In this performance our band performed both songs back to back for the first time.
Group strengths and weaknesses
On somebody that I used to know me and the guitarist were playing at the same time, which is completely wrong as I’m meant to be playing on the beat and the electric guitarist is meant to be playing off of the beat. This mistake made the song seem unorganised and empty in parts as the bass was masked by the electric guitar. The singers need to be more confident when singing by using more dynamics and pitch without nerves, which may be hard but must be done. Me and the guitarist are making a mistake at the end of the song by playing the 2 notes/chords which we use in the verses which is wrong, as we are meant to be playing the chords/notes we used in the chorus until the song ends. Me and the guitarist need to bring guitar straps so we arent sat down, as it negatively effects our stage presence. Our band lacks on stage communication skills which can bore the audience so we really need to work on that as a team to get better overall.
However the band has a good realtion ship which allows us to confidently play together and have the capability to communicate on stage to each other. We mostly played the correct notes and had played in time for the most of the performance which is a strong positive. And the failure of the first song is most my own fault as I failed to play the rythm correctly. One of our bands biggest strengths is our ability to carry on when ever we make a mistake which is a key performance skill. We all managed to remember our queues to drip out and when to come in which is very good as it shows we all have an understanding of our roles in the band.
Individual strengths and weaknesses
As the bass player in this project I have noticed that one of my biggest weaknesses in the song ‘somebody that you used to know’ is my lack of confidence when performing, the lack of confidence makes me second guess myself in skill when playing. This makes me automatically follow behind the the guitarist which is bad as it throws him off rythm and ruins the song. One of my other weaknesses is the lack of technique when playing, I chose to not use the techniques I was taught because I was not confident enough with using them which negatively affected my quality of playing the instrument. On this particular performance I was not playing the rythm of the bass correctly because of my lack of confidence of performing as I was playing to fast to what I was meant to be playing. In kids by MGMT my biggest weaknesses is probably not being fully confident with my times to drop in and out and the hitting all the notes when I’m playing 8 semi-quavers per bar in the chorus. The bass was way too quiet during the performance which ruined the bridge of Kids by MGMT.
However I did manage to play all the notes correctly which is probably one of the only things I do not need to worry about in future for this performance. In the performance I managed to play the chorus right by breaking out of following guitar which I did the whole song which was kinda redeeming as it shows I can correct myself mid performance. But if I’m to be honest this performance did not go that well and there is a tonne of things I could do to improve the performance. However for the second song kids by MGMT I had played in rythm correctly and played a the correct notes, which is good as I have got requirements to play the song on a basic level I just need to use performance skills to make it look more professional and more exciting.
What will you improve next time and how will you do it?
To improve our next performance I will make sure my bass is amplified properly so it doesnt get drowned out, to do this I will test the notes before hand and make sure the guitar is loud enough and in tune of course. I will also make sure me and the guitarist both know to play the chorus notes/chords for the somebody that I used to know outright. To fix my rythm problem the main solutions for the fix are listening to the song alot more and to practice when I have the opportunity to. To improve our groups stage presence me and the guitarist need to stand up when playing and the vocalists need to be more confident when they are singing. We also need to have a band to discussion about more advanced ideas such as dynamics and drop outs and entries for instruments. To make sure I’m more confident doing the semi-quavers I can only improve by practicing with the techniques I was taught to engrave it into my muscle memory and to improve my use of the techniques I’ve been taught.
Performance overall
Overall we did more wrong than right in this performance as I’ve discussed In the paragraphs above and we can only improve from this point on, however the foundations for a good performance are definitely there. Our final performance is in a weeks time from when I am posting this so we are going to have to do work beyond college time if we want a good performance. This evaluation has given me a clear idea of what has to be done to achieve our goals for the final performance.