EVALUATION
REFLECTION
and
eValuations
The 50s: Johnny B Goode ~ Chuck Berry
My Contribution:
My participation in this piece is vocals. I have put in lots of time at home listening to the song to fully grasp the raw vocal tone that is heard in the original, as well as the energy and passion. Both Anny and I invested time into doing the best we could to recreate this by separating our self from the band to start with to practice privately along with a backing track. I also contributed by helping to work out the splitting up of the lyrics so we could both have even parts and take leads on certain sections. I worked out a lower melody to act as a harmony during the chorus which worked well in my opinion and gave the quite melodically boresome piece a lift whilst still keeping to the original.
Working relationships:
I had good working relationships with the rest of the band. We have had no major disagreements and worked smoothly, focusing on the task at hand. Though I had a personal issue where the other guitarist would crank up the volume when it came to their solo and change the feel of the music. Sometimes he would also forget to turn back down after and drown me and Anny out in the final chorus which is supposed to be stronger vocally. After speaking with David privately I found that he was more sensitive towards my poor ears and understood that his hearing may be worse than mine and therefore when he thinks he needs to be louder, he's at the perfect level. This, although now resolved, created tension between me and him which inspired an idea to take a break every session for chances of bringing forth any problems to make sure we all communicate and are on the same page.
Strengths:
James' solos are a key part of the piece and he pulls them off very well; especially the one at the beginning, it gives a strong start to the performance and prepares me for a louder and more confident start on the first verse.
Improvements:
As with most of our covers, we need to work on band members agreeing on an ending, then making it sounds finished rather than fading out and being unsatisfactory for both us and the audience. The Groove stays consistent and really sells the 50s genre and feel.
After having the song pushed aside, we came back to it and the guitarists had decided to swap solos and so it needs extra work as it doesn't sound quite the same anymore. David needs to work on the solo that James had in the beginning. This ended up switching back when David left and instead we borrowed someone from the tech team as a rhythm guitarist because he already knew the chords for most of our setlist.
Problem-solving:
The first few sessions proved difficult as the tempo was way too fast for me and Anny to keep up with and would constantly stumble over our tongues and mispronounce, or even miss words out entirely. We resolved this issue by communicating our struggles and Max, our drummer was very understanding and agreed to slow down a bit. I also had noticed Anny's diffident approach and offered to sing the first verse so that she had time to get comfortable with the melody and in her performing skills even though honestly, I was feeling the same reluctance to start as her but I got over this with practice to get more comfortable being confident with the rest of the band.
THE PERFORMANCE:
The studio recording session was hard as Anny and i had to half shout the lyrics in order to hear our selves. we had many problems with us being too loud or mostly too quiet. It was difficult to find how far away to lean into the mic and so there are parts where we are too quiet. My tone and diction in the recording and performance were fine though despite the fast tempo and overall quick lyrics.
My Contribution:
My contribution to this piece is vocals again. By around here, it had become a routine for the group to split off and practice their respective parts before putting it together as a whole band. I used a karaoke version of the song as a backing track with lyrics to learn them as well as practice when to come in with the key changes. Because I had more knowledge of the song before doing full run-throughs with the band, I was able to help others with structure and how many bars before key changes and such. This proved very helpful when small disagreements arose in the bunker about this and I could settle them with my prior experience, so we ended up having more time to practice and do our work rather than pausing to check.
Strengths:
Once Anny and I get into the song, we are very loud and strong which is how it should be, and it really sells it to the audience as I found when we did small scale performances to the other bands. The placement of this song in context of our setlist was perfect and provided a good ending to the whole performance.
Improvements:
There is one key change in which the piece modulates right when the vocals come in again for a repeat for the second verse. The other vocalist finds this to be troublesome when the starting note is not played as there is nothing for her to tune to. This may be a big issue when it comes to the gig as that section is not as clear and clean as the others which we need to work on.
