doing at the moment and my approach to them although i tried my hardest with the tori Kelly song ' nobody love' and the riff i still didn't manage to get it so my tutor Becky Morton suggested i look at Natalie Weiss who breaks down riffs and helps correct every note, over the summer i will make sure i try to at least target myself to 5 episodes of hers.
- Lastly , i need to work on my very low notes especially as i wasn't able to perform Dua lipa's song ' thinking bout you' by doing this i need to train my lower range in doing ' food'
- And finally, i need to make sure work on my twang placement which will not only help with forsetoo vocals but will help with my resonance and placement and not being so airy in my vocals when singing which is something i struggle with a lot , the exercises i need to complete is exercises such as nasty neighs.
Thursday, 6 July 2017
BLOG POST 6
Project 4 - Blog 6
Following , reviewing the video and pin pointing difficulties i had when performing to my lectures and peers to get feedback, i organised a rehearsal session with Keith, so he would be able to listen to my vocals and help improve certain areas, because you can never see or hear your own mistakes unless you listen back , i managed to improve on my dynamical flow for example in my original i spoke about ti being boring and not dynamically challenging so we spoke about using the guitar to strum and add some rhythm to it so that the vocals can follow, i felt that for the pre chorus this really worked out well and helped , and with the beginning part of the song we made sure do add a variety of techniques for example finger picking the bass notes to emphasise the chord progression and strumming the high strings to sound the chord and set the dark mood of the song because of the minor quality of the chords. For the line "when you lay down to rest" to slowly pick the ending to give the effect of the car sound that is filled in the production of the song and making sure the chord changes of that part is quick and solid.
I am really satisfied by the improved changes we made during our session after, and i felt more relaxed about my original song . Although we only managed to go through critiques of my original song i felt i improved masses of amount. I felt my vowels wasn't being pronounciated properly so we use loads of tongue twisters to ensure my diction was more sufficient , and so we were able to hear the words more clearly. Because my original song is mostly in my lower range in which i can sometimes find difficult to control i made sure i used ' foos' in which we learnt in Becky's lesson which i felt really helped me control my lower notes and maximise the richness of the lower notes is that they also wernt as airy , which is also a massive area i struggle with .
Following , reviewing the video and pin pointing difficulties i had when performing to my lectures and peers to get feedback, i organised a rehearsal session with Keith, so he would be able to listen to my vocals and help improve certain areas, because you can never see or hear your own mistakes unless you listen back , i managed to improve on my dynamical flow for example in my original i spoke about ti being boring and not dynamically challenging so we spoke about using the guitar to strum and add some rhythm to it so that the vocals can follow, i felt that for the pre chorus this really worked out well and helped , and with the beginning part of the song we made sure do add a variety of techniques for example finger picking the bass notes to emphasise the chord progression and strumming the high strings to sound the chord and set the dark mood of the song because of the minor quality of the chords. For the line "when you lay down to rest" to slowly pick the ending to give the effect of the car sound that is filled in the production of the song and making sure the chord changes of that part is quick and solid.
I am really satisfied by the improved changes we made during our session after, and i felt more relaxed about my original song . Although we only managed to go through critiques of my original song i felt i improved masses of amount. I felt my vowels wasn't being pronounciated properly so we use loads of tongue twisters to ensure my diction was more sufficient , and so we were able to hear the words more clearly. Because my original song is mostly in my lower range in which i can sometimes find difficult to control i made sure i used ' foos' in which we learnt in Becky's lesson which i felt really helped me control my lower notes and maximise the richness of the lower notes is that they also wernt as airy , which is also a massive area i struggle with .
I had to make sure during this rehearsal process, that i worked through these difficulties and done all in my power to improve for my final performance in doing so another difficulty i faced i reviewed and reapplied myself with using the right diction was singing in time, so i used a metronome to work acapella as home for personal improvement along with keith playing guitar so that i could issues my timing a bit better which is something i always seem to fail to do, i was really impressed in the way i gave myself out for which improving all my issues in technicality.
Monday, 3 July 2017
Evaluation
Following our performance, i was overwhelmed by the outcome and the amounts of support i was receiving especially as i felt very unrehearsed but the support gave me more adrenaline to fight for what i want, and to give out a successful performance. Overall i thought my performance on stage was more than i expected , i turned my nerves into excitement before i went on stage to manipulate my mind in thinking differently as i was extremely scared, i thought that from the from the first to the end song there was masses of improvement in the first song i was just warming to the idea of being on stage although by the end i was giving my all , my energy was feisty and power was more extreme. I thought that there were a few errors that could possibly be improved coming back in September and throughout my music performance. My biggest regret on stage was that i did not ‘ involve the audience’ which is something i planned to do in my proposal, i also didn't have enough set time to work out a dance routine although in the end it turned out better than expected performance wise as i improvised my dance moves.
If i was to redo the performance a second time i would change, the harmonies and make them more solid, i was very disappointed by laurens performance especially with her efforts within the final performance and the courage she had towards it and enthusiasm as well as rehearsal structure, i felt as if she rang over my riffs during ‘ aint nobody love’ which confused me although i managed to pick myself up which made me proud, i am very devastated about the harmonies in my original as they came in at the wrong points as well. Although as for the guitar playing i was very impressed because we had originally started of with izak as a guitarist which then changed to Oskar and then Keith who is in fact on the vocal course but volunteered to help us , because he knew my structure more of by heart and i was joyful, that he gave us a good start and very thankful to him as he had little time to do so. If i was to change my performance, i would redo my riff, as it was very wobbly, i would also redo the run up to the riff because i ended up with volume levels being very different from the first ‘ hey’ to the end one which also put my riff at fault as well as another singer singing it.
Secondly if i was to change something else, i would take a risk with my orignal more instead of keeping it safe just because of little rehearsal i would take risks myself whether guitar followed or not, just so it would add more dynamically . I was also unhappy with some of my Bvs in lauren's song the one that stood out to me the most was ‘ i got issues you got them too’ which is when i was using counter melody although i realised this came in to early , and should of come in on the third line but one thing i would say positively about it was learning from mistakes and carrying on instead of letting it bring me down or the performance.
