Unit 1
The Schools roadshow
Band members - Erin, Matt, Hazel and Emily W
Session 1 - 10/09/18
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
During our first session together as a band, my band mates (Erin, Matt, Hazel and Emily) and I set out to pick and rehearse one song and to learn the arrangement of the piece. We chose to rehearse Hey Soul Sister by Train and I hoped to achieve 2 targets for this piece: learn the chords for the guitar and add some accompanying chords to the piece to improve the musical composition of the piece and make it sound more interesting for the listener.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I also aimed to use a different strumming style to the other guitarist, so I only strummed on every crotchet beat and tried to make the sound crisper, so it didn't ring out - I did the same thing in my Eagles Go Gaga rehearsals to make sure I wasn't playing the same thing as the lead guitarist (Brian) which sounds good because it adds more variety to the song and makes it more interesting to a listener.
What went well in this session and why?
In the session, we managed to play through the entire song and the vocalists each added in different harmonies - this was good because it made the song more interesting and less stagnant or repetitive.
What went wrong and why?
However, because we'd transposed the song into a different key (G) for the vocalists, we played the wrong chord leading into the chorus since we were also new to the arrangement of the song.
What are your targets for next week?
To improve for the next session, we're aiming to incorporate more saxophone into the song and learn the arrangement and chords for Hey Soul Sister fully. Also, we hope to learn another song (Valerie).
(I'm out of shot on the left playing the electric guitar)
Session 2 - 17/09/18
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In this session, we hoped to learn the chords and lyrics/arrangement for Valerie by The Zutons and to also maybe get another song sorted out.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
Personally, I aimed to learn the bass line on the acoustic bass to change the musical composition of the song and play along with the guitar in time.
What went well in this session and why?
I learned the bass line and structure of the song - this is good because it sounded nice with the rest of the instruments (including the vocal harmonies).
We also learned Budapest which is good because it means we have more songs and more time to learn them/make them sound better.
What went wrong and why?
However, the vocalists struggled with the harmonies of this song because they kept blending into the others' - this made the song sound boring and stagnant.
What are your targets for next week?
For next week, I hope to make the bass line for Budapest sound more interesting and learn another song - Happy by Pharrell Williams - and learn the arrangement of it.
Session 3 - 24/09/18
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
Today, we want to get through Budapest by George Ezra fully and think about a 4th song to add to our repertoire as well as rehearsing our other songs.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
Personally, I would like to learn the bass notes and then improve on that by adding in bass runs and 5th notes to make the bass riff sound more upbeat and make the song sound livelier overall.
What went well in this session and why?
In today's session we played through the song successfully and I learned the bass notes and added in a few bass runs which made the song sound less boring and livelier.
What went wrong and why?
However, we didn't manage to decide on a 4th song in the session which means that when we do decide on it, we'll have less time to rehearse the song and make it sound more unique. Also, I forgot about some of the chord changes which ended up throwing off the beat of the song.
What are your targets for next week?
By next week, we hope to learn the song fully so there's less mistakes in it and to decide on a 4th song.
Session 4 - 01/10/18
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In this session, we want to play through Somebody Else by The 1975 fully so we have 4 songs in our repertoire.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
Personally, I would like to learn the root notes and then add 5th notes and interesting runs over the top to make it sound a bit more upbeat.
What went well in this session and why?
We sorted out Somebody Else and I also managed to add more to the bass line, so we now have 4 songs to perform.
What went wrong and why?
However, while practicing the focus wasn't always on the performance, so it took longer than it should have to play through it fully - this also happened in Eagles Go Gaga practice because the drummer (Will) and the bassist (Dane) were easily distracted during rehearsals so it took longer to sort the songs out - this isn't good because we have more songs to learn for Eagles Go Gaga and it makes it more stressful around showtime.
What are your targets for next week?
For the next session, I'm going to practice all 4 songs we now have to make them sound less rusty and to reduce the number of mistakes in them.
Session 5 - 08/10/18
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
Today, we would like to practice all the songs in our repertoire for the Roadshow with the drums behind them. We also need to sort out the equipment list for the music technicians to make sure we don't forget anything, and we need to sort out what order we're playing the songs in.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I want to pick the equipment I need for next week, so I know exactly what I'm using next week so I need to decide if I'm playing an acoustic or an electric bass.
What went well in this session and why?
We made an equipment list, so we now know what we're using in the Roadshow and how many of each thing we need (such as 3 microphones for the vocalists).
What went wrong and why?
However, the drummer forgot their parts in some songs because they had only just learned the songs today.
What are your targets for next week?
My targets for next week are to just practice the songs on bass for the Roadshow performances to make sure I don't mess up as much and so I know when my cues are.