Evaluation
- Jack Badby
- Jan 10, 2021
- 9 min read
Introduction
The band set up
Naturally when getting our songs we'd go over who would be on their particular instruments for the final performance since we all had our particular instruments that we were strong with there wasn't much change for the songs but there were some changes.
I was on the drums for all of the songs, Holly was doing Keys, Vocals and bass for the songs, Jayden was doing bass and rap for the songs, Aseel was doing keys and vocals for some of the songs and finally Toby played Guitar for all of the songs
The set list
Our set list went in the following order and played in the following gere.
Numb/Encore, Alt Metal/Hip-Hop
Stereophonics, Rock/Pop
Unnatural, Pop, Hip-hop
Another way to die, Pop
Excuses, Pop
Hey ya, Hip-hop/Rap
The original compositions
For the two originals we made we built the around aseels lyrics so if i'm going to point out who sort of helped us develop a functional song, but she didn't really take leadership when it came to making the song mainly our motivational speaker for the band I'd happy say I was the one who would always be asking the band if we could rehearse the song helping us develop them faster.
Recording studio sessions
Mainly the studio recording sessions went pretty much the same Jayden would be the one pressing record and the rest of the band would patiently wait to start playing our particular parts in the songs.
when recording Jayden would be the one directing me since i was in another room so he'd tell me when we started the recording and sort of ordered the concentration of the band while recording.
What instrumentation I played.
I only played the drums for the rehearsals though there were plans to have me play bass for the second original but this changed since we didn't have the time to organises the song and learning a new instrument while also writing a song wouldn't have worked thanks to the time we had to write the song.
Skills I learned.
Taking up all the songs though I didn't really exactly lean too much new stuff other than a new time signature for Hey ya this time signature is 111/4 and learning this helped me develop a skill that allows me to correctly address more complex time signatures in songs other than 6/8 & 4/4.
How effective our time management was.
Though we originally didn't really plan rehearsal time after getting more songs over the first three weeks we had to sort a timetable our so we had a equal amount of time learning each song in and out of college, so we organised our time so we spent our time rehearsing the songs equally helping us develop more structured performances when coming to the final gig.
Planning, Production & Promotion
The importance of planning and organising the gig.
Without planning a for the gig our band would have been unorganised and we would have suffered in the final performance when performing the songs since we wouldn't have known our setlist how to play our particular parts ruining the performance.
How we planned our rehearsals.
When organising the rehearsals we had a simple plan everytime we rehearsed, simply put when we made our set list we'd rehearse in the songs in the order we put them in our set list to ingrain the order of songs in our head then after going over the songs at least once we'd divert into replaying the songs we felt weren't played the best in the rehearsal and continuously go over them to perfect them for the final performance, this payed off extremely well when it came to performing the songs onstage before the final performance since getting we managed to perform our parts in each song to a high standard.
How we planned for the showcase.
We first started planning the december showcase after we got our first two or three song by planning the order of songs we'd play onstage, after this we talked about how we'd organise ourselves onstage talking about our formation, style and stage movement to paint a clearer idea of how the december showcase would go.
Research into roles/responsibilities
My Independent Practice
My independent practice consisted of spending a few hours in the weekdays playing the songs to a backing track on my drum kit other than that i'd spend time listening to the songs over and over studying them continuously to ingrain the songs into my head so when rehearsing the song at college with my band I can make pointers to the band if they miss anything when rehearsing.
Creating social media pages/events /posters
The first step of our social media campaign was creating a identity/personality, typically we didn't really have any defining identity so we utilised this to set up our onstage style which was black and white clothing defining us as a simplistic band, after this we came up with a name we set up our instagram account and promoted the december showcase.
Creating setlists, risk assessments and stage plans
Setlist.
Creating the setlist wasn't hard after collecting our first few songs we made our setlist originally in the order we got the song but after a few weeks we changed it to the worse song to best songs in our opinion.
Risk assessment.
Making the risk assessment was a more of a independent task though our band did talk about the possible risks in the pods to fill up the risk assessment in places that some band members would have missed out on.
The risk assessment - https://jackbadby500.wixsite.com/mysite-
stage plan.
The stage plan wasn't too complexed to make though it was a interesting discussion going over how each of the band members planned to place themselves since we didn't really have any opposing ideas we decided to keep the singers up front the piano, bass and guitar placed behind the singers and the drums wouldn't go anywhere just because it was easiest to not try anything grandiose.
How did undertaking these aspects of planning go?
Naturally since we didn't have any plans to try anything to spectacular we all sort of agreed on a lot of the ideas that each member had while also playing the planning safe when it came to making the set list and stage plan.
How could I have improved the planning for our the showcase.