I felt that the communication between me and my band mates was intolerable and they didn't take it as seriously as i did therefore, i feel as if going solo may have had a better outcome for me personally especially as i learned about the loop pedal during it , i feel i should of been selfish at this point and thought about myself instead of putting other people first although from this i have learned that being independent is much more suitable for me as a singer and can get me further with what i want to achieve rather than helping people, on the
Following our performance, i was overwhelmed by the outcome and the amounts of support i was receiving especially as i felt very unrehearsed but the support gave me more adrenaline to fight for what i want, and to give out a successful performance. Overall i thought my performance on stage was more than i expected , i turned my nerves into excitement before i went on stage to manipulate my mind in thinking differently as i was extremely scared, i thought that from the from the first to the end song there was masses of improvement in the first song i was just warming to the idea of being on stage although by the end i was giving my all , my energy was feisty and power was more extreme. I thought that there were a few errors that could possibly be improved coming back in September and throughout my music performance. My biggest regret on stage was that i did not ‘ involve the audience’ which is something i planned to do in my proposal, i also didn't have enough set time to work out a dance routine although in the end it turned out better than expected performance wise as i improvised my dance moves.
If i was to redo the performance a second time i would change, the harmonies and make them more solid, i was very disappointed by laurens performance especially with her efforts within the final performance and the courage she had towards it and enthusiasm as well as rehearsal structure, i felt as if she rang over my riffs during ‘ aint nobody love’ which confused me although i managed to pick myself up which made me proud, i am very devastated about the harmonies in my original as they came in at the wrong points as well. Although as for the guitar playing i was very impressed because we had originally started of with izak as a guitarist which then changed to Oskar and then Keith who is in fact on the vocal course but volunteered to help us , because he knew my structure more of by heart and i was joyful, that he gave us a good start and very thankful to him as he had little time to do so. If i was to change my performance, i would redo my riff, as it was very wobbly, i would also redo the run up to the riff because i ended up with volume levels being very different from the first ‘ hey’ to the end one which also put my riff at fault as well as another singer singing it.
Secondly if i was to change something else, i would take a risk with my orignal more instead of keeping it safe just because of little rehearsal i would take risks myself whether guitar followed or not, just so it would add more dynamically . I was also unhappy with some of my Bvs in lauren's song the one that stood out to me the most was ‘ i got issues you got them too’ which is when i was using counter melody although i realised this came in to early , and should of come in on the third line but one thing i would say positively about it was learning from mistakes and carrying on instead of letting it bring me down or the performance.
I felt that the communication between me and my band mates was intolerable and they didn't take it as seriously as i did therefore, i feel as if going solo may have had a better outcome for me personally especially as i learned about the loop pedal during it , i feel i should of been selfish at this point and thought about myself instead of putting other people first although from this i have learned that being independent is much more suitable for me as a singer and can get me further with what i want to achieve rather than helping people, on the
other hand i am glad i helped someone pass their diploma, i just wished they were more
reliable.
Throughout the whole process there was a lot of stress with rehearsal and harmonies and where to sing and not to sing and there was lots of unnecessary tears, i thought after how different it would of been if i went solo and only had myself to worry about. Another pointer i would like to add is that from the proposal to my final performance,i am not complete within myself as i didn't meet my own targets in my proposal which i had been meaning to do for a while right from the start and i thought i was going to be able to have the chance to do so, although from the experience i do hope that in year 2 diploma this is possible , i would of liked to have explored different genres and had i have taken the solo artist route i may have been able to do this more reluctantly .
One more pointer about our overall performance, i thought the relationship over the weeks me and lauren had been having and the ups and downs had been brought onto stage which made the chemistry disruptive and the audience were able to see that, as me and lauren didn't connect throughout the performance at all, but whereas if you compare our performance to other people to were more rehearsed and had a general connection on stage it was a more successful performance than ours.
I also felt , that the technicality and organisation of the tech team wasn't what i expected i felt there would have been more of a proper sound check / line check because i couldn't hear what i needed to hear half the time at which point i was already used to hearing to much of something and just let the show begin
Next time i have a similar performance, i will make sure i think about myself before others to be selfish first so that i can get the best in myself and get a better grade than i target myself to get , and i also need to know who is the most reliable, and use people who are interested in the same kind of music as me and my kind of set lists as well as my own music, i will also make sure i am more prepared myself and make sure i don't forget about my diary i create myself and to stick to it,
Throughout the whole process there was a lot of stress with rehearsal and harmonies and where to sing and not to sing and there was lots of unnecessary tears, i thought after how different it would of been if i went solo and only had myself to worry about. Another pointer i would like to add is that from the proposal to my final performance,i am not complete within myself as i didn't meet my own targets in my proposal which i had been meaning to do for a while right from the start and i thought i was going to be able to have the chance to do so, although from the experience i do hope that in year 2 diploma this is possible , i would of liked to have explored different genres and had i have taken the solo artist route i may have been able to do this more reluctantly .
One more pointer about our overall performance, i thought the relationship over the weeks me and lauren had been having and the ups and downs had been brought onto stage which made the chemistry disruptive and the audience were able to see that, as me and lauren didn't connect throughout the performance at all, but whereas if you compare our performance to other people to were more rehearsed and had a general connection on stage it was a more successful performance than ours.
I also felt , that the technicality and organisation of the tech team wasn't what i expected i felt there would have been more of a proper sound check / line check because i couldn't hear what i needed to hear half the time at which point i was already used to hearing to much of something and just let the show begin
Next time i have a similar performance, i will make sure i think about myself before others to be selfish first so that i can get the best in myself and get a better grade than i target myself to get , and i also need to know who is the most reliable, and use people who are interested in the same kind of music as me and my kind of set lists as well as my own music, i will also make sure i am more prepared myself and make sure i don't forget about my diary i create myself and to stick to it,
Sunday, 2 July 2017
PROJECT 4- BLOG POST 5
By the time i had finalised my set list, to meet my targets and make sure i could get my final performance as perfect as i wanted it required me to perform to my lectures and peers so that i could improve any fault, and also so i was able to record and get more feedback for lectures or other people that weren't present for example degree students or our technical development lecturer becky morton , as well as showing it to other people i could also self reflect on issues i was facing and how to improve myself as generally singers tend to not notice silly mistakes like their vowels and what there doing performance wise.
