I had never composed anything as a band before so this was a very different experience for me. However, the band worked really well together during the last project and I was excited to work with them again. I already had planned to go into these rehearsals and you can see my plan on the page called ‘song plan’. These are the rehearsals we had and what I took away from each one of them.
This was our very first rehearsal. As you can see it is not the best. We had half of the band missing, including me, so we didn’t do too bad to say we were struggling for numbers. This was completely off-brand for us and is not the style of music we wanted to make. However, it was good to start messing around and getting some progressions and patterns made. The chords featured in the song are the 7th chords (extended chords). This means that instead of a three-note chord we had a 4 note chord. We were using the major chords 1, 4, and 5 (E, A, and B). Very simple chords. Although it is very simple, it is still up to a good standard and sounds very nice. We very much used our ears with this one and went with what sounded the best. Not a bad first effort.
This is where we decided to scrap the song we had in the first video. We wanted our composition t0 to be the style of music that we all like, and that is rock. The song we had written before sounded far too chill and that is not the vibe that we wanted. We had already written a new chord progression, but even this sounded too mellow. We would later work on the chord progression to mold it into the sound we want. At this point, we are still short on numbers, but the rest of the band that was there assigned everyone positions in the band. Everyone was happy with what they were given to do and in our next rehearsal we got to work developing the chord progression we had. We also needed to start thinking about structure and how we wanted the song to go. There was a lot to work on but we were in a good position at this point in the project.
Again we still had half the band missing so we were struggling to get any concrete ideas in place. We had started to come up with some sort of structure for the song but it all sounded a little messy. We didn’t get to the end of the song and struggled to communicate with the rest of the band. There was one point in the song where the same pattern was being played over and over and it started to sound very boring. There was lots of work to be done to bring it up to standard. The structure is the main thing that needs work.
I don’t want to be too critical as we are still low on numbers, but this is easily the worst rehearsal we had. The song didn’t seem to be progressing from the last rehearsal and we didn’t take on board any of the notes that we were given. We are struggling to come up with a solid structure that sounds nice. It will be easier when all of the band is back and everyone can work together.
In this session, we nearly had a full band. I had come back from some time off and didn’t have any idea what our song sounded like or what was going on. The job for this session was to work on the structure. All of the other bands had a similar plan. Our only improvement was a structure which meant the rest of the band was comfortable with the riffs and progressions that they have made. I was happy to carry on if they were. Personally, I needed to spend the session getting comfortable and familiar with the song. Once I have done this I can start adding my own chords to it.
At this point, the song was sounding very good. I had started to add my own chords in and play along with the rest of the band. The key of the song is in A so I figured out the chords myself. I play an A minor, G minor, F minor, and E minor. I was very happy with the song already, but I just wanted it to be a little bit faster. Nic suggested we make the arpeggio riff that Isabelle plays the chorus and I agree. One of my inspirations for the song is ‘Feel Good Inc’ by Gorillaz, and having that calm chorus followed by a heavy rap verse would sound really nice. This is in Gorillaz style and it really works on that track. Once the structuring issues are figured out, we will be able to play the whole song from start to finish with no problems. We also need to start thinking about vocals, lyrics, and a melody as well. This will take the composition to the next level.
In this video, we play the song with the new structure, and it really did work. The quiet mellow chorus followed by a heavy verse sounds extremely nice and unique. It is something you don’t hear in many songs now-a-days and it will set us apart from the music being released currently. On the second chorus, we are going to double it up. One half is going to be quiet and mellow, and then the other is going to have a heavier drum beat over it with a funky bass line and some chords. This just adds some differentiation to the song and makes it sound more interesting. A very good session that proved extremely beneficial.
This was our first performance of this song to other people in the live room. As you can see, we have come quite a long way from where we first started when writing this song. We were communicating better as a band and it was showing in the fluidity of the song. Don’t get me wrong it was very rough around the edges and needed tidying up a lot. Everyone’s instrumentation is sounding really nice and it is all glued together. The main thing we need to work on is the ending. This will help the structure of the song and give us a concrete blueprint for the track. The second thing we need to work on is the rap, vocals, and melody. The track will struggle without this and it will just be instrumental. We should probably start off with the melody as that will make the lyrics easier to write. At this point, we only have one week left to finish this song. It has come around quickly, but I am confident we can get this finished and have a really nice-sounding song.
This was the deadline day to have this track finished, It is roughly one week after the last video was filmed. As you can see, we still had no vocals for the chorus. The song would have benefitted from having Aimee’s voice in the chorus. As it was a short turn around she found it hard to get lyrics and a melody line written and then rehearse it with the band, so we had to settle without the chorus vocal. However, we still had a vocal on the verse. Nic wrote a melody line for us and as you can see it sounds very nice. The melody fits perfectly with the vibe of the song and creates an atmosphere during the chorus. Once we turn the melody line into vocals in January the track will be near completion. Straight after this, we played our final version of the song for this project. You find this on the page called ‘Final song and evaluation’. In my opinion, rehearsals have gone very well and I am proud of the band for coming up with such a solid song.