FMP Rehearsals

Unit 8 - FMP Rehearsals

Band members:

Erin (vocals and guitar)

Matt (vocals and keys)

Dane (bass)

India (vocals)

28/04/19

This is audio of my interpretation of the solo from Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - in the original song, the solo instrument was a xylophone so I had to figure out the notes by ear and then change the key. This audio is slower than the original song because this is one of the first full play-throughs of the solo after moving it all down by a tone and half (so from the key of G to the key of D) to accommodate the vocalists. I now need to speed the solo up so I can play it in time with the bass and I also need to play it with the full band to make sure that all of the notes sound correct in the new key.

Session 1 - 29/04/19

Today we practised one of India's song choices, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and our main target was to sort out a structure for the outro since in Cyndi Lauper's version, it just fades out at the end. My main goal was to try and get the solo up to speed and for it to sound smooth because the song has a funk feel so it uses a lot of slides, hammer-ons, pull offs etc. This video is from one of our first play-throughs and it's obvious that neither me or Dane know where the song ends because we both mess the ending up, especially at 3:08 and 3:14. Despite this, the rest of the song sounds good because it follows the original structure and the vocal harmonies work really nicely with the instrumentation.

Session 2 - 30/04/19

In this session, we sorted out the structure for the ending by making it so that we end the song after three repeats of the 'Girls just wanna have fun' line with everyone slowing down during the third time through. This sounds really nice but we kept forgetting that the last line repeated 3 times and in this video especially I kept confusing myself with the riff near the end because it changes so that it keeps repeating the second half of the solo (this can be seen at around 0:19). This could be prevented in future by listening to the song more before practising so we know the structure fully. However, we now have the full song started so on Thursday we're moving onto one of my song choices, Umbrella, and try to sort the arrangement for it out because it's different to the original version.

Session 3 - 02/05/19

Today we moved onto our second song, Umbrella, and mainly focused on the vocals (for example, when to bring in 3 part harmonies, where to drop out etc) to make the song more structurally interesting/to stop it from being repetitive. My goal for this session was to get all of my solo parts including any licks/riffs in the right place and to make sure they sounded smooth. The harmonies sounded really nice by the end but the bassist (Dane) hadn't looked at the arrangement before coming in so I had to teach him the chords. We could've done this faster if someone had put a reminder in the groupchat that we were doing this song in this session - so, because it was my song choice, I could've sent a reminder to make sure everyone knew to look at the song for practising. This is like Pop Through The Decades when people in my 90s band didn't learn their parts but it took longer to sort out because there were more people. For next Tuesday, we need to go back through this with the right bass part and then we want to move onto What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club (one of Dane's choices).

Session 4 - 07/05/19

Today we moved onto our second song, Umbrella, and mainly focused on the vocals (for example, when to bring in 3 part harmonies, where to drop out etc) to make the song more structurally interesting/to stop it from being repetitive. My goal for this session was to get all of my solo parts including any licks/riffs in the right place and to make sure they sounded smooth. The harmonies sounded really nice by the end but the bassist (Dane) hadn't looked at the arrangement before coming in so I had to teach him the chords. This is like Pop Through The Decades when people in my 90s band didn't learn their parts but it took longer to sort out because there were more people. For next Tuesday, we need to go back through this with the right bass part and then we want to move onto What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club (one of Dane's choices).

08/05/19

I started practising Rose Colored-Boy for the 13th of May where we'll go through it as a full band because India (she chose this song) wants to move the song from the original key (F) to the key of C, so I learned it in the original key because I can then just move it down the fretboard later. I think that the bridge (2:20 - 2:36) needs more work because in the original it uses quite a lot of hammer-ons and accents, so I need to add some and focus on using funky/80s strumming styles all the way throughout. The verses sound good but I need to remember to come back in in the third line of the second verse (1:28) because I confused myself after the drop out.

