Peer Assessment (ED1)

Monday:

First band on gave a strong performance to start of the night and the gig week. You could clearly tell that they had learnt their songs to a good standard, musically it was very good. The instruments were all in tune. All the instruments sounded fine, good use of distortion on the guitars. There are some performance technique issues like not enough movement or excitement from some of the band members but where they lacked that they made up for songs like Money where they had a really good guitar solo which was almost identical to David Gilmours solo. I also liked the trumpet on All You Need Is Love, it was good to see someone play a completely different instrument instead of just always seeing guitars. I think the vocals were too quiet and at times couldn't be heard. I think they should have picked better songs, more upbeat and not as many pop songs, more songs like All The Small Things so that they won't look as bored, they needed to be more animated. Overall it was good though, I enjoyed and so did the audience.

The band with Sasha, Finn, Rhys, Matt and Alice were very good and they were one of my favourites. I really liked their original song, the two guitars harmonising together was very clever. Everything was in tune and in time. Good balance of intrusments but the vocals sometimes didn't cut through, I struggled to hear them. To solve this you have to make sure that all the levels are fine so that the vocals can cut through and be the most prominent in the mix and the singer has to sing close to the microphone so that the vocals can be heard. The bass playing was very good and it managed to hold the groove whilst playing intricate bass lines and it sounded complete with the drums which kept rhythm and held everything in place. There were some irregular rhyhms with different time signatures, different to the standard 4/4. One thing that they could improve on is their stage presence. They clearly properly learnt all of their songs but they needed to move around more and give the audience an even better performance. Some of the band members did move around but not all of them looked animated or lively. The key to a good performance is relaxing before so that you won't worry and you'll enjoy therefore you will most likely move around. I think that the opening for their performance was consistant and strong but there wasn't enough movement on the stage. They had a good range of song genres like metal, alternative, jazz and pop. This showed their versatility as musicians.

Another one of the bands on Monday that were great was Nina's band. This consisted of Nina, Millie, Jerome, Nathan and Ross. Their instruments were in tune and in time throughout the song. They used different effects on their guitars and they considered different timbres for each song, depending on whether it was upbeat and rocky, or relaxed and slow. They clearly thought about their audience with the songs they chose because the crowd and I responded positively to the songs that they played. Their original song was one of the highlights from their gig and they applied their knowledge of performance technique to their performance, knowning when to move around depending on what type of song it is. An example of this would be from their cover of Marvin Gaye's Lets Get It On where the song is mellow with a major key therefore they're swaying and slowly moving around whilst with Rollin' they showed a good sense of stage presence and knew exactly what to do. There weren't many faults with their performance, maybe a lack of keys didn't help due to their keyboardist not being there, keys could have helped to add dynamics to their performance and add more sense of texture. Some of the songs weren't very well known songs that the audience would be familar with, consider some songs that could reach out to the majority of the crowd. Go for songs by well known rock bands possibly. At times their mix was a bit flat and some of the instruments were over powering the other instruments therefore it wasn't completelty balanced for all the songs. I think overall though they had a great performance and they all challenged themselves musically, trying out solos and hard vocal songs, and in the aspect of their performance, moving around and interacting with each other.

One of the other bands from that night was the band with Sofia, Immy, Charles, Nathan, Adrian and Burt. They werein time for all of their songs and in tune for most. They had all clearly learnt their parts, so mistakes though. I thought that their use of different instruments like Burt using the Cajon, singing and playing the electric drum kit, Charles playing Electric/acoustic guitar and bass guitar, Adrian playing bass guitar and the ukulele and Nathan singing and playing guitar was really good. It showed their high level of musicianship, how they could take on different instruments and challenges. It also helped to add dynamics and texture to their performance which is always very good. Burt singing and playing the drums was a highlight of the performance. He managed to keep the same tempo and keep rhythm, it was a regular rhythm but he did a good job. They did challenge themselves with the song choices, like deciding to play Sweet Child O' Mine. There were some mistkaes with the main riff/melody, notes weren't played and some were missed. This was also the case with the bass at points, not all of the bass lines were in tune with the other instruments. The bass itself was in tune but the wrong notes were played. To avoid these mistakes practise a lot and slow down solos and split them into sections depending on how long it is. Slowing down your part when practising is the best way to learn a piece of you're struggling. Slowly build the speed up, to the original tempo of the track and practise it until its perfect and you don't have to look at your fretboard/instrument. They played a variety of rock, indie and pop songs.

