From the start to finish of the project i feel that I individually as well as my other band mates and other class mates have all grown musically and in general.
At the start of the project, some people had very little experience in music, some not even able to play an instrument and now they can confidently play that instrument in front of 150 people. I personally think it is a huge achievement for myself and my other class mates to have been able to do that.
For me, this project has not only encouraged me to learn and listen to new music but also helped grow my confidence by a mile. At the start of the project I was quiet and struggled to speak to the new people i just met. Now at the end of the project, i can talk to anyone in the class and out. Not only did it build my confidence that way, but also helped build my confidence musically.
At the start of the year I would have been absolutely terrified to go on stage and perform in front of 150 people, even at the start of the project it sounded scary to me. But ad the project went on and I made new friends and learnt the songs, I was excited to play on stage and was really looking forwards to it. What helped for me to be able to perform on stage was doing breathing techniques before the show started, which calmed down both my nerves and excitement which meant i went on stage calmly.
You can see through the rehearsals videos how much we have all grown musically. At the start of the project we could barely get through the first verse of Where is my mind? without making mistakes or needing help from our tutor and then 5 weeks later we were able to confidently start the whole show playing that same song. I think despite the unbalanced amount of time we spent learning each song, we were able to confidently play each one to the same level.
Something that the band could have done better with is communication. From the start we all had this friendly atmosphere and were able to converse about the music easily and were able to play as a band pretty quickly. However later on in the project we had a few quarrels between certain individuals in the band which caused a slight tense feeling when we played together. After we all talked it through as a group though, we were able to leave it all behind us and play brilliantly on the stage.
I enjoyed this project a lot and would happily do it again doing both covered songs and eventually our own songs. I loved playing on stage in front of a crowd and also loved being in the crowd as well for the other bands. In the future I hope to play in front of a larger crowd in a larger venue. I also enjoyed all of the extra work involved in the project, such as the photoshoots, the rehearsals and the promotion of the band and performance.
I have learnt a lot over the past 6 weeks and I’m looking forwards to the next project and working with other people in my class again.