Looking back at the video, i realised it had the same structure throughout and dynamically it didn't change so i had to make some changes in which Rodger helped me to come to a different arrangement for example in ' rain' instead of keeping it simple and safe to take risks and trying new riffs especially with the ' black rose spills red' line as well. i also noticed some mistakes with ' with no warning sign' as i tried to do the harmony, which i need to make sure i can sing and listen to the harmony at the same time and i also noticed i was gong slightly out of key.
My diction and pronunciation wasn't as clear as i would of hoped particularly as this song has deep meaning and needs the lyrics to be pronouced clearly so the audience can understand the same emotion. Another fault i faced is that when i started of the song, i didn't start of strongly i started of weak which then kills the mood of the whole song and detracts everything that is the part of the purpose.
I noticed i had my ' we never thought you'd be the one' with the exact same melody and i felt as if this wasn't giving much and that it would be boring so i also thought there needed to be somewhat change there to improve the song in general and so that the audience are still hooked and to try something different for example taking risks and going higher for some parts.
I was also really hard to hear, so i needed to work on mic technique and diaphragm technique for example to try some anchoring to project certain notes that are sustained and long , and with mic technique to make sure I'm as close as possible so that every word can be heard
With the performance side, i looked back and realised i was a statue throughout therefore i needed to work more on laying out what i was going to do on stage during the song , and be more confident with the song and maybe for example point at people to direct them and so they know its towards them so audience interaction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7hqwMyGglU&t=3s
Monday, 19 June 2017
PROJECT 4 - BLOG POST 4
Currently, because ive had a lot of confusion, with accompaniment and arrangements and what im doing, i havent had much to write about in terms of blog posts although im carrying on other the next few weeks , and ive had many rehurshals with keith branic and lauren together which is fortunately working, amazingly we are planning to try and add a cojan to add empashis to my original now that everything is working its way out we have arranged a time planned on rehurshals and planned to rehearse at least one hour every day apart from Wednesday
Currently, because ive had a lot of confusion, with accompaniment and arrangements and what im doing, i havent had much to write about in terms of blog posts although im carrying on other the next few weeks , and ive had many rehurshals with keith branic and lauren together which is fortunately working, amazingly we are planning to try and add a cojan to add empashis to my original now that everything is working its way out we have arranged a time planned on rehurshals and planned to rehearse at least one hour every day apart from Wednesday
This is another form of collaboration outside the music collabration, and inside, so working on lauren we decided on something that would both describe us in one word, and we came up with many variations but what both suited us and in which we made our band name was the word 'cliché'
the purpose of choosing the word was descibing our personalities as we are both quirky and diffrent and the word cliche means predictable which is something we give our with our status and our clothing , me personally also collabrated with an artist who is one of my old school freinds who then designed a logo with the word in a guitar form to describe the whole ' acoustic scene'
Project 4- Blog post 3
Coming back from a bad experience with the guitarist in band skills,
Oscar had come back and presented what was learnt so far and what he took away from the rehearsal time, although he had achieved what i asked, , the dynamics in the guitar playing were not quite how we expected it , especially for my original , as that was the song i wanted to show myself as an artist, i didn't really like the way he gave himself to it, he didn't give much dynamics and kept it as simple as possible , for example when i wanted ' finger picked' technique specifically on the verses to give it more emphasis and emotion and support the vocals in the build up i wasn't quite getting that from him, so i left that for the time being and moved onto Laurens song, in that time we wasn't focusing on complicated BVS or any BVS at all because we wanted to have our own vocal pin pointed and perfect before getting confused and the practises getting confusing by the other singer.
We then after Fridays session tried to organise more sessions with oscar, and realised how much of a unstable situation with him, as he was always occupied doing more important things for himself so we were worrying by this point, then i was relying on myself and practicing my lyrics fundamentally to make sure they were absolutely secure, and then to my luckily Keith came in helping me with not only my situation with accompaniment but also with my vocal technique , my presentation, and easier ways of resolving my vocal instability for example mixed voice which is required for the cover song im doing at the end, i then laid out the structure, the rhythm of the song and how i arranged to pick it , not only did he meet my requirements in doing so he also helped developed both my cover song and my original to give myself a bit more taste.
my personal targets by the end of my first session with new guitarist keith branic were
- working on mixed voice
- working ony my presentation
- working on my pronounciation of words
- working on dynamics and the use of my voice within the structure
This is also a form of
collobatration and a show of it and how i collabroated with many guitarists and tried out diffrent things to get to the finalised plan of keith being my accompaniment
Coming back from a bad experience with the guitarist in band skills,
Oscar had come back and presented what was learnt so far and what he took away from the rehearsal time, although he had achieved what i asked, , the dynamics in the guitar playing were not quite how we expected it , especially for my original , as that was the song i wanted to show myself as an artist, i didn't really like the way he gave himself to it, he didn't give much dynamics and kept it as simple as possible , for example when i wanted ' finger picked' technique specifically on the verses to give it more emphasis and emotion and support the vocals in the build up i wasn't quite getting that from him, so i left that for the time being and moved onto Laurens song, in that time we wasn't focusing on complicated BVS or any BVS at all because we wanted to have our own vocal pin pointed and perfect before getting confused and the practises getting confusing by the other singer.
We then after Fridays session tried to organise more sessions with oscar, and realised how much of a unstable situation with him, as he was always occupied doing more important things for himself so we were worrying by this point, then i was relying on myself and practicing my lyrics fundamentally to make sure they were absolutely secure, and then to my luckily Keith came in helping me with not only my situation with accompaniment but also with my vocal technique , my presentation, and easier ways of resolving my vocal instability for example mixed voice which is required for the cover song im doing at the end, i then laid out the structure, the rhythm of the song and how i arranged to pick it , not only did he meet my requirements in doing so he also helped developed both my cover song and my original to give myself a bit more taste.
my personal targets by the end of my first session with new guitarist keith branic were
- working on mixed voice
- working ony my presentation
- working on my pronounciation of words
- working on dynamics and the use of my voice within the structure
This is also a form of
collobatration and a show of it and how i collabroated with many guitarists and tried out diffrent things to get to the finalised plan of keith being my accompaniment
PROJECT 4- BLOG POST 2
As there was a half term from 27th may until 5th June, and our guitarist who was helping me and Lauren was on holiday for that whole week, we had barely any rehearsal and i was unprepared fully with my second choice of song, i felt i was really behind, and unorganised and i was stressing out a lot as many of my peers were ahead of me, so i decided to put the pressure on myself and be realistic about how much time i had so i choose ' thinking about you' and had a back up just in case it wouldn't work as so i didn't have to stress as much if the other one didn't work.
