Music Rehearsal Skills

Rehearsal Skills: Demonstrate the skills to rehearse effectively for a specific music performance and identify strengths and areas for development.

1.1 Goals:

• To gain confidence when performing
• To develop my performance skills
• To improve my piano/ vocal skills

I set these goals because I thought completing them would make me a better performer in the future. I then realised, when evaluating my work, they were no where near specific enough to begin trying to assess whether I was improving or not, so I then set myself new, specific and measurable targets. By the end of the course I aim to:

• Have enough confidence when performing to comfortably perform in front of peers and examiners
• To develop my performance skills so that I look confident and happy when performing , and keep an active engagement with other musicians and my peers to create a  enjoyable atmosphere.
• To add technique  such as vibrato and varied power to my vocals and practice the fluency of my piano playing to make it more engaging for an audience 
• Be more organised when it comes to rehearsing at home by finding a specific time slot each week because at the moment my rehearsals are very infrequent.

At the start of this course, my main strength would have to be my vocal technique as I never really struggle to learn or sing any of the songs I learn. This will be helpful in the rehearsal process because it will mean that I have more time to practice the instrumental parts like the ukulele or piano.

However my main weakness is focus as I get very easily distracted when I'm singing. I will try and make sure that I really plan out each of my rehearsals to make sure that I can keep as focussed as i possibly can. 

My first target can be achieved by practicing in front of people more often. For example I could set aside 10 minutes a week where I just sing a song for whoever's in the same room as me, or when rehearsing in class, specifically ask a friend to listen; that would also help me get feedback to make my pieces better.

My second target is all about stage presence. I can achieve it by working on the way I stand/ sit when I'm performing and my facial expression while I'm performing. To work on this I can video myself while performing or perform in front of a mirror. Looking confident and happy on stage is so important because if I'm tense while performing, the audience will be to. I will also practice often with my peers who I am performing with to really build a strong performing relationship and make sure that we understand how each other work and work together in our pieces.

I can achieve my third target by simply varying my repertoire because each style of music has its own style of singing or playing and the reason my voice is how it is is because I only ever sing and play musical theatre, and therefore my style of playing has always been the same. I've never really thought about vocal technique past the basics, so maybe I could do some research.

My final target is basically organisation. Anyone who's worked with me will know that I am really annoying when it comes to getting me to learn things at home, because I always either forget, or just don't do it. I can achieve it by setting myself mini preps with rewards for doing it so that eventually I will get into a routine of regular practice and won't need to bribe myself, again anyone who's worked with me will know it takes A LOT to motivate me for long amounts of time. Punctuality and attendance is so important because if you don't turn up for rehearsals or your'e not on time, not only does it hold you back as you can't rehearse; it holds back your group if you're doing group pieces, as they cannot sufficiently rehearse without you. Duets and group pieces are a team effort and it's not fair on the other members of your group if you don't attend to rehearse.

1.2 The plan:

The purpose of our rehearsal process is to put together and rehearse a fifteen minute set to that is performance ready. Rehearsing is really important because it allows you to refine and perfect your piece, so you can then perform it successfully to an audience and everyone will enjoy it; even the performer. It also improves someone's ability to work with others, even solo performers would need to ask for feedback from others to improve their work. being able to work with others is really important because there is no job in the world that doesn't involve working with a team of some kind. It would be difficult if you had an argument with the people you were working with but as a team you would have to put the task first and just try and get on with things as best you can until you make up.

The repertoire that I have chosen to use in rehearsal is quite different to what I would usually do; I have put in some songs from musical theatre but I tried to find songs that were more pop and I picked one opera song. I chose this repertoire because I think it's important to vary the kind of music you work on as it means that not only does it let you see different types of music but it develops your skills as a musician because you pick up different techniques and styles that you can put into your own work. It also improves your confidence because your having to push yourself out of your comfort zone and perform styles that you've never really tried before. This could be quite tricky as it could involve breaking habits of what you usually do and it always takes longer to learn new things then it does to learn something similar to what you already know. To overcome this, you just need to persist and keep trying again and again until you can get it right. After all, this topic is all about rehearsing.

We will record developments on the IPads and then put them on our blogs so that we can document ideas and evaluate how we're improving. It's important to record your progress because when you're looking back on your personal goals and evaluating work, you can listen back and hear what you've done, instead of having to remember. Also having a recording is clear evidence of what you've done and what progress you've made. The impact of having a recording is that you find it easier to evaluate work and find targets for improvement as when you were actually performing, you wouldn't have picked up on the small areas where you went wrong; whereas with a recording, you can listen to it back and pick out all the little things that need improvement. There may be issues with hearing recordings or losing them, but overall it is more effective, than remembering as we can forget exactly what went well or wrong. We are going to document our ideas on our blogs each week so that we can record our progress and discuss areas for improvement. This method is effective because all our work is laid out on one page and it allows you to look back and see where you were on certain days so that you can see where you've improved and what areas you need to put more work into. Also when it comes to evaluating, you can use the entries to help decide how well you have been working towards your targets and you can predict where you will be in the future. A potential issue here is that we will be typing up our ideas each week. this could be an issue as some weeks the entries might be more detailed than others because you might be feeling differently on different weeks. A way to avoid this issue is to always write up as much as you can in lesson so that you have as much as possible. The impact of documenting ideas is that you can have more detailed analysis and therefore a clearer idea of what you need to do to improve.

I will collect peer feedback by sharing a rehearsal space with a friend. That means that they can listen to my work and give their opinion on what I could improve, and also I can give them feedback on their work. By having regular recordings it will allow me to get regular teacher feedback. I think this will have a massive impact on the rehearsal process because it means that I won't be working on the same feedback for weeks and weeks when I might have already completed the target. Also it means that as I work through my pieces, I can get feedback at all stages through rehearsals and I will end up with a more polished performance; rather than having all my targets thrown at me in one go.

There aren't that many health and safety implications of rehearsing my chosen repertoire in our rehearsal space because it's very safe, however there are a few things. Firstly, there are a lot of things in the practice rooms, and if we're not careful we could easily knock something over and it could land on someone and hurt them. Also they store a lot of broken instruments in the corner of one room, so there is some splintered wood and smashed plastic which could also really hurt somebody if they were messing around with them. these issues could easily be avoided if we are just really careful and make sure we're not messing around while rehearsing; which we shouldn't be if we're fully concentrating. Another thing that could be dangerous is that when you turn the amplifiers on, they can be really, really, loud, which could damage people's ears if it was loud enough. This could be avoided if we check the amps before turning them on to make sure that the volume is down. Also leads and wires can be tripped over which can actually cause really bad injuries if a performer falls down the stairs of the stage or hits their head on an amp or instrument. To avoid this, we will have to make sure we inspect the stage before performing to make sure any wires or leads are tucked away.


