Introduction:
We did 2/3 songs in this run through, we did our second and third song, “Clocks-Coldplay” and “Moving To New York- The Wombats”.
Successes:
In “Clocks”, everyone started off on the right tempo which allowed everyone to stay in time, for the most part. With everyone staying in time, the result was very clean and almost flawless. Guitar and Piano worked very closely with the chord transitions but the bass and drums really helped hold up the foundation so Luce knew where to sing. There wasn’t any mess ups in what people were playing/sang which also helped recreate the sound of the song and keep it all together really well.
In between songs, there was a slight break in which you could see us all talking. This showed a bond and connection between us all to the audience which would have set a friendly atmosphere rather than it being very serious and like “oh I have to judge their performance”. It gave a slightly relaxed feel because you could see Luce (the singer) saying well done to me (the keyboard player) and giving praise. Then we heard Morgan (bass player) saying he’d retuned so we knew we could move onto the next song. The communication really helped everything run smoothly.
In “Moving To New York”, we started off really well because we didn’t need a count in from the drummer. Everyone was very clean on their timings and where they needed to play but also where they needed to stop, which gave the stops a very clean break. As we moved into the third and final chorus, there is a little instrumental bit where it goes to just drums and guitar to drums, guitar and bass before jumping back into vocals and keyboard too. The instrumental solo’s were all in exact timings so the break was lively and gave everyone an opportunity to just appreciate the songs foundations.
Improvements:
In “Clocks”, everyone started off really well but when everyone else went silent and it was just keys, I sped up the tempo a little. I need to make sure to keep the tempo the same the whole way through otherwise it doesn’t sound as clean when we all come back in. I’ll work on this by trying to practice in front of maybe family members so I don’t get as nervous when I’m playing a solo, it’ll help build my confidence to play.
In “Moving To New York”, the second verse got a little shaky because the singer forgot a line. However, she played it off like it was meant to happen by smiling and just jumping straight back into the song. This song is incredibly lively but I feel like we could all maybe move a little more with it because the songs saying lively but we are just kind of playing it and not dancing with it. At the end, there is a little piano and bass riff that needs a little work because they wasn’t exactly on timing so it made that bit sound a little jumpy. I’ll work closer to the bass by possibly looing at him at that point so I can see when he’s changing chords, or I’ll count in.
Live Aspect:
We all communicated and worked very closely with each other which aloud us to get such clean takes and blend out any slight mistakes. I’d say that movement needs a little more work, especially in our third song because it is so lively, but it will look better with the stage lights etc.
Targets:
For the live performance, I really want to make sure I’m sticking to my timing in “Clocks” and on the little riff at the end of “Moving To New York”. I’ll ensure I do this by practicing closely with the bass, for our third song, and playing alongside the song for our second song.
Conclusion:
Overall, we all worked very well together and you can definitely see our bands chemistry through our communication with one another, which allowed us to achieve a high quality performance standard. We used different techniques like a range of dynamics and sticking to the tempo’s and timings so we really sounded a like to the original songs. Potentially, we could start adding in some more backing vocals and just sticking to the solo timings, especially for keys in “Clocks”.
Live Example: