Wednesday, 3 June 2015

33.3 Solo Performance Review

Song Choice

My goal for my set list was to create a sequence of songs that got progressively heavier. I ended up picking 5 songs because they were all relatively short songs at about 3 minutes long.  

The first song in the set list ‘Scarborough Fair/Canticle’ was naturally the least heavy of all of the songs. It’s an adaptation of ‘Scarborough Fair’ the traditional folk song by Simon & Garfunkel. I chose this song because fingerpicking is a technique that I really wanted to use in this performance to try and exemplify diversity in my playing. Also there aren’t any drums in this song to keep time with so it’s quite a challenge to stay in time just by listening to the vocals.

For the second song in the set list I decided to play ‘Ochansensu-su’, a math rock song by a Japanese band called Tricot. ‘Ochansensu-su’ makes use of complex time signatures like 7/8 and 11/8 as well as more regular time signatures like 4/4 and 6/8. Although the song is still clean, it’s a lot more dynamic than the previous song and it definitely serves as a good segue to my next song…

‘Foxy Lady’ by Jimi Hendrix is a song that I’ve always loved but I’ve never learnt to play. My new white Strat has a pretty hot 60s style neck pickup which can produce some really nice Hendrix inspired tones. I probably wouldn’t have picked this song if not for that guitar. For the most part it’s not a particularly challenging song but it’s got a surprisingly hard solo which
I thought would show off my lead playing.

Now that I’ve started playing songs that are distorted and more energetic, I thought that at this point in the set list I’d switch guitars to my blue Stratocaster which is much more suited to heavy styles of playing. My fourth song was ‘Still Waiting’ by Canadian punk band Sum 41. I consider myself a good punk and pop-punk player as I am able to down-pick and palm-mute aggressively but cleanly at high tempos. This song is short but fast at 190 bpm for about 2 and a half minutes.

Finally I chose ‘MK Ultra’ by Muse which is my only song in Drop D tuning which produces arguably more powerful sounding riffs. ‘MK Ultra’ is a very dynamic song and demonstrates a lot of different techniques. It has a recurring lead riff which consists of three note arpeggios that ascend the fret board. I personally really enjoy playing this song and I love the overall energy of it.

Rehearsal

My rehearsal technique is a simple yet effective three stage process. The first stage is learning, followed by the practising stage and then the finalisation stage.

The learning stage deals with figuring out what parts to play and memorising those parts. To begin with I had to learn ‘Scarborough Fair/Canticle’ and ‘Foxy Lady’ as they were both new songs to me whereas the other three were songs I’d previously learnt. To learn ‘Scarborough Fair’ I watched many covers and tutorials on YouTube to physically see what people were playing and how they were playing it. This allowed me to fill in places where any tabs I found were incorrect. To finalise the learning process I listened to how those elements compared to the actual song. Basically I try and balance both sides of this equation YouTube + Tabs = Song. I used a very similar process for ‘Foxy Lady’ but with more of a lean towards tabs rather than YouTube.

The practising stage is where I try to play the parts I’ve learned along with the songs for the first time. I was able to find a guitar backing track for ‘Foxy Lady’ but for the others I just added a 4 or 6 beat click at the beginning to allow me to know the tempo to enter the song at. Normally many mistakes are made during this stage of rehearsal but this is where the bulk of development happens. In this stage I’m also able to figure out what does and doesn’t sound good and whether it would be beneficial to deviate from the exact original song. I do really like to perfectly replicate songs but often I do change things to add my own flair. For instance I tried to copy ‘Still Waiting’ 100% but I changed the solo in ‘Foxy Lady’ a little bit to suit my own liking. Once I’m happy with the arrangement of the songs in my head and I am able to play each of them through (whilst still allowing mistakes) it’s onto the finalisation stage.

This is the most time consuming stage because from here on it’s just repetition until all mistakes are eliminated. The way I tend to do this is not to focus on one particular song for too long or it really does get tedious. Instead I switch through my songs after 2 or 3 plays so as not to get bored. When focusing on an individual song I try to play it through without stopping unless I make a mistake so bad that it’s worth it. On this play through I make a mental note of where I’ve made mistakes or areas that need improvement. After that play through I then focus on those specific areas that need the work. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link as they say and I believe a performance is only as good as its weakest moment. This process of ‘play -> notice -> fix -> play’ is just repeated over and over until I run out of time or I’m satisfied that it is as perfect as it can be (which is never).

