Unit 8 - Performance Evaluation
Performance Evaluation
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On the 3rd of June 2019, we had our final performance as a band in the Quarter Live Lounge in Carlisle. In this performance, I played the guitar, keys and sang; for my own 2 songs, however, I mainly focused on guitar and singing. I think that overall, I’ve improved my guitar playing and solo work and I also think that my vocals are a lot stronger since the start of the year. My stage presence is also a lot better from the start of the project because now I look more confident in what I’m doing. Even though we had to move songs to different sessions or change them (so they worked better for everyone), we managed to get them all prepared to a high standard for the final gig. The timelines made at the start also helped a lot for us to focus during sessions and helped us to know what to prepare for in each session, so no one was confused or got songs mixed up - they were very useful.
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Umbrella
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The performance of Umbrella went very well – the solo really highlighted my guitar skills as it used technical skills such as semitone/full tone bends, slides, sweep picking and more. The vocal harmonies in the bridge also sounded good paired with the guitar and bass, however, if I could change or improve the song in any way it would be to have drums as well because when we practiced with drums in the session on the 23rd it sounded a lot more full and really added to the rock feel of the song. It also would have been better if the guitar and the bass both played the riffs/licks in the chorus, second verse and bridge instead of just the guitar playing them with the bass playing a single note behind.
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Lie To Me
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This performance was also great because every chord change was correct (when rehearsing I kept going to the wrong chord in the bridge), the intro sounded good just picking each chord and the extra line at the end improved the structure of the song with instrument drop outs, so it was just me singing the last line. The vocals also sounded strong with the harmonies and the change to my chest voice in the second half of the song for the higher notes. However, the switch to my head voice during the second verse could have been improved if I practiced that part a bit more because it sounded weaker than in the first verse. Other than that, I’m happy with how this went and my stage presence throughout the song.
Overall, I performed very well despite making a few small mistakes in Sir Duke and I’ll Never Love Again, but they weren’t very noticeable, and I quickly recovered both times. I also corrected any volume issues, such as at the end of Sir Duke where I turned the volume on my guitar down for the next song (Bury A Friend) because I noticed that it sounded a bit loud while playing. The audience seemed to like every song because we got a lot of applause and cheers at the end of all of them.
Questionnaires
After the gig, I made and handed out 2 questionnaires to both of my parents who came to get some audience feedback for the night. Using these, I found out that the main problem both of them had was that we didn't have a drummer - as mentioned previously, we decided as a band that this is something we'd definitely change if we could do it again because some of the songs sounded empty without them. Also, as a band, it was clear that we worked well together and it looked like we enjoyed it; this is good because if we look happy when performing, the audience reacts well to it and enjoy our performance more. One person I asked also remarked that the set was too short because they would've enjoyed listening to another 4 or 5 songs and that we could've had a proper introduction to the set - this is good feedback because we could use this in future gigs and it's good to know what the audience wants.
Peer evaluations
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India
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Patience - 8/10
Disciplined - 7/10
Reliability - 9/10
Punctual - 8/10
Team work - 9/10
Skill level - 9/10
Dedication - 9/10
Helpfulness - 7/10
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During sessions, India is great at working with the other vocalists to find a harmony that works for a song and where to come in with it (for example - three part harmonies would come in on the second chorus and then remain throughout the rest of the song). However, there were a few times where she would start talking about something unrelated to the song, distracting some of the other band members and other times she'd sit there/wouldn't help with a problem. This could be prevented in the future by leaving our phones in our bags and the helpfulness could be improved by communicating more. The punctuality problems were mainly down to traffic so maybe setting off earlier, as well.
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Erin
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Patience - 9/10
Disciplined - 9/10
Reliability - 10/10
Punctual - 10/10
Team work - 9/10
Skill level - 9/10
Dedication - 9/10
Helpfulness - 8/10
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Erin is very good at making sure all of us stay on track during a session, so we finish a song in plenty of time - this means we can then go back through and make any changes we want so it sounds really good. She also makes sure to learn songs before coming to sessions so she doesn't have to waste any time getting chords or lyrics up. Like with India, Erin could be more helpful by communicating more/working through the problem with us.
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Dane
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Patience - 8/10
Disciplined - 8/10
Reliability - 9/10
Punctual - 10/10
Team work - 8/10
Skill level - 10/10
Dedication - 8/10
Helpfulness - 9/10
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Dane was very easy to work with because he's quick at learning songs and playing along even if he hasn't heard the song much beforehand. He also helped me with the Sir Duke riff by going through it with me a few times until I had it sorted. The only issue was that sometimes he hadn't learned the song we were practising before coming to the session but, again, this was quickly sorted during the session so we could focus more on vocals or the song structure (if we wanted to change it). I think that Dane's patience could be better if we all spent more of the session focusing on the song and not getting distracted as often.
Matt
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Patience - 8/10
Disciplined - 7/10
Reliability - 10/10
Punctual - 10/10
Team work - 8/10
Skill level - 9/10
Dedication - 8/10
Helpfulness - 8/10
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Matt was on time for every session (unless he was recording) and learned the lyrics for both of his songs in preparation for practice with the rest of us. He was also willing to help out in other songs, for example, playing the keyboard in both of India's songs despite not really playing it much beforehand. However, there were a few times where he was distracted when the rest of us wanted to go through a song but eventually he stopped and focused back on what we were doing - this could be prevented if Matt payed more attention and had chord sheets so he could talk to me and Dane to make sure he was playing the same as us (most of the time he was distracted because he lost his place in a song).