Love Yourself
Individual Relection
This is footage of the final performance for the ensemble project we have been working on, unfortunately our band member Millie was unable to perform. Therefore her spot was filled by Faith who had already known the song from past performances. One Individual strength of this performance was the knowledge of the chords and timing of the music, this is because I played all the chords correctly and in time with the singer during this performance, one week prior to this performance I was not confident with the arrangement of the chord progression. Therefore I have shown great improvement since the last rehearsal. Knowing your chords and timing in the music is very important as it shows great professionalism and organisation surrounding the performance. Another strength shown in this performance was the use of the sustain pedal and dynamic control in the pre-chorus of the song. This is because at the end of the chorus me and the guitarist both played a crescendo that built up anticipation for the chorus, we reinforced the rhythm of the song by playing the chords in 1/4 note rhythm which built up tension in the music.
What could be improved?
One of the main weaknesses I have displayed in this performance was the un-interesting and basic piano arrangement, this is because in this performance I was only playing block chords in different rhythms throughout the song. This made the music sound boring and unprofessional, to make this better in future I would instead play an arpeggio to add more rhythm to the music and play the inverted chords through voice leading, this would make the chord transitions sound more smooth and natural. Another improvement that could be made in this project would be to start a new sustain pedal at the start of each chord change, this is because throughout this performance I was just holding down the pedal throughout the whole song. On a real acoustic piano doing this can make all the notes played under the sustain mash together and create a very loud and muddy tone in the music, therefore in future the sustain pedal must be used more effectively and professional to avoid dissonant and muddy textures in the music.
I could also improve this performance by using more dynamic control on the piano, this is because in this song I was playing at a constant dynamic level. This caused the music to sound flat and un-interesting it also negatively impacted the contrast between song structures. I have also been told some distortion had come off of the signal output of the keyboard due to the choppy and loud dynamics in the music. In future I will consider dynamics more before performing on stage, if I was to do this again I would play the first verse at a mezzo piano level. This is because this is very balanced and relaxed dynamic level, the chorus would climax at a forte dynamic level. Meaning it would be the main focus of the music and have the most anticipation.
Group Reflection
This performance as a group did not go as planned as Millie, our lead singer was unable to perform this song with us therefore Faith had to fill in. Luckily she did know the lyrics, during this reflection I will not focus on the vocals as much as she was not given the time to rehearse with us prior to the performance. During this performance our guitarist showed great musical skills by both playing the chords and guitar solo accurately in the music, this made the song sound very professional and tight. He also managed to play some percussion on the surface of the guitar which emphasised the beat of the music a lot more, in previous rehearsals we were not able to effectively emphasise the beat of the music as there was not much rhythm in the instrumental arrangement. However the guitar helped improve this issue, however this problem could be properly resolved if I had added a rhythmic arpeggio to the piano arrangement.
What could be improved?
One of weakest elements of our group performance was stage communication and presence this is because me and Niall were both shying behind our instruments and did not look up from them once, as I have mentioned before doing this during the performance will make you look shy from the perspective of the audience. Overall making it unpleasant to watch on stage, this is not what we want as performers. In future I would solve this issue by looking up and engaging with my band and the cameras recording us, this would make everyone including the audience engaged with the performance. It will also make us appear confident and professional from an outside perspective.
Come Thru
Individual Reflection
This video shows the final performance for Come Thru which I personally believe is the best song in our set list for this project. I believe this is the best due to it’s interesting and advanced instrumental arrangement along with it the different dynamics and instrumental articulations we use during this performance. In this performance I was playing 4 note arpeggios which was made up of the chords triad position with the root note on top. I mostly played these chords on each beat of the music to give the song a feeling of movement and to also make the arrangement sound more rhythmically interesting. During this performance I believe I also showed great dynamic control which complimented the context and mood of the song. One area were I demonstrated great dynamic control was on the last chord of the pre-chorus were I played a crescendo on the piano. This built up great anticipation for the chorus which we go into after, during the song I also played the piano at a piano dynamic level. I touched the keys delicately to make the music sound calm and peaceful, which is what the outro of the song intends to be. Therefore the dynamics I displayed in this performance were very important for the theme of the music and it also displays great practical skills on my instrument.
Group Reflection
As a band we performed very well during this performance, I believe this was the song we all did best on out of the two other songs we have worked on. I believe all of us were more confident with this song, this is because in this song we look up from our instruments a lot more showing that we are more comfortable with playing it live in front of cameras. We also look at each of and communicate on stage a lot, this shows that we are also enjoying performing the song in a band. If an audience member can see that you are enjoying performing on stage that means they are more likely to enjoy the performance, assuming that you deliver a great performance on stage in terms of being musically correct and confident.
During this performance the singer forgot the lyrics around the second verse, this caused a disruption in the flow of the music. In a live performance forgetting the lyrics looks very unprofessional as it shows lack of commitment and organisational skills in the band. In future Millie should rehearse the lyrics as much as possible and make sure she can sing through the song with out reading the lyrics, if she is able to do this it means she is ready to perform in front of an audience. However this mistake required me and the guitarist to play the music as usual without lyrics, this meant we had to know the song very well in order to make minimal mistakes. This shows that me and the guitarist both had great knowledge of this song in order to play through this mistake.