1.3:

22nd September 2015

Today we started our music rehearsal skills topic. We got into groups and decided what songs we wanted to perform. I am in a group with Ella, and we have selected a few songs to perform. I will be performing 'Your Song' (originally by Elton John) by Ellie Goulding, and 'My House' from the musical Matilda. As a duet we are doing 'On My Own' from Les Miserables. I chose 'Your Song' because I think it's a really pretty song and it's got lots of meaning in it, so it's very easy to relate to. I chose 'My House' because it's from one of my favourite musicals and I love it. Also I like the belty notes.

Before next week, I am going to get the piano chords and lyrics for both songs because I'm going to sing and play for Your Song and I'm not sure whether I'm going to do both or just sing for My House. Also, next week I need to work on my pace because we spent a whole hour just deciding on some songs when we could've been starting to learn them instead.

By the end of this project, I hope to achieve a really good, smooth, polished set that varies in style and is well rehearsed. Hopefully we will achieve this by working hard and not getting distracted. I also aim to reach my personal goals:

Have enough confidence when performing to comfortably perform in front of peers and examiners

To develop my performance skills so that I look confident and happy when performing

To add technique to my vocals/ piano playing to make it more engaging for an audience

Be more organised when it comes to rehearsing at home

29th September 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
All week I have been practicing 'Your Song', both vocals and piano part so that I was ready to start properly rehearsing it today. I've also been thinking about whether or not to change my second song ('My House') to a different song. I went to my instrumental lesson this week and I have been working on 'I'm Not That Girl', and I have been told to work on my posture and breathing. This would help my work towards my goal about performance skills as having a good posture would make me look comfortable and confident when I'm performing on stage. Good breathing would help me reach my other goal about technique as it would make higher notes sound much more clean and clear.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to achieve playing Your Song on a real piano and singing along with it to see how it sounds. Also I wanted to decide for certain my second song, as My House is actually really similar to Your Song, style wise. Having songs that are similar wouldn't really help to extend my repertoire and help me get more technique as they are the same and it means I wouldn't be trying new things.

How I was successful today:
I managed to practice 'Your Song' on the piano and I realised I'm probably going to need a microphone of some sort because the piano is really loud and the singing is really low. I have considered a new song but I'm not sure yet, I'll have to look at the sheet music and decide whether it is way too hard or not. because I was thinking of trying to play some of the intro to 'Empire Of The Clouds' by Iron Maiden, obviously only some of it as its way too long. That would definitely be out of my comfort zone! Also, me and Ella sang through 'On My Own' and it sounds really good. Also Ella, Jenny and I have decided that at some point we are all going to sing 'All That Matters' from Finding Neverland.

Targets for next rehearsal:
By next rehearsal I will have actually decided firstly, whether I'm actually doing a second solo piece, and secondly, what that will be. Also Ella has asked me to play the piano part for 'Think Of Me' from Phantom Of The Opera, so I will be learning that this week. I'm also going to continue practicing 'Your Song'.

5th October 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
For the last few nights I have been practicing 'All That Matters' to get the melody correct and learn the lyrics. Also I briefly practiced 'Your Song' because I've pretty much finished that song now and its ready to record. This is evidence of me working towards my goal about rehearsing at home :). I couldn't make my instrumental lesson this week because I was in Belgium on the Battle fields tour.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to decide on my 15 minute set for certain and start learning them. I also wanted to practice with everyone so that we could see how it was going to sound. By practicing with everyone it's improving my confidence and therefore working towards my personal goals.

How I was successful today:
I decided not to do 'Empire Of The Clouds' because it would take way too long to learn and play, so now instead I have decided not to have a second solo piece and now my set is: 'Your Song', 'On My Own' (with Ella), 'All That Matters' (with Ella and Jenny), and I'm playing the piano part for Ella for 'Think of me'. Today we managed to get a backing track for 'All That Matters' and were singing it through; I think it will take a while to get used to as it is really slow.

Targets for next rehearsal:
For next rehearsal I will actually learn the first part of 'Think Of Me' so that we can rehearse it next week, and I'm going to learn the words to 'All That Matters' and practice it with the backing track. I'm going to put aside an hour at home just to go through all my pieces and practice them. That is a good way to help myself reach my goal about organisation when rehearsing at home.

13th October 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I practiced at home for about ten minutes a day, just going through all my pieces. If I continue like this, I'll definitely achieve my goal! I started to learn 'Think Of Me', it could take a while... I couldn't make my singing lesson this week because Friday was an inset day.

What I set out to achieve today:
I set out to achieve knowing the words to 'All That Matters' and be able to practice the first bit of 'Think Of Me' with Ella. We also wanted to put some harmonies together for 'On My Own'. Hopefully that will help me to gain some vocal technique.

How I was successful today:
Today we practiced 'All That Matters' and it's going well. Me and Ella have put all the harmonies together for 'On My Own' and it sounds fabulous. I really practiced 'Your Song' because the chords are sounding really messy and need cleaning up and it sounds slightly better now. I'm going to keep practicing to make it perfect!

Targets for next rehearsal:
Before next rehearsal I need to learn more of 'Think Of Me' because at the moment its not too good and I just need to really rehearse all my songs to clean them up and make them ready for recording next week. I'm not going to record all of them because we only have to record one so I'm going to record 'Your Song'. I'll try and put aside some time like I did last week to try and get into a routine of regular practice.

20th October 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I practiced every day for 10 minutes, just going over the songs, although I still haven't got round to learning 'Think Of Me'. Oops. Maybe I'm not quite as close to nearly achieving my goal as I thought. I had my vocal lesson and I continued to work on 'I'm Not That Girl' and its going well, I just have to work on the middle section as the melody is quite challenging.

what I set out to achieve today:
Today I wanted to successfully get a draft recording of 'Your Song' and practice 'All That Matters' with Ella and Jenny.

How I was successful today:
I managed to get 'Your Song' recorded and I think it went well, apart from the fact that I skipped a chord. we also practiced 'All That Matters' and its sounding really good; we just need to learn it off by heart and make it sound fabulous.

Targets for next rehearsal:
Next rehearsal we need to work on 'On My Own' and fully develop the harmonies and get the song perfect, and I should actually properly practice and LEARN THINK OF ME :) I need to really push myself to get more organised with my free time at home, well as much free time as I can find.

