Exit - Band reahearsal - Fully Alive

This is a rehearsal of a cover of a song by Flyleaf. This song is called Fully Alive and it's the last song that we are planning on performing on the night. This recording (along with the others) are recorded towards the beginning/middle of the allotted time given to us to practice, prepare, rehearse and perform. Yet again, as with the other two videos that I have uploaded of our rehearsals, we need to work more on the timing but this could be due to the lack of a drummer at the time but it still shows that we're not exactly ready to perform this song in front of a live audience yet. There was a buzzing noise emitted from the E string on my guitar (left guitar) so that explains the buzzing noise you may be able to hear from time to time over the duration of the song. We weren't exactly sure what the rhythm guitarist should play during the guitar solo as there isn't actually any tablature for this part in the song so this was really the testing stage for this part in the song for the rhythm guitarist. I think the bassist also needs to work a little more on the song itself as a whole but that's nothing really that is much of an issue at the moment as we have time to fix this.

Exit - Band rehearsal - New Divide

This is our cover of Linkin Park's song New Divide. I think that the acoustic guitar on the right-hand side was out of tune so that could be why it didn't exactly sound right when it was being played. We decided to use acoustic instruments for these rehearsal videos so that we'd be able to hear everything being played and anything that is being said by any other member of the band. The vocalist forgot the words partway through this song so that is something that we need to work on before the gig definitely. We also need to rehearse several more times to make sure that everybody is playing what they're actually meant to be playing (decision of the band). We also attempted harmonies in this cover but we weren't actually sure whether or not it would be a good choice to put these into the song at the gig. Timing is another aspect that we need to work on. We just have to make sure that we are all in time but this is possibly due to the lacking of a drummer during these rehearsals for personal reasons. Most of our other rehearsals have went much better than this one.

Exit - Band rehearsal - Decode

This is one of our early rehearsals for the first song in our Setlist. This is our cover of Decode by Paramore. This wasn't one of our best rehearsals that we've done but it is still evidence that we are indeed rehearsing. I think we need to work on the rhythm guitar strumming pattern and possibly the chords as it sounds like it slightly clashes with what the bassist plays. We also need to work on our timing but I think that this could possibly be due to us using acoustic instruments.

Setlist

Once we decided upon the repertoire, we had to make the decision of what songs go in what order. We found out that we were to be the last band of the night so we wanted to start loud and hard. We decided that we’d want to have a little break in the middle to mellow it down a little and then that we’d want to build it up from then on to get the best reaction we could hope for. We chose Dream Catch Me, the most calming song from our choices, to go second and we wanted a big build up at the beginning so we decided that it’d be best to play Decode because it’s probably the most popular song from out setlist and it’s loud and starts hard so we knew that it’d get the audience up and moving. Fully Alive is our most energetic song so it was decided that it will be last because we wanted to end it on a song that we can move around a lot to and actually enjoy playing it. We thought that if we overplayed the song on the night, the audience would love it. We only had New Divide left and it was a good incident that it was because it’s the second most popular song in our list and there was a song gap between that song and our most popular song so it was more of a little break with something different (Dream Catch Me) and then another well-known song and then our last song which is the heaviest song which was great to end on.

Linkin Park - "New Divide"

New Divide - Written and Performed by Linkin Park

New Divide is another popular song that we thought
the audience should enjoy judging on the audience from the last gig. We came
across a major issue in this song where there is a section played by a
synthesiser and after about 3 weeks of attempting to play this repetitive
section that only lasted several seconds on the guitar, but because it isn’t
actually played on a guitar, we finally decided to scrap the section and
replace it with another section of the song which actually turned out to be a
better idea than keeping the difficult part in because we could play it with
easy and without any worry of making any mistakes on stage so it boosted our
confidence with the thought that the audience might enjoy our performance more
because we’re less likely to make mistakes.

