PROJECT DIARY

 

Week 1: Monday 6th January – Thursday 9th January 2025

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Outline of recording/rehearsal session:

In Monday's session, we were introduced to the new project. Our whole band was in and

on time which meant we were able to begin our first song immediately. The song that we

chose to do was I’m So Sick by Flyleaf; this is our chosen song, and everybody had spent

time over the Christmas break learning it. Due to everyone having rehearsed at home this

ran smoothly, and we were able to get it done almost instantly. Despite minor issues with

timing and tones of instruments, this rehearsal was very productive.

On Tuesday we were at The Studio, Widnes. Unfortunately, we were missing one of our

guitarists and the other vocalist. This meant we would not be able to do much in the

three-hour slot we have. Instead, Liam allowed me, our drummer, our guitarist, a guitarist

from the other class and a bassist from the other class, to rehearse for the Genres gig

being held by the Year 2s for their project. The song we are performing are Edge Of

Seventeen by Stevie Nicks, Knockin’ On Heavens Door by Guns n Roses and Runaway Baby

by Bruno Mars. After rehearsing this set a few times and fixing some slight issues or

improvements, we decided to start an original just to be productive and use up our time.

This went really well and will continue to be developed outside of college and the project.

During Wednesday’s session, we were able to rehearse for the project as usual. Despite

still missing a vocalist we rehearsed I'm So Sick and started to work on the timings and

remembering the structure of the song. Although this song is not particularly difficult in

terms of timings, the structure is slightly different to our other pieces. After a while we

had gotten bored of rehearsing the same song, so we started to look at Voulez Vous by

ABBA. This is our most difficult song, and nobody had yet learnt it. When looking at the

tabs, our bass player knew that it would take him some time to fully learn this song given

the speed of some parts. I didn't mind this because it then gives me more time to figure

out all of the vocal harmonies in the song as I will not be singing lead.

On Thursday, most of our session was based around “Artist Of The Week”. This week the

chosen artist was Oasis. Unfortunately, I had to miss some of this due to a phone call.

However, when I came back, we were discussing the structure of Don’t Look Back In

Anger and how the timbre/sonority of a song can impact the structure of a song. This can

be achieved with recording techniques such as double tracking and adding in more parts

to make the timbre thicker.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

Most of our band were not present on

Tuesday. This meant we missed a day of

practice, restricting us from progressing

further with the set. We found ways to be productive aside from the project. This meant we were not wasting rehearsal time and were actually able to accomplish more.

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Due to some complications with learning

the songs, some band members are not

prepared to start one of the other songs

just yet. We have listened to the songs and looked at all of our individual parts, we started to try and piece some together and had discussions about things we may want to change in our rendition of the songs.

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When everyone looked at the parts for

With a little help from my friends by The

Beatles, we decided it was too easy and

pretty boring. In order to challenge ourselves, we asked if we could potentially change the way in which we play the song by changing the genre or just the tone of the instruments as well as the actual playing style.

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In these sessions, I have learnt that the absence of one band member can greatly affect what is being done in the session. This can cause major difficulties for the entire band and further proves that attendance is very important especially to the practical sessions. Otherwise, people are going to be behind which will drag the whole band behind practically.

Targets for next week:

 

Next week I would like to look at the vocal harmonies in the songs with the other singer

in order to solidify them early on and prevent confusion. I plan to do this b y rehearsing

alone with our other singer so that she doesn't get confused by any harmonies I am

doing.

I would also like to start work on With a little help from my friends because we are

changing the entire genre of the song and will need to take time to assess this properly.

This will help us have a stronger knowledge in this kind of

task.

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Week 2: Monday 13th January – Thursday 16th January

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Outline of recording/rehearsal session:

 

Tuesday’s session was when we started with our practical sessions for this week. We did

not do any practical on Monday due to Craig being on a trip. While we had a longer

session, we decided to spend majority of the session rehearsing Voulez Vous by ABBA

after going through I’m So Sick once. Despite disagreements about which song, we

wanted to focus on before the lesson, we ended up focusing on the ABBA song. This was

because the earlier we begin our hardest song, the less time it will take in our rehearsal

sessions, therefore meaning it will sound amazing when finished and won’t sleave us

panicking about getting songs finished in time.