First recording



Evaluation

My first recording went surprisingly well; there were a few errors, but for the amount of time I had spent on it so far it was alright. Firstly, I managed to keep a stable rhythm throughout. Rhythm is important as it allows the song to be regular and therefore keeps the audience engaged. Secondly, for the amount of time I had spent learning it so far, I successfully got all the words right; I didn't quite get all the chords right, but my confidence performing in front of small amounts of people is really low. One of my personal goals for the course is to gain confidence when performing, so hopefully by the next recording, I will have improved slightly in that area. this will also mean that by next time, I will probably sing slightly louder, because in this recording you could barely hear me. I was pleased with the way I finished the piece, I thought that the long broken chord worked as an effective end, especially as it contrasts the more up tempo part of the last chorus. I think having a good ending is just as necessary as having an effective opening because you want the audience to remember your song and not think it finished too abruptly. I feel that the bridge/ "oh's" could be cut out as it generally sounded really awkward and they don't really add anything to the piece; the audience would probably be starting to get bored by the end of them as they're quite repetitive and In my opinion aren't the strongest part of the piece. On that note, another part that could make the audience bored is the rhythm of the piano playing. It was regulated, which is good, but it was very 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 which in a way could then become too repetitive and then become boring. I think I need to add more varied piano rhythms to make the piece more engaging for the audience. by adding this it would be working on my other targets for the course: to improve my performance skills and my piano/ vocal skills. To improve my vocal skills, I think I need to develop more technique in my voice because in this recording my voice was very plain; there was some moments where I used vibrato, however there were no other vocal techniques or anything special in my voice at all, just plain singing. my voice is like that because I do a lot of stage work, but a way to improve my performance skills is to extend my repertoire, which means picking up more vocal techniques. Overall, I think that this first recording went very well; I had completely learnt the piece and had started refining it to make it polished and ready to perform. There were a few places that needed working on, however for the amount of time I had been working on it, it was a good performance.

10th November 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I sang through the songs everyday to learn the words and learn the songs off by heart. In my instrumental lesson I did my final performance of the song I've been working on, 'I'm not that girl' and Miss said that I might be able to perform in the Christmas concert :) That proves that I'm starting to develop some more technique in my singing, meaning I'm heading towards achieving my personal goal!

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to learn the first bit of 'Think Of Me' and just concentrate on learning it well. Seeing as my goal on organisation when rehearsing at home is taking a lot more work than I expected, maybe I'll start setting myself rewards for rehearsing...

How I was successful today:
Today I managed to learn the first page of 'Think Of Me' although I need to practice it at home because it's really hard. Also me and Ella practiced 'On My Own' with the cool harmonies we decided on.

Targets for next rehearsal:
By next rehearsal I will hopefully be able to play two pages of 'Think Of Me' because I'm going to make extra effort to practice every day to make up for the fact that I haven't practiced it before today... Oops.

17th November 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I actually learnt the first bit of 'Think Of Me', and it's coming on well. It's a bit messy but it's getting there. I think my new approach to achieving my goal worked :). In my instrumental lesson, I sang through 'All That Matters', Miss said that she would help me with making the high belty notes, which will help me get more vocal technique. Also I am currently trying to pick a new song to learn.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to achieve practicing 'Think Of Me' with Ella to find the timing and rhythm of the piece.

How I was successful today:
Me and Ella went through 'Think Of Me' and we then discovered that it has a weird key change and we couldn't use it so all the practicing I'd done didn't matter :(. But I'm going to use it anyway as a piece because I spent hours trying to learn it and I'm not just going to not learn it now. We also showed Miss our harmonies in 'On My Own' and they're going well. Miss said that our voices work really well together and that the harmonies sound really nice. We will use this feedback to improve by trying out more harmonies in some of our other songs to make them more interesting for the audience.

Targets for next rehearsal:
Over the next week I am going to learn some more of 'Think Of Me', maybe I'll focus on trying to get through the instrumental. Also I'm going to practice slowing it down because the slower it is the more of my showcase it uses up :) Also I'm going to start thinking about a new song for my instrumental lessons; I'm thinking about an older theatre song, maybe one from Bugsy Malone.

24th November 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I spent lots of time in the week practicing 'Think Of Me' to try and progress it into the instrumental; to be honest, I spend all of my free time practicing music :). Yay! I'm finally getting into a routine of regular practice. This means that I might actually achieve my personal goal! In my instrumental lesson we decided that I should put 'All That Matters' down a semi tone to make the high notes slightly easier, although we'll have to keep the original key for our trio one.

what I set out to achieve today:
Today I sat down by myself and set aside the entire hour to practice 'Think Of Me' and really clean it up and make it smooth and make it sound nice. I think I needed this hour because my piano piece always gets put to the back of the queue and all the singing pieces get practiced because they're easier.

How I was successful today:
Today I managed to stay focused the whole hour and I really progressed in my piece; I got all the way to the end of the verse bit in the instrumental and the right hand to the end of the instrumental. It was fun because I was on the grand piano and all the PE people were there and it felt like I was performing to them (even if I was getting it wrong most of the time). To be honest, it was probably helping me to gain some confidence while performing, I think I'm making good progress towards my goals.

Targets for next rehearsal:
I'm going to keep practicing in my free time and make sure that my piano piece is the main thing I need to practice, because to be honest we've finished all the songs. Also I'm going to make special effort for 'All That Matters', after all, I am now learning it in two different keys. I'm just going to keep doing what I always do each week.

1st December 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
All week I practiced the songs and made sure that I really new the words. My instrumental lesson was cancelled because of occasional day after ARD.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I wanted to go through and time my set to see if it added up to the right time and just begin to polish up all my pieces for the final recording in two weeks time.

How I was successful today:
I had the room to  myself, again, so I managed to practice everything really well and all my pieces are starting to sound really polished and neat. 'Think Of Me' needs a lot more work as it is really long and I haven't even learnt it all yet; I think I'll set an end point and cut it. And I'll probably book a practice room to practice it more. Unfortunately my set only lasts nine and a half minutes so I need to slow everything down a lot to make it last longer.

Targets for next rehearsal:
By next rehearsal, I want to have found a spot where I can cut Think Of Me and work on slowing everything down.

8th December 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I practiced the songs every day and went over my piano piece to continue to refine it and to make it as clean as it can be. In my instrumental lesson I decided to do a duet with Jenny to make my set 15 minutes; we decided to do 'Whole New World' from Aladdin.  By rehearsing this we are working on my goal to keep an active engagement with my peers as we are helping each other so that we have the best piece possible; for example we warm up together and then if someone slightly messes up we help them improve.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to just go over and clean up all my pieces ready for our recording next week.

