Cover Song Rehearsals:
It’s very hard to evaluate this performance due to the bass distorting the audio but as a collective, we did not really enjoy this performance. The song is not any of our styles but it did get us back into the mindset of working together as a band after the break.
To say that this was our first attempt at this song, I would say that we played relatively well. I did enjoy singing this one, it has a tricky melody that threw me off at first, which can get frustrating. I believe that this song will either become easier over time or harder because, at the time of performing this, I was unwell and found it easier to sing the lower parts. This may mean that we take the time as a band to review the key or I work with my vocal coach to ensure I remain diatonically sound.
This rehearsal was our first full run-through of Treasure, You To Me Are Everything Colors and … I will admit that I was unhappy with this performance. First of all, I was extremely pitchy throughout the entirety of Treasure. I think that is because I have never actually performed the song before in this way. Typically I would sing along in the car and not think much about the key that I am in. I feel as though our dynamics were executed well, however, and made the final chorus much more impactful. What I have taken from this is that I need to improve on listening to the band more carefully to stay in the key.
During You To Me Are Everything I was more comfortable. This is a song that I specifically requested to do as it is one that I have been singing with my Auntie since I was about 5 years old. This was the first time performing it with a band and not a karaoke backing track or along with the song in the car. My vibrato in the first verse was subtle yet effective. I think my main area to work on in this song is the key change. It sounds as though I was struggling to get up to the notes. That may be down to the fact that I was still struggling with illness but I know that ideally I should have stood up to perform these songs as sitting is restricting my diaphragm and making the notes harder to reach.
For Colors this time I think it went worse than the first time from a vocal perspective. My voice was tired and therefore had an unhealthy rasp to it. I am not entirely sure what I was doing but it was risking vocal damage. On the other hand, the rest of the band sounded much tighter and more confident in the song. I was still trying to understand the structure and follow the interesting choices that The Black Pumas made vocally, particularly where some lyrics were higher pitched than others. The best thing for me to do would be to listen to the recording and practice at home to get a better understanding of the pitch, the structure and the melody.
You To Me Are Everything: Again, this is hard to evaluate due to the distorted bass. From what I can hear though, the vocals in this are much better now that I am standing. A new addition to this rehearsal was backing vocals. I really liked this because it gave me an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and adapt and sing some harmonies. I really tried to be more confident and push myself to be louder. This is something that myself and Eric (my vocal teacher) have been working on as I typically become very shy when performing, which leads to a half-hearted performance. I will continue to work on this outside of rehearsals. There was definitely improvement with regards to the key change in the final chorus.
Scar Tissue: As I just mentioned, I can be shy when performing and because this is a fairly new song to me, I did not sound confident. Part of this was down to me singing away from the microphone when looking at the lyrics. For next week, the ideal improvement would be learning the lyrics so that I am able to project my voice towards the microphone. Overall as a band, this is the type of song that we are all much more comfortable with, so I feel that made us play better together. Collectively we could improve this by working on the ending so that it is smoother. My role in that could be signalling when to end as it is an instrumental outro.
The Underground Gig:
During this performance, we had an issue with the SD card so not all of the footage was captured. However we were lucky enough that my mum recorded one of the songs that was missed in its entirety. Firstly, You To Me Are Everything was performed as a whole extrememly well. The band were in time, listening to one another and more importantly keeping a consistent tempo. This is something that in the soundcheck we were struggling to do and was a slight worry that we would not be able to maintain consistency. My vibrato was controlled throughout the song, something that I tend to struggle with and opt out of attempting. Prior to this, I had been learning Jolene by Dolly Parton in vocal lessons to get myself used to using vibrato. Below is a great example of how she uses controlled vibrato. This technique is healthy for your voice and adds warmth to the notes, making it easier to emphasise certain lyrics but in a subtle way.
For scar tissue, I felt that this was a decent performance however there were a couple of ‘mistakes’ that I will point out. Firstly, in the bridge I sang the melody incorrectly. This was definitely down to nerves and almost singing the wrong part but I think this could be something to watch out for in future by having a quick refresher listen to the songs before the performance so that they are at the front of my mind when I go on stage. Secondly, the penultimate end of chorus “view” was sharp and lacking confidence (L6 Underground Dec 1:50). It wavered almost immediately and had me shaking my head. This comes across as slightly unprofessional in my opinion and something that although reflecting on after the performance now, should be something I keep off of the stage anyway.