Then unfortunately, the Wednesday i arrived i had to prepare myself for the worst as neither Lauren or Izak were in for the first half hour, but i needed to still rehearse i managed to book out a guitar and roughly go through the chords of my song and my original, so that i at least had a back up in case all went to worse on the day, and at home, i carry on practising with guitar because not only did we get let down by our guitarist but we got let down by our pianist, which meant my original song couldn't go the way i had planned it to be , but i still needed to do all i can in my power to make sure i at least had a rough idea of what i wanted and worked on progressing in myself, so i done my songs independently and performed my song at events management to get some feedback to help myself.
Although because our original guitarist was incapable of of battling with his assessment and ours ,
we were given another guitarist Oscar. We then arranged a rehearsal with him Thursday and Friday , so he was able to understand our set, we described the sound we wanted and how we both wanted our songs played and the different arrangement we had in mind, and helped him work around it, although personally i felt he was of no use, as he wasn't able to put his mindset towards what we want it and how to play it , so i gave him the arrangement to go home and practise and we left it as that for the time being.
Sunday, 18 June 2017
Project 4 - Blog post 1
First of all when we came back from easter holidays the week commencing 8th may,
my initial plan was to be a solo performer and achieve my targets of trying out new styles , although this wasn't working very well, as i wanted to do to much more and give more than i needed to , and i also wanted to show my dance skills, and stage confidence, so i decided to leave the ' stylistic aspect' which was initially in my proposal and still to showing my original and focussing on key points within that, and my dance routine which i have been wanting to do for a while.
izak the guitarist that was firstly helping us to begin with , had volunteered to play guitar on wednesday so that i could purely focus on my negatives and positives in my vocals and be able to i,prove them instead of being distracted by playing guitar, as i am being assed on my vocals.
So on wednsdays 10th may , i showed izak my original song on guitar and gave him a clear structure to begin with so he would be able to work it out and make it his own if he liked, and we started working on my original and focussing on making that as good as it could be because it is going to be a step forward for me to show my own side at The Star and to my peers. And then , i showed him a song by 1975 which i love listening to , and we tried working out the chords for the song and singing it for the first time, so we took little baby steps towards the song, trying different versions and arrangements, and trying to make it our own, although when i asked for other peoples opinions and collaborating with Keith and my Vocal teacher at home, they suggested it wasn't the right style for me and i could show of more and get higher marks with the song ' figures' by jessie reyez so me and Izak arranged another rehurshal to work on that song. Unfortantally, i didn't get to do what i want with being solo as i needed to be a helping hand for another sing Lauren Kirby , so i suggested she came into our group, which fuelled a lot of arguments to begin with , as my original plan was to try a variety, although it did initially also help me to perform my song with different variations of vocal loops and give my full potential with BVS on my original so i warmed up to the idea even though i still was being adement, i didn't want any other vocalists. We then arranged another meeting in band skills the following week to help lauren sort out her song as we wanted to get that out the way and focus on hers as much as mine, we tried a few songs for lauren , but she choose ' issues - julia micheals' in the end which really worked well with her vocals.
First of all when we came back from easter holidays the week commencing 8th may,
my initial plan was to be a solo performer and achieve my targets of trying out new styles , although this wasn't working very well, as i wanted to do to much more and give more than i needed to , and i also wanted to show my dance skills, and stage confidence, so i decided to leave the ' stylistic aspect' which was initially in my proposal and still to showing my original and focussing on key points within that, and my dance routine which i have been wanting to do for a while.
izak the guitarist that was firstly helping us to begin with , had volunteered to play guitar on wednesday so that i could purely focus on my negatives and positives in my vocals and be able to i,prove them instead of being distracted by playing guitar, as i am being assed on my vocals.
So on wednsdays 10th may , i showed izak my original song on guitar and gave him a clear structure to begin with so he would be able to work it out and make it his own if he liked, and we started working on my original and focussing on making that as good as it could be because it is going to be a step forward for me to show my own side at The Star and to my peers. And then , i showed him a song by 1975 which i love listening to , and we tried working out the chords for the song and singing it for the first time, so we took little baby steps towards the song, trying different versions and arrangements, and trying to make it our own, although when i asked for other peoples opinions and collaborating with Keith and my Vocal teacher at home, they suggested it wasn't the right style for me and i could show of more and get higher marks with the song ' figures' by jessie reyez so me and Izak arranged another rehurshal to work on that song. Unfortantally, i didn't get to do what i want with being solo as i needed to be a helping hand for another sing Lauren Kirby , so i suggested she came into our group, which fuelled a lot of arguments to begin with , as my original plan was to try a variety, although it did initially also help me to perform my song with different variations of vocal loops and give my full potential with BVS on my original so i warmed up to the idea even though i still was being adement, i didn't want any other vocalists. We then arranged another meeting in band skills the following week to help lauren sort out her song as we wanted to get that out the way and focus on hers as much as mine, we tried a few songs for lauren , but she choose ' issues - julia micheals' in the end which really worked well with her vocals.
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
On the 16th April me and lauren got another 2nd gig at the star , singing originals and covers, i love my work with lauren the connection we have on stage is amazing! and it was a great turnout the amount of people that turned up was incredible! and we were astonished this time we had age limits and if you were 16 you could stay as last time their was complications but we enjoyed ourselves and all the other acts were brilliant! hope to do it again
On saturday the 6TH may me and my producer worked in studio for 6 hours on progressing a song that was already made but could be made 10 times better we changed the key from major to minor because we thought it suited that style more for the particular song, and we added a pad to the piano to make it more 'hooky' or scary and have a deeper meaning so far in the studio we have produced and reproduced 4 songs and are on the way to 5 by New Year 2018 i want to be able to release and EP
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Task 1a- project planning
Coming back to ACM, on the 9th we heard about the tasks we were going to be set for our summative assessment , to begin with in band skills. We were taught through the brief and what was required of us through the upcoming weeks, and for our major performance of the ' live lounge ' . for the live lounge we were told that we could pick a song from the top 40 charts , and change it up to make it our own . As soon as i found out about that assessment i was thrilled because i had previous experience on changing up current songs, and i had a plan ahead of what i was going to do.
