Music Rehearsal Skills

Tuesday, 20th October 2015

I listened to the songs at home and practised them at home on my own. I hope to achieve my targets that I set at the beginning of the lesson. Make sure we work and listen to each other well.

Monday, 2nd November 2015

I thought about different ways we could make the piece our own. I hope to achieve my targets from last week and improve them. I need to make sure that I work hard and to my fullest ability.

Tuesday, 3rd November 2015

I listened to the songs at home and practised them. In this lesson we didn’t get that much done because most of our group wasn’t present. Make sure that I get something done in the hour that we have.

Tuesday, 10th November 2015

In this rehearsal, we carried on with 'Somewhere only we know'. We went through the song a couple of times and we highlighted the mistakes that we were making or how we could've improved the way it sounded. Me, Jenna and Bryony all were working to incorporate a harmony into the song (around the end) to make it sound better and more interesting. This lesson was quite successful, despite us only just finalising the song.

Monday, 16th November 2015

In this rehearsal, Ollie and Louis looked over and recapped on 'Mr Writer - Stereophonics'. They wanted to do this because they felt like there version was too simple, and they needed to vary the different beats and rhythms to make it sound better. Therefore they talked about the things that they needed to improve. Overall this lesson was quite successful. In the next lesson, we aim to look over the next song in detail.

Tuesday, 17th November 2015

In this rehearsal, we began to look over the song ‘Iris’. In this rehearsal we did not have a drum kit to use because we were in the porter cabins. This meant that Ollie had to use garage practice with. As we looked over the song, it was difficult at first because of the fact that Ollie was using Garageband on the iPad and Louis wanted him to identify and create a beat which sounded good with the guitar. Once we discovered a beat we went through the song, looking to identify mistakes that we made. This rehearsal went well, however we did not finish the song in time and we needed quite a bit longer to improve our performance of the song.

Tuesday, 23rd November 2015

In this rehearsal, we carried on with Iris. After looking over the things that we wanted to improve, we kept on working on individual parts of the song to improve. Ollie and Louis were fine, because Louis knew what he was playing on his guitar and Ollie had already established a drum beat; however me, Jenna and Bryony still needed to incorporate a harmony into the song at the end.

Monday, 30th November 2015

In this lesson, me Jenna and Bryony practiced our harmonies while Ollie and Louis started working on Mr Writer by Stereophonics. This went fairly well however the beat sounded a bit too simple and needed further development. Overall the lesson was very productive.

Tuesday, 1st December 2015

In this lesson, all of us recapped on the set for the final performance. We went through it, however there were some flaws in each song that we needed to correct. We did not have much time to look into the songs in detail as we had to share the room with another group.

Tuesday, 8th December 2015

In this lesson we had to go into a porter cabin to practice but without a drum kit. This meant that Ollie had to use Garage Band on the iPad which he found it difficult because of the screen being small. We went through Iris again and it went quite successfully.

Monday, 14th December 2015

Today was the final lesson that we had to rehearse before the performance to the class. For the performance we had to play 2 songs. The songs were Mr Writer and I see fire. We practiced them a couple of times and it didn't go very successfully because it was rushed and we didn't have a lot of time.

Tuesday, 15th December 2015

Today we performed our 2 songs to the class. We had realised that we did not practice I see fire enough. This is because Ollie didn't incorporate any fills or crashes because he didn't know what it would've sounded like. This performance went okay, however it could have been better.

Tuesday, 5th January 2016

Our teacher Miss Onacko has left. This meant that our new teacher, Mr Fuller had an introduction to his teaching and we talked about it. The whole lesson we had a discussion about our own interests in music and what instruments we play.

Monday, 11th January 2016

After watching our performances before the Christmas holidays, Mr Fuller gave us feedback on our overall performances. He also told us that our sets need improving for another performance. This lesson we didn't have any time to rehearse as we were still discussing what is happening in our groups and what is happening in our whole class. 

Tuesday, 12th January 2016

Today me, Louis, Ollie, Jenna and Bryony started practicing again on our songs. After listening to Mr Fuller's feedback, we knew we had to start taking these practical’s more seriously. We went through a couple of songs just so we knew what we were doing again. 

Tuesday, 19th January 2016

In this rehearsal, we practiced as normal. Ollie and Louis went through 'Mr Writer' and then everyone went through 'Somewhere only we know'. This was another rather successful lesson, getting a couple of songs rehearsed.

Monday, 25th January 2016

Today, we went in the porter cabins to practice. Ollie used the iPad to play the drums. Me, Jenna and Bryony all worked on our song (which is 'All of Me’) for one of the first times. After this we all practiced 'Iris' and it was a productive lesson especially with the practicing conditions that we had. 

