Examination

Today was the examination. I used my own relaxation techniques of listening out for my heart beat and listening to myself inhale and exhale, this soothes any nerves I have about performing. I then went to a practice room with idrees to warm up my vocal chords by using "mini mini mini mini mouse" this stretched out and warmed my vocals ready for my performance.

Then I performed:

Love you any less was first, when performing this song there is a lot of emotion behind it for me so I use that when performing to put power behind my voice and push for perfection. I feel that I had done this as the song went smoothly with no hiccups.

Picture Perfect was next this performance went well as well however I sung the wrong lines again within this song but due to the fact I had carried on ment that no one noticed. This led to me singing the song all the way through with no nerves.

Bother was the last the play. This time round I sung one line twice however it was unnoticeable as I carted on pushing my powerful voice out and inhaling and exhaling when I was suppose to. I felt that this was my best performance yet.

Isnt she lovely

This week we began perfecting isn't she lovely this entailed the swing beat on drums instead of one every beat on the high hat I would create a double tap instead to really push out the swing. I began to struggle with this and this made it hard for us to keep playing.

However I have made the transition to being exclusively a vocalist as it is my strongest skill this ment we needed to move on to a new song so that me and daisha are able to sing and back up vocals together, and work on harmonys together this will broden my skill set this means I widen my knowledge and vocal ability and performance.

Rehearsal Before Examination

 Today is the rehearsal before the examination. We did one sound check run through of each song before playing for a full reshersal.

I went off with idrees for my vocal warm up of mini mini mini mini mouse. When I came in I rehearsed my 3 songs:

Love you any less was first I felt very confident in the song and pushed myself to give it all I had, I feel this was a very positive performance, i used all my new found techniques to better my voice, I was able to keep good control over my voice during the different dynamics.

Picture Perfect was next this song was not to bad as I had sung two wrong lines however I kept going through the song. The bridge was well controlled especially the dynamics and the grit I put during the line "Yh did you have to go" this made the song seem powerful.

Bother was the last song I rehearsed.

Picture Perfect - Escape The Fate

Today I worked on my diction within picture Perfect, this is because some of the words I sing sound slurred or mumbled. I did this by projecting my diaphragm a lot more this gave me more control over my voice and my dynamics, this began to help me emphasise each word so that they were easily heard and understood.

For the next two days I will be working with idrees to work on this and by then I will be able to compleate this and Perfect this by the end of two days.

Bother-stone sour

At the end of this song the chorus is doubled and the last chours is sung at a higher pitch this posed a challenge for me. I'm working with idrees to work on my pitch and my diction within the song so that when I performs the notes are as precise as possible.

The last chours of the song I decided to make the song express more passion using a bit of adlibing. I will be working on this in the next couple of days to perfect this.

Vocal warm up exercises

I have been learning vocal warm up excersises to ease my voice before singing, this is so that I am able to hit all the notes within a song. I used the vocal exersise were I will sing the words "Every time I get the opertunity to worm up my voice" I will do this but each time I sing the line we change the key so that it warms my vocal chords.

We also sung mini mini mini mini mouse and each time we sang this we would move up in key this warmed up my vocal chords and also widened my vocal range.

Brother - Stone Sour

I began stone sour today, the songs dynamics play a very large part in the songs mood, the song has a very deep meaning behind it and I want to capture that using my newly found vocal range. Within this song i want the passion to slowly build in each chorus and throughout the song this is represented in the diagram.

 

Where the line in the diagram gets higher that's where I put more power behind my voice. This I shall work on during the week, by next lesson I will have learnt the layout of the graph and perfect it within the song.

Rag N Bone Man - Love You Any Less

Today me and idrees and Craig played through love you any less this was the first time Craig came in playing the cello this made the song a lot better textured, as this was the first time that we were all practicing not all of us new when the dynamics needed changing however this will be corrected with a coupple more practices. We are now only focusing on perfecting/ refineing the smaller details such as the dynamics within the bridge for vocals and how to end the song.

Love You Any Less - Rag N Bone

Today I have learnt how to breath properly within the song, so I am no longer struggling for breath while singing. This means that I am able to perform without stopping or struggling to sing the end of a line. However no that I have over come this I am now loosing confidence within my voice I feel that this may be because I'm over thinking about the song and wether I am correct in what I am singing however I am working on this by playing through the song and putting my all ino my performance and it seams to be helping me to gain my confidence when performing.

