PROJECT DIARY

 

Week 1: 17th March – 20th March

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Outline of week:

In Monday’s session, we prepared for our solo performances and helped set up the

immersive room for the event. However, we then were introduced to the project by Liam

and put into our new bands for the final term. We immediately started to discuss what

theme we wanted to have for our project this term and my band settled on “Movies”.

This is a solid choice for the project because it means there won’t be many arguments

about song choice as everybody wants to do iconic songs featured in classic movies.

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On Tuesday, during our session at The Studio (Widnes), We finalised our song decisions in

order to begin rehearsing. We decided on: Immigrant song by Led Zeppelin, Love

Rollercoaster by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen and All Along The

Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. We started rehearsing Immigrant song and Love

rollercoaster straight away because we were missing one singer and wanted a start on our

new songs so that we can better them over the course of this project. This went relatively

well because everybody was prepared to learn the songs and eager to start the project.

We went over the songs a couple of times but eventually got bored of hearing them as

there was things that we were doing wrong. This made certain parts sound out of place

and not as it is on the track.

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On Wednesday, we were still missing two members of the band. This is affecting their

learning of the song because we are progressing it without them, however we are trying

our best to update them on changes. We listened to both of the songs as a band and

started to figure out what we were doing wrong. The guitar was playing the riff all the

way through the verse in Immigrant song which was not how it is done on the track. In

the recording, there is some chords played that ring out in the first and last lines of the

verse. I am personally trying to figure out the way in which I would like to sing the

powerful “Ah- ah” parts that the song is known for.

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Thursday’s session began with “Artist of the week”. This week we looked at UB40 and the

song Red red wine. This song is the band’s most popular song and features 80’s pop music

with elements of reggae music. Seeing as we had time left in the session, we started

rehearsing as soon as we could. While doing the two songs that we had started, we

discussed a number of things that did not sound right such as the beginnings and ends of

the verses in Immigrant song as well as the bass playing the bassline a string lower than it

is originally played. After discussing these issues, we began to develop the songs by trying

our best to match the way we are playing it to the track.

 

Problems and issues that appeared:

We were missing a guitarist and vocalist for

most of this week. They were missing on

Tuesday and Wednesday, these were

arguably the most important days they

should’ve been in because we had a lot of

decision making to be doing with song

choices. We continued to keep in touch with them so that everybody was satisfied with any decisions. Afterwards we rehearsed Immigrant song and Love rollercoaster to the best of our ability without the two missing members.

At the start of the week, our covers were

sounding very rough. This because we had

only just chosen the song and nobody had

much time to personally prepare for the

lesson.

 

This meant that we had the learn parts of the songs in lesson. I saw this as a good thing because it meant we could pay more attention to the smaller details of the songs, which we have done. This gave us some creative ideas in terms of what each instrument is doing in the songs.

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There were some disagreements in the song choices at the start of the week. This was because our guitarist does not like the same music that some other members listen to. He was under the impression that just because he doesn’t like a certain genre that we could not do the song as one person disagreed. Multiple conversations later, we came up with a set for this project. We did this by thinking of songs that both highlight and include everybody's instrument. This meant everybody ended up satisfied with the songs because they were known and would be pleasing to an average audience.

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Reflection:

This week, I have learnt that tolerance is something everybody in a band has to have in

order for things to run as smooth as possible. This reduces arguments and such and

allows individuals to solve problems together. This then encourages healthy debates and

makes people unafraid to express their opinions.

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Targets for next week:

Next week I would like to work more on Immigrant song and ensure we get this as

accurate as possible. I would like us all to listen to the song in sessions before

attempting the song again, in order to refresh our memories of how the song sounds.

I would also like us to start a potential third song. This because the sooner we learn the

entire set, the more time we will have to perfect it alongside stage presence and such.

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Week 2: 

Outline of week:

On Monday, we had a rehearsal session in the hub. In this session we began to put

together our cover of Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. However, we did not manage to

complete the song in this session as people had not learnt their individual parts prior to

the rehearsal. We focused on the section of the song in which all instruments other than

drums and vocals drop out. This was because there was confusion amongst the band

regarding the structure of the piece and when that part came in. Due to the song being

unprepared, we did not perform this cover.