To complete the intire project it will require the following, for example, planning out the project using the ghantt chart which you can see i have done here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t9DVsqzxNrWsO9-Xj-fynsrqaEfV5LNgowXq1F6jnoo/edit#gid=0
then i need , to do some research on songs that have been covered by other artists , the reason for doing this is so i am able to be inspired by other artists and take little bits i found intresting and incorporarate it into my own performance. Then we have to pick our own cover which we want to work on , from the top 40 charts. next we are being asked to blog 3 post of our rehurshal process, and the benifits and disadvantages we face. Then we have to make a tech spec and stage plan with all our group of where qe are placing our equitment on stage and what mics we are using to record whcih will benifit the producers.
Then in a few weeks time we will have to do our live lounge performance, and evaluate it afterwards.
To complete the intire project it will require the following, for example, planning out the project using the ghantt chart which you can see i have done here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t9DVsqzxNrWsO9-Xj-fynsrqaEfV5LNgowXq1F6jnoo/edit#gid=0
then i need , to do some research on songs that have been covered by other artists , the reason for doing this is so i am able to be inspired by other artists and take little bits i found intresting and incorporarate it into my own performance. Then we have to pick our own cover which we want to work on , from the top 40 charts. next we are being asked to blog 3 post of our rehurshal process, and the benifits and disadvantages we face. Then we have to make a tech spec and stage plan with all our group of where qe are placing our equitment on stage and what mics we are using to record whcih will benifit the producers.
Then in a few weeks time we will have to do our live lounge performance, and evaluate it afterwards.
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Evaluation band skills - live lounge
On Wednesday 8th March, it was our live lounge assessment after weeks of practise over and over again, it came to a deadline and all was real, we had tried our best to make sure we were well prepared for our assessment
Research
when our group was going through the process of choosing our song, we were also assigned a task to research 3 originals and covers of songs , one song that really stood out to me that influenced my overall decision for when changing up the cover our group choose 'fake love' drake , was the song that was covered by pentatonix ' hallelujah' i didn't quiet enjoy the original but when i heard pentatonix version i was really impressed by the layers of harmonies , and i thought it would be a very cool idea to incorporate those decisions into our original to make it more atmospheric and uplifting. I also spoke to my peers about there research and what i found amazing is the party tune crazy in love by beyonce was not meanful, it was just dancy and lacked lyrical meaning, but the Eden project made a cover of ' crazy in love' beyonce and slowed down the tempo and there was less instruments used which i enjoyed and that's what inspired us to make our cover more slower, so we could also add some ' showing off' bits by piano, guitar and vocals because the original of fake love is RnB and generally really fast.
Rehearsal
In our rehearsal we started of with so many weaknesses which was stressing us out, for example one of our group members was going through a tough time at home which made his full focus not be the most important, although as a group we worked through this and helped him out a lot to overcome his stress and relax him , so to begin with becaue we didnt have him as our main lead instrumentalist we had to work on some basic chords when prehand we had already made a rough copy of the verse with complex chords and jazz style. Another Obstacle that i as a vocalist had was fitting the melody to the new style and the words around it, and doing something new and out my comfort zone, because i wasnt excepetionally great at jazz and hadnt studied much of it , although in the end i did manage to get my timing right with the help of my peers going over and over again until i finally managed to succeed at it. On the other hand there were some very imaginative thoughts, to start of with we put it in 4/4 but when we wanted the lyrics to fit with our swung feel louis though of us putting it in 6/8 which would work out better, and also we thought the piano entering in on its own for 2 bars would be good while there was muted guitar because it would set the scene, and the stabs with the 'whole time they want to take my place' was a very good idea because it meant that those phrases had more emphasis on them.
Performance
Had we had more time on the other hand i think we would of made sure we were more prepared on stage prensence and moving around the stage effectively instead of letting nerves get to us, and we would of put in more time to make sure it was more perfect , although i think that we done an exceptional job and im proud of us. I think that eventhough we did have a lot of practice it was not to the standard we wanted it to be , we could of made the vocals more foccused or reimplying that jazz technique although i am very proud of myself for giving it a go cosnidering i barely knew much about jazz, and having a go at improvising through the verse and chrous , i thought that was a good turn out,
i think that louis piano technique was really good and he didnt overplay his parts as well as laurens guitar and i think that Laurens harmonies were really on point making the layers we were looking for . One regret i have looking back, is not mixing two songs together because we were capable of doing so but just didnt believe we could do it with the time we had it.
Research
when our group was going through the process of choosing our song, we were also assigned a task to research 3 originals and covers of songs , one song that really stood out to me that influenced my overall decision for when changing up the cover our group choose 'fake love' drake , was the song that was covered by pentatonix ' hallelujah' i didn't quiet enjoy the original but when i heard pentatonix version i was really impressed by the layers of harmonies , and i thought it would be a very cool idea to incorporate those decisions into our original to make it more atmospheric and uplifting. I also spoke to my peers about there research and what i found amazing is the party tune crazy in love by beyonce was not meanful, it was just dancy and lacked lyrical meaning, but the Eden project made a cover of ' crazy in love' beyonce and slowed down the tempo and there was less instruments used which i enjoyed and that's what inspired us to make our cover more slower, so we could also add some ' showing off' bits by piano, guitar and vocals because the original of fake love is RnB and generally really fast.
