Performance Aim A

Tuesday 8th October

Today I arranged my group out, I am in a group with Abbie and Ellie. We are going to perform a song by Jason Mraz called 'I'm Yours'. We all decided on what our individual parts are on this performance, Ellie and I are going to both be singing, we will try and include some harmonies. And Abbie is going to be on the ukulele - she will also try and include some harmony techniques in our performance; such as when one of us is on a high note, someone else will be enhancing it with a lower note. We have not yet fully completed the song but we are going to work on this.

Wednesday 23rd October
Today we focused on the harmonies instead of the ukulele, so we could perfect the singing and work on the ukulele and singing next week. Ellie, Abbie and I are all working on the harmony techniques such as low and high pitch and blending our voices together. We have decided that me and Ellie are on the main vocals and Abbie will enhance on some parts of our singing. We also worked on the timing of the song, to make sure we were all in rhythm.

Wednesday 9th November

Today as a group we started practicing our song called I'm yours. We have began to learn who is going to be doing what pitches and harmonies. We learnt that the ukulele Abbie is playing needs to sometimes be below volume to mine and Ellie's singing seen as sometimes you can not hear the singing over the ukulele. Next week we are going to work on getting the timing more accurate and make sure the ukulele is within a good volume range and in sync with mine and Ellie's singing.

Monday 11th November

On Tuesday, as Ellie was not in, only me and Abbie managed to record our song "I'm yours" onto sound cloud. This went quite well, we tried twice first with a couple of mistakes and the third time, we managed to without any mistakes; and we listened to this back. Next week me and Abbie have discussed to listen back to the recording with Ellie and see where we can make some improvements. But me and Abbie had thought of some improvements for us to make - these were: to be more confident with what we are singing, and also that when we are singing the song to make sure that our postures are good so our voices can project better.
I also had my first vocal lesson on Friday 15th, it went well and the teacher listened to me sing two songs (someone like you by Adele and Clown by Emeli Sande) and she decided she wants me to practice make you feel my love by Adele and clown; I am going to print off the lyrics for these two songs as homework and also practice these for next week.

Tuesday 19th November

Today, Abbie, Ellie and I began to think of a new song for our next recording; we have decided on doing Somewhere Only We Know by Keane - Abbie is going to play the piano and me and Ellie are going to do joint singing. I am learning the lyrics for this song at the moment.

Wednesday 20th November

Today Abbie was not in, so me and Ellie couldn't really do much with our group song Somewhere Only We Know, so instead we just practised our vocal chords by singing Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran. Whilst we were practising, we were discussing how we could make sure our voices are clear and projected, because some parts of Give Me Love are quite low in pitch, and as it is quite difficult to sing that low, we decided that we should stand up when singing, instead of sitting down.

Monday 25th November

 Today in the computer lesson we started our powerpoints on the music industry/business.

Tuesday 26th November

Today Abbie, Ellie and I decided to choose our performance song which is Ho Hey by the Lumineers. Abbie is going to play the piano for this and Ellie and I are going to sing, I am going to learn the lyrics for the song and Abbie is going to practise the piano for this - Ellie and I are going to include harmonies. We have to make sure that our voices are within the same tune.

Wednesday 4th December

On Tuesday it was extended learning day so we did not have a music lesson on that day, and on Wednesday I was ill. Today Abbie was not in, so Ellie and I just practised the lyrcis for Ho Hey and tried to include harmonies. As well as this we also practised Somewhere Only We know for our recording - we are quite confident with this song now, but we need to try practising with Abbie playing the piano as well.

Monday 9th December

Today I finished off completing my blog and I also added more slides onto my powerpoint on the Music Industry.

Tuesday 10th December

Today I was not in for the first half of the lesson, but when I came back, Abbie and Ellie were practising in the sound proof room, we focused on our vocal skills today, trying to make sure the harmonies were in tune and sounded good. Tomorrow we are going to practise with the piano as well, I might try and learn the piano chords for Ho Hey because I need to be on voice rest, so it would be useful for me to play the piano for this song and Abbie will teach me how to.

Wednesday 11th December

 Today, Abbie, Ellie and I all practised the song Ho Hey and we managed to practise it with Abbie on the piano and me and Ellie singing. We also managed to harmonise our voices and I am going to practise this song at home more so I can become more confident in singing this song and Ellie is going to do the same whilst Abbie practises the piano chords. We also focused ont the projection of our voices, and to make sure the instrument doesn't drown our voices out.

Tuesday 17th December

Today Ellie was not in so Abbie and I started to practise our performance song which is Fast Car, originally by Tracy Chapman but we are using some of Boyce Avenue's techniques to blend into our performance. Abbie is going to play the piano for this song and we have the first verse sorted out and I need to rehearse the lyrics at home and I will probably print the lyrics off so I'm more confident when singing. When Ellie comes back, we are going to include Ellie's vocals as well. One thing I picked up on was to make sure I was breathing at the correct intervals during the song, if I don't, this affects the rest of the song.