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In Tuesday’s session at The Studio, we decided that we should dedicate this session also

to completing our cover of Don’t Stop Me Now. Having learned our individual parts, we

were able to go over the song a couple of times including the final half of it. There were

very few mistakes made however, when we had a rough cover of the entire song we

started to look at the dynamics and texture of the song. For example, we decided that

only one guitar should play the solo and that there would be no guitar in the intro and

outro of the song. We also decided to start thinking of the order in which our set will be

played, we decided on this song being last in our set as it is quiet at the end and feels like

a nice ending to the performance after all of the energy used in the other songs. At the

end of the session, we performed Immigrant song, Love Rollercoaster and Don’t Stop Me

Now to the rest of our class.

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On Wednesday, we did not have much time to rehearse in the session. This is because we

were preparing for our group presentations of our project proposal the following day. If

we would have had more rehearsal time I would have started to work on stage presence

because I feel as though that is the next step we need to start making in our performance.

In Thursday’s session, we did not have any rehearsal time. This was because we had to

present our project proposal to our peers. In the session, the presentations from both

bands took up our rehearsal time meaning we could not get much done. However, this

helped me with my confidence in public speaking and made me want to consider career

options in fields such as teaching as I enjoyed presenting information to the class.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

Nobody had learn the entirety of Don’t Stop

Me Now which set us back a session as we

couldn’t complete the song. We listened to the song together and decided to rehearse the second half of the song in our own time to save wasting time in sessions.

We generally did no have a lot of rehearsal

time this week due to other theory based

activities having priority over our practical

sessions. We all agreed to continue rehearsing what we struggle with in our own time, this will ensure the set is ready and where it needs to be at this point in time.

Due to focusing only on Don’t Stop Me Now

this week, we were unable to further

develop our other covers because we

simply did not have the time. We discussed our other pieces and agreed on any changes we needed to make in the following week.

Reflection:

This week I have learnt the importance of individual rehearsal because it can very much

affect the speed in which we are able to put our pieces together as a band. The quicker

we do this, the quicker we can be 100% ready for the final performance.

Targets for next week:

Next week, I would like to start looking at stage presence for myself and our other

singer in all of our complete covers.

I would also like us to begin timing our set and ensuring we do not take up too much time setting up.

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Week 3:

Outline of week:

On Monday, we had a rehearsal session in the hub. This week, we decided to start

organising our set and ensuring we inspect the original tracks for any minor details we

were missing. Eva and I discussed some ideas for stage presence and some vocal

harmonies in Don’t Stop Me Now because queen have a lot of vocal tracks for the

harmonies in their songs. We discussed stage presence and our outfits for the gig because

this is a part of my research as well as trying new stage presence ideas.

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In Tuesday’s session at The Studio, we decided it was time for everyone to focus on

dynamics as well as tone and stage presence. Seeing as we were on the stage, I decided to

watch some reference videos of David Bowie performing live in order for some

inspiration. I noticed that he usually stays close to the mic stand and rarely removes the

microphone from the stand. He also uses a lot of hand and arm movements alongside

facial expressions to convey emotion through the song. This involved some very strong

eye contact which is a strength of mine anyway. I used this through the set, particularly in

Immigrant Song because it felt appropriate. I then started to come up with some

choreographed dance moves for Love Rollercoaster and Don’t Stop Me Now for the time

being because I plan to base my stage presence around the artists I research.

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On Wednesday, We based most of our practical session on Don’t Stop Me Now. This was

because we had noticed a couple of different mistakes we were making throughout the

week. For example, the drummer was carrying the main beat of the song on for too long

before the going into the bridge section. Another issue we had was the guitars making

noise and interfering the intro and outro of the song that is just piano and vocals. We

made sure to repeat going into the bridge section as we kept messing up the structure

and adding in another chorus before it. We then did this until we had it properly in our

minds so that we can remember this in future sessions.