Review

All in all, I think the performance went very well. I find it quite challenging performing without a band. A lot of my performance comes from my interaction with others. It helps me be flamboyant, keep time and stay focused. Even if I became a solo performer in the future I’d still have a backing band that I’d play off of rather than just having me and a backing track. It’s also quite strange performing to a camera rather than an audience as my performance also depends upon interaction with an audience. I found that even though I was focused on what I was playing I ended up just looking around a lot and even being slightly bored. I was very happy with my playing however. I didn’t make any large mistakes at all and the smallest mistakes I did make probably went undetected. I think there is always room for improvement and although I played every note correctly it doesn’t mean that I played every note with the right dynamics or expression and I think that that aspect of my playing can always be developed.

Here are three things that I thought I did well:
1.    During my band assessment one of the key weaknesses of my performance was when I needed to change guitars. I didn’t really have a system in place to assure a swift changeover. This time round, changing guitars in my set only took me about 25 seconds and didn’t affect my performance. A definite plus.
2.    I thought I made the most of the equipment I had at my disposal. I don’t use any effects pedals and get my tone purely from my guitars and the amp we have at college. I thought that I did a good job setting up the two channels of the amp well enough to suit all of the songs I was playing without having to change any settings between songs. I just used the tone control on my white Strat and a foot pedal to swap between the clean and drive channels between songs 2 and 3.
3.    I thought my preparation for the assessment (other than rehearsal) was good. I’d made sure to prepare my backing tracks and although the only actual track with the guitar removed was ‘Foxy Lady’, I was still able to make the levels of all the tracks equal, add count-ins to the intros and burn them all to a CD.

Here are three things that I feel I could improve on for a future solo performance.
1.    As I mentioned earlier I found not having an audience or a band to be difficult. I think if I were to do any sort of solo performance in the future I think I’d try and find ways round those two problems. In normal live performances there’s a lot of freedom for the performers. Most bands don’t just play straight up copies of their studio tracks live. They’ll change the intro or lengthen the outro or play the solo differently or loop a middle section until the audience is as engaged as the band wants. I think I was limited by the fact I had to play to a strict track and I would try and work around that in the future.
2.    I think I could have been much clearer and more confident when introducing my tracks and talking between songs. This assessment wasn’t a particularly natural environment and I think I let that get the better of me in between songs.
3.    Another effect of the artificial environment is that my performance consisted mainly of me standing still. I wasn’t completely wooden but with a limited stage area, no band, no audience and under normal room lights it would have been a bit weird to perform as much as I usually would on stage.



Conclusion

In conclusion I feel like this unit helped me develop as a solo musician. I was able to create a diverse and interesting set list that showcases my strengths. I was able to rehearse effectively and make the most of my time. Something I forgot to mention earlier is that rehearsing during college time meant that I wasn’t isolated from other musicians and I was able to get feedback from other musicians as I was rehearsing which definitely helped the process. This feedback is something I’ll try and get in the future when rehearsing on my own. After re-watching my final performance I have been able to take away valuable lessons which will definitely help me in the future.


Thursday, 19 March 2015

30.3 & 30.4 Assessment Review

Our assessment on the 11th of March went very well on the whole but there are still ways that we can improve and ways that I can improve. Almost all of the songs themselves I played almost as well as I thought I could have and on overall I thought the transitions between songs were pretty fluid. One time there was quite a large gap between two songs where we were just awkwardly standing around but that’s because we thought the production arts students needed to sort something out before we could continue.

Now I’ll start talking about what went wrong as a band and ways that we can improve for next time (26th March). The most glaring issue is that we hadn't finished writing one of our four originals and instead of having a concrete structure we all just improvised around the 12-bar blues in G and when it came to finishing the song it was very abrupt and awkward. We have been working on a more solid structure and Emily has been writing lyrics so that next time around we will have a finished song like we should have had. Another issue we had is that we had to restart ‘Teenagers’ because Emily got the key wrong and called for us to stop and try again. It had only been about 5 seconds but having a false start really isn't ideal and since then Emily has sorted this out so next time there won’t be any false starts. I know there wasn't really a crowd but I think that we need to interact a little bit more and at least just say what we’re playing before each song. Normally that would be Emily’s job but there definitely are songs which Emily doesn't sing so Matt, Ben, Tim or I should really address the audience and tell them what’s happening.