Wednesday 18th December

Abbie and Ellie were not in so I was planning on a song I could rehearse for the lessons when Abbie and Ellie aren't in. As I am unable to singat the moment, I need to listen to songs I could possibly sing for when I am able to sing - I came up with some options such as Thousand Years by Christina Perri, Mr Brightside by The Kilelrs; a slower version of the song. I am currently not taking part in my singing lessons as my singing voice is damaged, I still attend the singing lessons with Ellie though and I do some theory work, such as how to stand whilst singing; posture and breathing techniques. I also listen to Ellies singing and think of some ideas of how I could add to the songs.

Tuesday 7th January 2014

Review of Ho Hey:

 Today, Abbie, Ellie and I all continued rehearsing our song called Ho Hey by the Lumineers. Abbie played the piano, and Ellie and I were on vocals; although Abbie also joined in to harmonize our voices together. Today I had come to the decision that Ellie has the lowest pitch voice, Abbie has the higher and I am mid pitch; I can range my voice to go high and low as well. Knowing this, it was easier for me to understand who should sing which parts of the song.
After we had rehearsed, we recorded a final piece. We listened to the song back a few times, but as we completed the recording near the end of the lesson, we did not have time to make any improvements. But we did suggest a few; to make sure we are all 100% confident in what we are singing, because at some parts in the song we got confused.
During the recording, near the end of the song, we didn't quite know when to come in to sing the chorus all together, so instead I began to sing and Abbie and Ellie both joined in - which that resulted in sounding quite good!
Our dynamics were quite good, at certain stages of the song, our voices sometimes went quieter to harmonize with the volume of the piano; this went well.
Another improvement I had picked up on, was where to position the recording device, because as I was holding the phone; my voice was louder compared to Abbie and Ellie's. So therefore, I think the next time we record, we should place the recording device in the middle so all of our voices are at the same volume.
One last improvement could be to make sure that the timing is spot on. Because leading into the second verse, I wasn't sure when to come in and when I eventually did, the guitar didn't exactly match the lyrics - but in the end we improvised to make sure that the guitar and vocals both matched.

Review of Titanium: 

We had all been practising Titanium for a while, with Abbie playing the piano and on vocals, and Ellie and I also on vocals. We went through the song many times before recording our final piece - we had figured out what harmonies sound good and which ones don't sound so good. Abbie started off the song with the opening verse, and I harmonized certain parts of this verse (usually in the lower pitch). I think that our harmony techniques were quite good, because all of our voices have different pitches, Abbie is able to go very high, Ellie is able to go very low and I can harmonize with what ever pitch Abbie or Ellie are singing at. During the chorus of this song, Abbie sings the main parts, but when the lyrics change to "fire away, fire away" Ellie and I both join in with the vocals and help harmonize with Abbie's singing.
Along with the good things we could pick out from our recording, we also managed to think of some improvements. I had suggested to try and include mine and Ellie's voice into the recording more and to include solo parts, because Ellie and I only harmonized with Abbie's voice; so I think that maybe next time we could include some solo parts; like we did during the recording of Ho Hey.
Because of our last recording of Ho Hey, we had picked up on the positioning of the recording device, as when we recorded our previous song, I was holding the recording device and when we all sang together, you could hear my voice much louder than Abbie and Ellie's; so to improve this in our recording of Titanium, we positioned the phone on a chair in the middle of all of us, so the volume of our voices were all equal. With doing this improvement, the recording sounded far better.
There was one thing we picked up on to do with the quality of the recording, which was the sound of the piano in  contrast to our voices. At certain parts in the song, our voices seemed to have been drowned out by the noise level of the piano. We were trying to think of a way to improve this, and the only thing we could suggest, was to make sure we had began to sing certain lines before the next piano chord comes in; this way, the piano won't cut of certain parts of the song.
One last improvement we could think of, was to make sure we were all singing the correct parts of the song. We all knew what parts we were singing, but we didn't necessarily sing the right parts. We found that perhaps Ellie should have been singing much lower parts and that Abbie should have stuck with singing the high notes, because I think that if we are all singing parts which match our vocal pitches then the recording itself will sound much better; and maybe we would all feel more confident and comfortable with singing these parts. Adding to this, I think we could add a bit more variation when it comes to the volume of the singing; because I think this would be more effective.

 Wednesday 8th January 2014

Today, it was only me and Ellie in the lesson. So we took this time to listen to our previous recording in more detail. We came up with a couple more improvements for our piece of music. I had suggested that we should keep the recording device within a good distance of our voices and make sure that it is equal, and I also suggested that we should definitely read through the lyrics of the song in more depth so that we are very confident with the lyrics. We both decided that instead of having to improvise during the recording, we need to make sure that we all know what part we are singing.
We had listened to the recording quite a few times today and we had come up with some very good improvements for us to make, and that we would discuss these with Abbie next week.

Skills before and after the course:

 


SMART target: To make sure that when I am singing, my posture is correct so therefore that helps me project my voice further, keeping my back straight, feet slightly apart, and arms by my side.

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