Finally, in Treasure, I would say that I stayed in key the entire time. That had been an element that as mentioned in past rehearsals had been a struggle for me. In some places, however, I decided to sing “oohs” where we were lacking the brass section. The brass parts were originally going to be played by myself on the keys but after Aden left the band I took over as lead vocalist and Chris simply does not have three hands to play the main piano parts as well as the brass sections. To me, this felt like there was something missing but looking back, I would say that these “oohs” weren’t necessarily needed and although they occassionally sounded good if we performed the song again it is likely I would leave them out. As a band, I do not think this was our best version of this song in particular. In previous rehearsals of the song our dynamic changes for the bridge and choruses have been much more prominent and well established. To improve I would sit with the band and watch both this performance, previous rehearsals and a video of Bruno Mars performing it live and compare these dynamic changes, before attempting to replicate them again, likely through repetition.
Overall, I would say that I used this performance to let go and enjoy myself and I think that paid off. It is not like me to have “good” stage presence but I was able to address the crowd, introduce the band and the songs and even incorporate some audience participation with the claps (L6 Underground Dec 5:39). I will try to continue doing this in future as it keeps your audience engaged.
Original Song Rehearsals:
Original lyrics:
Tonight I feel no one will miss me
So much to say is anyone listening
If we’re alone do you agree with that
I threw a penny and missed the wishing
Asked for all the things I’m missing
I just need a little more time
If I was to die without you
I’ll be glad that’s it’s true
As you find it hard to understand
Do you know what I’ve been though
It will kill you
I’m sinking in quick sand
You leave me suffering
Till I can’t feel anything
I wish this was a dream
I’ve lost my self esteem
I just hope you understand
During this first writing session we took Michael’s lyrics (as seen above) and tried to fit them to Alexander’s riff. I was impressed with how easily the melody came to me. I was able to adapt the chorus into a verse and use some other lines to establish a good premise for the song, which is basically a metaphor for feeling like you are stuck in quicksand after a bad breakup. As HerOrangeCoat said: “Relationships are easy to write about because you have strong feelings about them” (2024). For the first time writing as a band, I am proud of the progress that we have made so far. From a vocal point of view there is definitely a lot of work to do to get the melody to fit diatonically.
There was a lot of back and forth about the word “believe” in the verse because I could not seem to get the hang of it being not quite as high pitched as I had first thought. I think having some one to one time with Alexander to be able to closely listen to the guitar that I will be able to master the right note for this. I am impressed with the way we managed to write the basics of a full song in one 90 minute session though as the structure and verses have now been written. In order to be ready for the next week, I will need to work with Alexander and practice at home to nail the key.
In this rehearsal, it was quite strange as we did not have Chris on keys to provide the atmospheric synth that I feel really helps the song. It also meant I really needed to concentrate in the first chorus to sing it correctly. This did not end up going well as Michael forgot to drop out and I then was thrown off and sang way too low. The rest was fine, we definitely need to work on getting this one much tighter. The ending for me needs work too, I should approach it more delicately. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Billie Eilish talks about her new single “What Was I Made For?” (2024) and the choices she had to make for the perfect sounding vocal. I will experiment with the ending and see if it is best to sing more breathy or belt it and decide from there which will benefit the song most.
Live Session:
During this live session, we played as a band really well. The songs ran straight through smoothly; topping and tailing is a skill we have managed to successfully use over the duration of this course. I am not very happy with the final mix of my vocals, personally I think that it makes my voice sound strange and conjested, particularly in the chorus where it sounds nasally. Admittedly, it wasn’t a perfect performance with some slip ups. For example, at 1:38 I sing “lethal” and just completely miss the note. I do however think that my falsetto notes were very well controlled and a welcome contrast to the verses. Since writing the song we have worked well together to understand the song’s structure and were able to communicate well with each other throughout the song.
