At the beginning of this project, I set myself some targets. First of all I said that I needed to work on my nerves. This was more just a matter of confidence and over the past 6 weeks I have learned that the more I practice and perform, the less nervous I become. Secondly, I said that I needed to familiarise myself with the equipment. This again is down to practicing and using this equipment during rehearsals and often free time as well. The final target I set myself was to be more confident and project my voice. Through practicing with 5 Pence, who were using loud instruments such as drums and guitars, I have learned to sing louder and have improved my confidence with their support. This paired with a few ‘one off’ vocal lessons has really helped me improve my volume and confidence.
For this project, research has been very important. The first thing I researched was live performances and why they were good for 3 different genres (pop, classical and jazz). The pop research was the most vital to our performances because it was the closest genre to what we played during our set. However, I think it would have been better for me to do some more research on another genre like rock or pop-punk just to take note of the differences and possibly apply them to my own performance. I also did a lot of research on health and safety in terms of live sound. I found this very interesting and learnt how important it is to adhere to health and safety, not just for myself but for other people. I now know what to look out for and what to do in future if I ever do any gigs outside of college. I could have done some deeper research into the legal side of health and safety as I struggled to find any relevant information about the Musician’s Union. I also learnt a lot from the Q&A with Colour Blue and found out that word of mouth can be a lot more helpful when becoming a band than you would first be led to believe. I found their help and answers very helpful and it gave me a new perspective on careers in music.
Throughout this project, I have surprised myself. I thought that I would prefer the performance aspect of the project but I have come to realise I actually really enjoy doing sound. I think that in the future I could use these skills to my advantage in possible careers. I could perform gigs and do my own sound as well as perform or I could teach the skills to others. To develop my skills I think the best thing to do is to continue to learn and do these things. In future projects I would like to apply my new skills when performing compositions as an example, which will certainly help me to improve.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I am looking forward to continuing to learn more in future projects. I think that I could work with other people from both the other band and the Level 3 Extended course to expand my skills in performance, sound, composition and most importantly communication.