Reflection
(Second Cover)
(Asher, David, Luca, Tony and Zennon)
First Rehearsal:
The majority of the first rehearsal, was devoted to choosing a song. In my opinion this was a highly unproductive lesson, as, if we had of decided on our song early in the session, then would have had a chance to begin to practice the song and maybe even start making some changes.
The first song that we started practicing, was Summer Light, which was composed by David Cui (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-xtEiQGGQw). The song is an electronic song, as it seemed stupid to try and recompose this song with instruments, instead of remixing it on a computer. This led to our second and final choice of songs, Do You Want to Know by Artic Monkeys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOSxM0rNPM). This song seemed perfect, as it would be easy to recompose due to the simplicity of the song. The songs melody is quite basic and allows for multiple changes, such as style, tempo, rhythm, etc.
This rehearsal was rather unproductive, as we only achieved picking and beginning to learn the song. Even though knowing the piece helped in later rehearsals, the fact that we spent the rest of the lesson arguing about what we wanted to change, without any advances. This meant two things, one it put more pressure on us in the next two rehearsals, and two that we would be changing less because we had less time.
Within the first rehearsal we messed around with a few ideas and even made a few very minor changes. We messed around with what style we wanted to change to, it was a split between jazz and reggae, as the group couldn’t decide. I personally though that it would work well in the style of reggae, as the original song is downbeat and slow. This gives the song a relaxing and almost dismal feel to the song, making it less of a dancing song and more of a song that you listen to, to relax. By changing the song to reggae it would make it upbeat and less depressing and livelier. Though on the other hand I though jazz could have a good result and would also achieve those two qualities.
One of the changes that we made to the song was spending up the tempo. The new speed to the song strongly added to the feel of the song, as it became less dismal and became brighter. One of the other small changes was deciding to remove the singing. I though this worked well with the changes we were making, due to the fa t the singing sounds almost depressing due to the speed.
Overall I was a disappointed at the small amount of progress that we achieved in that one lesson, though I was happy that we at least learned the song and made a few changes to the song. I feel that if I want to improve this, I need to make quick decisions with the group, so that if those decisions don’t work, we would still have time to fix them up.
Second Rehearsal:
Compared to the first rehearsal, the second rehearsal was much more productive. We were able to make many of the final decision for our composition. This allowed us to test them and even practice and get used to playing them with each other (as a band). Though this quick advancement in the session helped us finish our cover it also meant than we didn’t finish our cover (to its full potential). These quick decisions meant that the majority of the group felt satisfied with our progress, when as a matter of fact the cover was far from complete.
What we achieved in the lesson; was a few additional changes, such as the solos and the more hard-core rock ending (after the solos). Though for some reason, the speed that we added to the beginning of the song, trailed of and we went back to a speed closer to the original. I don’t know why this occurred, but it was most likely due to the distance in time from our first rehearsal (end of term 1) and our second rehearsal (start of term 2). I found this rather disappointing, as the song began to take possession of its original characteristics, slow, relaxing and dismal.
The solos were another part of the solo that sounded sloppy until around the end of the rehearsal. The solos were comprised of three solos. I hand the first solo, then Tony and then David and Asher. I personally hated the three solos because they sounded sloppy and nothing like the original. By the end of the session this got narrowed down to one (just me). This worked better as it was able to go from the start (which sounded close to the original), to the middle (the improvised solo), to the end smoothly.
I feel that we used this session more efficiently, but we didn’t add enough to the song. I would of loved to make the whole song jazz, but at least I was able to somewhat swing the solo. If I could change the song, I would make the style jazz or reggae, or maybe jazz, solo and then reggae, I would speed up the tempo, have the singing replaced with an instrument (which we did to an extent) and keep the solo.
Third Rehearsal and Performance
The third and final rehearsal was the least productive of all the rehearsal, as we didn’t attempt to add anything to the cover and we stuck with what we had. The only thing we did was practice, which towards the end of the rehearsal turned into random improvised jazz. To be honest there isn’t much else to say about this rehearsal, but we should have used our time more wisely.
Performance
The performance, was rather successful, as we all played our parts to quite a good standard. The two let downs were, the amount of changes we made to the song and my improvised solo, which definitely didn’t work as well as other times I had improvised it.
All in all, the main improvement (as I keep stressing) is that we needed to make more changes to the original piece of music. In my opinion I think that the performance was good and we each played well. Hopefully I can learn from this assessment, in how to use time more efficiently when working by myself and with a group.
