WC 13.06.2016 - World Skills

We came in to rehearse on Monday ready for the Gig on Tuesday in Newcastle.

I think rehearsal went well we just needed to work on stage presence.

On Tuesday we performed and I thought it went well but the keyboard was really out of time and we all needed more stage presence. Unfortunately we didn't get named in the top three bands but it was great to see all the other bands and learn from them however this does mean we can't get through to the final heat. All of the performances have been once again sent of to a board.

For the rest of the week we are just getting on with course work as the end of the year is coming up quickly and we need to get all of our work completed.

WC 6.06.2016 - World Skills Update

This week we also found out that we were through to the second heat of the World Skills competition so we had to choose two songs but they were not allowed to be on the list that was given previously. So we chose to do an original called 'Where did it all go wrong?' and a mash up of  'Seven nation army/sweet dreams'.

For these songs we made them contrasting and added harmonies to make them more interesting again we gave the song dynamics and changed the tone in places to make the song sound full and interesting. We have a week to rehearse this so we rehearsed all week to be ready for the gig which will be held in Gateshead in newcastle.

WC 6.06.2016 - Gig Week

Today is the day of the gig so the whole band came in early to rehears, we rehearsed our set a few times which we got told would be 3 songs so our set list was
-No More
-Hymn for the weekend
-Leave it all behind

Then when we were happy we were all ready for the gig.

We all was waiting bad stage and we closed the show, it went well we were al in time and in tune and we played well as a unit. We interacted with the audience but we still need to work on our stage craft because we don't use the whole stage.  Overall the gig went well and we got some good feedback from people at the end, however i did feel like I was flat.

WC 30.05.2016 - Absent

We were not in college due to half term.

WC 23.05.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we didn't rehearse because I had tonsillitis and a swollen trachea, so i couldn't sing as I didn't want to make it any worse because I wanted to be better for the gig.

WC 16.05.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we added a cover to our set list. We did Hymn for the weekend by Coldplay but changed up the genre to pop punk, it was only a short two minute cover but we added it as extra material for our set for the gig to make it more interesting.

We just carried on rehearsing all of the songs until we knew them off by heart because the gig is now only in 3 weeks!

Next week we will just rehearse again as its our last week for rehearsal.

WC 9.05.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we just rehearsed all of our material from our original band because there is only 5 more weeks until the gig!

We came up with an instrumental but we decided we wasn't going to worry about it too much because we had enough songs to play at the gig.

This week we all played well as a band and rehearsed non stop to get our songs gig ready. This meant we rehearsed the songs to death but we had to do it so we would be ready and we'd remember all of our songs.

Next week we will be rehearsing all of theses songs again.

WC 02.05.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we carried on rehearsing for Word Skills and got it all recording so we just did the same as last week, next week we will be rehearsing again in our original bands.

So next week we need to run through the songs to get them bad in our memory.

WC 25.04.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we just rehearsed in our World skills bands because we only have a week and a half to have the song ready to be submitted to the board.

So this week we just rehearsed the song over and over until we had nailed it, we added in a harmony to make it more interesting and we changed up the tone and the dynamics in played to layer up the song so it had different layers and it was a bit more exciting. The song was only allowed to last for 2 minutes so we also had to trim down the song to fit the criteria.

Next week we need to rehearse it a few more times to get t ready to be recorded.

WC 18.04.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we found out we were taking part in a competition called World Skills so we got put into new bands for this project.
In my band was:
Luke - Drums
Jess - Guitar
Elisha - Bass
Ebony - Vocals
Me - Vocals
Katie - Keyboard

We had to choose a song from the following list to change up into a different genre.
Lucas Graham - 7 years
Rihanna ft Drake - Work
Jonas Blue ft Dekota - Fast car
Pillowtalk - Zayn Malik
Love Yourself - Justin Bieber
Lush Life - Zara Larsen
Stitches - Shawn Mendes
Secret Love Song - Little mix ft Jason Derulo
Sorry - Justin Bieber
Hymn for the weekend - Coldplay
I took a pill in Ibiza - Mike Posner
Girls Like - Tinie Tempah ft Zara Larsen
Light it up - Major laser ft nyla
Work from home - Fifth harmony ft  TY Dolla Sign
Say you do - Sigala ft Imani & DJ Fresh
Cheap Thrills  - SIA ft Sean Paul
Faded -Alan Walker
One Dance - Drake ft Wiz Kid & Kyla
Cake by the ocean  - DNCE

We chose Cheap Thrills and changed it to be less Dancey and a bit more acoustic pop.