Next, I’ll talk about issues that I personally had and how I’m going to deal with those. To be honest, the only real problem that I had was that I hadn't thought of an easy way to deal with changing guitars. My new strat isn't particularly happy with being tuned down to Drop D tuning for the two heavier songs in our setlist and would require a lot of onstage tuning to settle into the new tuning. Instead I thought it would be better to just change guitar but I realise that the way in which I implemented that wasn't as professional or speedy as it could have been. I’m definitely going to look into alternative options like having someone there to physically hand my second guitar to me as I give them my first one, or perhaps having a guitar stand to the side of stage or something. Either way, the changeover will be quicker and less noticeable.


So overall I’d rate the performance something like 8/10 which is a respectably high score but there is a solid 20% room for improvement next time round.

Friday, 13 February 2015

Unit 30 Pop Genres













Pop Genres
Genres
Artists
Description
Link

1950s - 60s
Blues
B.B. King
Chuck Berry
John Lee Hooker
Blues is characterised by 12 bar blues chords, walking basslines, brass sections and the electric guitar.

Ballads
The Penguins
Nat King Cole
Ballads have lyrics about love, simple 4 chord progressions and were popular in the post- World War II youth culture. Think ‘Back To The Future’ (which is the example I’ve included).

R&B
The Chords
In its original sense, R&B is a term used by record companies at a time when “urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat” was becoming more popular.

Skiffle
Lonnie Donnegan
The Quarrymen
Skiffle made use of homemade instruments (e.g. washboards and tea-chest bass) and was upbeat, cheap, fun and silly.
As an added bonus, here’s a 14 year old Jimmy Page playing Skiffle:







1960s - 70s
Merseybeat
The Beatles
Gerry and the Pacemakers
The Searchers
Named after the river Mersey in Liverpool, the genre is a pop and rock music genre developed in major English cities out of the declining skiffle scene.

Motown
The Supremes
Marvin Gaye
The Jackson 5
Stevie Wonder
Motown is an African-American owned record label that was hugely successful in the 1960s especially.

California Sound
The Beach Boys
Representative of sunny teenage life for Californian teenagers in the 1960s.

Folk Rock
The Byrds
Bob Dylan
In the simplest sense, it’s a hybrid of folk and rock music that arose in the USA and the UK in the 1960s.

Prog Rock
Pink Floyd
Jethro Tull
King Crimson
Genesis
Prog experimented with structure, instrumentation, harmony, rhythm and lyrical content. Long songs, exploration of complex time signatures. Used electronic effects and synthesisers. The invention of the concept album, eccentric visual live shows and album artwork that wasn’t just a photo of the band (famous artists like Roger Dean and Hipgnosis).

Psychedelia
Pink Floyd
Cream
Jimi Hendrix
Psychedelia covers many genres of music influenced by the culture of mind-altering psychedelic drugs. The genre influenced rock, pop, folk and soul.
You can’t pick just one Hendrix song so here’s a playlist:

Reggae
Bob Marley
Reggae originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Usually characterised by slower tempo, offbeat rhythms and a bass-heavy sound.


1970s – 80s
Disco
The Bee Gees
Disco contains elements of funk, soul, pop, salsa and psychedelia. Has a “four-on-the-flour” beat. The Fender Jazz Bass is associated with disco bass lines. Most disco tracks have strings, horns, electric pianos and guitars to make a thick background sound.


Country Rock/Southern Rock
The Eagles
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Allman Brothers Band
Two similar subgenres of music developed in the Sothern United States from rock, country and blues.


Hard Rock
Led Zeppelin
Queen
AC/DC
Kiss
Hard rock is a loosely defined rock subgenre that typically has more aggressive vocals and distorted guitars.


Glam Rock
David Bowie
T. Rex
Glam Rock developed in the UK in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter.


Heavy Metal
Black Sabbath
Dio
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Motorhead
Traditional heavy metal is how it was before it evolved into the many different subgenres we know today. I personally believe that Black Sabbath created the genre. Heavy metal has a thick sound with distorted guitars and dark and depressing lyrical themes.



Punk
Sex Pistols
The Clash
The Ramones
Punk has short or fast-paced songs, hard-edged melodies and vocals with anti-establishment lyrics. The associated punk subculture is very easily recognised in terms of its clothing like offensive t-shirts and spiked jewellery.







