Review of practice routine from the past week

Here is my review on how I have found my practice routine to be over the past week. I have found that overall, it has been very well planned out and I have really enjoyed the routine.

How effective do you feel the routine has been?
I feel that my routine has been very effective with a focus on different topics and techniques everyday. I feel that there is a massive leap in my knowledge and skills as they were worked on regularly, unlike my normal practice routine, which consisted of noodling to a backing track and focusing on trying to compose good licks.

How easy was it to stick to the routine?
I found that the routine was easy to stick to apart from on theory based topics, which i found hard to concentrate on. As some of the theory that i was trying to learn, was really hard to get my head around.

What have you specifically improve on from your routine?
I have found that i have specifically improved on learning the modes and studying the uses of them, as before, I hadn't really looked at them in great detail, however now i believe that i have greater understanding on how to apply them to different things.

Have I improved from having a structured rehearsal?
Yes, i believe that i have improved and will continue to improve at a faster rate to which i would normally do with my previous routine.

Continuation with practice diary?
I have been continuing with my practice diary, and have stayed on top of it as i have felt that i have benefited greatly. I have found that it gets me more open to all different genres when looking for something to play.

Work Experience (so far)

I do not have a job at the moment, due to personal commitments after college and during the weekend however, i have learnt quite a lot and had quite a lot of experience in the music industry.

Experience i have had in the music industry:

I studied BTEC music in secondary school for two years. This then gave me the opportunities to:

• Set up for all of the Jazz concerts that were going on in my school.
• I went on tour with a Jazz band from my old school, where we travelled across France and played shows in town halls and public places in places like Monaco. All of the money that we raised went toward charity.

• Do Front Of House for the the talent contest twice, and take part in it.
• My BTEC group put on a concert where we hired bands for a show in the school hall. We raised over £150 for the school that night.
• I went around the Royal Albert Hall and found out about how they put on their shows.

• I have recorded tracks in the school's studio.

The skills that i have taken away form these experiences that i could apply to the music industry and my future in music:

A develop understanding of using a mixing desk and setting up equipment such as microphones. This is useful as i means that i don't need to rely on other people to setup equipment for a gig or the studio, as i can just do it myself.

A very developed understanding of using Logic Pro X and its features. This is useful as Logic is a widely used DAW and is sometimes very complicated and hard to use, This means that i will have a better knowledge of the different ways of using it.

To know what it takes to put on a concert. That includes hiring bands, getting all of the equipment and doing it all in a professional manner. It also means knowing how to advertise the event properly and professionally.

To understand what it takes to be a touring musician. This means respecting other musicians (on very long journeys) and setting up throughout different time frames.

A deep understanding of a music studio and how to run it efficiently throughout very short time frames.

A wide knowledge of all of the equipment that is used in the studio and the names of the items. This can help me greatly in the industry as it means that i can find different items quickly.

Knowledge on the different types of microphones. This is useful as it means i know what microphone i should use, for what instrument and how to apply them properly to different studio setups.

Practice diary - Post 20

Section 1 – Practice updates
Throughout technical development, we completed a test that was set by Nat. I found this test to be fairly hard to do however i am not good at knowing chord shapes and names. We were also tasked with practicing a disco song that Nat set a week earlier. Only a small amount of people actually practiced it including myself. Eventually when he brought it up, i was picked to play. I felt that my performance went fairly good however i did mess up a couple of times.

Throughout band skills, we were watching back on all of the performances that we did for our summative assessment. I enjoyed this lesson as i got to see everyone else performances. I feel that in general all of the performances turned out great. Eventually i got to see mine. I felt that my performance was really good, however on the camera, you can't really see me because the stage lighting was set to where i was standing, so everyone who played where i was standing was always in darkness on the video. Overall i felt that the performance went great despite a small amount of minor mistakes.

section 2 - other/ personal studies
I am currently learning the solo "how many more times" by Led Zeppelin. The reason why i am learning this song is because i really love Led Zeppelins songs.

Practice diary - Post 19

Section 1 – Practice updates
Throughout technical development, we have been practicing playing different playing different examples out of the booklet. Personally i find that some of the techniques are very useful where as others are not so much as they incorporate very basic technique that all guitar players should know

Throughout band skills, we have been learning about the skills we will need in the industry. Such as, how to setup a microphone properly, how to coil a cable properly and the basics of using a mixing desk. i found this lecture to be fairly good however I already knew how to do all of it as i studied BTEC music (where I learnt it all) for 2 years. I then was told to go over to the other room, where we then learnt some tricks of the trade in the guitar world. I found this part to be very useful as there were some techniques that i didn't know.

section 2 - other/ personal studies
I am currently learning how to play "how many more times" by Led Zeppelin. The reason why i am learning this song is because i really love it, and have been wanting to learn it.

