Week 1: On Monday we started learning our first song which was (I am so sick by flyleaf) which was our song of choice which we picked up very quickly we just went through it all session which was the only song we had all practiced prior to the session. So, when we got in as it was the only song, we had all learned. So, we went through the song all session and we have mastered the song.
On Tuesday one of our guitarists was absent and so was one of our singers so there was not really much point of us practicing. So, we decided to practice for another gig we have coming up in college that the year 2 students are running as it would have just been a waste if we just sat there all day and do nothing, so we decided to practice that setlist which consists of pf runaway baby Bruno mars. Knocking on heaven's door by genre and edge of seventeen by Stevie nicks.
On Wednesday we needed to get the timing of the start of I'm so sick sorted so that's what we did after we did that we started to look at voulez vous by ABBA and decided that is the song that we will learn after college and play it on Thursday morning then we went over I'm so sick a few more times before we finished the session.
On Thursday. We did another artists of the week today were on the letter O so this week it was oasis where we looked at their music video of don't look back in anger after watching that video we had a talk about the song and the instruments of the song and then what genre oasis are then we went to praised for the rest of the session. As we still had no singer because she has been off most of the week, which is really setting us back, we decided to have a look at with a little help from my friends by the Beatles
Problems and issues that appeared:
One of our singers has been off most of the week this has set us back quite a lot as now we only have 1 out of 4 songs done Make sure everyone is in all weeks or as many sessions that they can Everyone is having a difficulty learning the songs as the parts are so confusing. For example, in break my stride I need to change the drums in it as the cowbell is confusing. Make a different part for break my stride that sounds like the original song. We found the Beatles song with a little help from my friends boring. Therefore, we are changing the genre of the song
Reflection: What have you learned from your session and how has this impacted your project? That one of our singers got hypothermia in her feet. That has made us not be able to practice all week as she has not been in
Targets for next week: Provide at least two targets you want to achieve next week – give examples of how you plan to achieve these targets. Learn the other songs that we have over the weekend Make notes on what we do in the sessions over the week.
Week 2:
On Tuesday we started looking at another song and we decided to look at our hardest song which was voules vous as it was tricky for us to start learning. Most of the band had not looked at the song, so we decided to dedicate the rest of the week into learning it however we spent all day on Tuesday learning the song more, so the intro today was not very productive.
On Wednesday we again spent all day learning voulez vous as we still haven't got the song sounding good it sounds very empty atm but as we continued to play the song it started to sound so much better when we added bass into the song then we played the song we have already finished I'm so sick by flyleaf.
On Thursday we started of the session with artist of the week. This week we were on the letter p, and we did polyfia euphoria. After we did this, we had the rest of the session to practice which was about 40 mins. So, we played through I am so sick a few times and then spent the rest of the session doing voules vous. Problems and issues that appeared: Outline any issues or problems you and/or your group faced throughout the session Solutions: Give examples of how you were able to work with and adapt to overcome these issues Struggling with playing voulez vous as only a few of us had learnt the song. We all need to go home and learn voulez vou and make sure we are all familiar with our own parts The band had abit of an argument of what song to do next after we learnt I am so sick. So, we changed what we were going to do as few of the band knew with a little help from my friends. Therefore, we thought we should start voulez vous as it is our hardest song, and we knew it better than we did with a little help from my friends. We have no keys player in our band this is making an impact on the songs One of the singers has had to learn the keys' part for a few of our songs. She is struggling with this quite abit as she is not a keys player, so she does not really know how to play it
Reflection: That it is best to focus on the hardest songs on your setlist first rather than the easy ones first as the later we get into the term the smaller the time gets for you to do the songs. Targets for next week: Provide at least two targets you want to achieve next week – give examples of how you plan to achieve these targets. Learn with a little help from my friends. And break my stride as they are the other two songs in the setlist that I have not yet learnt fully. I am also going to have a look at the transitions in voulez vous as they are very sloppy on the drums as what they are now, so I need to improve on them because it throws everyone off when I am messing up.
Week 3: On Monday we focused on voulez vous as we still needed to work out some parts of the song for example there is a very short chorus which I still mess up on therefore the rest of the band will keep playing the chorus as I will keep going so we need to work on remembering where that is in the song.
On Tuesday we started off by playing I'm so sick as at least 1 person is coming in late for I'm so sick so we played the intro where one person joins in at a time to see who was out of time and we came to the conclusion that it was Leo that was coming in ever so slightly too late. We then went through voulez vous as a performance.
On Wednesday we got nothing done as one of our singers did not learn the song so we could not go onto a new song we also had no lead guitarist due to traffic problems and our bass player was with the other band, so we didn't really have a band to do anything with today. It was also very tense today due to our singers arguing about who will play the keys part of this song and neither of them are playing it anyway.
On Thursday today we did artist of the week again and we were on the letter Q today and the artist was queen we listened to bohemian rhapsody. After that we looked at how queen came into fame and how they recorded their first album and how long it took and how they spent the most time on the top of the charts at the time of the album.
Problems and issues that appeared:
One of our singers did not learn the song this made us hit a block in learning the songs. As everyone else but one of our singers learnt the song We all need to learn the songs when we say we are going to as we cannot progress any further if we all do not learn the same songs at the same time There was a lot of tension in the room on Wednesday as we had a little bit of an argument We do not need to argue over trivial things that do not matter to the performance t once Leo was late on Wednesday this also put a hold on what we were playing as one of our singers follows Everyone needs to be in college and on time
Reflection: What have you learned from your session and how has this impacted your project? Its best to focus on one song at a time and perfect the song instead of smashing out the songs in a day and having to work on the songs all together which will make it harder for you.
