In this rehearsal performance, we played two out of our three songs as we didn’t have enough time to play three. The songs in the video are Clocks and Moving To New York. We didn’t perform Somebody Told Me as we felt that we already played it enough and so we were confident enough in performing it to an audience. I think the rehearsals this week went fairly well as were polishing off our songs to ensure they were all ready for the performance before we started learning our 4th song. We went through our songs with the tutors and they gave us feedback on how to improve our parts and we all made sure we knew the song structures.
Group Performance Strengths
A simple yet hugely important thing we did in our performance was simply staying in time with each other, especially in Moving To New York where the song’s tempo is very fast and can sometimes be hard to keep in time with. Some bands can struggle with the timing, however, we all seem to have a natural sense of pulse which is great for our rehearsals as we can pick up things and play together easily.
A peer pointed out that we had very good use and range of dynamics. This can be shown through the end of Clocks, where the guitar drops out and I do a crescendo on the drums. This adds a nice touch to the end as we all finish at the same time after. Use of dynamics can also be heard during the break when we move from a louder dynamic of around forte to a quieter one of mezzo forte. After this, my semi-quaver fill brings the dynamics back up to forte and the singer and guitarist join in to further up the volume. We were always aware of our use of dynamics during the rehearsals and we wanted to make sure they were right, which is why I feel like we pulled this off very well for this performance.
Our tutor noticed that when we came across small problems during the performance, we still carried on and tried our best to ignore the mistake. This skill is absolutely vital for performers as not everything in your showing will go smoothly but that’s normal, you just have to carry on. If you make a big deal out of it, the audience is more likely to realise you made a mistake! A point when we made a mistake was when Lucy forgot a lyric, however, this can be easily fixed by just practising the lyrics and memorising them as best as you can.
Individual Performance Strengths
Compared to last weeks performance of Moving To New York, my own use of dynamics has improved lots. You can tell especially at the start of the song in last weeks performance; the crescendo was not as powerful as it’s supposed to be. However now, it goes from around piano to forte very fluently and this expresses a much better build-up than before. Also last week, during Moving To New York, I didn’t change dynamics generally from different parts in the song. This can be heard when we move from the chorus to the verse; the dynamics only change because I moved from the crash to hi-hat, but the rest of the kit should have lowered in volume as well. In this, however, you can clearly see through my gestures that my playing in the second verse was a lot quieter than the chorus. This allows for different textures and that you can hear other instruments better during the verse.
I feel like my communication between the other band members is improving. This could be because we are getting to know each other more when we rehearse and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I communicated with the group in many ways; at the start of Clocks, I made sure Tia kept in time (as she was doing a solo) by simply tapping my foot on the hi-hat on every other beat. I also look to Morgan on bass before the bridge in Clocks to make sure he knows we are about to move into the next part. This is ensuring for me as it adds my confidence in the group, especially because the bass and drums need to work very closely together.
Group Performance Improvements
A thing we need to work on is our confidence and how we are presenting ourselves to the audience. For example, the guitarist could stand up, Lucy could move around the stage a bit more and I could exaggerate my moves on the kit a lot more. Doing all of these will add to our engagement with the audience and show to them that we are enjoying playing to them. It shows we are confident in ourselves and each other and we will have a much better show in general.
This may seem strange but we and even some others pointed out that the songs seemed ‘too full’. To guarantee that the songs are not always crammed with difficult techniques, we should strip down some parts. This could perhaps be the bassline in Clocks which is very full and sometimes a bit ‘too much’ or it could be my fills in Moving To New York; the improvised fills might be seen as a little forced and therefore making the song feel messy and uncoordinated. this can be done by working on our own parts and simplifying them until they sound less thick, however still full enough to show our skills off.
To make our songs flow better, we need to work on our transitions and what to do when people might be tuning their instruments and preparing for the next song. They are many ways of doing this, for example; Lucy introducing the next song and having a general conversation with the audience or (depending on how long the transition will be) the players not doing anything could play a small interlude, therefore keeping the performance engaging and entertaining. By doing this, we can eventually turn all these songs into a full set instead of feeling like we are playing them all separate from each other.
Individual Performance Improvements
I feel like my playing in Clocks does not show off my abilities too well. I know I am capable of doing better grooves and even improvising fills here and there to make my part in the song more interesting and impressive. However, I still need to stick the song and its groove. To get around this, I could add ghost notes or maybe even different bass drum patterns. I can improvise fills in important places in the song like before the piano solo as a way of engaging with the audience. This will also help the band as it gives an indication as to when they should drop out.
As well as improvising fills, I need to make sure that these fills are also technical. For most of the fills in the songs, I mostly just do singles around the kit. These are fast however being fast doesn’t automatically mean good. To further impress the audience, I need to use different sticking patterns around the kit or even use crossover fills to orchestrate myself better when moving around the kit. I could also use advanced rudiments like different forms of paradiddles (eg inverted paradiddles and double paradiddles). These will bring out a totally different feel to the fills as I can add accents with my right or left hand’s sticking pattern.
Targets For Mock Performance
-We could add more harmonies from Meg in places to make the songs more interesting and to make the texture sound more fuller.
-Try and strip down some parts like the bass in Clocks as playing difficult things all the way through the song can make it sound sometimes messy and quite cluttered sounding.
-Work on our 4th song; Animal by Sir Chloe. It has to be finished for the final performance!