Tuesday:

The band with Ryan, Shannon, Connor and Jack. I think that this band have a lot of areas to imrpove on. Their cover of Clint Eastwood was a lot better than their interim gig performance of that song. They managed to hold it all together and it was the highlight of their performance. They weren't always in time and in tune. Their instruments were in tune but they'd play different notes whilst playing out of time. It seemed that the guitarist had no sense of rhythm for he played it sounded out of time. To help them improve they could practise along to a metronome and properly learn/practise their songs. It seemed that for some of their songs, some members weren't sure on what they were playing, but for a song like Clint Eastwood, they managed to get it all down. So learn all of the songs you have to perform to a high standard so that you know them well enough not to play it wrong and make mistakes. They had to start again for their original, there was a problem with the volume on one of the guitars. This could have been avoided by checking before the song starts to see if everything is ready. They decided to pick a few well known rock and pop songs which appealed to the audience because they knew the songs that they were playing at times. I think that they should have took into account the instrumentation for a song like Hey Ya, originally by Outkast, because they only had guitar, bass and drums while the original has a wide range of instruments. They should have considered the tone for their instruments and the vocalist showed earlier in their performance that she could play guitar so she could have helped to add texture and match the dynamic range of instruments. To help them imrpove and something important to consider would be to pick a song that matches your audience and most importantly what you can play as musicians, so don't pick a song that has a wide dynamic range of instrumentation. Hey Ya has an unsual time signature, 11/4, but they didn't play to that time signature, the drums weren't properly played like the original track or even the same time signature.

One of the bands I really liked that night was the band with Ella, Harry, Brook, Dev and Tom. They were all in tune and usually in time but there were some mistakes in terms of timing for a few songs. They had a good range of song genres like pop punk, rock, jazz and pop. In Here Comes The Sun there are some very unsual odd time signatures for the bridge, 11/8 + 4/4 + 7/8, and the drums managed to keep tempo and hold it all together. Its quite intericate playing odd time signatures so they get a lot of praise for that and it challenged them. Take Five also has an unsual time signature, 5/4, therefore it also clearly challenged them but they did a great job of it. For Underdog there were some issues with the timing and drumming. There were issues after the first chorus, the transition between the chorus and verse. Usually after a lot of the drum fills the drumming would go out of time which in some cases resulted in the whole band going out. Drum fills can add texture but it seemed like there was too much in some songs and it didn't work. To avoid this next time the drummer and band as a whole could practise along to a metronome to stop such mistakes when it comes to performing. When it comes to drum fills, try to add drum fills leading into a next section of a song like leading into the chorus, verse or bridge instead of after each few bars. I felt that the bands songs were prett good, they chose to cover some well known songs by artists the audience shoudl most likely be familiar with. I think they did play it safe with some of the songs like Call Me Maybe, they should have chose to cover a range of difficult and complex songs that would have challenged them to help improve their musicianship. Their original song was an upbeat catchy song that the audience seemed to like. I thought it was a good song and the pop punk style of the song really made me like it. They could work on their stage/performance technique. Move around on stage, interact with the audience.

Another one of the bands that night who did a good job were the band with Euan, Amy, Jonah, Jack, Beth and Jordan. They played in time and were in tune throughout their performance. You could tell they clearly learnt all of their parts, espically for a song like Golden Brown with an odd time signature, goes from 3/4, briefly to the standard 4/4 and then straight 3/4, that they managed to play to a high standard, I felt that this was one of the highlights of their performance. The bass line for Killer Queen also showed that Euan really learnt and practised his part to a high standard. It's a very complex and intericate bass line but he did a great job at covering it. It did feel that the vocals weren't quite strong enough for Killer Queen and that they could have added in some vocal harmonys to add texture and lift the song vocally. I did feel that sometimes the guitars couldn't be heard. There some issues with mixing. The overall mix was off but to improve on this the band could all check their levels before a show to see if they're loud enough or too loud. I thought that there original was very good, it had some interesting melodies on guitar with some odd time signatures that sounded really good and it challenged them all. I did think that the song was a bit too long though, they could have reduced it and make it more effective.

The last band on Tuesday night were from ED1C, I thought that they were a pretty good solid band who chose difficult songs that the audience liked and were familiar with. They were all in time but were out of tune for a small section of the REM song Shiny Happy People where the guitarist played the wrong chord. To avoid such an error you have to learn your parts and practise them so that you won't have to even look at your fretboard, you can then interact with the other band mates and with the crowd. I thought that the guitarists had very difficult songs to play with complex solos which used such techniques like tapping. They managed to incorporate some of this from one of their songs You Give Love A Bad Name, which they did a very good job of covering, into their original song. I thought that the vocals were a little weak and not passionate enough. The two singers seemed to be a little nervous which was clear from their body language, as a result of this they weren't giving their best vocal performances and their performance technique was a little weak. They kept on looking down at the floor when they should have been looking at the audience and band members. Vocalists are usually seen as the main members of bands, they should be moving around, interacting with the crowd and showing off their vocal abilities. They chose from a good range of genres like punk, rock, alternative and metal. I felt that this was good because it showed off what they can do as musicians. They did a good job of Beat It, the timbre of the guitars were great and they really managed to captivate the audience with this performance. There were a few issues with the guitar solo due to its complex slidding, tapping and amount of notes but to help them improve on solos they should break it down into parts and play it slow. Build it up and gradually start to play the solo at its normal speed. Also it helps to warm up before a performance. Play scales and perpare your hands for difficult guitar work. Overall it was a good performance

I think that most of the bands were very good and a lot of them had similar problems like performance technique issues, not moving around enough and a lack of interaction with each other and the audience.