(Band Skills) Summative Assessment reflection/Evaluation

Yesterday in Band Skills (8/3/2017), i performed a Live lounge cover of 'Sexual (sensual)' by Neiked, with my band. I feel this performance went very well for us, despite the fact that we were first on, which meant that we were tasked with setting either a good or bad example for all of the other bands.
I also feel that the performance went very well with every one of us, being very confident in our parts and that my call and response section went very well, despite a fairly shakey hand due to nerves.

Rehearsals:
I feel that my band was very organised with rehearsals, and all the members really strived to do well by appearing when they could. We also had very long rehearsals, so that we could run through the song multiple times and perfect our parts. i really liked the group that i was put into, as everyone had a drive to keep on practicing and rehearsing all of our parts, and no one slacked behind.
There also weren't really any problems that we needed to address during the rehearsals, however it did take us quite a long time to develop our parts and sync them with each other. This took a lot of experimentation before we were able to sculpt something remotely like the final composition. I also stuck to my rehearsal schedule for the Gantt chart and i didn't need to change anything, as it was well planned.

The performance:
When we got onto the stage, everyone really felt the nerves of being first on. I tried to block this out and not think to much about it, as when that happens i start to lose control of what I play. I feel that we all worked well and had good chemistry onstage, as we are all friends. Most of the performance, i did stay in one place, however that was due to the use of a Cry Baby pedal that i was using to get my funk sound. So, for most of the performance, i did lack in stage presence, However i did make it out into the front of the stage during the chorus sections of the song when i could.

I also feel that my solo went very well, as i was doing call and response, with some reasonably hard blues licks to play throughout. For this solo, i was using alternate picking, which meant that i really needed to practice and get this right, as i am not very good at alternate picking. I was also very happy about the ending of the song, as that took us quite a lot of time to perfect and no one messed up.

Experience that i gained for future projects?
I feel that this helped give me an insight into what it really took to be in a band and what it takes to rehearse a song to a good standard and perform it confidently. I also realise how much of a daunting task it is, to take a song from the top 40, and try make it better.

If the task happened again?
If the task happened again, i feel that there wouldn't be that much to improve upon, as i learnt from my mistakes with all of the other performances. This meant making sure i was completely in tune, i had the right effects that suited the performance and i was ready to play.

Practice diary - Post 18

Section 1 – Practice updates
throughout technical development, we have been covering over understanding fragmented chords and how to apply them to music such as funk. We also went over some tablature out of the course book and learnt a couple of songs out of it. We then went over playing the 7th chord progression that we were studying last week.

Throughout Band Skills we were completing our summative assessment, in which we had to pick a song from the top 40 charts and develop it into live lounge session style song. Overall i feel that my performance went really well, and a drastic improvement from the previous assessment. (i will go into this in more detail in a separate post.)

section 2 - other/ personal studies
I have currently been learning to play 'sultans of swing' by Dire Straights.So far, i am currently at the chorus, however i have recently been a bit sidetracked recently with my summative assessment practice.

Tutorial with Nat Martin

Today, i had a tutorial with Nat Martin. We went over Understanding how to use modes correctly when trying to apply it to a 12 bar blues solo. i found this tutorial to be very helpful, as it helped me breakdown some of the modes and understanding how to use them when phrasing. Nat also taught me  some very useful licks that i will definitely add to my inventory!. This tutorial lasted 45 minutes and in that time we covered over a lot of things.

Details of the summative assessment: Sexual by Neiked

Details of the summative assessment: Sexual by Neiked

The original version of 'Sexual' by Neiked, is in a dance/electronic style, in the key of D and is at 108 bpm. The instrumentation that was used in the song was:

•  Bass Guitar
• sound effects
• Synthesiser
• drums
• tambourine

the structure for the song is:

1. Introduction (4 bars)

2. Verse 1 (8 bars)

3. Pre-chorus (8 bars)

4. Chorus (8 bars)

5. Verse 2 (8 bars)

6. Pre-chorus (8 bars)

7. Chorus (8 bars)

8. Instrumentation (8 bars)

9. middle 8 (8 bars)

10. Chorus (8 bars)

11. Outro (8 bars)

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My cover version:

Band members:

Me - Lead guitar

Jacob Vallance - Rhythm guitar

Alex Hancox - Bass guitar

Max Crawford - Drums

Alice Millburn - Singing/vocals

Karina Ballagova - Singing/vocals

The instrumentation that we are using for the song is:

Lead guitar

Rhythm guitar

Drums

Tambourine

Singing/vocals

Structure:
1. Intro (16 Bars)
2. Verse (8 Bars)
3. Pre chorus (8 bars)
4. Chorus (8 bars)
5. Instrumental (2 bars)
6. Verse (8 bars)
7. Pre chorus (8 bars)
8. Chorus (16 bars)
9. Breakdown/middle8/solo (16 bars)
10. Chorus (16 bars)
11. Breakdown (32 bars)
12. Outro (4 bars)

what we will be using (effects):

