WC 25.01.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we we're set on finishing the lyrics to the new song. We did actually finish writing the lyrics for the new song. The only thing that's left to write on the new song is to sort out the other two guitar parts.

Here are the lyrics and the structure of the song:

Intro

Verse 1-

I can't take this anymore
I'm sick of feeling so insecure
I'm sick and tired of the shit you say
I wish this pain would all just fade away

Chorus

I don't want to be here
I want to spread my wings and fly
I just want to leave here
And tell my family goodbye

Verse 2

Now I'm standing on the edge
I'm sick of this life pledge
Why can't things change, it's always the same
my pitiful life is always so lame

Chorus

I don't want to be here
I want to speed my wings and fly
I just want to leave here
And tell my family goodbye

Bridge

Solo

Chorus

I don't want to be here
I want to speed my wings and fly
I just want to leave here
And tell my family goodbye

Outro

We have decided to set up a band Facebook page and a band twitter account for Kodimoor

https://www.facebook.com/Kodimoor-330732857051175/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

https://twitter.com/kodimooroffial

I think the band has developed and we are more productive. We have written a full new song and set up pages to promote our music and our band. We have communicated better this week as everyone listened to what we had to say, this means we achieved last weeks target.

This week I wrote the rest of the lyrics with Jayden's help while the others worked on writing a bridge and trying to figure out the other two guitar parts. 

Next weeks target is to try and write the two other guitar parts to go with the new song.

WC 18.01.2016 - Reflective Diary

This weeks reflective diary 

This week we started creating a new song. George came up with a verse and then Elisha picked up the bass line then we got to work writing lyrics. Me Jayden and Elisha started writing the lyrics and we wrote the first verse. We also came up with a chord progression for a chorus but we haven't got lyrics for that yet.

When the band start writing a new song we all turn down and sit and come up with a guitar part before we add any thing else so there's something for everyone to go off. Turning down and not playing over each other helps us to communicate and talk to each other.  Luckily we all liked the guitar part that George made up, in my opinion it sounds like the same style as 'three days of grace' and I quite like that band. We started talking about the structure of the band and we decided that the intro and the verse would be quite acoustic like, in the way that it will just be the guitar and vocals and then everyone would come in the chorus.

I think our bands biggest strength is communicating. However i feel like this week we haven't been as colaberative as we normally are because we wasn't really working together as a team to write the new lyrics.

Next week I think we need to work better as a team in order to write these lyrics effectively, this means we have to turn all the instruments down when we start rioting lyrics and communicate and all contribute ideas, so the song sounds how we want it to.

The lyrics so far are

Verse 1 -

I can't take this anymore
I'm sick of feeling so insecure
I'm sick and tired of the shit you say
I wish this pain would all just fade away

Chorus-

I don't want to be here
I want to spread my wings and fly
I just want to leave here
And tell my family goodbye

WC 30.11.2015 - Reflective Diary & Objectives

The Venue

The Christmas gig is going to be held in the Grimsby Institute's theatre. This is a fairly big venue to be playing if you haven't played in front of many people before, as the theatre seats around 250 people,. Also the theatre has a big stage so the whole band will be quite spread out which can be really unusual when you are used to rehearsing in quite a small rehearsal room. The theatre is a great place to hold a gig due to the amount of people the theatre can seat making it a very suitable place to hold the Christmas gig. Also it's a great place to hold a gig as the equipment at the back of the theatre allows a technician to control the volumes and the sound that are coming from the vocalist and the bands instruments. However the downside to performing in a venue such as the theatre is, you really struggle to hear yourself on stage, so you can't hear what you sound like to the audience, even though the technician has the volumes under control, it is still a horrible feeling. 

Health and Safety

Health and safety has to be taken into consideration, there a number of things that need to be considered when playing a gig. One of the main things is the wires and cables involved when playing gigs, the wires tend to be taped down to stop them becoming tripping hazards for the performers and technicians that may be accessing the stage. This is because tripping over wires could damage equipment, seriously hurt someone or even if it doesn't hurt anyone it's just embarrassing and it can knock your confidence right before having to play. The cables from the guitar amps need to be fairly neat and the performers need to be aware of where they are to again prevent them from being a tripping hazard. Another thing to take into account while you are performing is the sound levels because if the sound levels are too hight it could seriously damage someone's ears, and in a worst case scenario, it could deafen somebody, however this one will be taken care of by a technician at the Christmas gig. 

