358 Rehearsal Skills

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Rehearsal Diary Entries for 25 Minute slot



Plan for the events look
When I was tasked with performing a set in a music performance I wanted my set to look dramatic on slow songs with dim lighting and a powerful feel and light and cheerful on the other songs. To achieve this mood I wanted to present myself as a slightly comedic charcter to front the set. I wanted each song to have its own unique mood and feel to it aswell therefore I had different stage presence for each song for example in "I Got Mine" I had a lot of energy and took up a lot of space with my movement. Where as in the slow "where is my mind" there was little movement and a powerful ballad feel. The reason I chose Nathan and andy to perform with me is because they know all the songs on my set list and were therefore able to understand how the songs were supposed to feel. Another bonus is that they studied performing arts so they know how to use body language to display emotion and feelings.




1st Entry 19/5/17

 For this rehearsal I practiced alone in a practice room with an acoustic guitar to learn the songs. in this rehearsal i decided my setlist and decided how i wanted the set to go. the Songs i decided for the set were: where is my mind by the pixies, i got mine by the black keys, debaser by the pixies, r u mine by the arctic monkeys and supersonic by oasis. I picked these songs as they demonstrate a range of both guitar skills , tempos and sounds. I also had to decide when i was going to rehearse with my backing band and pick times that we were all free so that we could get used to running the set and getting timings right. In the rest of this rehearal i decided to start learning the songs and planning the set. however i didnt want to work too much on the songs without the band.



2nd Entry

 In this rehearsal i organised the band to come into college early so that we could rehearse  couple of the songs we decided to run through Debaser and R U Mine. We had all learned and practised the songs outside of college so that we would be able to play them in this rehearsal. I decided that Andy should play bass on this song as he was more comfortable playing this song as he already knew how to play it prior to this and as nathans strong point is drumming i decided he should drum as he would be able to play drum fills during the song as it is a quick fast paced song. We ran the song with minor hiccups however we had no vocalist for this song as nathan was unable to play drums and sing. therefore we decided to make the instrumental interesting by having little bass solos and drum fills scattered through out the song.  After we were satisfied with how Debaser went we started running through R U Mine. Originally i asked nathan to play this on bass and sing it however he struggled to play the complex bass line and sing alongside it. due to this i did the same thing i had to do with Debaser and leave it instrumental only. However in this i had the idea to hook nathans bass up with a wah pedal so that in the song he could play a psychedelic yet funk style bass solo. After discovering this we ran the song again until we played it perfectly beginning to end.



3rd Entry

For this rehearsal the whole band practiced in the music class room with the bass and amp a guitar and amp and the drum kit. In this rehearsal we tackled the songs supersonic by oasis and i got mine by the black keys. Luckily we had a head start with I got mine as we cover this song when we play in a band outside of college therefore this song was already perfect but we decided to run through it anyway as andrew was on drums for this where as in the band its usually Ed. Luckily the song wasnt a challenge for andy and it didnt take him long to master it. We practised the song with vocals and it went perfectly with no errors in timing or sound. Once happy we played through supersonic which we had all played before so again this song wasn't a challenge. I had been practising the solo in the song at home as usually i only play rhythm guitar and dont play solo's very often. We ran the song through except this time Andy played bass and nathan played drums. I also suggested that andrew should sing as well as play bass as it meant it was easier to keep in time and follow his vocals,



4th entry
In this rehearsal I practiced at home with an electric guitar but no amp as I didn't want to disturb the neighbours. Today i rehearsed alone on all the parts i felt i needed to work on. I started by practising the solo in supersonic in a loop. To practice it i started by playing it slowly and gradually picking up the pace. once i could play it at a fast speed i played along to the song so that the timing was right. the part i struggled with most was the fast hammer ons and pull offs. To work on this is went to the 5th fret of my guitar and practised a pentatonic scale gradually getting faster and faster.  this worked as the 5 fret is alot wider than where the solo is played therefore when i came back to it it was alot easier as it had allowed my fingers to stretch out. The other part i practised was the into for debaser. Although the Intro is not strictly difficult it was the timings of it i got confused with so to aid this i played along to a backing track a few times until i had the timing right.



5th entry
For this rehearsal I practiced alone in a practice room with an electric guitar and amp. Today for my rehearsal I Decided to run through the setlist on my own just so i knew that i had everything perfected for when the show came. I started by playing each song individually until there was no error. Once this had been completed i made a playlist on my phone of just the songs i was playing and played along to it twice so that i would get use to playing each song straight after the other. I then treated it like a mock performance and played through my setlist without the backing track. I found no errors and was very happy with the way it sounded.



6th entry - Final Rehearsal
In this rehearsal the whole band and I rehearsed in the theatre with all the equipment. Andy bought a bass and Nathan bought the drum kit, then we set up a mic..This was the final rehearsal before the show and because of this i had Nathan and Andy come into college early. Nathan came into college but he had come down with an illness and was very ill. Because of this some last minute adjustments were made to the set. Due to nathans illness he struggled to sing and therefor had to play I got mine without vocals. but similarly to R U Mine we included a bass solo in the song to change things up. The rehearsal went really well and we managed to play the whole setlist except the song R U mine as this song hadnt been rehearsed well enough and without vocals was very repetitive and hard to follow and as a result we ended up having to cut this song from the set.



Performance - Evaluation
Looking back on my performance i feel that it went extremely well with very little failure. I felt i managed to keep the crowd entertained with slight comedic value alongside interacting with them whilst playing the songs. The setlist flowed nicely without hesitation and i managed to keep in control of my set whilst also enjoying it. If i was to do this again i would construct a longer set and try to arrange more vocals in the song.


Health and Safety


Although my event was safe there were certain Health and safety risks that I had to take care of. One of these included  trip hazards. To avoid this we tapped down any wires that could potentially cause a trip. Another Hazard is making sure amps are plugged in properly. To do this make sure the Amp is off and then plug it into the wall. Whilst still off plug a jack lead into an amp then into the guitar and finally turn the amp on. Failure in this could cause the amp to explode. Finally we kept all drinks and liquid items away from electrical equipment as this could cause an electric shock to someone.