Targets for next week: Provide at least two targets you want to achieve next week – give examples of how you plan to achieve these targets. Learn break my stride properly and make sure I can play it all the way through Learn the fills to all the songs and make sure I have them sorted out.
Week 4:
On Monday we started with a little help with my friends where we thought a key change might be good for the song as the vocals don't really fit female vocals so we asked one of our tutors Graig to help us with this, so he wrote out a chord progression for us the guitarists to follow.
On Tuesday we were at the studio today and we decided to continue with break my stride which we spent pretty much the whole 3 hour session on the song so now all we have to work on is dynamics of the song and also the transitions as sometimes I will start the chorus of the song to early when there is another verse there. Also, one of the guitarists Leo taught the other guitarist Gabe the lead guitar for break my stride. And then we went through with a little help from my friends a few times just to start familiarising ourselves with the song a lot more after that we then went through, I am so sick a few times as we had time left before we did a performance. Then we did a performance of break my stride and with a little help from my friends.
On Wednesday we did all our songs with more focus on voulez vous as we still need to do a lot of work on the transitions and then we played I am so sick a few times then Liam took both of our singers out to work on the vocals for I am so sick. And we then did a performance of break my stride and with a little help. And then one of our singers Mia had to leave.
On Thursday today we went through artist of the week where this week we were on the letter R which it was this week the ren where we looked at 2 of his songs and then the meaning behind the songs and the meanings of word painting and how he does the songs and the meaning behind the songs he writes.
Problems and issues that appeared: We have had no bass all week due to our bass player being sick. All our songs do not really flow properly this is due to not having any bass. They also seem very thin with no bass In certain songs one of our guitarists must play the bassline as we do not have a bass player With a little help from my friends is not in a key that our singers can sing comfortably We have had to change the key of the wrong to suit the singers' voices Another issue we have had is that a lot of our band did not really get on with each other until this week We now all get along or we at least get along more than we did as we now know why some of us cannot practice at home as much as others can
Reflection:That if we are all patient with each other then we get much more done and work so much better with one another
Targets for next week: Be able to play the setlist front to back We need to also sort out the start of our songs as they are very messy now
Week 5:
On Monday, our bass player Oscar was back in this week, so he went into the other free room and started to learn break my stride then when he came in to play it with us, we had all realised that we were playing the song wrong.
On Tuesday we were at the studio today. Liam was helping us re learn break my stride as at the start of the session it was God awful. so, Liam took us all one by one to learn break my stride again and then he added side percussion to the song with Mia playing the cowbell. So, we then went through it a few times. When we started off, we were all very confused with break my stride and how it went as we were all relearning the song so today was not a very productive day. We then did a performance at the end of the session, and we performed break my stride and Im so sick
On Wednesday we spent the whole session going over break my stride. Liam took our lead guitarist Gabe out to help him with the lead part then Gabe came back into our session, and we kept going over break my stride there are still some things we need to work out with the song but it's starting to come together a lot more than it was on Tuesday.
On Thursday today we did artist of the week which was the letter S today where we did Sharika and Liam had us playing a style of African rap and then we did a performance of our whole setlist in order which was voulez vous then it was break my stride then we did with a little help from my friends and then I'm so sick we did however have an issue with I'm so sick as everything was far too loud apart from the vocals where nobody could actually hear the vocals.
Problems and issues that appeared: We all had to re learn break my stride Liam then took us out one by one and then taught us the new part to break my stride We were far too loud for im so sick on Thursday We need to do a proper check of the levels before we start playing next time
Reflection: That we were not playing break my stride properly but we have made a very good start with re learning the song
Targets for next week: Add all the highhats into break my stride i need to learn these as they are quite important for the song
Week 6:
Monday, we went through Help From My Little Friends where we focused on the stage presence to have a dance sorted out. The first time we practiced we warmed up by playing it without dancing, then the second time round we would start moving around. gabe and Leo tilt left to right, Mia and Erika do actions that correspond to the lyrics for example when it says, “What do you see when you turn out the light?” Erika would turn the light off then on, im not able to do much as the drums requires the use of the full body, yet i still danced with the way he played with the song. Next, we did Break My Stride where the vocalists Mia and Erika had a dance prepared, they used this as a reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy46iOwWQiE. Me and everyone else had to come up with their own dance however as we must hold the instruments, and the dance required us using our arms. During the chorus though, gabe would replicate someone taking a stroll, so it looks like I’m taking part. When we performed, we did exactly we practiced, however for the solo in Break My Stride Erika and Mia would run around the stage. This gave the song more energy as the vocalists is moving around on the stage fast which boost up the audience’s mood when they are watching the gig. In addition, Craig had to play Little Help From My Friends in the performance as Oscar was unaware of the key change we had to make due to the vocalists.
On tuseday. We were at the studio, and we were on the stage today. We had abit of a rough start to the session as one of the singers and one of the guitarists had a little bit of an argument. We then ran through the setlist and worked on stage presence again we also decided the order of our set. We also worked on the timings of the set and the transitions between the songs
Problems and issues that appeared:
Our bass player did not know that we had changed the key for with a little help from my friends. as he had already learnt the song in the original key, so this was a massive problem. Oscar had to go and learn with a little help from my friends in the right key. Reflection: What have you learned from your session and how has this impacted your project? That it is important to time your sets when you know how much time you have for the set, so we know what to try and make faster for example the transitions between songs and getting on and off stage
Targets for next week: PKeep timing our sets to make sure we are as fast as we can be for the gigs. Make sure we Arnt stopping to much during the changeover for the songs.