P4 Critical Feedback - 26th June 2017

During my Technical Development lecture on Monday 26th June I was fortunate enough to gain feedback from my lecturer Joe Yoshida. The feedback was on the drum part for our song 'Play On'. the video below features me playing the song without a backing track and following that, there is some critical feedback.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3toO19CQwKIaUJUeWFsUEpoVms/view?usp=sharing

A crucial part of the feedback is that my bass drum is not as tight as it can be in a section of the song. As this was the day before my performance, I had to practice my bass drum extensively that night to ensure that it was ready for our performance. I used the following exercise as it is incredibly useful for getting your bass drum tight due to the fact that it lands on the beat and off of the beat through the exercise. This forces you to assess your timing issues when you play. #finalproject

P4 Practice Diary - Monday 26th June 2017

We have a clip of today's rehearsal available on Alex's (bassist) blog which can be viewed by clicking here

This was our last lengthy rehearsal before our performance on the following night.

At this point, I am extremely happy with the bands progression and the improvements that they have made throughout this entire project. They have been reluctant to learn certain thing such as a new time signature but they have all pulled through and played exceptionally up to this point. This rehearsal has made me incredibly confident for our performance tomorrow night.

We have reached all of the goals and targets set over the last 2 months by breaking down the tasks into simpler ones and finding the root of this issue. This allowed us to grow as musicians and get our heads around the parts in our songs. It has been an incredibly beneficial way of tackling problems

P4 Practice Diary - Monday 19th June

In our rehearsal today we recorded 'Oy Vey' so that the band can listen back to it in their own practice times so that they can know the song inside and out. Despite our bassist, Alex, being absent due to her missing lectures because of the Paramore gig she attended the previous night we carried on playing and rehearsing.

Click here to see the video

From this video we were able to find out what parts needed to be worked on the most. The largest issue we found was Ollie's guitar part before the drum solo. The main issue is with how he played what his own part as it is meant to be a quiet build up to the climactic drum solo. Despite us telling him it should be simple and quiet he refuses to change it. We reached a compromise after the recording that drum solo with have more dynamics meaning that I will have to re-write it out.

Targets for our next rehearsal

Due to our guitarists lack of compromise I will have to re-write my drum solo for 'Oy Vey' At the end of the day, this is a good things as it extends our set and showcases more of my personal skill. i will use even more exercise from my Technical Development class and apply them to this solo to demonstrate what I have learnt over my time at ACM.

Targets reached

Although I did reach my target as I wrote out my drum solo, I will have to re-do it due to the reasons stated above.

P4 Media/Promotional Content

All of our promotional material are in this google drive folder.

The reason we have done a T-shirt is due to the fact that if people wear them out and about it is promoting us to others. The reason we have flyers and stickers is because we can place them around the local area to draw in people if this were a real gig. A larger crowd brings more people to the venue, this makes the venue manager want to get you to play again as you draw in a large crowd.

P4 Set List Justification and Lyrics

We have a set list for our performance and it is as follows (These are our main compositions):

1. Oy Vey
2. Float Away
3. Play On

Between these pieces there are several interludes and introductions. With these, the set list is as follows:

1. Intro section
2. Oy Vey
3. Drum and Bass Hip-Hop Inst.
4. Float Away
5. Big Build 
6. Play On

The set list has been carefully picked by us to create the best possible performance.

Intro Section

This section was made by us to build tension up to our first song. Interestingly, this small piece is in 4/4 which is a sudden change to our following song; 'Oy Vey!' which is in 7/4. The intro section is loud and big which is how we wanted to start our set so that we can draw all the attention to our performance. Our vocalist also ad libs in this part meaning that she can address the audience directly whilst us instrumentalists are playing. After this huge 32 bar build there is a moment of silence for the audience to cheer and for myself to start my click for the next song.

Oy Vey!

The count in for this song is three snare hits on the last 3 beats of a bar of 7/4 AKA a pick up fill. This leads directly into the intro for our song which, like the intro, is loud for the first 4 bars. We chose this song to start as it is in an odd time signature making us stand out to the other bands. This funk rock song ends just as it starts with the same loud intro pattern that follows the drum solo. This songs ending is incredibly sudden which makes it easy to lead into the next part of our set.

Drum and Bass Hip-Hop Inst.

This section is where our vocalist will first properly address the audience whilst our guitarists change their tone on their amps. I will play using one hand as I will need to adjust my metronome for this set. The drum and bass play a simple hip hop groove to keep the audience interested whilst the singer introduces the next song.

Float Away

This is our slowest song which is why we put in the middle we didn't want to open or close with a slow piece. We have left our strongest pieces for the start and end of the set. This song features a guitar solo and is one that will get the crowd waving there arms. After this song there is a small rallentando and a small silence.

Big Build

This is start of the end of our set. This is a little quieter than our intro but still has the same amount of energy. It gradually gets louder and builds tension. This goes straight into our final song

Play On

Play On is our big finish and our favourite song as a band. This is why we have chosen to do this last as it will also be recorded. this high energy piece is a great example of funk rock and demonstrates a great amount of syncopation between all band members. The song ends with a simple syncopated fill and a choke to end our entire set. It is a tight ending and that is why we chose it as we expect many other bands will end with big and loud finishes and we aim to stand out.

