Unit 9 - Music From The Movies
Angel - Vocals and Bass
Caitlin - Vocals and Bass
Matt - Vocals
Ross - Vocals
Lewis - Keys
Sam - Drums
Session 1 - 10/09/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
Today we want to choose 2 or 3 movies to start making a set list from and start going through one of the songs - each band is performing around 6 songs each so we'd need 2 songs from each movie.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I would like to learn the chords and picking pattern for A Thousand Years (our first song we want to work on from the movie Twilight).
What went well in this session and why?
We decided on all 3 movies (Suicide Squad, Dirty Dancing and Twilight) and all 6 songs we're going to work on from those movies. This helps us a lot because now we know what songs we're doing, we can plan out what we're doing in each session. We also got the structure/chords sorted for A Thousand Years so we can continue with this next week and start another song alongside it.
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What went wrong and why?
Originally we didn't have the right chords on keys because on guitar the song has a capo on the third fret; this means that our pianist (Lewis) had to transpose the song for keys and find the right starting chord (he kept playing the first chord for the chorus in the verse). This meant that most of our session was spent figuring out the chords to the song but it also affected me because I was confused as to where we were in the song so I messed up the picking a few times and also went to the wrong chord for the pre-chorus.
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What are your targets for next week?
For next week, I need to learn the chords for (I've Had) The Time of My Life and transpose the sax solo for guitar by picking the notes out by ear. Also, now that we have the right chords for A Thousand Years I just need to keep playing it so I'm comfortable with what I'm playing.
Session 2 - 17/09/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In today's session, we're going to go back through A Thousand Years to play it with the correct chords (instrumental) and start working on Time of My Life.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
Today I hope to play the picking pattern in A Thousand Years correctly, look at guitar tones on the amp to get a more chorus-y tone which will add to the feel of the song (it'll make it more emotional) and I also want to go through the solo for Time Of My Life to make sure all of the notes are the same as the original solo.
What went well in this session and why?
We have A Thousand Years finished now; now that we have the structure of the last choruses, vocal harmonies and bridge, we're more comfortable with what we're playing and we also have instrument drop ins/outs a lot stronger than we did before. It's different for the collaborative music project this year because now I'm the main guitarist in my band - there's more focus on my playing now so I need to make sure I'm comfortable with my part and there's barely any mistakes if any.
After starting Heathens in today's session instead of Time of My Life (only a few of us learned it before the session), we managed to get through the song completely and sort out all of the vocals for the song; we're now a third of the way through our set list already which means that we'll have more time to sort harder songs (such as Time of My Life) out and make sure they sound the best they can.
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What went wrong and why?
As mentioned before, not enough people learned Time of My Life before the session so now it'll take longer to get through the song since we have to push it back until next week. Despite getting through Heathens, our pianist (Lewis) kept playing the chorus chords for the verses - this didn't clash too much but it means that we'll have to spend a bit of next week's session making sure we're playing the same chords.
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What are your targets for next week?
I need to learn the chords and structure for You Don't Own Me, keep going through Time of My Life so we can start it next week instead and just go through the songs we already know so I'm more comfortable with my parts.
Session 3 - 25/09/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In this session we want to go through You Don't Own Me, start going through Time of My Life properly and keep rehearsing the other songs we've already started.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I need to learn the little solo part on guitar near the end of You Don't Own Me to make sure the notes match the original and make sure the tone on my guitar is right for the song (so it's not too heavy).
What went well in this session and why?
We managed to get through You Don't Own Me fully which means that all we have to do is sort out a few parts of the structure out and we can move onto Time of My Life (we didn't manage to start it in today's session).
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What went wrong and why?
None of the other instrumentalists (Sam and Lewis) learned the song before the session so they didn't know the chords or the structure of the song; this means most of the session was spent just getting the structure of the song right (mainly the intro and the key change) so we didn't have time to start a new song. Also, none of the vocalists knew the rap so we'll have to go through that in next week's session.
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What are your targets for next week?
I want to keep going through the solo part for You Don't Own Me so I'm more comfortable with it (I almost missed one of the notes in the video at 1:42 because I haven't practised that part much) and keep going through the other songs in our set so the only thing I'll have to do for each song is sort out the tone of my guitar and work on timing with everyone else.