On Wednesday, we started the session by discussing when we will be travelling to

universities to perform these pieces for this project. We also discussed trips that will be

happening in the next ASPIRE week. When it came time to rehearse, we continued more

work on Voulez Vous because we needed to fix the vocal harmonies as well as other

textural parts of the song. To add to the timbre and texture of this song I am playing keys.

This has really started to help the song sound a lot fuller, although as I am not a keys

player this will take me a little time to get used to. However, it should not take me too

long as I am familiar with keyboards and pianos from past experience.

In Thursday’s session, we started the session with “Artist Of The Week”. This week, we

looked at Polyphia and discussed virtuosic musicians. This type of music was mainly

instrumental with influences from metal music, classical and others. In rehearsal, we went

over I’m So Sick a couple of times in order to fix some timings in the song. Afterwards we

continued our work on Voulez Vous so that we could start tidying up the beginning of the

song, although we were missing a vocalist which meant we made no further progress on

the vocal harmonies.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

There was a disagreement about which

song we should start on Tuesday. I wanted

to start Voulez Vous because I'm aware of

how hard the song is, and we need time to

learn and finish the piece. However, other

members of the band wanted to complete

our easiest songs first. We tried to start With a little help from my friends by The Beatles. However, this was not working as nobody had learnt any of the song. So, we ended up starting Voulez Vous anyway.

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A few members in the band have not been

learning the pieces at home. This makes

things extremely difficult when it comes to

rehearsal because not much can be done if

multiple people are spending the session

learning the song. Some people need to be learning and rehearsing in their own time instead of it eating into rehearsal time. This would ensure we have the songs put together in time for the performances.

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I have very limited knowledge about

playing keys. However, I am learning the

keys section for Voulez Vous because it is a

key part on the sonority and the song

sounds empty without it. I am struggling to

play this at the tempo of the song as well as

singing along at the same time. I have a keyboard at home which means i can learn this in my own time. It should not take me long to get used to this because I am a quick learner and open to expanding my knowledge about keyboard and piano playing. Abba - Voulez-Vous - EASY Piano TUTORIAL by Piano Fun Play

I have been using this piano tutorial alongside help from Liam, in order to learn this piece on keys.

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Reflection:

This week I have learnt that playing keys can actually help me become a better vocalist. So

far, I have noticed that while playing I find it hard to fall out of key, so my pitch accuracy is

become stronger. The more I rehearse the easier the skill is becoming. This will become

useful to me as a singer also because it can help with songwriting and self-

accompaniment (which I would prefer more than a backing track).

Targets for next week:

 

I would like to have I’m so sick tidied up by next week. This means working on the

timing at the start of the song and the instrumentalists being aware of the structure of

the song. This will help the song not sound as messy and I would like to achieve this by

everybody rehearsing alongside the track at home.

I would also like us to work really hard on completing Voulez Vous. Just because this

song is our hardest, does not mean it has to be our weakest. I would like Voulez Vous to

be our strongest song which means we need to put a lot of work into it. This means

rehearsing the song in and outside of sessions so that everybody can become confident

in their parts and the song in general.

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Week 3: 20th January – 23rd January

Outline of recording/rehearsal session:

 

On Monday, we went straight into rehearsing in the session. We decided to continue with

our work on Voulez Vous because despite the progress made, the song still seemed to be

lacking something. After rehearsing the song over a couple times, we discussed any minor

issues such as dynamics, our main focus was everybody remembering the structure of the

song in its entirety. The intro of the song still was not sounding right but we realised it

was due to the rhythm guitar playing a rhythm that did not fit alongside the riff. I was also

unfamiliar with my keys part still as I am getting used to laying the song on a keyboard

while singing it.

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In Tuesday's session, we did not have a session at The Studio, Widnes, because of a gig

organised by the Level 3 Year 2 class for their project. Instead, we had a practical session

in the hub to substitute for the same 3 hours we would've had offsite. We spent almost all

of this session fixing any levels, dynamics and timings in Voulez Vous to familiarise

ourselves with the structure of the song and make sure the song does not sound

dynamically flat all the way through. We discussed which song we would like to move

onto next and decided on With A Little Help From My Friends .

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During Wednesday’s session, we did not get much done. This is because we were missing

our lead guitarist and there was a disagreement between our other vocalist and myself.

