It was not bad for our first rehearsal. The first song we rehearsed was Enjoy the Silence by Lacuna Coil. I play lead guitar here, and I was supposed to play the melody in the beginning, but we skipped it because I still needed to practice this part of the song, as I was struggling to play it.
Aimee’s singing needed to be louder as I could barely hear her and I didn’t know where I was in the song. Also, her singing needs to be more potent in the chorus. To improve this, the song requires a second singer to give it an extra layer the song requires.
Next time we rehearse this song, I need to learn the intro and bridge melody.
The second song that we rehearsed in this session was Vivica by Jack Off Jill. This song is about the same tempo as Enjoy the Silence.
As this was our first rehearsal of this song, you can hear moments where I was playing out of time, and you can barely hear my guitar. This is something I would need to improve on for the next rehearsal session.
Overall, the rehearsal was successful as we got through both songs in this session, but we still have room for improvement for the next session.
In this session, we rehearsed Are You Ready for Me with Joe playing bass for this session. We will have members joining the band by next week.
We rehearsed both songs to a backing track as we didn’t have all the instruments present, and Joe didn’t know these songs.
For Are You Ready For Mr Aimme’s singing needs to be more aggressive, and she also needs to learn how to shout the line “Are You Ready For Me Now?”.
You can also hear me and Joe speeding up at some point in the song. We can fix this by playing to a click.
This was our initial rehearsal of Helicopter with Faye substituting on bass since Reece couldn’t practice with us anymore, and Liam had other plans that day. Nevertheless, Evan had to leave early, so Oliver covered on drums to keep us in rhythm instead of guitar for this practice. There were moments when I hit the wrong notes during the first chorus, which was a minor error. There were also moments when Aimee got the words wrong that she had to recite again. Aimee also needs to learn to sing this song better since it is more about speaking than normal singing. To help with that, she needs to practice with her singing tutor so that she can sing either using that style or a compromise.
The first piece that was run through today was “Are You Ready for Me?” This run-through was also quite terrible, with people being out of sync and coming in late to pieces. We can get this down to a fine art by hearing the piece and everyone learning their part. We also played completely ridiculously fast, which we can remedy by playing along with a metronome. Aimee’s vocals were also very quiet, and this can be fixed by her singing more loudly. Also, as our tutor Pav pointed out, this problem can be solved by the rest of the band playing softer/lighter. Another thing Aimee would need to work on, vocally, would be practising the growls during the choruses.
The second song we rehearsed was “Vivica” by Jack Off Jill. The song starts with bass; however, Liam’s bass tone is quite flat. This can be adjusted by trying out tones and/or pedals. Here again, we were playing at a faster tempo that needs to be adjusted by playing along with a metronome at the correct BPM. There were also moments where Oliver was coming in late, which again can be fixed by him learning his parts of the songs. The ambient noises that Oliver adds also provide a bit more originality to our cover of a pre-existing cover. In regards to Aimee’s vocals, her breath control isn’t the best, and this is due to us playing too fast. To prevent this from happening again, Aimee needs to communicate with the other band members that we’re playing too fast and to slow down.
The third number we worked on was “Helicopter” by Bloc Party. The guitars were a little off initially, and once more, the tones aren’t right and need to be worked on, especially on my tone, as it sounded like a nest of angry hornets. Another problem would be that when Oliver and Aimee sing harmonies together, it clashes, and we need to fix this, as it isn’t pleasant. Aimee also got the lyrics wrong, and she simply has to practice them further on her own at home so that she can have them ready for the gig. On the bridge, there are instances where me and Oliver get it wrong, but then again, that can be fixed by us practising the song in our spare time.
The final song we rehearsed was “Enjoy the Silence” by Lacuna Coil. the major issue with this song is that it’s a mess currently; everyone’s arriving late with each instrument. My main riff sounds stiff and awful to the ear, and it needs a lot of fixing. I also play it at parts of the song where it shouldn’t be played. One positive thing about this song would be that Oliver’s ambient sound at the start of the song is a good introduction to get the song started as it add texture to the song.
In this rehearsal, we had to cut Ignorance by Paramore and replace it with The Pretender by Foo Fighters. As this was our first time rehearsing this song as a band, we only learned how to play this song in less than 15 minutes. You can hear me drop out multiple times as I didn’t how to play this song. This will be improved before the gig as this is the last song I will have to learn.
Aimee’s vocals are also quiet during the chorus and over overpowered by the other instruments and you can hear my guitar making high pitch noises when I stop playing. To fix this noise I am going to play on one of my guitars that has a humbucker, and I also need to sort out my tone as it doesn’t sound that good with a single coil pickup guitar.
In this rehearsal, we decided to play through the whole set list in order of how we are going to play on the night of the gig. We began with “Are You Ready for Me?” getting off to a good start. Aimee’s vocals were again drowned out by the rest of the instruments. Oliver had the best stage presence among us all in this, and we must all begin playing with that same energy to be set and prepared for the night of the gig.
Moving on with our list of songs after a short break, we practised “Love Song” by Jack Off Jill. Oliver added some backing sounds to enhance this cover and blend the Jack Off Jill cover with The Cure’s original version, making it slightly different to our own. Just before the instrumental chorus break, I started playing the main riff too early and held it on a little too long. Once again, Aimee’s vocals got lost in the instruments.
This was our final track for this session, Bloc Party’s “Helicopter.” Honestly, this is our most rehearsed track and perhaps our best at the current point in time. When compared to our practice of the track previously, everything sounds a lot smoother. Aimee at first thought that this would be one of our worst, since she wasn’t very confident with the vocals, as it involves more shouting than harmonious singing, which she had never attempted before.