How I was successful today:
Today we just went through and practiced all our individual songs and cleared up any bits that needed refining and touched up on our harmonies.

Targets for next rehearsal:
I think that my set just needs a bit more practice to polish it and I need to work out a set order. Apart from that I just need to find and download backing tracks and then I'll be completely ready for next weeks recording. I think it will be a real push on confidence because it's so important and I don't want to mess it up.

Final set list

• 'Your Song' (solo vocal and piano)
• 'Think Of Me' (solo piano)
• 'On My Own' (duet with Ella)
• 'Whole New World' (duet with Jenny)
• 'All That Matters' (trio with Ella and Jenny)

15th December 2015

How I prepared for todays lesson:
I practiced every day and in the last week I had four singing lessons where Jenny and I rehearsed 'Whole New World' lots and lots and put harmonies in it and learnt the words to make it the same quality as all the other pieces. This works on active engagement with my peers because we are making our voices work together to create the best possible sound. Looking back on the rehearsal time, I really think I have come a long way towards achieving my personal goals; I have become a lot more organised at home, have learnt a lot of new vocal and piano techniques, have gained a lot of confidence, and in my instrumental lessons have been working on posture and breathing so that I look comfortable and happy on stage.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to completely record and complete my music rehearsal skills section.

How I was successful today:
We recorded our sets and I think it went okay, the timing and harmonies were slightly off but I think we did well. My set just added to fifteen minutes so luckily I didn't need to add any new songs.
My first song was 'Your Song' and I think I played it well, however I did get jumbled up on the words and had to start again. My second song was 'Think Of Me' and I want to re record that one because I kept forgetting the piece and its really bitty and horrible. Then I did 'Whole New World' with Jenny and I think it went quite well. our harmonies worked really well and it flowed nicely, despite the bell ringing mid-recording. I then did 'All That Matters' with Ella and Jenny; that went really well I think because our harmonies were really good and I added in some new ones at the last minute and they actually worked! Finally I did 'On My Own' with Ella; I'm not really happy with how that went because our timing was slightly off and a few of the harmonies were awful. I hope it doesn't bring down our grade.

Targets:
To improve our recording we could've, firstly, not added any new last minute harmonies so that our pieces were polished and good; and secondly I shouldn't have got so nervous because I think it really affected the quality of my piano playing. And as always, we could've practiced more; we could always have practiced more.




Evaluation

This was our recording before the dress rehearsal for rehearsal skills. I think that it went really well; the pitch was accurate throughout and it all had good timing which helped the pieces to flow nicely. However, there were a lot of errors, which could've been from nerves or lack of practice, and these areas would need to be focused on when it comes to refining our pieces for performance.

The first recording is 'A Whole New World', which Jenny and I sang as a duet. We got our singing teacher to record the instrumental for us so that we had a clear, accurate backing track that fitted how we sing the song. I think this is important because if you use a backing track that you're not used to it can throw you off and effect the quality of the timing and pitch. There were a few errors in the instrumental, such as the bell ringing at the very end, which does distract the listener from the piece, meaning that the ending isn't very effective. This could've been easily avoided if we'd decided on the song earlier and asked Miss to record it again, but we had only just chose the song a few days before and by the time we got her to record it, there wasn't enough time to correct the errors. By doing this, I haven't really worked towards my personal goal of being more organised when rehearsing at home because if I'd thought carefully about my time management, I could've got Miss to record it earlier. I think the over all volume of the piece was okay, however Jenny can sing a lot louder than me and throughout the piece I struggled to assess myself as I couldn't hear over Jenny's singing. Volume is important, but if we were actually performing the duet we'd have to make sure Jenny sang slightly quieter and I sang slightly louder to make sure we both can be heard. This would also make the harmonies more effective as the audience would be able to hear both parts. The harmonies in the recording were very well rehearsed and sounded really effective. I think they added a nice touch to the piece and made it sound more interesting for the audience; Jenny did really well hitting the higher notes and her vibrato was outstanding, I think she has really good technique and pitch. I needed to breathe more as when I had to sing higher notes they sounded quite scratchy and painful. Not only could that damage my voice but it doesn't sound nice at all for the audience to listen to. This relates to my personal goal to add technique to my vocals/ piano playing to make it more engaging for an audience as I think I was focusing so much on making sure that my harmonies were at the right pitch and that I was properly using vibrato that I forgot to take a big enough breath before making a higher note. So I'm going to set breaths as something to work on when we come to refining our sets. The timing of the piece was near enough perfect; I couldn't pick out any moments where we went out of time, which is impressive seeing as we had only been practicing it for a few days. Overall this duet was very successful; we just need to work on volume and I need to work on my breathing.

The next recording has my solo pieces on it. The first song is my cover of 'Your Song' originally by Elton John ( I looked it up after messing it up in the recording) but the cover version by Ellie Goulding. For this piece I played the instrumental on the piano and sang along with it. I did that because I wanted to practice using the two together as I've never done it before and by doing it, it's working towards my personal goal to add technique to my vocals/ piano playing to make it more engaging for the audience as by using the two together, it improves the technique because I have to think about two things at once. Another reason is that you don't have to rely on anyone except yourself to get it right, although in a way that could be a bad thing because if it goes wrong you know it's all you fault. I was disappointed with this recording because I'd been working on this piece for the longest and it actually turned out to be one of the worst pieces on the recordings. I had made some improvements since my first recording, however as a whole the piece had got worse. The main issue was speed; I was playing the instrumental way too fast the song sounded in fast motion. If I played it that fast on stage, the audience would simply zone out and stop listening which I wouldn't want. I don't know whether I was rushing because I was nervous after messing it up or whether I'd been playing it like that all year, but I know that it has to slow down. By working on this it will be working towards my goal to have enough confidence when performing to comfortably perform in front of peers and examiners because even though I'd already improved a lot confidence wise, this recording is a clear example of me cracking under pressure. To improve this I could practice playing it really slow, so that when I come to performing it, it would sound to me like I was going really fast, when I would actually be playing at a sensible speed. Another way I could improve would be to practice performing it in front of people, new people that I'd be nervous to perform to, and eventually I would stop getting nervous. Another issue, something I hadn't improved on from the first recording, was the chord pattern. In the first recording I mentioned that the chords were very much 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, and in this piece they were the same. They were slightly toned down, so they weren't as bold as they were before, however they are still quite dull and boring for an audience to listen to for 3 minutes. If we do get more time to refine and polish our pieces, I would definitely want to spend some time experimenting with more interesting chord arrangements, which would also be working towards my goal of improving my piano technique. One thing I noticed when listening to the recording was that my vocals have no real technique in them at all; there was some vibrato, but apart from that there was nothing that makes my voice unique, or engages the audience to want to listen to my pieces. It's important to get your own sound because if you were going into the music industry, that would be what sold your albums to the audience; no one wants all their songs to sound the same. To improve my vocal technique, and work towards my goals I could research different techniques and play around with them to see which ones I like. The only other big issue was that I still haven't taken out the 'Ohs'. I really don't think I need them in the piece, they don't add anything to it and it just sounds really awkward. I also think that the audience would get really bored because they are just really boring and I don't understand why Elton John put them in in the first place. On a positive note, the pitch throughout was good and I made all the notes, minus the really low verse notes, they're impossible for a soprano, and the volume between the piano and the vocals was even, which is what I wanted because then you can hear everything clearly. Over all I think that I still have a lot of work to do on this piece.