Session 4 - 01/10/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
Today, we aim to go through the key change in You Don't Own Me Again to make sure we're comfortable with it and go through the structure of Hungry Eyes.
What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I need to go over the chords for Hungry Eyes with Angel and Lewis to make sure we're all playing the same chords and I need to look at more of a chorus-y tone for this song (similar to the tone for A Thousand Years and Time of My Life).
What went well in this session and why?
We now have 4 songs after going through Hungry Eyes which means that we only have 2 more songs to learn (maybe 3 if we have enough time) so we can spend the majority of the last few sessions just going over our entire set list for the show. We also managed to finish the structure for You Don't Own Me so we can move onto our next song, (I've Had) The Time of My Life.
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What went wrong and why?
It took half of the session just to sort out the intro of the song because Lewis hadn't learned it beforehand so I had to teach him the chords; this means that we had a lot less time to go through the rest of the song so we couldn't practice the others much. Also, because he didn't learn the song before the session he threw me off whenever he played a wrong chord (this can be seen in the video at 2:20).
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What are your targets for next week?
For next week, I need to go through the bridge/solo section to get the pickup change smoother and so I'm comfortable with all of the notes in the solo. I also need to go through all of other songs in general to get rid of any mistakes or wrong chord changes in them.
Session 5 - 08/10/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
Today, we'd like to start working on (I've Had) The Time of My Life because there's a lot of riffs and harmonies in the structure of each section so we need to make sure they're the same as the original song.
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What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I want to play through the solo to make sure that all of the notes are the same as the original and go through the arrangement of the song with Lewis, Angel and Sam.
What went well in this session and why?
We have the intro, verses and choruses down so now we just need to work on the bridge/solo section and add harmonies later in the song. Also, I found a guitar tone that works for this song, Hungry Eyes and A Thousand Years
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What went wrong and why?
Lewis still hadn't learned the chords and Ross still hadn't learned the lyrics for Time of my Life despite being given plenty of notice to learn the song for this week so we had to wait for them to sort their parts out before going through the song - even then, they kept messing up chords/lyrics. Due to this, most of the session was spent getting the structure sorted out for the keys.
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What are your targets for next week?
Learn Supermassive Black Hole and Decode so we can finish our set list and then spend the rest of our sessions going back through them to polish all of them off.
Session 6 - 15/10/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In today's session we're aiming to play through our last 2 songs (Supermassive Black Hole and Decode) and finish the solo/bridge section for Time of My Life.
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What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I would like to work out the structure for Decode on guitar/decide if looping the riff would work with the other instrumentalists or not and go over the chords of our last songs with Lewis and Angel.
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What went well in this session and why?
The bridge section for Time of My Life is sorted along with the vocals; it sounds lbetter now with 2 main vocalists instead of 4 (it sounded all over the place with more vocalists). Also, the structure for Decode is sorted now so Lewis plays the riff on keys in the verses while I play power chords.
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What went wrong and why?
Lewis forgot his part for Time of My Life in the verses so we had to go back through that despite having already sorted it the week before.
The vocals for Supermassive Black Hole need sorted out (drop ins/outs, where harmonies come in etc) so it doesn't sound messy/jumbled.
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What are your targets for next week?
I need to keep rehearsing the songs so I'm used to the structures of the songs and sort out the presets on my pedal so I have all of the effects I'm using ready for the show.
Session 7 - 29/10/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In today's session, we want to go through every song in our set list and polish off any weak sections so they're all ready for the show.
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What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I need to make sure that everything I'm playing is correct and that I know where to come in with things like solos or riffs.​
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What went well in this session and why?
The vocal structure for Supermassive Black Hole is done now so the singers know where they're coming in with harmonies or backup vocals - this is great because it means that the song doesn't sound messy with the vocals all over the place.
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What went wrong and why?
We couldn't​ go through all of our songs because most of the session was dedicated to taking band photos for the show; we were out for about 40 minutes of the session taking ours and then I had to go out to take pictures for another band. This isn't like Eagles Go Gaga where it only took about half an hour and everyone was back with most of the session still left to practice.