There are no previous practices of the next two songs recorded but some of the main issues that I had encountered with Love’s Alright was the chorus melody line always being too high. John and I worked together one to one to help me understand what I needed to do to sing in key. We recorded a piano melody version for me to practice with at home but also adapted the bass riff so that I could hear it more clearly with the band. I actually am glad we made this decision as I feel that it gave the chorus greater emphasis. Doing these things helped me to nail the chorus but I may have overly focused on getting it right because the rest of the song sounds a little half-hearted I think I definitely could have given that same attention to all of the other lyrics too.
My first issue with song number 3 is that it was originally written last year with a male singer, who has quite a deep voice. The biggest problem with it was trying to make my voice fit in, I think I did okay in that respect but it is not confident. The best part is probably the chorus because it is more in my range. The band had no issue with this one as they have been playing it for a lot longer than myself – having written it last year.
Song 3 Original Lyrics:
You’ll find me cradled waiting for the Angel’s.
To tell men to her outta here.
Same big black dog,
Awaiting at my gate.
Theres no escape.
When I think about it.
Really think about it.
Doesnt matter how I go about it,
Or how loud I shout it.
I’m so tired of waiting for you to let me pass(past)
So tired of waiting for this to end at last
While im ruminating, staring at my hands.
You’re bearing down on me.
Left me here all alone.
Housed by the shadows,
That fell on us,
When we feel in love.
Every single day since,
They only ever leave, temporarily.
When I think about it.
Really think about it.
Doesnt matter how loud I shout it,
Or how I go about it.
I’m so tired of waiting for you to let me past(pass)
I’m so tired of waiting for this to end at last.
Final Live Performance:
I really enjoyed this final performance. We managed to play 4 songs really well despite not practicing them together for over a month. To be completely honest, I would actually say it is our best performance out of them all. The reverb and delay on the vocals really made up for the lack of keys and helped to fill the silence. I had much better control over my voice and made far less mistakes with pitchiness in the verses of ‘Quicksand’. Compared to the live session recording, I am pleased to say that I was a lot less nasal sounding but much more enthusiastic in my approach.
I’d say that ‘Love’s Alright’ went perfectly. The audience seemed to recieve it well with enthused applause and cheers afterwards. This is a rection that you don’t always get from performing originals.
The final song began very quickly. I think that Alexander was slightly in panic mode due to his guitar change before this song. It did make me feel quite out of breath as I struggled to pace myself. I think we adapted well to this tempo change though and once the drums came in Michael was able to gradually bring it back to speed. I approached the first two choruses with plenty of confidence but definitely went a bit too high. I would rather have done this and kept consistent as I did rather than panic, an improvement of my reactions to mistakes from the underground gig. By the final chorus I had it right though, which shows that I was attempting to rectify my mistakes in the moment and not blindly continuing to sing incorrectly and that is something I have not recognised in past performances.
My stage presence was decent, I was able to talk to the crowd between songs and had little bits of banter. In the future I would most likely plan how I would be introducing the band members so as to not forget to introduce myself like I did this time. Next time I need to be a bit more engaging like I was at the underground gig and have more movement. A lot of the songs involved me just staring at something and swaying, which as I watch it back to evaluate is a very boring thing to look at. I did attempt to include audience participation with the question, “Who’s a fan of Red Hot Chilli Peppers?” I thought that this would be a great segue into our final song but no one put their hands up so it fell flat. Had this been a show for our band’s fans or people who were rock fans not just students and parents I think it would have been more succesful. What I take from that is it is better to know your audience and for future shows I will think ab0ut the kind of things audience members will be more likely to respond to.
Finally, Scar Tissue was at this point extremely neat. I had fun singing along to this one despite a few mistakes made on guitar. These were understandable due to the sheer amount of time away from these songs that we had had. I again used well-placed vibrato and really tried projecting my voice in the choruses. The band collectively handled the bridge’s dynamic changes fantastically and it was an amazing way to end our set and our time together as the Level 6 Band: Video Doorbell.
Bibliography:
Eilish, B. (2023) How Billie Eilish and Finneas created Oscar-winning ‘what was I made for’ | vanity fair, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mewdcHIvMmA (Accessed: 26 February 2024).
Parton, D. (2014) Dolly Parton performs jolene at Glastonbury – BBC, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwBNBcFAFso (Accessed: 26 February 2024).