Tuesday, 26th January 2016

Today we were in the Hexagon. Mr Fuller spent the lesson working with us to help us with our set. First of all, we played 'Somewhere only we know'. He was quite impressed however he wanted us to change the volumes of each instrument. He wanted Ollie to change the way he hit the snare which was on the rim to make it quieter and to create more of an acoustic sound. He also wanted Louis, who played the guitar, and the singers, me Jenna and Bryony to be louder.

Tuesday, 2nd February 2016

This rehearsal consisted of running through our set. As a group we kept going over our songs to try and make them as perfect as we can. We still were changing parts to ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and we changed the beat a little to make it louder and catchier. This made it sound much more effective. This lesson went well as we are continuing to progress as a group.

Monday, 8th February 2016

Today we were in the porter cabins again. We consistently practiced our set once again and Ollie played the drums on the iPad. We all set each other prep. Mine, Jenna and Bryony’s homework was to go home and practise the songs on our own, Ollie’s was to continue to practice some songs on his drum kit at home and Louis’s also was to practise a song on his own.

Tuesday, 9th February 2016

In this rehearsal, we played on the stage because there was no rehearsal place for us so we got a drum kit and put it on there and everyone played well considering the disadvantage we had. We went through our set again, and we got all of the songs done. Me, Jenna and Bryony started working on our song ‘All of me’ on one side of the stage while Ollie and Louis practiced Mr Writer on the other.

Tuesday, 23rd February 2016

Today we were in the main music room, and Mr Fuller wanted me, Jenna and Bryony to start practicing ‘All of Me’ more because it was nowhere near finished. We were practicing in the same room as Ollie and Louis so we all couldn’t practice at the same time because it was too noisy otherwise. 

Monday, 29th February 2016

In this lesson we struggled to find something to do because of the fact that every lesson we do the same thing and we really wanted to find something to change things up and to make it more interesting again. We ended up changing parts of the song 'Iris' to make it sound more upbeat and more exciting to listen to. 

Tuesday, 1st March 2016

This rehearsal was the same as the day before because we just continued to make small but big changes to our set to make it sound more interesting and to also interest us more because in my opinion we lost focus a little because we was getting bored of doing the same thing day in day out so this was good for us. 

Tuesday, 8th March 2016

Today it was our turn in the main room so we had everything already set up for us and we just got stuck in straight away and went through our set a couple times with some of the changes we made to make sure we was happy with our decisions on what we did and where we made our changes. Todays rehearsals was one of the best we've had.

Monday, 14th March 2016

Today me, Ollie, Louis, Jenna and Bryony played on the stage again. We went through our set, starting with 'Iris', then 'Somewhere only we know', then 'I see Fire', 'Mr Writer' and finally 'All of me'. It went really well because we got through all of the songs and we could really see how much we are improving as a group. Overall, this has been our most successful lesson so far.

Tuesday, 15th March 2016

Today it was our group's turn to rehearse in the porter cabins and the porter cabin with the drum kit in it was free so we used it. As a group we agreed that we should just be going from the top of our set through to the end. For Ollie’s drum beat in some songs he started off quietly, hitting the symbols when it started, then gradually going into the beats and getting louder. For I see Fire Ollie played a louder beat and it sounded much better. We showed Mr Fuller and he said it was really good. I think that as a band we are all improving and it is sounding better and better. 

Tuesday, 22nd March 2016

Today our whole class were informed that our music teacher Mr Fuller was leaving because he wanted to change jobs from being a teacher to something out of his comfort zone. That meaning we didn't have much time to rehearse. We still went through our set though going through Iris, Somewhere only we know, I see fire and Mr Writer.

Monday, 28th March 2016

Today our group played in the porta cabin with the electric drum kit. It was our last rehearsal with Mr Fuller before he leaves to go to his new job. Once again we went through our set. Me, Jenna and Bryony were not doing ‘All of Me’ anymore either because after recording some of our songs we estimated the time it would add up to with our 4 songs, and it added up to around 15 minutes and so this meant that we didn't have to play a 5th song. 

Tuesday, 29th March 2016

Today we met our new teacher called Mr McConnell. We were in a normal classroom because other people were using our class. So we didn't get to rehearse today however, we got to share with each other our favourite genres and sir did the same. 

Tuesday, 19th April 2016

Today's rehearsal consisted of going through our set again with our new teacher. Therefore, it was our first rehearsal with Mr McConnell and it was his first time listening to our set. We played the songs to Mr McConnell and he liked it them especially I see fire.

Monday, 25th April 2016

Today we were in the main room after having a lesson in the porta cabin. Today we especially looked at Iris, as Ollie felt as if the drum beat didn't sound complex enough. So he added some fills with open hi-hats. We took some time to adapt to this because we weren’t used to it, so we went through the song a couple of times. Overall this lesson went well.

Tuesday, 26th April 2016

Tuesday, 3rd May 2016

Monday, 9th May 2016

Tuesday, 10th May 2016