The next piece on the second recording was me playing 'Think Of Me' on the piano. I thought it was important to have a piano solo as well as a vocal solo so that I could really focus on improving my piano technique. The piece as a whole was okay, the timing was good and the notes were almost completely accurate; the main thing about this piece was that it was very under rehearsed. The actual song flows really nicely and all the parts link together making the piece sound smooth, however my cover was extremely robust and I just need to ease up a bit when I'm playing; it was completely 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, and the actual song just isn't like that. I can improve this by listening carefully to the actual song to hear how it should sound and then try to play along with it. The main reason it needs more rehearsing is that it was very bitty and it was obvious that I wasn't moving smoothly from one part to the next. It's important that the piece flows because it's what makes the song into a song, instead of lots of parts, and the audience want to hear a song that flows, so that they can enjoy it. Again I needed to slow down a bit with my playing, and the ending was complete rubbish, I messed up half the notes and it gave the piece a really tatty finish, leaving the audience with a memory of a bad piece. The way this piece could be improved is by simply rehearsing more; the more I rehearse it, the more it will flow and the more I will get used to the notes and the rhythm. By doing this I will be working towards my goal of to be more organised when it comes to rehearsing at home because most of the time I had to practice this at home as I was sharing a practice room with Ella and we were mainly focusing on our joint pieces during lesson time, and surprise surprise, I didn't practice that much at home. Over all, this piece just needed more practice as I clearly hadn't completely learnt it.

The next recording was Ella, Jenny, and me singing 'All That Matters' from the musical 'Finding Neverland'. I'm pleased with how this went because it's not an easy song to sing; there are multiple tempo changes and some really high notes and some really low notes. The pitch was great throughout from all three of us, Ella did a good job of splitting the song to suit our vocal strengths. There were only a couple of moments where we went out of tune; Jenny could've done better on the high belt near the end, it was completely off pitch, although she did well trying to make it sound right. I think she went wrong through lack of practice, I don't remember her saying she'd listened to the song at home, so how would she know the note to sing? When we start refining and polishing our pieces I'm going to ask her to work on it because, apart from that, Jenny's singing in this piece was amazing. Keeping a steady pitch is important, especially when working with others, because everyone's vocal styles are different and so the only way to make the piece sound good is to make sure everyone's on pitch so that tune wise, the singing is the same. This helps the piece to flow better and makes it easier for the audience to listen to it and enjoy it. I think the harmonies in the piece were perfect, they sounded accurate and well rehearsed, and they generally made the song sound really pretty and gave it a really nice touch. As we were recording it we were adding in last minute harmonies, which worked, luckily, and I think that shows that we'd rehearsed it well enough if we know the tune enough to just add things in on the spot that work. This shows that I am working towards my personal goal to have enough confidence when performing to be able to perform comfortably in front of peers and examiners as we were just improvising where we felt like it and trusting each other not to mess up the entire piece. The change overs between solos were smooth and kept the flow of the piece, which shows that we properly rehearsed and spent a lot of time refining them. I think it's good to have smooth change overs because when an audience is listening to it, you don't want them to notice when someone new is singing, you just want the piece to flow nicely so that the audience enjoys it. The only issue really was timing. There were multiple moments in the song where we were all singing in completely different times to each other and coming into choruses at the wrong time and basically sounding like three recordings overlapped. This needs working on as it makes the piece quite difficult to listen to and ruins the nice moments we had before. I think Ella had an issue with timing more that me and Jenny, however I did have the instrumental on my phone so I was the only one really who could spend time practicing out of lessons, which is why I didn't have many problems with the timing, although I really do need to work on my head voice, its no where near as strong as it used to be. We can over come this issue by practicing more and refining what we have later on. Or Ella and Jenny could buy the backing track and practice at home, but I don't think its fair that they should have to buy it. Over all I am really happy with how this piece went, it just needs a bit more work.

The final recording is me and Ella singing 'On My Own' from 'Les Miserables' as a duet. This is the piece that I'm most disappointed about. First of all, the timing was awful. All the way through the piece, me and Ella kept coming in at different times and coming in too early or coming in too late. The intro was the worst for timing because I was supposed to do it on my own (no pun intended) and then on the day of recording Ella said she was going to sing it as well, meaning she hadn't learnt the words or the timing properly. This could have easily been avoided if she'd thought of that a few days earlier, and gone and practiced it, or left if for now and joined in next time. To be honest the main issue with timing was that we were practicing at home with different backing tracks, so we both had learnt slightly different versions of the song. I think timing is one of the most important things to get right when performing a song because if you're out of time, especially when doing a group performance, it just sounds a mess and the audience will not enjoy it because they won't really know what's going on. Next time we do a duet we'll need to make sure that we're both learning the same version of the song and not add in any last minute changes that might make the piece seem un rehearsed. By doing that, it will also mean that I'm working towards my goal to be more organised when it comes to rehearsing at home. On the other hand, the harmonies in the song turned out really well; there were a couple of dodgy on the spot improvisations, but the ones that we'd put in together and rehearsed for weeks and weeks sounded really pretty and they worked really well, and our pitch was almost completely perfect all the way through. We both made our high notes successfully and tune wise, it was a very successful recording. One thing that we could've done better was our positioning by the IPad; I think Ella must have been standing a lot closer that me because when we're singing together, you can barely hear me at all, which is a shame because the harmonies sound so good. It wouldn't matter so much if we were performing it on stage because we'd make sure we had a microphone each so that we could both be equally heard, but if we were to record it again, we would need to make sure that we were stood at equal distance from the IPad. It might have just been that I wasn't singing loud enough, so I might put in some work on projection, which would also be working towards my personal goal on confidence. I think that my pitch was really good in this recording, even if I did add in a really dodgy harmony half way through. I sing 'On My Own' a lot, so I think it helped that I knew the song. If we work on this song again, I think that we should mainly focus on getting the timing right, because apart from that, this was a decent recording.