This is because she had not learnt the song we previously discuss and refused to rehearse

Voulez Vous without the lead guitar. Our Rhythm guitarist also had not learnt the song

prior to the session so we did not really get much done. We did a small performance at

the end of Voulez Vous which went terribly due to the tension throughout the band.

On Thursday, We did not have time for any practical rehearsal due to “Artist Of The

Week”. This week we looked at Queen, a staple in British rock history. We looked at

Bohemian Rhapsody and discussed structure, tempo, meter, instrumentation and lyric

meaning. The song was hard to dissect due to it being essentially multiple different songs

put together into one. It was an interesting session despite not having any practical.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

Our singer has still not learnt the entirety of

Voulez Vous properly. This makes it hard

for me to add the harmonies into the song

because she keeps dropping out mid

chorus. We have gone over the song numerous times, and she has been told to listen to the song at home to familiarise herself with the melody and structure.

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The keys part for the ABBA song still needs

a lot of work and is not really good enough

yet, this makes it difficult for the rest of the

band when I mess up. I have been rehearsing at home; this is something that will have to come with time and practice meaning that it will be fine eventually I just need to play more fluently.

There was tension in the room on

Wednesday because I was getting annoyed

that some people had not learnt the parts

we previously discussed, this made me feel

as though some members just were not

willing to put in the effort needed. Liam tried to diffuse this tension by making us all do star jumps to be humorous. For some this worked, however I did not feel comfortable doing so.

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Reflection:

 

I have learnt this week that our songs need a lot more effort putting into them by everyone. If everybody contributes the same amount of effort, we could have our songs done very soon. This will make rehearsals very easy and ensure that we have a full set. This will be helpful in the future as everybody will have an idea of how efficient we need to be when preparing songs.

Targets for next week:

 

Next week I would like to look at Break My Stride and With A Little Help From My

Friends, in order to complete our set entirely and start looking more into stage presence

and dynamics. I want everybody to be rehearsing at home in order to save time during

rehearsals, this means we can immediately start piecing the song together.

Next week I would also like to have the keys part for the ABBA song pretty much sorted.

This means rehearsing whenever I get to familiarise myself with the part and the

structure of the song.

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Week 4: 27th – 30th January 2025

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Outline of recording/rehearsal session:

 

During Monday’s session, we started pretty much instantly with practical. We decided to

finally start With a little help from my friends by The Beatles. This song is relatively easy,

so it did not take long for us to begin, however, we had an issue with the vocal parts in

the song. The song is not originally in a key that I find comfortable to sing, I tried the

octave above, but this was not working either. Craig ended up helping us change the key

two semitones up which made the song a lot more comfortable for my vocal range. We

did not perform this session.

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On Tuesday, we had a very productive session. We started straight away with Break My

Stride and later in the session went over I’m So Sick and With a little help from my friends

in order to refresh our memory. The first song came together quickly as we all had a lot of

energy to put into the rehearsal. The vocal harmonies worked easily together because I

had rehearsed these previously at home. We even started coming up with stage presence

because we were having so much fun. There was little tension in the room which made a

very positive atmosphere for everyone, this meant we got a lot done in the session.

However, when we performed, we only did Break My Stride and With a little help from my

friends and did not incorporate the stage presence we discussed.

In Wednesday’s session, we went through our entire set, but I had to leave early due to a

student rep meeting. This didn't go extremely well however we went over things that

needed to be fixed in terms of the song structure.

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On Thursday, we did not get much practical done due to “Artist Of The Week”. This week

we did an artist called Ren. He is known for his lengthy songs about serious topics such as

abuse and his personal experience with psychosis due to his autoimmune disease. W

specifically looked at word painting, which is using the sounds created by instruments and

even vocal melodies to emphasise the lyrics of a song. This creates very memorable song

and can work well when creating choruses and hooks. At the end of the session, we did a

performance of Break My Stride and I’m So Sick.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

We did not have a bassist all week due to

absence. This meant a lot of the songs

sounded sparse and empty because of the

missing instrument. We decided to work around this and had Leo play the bass riff in the beginning of I’m So Sick on his guitar instead. This meant we could continue rehearsals pretty much as normal.

