Following the success of our first live performance at the end of last half term, most of us students wished to go on for round two – this time at Christmas. Once again in the same bands but, of course, with new and more festive songs.
Our setlist consists of “Jingle Bell Rock”, “Snowman”, and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. I would say we got the hang of these tracks very generally in good time, which meant we just needed to tighten it all up and really focus on the details.
The main issue was the structure of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” in my opinion. The build-up leading into the final chorus was a very tricky section, not many of us knew when exactly to start, how long it went on for, and when we needed to come in for the finale. It was definitely something to revise and work on.
As a group, one thing we for sure need to cut down on is just jamming and messing around between songs; it slows down the progression, as well as stopping us from getting as much rehearsing done with the time we have available. In the future it would be beneficial for one of us (most likely myself or Leoni) telling everybody to focus on what we need to do.
Another attempt at the latter half of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, I would say it sounded much better this time round but, truthfully, it could’ve been more luck than judgement.
For the grand finale, we needed a showpiece where everybody is involved to close out the show with a bang. We landed on “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” as it has a really large ending where everybody gets to take part.
What went well here was how quickly we got to grips with the final section with everybody singing, it took us a few tries to get it down but during the full attempt we seemed to perform well enough.
To improve we need to get ourselves organised and ready much quicker so it all looks as smooth as possible come crunch time, of course this was just a run through but it pays to practice discipline when preparing.
Personally, I really struggled with my bassline, getting that quick rhythm down consistently was very tough and I also fluffed my notes a couple times throughout, to improve I may need to look at some picking exercises to build my speed up.
On the positive side I think we mostly played confidently and remembered what exactly we needed to play and what rhythms. When making mistakes we quickly regrouped and didn’t linger on them.
For us to improve, we definitely need to learn the structure as we made mistakes many times. Starting from not knowing when Harry starts his solo through to not knowing how the build happens – it got really rather messy. Another item is the feedback which became a repeated issue during this take, I’m not certain where this actually came from but in future this could be avoided with a more rigorous soundcheck and ensuring that the microphone is never pointed towards the onstage monitors.
“Snowman” went through without much issue, I would say it was a good performance, not one of our best but a decent place to be given how little we had rehearsed at this point. “Jingle Bell Rock” was a different story. Harry wasn’t as accurate as needed when playing through the intro, and I know I got lost when it came to the second verse.
One thing we need to work on as a band is our discipline. we were given additional time to rehearse and it took us a while to even start rehearsing, we must make good usage of any time we are given, as opposed to mucking about chatting or playing random portions of other songs we know. The same is true for in between songs.
Very sketchy start with some of us not knowing where we were or what we needed to play, still struggling with memorising the structure of “Jingle Bell Rock”. Second run through in this clip was much improved with only slight errors, everybody seemed to be in sync even though I think we might’ve started a little slow and sped up as the song progressed.
Next we tried “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” to a poor standard. A few lyrics by the wayside, and a lack of dynamism in the drumming during the guitar solo left us in bad shape and then completely missing the mark for us to fly into the final chorus sealed it. A really disappointing run which at least told us what exactly needed working on for that piece.
We decided to work more on “Jingle Bell Rock” as it was one which caused us a lot of stress due to it’s structure. On the positive side, we managed to stay in time, work through the song, hit all the notes, and achieve it to a good standard.
What we need to work on is how we open and close the piece, as we haven’t quite got to grips with that part yet; the guitar intro isn’t quite there, I dropped out too early for the outro (I need to finish at the same time as Harry and Blake, not before), and we only managed to get through this with constant guidance on where we are and what part comes next.
Our second rehearsal we decided against including the guitar intro, I think we need it as the song just doesn’t sound the same without it, but we need to get the bulk of the song down first before we add the embellishments.
Again, we managed to hit all of the right notes – just not necessarily in the correct order. It wasn’t as smooth as the last attempt so we know we have plenty to work on, mostly regarding which section is played where. We also seemed to stumble a few times, presumably due to the confusion regarding what to play next.
For our first song in the mock performance, we didn’t have Phoenix with us which wasn’t ideal but we pushed through and managed to find one of the best takes we’ve had! We made every chord change sound neat and that tricky build-up was made to look rather easy by us all; if I’m to nit-pick, the transition into that build-up sounded a little disjointed and so it wasn’t perfect, but this was a welcome confidence booster.
My spoken part was sub-par, I was rather awkward and stumbled my way through it all. Also the jack lead that was attaching bass to amp was far too short and almost popped out when I walked forward to speak into the microphone, this lead to a delay and even more nerves for me so we need to ensure that all jack leads are of adequate length to avoid a repeat of this.
Musically, I think we had a lot of success here, “Snowman” went off without a hitch and flowed well for the most part, “Jingle Bell Rock” was much more satisfying to perform correctly however as we have struggled a lot with it in the past. What could be improved however is the pacing of “Snowman” as we found ourselves a little out of time at one point. We had been informed of our tendency to speed up over time so I think one or two of us overcompensated and slowed down instead.
As for my speaking part, this was much better. Obviously I won’t have such interaction at the real performance, but being able to riff off and play with the audience is a good skill to have for the band leader. I got my main points across without too much hesitation. I could speak a bit clearer but that may just be a mixture of the camera’s microphone not picking me up and my natural voice.
After finding out that we weren’t able to perform in front of an audience only two days before we were scheduled to do so, we were rather disappointed. However, we still had a show to put on and I think we achieved a good standard of performance in spite of the circumstances.
Instead of a live performance we performed to camera in an empty room, which was a vastly different experience to the energy and the atmosphere of a packed venue like last time. I don’t think I handled it as well as I could’ve, my palms were sweaty and I became much more nervous during this performance than when we had a live audience, This could be down to a lack of adrenaline mixed with a lack of confidence in what I’m playing, as I wasn’t as fond of these songs and we hadn’t dedicated as much rehearsal time to them.
On the positive side, it was a pretty good performance, no major errors to write home about and I’m rather pleased with how I came across during my spoken sections, even being informed that I made a few parents laugh at home which was lovely to hear. We played well and we played with a decent amount of confidence.
On the other hand, we did all make errors – nothing too serious, but enough for us to be somewhat dissatisfied. I know for certain I made more errors than what I would deem acceptable for my level due to nerves, sweaty palms, and a lack of good practice. I also think as a band we lack stage presence, I tried looking around for eye contact and interaction but I got almost nothing, and I don’t think I looked as happy as I could’ve done out there. Admittedly it is a bit tough to act like you’re really enjoying a performance to a crowd of two, but it is something to think about for future performances.
Overall, I believe we can be satisfied with the final result. There is plenty of room to improve and we weren’t at our best but, given the circumstances, I think we can say we did well. We know where to improve and how to go about improving; as long as we use this as a learning experience I certainly would say there’s nothing to regret here.
It was fun giving Christmas songs a go and putting on a themed performance, adding some sleigh bells and Christmas clothing into the mix, if only we could’ve had an audience to build up the atmosphere. Again, I enjoyed working on and building a performance over time, fine tuning the songs and what I plan on saying; if I am able to come up with an idea that works with my capability and the people who can support me, I could definitely see myself doing a performance of some kind as part of my final project.