jameslaneensemblediary-blog

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Band 3

This time, the entire class decided to pick songs individually and joining together as bands to ensure songs could get done in time. For the band I was in, we chose:

The Pot by Tool (me playing the guitar)

Avalon by Slash

Atlas, Rise! by Metallica

Becuase i was only playing on one song, this song was learnt quickly by myself, however I really struggled with the fast breakdown that is introduced at the back end of the track, so I incorporated my own knowledge to come up with a section that would work and compliment the other guitarist that would be playing the song note for note, this also keeps the song new and interesting.

The first session that took place, the group worked on Avalon by Slash, to begin with, and since I wasn't on this song I took the entirety of this time to learn Th Pot as the song was out of y comfort zone.

The Next session was the one I was included in, as we began by practicing The Pot, while Paris (who chose the song and chose to play bass) counted the vocalists in to help them keep time, this prog rock song seemed pretty difficult, to begin with we struggled to get past the first chorus or so when we first started playing it.

Here you can see the video from the first few rehearsals of this song:

https://unit40lewismaskery.tumblr.com/post/157836468643/the-pot-including-the-intro-with-paris-counting-in 

The complex timing of the drums compared to the guitars and bass made the song difficult but by the time the hour was up we had run through the song countless times, making little progress each time. At the end of this rehearsal everyone agreed that next week, half of the lesson would be spent practising Atlas Rise, as the parts should have been learnt by now, and then the last half would be polishing the songs until they are finished.

Next session I sat in while everyone ran Atlas Rise, but when it was time for The Pot, the song went smoother than it did last week, but it was obvious that this song would take us a while to perfect to professional standard due to timing issues, therefore we decided to include this song to be played at out MMP to showcase this as we thought this song is too complex to not showcase in a professional environment.

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Band 2

This band consisted of 

Me and Ben (guitars and bass switched frequently)

Paris (drums)

Grace and Nicole (vocals)

We began by realising that we should just get on with it as time was not on our side, so we chose two songs that we could perfect. These songs were:

Alive by Pearl Jam

No One Knows by Queens Of The Stone Age

We began by spending 15minutes each to learn Alive as everyone was relatively familiar with the structure and sound of the song. this song started to flow smoothly, and because I was playing bass on this song, I took this song as an opportunist to experiment with my bass line improvisation skills. This song allowed for use of dynamic stops and use of texture to create a full sounding, yet equally mixed song.

No One Knows by Queens Of The Stone Age was learnt toward the end of the first rehearsal week but we decided it would be best if we learnt it properly in profession for next weeks rehearsal.

The next session we rehearsed No One Knows at the beginning of this session, it went well but the timing of the song was off-putting due to the mutes and distinct melody line, and because of this I used this as a way to improve my timing issues and guitar playing in an ensemble situation. 

This was also the session that we decided we should let Nicole sing a song that was suited to her voice, so she chose Rolling In The Deep by Adele, but this song was dismissed by the end of the session as we came to realise that due to time deadlines, it would be unrealistic to learn another song.

The last rehearsal session for this band was used to polish up the songs much like we did 3 weeks ago with the first band. these rehearsals went well and were clearly well organised, as we turned up prepared every week.

[jameslaneensemblediary-blog]

Band 1

This session started off with our entire class writing a song each that they wished to practice and perform over the coming weeks. Everyone chose songs they felt would work well with their peers and would provide a good grade for them in the end. The bands were then decided, we would get 3 weeks in each band, and change bands 3 times, giving us 9 weeks in total. This is the first band that I was in: 

Me and Harvey - Guitarists

Paris - Drums

Jodie - Pianist

Beth and Nicole - Vocals

The first week, however, Nicole wasn’t here so we kept her in mind when choosing songs.The 3 songs that we had chosen to work on over the next 3 weeks were: 

Standing Outside The Fire - Garth Brooks 

Sidewinder - Catfish & The Bottlemen

Gives You Hell - The All-American Rejects

We chose ‘Standing Outside The Fire’ because of the country elements that suited Nicole’s voice. ‘Sidewinder’ was chosen because me and Harvey wanted a challenge and thought it showed our skills off and as a song, our guitar parts complimented each other well. We chose ‘Gives You Hell’ because of its clean vocal melody which suited Beth’s voice, it also had the right instrumentation for our band (apart from bass). 

The first song that we worked on was ‘Standng Outside The Fire’. Honestly, this first rehearsal went pretty well with this song, all out parts gelled well and we kept good timing throughout. Nicoles powerful, vibrato voice suited this song well.  However, when we got to the middle-8 section of the song we felt the song didn’t flow as well as we’d hoped, so we decided to strip this middle-8 section back to quieter guitars and softer instrumentation, rather than everything dropping out apart from only guitar and vocals (as we originally tried it).

We then moved onto ‘Gives You Hell’, and this song went really well. On our first run-through, there were almost no mistakes. The main thing that was of any difficulty in this song, was the structure as we all kept forgetting when the bridge section before the chorus came in. However, after practising while, the best option for us as a band was to learn the structure of the song properly for next week’s session. Another thing that we decided was that we needed a bass section in the song, so we suggested that we could use piano to act as a bass section, and we also asked Beth if she would learn the bass line for the song as it was relatively simple on bass, and she was happy to say yes.

Overall, I think this rehearsal went well, we all feel that we need to tighten up the songs we started and work on ‘Sidewinder’ mainly in next weeks rehearsal. 

The next session we started off by working on ‘Gives You Hell’. This song went really well and we decided that it’s about time that we started incorporating that track into a really good song when played live by us. this song was pretty solid from the get go so we moved on Standing outside the Fire. this song allowed me to solo throughout it and really let me play around with my guitar shapes and scales.

We then tried ‘Sidewinder’, but after attempting it, we decided that our rehearsal time would be far better spent if we went away and learnt this song with profession for next week's session. so we started perfecting the other two songs which started to come together with fluency and ease. 

The next session we focused mainly on Sidewinder, after learning all the parts individually, the song slid together nicely and proved to be a really fun song to play, while it still showcases a good set of skills.

These three weeks of rehearsals were good because we set realistic goals and got all of the songs done in time, however, I would have started with the harder songs next time as it proved to be quite panicking to leave a complex so until the last minute.