Tuesday 27th march
In this video, we are running through and perfecting our first song; Colossal. We ran through the song once, then discussed how we can develop it. One development we agreed on was that as the chorus progressed, the guitar riff would also progress by changing up the rhythms and notes. We agreed to do this so that it would give more depth to the chorus and make it sound more interesting. One idea I had for this song was that after every two bars in the chorus, I would switch the crash cymbal to the off beat for two bars. I believe this gives the song more depth and variety, as well as making it sound more interesting instead of having your typical four-to-the-floor backbeat. Small things like this are what the listener will notice and will cause them to think about and analyse the song instead of mindlessly listening to it. Below is some notation I wrote out for this concept.
At the start of this video, we were discussing different ways I which cain could change up his bass part. One idea was to have him playing a slap bass line during the guitar solo. This was to add more feel and groove when the guitar wasn’t playing the riff anymore. However, we later realised that the bass sounded fine as it was, and to add more complex parts under the solo would’ve unnecessarily complicated everything and given the listener too much to focus on at once. For this reason we decided to leave the bass part as it was which I believe was the right choice.
Also, in this video, we started working on our new song ‘Whats done’. This is the very early stage of the songwriting process and we are still figuring out our parts as we go along. I am figuring out my drum parts as we play the song live (continued in next video)
(continued) In this section of the practice I am still messing around with different ideas. You can hear me in the start playing both normal and half time beats as I am figuring out which one sounds best. I was doing this because I wanted to give more technical variety to my drum playing, as well as having an interesting sound in the song. In the end, I decided to go for the normal time beat as I felt that the half time beat made the song feel too slow and sludgy. In my opinion, this was the best option. I sacrificed variety for a more fitting beat. If I were to do this again, I would explore my options more with normal time beats by adding things such as syncopation, off beat rhythms, and different dynamics to add more variety without changing the feel of the song.
Wednesday 28th March
This is a later practice in which we run through colossal again, this Time having made a number of changes. The first major change, is that in the fast breakdown section (3:00) I play a double time beat to give that section a more rushed and punk rock feel. I feel as though this was an effective and appropriate choice as it better suits what the other instruments are playing, gives a more hyped and intense aspect to the song, and also adds more variety which as a drummer I am always striving for.
In this video, we talk through the song (what’s done) we had the planned structure set out for on the board so we had a visual representation of the song.
I feel as though this was an effective reversal as we got to actually sit down and talk our way through the song with it all laid out clearly in front of us. The visual representation helped as we could see what was happening as well as hear. One thing that I would do differently if we were to do this again is to run through the song as a band and jam through it straight away to work out what we like and don’t like about the song.
After playing through the song a couple of times, these are the things we decided to change. This was effective as it cut out the unnecessary parts of the song which overcomplicated and oversaturated it.
Wednesday 18th April
We started this practice by running through ‘colossal’. There wasn’t anything that we changed with the overall song as we were all happy with how it was sounding as it was.
We also ran through our most recent song ‘Potential’. One thing that I immediately knew I needed to get right from the practice was how the song starts. The first time we run through the song we stumble our way through it. This was due to both lack of musical and physical communication. After this rehearsal, I went home and practiced just the start of that song to get it right. I also discussed with Sonny how he was going to count us in, we agreed the best way to do it would be a full 4/4 bar count in so it isn’t as sudden.
We then proceed to run through ‘What’s Done’. It was during this rehearsal that I came up with the idea to accent the guitar riff with crashes in the bridge section before the outdo to give the section a bit more definition and aggression.
This was a very effective rehearsal as I may not have made much progress during the actual rehearsal, but I knew exactly what I needed to do in my spare time to be on point for next rehearsal. I also developed sections of the songs to make them more interesting. Because of these factors, I would say this was an effective rehearsal.
Tuesday 24th April 2018:
The main developments from this rehearsal was changing the ending of ‘potential’ to give it a more sudden ending. Also I was messing with ideas for a kind of mini drum solo in the bridge section. I was doing this to not only mix up the song a bit, but have it as my chance to show off. After playing through it a couple times I realised that it was unnecessary and should only be something I should do live.
Tuesday 1st May 2018
In this band meeting, we discussed what route we would take for recording. I had already made clear that we should have somebody else in the control room to record us to save us time and effort.
This was an effective, diplomatic meeting as we came to conclusions about what we would be doing so that everyone would be happy. The main talking point from this meeting was that we agreed on who to get in to record our EP for us. This was something that needed discussing and we quickly came to the conclusion of what would be best.
Since we have all the songs written and figured out at this point, we are now going through and polishing off the different parts. In the second video, we discuss how we are going to be playing the breakdown section. Sonny wants it to be a lot slower than the main riff, but I convince him that it would be better to just do it half time to make it fit better.
Wednesday 2nd May 2018
In this video, we are running through our most recent song, which is unnamed. Until Lewis comes in to discuss whether he would be able to record us. With him, we set a date that we can record our tracks and how we are going to record them. We had to do this because our release date was the 23rd may.
Because of what we accomplished in this rehearsal with aspects such as how we were going to record our songs, when and where, and with who, I class this as a very successful rehearsal due to the amount of necessities we managed to organise.
Raw run through of ‘Colossal’
Raw run through of ‘potential’
Raw run through of unnamed new song
Raw run through of ‘What’s done’
Tuesday 8th may 2018
This was our final rehearsal before we went into the studio. We ran through all the songs as one final practice, and to target what we could practice individually.
As our final practice before we went into the studio, we didn’t want to exhaust ourselves, so we only ran through each song once. This was enough for us to see what we could work on at home to make sure that we were perfect for when we go into the studio.
Overall, I think that these rehearsals were massively successful as it shows what we as a band can accomplish in such a short period of time. Each rehearsal we made massive amounts of progress, knew exactly what we needed to do for the next rehearsal, and rehearsed in a time conscious manner. because of these factors, I deem all of these rehearsals as successful.