The key of the Beatles song was in a rather

uncomfortable key for a female vocal. I

could sing it however because it was so low

i could not really be heard, however, when i

tried the octave above this also did not

work as it was entirely head voice. We asked Craig for advice, and he helped us to transpose the song to a different key that better fitted my vocal range and ensured the song would be suited to a female vocal.

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In Break my stride, we are missing a synth

part of the song, this means it sound a bit

empty and not very accurate to the actual

track. We are planning to get help from one of the keys players in the other class to fill this space. This may take some time, but it will prove useful.

Reflection:

 

I have learnt that word painting can be very helpful in songwriting and can emphasise the meaning and lyrics of the song. I plan to use this when writing pieces outside of college and potentially in future projects.

Targets for next week:

 

Next week, I would like us to discuss more stage presence ideas. I would also like us to

start putting them into practise when performing to the class, this will help us know

what we are doing in the actual performances are and could help ease nerves.

Personally, I would like to be doing my project diary through the week instead of

waiting until a Thursday. This means I do not have to worry about forgetting details

about rehearsals.

I want us to begin to get the songs in a set order and I would like everyone to be

familiar with the structure of the songs in order to tidy them up. This means listening to

and rehearsing the song in our own time so that they become almost muscle memory,

and we can remember the structure fluently.

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Week 5:

Outline of recording/rehearsal session:

 

On Monday, we started straight into our session. Our bassist was back in today, so we

continued with our work on Break My Stride. Something was still sounding strange when

playing the song and we realised we were playing the song incorrectly, so our bass player

found it very difficult to play his part with the way we played it. We ended up doing this

for all the session as we needed to work on the overall structure of the song as well as the

timings because it kept varying.

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In Tuesday’s session, we were at The Studio in Widnes. This week, we had the stage and

went over Break My Stride with Liam as we had a keys player learn the synth parts for the

song. Liam taught the guitarists and drummer what they needed to play and then i had to

learn the cowbell section that is used on the record. When we put it together it started to

sound decent, but something was still wrong. Liam then realised he had been teaching it

wrong and had given the guitarists the song in a different key due to technical difficulties.

We then performed I’m so sick and Break My Stride to the other class and then received

feedback.

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On Wednesday, we had another rehearsal with the key's player from the other class. I

have also been sticking to my job role as a manager and ensuring roadies and sound techs

are involved when setting up to rehearse. This rehearsal went really well, and the song

was sounding the way it needed to because everybody learnt it in the correct key. We just

went over the song until we were satisfied with it and had to perform. At the end of the

session, we performed both I’m So Sick and Break My Stride.

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In Thursday’s session, we did “Artist of the week”. This week it was Shakira. We listened

to one of her songs and talked about reggaeton music and toasting, which is an early

version of rapping. There was also a whole class activity in which we played a reggaeton

inspired beat with percussion instruments and piano. Afterwards, we had time for each

group to perform their sets. We performed all four of our songs and surprisingly, our best

this session was Break My Stride.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

Liam had been teaching our band Break My

Stride in the wrong key. This meant it

sounded terrible when we played it

together as a group. Liam sent the guitarists the correct parts. When we came in on Wednesday, they had learnt it, and it sounded much better when put together.

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Due to missing our bass player last week,

we could not develop many of our songs

other than Break My Stride because of his

absence. This week, we made sure to focus on the piece and develop it alongside our bass player, we plan to do so with the other songs in future rehearsals.

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The version of the song we originally had

on Monday was not very similar to the

track and did not sound very good. We have spent all week ensuring that we get our cover as close to the original as possible by completely changing it, rearranging parts and adding extra percussion into the song as it uses a drum machine.

Reflection:

 

This week I have learnt that if we need extra support from an extra band member its

worth asking early on so that it can be sorted quicker and ensure our sets are done in

time for the end of the project. Otherwise, this can affect how quickly we get the set

ready and the quality of our songs.

Targets for next week:

 

Next week i would like the band to work on transitioning from one song to another. I

want us to be timing our sets and ensuring that it will run smoothly when it comes to

the actual performances.

I would also like us to be more experimental with our stage presence. I would like us all

to watch some videos of the artists performing the songs and take some inspiration.

This will help us appear more entertaining on stage and possibly help with confidence

for some band members.

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