Final Assessment I am pleased that my band mates and I were able to perform to a decent standard for our assessment. I am not sure how well i will be marked but am confident that i will at least get a pass. Because of band mates being off ill over the past month or so, we found that we had to arrange extra rehearsals in order to prepare for our assessment. Our first choice for the Rock 'n' Roll song was the Elvis Presley version of 'Hound Dog.' We initially intended to do this song with a blues breakdown in the middle. Although it was tricky to get right, i felt that this worked really well, and added some dynamic contrast to our set. However the band felt that we didn't have enough time to perfect this part of the song so it was left out of the final performance. Our second choice was 'Heard it Through the Grapevine' by Marin Gaye. This was the song that had been troubling me most during rehearsals. I had been experiencing some discomfort with my voice, and was finding the song a little difficult to sing. We went over it several times, and with practice i became more confident about the song, however still found that i had to hold back a little, compromising on volume to keep the quality. Although i feel i did well considering the difficulties that i have been having, i do feel that my performance of this song could have been better. 'Heard it Through the Grapevine' features backing vocals after every chorus: 'Heard it through the grapevine not much longer would you be my baby.' This is an important part of the song that was missing from our final performance. Although we did practice the song with the backing vocals in rehearsals, my band mates did not feel entirely confident about singing in front of an audience. This is understandable as they are guitarists and not singers, though i do feel that including this would have improved our performance. Our third song was 'Get back' by The Beatles. I am aware that our version of the song was not strictly a copy of the original, but still overall i am happy with my performance. I accidentally went into an extra chorus during the song when i should have gone into the second verse, but it did not seen to throw my band mates whatsoever, we simply went through the chorus and into the next verse. Our last song choice was the Etta James version of 'Hoochie Coochie Man.' This was our favorite of the four songs. As Blues was the first genre that we covered on the course, we have had plenty of time perfect our performance. I really enjoy singing this song. I think that performing it gave me an opportunity to show my abilities, this style is more to my tastes than some of the other work that we have covered and i feel that my enjoyment is reflected in the conviction of my performance. Although our final performance was lacking in some respects, there were no major mistakes and overall i am happy with how it went. It was a relief to have it out of the way and it was excellent to get to see some of the other bands performances.
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The Rolling Stones Most recently in rehearsals we have moved on to the music of The Rolling Stones. With two of my band mates off ill, my tutor suggested that we do a cover of 'Wild Horses.' We spent some time listening to other Stones songs but settled on 'Wild Horses' in the end. I like the song and think that it was a good choice for us. We sat at the piano and worked the song out together. Though it still needs work, I think that it was sounding quite good by the end of the rehearsal. We've yet to perform the song but so far i have been enjoying it and look forward to giving it a try with the rest of the band. The BeatlesHaving never been a huge Beatles fan, i have gained a far greater respect for them having played their music and learned about their history at college. We were instructed to choose from a collection of the Beatles number one hits, and one of our song choices was 'Day Tripper.' I was finding it hard to get into, and growing a little frustrated with lack of conviction in the song. Despite practice i didn't feel it was improving. I realized that attention to detail is key when covering songs, when my tutor pointed out parts of the melody line that i wasn't singing correctly. I was surprised that i had failed to notice these simple but essential factors, and the song improved greatly after we received some advice and guidance from our tutor.
Allot of the Beatles music includes great harmonies, and this is the main thing that i think me and the band struggled with when trying to recreate their sound. With practice we were able to get it sounding good in rehearsals, but we weren't very confident and didn't get it right during the performance. My ear isn't great and i have always found harmonies a little difficult. This is an area of my musicality that definitely requires more work. We encountered allot of the same problems when doing 'Get back.' I was jamming the song out the way i wanted to without paying enough attention to the details, and it was effecting the sound of the song. After listening to the track more carefully we noticed some improvement. Even after doing some research i was finding it hard to decide what i though the song was about, and still felt a lack of conviction when i was singing it. Learning these Beatles songs has been good for me and my band mates because it has challenged us, and encouraged more communication. The experience has also highlighted aspects of my musicality that i need to improve. Preparation for final assessment. We are nearing the end of the course and the date of our final performances. We will have to pick four songs to perform, each from one of the genres that we have covered during the course. We have discussed this a little as a band though have not reached any final decisions, i certainly know what songs i think would be best. Unfortunately i have missed the previous two practices because i have been ill. I understand how inconvenient it can be when band members are absent, especially with important performances coming up. I hope that i will be back to full health before our next practice. We will have to work especially hard over the next month or so to ensure that we deliver a good performance on the day, but i am sure that we will be able to put in the necessary time and effort.