Flyleaf - Fully Alive

Fully Alive - Written an Performed by Flyleaf

Fully Alive was the singer’s choice and we chose to
play it because it was really fun and enjoyable to play. We thought that if we
had fun performing the song, then the audience should have fun too and they’d
enjoy the performance more if we looked like we were enjoying it. Although it
was very difficult to start off with due to the complicated and speedy Lead
guitar section but after we got over this issue by reducing the speed of the
tempo of what I was playing so that I was capable of it and then slowly
increase the speed of what was played until I managed to comfortably play it
faster than the original version to make sure that I am more than happy playing
the song at that speed. We also had to come up with a Rhythm guitar part for
this song as the band Flyleaf only have one guitarist but we used innovative
techniques to come up with a Rhythm guitar section for the entire song that fit
in with the bass, drums and vocals.

Paramore: Decode [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Decode - Written and Performed by Paramore

Decode is a really popular song and we needed a
song the audience know, a song that the audience can sing along to, a song that
they can dance to, a song that would get them going, a song that would be great
to start off the set.

Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me

Dream Catch Me - Written and Performed by Newton Faulker

We knew that the majority of our songs would be
heavy so we wanted a song to show major contrast that we can put in the middle
of the setlist to throw the audience off a little and to show that we can play
more than just Rock songs. Most of all, we wanted to appeal to more of the
audiences music taste to quench their musical thirst, hence why we wanted a
song like Dream Catch Me.

Decisions, decisions...

We talked amongst ourselves in the first week about song choices as we found that for some reason or another, some members of the band didn’t exactly enjoy playing the three songs we did last time around. This was slightly more difficult with lacking one member of the band for the entire first week due to reasons of her own but this made communication slightly harder. However, despite this drawback, we had all managed to choose two songs each that we’d like to perform and from those two songs, we as a band decided which songs would best portray contrast and musical and technical ability on the night of the concert. We chose the songs Dream Catch Me by Newton Falkner, Decode by Paramore, Fully Alive by Flyleaf, and New Divide by Linkin Park. Three of these songs are loud, rock-type songs whereas Dream Catch Me is more of a calm, acoustic song.

Starting worries

We had a lot less time to prepare this gig compared to our last gig. We only had 8 weeks to prepare for this gig when we had 12 weeks to prepare for our first one. Obviously, in comparison, we felt a little unprepared due to our time being cut a third shorter to prepare 4 songs (one more than last time) so this meant that we had to hammer down hard and get the practicing out of the way so we can focus on our rehearsing to aim to sound our best for the live audience we had to perform in front of.

Rehearsals

We, my band and I, at the moment, suggest a time, twice a week, other than lessons and outside of college, of when we can rehearse. We rehearse 5 times a week in total. Each rehearsal in College is 1 hour and 30 minutes long (it has been known to go on for longer) and outside of College, each revision session is roughly 3-4 hours long with little breaks in-between. In the near future, we plan on making a weekly schedule of when to rehearse so we will have 2 set times outside of College as well as our Music Performance lesson in College.

Introduction

In this unit, I needed to perform in front of a live audience in a band (anything ranging from 2 or more people). In the band, we need to talk amongst ourselves and come to a decision of 3-4 songs to play a 15-20 minute set in front of a live audience. The three songs of our choice have to be able to portray our musical abilities individually but also as a group and how well we can work with other people and to see what ideas we come up with as a band to make our performance work well. We then must perform this set list at a venue of the teacher’s choice (The venue of this performance is at the Seaton Social Club on Tuesday the 29th of April). As a member of a band, I need to dedicate my time and effort into everything that it also entails such as the planning, rehearsals, preparation and the performance itself.

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Second Gig

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Simple Plan - Save You (cover)

This is our bench mark cover of Save You by Simple Plan. Like Lived a Lie, we need to work on the timing and the volume of each instrument and maybe to get the audience to participate more in out performance, we could attempt to make it a little more sections of the song a little more inventive to make it sound more complete. I could also try not to hit myself with the drumsticks, that would help a whole lot although I did manage to keep playing although I broke character.

