caitlyns-collab-experience

[caitlyns-collab-experience]

Thursday 10th June

This was our first week back after half term. I struggled a little bit this week as I have been suffering with a cold/cough which has affected my singing. I still practiced for the benefit of staying up to date with our work but it wasn't easy!

Next Thursday is our assessed gig! What is there left to do? I still need something to improve the bridge section in Beetrice's song, but I have been struggling with my mental and physical health so this has been a challenge. To overcome this issue, I wonder if I should keep the bridge similar to the way I had it, but with cleaner improvisation after regular practice. This will be something that I will work on over the next few days.

There isn't a huge amount to say about this week as we have only had one practice session on Tuesday and my contribution was minimal due to my cold.

Today we had some workshops with Soweto Kinch which were really good! I found him and his band very inspiring and I'm hoping that I will have less trouble writing and finding inspiration after today.

[caitlyns-collab-experience]

Friday 28th May

The last week before half term! All the magic happens after the break!

This has been quite a productive week and it felt like we had a bit of a breakthrough with the 007 group! We have really worked hard on the specifics on both of these songs to get them to where we want them.

We picked up on some very minor details, and all of them added up to make a big impact in the end! For example, in "skyfall" in the bridge, when I sing "where you go I go", I've started singing the "I" slightly different so then it makes the rhythm section feel more powerful and emphasizes that part better than before. This is reflected in this weeks performance: https://youtu.be/37by6e2w3Dg

In an individual practice session, I worked on certain parts that I felt like I needed to work on vocally. Doing individual sessions for myself really helps bring more to the table when we come together as a group. For example, in Skyfall I feel as though I need more control when I sing "we will stand tall" as it is in head voice and I'd like to be more confident with this. I broke down the notes of that line and did some vocal exercises with them.

We also worked as a group to make sure that the first section of "no time to die" is timed better and is less messy. With it being so minimal, it is hard to control who plays and where so we practiced keeping the feel of the tempo etc in this part.

I have been working with Nick further to clean up locked out of to show more confidence in our playing. Alongside this, we have gotten the Ed Sheeran mash up together and it is sounding really good. We have a vocal harmony in parts of it and our voices sound good together.

Similarly to last week, I've been working on Beetrice's song at home but I still haven't come up with something good for the bridge section. I think I may have writers block, as I was going to write lyrics for another one of their songs but couldn't get inspired. We shall see what happens over half term!

Let's evaluate!

There's always something to put into an evaluation, however I can't find a huge amount of flaw in our progress this week! I've mentioned all that has happened in the first section of this post! Maybe I will be more self critical this week and say that I need to focus on writing over half term, and make sure that I stay well practiced for when we come back! Oh, I also need to learn more of the lyrics to mine and Nick's Ed Sheeran mashup as there are a lot of lyrics and I'm still not 100% confident that I know them by heart.

[caitlyns-collab-experience]

Friday 21st May - update

It has been another week and another performance!

So, what has happened?

I have been practicing more with Nick ready for the Thursday performance! We performed it in front of our peers for the first time yesterday and I think it went pretty well.

Mine and Nick's performance: https://youtu.be/XmmkSU1xRts

We've focused on "locked out of heaven" the most, so then we had something good to present this week. Our next steps are to crack on with the next song and build some confidence.

In the Bond Tribute band, we thought it would be good to play "No time to die" this week. As mentioned in a previous entry, we got the feel to this song quite quickly and got the sound quite well. We have, again, been focusing on dynamics and building the song in the right places.

This weeks Bond Tribute performance: https://youtu.be/7--X-8s6bQA

I took a break from Beetrice this week as we only have the one song, so we decided to work on it individually at home while they prepared the rest of their set.

Let's evaluate!

The amount of rehearsal that has been picked up this week by Nick and I is (I think) reflected in our performance. Over all, I think we did a good job, but there are a few things that I'd like to change for next time. One thing that I liked was that we kept a good stage presence/energy and connected with the audience. What would I change? I feel as though I need to work on a couple of vocal techniques, particularly in the part after the bridge when we intend on going softer in dynamics as that vocal switch turned out to be quite difficult to control resulting in me messing up slightly. I also think we should work on trying not to rush through the performance so much.

How about the Bond performance? We hadn't been working on this song as much as we did with Skyfall before the performance, so it wasn't as put together as it could've been. I think our timing needs to improve, because with this song we can't lose the tempo otherwise it doesn't sound strong. This is something to work on for next time.

[caitlyns-collab-experience]

Friday 14th May - update

It's time for another update since my last entry!

So, every Thursday of this month from yesterday onwards we are doing mini gigs in front of our peers at the end of the day. This gives us the perfect chance to show off our development and motivates us to do better after evaluating our performance. Yesterday was our first one of these Thursday gigs! I played Skyfall with the Bond group and I played the song that I've been writing with Beetrice!

Here are links to both performances:

https://youtu.be/1-2VAmQH0UA

https://youtu.be/Zbk0qXNzrYM

So what have we done over the past week or so?

I feel as though with the Bond group we have made our performance of Skyfall so much tighter since we first started. As they say "practice makes perfect" and there were a few things that we pin pointed in rehearsals that we worked on before this weeks performance. Our main focus was to work together to achieve a good control of dynamics throughout the song. This makes things a lot more enjoyable to listen to and play! We also have started rehearsing no time to die and it went really well as we got the feel for the sound quite quickly.