Equipment 

For a big gig like this thee is a only a few things the band needs to bring their selves.

Vocalists just need to make sure they have a bottle of water.

Guitarists and bassists need to make sure they have their guitar/ bass and picks. They do not need to bring guitar leads because of how many bands there are swapping and changing on and off stage, so everyone is just using the same cable. They also do not need an amp because all the amps that are to be used are all set at the right volume and they have been set with the right settings. 

Drummers just need to take their drum sticks because the drum is already being set up on stage. 

And anyone that plays the keyboard, doesn't need to bring anything as the keyboards will be set up already. 

Reflective Diary

Once again my individual contribution was to give 100% effort into rehearsals so we could get a true feel to how we will sound at the Christmas gig, and I'm still listening out for mistakes so we can make the performance as solid as possible.

The band also listens out for mistakes and we communicate with each other to make sure we can fix them straight away. If the same mistake comes up a few times then we have to communicate and really narrow in on the mistake to find the problem and fix it.  If we can't fix it we communicate in order to make a decision of what to do next.

I think because the band is so good at communicating with each other and it's one of our biggest srenghts it's really allowed us to work well and really develop the two songs we will be performing at the Christmas gig which are very nearly ready!

Next weeks target is to carry on rhea rehearsing the two songs for the Christmas gig and stay focussed to get together a strong set, as it is the last week of rehearsals until the gig!

WC 23.11.2015 - Reflective Diary & Audience Expectation

We need to make our performance different to everybody else's, in order to do this one of the main ways we can do this is by performing two original songs instead of performing covers. This will make us stand out in comparison to some of the other bands because some of the other bands are doing covers and to say we will be performing two original songs, we have taken time to write and compose and rehears is more impressive than just leaning a song and rehearsing it. A thing that will set us apart from the other bands is the fact both of our original songs contrast, one of them is slow whereas the second one is upbeat and more energetic. This will make the overall performance quite different to the others.

The audience is likely to expect something different as our two songs contrast and clash genres a little bit which is quite unusual for a band as normally a band sticks to one genre. They can also expect a well rehearsed set, as we have worked really hard on polishing our songs so they are ready to gig.
In my opinion the minimum standard for a good solid performance, is for it to be rehearsed so there is no need for pieces of paper on stage as it makes the performance look unprepared and messy. Also all ten performers on stage should be putting in as much effort as they can to sound the best they could possibly sound. Also all the performers should know what they're doing even if thee has been a last minute change of plan or a performer missing, there should be back up plans set into place.
To ensure that my bands performance is suitable we first need to check who our audience will be, in this case it was some secondary school children, college students and university students, this meant it was okay to keep the 1 swear word (we have in our second song) into the performance. However if we were performing to a younger audience we would change the word 'fucked' to 'messed' in order to make our performance suitable and taylored to the audience.

Once again my individual contribution was to give 100% effort into rehearsals so we could get a true feel to how we will sound at the Christmas gig, and I'm still listening out for mistakes so we can make the performance as solid as possible.

The band also listens out for mistakes and we communicate with each other to make sure we can fix them straight away. If the same mistake comes up a few times then we have to communicate and really narrow in on the mistake to find the problem and fix it.  If we can't fix it we communicate in order to make a decision of what to do next.

I think because the band is so good at communicating with each other and it's one of our biggest srenghts it's really allowed us to work well and really develop the two songs we will be performing at the Christmas gig!

Next weeks target is to carry on rehearsing the two songs for the Christmas gig and stay focussed to get together a strong set.

WC 16.11.2015 - Reflective Diary & Team Work

There are lots of skills you have to use in able to work effectively in a team. The skills I aim to use when working with others is to be understanding. You need to be understanding when you're working with others because different people have different lives and things to deal with.  To go along with this you need to be understanding when working with other musicians because writing songs can get personal and emotional for different people, so being understanding and caring is a must as it takes someone who can be sensitive towards other people's lives and issues. Also it is important to work with each other and put your ideas together to make a strong song.