The lyrics for all of our songs can be found here:

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By2Nlg_-u9sBVzJWYnFtTUk5bjg?usp=sharing

P4 Tech Spec, Stage Plan and Monitor Mix

Input List

*The condensers used as overheads will be AKG 414s.
**Pedals used will be as follows:

• Guitar 1 (Jacob Vallance)

Crybaby Wah

Boss Tuner TU-3

Fulltone OCD Overdrive

MXR Mixroamp

Holy Grail Reverb

• Bass Guitar (Alex Hancox)

Crybaby Bass Wah

Stage Plan

Stage Plan (Live)

Monitor Mix

Mix 1 (Monitor 1)

Vocals (Loud)

Drums (Loud)

Guitar 1 (Medium)

Guitar 2 (Medium)

Bass (Medium/Loud)

Mix 3(Monitor 3)

Vocals (Medium)

Guitar 1(Loud)

Guitar 2 (Medium)

Bass (Medium)

Mix 2 (Monitor 2)

Drums (Loud)

Guitar 1 (Medium)

Guitar 2 (Medium)

Bass (Medium)

Mix 4 (Monitor 4)

Vocals (Loud)

Guitar 1(Medium)

Guitar 2 (Quiet)

Bass (Very Loud)

Above are our band's Mic List/Tech Spec, Monitor Mix and Stage Plan.

It is important to prepare a Tech Spec/input list for a gig so that the sound engineer can gain an understanding of how many instruments there will be and what cables will be used to plug them in. Likewise, it is important for a band to know what they want in a monitor mix to save time at the venue. Saving time on that gives more time for the band to soundcheck/line check and get a better sound for the audience which creates a better performance.

A stage plan is very important for a band as they can plan their choreography around where everyone is. They can also get an idea of where they can move around and which musicians they will be next to so that they can communicate with them more.

P4 Practice Diary - Thursday 15th June

For this rehearsal we ran through our entire set with the members that were present. Unfortunately our guitarist Ollie was not present for this rehearsal so we hope that he has been practising his parts at home.

We successfully played through the set despite missing an instrument.

Goals for next rehearsal

My goal for the next rehearsal is the same as the one previously set as I have only had a night to prepare for this. Regardless, I am certainly displaying progress in getting my solo complete .

P4 Practice Diary - Wednesday 14th June

We had a useful 3 hour long rehearsal during our lectures today. The set is almost complete, We have all of our songs complete to the best of our ability and have segues almost completed sorted out.

We have now been able to work on intricacies during our rehearsals such as dynamics and connection between us. The dynamics have been heavily stressed and opposing in a lot of our songs., We will start with a loud intro and go into a soft a quiet verse for Shana to showcase her vocals, only to build back into a heavy chorus.

As far as connection goes, we've been able to make eye contact during our rehearsals but now everyone is more focused on their parts, that communication has been slightly lost. Hopefully as everyone gets more confident with the final versions of their parts again we will be able to continue to make eye contact.

Target for our next rehearsal

For our next rehearsal, I aim to have my parts 100% complete. This includes my drum solo to our 7/4 song, now titled 'Oy Vey'. It will be challenging however if I work hard at it and apply a lot of practice techniques I will be able to get it done.

Targets reached?

Due to the nature of our larger room, we have finally be able to figure our some choreography for performance. This may have been completed at a later date but I am happy with this as it has given us the opportunity to perfect our songs before worrying about our stage positions and dancing.

Here is a photo from the rehearsal:

P4: Evidence of Collaboration

As a band, we made a huge collaborative effort to get our first song recorded so that we could assess our own performance. The recording was done by the Level 0 Production students in their Studio Skills lecture where we were put in a studio environment to record our piece called: 'Play On'.

Here are the stems from our recording

This was recorded on the 24th May which is why it is not perfect on our parts.

Here is a mix of the recording done by an ACM Student

In this recording we demonstrated great syncopation and that we work well as a band. We used an ensemble recording technique for this piece. Although I personally prefer to record musicians individually as I prefer playing to a click alone when it comes to recording as I don't get distracted by other instruments and I can focus on my own parts.

Overall, I think this recording went well and is an accurate portrayal of where the song has gone and what it was like at the time. The song has an intro section now which builds up tension for the crowd.

P4 The Star Inn Visit - 06.06.17

Yesterday I got the opportunities to visit The Star Inn and take a look at the venue. During this trip we got to get a rough idea of sage layout and we could figure out where we could be positioned for our performance. I took several pictures for myself so that I could complete a coherent stage design and figure out what my band members would like in their individual gigs.

Here are the photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3toO19CQwKIWER1M29fRkFfM00?usp=sharing

P4 Practice Diary - Monday 5th June

Today we were informed that we could only do 3 songs for our performance. This was not a problem as we had decided on performing 3 songs with segues that connect the two songs.

Our 3 songs are:

• Play On
• Float Away
• 7/4 (This song is currently untitled)

Next rehearsal's target

Although last week we did get down 7/4 to a very rough standard, I would like to get it down to a better standard for the next rehearsal we have. I do not expect it to perfect however I would like to see improvements throughout. For example currently the guitarists are very dependant on each other for the structure. If the whole band learns the song at home this should be ironed out and sound great.

Target Met?

This week's target is to sort out the choreography for the live performance. Whilst this is important, I would much rather prioritise getting the music we play to the best we can before we worry about moving around the stage and jumping to our own songs.