PLANNING
This project required each person in an ensemble group to pick a song for everyone to perform. Each of us took it in turns to be the "Musical Director" which, when it was our turn, made it our job to provide scores, help our peers and give direction in order to perform the song in our own vision/arrangement.
I chose the song "How does it feel?" by Tonight Alive as I thought had challenging enough vocals for me, interesting guitar parts as well as more interesting chords but a simple pattern that didn't change throughout. I also thought this song would be best as there are many dynamic opportunities and stops and starts in the music to get tight and clean, if we can do these well then it can sound really good.
I have sent links to covers or tutorials on youtube to some of the members of my ensemble because the song is less well known and there is little to no available scores or tabs.
I will be presenting my evidence mostly in screenshot form throughout.
RESEARCH
know from my research about how to be a good musical director that it is beneficial to stay calm and communicate, encouraging discussions (even if I had the final say) and opinions between the others.
I noticed that some people were struggling and took it upon myself, as the musical director that session, to help out. I wrote out in detail the structure of the piece and the basic bass note pattern for the pianist and bassist to be on the same page with timings. This proved to be a successful move in later practices
Belt notes:
Belting is the “high” in modern singing. It’s an exciting, dramatic, powerful sound that is based on a chest voice vibration: the vocal folds are vibrating with fast closure that requires strong air pressure but not much movement.
The "whoas" throughout my chosen song are belted. I would like to try and focus on this technique. These high notes are quite spontaneous which may prove difficult having no notes or syllables to bounce up from.
I will need to focus my breath specifically, engaging my core to push and tense my muscles as have found out this should help the notes hold/ give me the force to be able to jump up to that pitch.
I have listened to the lead singer perform this song live and she sometimes dodges the full belts. I have noticed, however, that when she does them successfully, she usually stops in place on the stage in order to comfortably tense and give enough projection
I have never before done this technique when singing but I will be trying it throughout the practice sessions
I could tell that the backing vocalist felt as though she was not contributing much to the song.
I used this as an opportunity to come up with some chords on the piano to teach her.
I used the most striking note of the melody (the one note that is out of place over most of the chords) which is an F# and made sure it stood out to ensure the first chord is powerfully major.
I wrote up and highlighted the lyrics for my song. All the highlighted parts are where I wanted to have some harmony and in the lesson, I taught the backing vocalist for the song the harmonies I had envisioned. I also provided her with the marked out quiet section in which she doesn't play any piano chords or sing harmonies. By doing this I made sure she wasn't confused and had direct instructions.
As this went so well, I took it upon myself to help out the musical directors when I was sharing parts in a song. I have highlighted each text document in different colours for both me and the other vocalist
These are a few of them below:
BEGGING
BACK TO BLACK
James, who chose this song ad was, therefore, the musical director spoke about his opinions on the song. It was his choice so I listened and complied. He did, however, say that he would like harmonies for the last choruses in the song. I am quite good at sensing and coming up with harmonies/ so naturally, I worked on it with his permission.
BARRACUDA
After some struggling with confidence (i was able to sing the chorus home fine but not in college), I suggested to the other vocalist if she could do all the choruses, and me the verses. This worked well because she liked the song and was more comfortable with the high notes.
There was also one note I was struggling with and so we decided she could come in for that phrase. Because of this, the vocals were given a more lively or "bouncy" attitude and we continued this by swapping lines in some places to play off each other.
I helped the other vocalist with her higher part harmonies in the bridge section. To work out mine (lower and less noticeable) I studied the song, listening to that section over and over until i could pick out notes. I used my piano at home to help in this progress.
eValuations
Mid-way through this project I became frustrated with lack of leadership when it was time for others to step up and they didn’t.
This lead to me occasionally filling that role to get people back on track or being the one to push practicing songs we needed to and overall team organisation.
There was an issue where one member was quite rude to me because of a misunderstanding regarding the difference between ‘helping’ and ‘controlling’
I learnt from this assignment that I may have to re-think my approach when offering my support and try not to ‘take over’ and accept responsibility when it is not my job to do so.
Tutors would pop in and out of the practising rooms, providing feedback for whatever they just witnessed. For our band, there were many comments about levels when practising, agreeing mostly that many were too loud.
One of the most thought-provoking bits of feedback I received personally was the idea I should shift the bridge section of the song "begging" song up a whole octave. This completely changed how I thought of the structure of the piece; proving most difficult when transitioning between that and the unchanged versus- practising was key!
After the performance- further thinking
On stage, I seemed to fall flat on some notes or even shifting out of key completely unintentionally due to nerves. This has been a prevalent issue for me when singing in front of people. I will be looking more into it to further myself as a musician and hopefully push past this mental block when preforming.
-possible sources to use?
https://singingmastermind.com/nervous-singing-nervous-shaking
http://www.otolaryngology.pitt.edu/centers-excellence/voice-center/conditions-we-treat/muscle-tension-dysphonia