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On Thursday, We did not have a lot of time for a rehearsal. We started our session off

with “Artist Of The Week” in which we looked at the K-pop group Wonder Girls. This

group were known as the “K-pop queens of retro” because of the inspiration they took

from different decades and their fashion/music. This group was an example of “slave

contracts” in the Korean music industry. Children as young as 12 years old can be signed

to certain entertainment companies via these contracts that ensure they are completely

controlled for the next 10-15 years of their lives. At the end of this session we did a

performance of all three covers we currently have, however we only had one singer

(myself) and no bassist.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

I had some issues concerning the vocal

harmonies in Don’t Stop Me Now because

in some parts of the song, Queen uses a

three-part harmony. I listened to the song by myself numerous times until I was completely sure of the harmonies I wanted to do throughout the song. I also added my own harmonies into the quieter parts of the song (intro/outro).

It was difficult for us to come up with ideas

for stage presence at first and this lead to

some confusion when performing at the

end of Tuesday's session. I started coming up with some movements for us to do during Love Rollercoaster that appropriately matched the lyrics,

We again did not spend much time on the

entire set so far this week. We plan to spend more time on this next week as well as correcting any mistakes.

Reflection:

This week I have learnt that you don’t need to move a lot on stage to have good stage presence. As long as you are confident in yourself, simple things such as arm movements can make a difference.

Targets for next week:

Next week I would like us to start All Along The Watchtower.

I would also like us to work on the dynamics of all of our songs as i still feel like they are

flat throughout.

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Week 4: 22nd April – 24th April

Outline of week:

We did not have a session on Monday as it was a bank holiday.

On Tuesday’s session we were back at The Studio after two weeks off. In this session, we

got straight into our set to refresh ourselves of all the developments we had made before

the break. After rehearsing our first three songs we then moved on to our very last cover

(or so we thought). Because we have extra time left in our set, we decided to add the

song Steve’s lava chicken from the recent Minecraft movie. This song is only around thirty

seconds long, so it easily fits into our set. We attempted All Along The Watchtower

because everybody had learnt most of the song, we managed to get a little past the first

two verses and first guitar solo. At the end of this session we performed Don’t Stop Me

Now alongside Love Rollercoaster and Steve’s Lava Chicken.

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On Wednesday, we had a practical session in the hub. Everybody arrived on time, and we

were able to start rehearsals straight away. In the rehearsal, we went through our set and

paid close attention to dynamics and everybody’s levels in order to improve the sound

quality of the songs. This meant that we could then balance the instruments out to suit

the different pieces. At the end of the session, we performed what we have of All Along

The Watchtower and Love Rollercoaster.

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In Thursday’s session, we started with “Artist of the week”. This week, we were learning

about a Japanese glam rock band named X Japan. Despite being very famous in other

parts of the world, X Japan never made it famous in western countries such as the USA

and UK. They had their drummer as the frontman instead of the lead vocalist, this was

unusual because the drummer is usually placed at the back of the stage behind the rest of

the performers. The drummer had to wear a neck brace because his neck movements

being so harsh while playing caused him to break his neck. We also learnt that they lost

one of their members and decided to go on hiatus, another reason for this was because

the vocalist’s wife had introduced him into a cult. After this, we didn't have time to

rehearse but we had time for a performance. My band decided to perform our entire set

just to ensure we all knew the order of the songs and so that we know what to work on in

terms of change overs.

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Problems and issues that appeared:

The guitarist playing lead for All Along The

Watchtower had not yet finished learning

his part for the second half of the song. We decided to play what we had of the song and work with it for now until the second half is learnt.

We did not have a session this Monday.

This caused us to miss a rehearsal session. We decided to catch up on Tuesday as our session was three hours long.

 

Reflection:

This week, I do not think we have been very productive. However, despite this we have

been able to almost complete our set. Despite some members having doubts in their

ability to play certain things, we have all been encouraging each other to try for the sake

of completing the set in time for the 13th of May.

Targets for next week:

I would like for us to have completed the set next week so that we do not have to begin

to stress about the gig approaching so quickly.

I would also like us to pay more attention to stage presence in order to provide a visually entertaining performance to our audience at the final performance.