You Me At Six - Lived a Lie (cover)

This is our bench mark cover of Lived a Lie by You Me At Six. We had all just learned this song and it is one of the first times that we've all played it together. We need to work on the volumes of each persons instrument and we need to work on the harmonies too as well as the timing of certain pieces of the song.

Different roles

The main vocalist, Emma Simpson, decided where it would be best for everybody to stand. The layout of drums right at the back, the rhythm guitarist on the front left side of the drum kit, the lead guitarist and bassist on the front right side of the drum kit and the singer stands directly in front of the drum kit so, in theory, we’re relatively close to one another. The Rhythm Guitarist, Amy Wilkins, decided upon the clothing and she decided that it isn’t exactly essential to have a specific ‘uniform’ for the concert and decided that it’s best just to all wear an item of black clothing or wear dark clothing in general. I went through what we should do if something goes wrong. During our rehearsals, we went through lots of different scenarios for each member of the band for if something went wrong with their instrument or any of the other equipment such as the amplifiers, drum kit, leads/wires, microphones etc and we thought of the best way to deal with each of these situations. This took 3 rehearsals to fully cover.

If every band member takes different roles, that means the responsibility is all shared amongst the members rather than just one person and it gives each individual member more time to cope and deal with each of these roles instead of having every single role and doing everything at once. So overall, it makes it a lot easier on every band member if the roles were shared out between the members.

How everything was put together

One member of my band, Matthew Napper, the bassist was the person who organised most of the rehearsals and events whereas I worked on the musical abilities and performance of my band and I. Every rehearsal, we decided where everybody comes in and starts playing the songs (we decided that each song should start with the Guitar and then the drums and bass (apart from our first song where the drums came in 2 bars before the bass). The vocals were always decided by the original song and as to where they come in there.

Development of the songs

Each member of my band chose a couple of songs each and evaluated each of them to see which 3 songs would show the most ability in our musicality. The three songs are all contrasting and display different musical abilities in each. Some of the abilities we attempted to portray through these songs are the harmonies and synchronisation with instruments along with everybody's musical abilities.

Once we decided upon which songs we wanted to perform, we then listened to the songs over and over again to try and adapt our own version to the songs instead of actually learning it as it is played. We had a little bit of help with some chord progressions by searching them online but with some songs (such as our first song, Save You by Simple Plan) we transposed the chords to a different key to compliment the singer’s voice and, yet again, to make the song more unique to us. I then sat in the rehearsal rooms at college from 10:45 until 16:45 behind a drum kit one Wednesday and worked on the drum beat continuously for the two songs I am performing.

Rehearsals?

We, my band and I, at the moment, suggest a time, twice a week, other than lessons and outside of college, of when we can rehearse. We rehearse 5 times a week in total. Each rehearsal in College is 1 hour and 30 minutes long (it has been known to go on for longer) and outside of College, each revision session is roughly 3-4 hours long with little breaks in-between. In the near future, we plan on making a weekly schedule of when to rehearse so we will have 2 set times outside of College as well as our Music Performance lesson in College.

My Role

As part of the musical band, Exit, I am the lead guitarist and supporting drummer. It is my responsibility to play the main melody (of riff if you like) to the songs as the lead guitarist and as drummer, it is my responsibility to keep to a specific time signature and keep the beat and timing for the rest of my band. I also have to play drum fills to ‘fill in’ the interludes between different sections of the songs to make it sound more complete.

You Me At Six - Lived A Lie

Lived a Lie, written and performed by the band, You Me At Six, is our third and final song. We wanted a song we can have a lot of fun with and we went along with the logic of if we're having fun, then the audience will definitely be having fun too. We wanted our final song to be a song we can play loudly and get the audience involved with so we chose this song due to its popularity and the hope that most of the audience would know this song as well as us.



