‘cherry blossoms’ – 20:40-25:05
What went well?
Although I was quite nervous (I haven’t had much experience speaking in front of an audience), I think the presentation of my song came off as quite confident. I spoke clearly and managed to say most of what I had planned. I think people seemed to enjoy the song and the animation. As I said in the introduction, this is the first time i have ever written and produced a song myself, so I am very proud of the outcome.
How could I improve?
Watching back the animation, it could’ve been slightly more interesting, especially during the first half of the song. I think if I do a similar project again, I will make a few more subtle changes to the animation, as this will hopefully make it more engaging to the audience.
While I did manage to say a lot of what I planned, I initially forgot to say who was singing on the song. Once I went off stage I got a little stressed that I forgot to mention probably one of the most important things. However, Nic encourage me to go back on stage after the song was over and say what I forgot to say at the start. This relieved a lot of stress even though it was a simple mistake and a simple solution. Next time, if I have to speak in front of the audience at a showcase, I will practise what I am going to say more.
‘Someone Like You’ – 3:40-8:10
What went well?
Within this performance, I think I managed to control my dynamics quite well, especially after the bridge/during the breakdown of the final chorus. It has been a few years since I last performed a song with just me and a singer but I think it was a good performance.
How could I improve?
There were a few times where my finger slipped and I ended up playing the wrong note. There were also points where I played the song a bit too fast. I think both of these were down to nerves. To improve this for the future, I should practise some exercises to calm my nerves prior to going on stage. My finger slipping could’ve also been due to the heat on stage, which is out of my control.
The pedal was also slipping throughout the final performance which did put me off a little bit as sometimes I was focusing more on that than playing. To improve this in future performances, I will try make the pedal a little bit more secure so it doesn’t slide on stage.