Sunday Chaos – 33:45 – 40:24
This video shows the final performance for the Christmas module we have been working on for this project, I am proud of this performance however there are still many things I would change in order to improve it. One strength of this performance the end of Somewhere only we know where I gradually slowed down the chords, this sounded very professional and advanced. However if I was to do the performance again I would drag the chords on for longer, as in the performance I stopped playing early. This lead to the song sitting in silence for five seconds before playing the final chord, this made the music sound empty awkward for the audience and us as performers. Another strength of this performance was my stage communication as I often looked around and smiled at other band members, this shows the audience that I am enjoying myself on stage. To improve this I would look into the audience more often to make myself appear more professional and confident on camera.
How could you improve?
To improve this performance I would be more careful with my use of the sustain pedal, this is because I held it down through the whole performance. This can cause the notes on the piano to blend and create a messy tone of clashing notes within the music. In future to avoid this mistake I would research different exercises to improve my use of the sustain pedal when performing, I would also make sure to start a new pedal at each chord change. This would avoid the different notes from the past chord clashing with the new chord, therefore making the music sound more organised and tight in terms of arrangement. To further more improve this performance I would push on the 4th chord of the verse more to emphasise the rhythm and therefore make it sound more interesting to the audience, to do this I would practice pushing the chords at home so that I would be able to remember when to do this in the performance. Along with how to push the chords out professionally during the performance.I could improve on rocking around the Christmas tree by adding a more advanced piano arrangement into the music, this is because the one in the live performance was a very barebones and boring which overall lead to a bland piano arrangement. To improve this in future I would do research on jazz improvisation due to the songs genre, in depth research and practice would allow me to play through the song and add my own improvisations into the music effectively and smoothly.
Group Reflection
As a group we delivered a great performance for this project given the short time gate we were given to learn these songs. One strength shown in this performance was the confidence we all had as a band, this made us look very professional and organised on stage as it looked like we were confident in our own musical skills and abilities. We appear confident due to our stage communication when we look at each other and communicate on stage, we also stand up tall giving us a organised and confident look while on stage. One band member who showed the most confidence was Niall, as he was dancing along with the music which makes it appear that he is enjoying himself. The audience will be more likely to enjoy the performance if the performers on stage are also enjoying it, therefore this confidence makes the performance and stage presentation of our band appear more professional.
During this performance we wasted a lot of time during the song transitions, this is because the two guitarists had to switch positions. The switch took a lot of time and had to be cut out of the live stream to avoid boring the audience, in front of a live performance this issue could not have been solved as easily. Meaning they would have to sit and watch the long stage transition. meaning in future the guitarists should practice quickly getting their guitar amped and strapped up to minimise wait time for the audience. One final way this performance could be improved would be to tighten the timing on ‘rocking around the Christmas tree’ this is because the final stab at the end of the song was a little but off time and sloppy. To improve timing in the future we should loop the musical measure with the stab in it until we are all able to play on time, we should make sure we can play it back to back with no mistakes at least 5 times. This would mean we should all be able to play in time during the live performance with no issues
Feed The World Group and Individual Evaluation- 40:30 – 44:30
Feed the world went very well considering how many people had to learn it and perform as a large band. One strength shown in this song was the great vocal harmonies in the music, this added colour and vibrancy to the music and made it sound very soul full and professional. Another strength present in this was the ending to the song, this is because we all played the final stabs of the song on beat, in previous rehearsals this was something we struggled with as we could never play on time with one another. During this performance we all played on beat which made the rhythm and timing of the music sound very organised, tight and professional. Another area of this song where the timing was good can be seen during the bridge, during this part of the song we play stabs on the first 3 beats of each bar. In this performance everyone was in time in the bridge, the rhythmical accuracy of this made the music sound very professional and well rehearsed.
How could this be improved?
During this performance there is more positive than negative qualities that can be seen, one weakness of this performance was the audibility of the synth keyboard patch. During this performance the keyboard me and Ellis are playing on is inaudible due to its lack of volume, therefore there is technically no use for us on the stage. To avoid this issue in future I would make sure we sound checked the keyboard before the performance as this would allow us to make any adjustments to the volume of the keyboard before the performance. One other minor improvement that could be made would for Ellis to memorise the music, this is because he brought sheet music on stage while everyone else had memorised it. This stands out in the performance and may negatively effect the audiences view and thoughts on you as a musician. This is because it looks like you are unorganised and have not bothered to learn your part in the music, therefore for future performances it is vital everyone learns their music before performing on stage.
The majority of mistakes made in this performance was due to the singers not knowing their cues on when to sing together, this lead to moments were Lucy was singing alone when she should be accompanied by the rest of the singers. This made the music sound very empty and anti-climatic. Lucy addressed this mistake on camera by saying ‘thats all of us’ this alerted the audience to the mistake and made the performance sound unprofessional. For future performances Lucy should address mistakes that occurred during the performance off stage, as this will allow people to improve without alerting the audience to the mistake. One thing I noticed when reviewing the performance was that all the pianists are looking down at their fingers making no contact with the band or audience, this appears to the audience that we are shy or uncomfortable on stage. To avoid us shying behind our instruments we should practice our material until we are confident with playing it without mistakes, at this point we can look up from our instrument confidently without staring at our hands and focusing on playing the correct notes.