In our practice on Thursday (May 9th) we're going to go through one of Erin's song choices, I'll Never Love Again, so to prepare for this I went through what I thought would be the hardest part (the bridge) because this is the only part where the chords change; while practicing this, I kept forgetting either what chord I was going to next (this can be seen with the pause at 0:25) or accidentally getting one of the notes in a chord wrong; this can be sorted during the full band run-through as I just need to get used to the chords I'm playing so I don't have to think about it.

Session 5 - 09/05/19

Today we wanted to go through I'll Never Love Again in full and sort out harmonies for the second half of the song (mainly the chorus) and I, personally, wanted to go through the chords to make sure they all sounded correct with the main vocal line (so all chords were in the right key and order). This went quite well for one of the first times through, however, the chord played at 1:26 had a wrong note in it which slightly threw me off and I had to play octaves for the bridge at 2:47 because I forgot the first chord. This video is also before we added any harmonies into the bridge so it sounded empty with only one vocalist.

This video is from later in the session and it shows the development of the structure of the song; we decided to put the harmonies in the second chorus, bridge and last chorus so there was an obvious difference in dynamics with the only accompanying instrument being the piano. This sounds a lot better than from the start of the session because the harmonies give the song a fuller sound and they work really well with the main vocal line. However, I still need to work on the bridge of the song (2:42) because I keep having to look at where I'm going next chords wise so there's a slight pause (it sounded alright here but it was one of the only times that I got it without pausing first). Now that we have the song sorted, we just need to rehearse it a bit more before performing.

11/05/19

I went through the bridge by myself because I think that the guitar part is repetitive in the original - I want to make it more interesting by adding either a few hammer-ons/pull offs or a lick since we don't have the synth part behind it. Despite this, the riff leading into the bridge is sounding a lot better - when I played it through before, I'd sometimes miss a note or accidentally hit a dead note.

This is Erin's second song choice that we're going through in next Tuesday's practice session; I mainly went through the bridge of the song because this is where the chords change and I keep forgetting what they change to (as shown in this video) but I'm getting quicker at fixing it when I play a wrong chord so I just need to keep playing through this section so I can switch chords without thinking about it.

This is one of the first run throughs I've done of Sir Duke from the first verse to the instrumental break - the chords up until the break sound good and I know the structure of the verse and chorus but as soon as I play the break I forget what I'm playing - I also think that I'm playing it an octave too low so I need to change it and play through the second half more to get it under my fingers.

Session 6 - 13/05/19

The solo for this is sounding clearer every time I play through it now but I need more experience just playing it in front of people - whenever I try to play it in front of people I freeze up/end up playing it wrong so I'm going to play it more often to get over this. Also, I need to practice with the bassist (Dane) more so the parts we play together sound tighter - mainly the part at 2:30 - 2:35. Despite that, the vocals are sounding a lot better with the harmonies and the main vocals.

I went back through the break at home and the only part that needs worked on is the first lick - I think I'm missing out a few notes when I play along with the bass so I need to work with Dane to sort it out so it doesn't sound weird when we play it on the night. Other than that, the rest of the instrumental break sounds good so now most of the song is sorted out for the accompaniment.

Session 7 - 14/05/19

Today we wanted to get through Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood (one of Erin's song choices). This is sounding good with all of us playing together, especially the harmonies in the chorus with the lower and higher harmonies and the 'ooo's over the top. However, I need to play through the opening riff a bit more so I don't hit a wrong note or miss any while playing. I also need to make sure that I'm playing the same chords as the acoustic guitar and we need to slow it down a bit so it's closer to the original tempo.

Session 8 - 16/05/19

Today we went back through Before He Cheats and Rose Colored-Boy to strengthen the bridge sections in each song and sort out any harmonies or riffs. I wanted to make sure that the riff in the bridge was right this time and I think that the song sounds a lot better now that we have the acoustic guitar playing the correct chords - it makes the sound more full, especially when I go back to playing the opening riff.