1980s – 90s
Pop
Rick Astley
Madonna
Michael Jackson
Prince
Pop in the 1980s was broadcast on MTV and artists like Michael Jackson became superstars.
Here’s a link to Beat It by Michael Jackson:


Glam Metal
Bon Jovi
Def Leppard
Motley Crue
Glam metal, also known as hair metal, combines elements of rock and metal with the aesthetic of 1970s glam rock.


Thrash Metal
Metallica
Slayer
Anthrax
Megadeth
Thrash metal is one of the main subgenres of metal music characterised by the ‘Big Four’ bands on the left. Thrash has a fast tempo and shredding-style lead guitar work.


Guitar Virtuosi
Eddie Van Halen
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
Yngwie Malmsteen
Many guitarists emerged that achieved international recognition for their skills.


Hip Hop
Run D.M.C.
Beastie Boys
N.W.A.
Hip hop commonly accompanies rapping and the subculture is defined by rapping, scratching, break dancing and writing graffiti.


Synthpop
Depeche Mode
Ultravox
Gary Numan
Synthpop is a style of 1980s pop that features synthesiser as the main musical instrument as well as using drum machines and tape loops.


New Romantics
Adam and the Ants
Culture Club
Spandau Ballet
Duran Duran
New Romanticism can be seen as a reaction to punk and began in London and Birmingham nightclubs. It was based on flamboyant fashion and new wave music.







1990s – 00s
Alternative Rock
Rage Against The Machine
Foo Fighters
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Alternative rock refers to bands that broke away from the mainstream rock sound. With the development of grunge and Britpop, many alternative rock bands became commercially successful.


Grunge
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Inspired by punk and heavy metal, grunge is usually characterised by heavily distorted guitars, contrasting dynamics, “growling” vocals and angst-filled lyrics.


Ska Punk
Sublime
No Doubt
Ska punk is a fusion genre combining ska and punk. It features faster tempos, distorted guitars, punk rock style interludes and punk-style vocals.


Punk Rock
Green Day
The Offspring
Blink-182
The 90s saw a punk rock revival with bands like Green Day having enormous mainstream success (much to the dislike of some of their original fans). This revival paved the way for pop punk.


Boy Bands
Backstreet Boys
Nsync
Westlife
Take That
Boy bands are vocal groups of young male singers that tend not to play musical instruments.


Girl Group
TLC
Destiny’s Child
The Pussycat Dolls
Spice Girls
Where there were boy bands there were girl groups. Female vocal groups also had hugely successful pop songs.


Electronic Music
The Prodigy
Daft Punk
Fatboy Slim
Moby
The growth of computers and the reduction in cost of electronic equipment allowed for more people to produce electronic music.


Britpop
Oasis
Blur
Britpop arose as a rejection of American songs in preference of songs specifically about the experiences of British youth.


Nu Metal
Korn
Limp Bizkit
Slipknot
Nu metal is a subgenre of metal that combines grunge and hip hop. The genre continued to flourish in the 2000s.


Hip Hop
Tupac
Jay Z
Dr. Dre
Snoop Dogg
Gangsta rap emerged in the 1990s which is a subgenre of hip hop focusing on the “gangsta” lifestyle.







2000s – 10s
Pop Punk
Sum 41
Simple Plan
Paramore
Fall Out Boy
Pop punk, as the name suggests, is a fusion of pop and punk which grew and thrived in California.
bonus video:
bonus bonus video:


Emo
My Chemical Romance
Panic! at the Disco
Emo is arguably not a genre but I included it because of its controversy and because bands like My Chemical Romance who were labelled emo despite denying it themselves were hugely successful and influential in the 00s.


Indie Rock
Arctic Monkeys
Franz Ferdinand
Kaiser Chiefs
Indie Rock wasn’t new to the 00s but the internet facilitated bands like the Arctic Monkeys in topping the charts with their debut single “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”.


Nu Metal
Linkin Park
Papa Roach
System of a Down
Increased interest in Nu Metal spawned a wave of bands in the 00s that brought the genre into the mainstream.


Hip Hop
Eminem
Kanye West
OutKast
Hip hop dominated the 00s. Eminem achieved absolutely massive success being a white rapper that remained relevant by being controversial. He was named the best Artist of the decade, joining Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Elton John, Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey on the list.