Rehearsal
In our rehearsal we started of with so many weaknesses which was stressing us out, for example one of our group members was going through a tough time at home which made his full focus not be the most important, although as a group we worked through this and helped him out a lot to overcome his stress and relax him , so to begin with becaue we didnt have him as our main lead instrumentalist we had to work on some basic chords when prehand we had already made a rough copy of the verse with complex chords and jazz style. Another Obstacle that i as a vocalist had was fitting the melody to the new style and the words around it, and doing something new and out my comfort zone, because i wasnt excepetionally great at jazz and hadnt studied much of it , although in the end i did manage to get my timing right with the help of my peers going over and over again until i finally managed to succeed at it. On the other hand there were some very imaginative thoughts, to start of with we put it in 4/4 but when we wanted the lyrics to fit with our swung feel louis though of us putting it in 6/8 which would work out better, and also we thought the piano entering in on its own for 2 bars would be good while there was muted guitar because it would set the scene, and the stabs with the 'whole time they want to take my place' was a very good idea because it meant that those phrases had more emphasis on them.
Performance
Had we had more time on the other hand i think we would of made sure we were more prepared on stage prensence and moving around the stage effectively instead of letting nerves get to us, and we would of put in more time to make sure it was more perfect , although i think that we done an exceptional job and im proud of us. I think that eventhough we did have a lot of practice it was not to the standard we wanted it to be , we could of made the vocals more foccused or reimplying that jazz technique although i am very proud of myself for giving it a go cosnidering i barely knew much about jazz, and having a go at improvising through the verse and chrous , i thought that was a good turn out,
i think that louis piano technique was really good and he didnt overplay his parts as well as laurens guitar and i think that Laurens harmonies were really on point making the layers we were looking for . One regret i have looking back, is not mixing two songs together because we were capable of doing so but just didnt believe we could do it with the time we had it.
Friday, 3 March 2017
To make sure everyone was happy with the rehearsal times that were able to fit all three of our timetables it was apparent that each and every one person had to send a timetable of there lessons to me so i could figure out a specify time for all of us to rehearse which worked out in the end for Wednesdays and Thursdays at 12;45 and Thursday at 1;30 although since then we had a member of our band leave and we decided to have a rehearsal every day because it would benefit us more even if it was late and only for an hour .
Live lounge update 3-
As a group this Wednesday was our first proper rehearsal since my gig in which we realised we were lacking, behind what we had originally planned but in our 2 hour lecture for band skills we went through timings, because i was having trouble coming in on the correct time as the backing track i was rehashing to with a metronome was completely different , so to resolve this we recorded a backing track with timing and without metronome to help me figure it our and practice at home.
Although we had rearranged our set up and how we played it compared to the original , for example in the original the chorus and verse are not identified by particular chords so we changed the chords round so that we could make sure that the verse and chorus were identified we also added a piano instrumental before the first verse. Our second task was to make sure there was places to breathe in ' whole time the want to take my place' so we made it short and snappy and we added stabs with the instruments so that those words were expressed as well as a small pause in between each one, the instruments had to make sure they were getting there stabs in tack because they were the mot important throughout the song.
we also released that there were barely any breathe points in our whole piece so that is why we added an instrumentation part and slowed it down, although when we tried to slow it down it lost effect and the instruments whaled away from the slow version and moved back to what we had originally, so we decided to keep it that way but change the style instead of keeping it to rapping and singing the lyrics fast we done it slow and steady lyrics.
we also had feedback from Rodger from this practice as well , he told us the instruments were not in time they were doing their own thing and wasn't supporting each other or me , so we resolved this by going through each step by step and blending the two instruments together instead of over playing .
As a group this Wednesday was our first proper rehearsal since my gig in which we realised we were lacking, behind what we had originally planned but in our 2 hour lecture for band skills we went through timings, because i was having trouble coming in on the correct time as the backing track i was rehashing to with a metronome was completely different , so to resolve this we recorded a backing track with timing and without metronome to help me figure it our and practice at home.
Although we had rearranged our set up and how we played it compared to the original , for example in the original the chorus and verse are not identified by particular chords so we changed the chords round so that we could make sure that the verse and chorus were identified we also added a piano instrumental before the first verse. Our second task was to make sure there was places to breathe in ' whole time the want to take my place' so we made it short and snappy and we added stabs with the instruments so that those words were expressed as well as a small pause in between each one, the instruments had to make sure they were getting there stabs in tack because they were the mot important throughout the song.
we also released that there were barely any breathe points in our whole piece so that is why we added an instrumentation part and slowed it down, although when we tried to slow it down it lost effect and the instruments whaled away from the slow version and moved back to what we had originally, so we decided to keep it that way but change the style instead of keeping it to rapping and singing the lyrics fast we done it slow and steady lyrics.
we also had feedback from Rodger from this practice as well , he told us the instruments were not in time they were doing their own thing and wasn't supporting each other or me , so we resolved this by going through each step by step and blending the two instruments together instead of over playing .
Thursday, 2 March 2017
Live lounge update 2-
Since week 1 after half term, our acoustic act has been able to fit in more preparation into our final performance for the live lounge, more rehearsals have been booked, and everybody has been progressing with turning up on time, as well as actually turning up to the rehearsal which is a massive beneficial contribute to our final performance.
Although 2nd week in from half term there wasn't much practise we could fit in around my time blog because i had a gig to complete at the start 28th February and me and Lauren who is in my band had to do a lot of preparation for that and the only time we got that week was in our band skills lecture and the following day Thursday for 2 hours, but following our lecture on Wednesday we had some really key points that were added , because the way i was singing was really shy , and nervous girl, so Rodger helped me be more confident in the way i sing and to add vibrato , but to also start the first verse strong so the rest of it fit in sync and can carry on like that , he also mentioned go Lauren and Louis that they needed to be more tighter and have the same chords as each other so they don't clash.
We as a band release that we need to get more rehearsal in so now that my gig is complete we have self prepared booking a diff rent room everyday for 2 hours to practise and coming in on weekends to make a better improvement in our performance, we are all determined to make sure this is the best performance that we have done and achieve the best grade we can, so therefore were dedicating our weekends as well as weekdays to the rest of the week.
In our band we also spoke about slowing down the tempo, because i was having problems singing ' whole time they want to take my place' because the original singer is rapping the song, so we spoke about slowing it down but had no clue where to start.
Our group all went away and learned our parts, which i was extremely happy about because my last performance wasn't so good, so in order to make sure this performance is better i made sure everyone knew their parts and went away and practised.
Since week 1 after half term, our acoustic act has been able to fit in more preparation into our final performance for the live lounge, more rehearsals have been booked, and everybody has been progressing with turning up on time, as well as actually turning up to the rehearsal which is a massive beneficial contribute to our final performance.