I started practising Lie To Me by 5 Seconds Of Summer at home because I think that I Believe In A Thing Called Love might be too hard for the vocalists because their vocal ranges aren't as high as the singer's from The Darkness. I think that this song really suits my voice and using it, I could show off my vocal abilities as well as my guitar playing; it helps to showcase a wider range of my musical ability. I think that the second chorus needs some more practice because that's where I move from my head voice to my chest voice for the higher notes - this way my voice will be less likely to crack when I belt the notes out.

In today's session we also started going through Bury A Friend by Billie Eilish (one of Matt's song choices) and we started out by trying to use a sample pad, arpeggiated runs on the keyboard and some improvised riffs on the guitar since the original just uses bass and digital drums/synth sounds. This run through sounds good but we've decided that it would be better to try and make it more like one of Billie's live acoustic versions of the song because the feel of that version fits more with our other songs, especially for the environment we'll be performing the song in (a restaurant); we're also changing the feel of the song because it took most of today's session just to sort the first verse and chorus out and we don't have many practices left as a full band. If we wanted to do it like the original then we should've put this song in an earlier practice so we could work on it for longer but we all agreed that the acoustic version would be better.

Session 9 - 20/05/19

We mainly went through the instrumental part of Sir Duke today because one vocalist was off and the other was out recording; we sorted this out so in the next session we can just focus on the vocals (for example - who's singing which verse, where the harmonies come in, etc). We now have the general structure of the song down but me and Dane need to go through the break (the section at 1:05 - 1:22) a few more times to get the first half of it sounding as good as the last half. We could maybe use a few extra sessions in the half term to make sure the songs don't sound rushed because people are out recording but that depends on how much we get done by the end of the week.

Session 10 - 21/05/19

Today we finished off Erin's first song choice, Before He Cheats; the acoustic guitar now has the correct chords so they match with the main vocal line and the bridge now sounds better with the electric guitar playing palm muted power chords as well as the acoustic guitar just playing the normal chords. Also, we now have the structure down fully - none of us got lost in the song except for the end where I came in slightly late (3:04).

Session 11 - 23/05/19

In today's session, I decided to change my song from I Believe In A Thing Called Love to Lie To Me because it works better with the whole band; the vocalists are more comfortable with this song because it's closer to all of our vocal ranges. For future projects, I'm going to make sure at the start of a project everyone is comfortable with what we're doing so we don't have to change a song this far into the project. This sounds good for one of the first run-throughs but I want to change the end so that I go through the last line on my own so it rounds the song off and adds to the emotion/feel of the song. The singers also need to learn the lyrics so they don't confuse the first pre-chorus with the second one.

Matt decided to change Bury A Friend to a more instrumental, acoustic version because we didn't have time to finish off the other version and this one sounds better in terms of the structure - it's simple but effective and the harmonies really stand out for the vocals. I just need to make sure that I play the chord changes in the right parts of the song (chorus and bridge) so I don't confuse myself while playing. For the day of the performance, we need to make sure we know every song fully so we can go through all of them - they need to be fully prepared.

This is one of the first practices of Matt's second song choice, The Night We Met. The vocalists need to decide where the three part harmonies come in so it doesn't sound repetitive and I need to listen to the song a bit more so I know where the octave shifts are (pre-choruses) and I need to make sure that my picking is even throughout the entire song.

01/06/19

This is a video of the improved second chorus; I'm now hitting the higher notes in the chorus easier when belting them out.

This video is just to show an example of the different strumming patterns I'm using for the bridge to make the song more structurally interesting.

I now have the riff used in the bridge correctly so it's more interesting when I play it; it doesn't sound as repetitive and empty as it did before.

This is an example of the picking pattern used from the first verse to the pre-chorus - the octave switch sounds good but I need to make sure that the picking is even throughout.

The use of a crescendo makes the bridge sound better when leading into the final chorus so now we just need to play through this one more time to make sure we have the rest of the song sounding as strong as this before performing.

The sweep picking in the second chorus sounds a lot better now after practising along to a metronome for the past week - before I kept missing a few notes out because I fell out of time slightly, so the notes don't sound as messy now.