Since we didn't really do the overall performance I can't properly critique the bands planning though I would say having the band be more familiar with the set list would be the one thing I would improve on since we always needed to read the setlist before releasing them in the order we put them in the setlist.
How well the band promoted and planned for the showcase
The day before the december showcase we had posted promotional material on our instagram and posted about the gig encouraging our followers to watch the performance via livestream though the showcase didn't actually happen it seems like we tracked some attention.
The Performance Days.
How did your day start?
Like any day before a performance at least one member of the band would be nervous before getting onstage but since we'd been on the same stage in front of the same audience so many times the I myself didn't really worry before going ontage so practising before the performance wasn't to stressful, though we would complain about the little things.
How did we prepare
Other than organising. our style or approach of attitude onstage we had to go over the setlist to make sure we wouldn't count in and each member of the band would think we would be playing different songs.
What were your emotions before the performance?
Though I can't say I felt like I could fight Zeus going onstage wasn't a foreign feeling for me I was use to the Instruments, I was use to the environment and I knew all the people I was working with thanks to this I had the confidence to get onstage and play the songs to the best of my ability, but that said if a certain song wasn't rehearsed well in previous rehearsals I would have that small bit of doubt that'll lower my confidence but the particular song we would perform like this wasn't really the worse worry on my mind at the time.
What were your expectations?
I expected a A&R representing massive record label would walk by the college and hear our performance from outside then come into college and get us signed with a massive record label though that unfortunately didn't happen I felt like it would since we had aced our songs in rehearsals before the december showcase I did expect the performance to go well though we had problems with Another way to die and Hey ya in these rehearles these problems were not big enough to make me worry before the performance.
Evaluating our performances
Excuses
The start to the song went to plan opening with the bass was a smart idea and then introducing the drums, guitar then vocals was better than our original intro where we would all start at the same time was a better choice thanks to Jaydens dedication to learning the instrument this made his simple rhythm more easy for the audience to listen to while also complementing the other instruments.
The Drums complemented the bass and provided a nice bridge into the chorus and other critical parts of the songs though there could have been less drum roles the song wasn't ruined by their inclusion other than one of the last roles where choked thanks to me overusing them and trying to complex the song.
The vocals were great with Holly and Aseels voices complementing each other it made for a more Inclusive and organised performance though Holly did mess up one of her lyrics and laughed about it onstage it didn't intrude the flow and made the performance abit more joyful.
The guitar was great I was it's own thing while not straying way and becoming one complexed piece of work so this also was another part of the music that made the song all the more interesting.
Stage movement was minimal but there was no need for any 360's and frontflips for this more relaxed performance, this song also had some members of the crowd cheering mid song so that must account for something and the band style was consistent with a black and white theme of clothing on the band members.
Hey ya:
The songs start is strong with no notable problems though the vocals were supposed to come in immediately the band recovered this well and played it off as if It was supposed to happen and though later mishaps will occur with the drums they seemed to play into everything that'd construct the later song though towards the end the drums would shut down the flow of the song and enabatly end it.
The vocals were great Aseel managed to stay in time unlike in the rehearsals, the guitar and piano are consistent with toby and holly maintaining this and the bass was played well for how long Jayden had to learn his part.
Stereophonics
This performance went to plan other than a few problems with the mics and bass all the particular parts of the song where played well and at their best during the performance without too many hiccups
The drums and electric guitars complemented each other with the occasional inclusion of the bass the song formed into a worthy replicant of it's origanal.
Unnatural
This song was probably the best song performed with all the instruments and the vocals playing off each other and complement the overall performance of the song the stage movement isn't the best in the world but it still holds up and isn't the worst part of the performance that title goes to our unorganised end to the song since we had to many plans for the end of the song we didn't know how we'd effectively end it and thanks to this we had a rocky end to such a great performance.
Another way to die
This was definitely the worst song performed at least when it comes to the drums though the original song is definitely complexed I tried to over play my part and the performance suffered for that though at some points the all the instruments and vocals were consistent the few mistakes I made Bane's the performance though I did manage to recover thanks to the bands team word the song did eventually come together and did provided the audience and the band with a satisfying performance.
Numb
This song in rehearsals was our strongest and since it was our first song we were tasked with performing we had a lot of time to perfect it we easily played this song comfortably in front of an audience with no notable mistakes made during the performance.
Season greetings
This song was as average as they come when it came to performing since there wasn't much to it we had no problems playing this onstage and we probably could have played it a million time over with no hiccups.
Conclusion
Each and every one of the songs where satisfying for me though I may look back on my side of the performance and say I could have done better I proudly take that self criticism and build upon my mistake to ensure my success as a musician and a team player and after all the experience i've had with this band I am happy to see what we achieved going over this performance.
Links to the included songs
Excuses
Hey ya:
Stereophonics
unnatural
Another way to die
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