Emma Simpson: Lead Vocalist

Amy Wilkins: Rhythm Guitarist

Matthew Napper: Bassist and Backing Vocalist

Jack O'Casey: Drummer

The Black Keys - Gold On The Ceiling [Official Music Video]

Gold on the Ceiling (written and performed by The Black Keys) is our second song choice. We wanted this song to be the complete opposite to our first song so this was an entire electric song. We followed the main structure for this song as we really liked how it sounded originally. We also had the lead guitarist (me) playing the keyboard section on guitar due to the fact that we had two guitarists so it was decided that it was a good choice. The bass also played the same line just before the guitar solo but 2 octaves lower.



Emma Simpson: Lead Vocalist

Jack O'Casey: Lead Guitarist

Amy Wilkins: Rhythm Guitarist

Matthew Napper: Bassist and Backing Vocalist

Natalie Henderson: Drummer

Simple Plan - Save You (Official Video)

This song is Save You, written and performed by the band Simple Plan. This is the first song that we are planning on performing at the first years BTEC Music Performance gig at the Grand Hotel. We chose this song because we thought that it would be a nice opening to our band. We changed the entire chord progression for this song to make it our own unique version. We also took out the guitar solo because we wanted it to have more of an acoustic sound to it (although we used electric instruments but with a clean setting) and we all decided that the guitar solo contrasted what we wanted this song to do.



Amy Wilkins: Rhythm Guitarist and Lead Vocalist

Emma Simpson: Backing Vocalist

Matthew Napper: Bassist

Jack O'Casey: Drummer

Band: Exit

My band consists of 4 members, Matthew Napper, Emma Simpson, Amy Wilkins and I, Jack O'Casey and one session drummer, Natalie Henderson. We all have a varied range of instruments which we can play and each member was allocated to their preferred instrument or one that needs to be played.

Matthew Napper: Bass and Vocals
Emma Simpson: Piano and Vocals
Amy Wilkins: Rhythm Guitar, Percussion Box and Vocals
Jack O'Casey: Lead, Rhythm and Bass Guitar, Piano, Drums and Vocals
Natalie Henderson: Drums and Vocals

As none of our songs required the use of a Piano, Emma comfortably volunteered herself to be the lead vocalist for our band. As we already have a vocalist, Matthew decided to be the bassist for our band (which coincidentally is his main instrument too). Amy prefers to play Rhythm Guitar to any other instrument she is capable of playing so we gladly allowed her that option although she was also the main vocalist for our first song and Emma sang backing vocals and the harmonies. Due to her ability as a soprano vocalist, she complimented Amy's alto voice very nicely. As we didn't have a drummer at the time, I opted in to play the drums for two of our songs and I played lead guitar for the third. Natalie played the drums for that song and, despite the fact that she had a lot less time than the everybody else to learn the songs, she performed the drums for that song exceptionally well.

Rehearsal

We, my band and I, at the moment, suggest a time, twice a week, other than lessons and outside of college, of when we can rehearse. We rehearse 5 times a week in total. Each rehearsal in College is 1 hour and 30 minutes long (it has been known to go on for longer) and outside of College, each revision session is roughly 3-4 hours long with little breaks in-between. In the near future, we plan on making a weekly schedule of when to rehearse so we will have 2 set times outside of College as well as our Music Performance lesson in College.

Introduction

This is a Music Performance Diary blog for Unit 40 of my first year BTEC Music Performance Course. In this unit, I need to perform in front of a live audience in a band (anything ranging from 2 or more people). In the band, we need to talk amongst ourselves and come to a decision of 3-4 songs to play in a 15-20 minute set in front of a live audience. The three songs of our choice have to be able to portray our musical abilities individually but also as a group and how well we can work with other people and to see what ideas we come up with as a band to make our performance work well. We then must perform this set list at a venue of the teachers choice (The venue of this performance is at the Grand Hotel Ball on Tuesday the 11th of February). As a member of a band, I need to dedicate my time and effort into everything that it also entails such as the planning, rehearsals, preparation and the performance itself.