(Second Cover)
(Asher, David, Luca, Tony and Zennon)
First Rehearsal:
The majority of the first rehearsal, was devoted to choosing a song. In my opinion this was a highly unproductive lesson, as, if we had of decided on our song early in the session, then would have had a chance to begin to practice the song and maybe even start making some changes.
The first song that we started practicing, was Summer Light, which was composed by David Cui (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-xtEiQGGQw). The song is an electronic song, as it seemed stupid to try and recompose this song with instruments, instead of remixing it on a computer. This led to our second and final choice of songs, Do You Want to Know by Artic Monkeys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOSxM0rNPM). This song seemed perfect, as it would be easy to recompose due to the simplicity of the song. The songs melody is quite basic and allows for multiple changes, such as style, tempo, rhythm, etc.
This rehearsal was rather unproductive, as we only achieved picking and beginning to learn the song. Even though knowing the piece helped in later rehearsals, the fact that we spent the rest of the lesson arguing about what we wanted to change, without any advances. This meant two things, one it put more pressure on us in the next two rehearsals, and two that we would be changing less because we had less time.
Within the first rehearsal we messed around with a few ideas and even made a few very minor changes. We messed around with what style we wanted to change to, it was a split between jazz and reggae, as the group couldn’t decide. I personally though that it would work well in the style of reggae, as the original song is downbeat and slow. This gives the song a relaxing and almost dismal feel to the song, making it less of a dancing song and more of a song that you listen to, to relax. By changing the song to reggae it would make it upbeat and less depressing and livelier. Though on the other hand I though jazz could have a good result and would also achieve those two qualities.
One of the changes that we made to the song was spending up the tempo. The new speed to the song strongly added to the feel of the song, as it became less dismal and became brighter. One of the other small changes was deciding to remove the singing. I though this worked well with the changes we were making, due to the fa t the singing sounds almost depressing due to the speed.
Overall I was a disappointed at the small amount of progress that we achieved in that one lesson, though I was happy that we at least learned the song and made a few changes to the song. I feel that if I want to improve this, I need to make quick decisions with the group, so that if those decisions don’t work, we would still have time to fix them up.
Second Rehearsal:
Compared to the first rehearsal, the second rehearsal was much more productive. We were able to make many of the final decision for our composition. This allowed us to test them and even practice and get used to playing them with each other (as a band). Though this quick advancement in the session helped us finish our cover it also meant than we didn’t finish our cover (to its full potential). These quick decisions meant that the majority of the group felt satisfied with our progress, when as a matter of fact the cover was far from complete.
What we achieved in the lesson; was a few additional changes, such as the solos and the more hard-core rock ending (after the solos). Though for some reason, the speed that we added to the beginning of the song, trailed of and we went back to a speed closer to the original. I don’t know why this occurred, but it was most likely due to the distance in time from our first rehearsal (end of term 1) and our second rehearsal (start of term 2). I found this rather disappointing, as the song began to take possession of its original characteristics, slow, relaxing and dismal.
The solos were another part of the solo that sounded sloppy until around the end of the rehearsal. The solos were comprised of three solos. I hand the first solo, then Tony and then David and Asher. I personally hated the three solos because they sounded sloppy and nothing like the original. By the end of the session this got narrowed down to one (just me). This worked better as it was able to go from the start (which sounded close to the original), to the middle (the improvised solo), to the end smoothly.
I feel that we used this session more efficiently, but we didn’t add enough to the song. I would of loved to make the whole song jazz, but at least I was able to somewhat swing the solo. If I could change the song, I would make the style jazz or reggae, or maybe jazz, solo and then reggae, I would speed up the tempo, have the singing replaced with an instrument (which we did to an extent) and keep the solo.
Third Rehearsal and Performance
The third and final rehearsal was the least productive of all the rehearsal, as we didn’t attempt to add anything to the cover and we stuck with what we had. The only thing we did was practice, which towards the end of the rehearsal turned into random improvised jazz. To be honest there isn’t much else to say about this rehearsal, but we should have used our time more wisely.
Performance
The performance, was rather successful, as we all played our parts to quite a good standard. The two let downs were, the amount of changes we made to the song and my improvised solo, which definitely didn’t work as well as other times I had improvised it.
All in all, the main improvement (as I keep stressing) is that we needed to make more changes to the original piece of music. In my opinion I think that the performance was good and we each played well. Hopefully I can learn from this assessment, in how to use time more efficiently when working by myself and with a group.