In last weeks session, it was basically the same as week because we as still preparing for the Christmas gig. So my individual contribution has still been going into rehearsals and giving 100% effort into them to get an accurate feel of how it's going to  sound when we actually perform the songs at the Christmas gig.  Also I am still listening out for mistakes so we can fix them straight away instead of making them a habit.

We haven't composed anymore songs due to just rehearsing for the Christmas gig as we want to make the two songs we will be performing as crisp as possible so we can give the best performance we can.  Also we because of this we haven't had to make any decisions regarding the songs as they've already been written and composed to how we want them.

I think the bands strength this week has definitely been the ability to adapt as Bailey hasn't been here to rehearse with us so we have had to adapt around it and change some parts, however there hasn't been much to change as Bailey joined the band after these two songs were written before Bailey joined.  I think we still need to work on polishing the songs and we need to come up with a plan for if Bailey can not make the gig.

So a target I am setting for next week is to come up with an action plan of what we are going to do if Bailey can not make the gig because if we make a plan we are going to be more prepared for the gig in the long run, and we are going to sound more rehearsed as we have thought about what we will do if a band member has to miss the gig.

WC 02.11.2015 - Reflective Diary

In rehearsals we have have been rehearsing for the upcoming Christmas gig.
Now that both of our songs have been written, all that's left to do is rehearse them and make the last little changes where they are needed. So each rehearsal we have gone in to rehearsals with set things we need to get done which has been to polish both of the songs ready to perform.

My individual contribution to this has been rehearsing to the beat of my ability in each rehearsal in order to get the best idea of what we're going to sound like when we perform at the Christmas gig. Also to help contribute I will point out if something is not quite right which will help out set become more polished if we can point out our mistakes as soon as we make them and put them right straight away.

When me and the band are writing new songs we communicate and come up with a topic and then make a mind map, and then we can kind of track through a story and come up with a structure for the song. Then we come up with lines to go with the topic and pick out words to rhyme to create the next line, as we write in a A,A,B,B rhyme scheme most of the time.

As a band we are good at communicating to each other, so we all have an effective and equal part in all of the song writing and rehearsing process, which I would consider our biggest strength. This is because we are able to work together and work off each other in a way that's effective and that works for us.

I think something we still need to develop is being focussed as there are times where as a band or individually we get distraction which can sometimes slow the rehearsal down, which means we are not getting 100% out of our time rehearsing as a band.

Next week we need to carry on getting both of the songs polished and ready for the gig and we all need to be completely focussed so we are as rehearsed as possible for the Christmas gig!

WC 09.11.2015 - Gig Evaluation

Main Individual achievements 

In the half term gig I feel that my main achievements  were actually performing in front of people as i get stage fright, so performing alone was an achievement in its self. Also I struggle to remember lyrics under pressure so I think I did well, as I remembered all the words to are first song 'Song One'.  Performig inrontof people is a big deal to me especially people who I know. So for me to be able to stand up and perorm a song infront of people on the music course was a huge acheivment for me.

As a perormer I don't feel like I have many strenghts as a peformer, however I feel that my biggest strength is my ability to push myself so my vocals sound the best they can in any performance I give.  

There is a lot of things I think i need to improve on in termsof performance. I don't have any stage presence at all because I am not confident on stage. I feel that because I have no stage presence, the performance then becomes boring to the audience because there is not much energy coming from me on the stage.  Another thing I need to develop is having faith in myself because when I get on stage/ perform I always panic thinking i'm going to forget the words to the next line and I freeze a little bit on stage.  However I don't think I ca develop these in time for the Christmas gig as I  think that these are things that are going to take time because they are to do with anxiety and confidence and this is something I will be working on over time.

For the christmas gig my target is to learn the words to 'Song One' and 'Leave it all behind' ready to perform them for the christmas gig this is because it will look very shabby and unrehersed if I take my lyrics on stage with me so I need to learn the words so I know them off by heart. To ensure this target is forfilled I will be going ito rehersals without using my lyrics so I will not become reliant upon them. Therefore this is the SMART target I am setting myself for the christmas gig