Me-

Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal

Ibanez Tubescreamer Overdrive/Boost pedal

Reverb

Jacob Vallance - Rhythm guitar

Compressor

Max Crawford - Drums

Overhead 1 - Gate

Overhead 2 - Gate

Kick drum - Gate

Snare - Gate

Alice Millburn - Singing/vocals

Reverb

Karina Ballagova - Singing/vocals

Reverb

To achieve our sound, we have taken inspiration from other Funk bands such as James Brown, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to some extent. What we have picked are all common traits used in funk music that make it what it is.

Changes we have made to make it Funk:
-The utilisation of guitar licks and riffs, unlike the original song

-Changed it to a quackier, groovier sound
-thick thumping baselines with different grooves than the original song
-We changed the Tempo to a faster 130 bpm

-We took inspiration from other funk bands by playing up to a fast stop and start in sections

- thicker drums with different layered grooves as you progress throughout the song

- Faster vocals

- Guitar solo and guitar lead lines throughout the song

Changes that we have made to the song:

Structural changes:

We made structural changes to the song such as adding in new parts and taking out parts that didn't work. I really feel that the introduction work particularly well as it is a good build up of tension before the big release when all of the band break into the verse. It then progresses from the verse into a very funky chorus, yet still remains true to the original song with the original chords. I feel this also works really well as it shows that we have still taken the original song into consideration and not just rewritten the whole of the song. We then also have a solo section where we do some call and response. this works really well as a lot of funk artist use this technique, James Brown is a good example of this.

Live lounge task - rehearsals (3)

2/3/17

Today, my band worked on stage presence throughout our rehearsals as i have really bad stage nerves when under pressure and don't move much throughout the performances. I feel that this session helped me work better with the band and interact more with the other members. I feel that the band has now got to the point where everyone knows their part really well and are able to play it confidently. The producers also made an appearance throughout the practice, which was really convenient as we could update them on any new changes. We also worked on getting our instrumentation really tight with each other, and i feel that this has paid off really well, as we have all got really deep into the groove of the song and now can play it really we with no problems what so ever.

what could we improve upon:
i feel that we could improve upon getting even tighter (as there is always room for improvement.)
I mentioned this to my band members throughout the rehearsal and they all agreed, so we are looking into booking a rehearsal on Monday. I feel that this would greatly improve the chances of getting chosen for the radio.

Live lounge task - rehearsals (2)

Last Wednesday, we were trying to figure out a finished structure for our song. our idea was to have an introduction of funk music (with me soloing over the top of it) and then go into the song, however we decided to scrap that idea as we didn't deem it very effective. We also decided to change the tempo to a faster bpm. I feel like this is really effective as funk is generally very fast.

Last Thursday, we then booked a practice room to rehearse in the morning with the whole band. we made some big changes to the whole composition. Here, we decided to add in different sections in the song inspired by funk artists or funk songs. We took inspiration from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and how they stop and start the song in different sections. so we decided to add these sections throughout the verses of the song. Both me and Jacob also came up with the idea of have a guitar part that goes had in hand with each other and i think we nailed it, as when listening to it, the guitar parts sound really full and thick but kind of weak when only one of us is playing. This makes using dynamics and layering of the different instruments easier, as you can hear all of the parts of the song. This is also good as it is typical in standard funk, and used a lot of the time.

throughout the day i also completed my stage plan for the concert.
this took me quite a long time and we all sat down and worked it out as a band.
the first picture is of my stage plan, in which we have planned this out really well with all of us having space to move around.

the second image is of all of the channels that we will be using and the different instruments. All of these different channels are all of the requirements for the all of the musicians.Here this list the microphones that we will need and the effects that we would need to apply.

Practice diary - Post 17

Section 1 – Practice updates
throughout technical development, we have been learning how to play the funk song properly and learning how to play some other small tunes in the style of different artists. We also had a different tutor for this lecture as our normal was on tour. i found this lesson to be really well taught and great attention to detail throughout, however i had a really bad headache throughout it, so it was fairly hard to concentrate.

throughout critical listening we have been studying different songs and what modes they use throughout them. We analysed songs such as 'I stay away' by Alice in chains.

throughout band skills we continued rehearsing our song. i felt that this really helped me build my confidence as we played to half of the class. the first time we played, i was sitting down due to being nervous. However, the second time we played I got up and i felt much better for it as i know that we are marked on stage presence, and sitting down has none.

section 2 - other/ personal studies

i am currently still trying to learn how to play sultans of swing, and i have been over to Andertons to buy a thumb pick in order to play the same style as the way that Mark Knopfler does this is very, very hard to do.