In conclusion, I'm relatively pleased with how these recordings went. All the songs were fully learnt and they mostly flowed all the way through. There were a few issues in all of them, some more than others, but they're all little things like volume, timing, slowing down, and just generally rehearsing more, all of which can be worked on when we come to polishing our pieces (if we do!). I feel that I'm successfully moving towards achieving my personal goals, and I think that if we do refine our sets and make them perfect, they would be very enjoyable for an audience to watch and listen to.


RESPONSE TO TEACHER COMMENTS FROM 29TH DECEMBER

1) Well done on completing your first full set recordings. You have good pitch, and control. Think about ensemble and refining your songs to ensure they are all equally accurate and polished. What are the technical areas you need to work on and how will you do this? Do you need to ask for any help with technique? Look at your personal goals, what do you need to do next to work towards these?

With the songs we weren't completely ready, me and Jenny had only added in 'Whole New World a few days before recording, so there was much more refining we could've done. I think that the only technical issue for me was that I was struggling to reach the top notes; I'm currently working on that with my singing teacher so hopefully soon I will be able to make the notes easier. Looking at my personal goals: to gain confidence when performing,
                                                  to develop my performance skills,
                                                  to improve my piano/ vocal skills,
I think I've already improved on them so much; for example, at the start of the year there is no way I could've performed in front of Ella and Jenny because I would've got nervous to the point of having to leave the room. To be honest all my personal goals link up, I might rethink them and make them more specific because they're very vague.

3) You will need to complete a dress rehearsal on stage. Plan for this once you have refined your repertoire. What equipment do you need in order to ensure all instruments can be heard? What about backing tracks? How will you ensure this is organised?
 We'd probably need a decent amplifier to make sure the baking tracks were loud enough and microphones for the singing; a piano amplifier would be useful as well for the solo pieces. Me, Ella, and Jenny would have to arrange a meeting to discuss arranging this as our pieces link up.


19/01/16

How I prepared for todays lesson:

In my instrumental lesson I am working towards  my grade 5 music theatre exam. we have to select pieces from different time periods; one piece from before 1920, one piece from between 1920 and 1970, and one piece from after 1970. I haven't chosen the really old one yet however I have chosen to do 'The Perfect Nanny' from 'Mary Poppins' and 'Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile' from 'Annie'.

What I set out to achieve today:

Today I set out to go through all my pieces and put particular focus on 'All That Matters' to sort out the issue with timing. We used the original track with Laura Michelle Kelly singing to see her timing and copy it.

How I was successful today:

We went through all our pieces and spent 40 minutes going through All That Matters. Miss came in and helped us get our harmonies right, they didn't quite fit so she swapped them around so that our voices fitted together and the harmonies sounded completed. We have almost corrected the timing issues so we will probably need to spend some more time on that.




Targets for next rehearsal:


I am going to replace Think Of Me because so I need to think of a song to replace it. I might do 'Quiet' from 'Matilda' or something else. I don't know, I'll think about it over the week.




26/01/16



How I prepared for todays lesson:
In my instrumental lesson I went through 'Perfect Nanny' and I was going to go through 'Never Fully Dressed' but id accidently bought the wrong music for it so that was clever. I also chose my really old song; it's called 'Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid' and it's kind of funny. I also decided on a song to replace 'Think Of Me', I'm going to do 'Somewhere That's Green' from Little Shop Of Horrors.



What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to go through all of my pieces and focus mainly on 'Somewhere That's Green', firstly to see if it would fit and secondly to learn the bridge as the melody is really hard.

How I was successful today:
Miss came and played the piano for me so that I could practice 'Somewhere That's Green' and it sounds really pretty so I think I'm definitely going to use it instead of 'Think Of Me'. We also went through 'All That Matters' and it's getting better, although we did accidently forget what Miss told us to add last week; oops.

Targets for next rehearsal:
I need to find miss over the week and organise a rehearsal time where I can clean up 'Somewhere That's Green' because we have our dress rehearsal next week and I only started learning it today so it needs a lot of practice.











02/02/16
How I prepared for todays lesson:
Over the week I practiced the songs and just went through my set. In my instrumental lesson I bought the sheet music for 'Never Fully Dressed' but it was the wrong one so I couldn't use it.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to complete my dress rehearsal and see whether I was ready to move on to the next task.

How I was successful today:
I managed to do the dress rehearsal but it went no where near as well as I wanted it to. I kept forgetting the words and then I would not be confident and would not prepare properly for the higher notes and my voice would crack. For the amount of preparation stage wise, it went ok though.

Targets for next rehearsal:
Next rehearsal I want to do it again and make it better because I'm well annoyed with how it went today. I need to remember to bring the words for 'Somewhere That's Green' because I thought I'd got them but I hadn't so I had to try and sing it from memory. Also I need to act a bit when singing because it makes it easier.


09/02/16
How I prepared for todays lesson:
In my instrumental lesson I started to write out my points to talk about with the examiner, I also went through and finished learning 'Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid' so now I just need to learn it off by heart. At the weekend I sent in my entry and paid for my exam so hopefully I'll get sent the date soon.

What I set out to achieve today:
After last week's disaster, I set out to practice all of my pieces to make them fabulous, however we didn't have an I pad so we were very limited on what we could practice.

How I was successful today:
Today I managed to practice 'Your Song' for a bit, so now it's more good than it was, and I sang through 'Somewhere That's Green' although I may have lost the sheet music for it; oops. Apart from that we couldn't rehearse any other songs as we needed YouTube.

Targets for next rehearsal:
Next rehearsal I am re-doing my dress rehearsal so over half term I need to 1. get back the sheet music I lost, 2. rehearse everything so that it's completely fabulous, 3. plan out my dress rehearsal properly so that nothing can possibly go wrong.


23/02/16


How I prepared for todays lesson:
All half term I was practicing SO much and I was using the new backing tracks so that I could get used to them and know them. I also wrote up an entire plan for our dress rehearsal attempt two, with all the introductions, backing tracks, running order, and lyrics; so that it would be impossible to mess it up this time.

What I set out to achieve today:
Today I set out to listen to my dress rehearsal recordings from Monday and plan out my evaluation.