WC 11.04.2016 - Reflective Dairy

We were back this week from our Easter break. So we just rehearsed past material to get it back in our minds because we haven't rehearsed for three weeks.  So we didn't really achieve our target that was set before because we decided that we wouldn't start anything new because we just wanted to beth the songs back in our heads.

We forgot some parts but we communicated as a band and we sorted them out so that we all knew what we were doing again.

I think this week we really worked well as band to help each other remember what we all had to do within the songs and where we had to come in because we had forgotten some parts due to us being off college for a while.

Next week i think we are going to start something new and rehearse the songs we already have.

WC 04.04.2016 - Absent

We were off for the Easter break.

WC 28.03.2016 - Absent

We were also off this week for Easter.

WC 21.03.2016 - Absent

We were off this week for Easter.

WC 14.03.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we were all doing assignments due to dead lines coming up so we decided not to rehearse  this week as we would rather focus on getting our work done and handed in on time, so next week we need to refresh our memories and rehearse previous material and maybe try and start something new.

WC 7.03.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we decided we would rehearse as we didn't last week due to everyone focusing on assignments.

We didn't start anything new this week we just rehearsed our previous material so it was still fresh in our memories because we don't want to forget any of our songs because our gig is coming up fast. Because of this we just kept going over the songs we had and we just kept going over them until we were happy.

I think we worked well as a band to get the songs to a point were we were all happy with why we were doing. I think that we achieved our target that we set last week as we did rehearse all of our material and we got it to a point we were more comfortable with.

Next week I think we are working on assignments again as we have more hand in dates coming up.

WC 29.02.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we didn't rehearse as we were all doing assignments as there was a hand in date coming up, so everyone was just focused on getting the assignments done.

This means we didn't achieve our target so our target next week is to rehearse our previous material to keep it fresh in our minds.

WC 22.02.2016 -Reflective Diary

This week George was back so we put a lead guitar part to Closer, and we rehearsed it until we all knew it and it all fit properly.  This mens that we achieved the target we had set last week for ourselves.

We all communicated as a band to show and explain to George what we already had for this song so he could put a lead guitar part in that fit with the rest of the song. I'm really pleased with how this song turned out, i think it's my favourite out of all the songs we have written so far. This is because it is a different style to the songs we have previously written.

I think we did really well this week and we got the song completed so I'm really happy with the progress we have made as a band. I think next week we need to rehearse our other material next week to keep all the songs fresh in our mind so we can nail them at the gig.

WC 15.02.2016 - Reflective Diary

This week we rehearsed our previous material ready for the gig we have coming up. This is so when we play at the gig we sound well rehearsed and tight as a band. Also if we all know what we are doing then we won't be panicking when it comes to the gig because we know the songs from memory.
We also worked more on Jayden's song Closer. We added parts for the two rythm guitars from the chords Jayden and I write the lyrics too. Then Jayden added a drum beat to the songs and we sang it through with my singing the lyrics. We left it there at that point as George wasn't in rehearsal so all we had left to add was a lead guitar part.

The song we've written is called Closer -

We communicated well by working together to put the song Closer together. This included me, Jayden, Bailey and Jordan working together to get the song nearly completed. We had to make decisons on what sounded best for the song, we decided that the two rythm guitars would do the same thing to add more volume to the song and make it fuller.

I think we worked well as a team and achieved last weeks target because we got everything done that we wanted to. I think we need to add a lead guitar next week so that is our target ready for next weeks rehearsals.  

WC 08.02.2016 - Reflective diary

This week we Jayden came in with a new song he had started to write. He had already made up the chord progression and he had some ideas for the lyrics that we sat and added to and rearranged. We decided to name the song 'Closer'

The song structure is -
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus

My contribution this week was to sit down and help Jayden re-write his lyrics because they needed adding to and they needed some more work.

I think that me and Jayden worked well together because we communitcated well and we gave each other our honest opinion on the lyrics we were both coming up with, making us create a catchy and lyrically good song.  

I think one of our biggest strengths of this week was being able to work well together to create a catchy song, that we all liked to play. I think we all work well as a team because we all communicate and give each other constructive criticism, which helps us to improve as a band.

I think we can improve by being a bit more inventive with our structure of songs because all of our songs are structured the same.

Next week I think we need to work on putting the whole of Closer together, so we have another song to add to our set ready for the gig. We also need to rehearse past material so that we are ready for the gig.