Group Crit. Evaluation of Our Interim Gig

Overall I felt that in some areas our performance wasn't too bad. Our best song was I'd Rather Go Blind I believe. I had some possitive feedback regarding my bass playing in that song so I was pleased with that. The only thing I would say for that performance and this applies to all of the other performances is that we didn't look animated enough, our perfromance technique wasn't at its best.

Something that we did well at was that we played It Must Be Love and I'd Rather Go Blind to a high standard. Musically I don't think there were any faults and it sounded very good. Charlotte's vocals on both of the tracks were superb, she said that It Must Be Love was too low for her to sing but she did a good job of it. Xana's drums were pretty good as well considering that she's not even a drummer and that she mainly does guitar and vocals. Owen's lead guitar as usuall was execellent and he had some good solos for all of the songs. Elesa's rhythm guitar was very strong and she's execellent at holding everything together which can help me when I play. I felt that my bass line for I'd Rather Go Blind was really groovy and I had a lot of possitive feedback regarding what I played in that performance. I'd Rather go Blind only has two chords, G# & Bb, therefore there is a lot of room for me to play triads, octaves and groove within the scale of the song to help add dynamics or else it would be boring snd rather flat. Another good thing to do for a song that might lack structure on drums that Xana could have done more of is to add some drum fills when appropriate to build tension which could retirate the lyrics or how Charlotte was singing the lyrics. Changing from high-hat to ride is another possible option that could give a performance just that small edge to help improve it.

I think one thing we really didn't do too well at was our performance technique. We looked pretty tense and not relaxed at all. Maybe for a song like I'd Rather Go Blind you need to not move around the stage and headbag, so it really depends on what songs your performing but for a song like Holiday you need to look like you're enjoying it and move due to the nature of the song. The song Holiday is originally by the Pop-Punk band Green Day so you need to have that performance technique and presence similar to that of a band like Green Day. You could say that having energy is the key for a song like this because it's riff based and you want to really entertain the audience or else it will be a flat performance. In terms of interaction in Holiday it has the perfect oppurtinity in the bridge where it's just the bass and drums playing whilst the vocals are very aggressive and this allows the audience to join in and shout the lyrics. We managed to do that so I was pleased. I think musically this wasn't one of our best performances at the time. Because I was wearing gloves which did help to add tone to my bass but did recent in my fingers slipping in Holiday. When I first learnt the song Holiday I decided to add in some octaves and subsitute notes instead of just playing root notes to challenge my ability of playing and to add dynamics. It did challenge me a lot and in the Interim gig my fingers kept on missing the octaves which would then throw me off course for the next notes I was meant to play. I now know to just try to carry on for if I laugh or look around when I've made a mistake, then it will be clear to the audience that I've played something I shouldn't have, so I should just carry on and not stop playing. Elesa's guitar fell off at one point in the song, this could have been avoided if she would have had strap locks to prevent her guitar from slipping away. I know now that in rehersal we need to practise our songs standing up, rather than sitting down because if we stand up then it will prepare us for our actual gigs, this will help us to improve as individuals and as a band. I think that the drums weren't quite right, the sound didn't seem to be the same as when we practised, the crash was all wrong. I think the sound was changed and it sounded completely different, it was good though because she changed from the crash to the ride which helped me because before I felt it very hard to keep in time with the drums becuase they were putting me off. The time signature is 4/4. 12 notes = 4 triplet eights. To help me and my band improve next time I think we should really focus and practise on our songs more, especially Holiday.

It Must Be Love wasn't too bad, at times you can tell that I wasn't playing the exact bass line and I had to improvise due to me worrying and completely forgetting the small section that is played within the verse. To stop me from worrying too much I need to relax, drink some water and not overthink everything or else I'll completely forget what I'm doing. Relaxing is the key before a performance, you could tell that we weren't relaxed and this could have made it awkward for the audience and reususlt in them not enjoying the performance. The flute really managed to cut through the whole overall mix, it was really powerful. Charlotte said that the vocals were too low for her to sing, she had suggested before to change the key to C major instead of its original key G major. It's originally sung by a male vocalist in the Madness version and in the verse Chartlotte was saying how it was a strain on her vocals. I felt that the guitar could have had distortion for the solo, it was still a clean sound and it sounded very flat. I felt that there needed to be some contrast between the flute and the guitar in the solo, they were before very soft sounding whilst in the madness version there is a saxophone playing which sounds rather harsh. We don't have a saxophonist in the band therefore if we would have had a distorted guitar in the solo then that could have helped us and made the song sound better. It Must Be Love has a real syncopated feel due to the genre, ska/new wave, which takes influence from reggae. I think Xana did a pretty good job with the drums in the verse, thats where it was a real syncopated feel that if done wrong could result in everyone going out of time but Xana managed to hold it together I think that the drum fills in areas could have been better though, but I believe that for a non drummer it was a good performance, considering the circumstances. Pop songs are usually a good choice to pick for audiences because then the audience will recognise the music and will be able to emotionally connect on some level rather than a song that they don't know, but another way to get an audience to have a possitive emotional response is to play with soul and feel, put your all into a performance.

The band I chose to analyse is Pod 1 from ED1B. I felt that their performance wasn't too bad but it could have been a lot better. I thought that their performance of Merry X-mas Everyone was their best song. I felt that the bass line was great and it managed to hold everything together along with the drums that gave a driving back beat which sounded really good. I think the bass came in too early because the drums were quite ready and there were too many drum fills when they weren't needed. They might have been added in to add some dynamics to the song when there should have been some distortion on one of the guitars to have dynamics. One thing that all bands missed and this band as well was to move around, interact and look like you're enjoying the gig. Dev, the drummer, was hitting his sticks together to incourag the crowd to clap but other then that there was little to no interaction with the crowd. They didn't move around a lot on the stage so the performance as a whole was a little flat due to this. Their performance did have a lot of great elements though. I really liked the tone for their guitars in the song Underdog. It felt very raw and quite powerful. Although the vocals came in too early for the chorus, the song was still very popular with the audience. The emotional response the audience gave was that of joy and happiness. I had a similar response, I felt a little dissapointed with the guitar for Call Me Maybe becuase their tone was clean and the bass was pretty quiet, the overall mix for that song wasn't too good but vocally Ella managed to stay strong and the song wasn't as bad, it turned out to be average. I think on all the tracks Ella's vocals were very powerful and strong, she could have moved around on the stage and her timing was off at some points but overall she had a pretty good performance musically. The rhythm guitar was good because it managed to hold everything together. Tonality is something the guitarists could consider next time to help improve and to think about texture, play different melodies and harmonise with each other rather than having the same strumming pattern with the exact same chord. This band, ED1B Pod 1, went for two pop songs which are very well known and a less well known pop punk song. I think they took into consideration their audience because they knew that the majority of the audience, mainly college students along with the teachers, would know the songs well enough to sing along. Not many people were singing and there wasn't an encouragment from the band to get the audience to sing, to improve next time they could say before a performance "Sing along if you know the lyrics!" or something along those lines. To help this band improve they should work on their performance technique and work with a metronome. The tempo for some songs were on and off so by working with a metronome, this could help ressolve this minor problem which if ignored, could resuslt in everyone losing time with each other.