Problem-solving:
Anny had trouble hitting the low notes in the verse to which I suggested going up instead of down in tone. This worked well as it did not distract away from the feel of the music yet also made it feel slightly different and more of a cover, not an exact copy. Also, rather than echoing “My generation” throughout the drum solo, we keep quiet as to pull it off we needed to be confident in our adlibbing skills which I most definitely was not. Because of this, Anny and I need to work on our stage presence and do something even if it means standing to the side and dancing a little to put Max in the centre and the attention on him during his solo. I will take this upon myself to discuss with the band as we need to be more organized when it comes to the look on stage.
The 60s : My Generation ~ The Who
My Contribution:
I sing for this piece and did the same routinely practice away from the group and in a quiet, controlled environment as to not be distracted and so I could focus on learning the melody. I discussed the structure and helped the rest of the band perform parts correctly as they seemed unsure in certain sections I had luckily practised more often. During the sessions in the bunkers, I made it my role to set up both mics and balance their levels to ensure we could all crack on with our run-through rather than taking up a chunk of our time waiting for others to set up. I also helped split up the vocal parts/ lyrics evenly.
Strengths:
The ending of this cover is much cleaner than some of our others and so I think we end open a very loud and satisfactory note.
Improvements:
Towards the end of the song, my voice is tired and my throat hurts from the constant “put on the red light" so I think we need to shorten that bit to save our voices and make it so we can still finish as strongly as we would like to rather than it getting weaker and weaker like a bad fade out.
Problem-solving:
Upon researching and listening to a few covers I noticed female vocalists would stay quite soft and use their head voice or a mix with falsetto. I would like to try this as to not sound strained but that means we will need to spend time mixing the band again to make sure I am not too quiet in the soft parts but not too loud when I sing in 'chest' for the last chorus. In the recording session, i had difficulties with sounding flat but not being able to tell until i listened to the recording back. After two takes being flat and/or failing when it came to the chorus, i figured it was because i was nervous and so Anny and I decided to both get into the recording both and sing together and instantly i was not singing flat anymore and we both became much more confident with our vocals.
The 70s : Roxanne~ The Police
My Contribution:
As a vocalist, my role was to help split up the lyrics as well as practice the melody and learn the overall structure of the piece. I researched the piece and found out that the lyrics speak from the point of view of a man who is in a very toxic, or “tainted”, relationship with a physically and emotionally draining partner. Even though he loves this person, the difficult decision must be made, and he needs to leave knowing that his needs would never be met. The lyrics of this song is their message: they have had enough of a sour relationship that is no longer fulfilling. Although it can be assumed this is referring to a heterosexual relationship, other interpretations being that the love two men share is “tainted” and that the two would have to “run away” from each other as it is not socially acceptable for them to be seen together in public. In my opinion, these lyrics are not specific enough to assume the orientation of the couple mentioned in this song and can, therefore, be applied to any relationship, allowing the song to resonate meaning with a wider audience. Upon listening carefully to the piece, I found that the chord sequence is diatonic but has a strange choice in the ‘chorus’ and does a secondary dominant chord substitution where the minor chord is replaced by a major to lift the piece and differ sections. This research helped me in understanding the song more and in turn, I was able to contribute more knowledge and suggestions due to this.
Strengths:
In my opinion, I am getting the hang of selling the song to an audience as after deep analysis of this song, I have come to love it and therefore I think that shows on stage.
Improvements:
An improvement on the above could be that Anny also matches my enthusiasm as to not distract away from the music. Also, our drummer and bassist sometimes slow down after the first verse and we need to really keep the consistent 80s disco vibe going.