With Beetrice, I have practiced our song and agreed on the small details of the song structure such as transitioning into the bridge section where everything breaks down.

I didn't perform with Nick this week as I already had a lot on my plate with the other 2 bands! And of course he is also in the Bond Tribute Band so we had a lot to do! However, this didn't stop us from rehearsal! We have been focusing on playing locked out of heaven and getting a good feel to give to the audience when performing. We plan to perform this next week. We have also decided that we have taken on quite a lot for ourselves in this gig so we are sticking with 2 songs rather than doing an extra piece with Luke Russ.

Let's evaluate!

We have done well in the Bond group to make Skyfall sound more professional. I just want to add how important it is to connect with your band when performing. Over the last few weeks this group has really connected and communicated better through regular practice with each other and I feel like this really affected our performance this week. When watching ourselves back, I think it is clear that we still need to keep rehearsing and pinpointing the specifics to come across more confident and professional ready for the final gig! So the next steps are to develop "Skyfall" even further and to get a move on with "No time to Die"!

What's next with Beetrice? I'm very happy with how Thursdays performance went with these guys! The plan is to keep rehearsing and developing it into something great. I think, specifically, the bridge part needs a bit more structure and practice and I also think it needs some extra lyrics to be set in there rather than improvisation. It will still have an improvised feel to it, but it just needs a written bit to make it stand out.

[caitlyns-collab-experience]

How did my first week go?

The first week has been as hectic as I expected, being part of 3 bands. I feel as though this is an accurate representation of the workload that I'd have in the industry and so far I've organised myself in a way that it has been manageable.

what did I do and with who?

- Acoustic duo

We discussed which parts of our plans are set in stone and which parts aren't. We did a vlog entry summarising our meeting and here is the link:

https://youtu.be/SCvkT3JnEa8

(side note edit -all of my links were uploaded at a later date as it was easier to collate them and upload them at once)

In the vlog entry I mentioned that the gig is at the end of May, but it is actually in Mid June.

Throughout the week, Nick and I kept practicing and tightening up our performance. We specifically have focused on "Locked out of heaven" by Bruno Mars to make sure we get that to sound good before we move onto "Don't/No diggity". This seems like an effective way of working. We plan to move on to start tweaking our second song next week!

- Bond Tribute

We have made a good start getting to know the structure of our first song "Skyfall". We have got it all together and have pretty much got a good foundation of a run through to work on over the next few weeks. I see us having a good outcome ready for the gig after some time.

- Beetrice

Previously, I started writing some lyrics with Beetrice after they showed me an instrumental structure to a song. We have now got a full song ready. Normally when I write songs, I develop them as I keep practicing so it will get even better over time. Here is a link to what we have so far:

https://youtu.be/NnB_ee2AI3o

Evaluation for the week

What have I taken from the week?

I'm really impressed with how the first session with Nick went. We both made inputs relating to creative choices when making our own version of "locked out of heaven". We played around with different versions to see what we liked more. We tried slowing it right down and giving it a slight jazz and relaxed feel, but we then decided that we preferred the regular (fast) tempo approach, as its more of a fun atmosphere for our target audience: other students and their families on a sunny evening.

My conclusion for this week regarding the Bond Tribute is that it may take more work than we thought and we may have to go with 2 songs instead of 3. We have made a good start but we didn't realise at first how big the sound needs to be to reach the standards of the original pieces.

I'm more than happy with what I've started with Beetrice and we have a complete foundation to work on in order to develop the song further for the gig. I'm quite proud that I've written something outside of my "normal" style. It'll sound really good after it's all ironed out!

[caitlyns-collab-experience]

Intro (proposal)

What's the project?

As we come to the end of our time at college, we have one last project to complete. This gives us the opportunity to all come together and demonstrate the skills that we have developed over our time on the course. I've taken this opportunity and ran with it, while deciding to work with 3 groups. Performing with 3 groups will reflect that I can perform, cover, write and adapt music in different styles. With this in mind, we will be working towards a gig to showcase our work. The assessed performance will be on the 17th June and the final gig to the public will be on the 24th June.

What am I doing and who am I working with?

As mentioned previously, I am in 3 groups! And I am up for the challenge! Here are the groups:

- Acoustic Duo: Nick and Cait

I will be working with Nick Warren to create a nice summer acoustic feel for our audience with 2 songs adapted to our own performance style. The 2 songs that we have planned are 'Locked out of heaven' by Bruno Mars and a mash up of 'Don't' by Ed Sheeran and 'No Diggity' by Blackstreet.

- Bond Tribute band

This band adds another three songs for me to play at the gig. These songs are "No time to die" by Billie Eilish, "writings on the wall" by Sam Smith and "Skyfall" by Adele. All of these songs are Bond themes and will be covered fairly close to the originals, with slight change as our artistic choices are added to enhance our performance.

- Beetrice

I am collaborating with a band called Beetrice who are the iconic funk band on the course. I don't normally play funk music as a singer, so adding this to my project is a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. We have already started writing a song which I am really happy with.

Marketing and promotion

In our class, Dominika has taken on the role of promoter for the gig. She plans on creating posters and putting a couple things on social media for us and the other bands ready for the end gig.