Although 2nd week in from half term there wasn't much practise we could fit in around my time blog because i had a gig to complete at the start 28th February and me and Lauren who is in my band had to do a lot of preparation for that and the only time we got that week was in our band skills lecture and the following day Thursday for 2 hours, but following our lecture on Wednesday we had some really key points that were added , because the way i was singing was really shy , and nervous girl, so Rodger helped me be more confident in the way i sing and to add vibrato , but to also start the first verse strong so the rest of it fit in sync and can carry on like that , he also mentioned go Lauren and Louis that they needed to be more tighter and have the same chords as each other so they don't clash.
We as a band release that we need to get more rehearsal in so now that my gig is complete we have self prepared booking a diff rent room everyday for 2 hours to practise and coming in on weekends to make a better improvement in our performance, we are all determined to make sure this is the best performance that we have done and achieve the best grade we can, so therefore were dedicating our weekends as well as weekdays to the rest of the week.
In our band we also spoke about slowing down the tempo, because i was having problems singing ' whole time they want to take my place' because the original singer is rapping the song, so we spoke about slowing it down but had no clue where to start.
Our group all went away and learned our parts, which i was extremely happy about because my last performance wasn't so good, so in order to make sure this performance is better i made sure everyone knew their parts and went away and practised.
Monday, 27 February 2017
Stage plan
In our stage plan we have decided to place the acoustic guitar next to the lead vocalist because it means that they can both hear each other , because our guitarist is also singing bvs, we've decided to place the keyboard at the back because he will be able to see us and follow us along with his solo bit on piano. As well as this we added the monitor at the front so it doesn't distract us and so we can hear ourselves instead of it being at the back. and there is a laptop placed at the back because in our live performance we have samples that are being added to have different effect to the original.
Metropolis studios
On Friday 3rd February, me and a few friend's were given the chance to go to metropolis via ACM, which we were really exited for and pleased that we actually had the opportunity to see where some ACM students record,and some major artists like Rhianna, Ed sheeran ,Adele and where Freddy mercury's piano is held.
It was very unfortunate, that i had to miss lectures on Friday as they were really late, although i couldn't believe that i was being given the chance to look around the studio and talk to a Grammy winning producer about how he's developed and about the gear in the studios. We arrived at metropolis and was taken upstairs the building was huge and hard to find at first, because we arrived early and there was no ACM sign until later, but when we entered inside we were shocking at how appealing it was and we understood where all that money had gone to. We were taken to the bar where we were greeted by some ACM staff , some in which i had never met. We were greeted by ACM's creator Kaine Clements, who spoke about creating ACM how it was founded and how Metropolis studios came about, he spoke about how started in a garage with a few equipment and developed from there. I also had a conversation with Kaya, which i had never met before but had heard of her, she told me about her experiences and what i can do to 'get myself out there' she also spoke to me about attending her vocal workshop, which i now intend going to.
We started of looking in studio A the big studio in the photo, where the likes of Adele, Ed sheeran , Rhianna and more had been to record and went to the massive vocal booth opposite it, we were shown the different aspects of recording in the Metropolis including the magic touch of mastering, it was one of the most amazing experiences I've had before . In the massive vocal booth opposite Studio A which you can see through there was Frank turners piano and its where we were greeted by an acm students music performance. we spent 4 hours being presented around the studio, from tours around the studio to meeting new people , if i had the chance i would not hesitate to go again and to be able to record there would be something im intrested in.
Friday, 10 February 2017
Live lounge update
On thursday 2nd of feburary, was the band's first rehearsal in which i had managed to organise,although unfortantally not all band members were able to come but 3/4 were which got us of to a good start louis the pianist in our band had a mindset for the song 'fake love' which we as singers were pleased to hear about because we could slow it down and change it up completely to make it more meanful, so we managed to pick the song 'fake love' by drake . After the formative assessment turning out to be a major disaster we discussed putting in place a rehurshal structure which we then done for everyday wednsdays and thursdays , although the following wednsday 8th feburary our main pianist who had organised the lead guitar over the chords and had the structure set out was unable to attend which had a real let down to the team and meant we had to restart from scratch, although lauren our guitarist managed to pull something together , and me and demi then decided it would be a good idea to mix the song ' controlla' also in top 40 together with fake love, not only did it fit perfect with the melody but it also worked well with the structure we had in mind and challenged us because it meant we were able to switch from one song to another so smoothly and you wouldn't be able to tell it was a sudden change, which worked really well for us as a group. Although the guitarist (lauren) was really doubting herself and wanted to experiment with the guitar because she thought the main melody for the song was really dull and boring and she wanted to add some fancy twidly bits to the guitar to make it more intrestresing not only for her but for us as vocalists to, so we could make it vocally driven and twiddle round with our vocals to
Although the start of was a success , after wednsdays lesson we as a group are struggling to come to terms with what is currently happening with out pianionist and he made an excellent structure with real potential so we were very disappointed but making an approach to something new was also very difficult especially with such little time, we have agreed for us to meet in half term although yet again not all the band will be attending because some of the band is on holiday , which is another bridge we have to tackle. We want our performance to be as much of a success as previous performances and make sure its efficient , and to progress not regress from our last summative band skills assessment. throughout rehurshals we aspire to blog every rehurshal and talk about the struggles we are currently facing and how we are going to fix those struggles, and participate as a band together to get what we want out of it.