Problem-solving:
Initially, we struggled with the song because most instruments were stuck playing a shuffle strumming pattern and swinging the beat due to being unfamiliar with playing in a style of the genre and being persuaded by personal preference. To overcome this, each band member sought to practice separately to nail their individual roles before coming together as a group and fitting the carefully crafted sections together. We then progressed onto working out the structure, who comes in where and the overall textures/tones needed to avoid the tiresome and rather boring practices which became frequent once we had started doing run-through's all together. To further shift the piece into that 1980’s disco groove, the tempo was increased to around the 180BPM mark which made the ‘plodding along’ rhythm disappear and instead provided a faster and more energetic replacement. There were other songs in which we preferred but instead of creating conflict, we were nice and let the other groups take priority as we had confidence that we could pull off most of the other songs in the selection. Though both Anny and I were able to sing the melody in the original key, as a group we decided to transpose it to B flat to allow a more comfortable vocal range. We don’t have a pianist in our group and so many on our given list were off the table from the start, but even with the limited choice, we were determined to make ‘tainted love’ more fun for our group to perform. Combined with our own ideas, we were inspired by Marilyn Manson’s cover which showed us the possibilities we had in order to make ‘tainted love’ our own which helped as we all had a mutual hate for performing the song.
PERFORMANCE:
I loved performing this piece. The harmonies and sort of ad-libbing parts felt spontaneous and fitting. Our rendition of the song was, to some extent, a new and fresh feeling piece which was extremely fun to perform and i enjoyed those 3 minutes a lot.
The 80s : Tainted Love~ Soft Cell
My Contribution:
My role for this piece, as a vocalist, was to discuss and help decide who takes what section or melodic part and then practice, learn the lyrics and research into the piece to determine vocal style and ensure the correct approach when it came for this song. I sourced lyrics online on my phone and kept mental notes of changes and what parts were "mine".
Strengths:
The lead guitarist's solos are very good and really sell the song to the audience.
Improvements:
It had been decided by everyone that vocal harmonies are a "no" for this piece and so me and Anny need to work on thickening the texture in some places. i had an idea to sing a long descending note in the background of some parts to achieve this and it worked out pretty well.
Problem-solving:
In the way we set up and split the lyrics, i was concerned that both Anny and i would be at a loss and not know what to do whilst on stage when we are not singing. the gap between an others part and then where we witch being lead was extremely long. To combat this, i looked up stage presence and made a few note son how to handle the silence and how to avoid looking dull or drawing too much attention to myself. i shared this information i had gathered with the other vocalist and the rest of the band, it was agreed what i was doing was fine and so i was much more relaxed when it came to the gig. Also, since our rythm guitarist (David) left, we had to source a temporary band member to come play for us. Leaning our set-list proved to be a challenge and so we all helped teach him each song and the basics of the structure, when he should play and in what style and so went smoothly.
PERFORMANCE:
As predicted, the song pauses between Anny and i taking turns singing and so it was awkward for me. My research into stage presence helped but it still felt weird having eyes on me while i attempt to move to the music and not look like an idiot. still unsure if i ever pulled that off.
The 90s : Just~ Radiohead
My Contribution:
Like with the other songs our band had been given or that we had chosen, I sang for it and made sure to learn the melody. I also learnt the faint harmonies heard in the song and offered this to the group as a suggestion. Us vocalists privately discussed who should take what parts and I took control, explaining my ideas which were quickly jumped on by the others saying it sounds great. The ideas were that Anny and I would echo each other doing very short sections before switching so we could hit the syllable on the starting beat of the next bar. I sang a practice chorus and ran through it using a karaoke YouTube clip in the room next door and I played around with a second tune using a piano.
Strengths:
I think my extra effort in figuring out a counterpoint melody for the chorus has become a major strength of the piece as it adds more depth and texture to an, otherwise repetitive, section.
Improvements:
Incorporating feedback from other bands and lecturers, we need to improve our dynamic contrast and tone down the bridge and verses so there's no need to strain vocals and amp up choruses any further as that might be difficult anyways.
Problem-solving:
I found that Anny and I would struggle when practising this song without a warm-up so I suggested a run-through of tainted love which has now become routine for our band to use it as a simple song to warm up with which has really helped us be able to perform better.