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What are your targets for next week?
Keep rehearsing all of the songs in our set so we can keep running through all of them as a band.
Session 8 - 05/11/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
Like last session, today is dedicated to playing through our set and making sure our songs are all ready for the show and working on anything that we're still struggling with.
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What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I want to keep going through the riff for Supermassive Black Hole to make sure that I'm playing the notes right and on the correct string.
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What went well in this session and why?
The structures for all of the songs are sorted now - we all know where we are in a song so there are no random drop outs or chord clashes.
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What went wrong and why?
Lewis still doesn't play his parts correctly - although he's playing the right chords he isn't playing the same piano part as the song or a riff that was transposed to piano (Decode). This throws the rest of us off while playing and makes the songs sound/feel empty so we need to sort this out in the next session.
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What are your targets for next week?
For next week, we want to see if we can get someone to play rhythm guitar for the Dirty Dancing set (mainly Time of My Life) and we need to make sure that everyone is playing the correct parts for their instruments or singing the correct melody/harmony.
Session 9 - 12/11/19
What do you hope to achieve as a band today?
In our final session, our main goal is to go through both songs in the Dirty Dancing set and Decode (with Dane playing rhythm guitar) as there are areas in these songs (especially the solos in both Dirty Dancing songs) that still sound weak compared to the other songs.
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What do you hope to achieve individually today?
I want to go over the chords with Dane for the songs he's playing in so we're both playing in the same key and in time with each other.
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What went well in this session and why?
The Dirty Dancing set sounds better​ with rhythm guitar for the bridge/solo sections; this makes them sound less empty and we have the structure sorted out properly so I look at Angel for a run-down into the solo for (I've Had) The Time Of My Life.
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What went wrong and why?
It took a while to get through the songs with Dane because he came in on such short notice - this meant he kept forgetting the chords (except for Decode which he already knew) so we had to keep going back over them. He also had his own band to practise with so we only had an hour to practice with him; in the future, if we need another person to come in for a song, I'll make sure to give them at least 2 week's notice so we have more than one session to go through that song to avoid this happening again.
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What are your targets for next week?
By next week, I want to go through the set list a few more times so I remember the order of the songs and so I'm more confident in my playing.
Show 1 - 20/11/19
What went well today and did you enjoy it?
Today, our communication as a band was really good; in (I've Had) The Time Of My Life, Lewis played the wrong chords in the bridge so Angel turned around to keep me and Sam in time by giving us the cue for changing sections with the run down into the solo. Also, before playing we decided on a different ending for Decode before playing (three stabs after the last chord) which worked really well and the timing for the whole song was great - I feel like this was one of our best songs in the entire set.
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What went wrong and could this have been prevented?
In the Dirty Dancing set, I dropped my pick just before the solo; this threw me off so I accidentally missed a few notes, however, my guitar also wasn't coming through the amp properly during the solo - to make sure this doesn't happen again, I'll make sure to have another pick on me while playing and I'll check my guitar settings to ensure it's on the correct pickup. At the start of the second set, I couldn't see my guitar because of the masks in Heathens so I had to quickly correct notes a few times in the riff when I accidentally played a note a semitone out; to fix this, I'm going to move the riff up a string (from D to G) so it's on the part of the fretboard I can see.
Our set: 33:20 til end
Our set: 1:10 til 22:08
Show 2 - 21/11/19
What went well today and did you enjoy it?
In our second show, most of the errors from the night before were sorted; for the solos in the Dirty Dancing set, my guitar came through a lot clearer than it did on the first night. Also, I feel like I looked more comfortable on stage (especially during both Dirty Dancing songs and Decode) because I moved around more rather than staying in one spot.
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What went wrong and could this have been prevented?
During You Don't Own Me, Sam went out of time with the drums slightly going into the chorus which threw the rest of us off - I messed up the picking pattern and missed a passing note. This could've been avoided if Sam was focusing more but it was quickly fixed so it didn't affect our performance too much.
Our set: 34:10 til end
Our set: 3:10 til 24:49