How I was successful today:
On Monday, me and Ella did our second dress rehearsal attempt. It went SO well and I'm really happy with it. There were a few areas of improvement, however I think that the hours of planning and practicing really paid off. Today we listened to the recordings and took notes as a plan for our evaluations.

Targets for next rehearsal:
Next rehearsal, I'm going to start preparing for my final performance of my set. I'm also going to start writing my evaluation as I think it might be longer than the last one....



Dress Rehearsal: 

https://youtu.be/ZYlowcJOWy4       A Whole New World (Aladdin)- Jenny and I


https://youtu.be/3mgVPJeQV-4       All That Matters (Finding Neverland)- Ella Jenny and I

https://youtu.be/eFbkKRzqhUA      Somewhere That's Green (Little Shop Of Horrors)- Me

https://youtu.be/zhWSw-MGihk      On My Own (Les Miserables)- Ella and I

https://youtu.be/FqDtuhcKHDg        Your Song (Ellie Goulding)- Me

Teacher comments

A Whole New World

Amber - lovely tone and tuning, good projection. 

- mic was off to start with - make equipment checks before you start.

Duet - think about stage presence and communication with other musician. Consider not using music or having a music stand so that you are free to move.

A performance lasts right up until the end of the song - you turned your mic off and started moving in advance. 

Excellent attention to the emotion of the song, nice use of dynamics and expression. 

All that Matters

Ella

Jenny

Amber

Confident tuning, despite a small slip towards the end, harmonies are secure.

Good level of balance between each other and the backing.

Excellent attention to the emotion Entries lack some confidence when they are shared with others - how could this be improved?of the song, nice use of dynamics and expression. 

Ensemble - think about stage presence and communication with the others singers.

Somewhere that’s Green

Amber

Balance with backing track - slightly too loud.

Great tuning and subtle use of vibrato.

This is an expressive song from the musical - think about your stage presence and communication with the audience - could you do it without the music to help with this too?

Sustain on last note - think about where you breathe -this could be held longer. 

On My Own

Amber and Ella

Good balance between you both.

The title of this song makes it an unusual duet so maybe think about how you make this more convincing e.g. singing solo for verses where you are currently singing in unison?

There are a few places where you need to listen more carefully to the backing in order to sync it correctly. 

Last note tuning slips.

Ella- be careful of the rhythm in faster moving passages. 

Your Song - Ellie Goulding

Introduction - is it being simple something you want to say to the audience?

Lovely accompanying, think about where chords may want to be held on longer for dramatic effect. 

Presentation - how can you show more interaction with the piano.

When you use the higher range of your voice in the song, how can you show this build with the piano too?

The rehearsal process as a whole

Your rehearsals have been focused and productive. You were organised and prepared for rehearsals. You have made good progress in developing your vocal skills lesson on lesson and effectively learned your repertoire. You have demonstrated excellent attention t the detail of the music working hard to give a technically secure but also musical performance. You have also shown capability with setting up the equipment promptly and safely in all rehearsal sessions. Attention should be paid to how you present your performance - use your drama experience here to improve your presentation of songs. 

Evaluation
 

These are video recordings of our dress rehearsal for music rehearsal skills. In my opinion the dress rehearsal went really well; in comparison to our final recordings and even the practice dress rehearsal, there are many noticeable improvements such as improved timing and better backing tracks, both of which contribute to make a better performance all round. There are still many areas that need working on however, as a whole I was relatively pleased with our performances. We did this performance on the stage at school, having each other video our performances. This immediately means that I was working on my personal goal of having enough confidence when performing to comfortably perform in front of peers and examiners, although we don't have to perform in front of examiners until next year.

The first song we we performed in our set was 'On My Own' from Les Miserables. This was a duet with Ella. The first thing I noticed, and this same comment appears many times throughout my notes, was that my introductory paragraphs were really un-engaging and just really very boring. Considering that I'd spent about three hours the night before writing these, I was quite disappointed with the outcome, not only were they pointless and the content unnecessary, but as I said them you could see on my face that they were awkward and out of place. To improve on this, and I will have to before the actual performance, I will need to sit down and properly consider what I want to say (not what I think I should be saying) and re write them to make them an engaging start to each performance. As the song started and both me and Ella went to sing the introduction to the song, I already knew that I wasn't going to like what I was about to hear, we'd struggled with the timing in rehearsal and although we'd practised it a lot, we just couldn't quite get it right; because its at a fast pace and there's a lot of words, it was inevitable that we were going to fall out of time and it was going to sound messy. This was a pattern that followed throughout the performance. In Miss' comments she agreed that our timing was out and that we needed to listen more closely to the backing track at times to get it right, however she also suggested that we change some of the unison to solo singing, which I agree with. I think the piece would flow a lot smoother and would be more in time if we cut most of the together parts. However, by doing that we would be removing the harmonies in the performance which I thought were alright and made the piece sound more of an interesting duet. On the more technical side of things, I noticed that my michrophone was turned up louder than Ella's, meaning that I couldn't really hear her a lot of the time, although she was doing a good job of projecting to match the volumes. To improve on this, I would make sure to be more organised while setting up to make sure everything was correctly set up and ready for performing.

One thing I was really looking at while re watching my performances was stage presence because I would say that about three quarters of performing is the way you look on stage because it makes it interesting and enjoyable for the audience. I was not very good at it; in my attempt to get everything absolutely perfect I had written out a booklet with all the words, speeches, and backing tracks in it, and spent the entire performance hidden behind it. This meant that I couldn't connect with the audience at all and wasn't really performing, I was just singing off of a piece of paper. To improve on this, and also work on my personal goals, especially the one about looking confident and happy while performing, I would make sure I'd put enough rehearsal time into preparing and memorising the words so that I could focus less on that and more on my actual performance, so I could look at the way I stand, the emotion I put into my singing, and the way I choose to engage the audience.