'Green Onions' Booker T and the M.G's. As our second Motown song my band mates and i chose to do 'Green Onions,' originally performed by Booker T and the M.G's. Initially we chose this song because one of band mates was particularly keen to perform it. I wasn't as enthusiastic to begin with as it is instrumental and i didn't know what part i would have to play in the song. I was intimidated when my tutor suggested that i play the drum part, it made sense as we are still without a drummer, but i had never really played the drums before. Luckily the song has a simple drum beat which i was able to pick up during the rehearsal. By the end of our practice i was enjoying myself, it was nice to do something other that singing for a change. We were able to perform the song well, though i think it still needs a fair bit of work. I really like the song, its got a great groove and I'm glad that we chose it. 'Heard it through the grapevine' by Marvin Gaye.Since moving on to Motown from Rock and Roll, my band mates an i have decided to do a cover of 'Heard it through the grapevine' by Marvin Gaye. This is not only a classic Motown song, but an iconic song by a legendary artist. We have encountered some small problems in learning this song, and will need to rehearse it more to get it to a good standard for the video recording. It has been difficult for me as a singer to achieve a feel similar to that created by Marvin Gaye in the original. There is no practical way of changing the lyrics to sing the song from a perspective of a woman. To do this song justice i have to consider the lyrical content, and get into the necessary mind frame. Incorporating the same kind of confidence and attitude is essential if i hope to achieve a presence similar to that of the original. I love this song and hope that we can work well together as a band in order to do it justice and deliver a great performance. Rock and Roll video recording.Most recently in our band performance class we recorded our cover of 'Long Tall Sally' by little Richard, and 'Hound dog' in the style of Elvis. we were trying to re-create a version of this song where Elvis changes to blues from rock and roll during the second chorus. I found it challenging to get the change in style and tempo correct to create a dynamic contrast in the song. Also, because of the lateness of one of my band mates our rehearsal time was restricted. Despite this i felt that we were able to perform to a high standard. This concluded the Rock and Roll section of the course, the video will be assessed and we will now move onto the next genre. I was pleased with our performance on this day and felt that we achieved a high standard in both of the songs that we played. Our rehearsal time was used efficiently, and thorough preparation meant that we were fairly confident and able to enjoy the performance. 'Long Tall Sally' by Little Richard.For the past couple of weeks we have been working on a cover of little Richards 'Long tall Sally.' We have been enjoying rehearsing this song, and as much as we have enjoyed doing blues, Rock and Roll has come as a welcome change, we were able to start having fun with the song reasonably quickly. Our first performance of 'Long tall Sally' was later described as 'a run away train' so it is evident that we need to pay particular attention to certain aspects of the song in order to prevent this in future performances. I felt that our second performance of 'Long tall sally' was much better, and attribute the improvement to sufficient practice and good communication between band mates, as well as to the help of the HND students who kindly assisted us with the instrumental sections that we were lacking.
This song has been a little challenging for me, as the style of the vocal has a shouting quality, which if i am not careful can cause my throat to become sore, or leave me breathless at the end of phrases. I have found that i need to implement more breath and volume control to prevent this from happening. In preparation for our video recording next week, we intend to ensure that we deliver a good performance, without over rehearsing the song, and therefore keeping it fresh and energetic. I am confident that with good communication and organized practice sessions we will be able to do so. Video Recording. Last week we did a video recording of 'Hound dog' and 'Hoochie Coochie Gal' which we will hopefully get to watch back tomorrow. With thanks again to Glen for playing drums, we were able to perform to a reasonably high standard, although i didn't feel that the performance went as well as it did the previous week. Despite efforts to conceal my nerves, i felt that it showed a little in my performance. In the future i will try to have more confidence in my abilities. During 'Hoochie Coochie Gal' i lost the connection in my microphone when i removed it from the stand in an effort to allow more movement and bring more energy to the performance. I was able to get the connection back by holding the cable to the base of the mic, but it cut out a few more times during the song and caused me to loose concentration. I feel i could have dealt with this a little better by not allowing a reaction to be shown in my facial expressions and keeping my composure rather than being visibly distracted.
Preparation for video recording. Today we performed ‘Hoochie Coochie Gal’ and ‘Hound Dog’ to the class. A drummer called Glen from the HND course kindly joined us for the last half of our rehearsal and also for our performance. After going through the songs several times, discussing issues and making adjustments, we were able to perform to a reasonably high standard. I was much happier with our performance this week, and very grateful that Glen was able to play drums for us. With a little more work on the songs and on our stage presence, I hope we will be able to deliver an even better performance next week for our video recording.
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