Working relationships: A few weeks after we decided the song was strong and needed less improvement than the others, I was privately contacted by Anny who explained she so suddenly had difficulty with the part splitting and wanted to change it. She wanted to change it to be the same as all the other songs: a verse each and then we share what's left but I disagreed and explained its too much to change now and there's no reason and this caused tension in the practice room.
THE PERFORMANCE:
There were a few shaky starts on vocals and James' set up on the guitar had to be done on stage which was a bit unprofessional. I found that i couldn't hear myself very well and it almost felt like i had to shout the harmonies for the first gig but was much calmer and less tensed during the second one in the afternoon.
Modern Day : Trip Switch~ Nothing but Thieves
My contribution:
I contributed a lot to this piece. I came up with a melody, lyrics and the chord sequence that was then developed by me and the rest of the group together. Psychedelic, repetitive so you can get lost in it. Deep/dark lyrics suggesting the use of drugs as an escape from reality. Heavy use of effects like reverb. We wanted to create a disjunctive and wilder structure but settled with a definite chorus but a lot of improvisation between sections as I had researched into psychedelic rock and found that it can have elements of free-form jazz which was very interesting to note.
Strengths:
I think the feel of the ‘chorus’ is at a good stage at the moment for adding to and sounds very good.
Improvements:
I think we need to work on the structure as every single time we have played through our composition, it has been slightly different.
Working relationships:
Because of the amount of work was ‘mine’ in this composition, I suggested taking the lead for this song as it felt right for me. At first, Anny was reluctant to let me lead but I assured her it was fair and suggested her taking lead for the second composition. This did cause a little bit of tension as for a while she was unclear on what she could be working on during the bunker-ed sessions.
Problem-solving:
I solved the issue mentioned in the above by agreeing to work with her on coming up with something she could sing between parts and/or play a few notes on the synth to emphasise the hypnotic bass-line with some effects.
PERFORMANCE:
In my opinion, this was the song i felt was the strongest for me. I performed well, remembered all my lyrics, sung emotionally and held long soulful notes and attempted to express connection to the song. I was unsure what people's opinions were of it as it was unclear if anyone even liked it other than me but a few audience members approached me afterwards and gave feedback saying they enjoyed the song a lot and so i feel very proud of it now.
Composition 1: Escape~ Psychedelic Rock
My Contribution:
My role in this piece is a much smaller role as i had taken over as the only vocalist in the other composition, it only seemed fair to push Anny to go solo. With this being the case, i decided i could come up with a 24 bar (or so) piano introduction to subvert the expectations of the audience as to the genre of the piece. Introduction was very mellow and soft and i spent a while coming up with it. i used the lead guitarist's riff as inspiration and used a similar pattern of notes. the first section was in free time for a more relaxed feel and then shifted into common time to make way for the other instruments to come in.
Strengths:
My piano introduction was liked by everyone and although i had reluctance to do it in the beginning, it ended up being a strong start to the piece. the bridge section of the song is also a major strength of this composition as its quite dark and heavy sounding, which fits the genre perfectly.
Improvements:
I do not think the right vocal style was understood very well by Anny; her oohs and aahs, in my opinion, do not fit the instrumental and her lyrics are sung hastily and mumbled to the point where you cant hear, nor understand, what the content of the piece is. i have been reluctant to mention this to her as i know the metal style is difficult to do with her soft and airy tone. i just hope she realises and gains enough confidence to get out the words and for the audience to receive the intended message and context.
Problem-solving:
We did not really encounter any problems accept a few out of place chords. Although, the lyrics and melody were put together last minute and i was extremely cautious of the time crunch and reminded people of what we needed to get done.
THE PERFORMANCE:
I feel like the performance of this composition was good in some areas. i found my piano solo/introduction a solid addition to the piece but it was extremely awkward for me to just watch from on the stage as the rest of the song played out. My role was huge for the psychedelic song but in this, i barely had one. I had no idea what i was supposed to be doing while up there after i had done my part and so i ended up just trying to look as 'into it' as i could and smiling appreciatively at my band members.