The next song was my solo performance of 'Your Song' By Ellie Goulding. Comparing the recording to the last recording we did, there were some improvements, yet a lot of areas that needed working on were exactly the same as before which was slightly frustrating. Firstly the speed was still too fast, I had spent a while working on it and to be fair it was noticeably slower, but it could still do with being just a bit slower just to make it sound more tranquil because it's quite a peaceful slow song and I think I should try and make the most of that when portraying it to the audience. By doing this I would be working on my goal of adding technique to my vocals and piano playing to make it more engaging for the audience because I'd be pushing myself to slow it down as much as possible. However, one way I have worked on my goal is through my vocal technique; in the last recording I mentioned that my singing was plain and boring, and this time round I worked on developing my vibrato and it is noticeably better, you can hear it more clearly and it sounds okay, although my pitch kept slipping, probably because I was concentrating so hard on the piano part. The chord pattern, which I had previously specified needed adapting, clearly had not been improved upon. It was still 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and was just as boring as it was before. I'm not sure whether I'd been preoccupied with other areas or whether I just couldn't be bothered but there was definitely no change in the dull, monotonous drone of piano chords. Miss said that I should  'think about where chords may want to be held on longer for dramatic effect.' By doing this it would make the piece more interesting and give it a more engaging sound for the audience as there would be notes that made it dramatic so the audience would be able to connect more with the emotion of the song. The piece was slightly inconsistent in the way it flowed; I kept slipping up and making mistakes which could've easily been avoided if I'd put the same amount of rehearsal time into it as I'd put in the other pieces. If there was one thing I could do to change this piece, I would definitely change the key as at the moment it is way too low. It meant that I couldn't be heard and I was struggling to even find the notes in the deep dark depths of my chest voice :') My voice in general was very good, I have good pitch and tone and my timing is always good when I have rehearsed enough, and I'm generally really pleased with it. Although I could just work on extending my vocal range to fit the range of the song, I don't really want to as my voice is more Mezzo Soprano and I'd prefer to work on my upper register. One thing I'm really pleased about is that I removed the 'Oh's from the middle of the song. This made the song flow so much better and kept it interesting for the listener as they no longer had to sit through thirty seconds of awful whining.


My other solo piece was 'Somewhere That's Green'. I was really happy with this piece because there was so much noticeable improvement from before. The first time I attempted my dress rehearsal, I was all out of time and I didn't know the words, however, this time, as a result of listening to the backing track a million times to get used to it, my timing was really, really accurate. The only thing I would note would be that I was slightly late in starting the final verse and the ending was slow, only that was the backing track not me; to improve on this I would either find a new backing track or get someone to play the instrumental for me. The backing track was quite an issue as it was also too loud so it sounded fuzzy, which would make the song uncomfortable to listen to. Miss agreed that the backing track was too loud at times, so I will need to correct this if I ever perform it again, as it would make it so much more comfortable to listen too and enjoy.Again I could've just got a different track or checked the volume before starting. My vocal technique was really strong and sounded really effective; I had improved my vibrato and in this song it was really good. I think I'm decent at vibrato and I try and use it to make my songs better. Even my stage presence, which was awful in all my other pieces, was better in this song and it was evident that this was the song that I enjoyed performing the most and put the most work into. I was acting and putting a good amount of emotion into it so it was interesting and engaging. Overall I'm really proud of how this song turned out.


Next was my favourite piece in the whole set; Jenny and my duet of 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin. Although it got off to a great start with my microphone being turned off, mine and Jenny's vocal tone and pitch was great and it flowed really nicely between solos. I generally find that our voices fit together really nicely as they kind of merge into one and sound really pretty because our vocals are very similar in pitch. Our harmonies were lovely, we'd spent hours perfecting them and they sounded so good, and they really showed the way our voices fitted together. Also our vocal technique was fabulous, our vibrato was effective, especially Jenny's and it gave the piece a less bland feel, therefore making it more interesting for the audience to listen to. There's always a possibility that you can over do it with vibrato, and make it annoying but i think we had a good level and neither one of us used too much or too little, and it sounded good. Jenny had really nice stage presence; while re watching the recording I couldn't take my eyes off of her because she was engaging with the audience with eye contact and she wasn't standing still, she has had a lot of experience with concerts so I'll probably ask her for advice. Miss commented 'think about stage presence and communication with other musician. Consider not using music or having a music stand so that you are free to move.' This would make my performance better in the future as it would mean I was fully performing it and engaging the audience with my facial expressions and gestures. It would also mean that we would be performing together and so the whole piece would feel complete. The backing track was faulty as there was the bell ringing at the end, but we both managed it professionally and properly and just kept going, I think we would need to get a new track for the live performance if we chose to use it in January. Overall this was a great performance and I really love doing it, especially ending with the harmonies!

The final song in my set was 'All That Matters' for which Ella, Jenny, and I sand it as a trio. Vocals wise, it was okay; all three of us had good pitch and tone, and the song fitted together smoothly and swiftly, which is difficult when there's three of you. Our individual timings were good, no one was out of time or missing lines. Although, the chorus was shocking for timing; we were out of time and it sounded like an overlapping mess. Miss said that 'Entries lack some confidence when they are shared with others'. We could improve this by rehearsing the song more to really polish the entries so that we all come it at the same time. This would make the song so much more effective as we would come in punchy and make the audience really connect with what we are saying. We hadn't put as much effort into this song, as it was at the end of the set and we never got to it with enough time, so that explains why we couldn't seem to stay together. I was really happy with our harmonies though as they were effective and really pretty with the three of us. These we did spend a lot of time on, because they were complicated and harder with three, so it was cool that they worked out. To be honest, the vocals all round were impressive, although I had an awful voice break at the end; that would be because I didn't take a good enough breath. Also, Jenny was a little bit off when she belted the belty note, I'm not quite sure why though. The harmonies at the end were amazing and were a great way to end the song. Although this song could've been better, it wasn't the worst out of the set and I am pleased with it.

In conclusion I am very happy with how the dress rehearsal went. There was improvement in the vocals and the organisation, which made the pieces much more pleasant to watch and listen to. I am proud to have been able to work in such a talented group of people and I think we worked together really well. There still needs to be improvement in the stage presence side of things, as on the live performance I can't stand there with the words and intros in my hand. I also think that as a group we need to spend more in school rehearsal time working on the group numbers as we could rehearse our own pieces at home. This would allow us to perfect the timings and harmonies. Overall we just need to improve on the presentation to the audience because the music is pretty much there we just need to work on stage presence to put the icing on the cake.

To sum up, in review of the whole process of rehearsing I feel I have been on the whole very successful. My dress rehearsal demonstrates this level of success as I have talked about above. I was extremely focused during the whole process and knew what I wanted to achieve each weak and reviewed this, keeping my diary up to date. I met my goals as demonstrated in my dress rehearsal performances and my final goal of being more organised and finding specific slots to rehearse in was met through this unit as I had to document my time spent rehearsing each week, so this meant that I made it a priority to find specific time at home to rehearse. My singing lessons and my vocal warm ups during rehearsals have helped to develop my technique and it is getting stronger all the time. I was pleased with the development in my use of vibrato and have mentioned this in my evaluation of the performances. I built on these techniques weekly in my rehearsals.