Picture Perfect - Escape The Fate

Today me and tom started practicing picture perfect. Tom is playing the guitar for the song, due to me already knowing the song I was able to pick up the pitch very quickly. As the pitch was not a problem, we were able to run through the song with no stops or hiccups, this ment we were able to see what it sounded like. We wanted to song to have more impact so at the end we cut of the post chorus verse and let the last word of the chours resonate with the audience for larger effect this would create a constant engagement with the audience.

love you any less - breathing exercises

i will be incorporating this into my practice with idrees, from this video i have learnt to breath from my diaphragm, this will help me with my breathing and i will be able to hold notes for longer. This will better my singing and my performance will be better.

love you any less - rag n bone man practice

Back after easter and me and Idrees continued to work on my pitch of the song which i was able to pick up quicker this time round, We were able to get through the full song as i was able to hit the notes better than before, my pitch was right where we wanted it and I was able to remember everything we practiced before Easter. however coming up towards the end of the song there is a bridge that ends quicker than expected this is when i began to miss my cue however this will be easier to work on than the pitch this I can fix in a couple of days worth of practice. next week we will be working on my breathing as during some parts of the song i begin to loose my breath this is because I am not breathing when I am supposed to.

love you any less - rag and bone man practice

I began working on love you any less with Idrees, we first needed to find my vocal range to see how high i could go. We then broke down the melody into individual notes for each word this made it easy for me to pitch my voice correctly to each word and each individual line. We were only able to get through the first verse and the first chorus this practice due to the pitch not being right. Idrees said that i need to work on remembering my pitch for each line, this is what i would work on for coming back after easter. Also need to work on my breathing and my different dynamics within the song however we will work on this at a later date.

Finalised Choices For Solos

My chosen solos for my exam are:

Rag N Bone Man - Love You Any Less. I feel this song would help explore my new found singing voice, as the song has a very large vocal range this would make the song harder however still build my own vocal range. 

Picture Perfect - Escape The Fate. I chose this song because I already know it this means I would be able to sing the song confidently. However the song would enable me to work on my rock voice this is somthing I want to get better at doing which is adding a certain grittyness to my singing voice but doing so without damaging my vocal chords.

Bother - Stone Sour. I chose this song because of its varied dynamics as the songs verses are of a low soft dynamic however the chours is powerful and of a high dynamic. I feel this will teach me how to go from a high dynamic to a low dynamic and visa versa. This will help better me as a singer

practice diary 10

Today we began to work on isn't she lovely. This song is swing so the beats are something i am not used too. when we play i need to work on keeping my tempo up so that i came keep guiding the band due to the drums setting the tempo. i need to work on my dynamics this is because the song is swung it needs to have a very relaxed feel to the song this means i need to play more gentle to get a relaxed feel to the song so that the song is smooth.

I give my self about a week to work on my dynamics to create more texture within my pieces.

Practice diary 9

Today I have finally decided to do all my solos as vocals. This is because I feel like I want to better my vocal range and learn how to sing properly without damaging my vocal chords. I have only one final solo decision my first solo vocal song will be guilty by rag and bone man.

i feel that this song will help me work and establish my vocal range. this is due to the fact the vocals are at a very low pitch. i believe the song is a nice change of genre from what i normally play its a modern blues/soul mix with is a nice dynamic range. when working on this song i need to work on my breathing and being able to hold a note for a long time without the pitch wavering. at the moment i find some of the pitch is to low for me to project and perform with expression.

I'm going to try to work on projection for a low pitch and my vocal range, i will be looking at different breathing techniques to help with this. as this is a harder song i give myself till the end of this half term so i can hit the low pitch.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Today was the Christmas concert I believe it went well, we were all a little nervous because no.1 it was most of our first time performing and no.2 we were opening the concert this ment that we were the main focus at the beginning. We needed our performance to be the best we have done this means we needed to relax so we could focus well on what we needed to do. This ment listening out for eachother so we were able to play in time and at the right tempo.

I feel that we played to our full potential this evening and we worked hard to push for perfection. 

Practice diary 4

For the past two weeks the group has been working on the songs bridge and perfecting the song overall. However we are now performing back to black in the Christmas concert, because of this we want to create a dramatic ending to the song using a small scilence to build tention and end with one large loud chord.

We decided that on the last chorus as Daisha (singer) sings the line "I go back to.." I the drummer would create a snare build up using a crescendo which finished at the end of the word 'to'. Everyone else would also stop completely and hold the science for a moment and then all play a finishing chord on the drummers cue. this meant we needed to use eye contact for the drummers cymbal hit which cued everyone else to play the last chord. As Daisha says the last word of the line and I stop the chord with a small drum roll to finish.

This would give the audience a powerful end to our first public performance. We have given ourselves till the Christmas concert which is in two and a half weeks. We belive this is a sufficient time limmit to perfect this.