The first gig we attended on (include date) was the Mason Greenwood Classical Piano Recital. This gig was also presented in the Henry Mitchell Hall. This meant that we could view what the actual Charity Gig would be like. This would include us testing where our camera angles would be as well as the seating arrangements. Within preparing for this gig, we all had job roles so that it was split evenly and fairly. The job roles consisted of: Equipment/recording the gig, promotion, creating programme note and arranging the chairs. My job role was in promotion.
My Job Role
- Write an email to forward onto all staff informing them of the event.
- Create a mailing list so that we could promote ongoing gigs in the future.
- Set out and plan where the chairs were going to be placed.
- I also performed whilst people entered the gig.
Organisation
My first job role was to forward an email onto all staff informing them of the event. The email included an invitation to the recital as well as the pieces being played. For the Charity Gig we can also do the same.
My next job role was to create a mailing list, the mailing list would be presented on a table and as people filtered through the doors, it would be suggested that they include: their Name, Email and Number. The mailing list will be incredibly useful for the future, as we can then contact them about our Charity Gig and inform them of any other future gigs. We learnt from this that we will also do a mailing list on the evening of our Charity Gig as then we could continue promoting, however many people did not fill in the ‘Number’ section of the mailing list. Therefore when creating another mailing list for our Charity Gig we chose to deduct that from it.
In addition my job role was to set out and plan where the chairs were going to be placed. We decided to set out the chairs in 2 columns of 5 rows either side(this included 50 seats); this made it easier to film the recital as less of the audience was shown and you could easily see the piano in the spotlight. It also made an easier route of access to the chairs as there was a gap in between both columns; this meant that when filtering people into the gig, they would be able to find a seat easier. Within the Charity gig we used the same arrangement for the seating plan; however we added more chairs, meaning that we had 2 columns of 12 rows, which meant that we could include 84 chairs within the Henry Mitchell Hall.
Within the piano recital we also placed programme notes on each chair to showcase the pieces being played and background information of the performer. Unfortunately we didn’t include this in our Charity Gig as we didn’t have enough time to prepare one.
Performance
The main performance, of which Mason Greenwood performed several classical pieces, was very well performed. We took inspiration from his performance to further develop our Charity Gig. Therefore we used performance techniques inspired by his performance. Such as:
- Musically, this performance communicated through to the audience, as everyone in the audience was listening carefully and paying full attention to every note being played. This is also due to the genre of music being Classical. Our Charity Gig was aiming to perform a different genre; however we wanted to also musically communicate through the audience as well as verbally and physically communicate too.
- Mason’s stage presentation was appropriate to the type of concert as he wore smart clothing and he was sat at the piano which was placed at the front and in the centre. This worked well with the lighting as the piano and Mason were directly in the centre of the light. This became harmonious with the music being played.
- His musical competency within this performance was shown through the ability to keep tempo throughout and play the beginning and ending extremely well. This will be slightly different for our Charity Gig as we will all be working as an ensemble therefore tempo may be slightly harder to keep too and more noticeable.
My Performance
As people were entering the Henry Mitchell Hall I performed three pieces:
This helped me gain more experience in performing and helped me better understand my performance techniques. My tutor asked me to play 10 minutes before I would be performing, therefore I also had no time to practice, this meant that it helped to be able to improvise, especially when the music didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to sound. This then ensured that if there were any mistakes being played during our Charity Gig I would have more experience in ensuring that I continue to play well.
After the gig, we then took the video and audio footage and edited it into a video to put on our YouTube channel. This showed us how we would further promote gigs and edit video and audio footage on Adobe Premiere Pro, therefore if we wanted to film the Charity Gig (which we did) we would know how to edit that video and then place it on the BCM YouTube channel for promotional purposes.
Here is the link to the video footage that I edited:
EVALUATION
As an organiser and performer this was a fairly successful gig. Due to having less than 24 hours to organise the gig, it was a quick process so this meant that we had to do last minute organising. This included my job role of promoting the gig. Since this was done within a short time span, it would not be immediately successful in gaining people’s interest and therefore many would not attend the gig. However it taught us what we should expect when organising our Charity Gig as well as organising and promoting future gigs. It also helped me gain experience in performing to an audience and improvisation. This will help me play within an ensemble during the Charity Gig.
However, in some ways this gig was unsuccessful, as there wasn’t a large audience. Therefore when promoting gigs I learnt that you need more time between starting to promote the gig and the event itself. This would ensure that there would be more interest of the gig, therefore a larger audience and more money would be raised for The Lost Chord. As well as it being a solo performance rather than an ensemble, this meant that we could not fully evaluate how our performance would sound in the Henry Mitchell Hall.