On thursday 2nd of feburary, was the band's first rehearsal in which i had managed to organise,although unfortantally not all band members were able to come but 3/4 were which got us of to a good start louis the pianist in our band had a mindset for the song 'fake love' which we as singers were pleased to hear about because we could slow it down and change it up completely to make it more meanful, so we managed to pick the song 'fake love' by drake . After the formative assessment turning out to be a major disaster we discussed putting in place a rehurshal structure which we then done for everyday wednsdays and thursdays , although the following wednsday 8th feburary our main pianist who had organised the lead guitar over the chords and had the structure set out was unable to attend which had a real let down to the team and meant we had to restart from scratch, although lauren our guitarist managed to pull something together , and me and demi then decided it would be a good idea to mix the song ' controlla' also in top 40 together with fake love, not only did it fit perfect with the melody but it also worked well with the structure we had in mind and challenged us because it meant we were able to switch from one song to another so smoothly and you wouldn't be able to tell it was a sudden change, which worked really well for us as a group. Although the guitarist (lauren) was really doubting herself and wanted to experiment with the guitar because she thought the main melody for the song was really dull and boring and she wanted to add some fancy twidly bits to the guitar to make it more intrestresing not only for her but for us as vocalists to, so we could make it vocally driven and twiddle round with our vocals to
Although the start of was a success , after wednsdays lesson we as a group are struggling to come to terms with what is currently happening with out pianionist and he made an excellent structure with real potential so we were very disappointed but making an approach to something new was also very difficult especially with such little time, we have agreed for us to meet in half term although yet again not all the band will be attending because some of the band is on holiday , which is another bridge we have to tackle. We want our performance to be as much of a success as previous performances and make sure its efficient , and to progress not regress from our last summative band skills assessment. throughout rehurshals we aspire to blog every rehurshal and talk about the struggles we are currently facing and how we are going to fix those struggles, and participate as a band together to get what we want out of it.
Monday, 30 January 2017
The first original song that came to my attention was the Oasis track Half the word away , It is constantly repeating melodic phrases and chords , it is a chain circle of the same chords played with basic instrumentation. Another thing i noticed with the original is that , the lyrics are very basic and have no depth or meaning to them there just sung thoroughly, and with no effort for example like singing for fun ., Although the song is vocally driven by Noel Gallagher, as he has good pitch and tone but doesn't empathise his lyrics and uses one tone throughout, he also sings it gracefully which makes it sound happy, but when you strip it down like the cover version it brings out a completely different meaning. The chords ' C , FMaj, E and Am', are used. On the other hand , Aurora (cover ) an independent artist took the song and made an emotional impact on it so it had a story to tell and a depth to be understood clearer , so people could related to it , she lowed the melody down and made it piano so that it was very soft , as well as that she is also doing it in a 'dolce' way (sweetly') , and very quietly with a smooth texture, less textured , and the instruments are very held back (ritenuto) . She renditioned the track and made it acoustic in which she completely took out drums and neglected them , which was taking away the emotion the song needed , from the Oasis side. She had piano and a light hit hat drum , she also added harmonies which made specific parts more empathised and unique to herself, she had some violins involved which was completely different to Oasis , the ending of the piano was very delicate ready for an echo of harmonies to end completely, Aurora as an artist is generally smooth and elegant with her approach. Call and response was happening in her lyrics as well but in an octave higher than her lead vocals , near the end she develops her melody so that it all becomes louder to have an impact on her lyrics a well as the beginning moving a story, Noel also has a general allegro tempo to hi and its in more of a dancey styled mood .
My second original is a Rock band called the 'Zutons' which first wrote the song ' valerie' describing a Friend going through a rough time drink driving. The Zutons start the song with distortion on electric guitar through the chorus, but in the verse basic drums are playing, in chorus the drums are more reconisable because there playing single notes moderately loud but in the verse its played softly and lento for the verses compared to the chorus. Although comparing Amy Wine house's ft mark ronson to the original, they have completley flipped the genre and made it RnB and more funky, and her lyrics and more snappy and quick whereas the zutons, slow the lyrics down and take it slowly, also Amy winehouse is famous for her riffs, and she adds riffs and more vibrato on the chorus of her rendition of the song, she adds more soul into the lyrics as if she wanted to get across a more soulful jazzy approach to the song versa RnB , and the Zutons song is in more of a minor key about a sad rough story but Amy changed it to make it lively and get a feel to it , most people now prefer Amy Winehouse's to the original.
My third original that i have choosen to listen to is Leonard Cohan Hallelujah. Leonard started of in a folk genre with a variety of amazing instruments espeicallt brass instruments it has a slow soulful feel to the style with basic melody but a large range of instruments, Basic harmonies singing the 5th and then in unison, Leondard's song is in a baritone synth which is completely the opposite to the cover Pentatonix re-estabilablished it , changing features to make it new to todays model world from synth to tpyical 'American idol' , it is an ACAPELLA version filled with a vocals layering eachother, starting with one vocal main line and covering on top to make the melody it starts with 'ohs' a massive change in society as pentatonix used no instruments just there own voice to create the sound of a choir formated , they have tight harmonies and all come in at specific times creating the piece altogether, but there is overall a Huge change in the way everything is set out with the original by Leonard comapired to the Pentatonix , although many other artists have also covered hallelelujah the 'Pentatonix' cover really stood out to me as completely unexpected and unique to their own , they mashed it up to make it sound like and original. As well as this Leonard is a jazz artist so hallelujah is in a jazz style which involves brass instruments such as saxophone , double bass. He also has swung rythms which are completely vanished in the cover version. Leondard keeps his original flat and on same pitch but pentatonix develops from that. Pentatonix are very experiemental with the song having a baritone start off as well and good use of vibrato
Monday, 23 January 2017
on the 23rd on december we went and worked on a few more lyrics to make my song poetic and so that it is hard for the listener to figure out they have to listen careful and unravel the pieces of the son, which i suggested to my producer is a good way of going about things , he then helped me come up with some suitable chords which in fact most were minor because of what the song was about, after that we spend 4 hours putting the track together but we only managed to get a verse and bridge done
on the 6th january we attended another studio session in which end up miserably , we worked on the tracking adding some more defined lyrics ain more depth for exam ' black rose spills red' has a diffrent perspective to what the listener what think of it as and very creative, although a new producer who was sitting in added syncopated drums and loud synethesizers and effects before the vocal line and during which we thought ruined the whole aspect of the song so we wasnt happy with the end result
but going back on 15th january, we were really happy as we spoke to my main producer about making the track acoustic because we didnt like the drjums in this particular song especially as the story behind it was deep , so we added vocoder on 'warning sign' and ended up recording the finished vocals whilst my producer worked on adding intense layers of clicks to build up to the main point of the story of the song, in that studio session we also added harmonies to main parts of the song the chrous ' we never thought youd be the one' because we wanted my song to be vocally driven .
we were extremelly happy with the result and were hoping to release soon
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