Individual practice and preparation - The Thrill Is Gone
What practical preparation do you do before playing the song? E.g. sourced lead sheets, tabs, chord charts or notation; listened to songs on playlists; notated/learnt riffs by ear; selected correct equipment; took care of your voice with correct warm-up; made sure parts were allocated sensibly by instrument/ability etc.
The practical preparation I took before playing the song was listening to it and trying to switch between the chords on my guitar because I found the timing tricky. I allocated myself the first verse so I could focus on my guitar playing the rest of the song. Because there's was a strong lead guitar in this song I knew I should play the chords in the background to be a good backbone in the song.
What musical preparation did you do? E.g. learning appropriate scales, riffs or rhythms; technical exercises to develop accuracy/speed; tone production; recording yourself and checking against original recordings.
Because the task we were given was to change the style of the song, I had to learn 2 different sets of chords, one major and another minor, which isn't necessarily hard, however the chord shapes were so similar that it was easy to confuse them. Also because of the key change it meant the first note sung was a different one so that was hard due to performing both versions back to back.
How did you help to develop the song? E.g. working out chords and harmonies from lead sheets; exploring different chord voicings; practicing improvisation and solos; writing parts, lyrics, arrangement ideas and working out stylistic textures.
In the Jump blues version I came up with my own strumming pattern that just supported the lead guitar, I made it syncopated pattern to fit the blues theme so some of my strums were off the beat some strums on the beat.
What role did you take in the band? E.g. musical director/workshop leader; taking sectionals; taking direction; responding to feedback
my role in the band was not a leader-type role, I knew when there were 3 vocalists in my band that I couldn't just sing, so I picked up guitar so at least the song would sound fuller instrumental wise. The other guitarist helped me out on what chords I could play in the Jump version and the singers helped me find my first note when the key changed.
Rehearsal and development
What kind of performance situation was this? (Rehearsal, gig, recording, video shoot, audition etc.)
This performance was for an in-class gig to show our original cover of the song and the new style we changed it into.
What were the stylistic traits for the other players/instruments in your band
The stylistic traits we added for Jump Blues was, the bassist played a walking bass pattern, both guitars had more of a lively strumming pattern, the lead guitarist added dominant 7th's to his chords to keep the blues sound, the singers had to have less gaps between the lyrics which made the pace faster, the drummer attempted to do a double time swing drum beat to give the song a more lively beat, and all of the band changed key from B minor to B major.
How did you decide on your aims and objectives?
Our band decided on our aims and objectives when we were rehearsing, we all decided that doing the original cover would require us learning it mostly at home and putting most of our time together into creating the new style, we all also rehearsed together in our own time outside of class to help our preparation.
Give two examples of how you listened to each others' opinions
I was having a hard time figuring out the new key of our style so in our rehearsal I was still playing the original but the other guitarist corrected it for me and it all clicked then I changed my other chords to fit the new key. Because I was the first one to sing the key change between songs was quite hard to grasp so the singers helped me find my note so when I performed it I knew my correct note.
How did you decide on order of solos, cues, key, lyrics, arrangement and improvisation?
We all were required to have a short solo, for the singers it wasn't hard because we just split the different verses between us, the lead guitarist just fit in mini solos throughout the song, I did have a guitar solo prepared but when it came to it I got a bit intimidated so I didn't end up doing it however I still had a singing solo. The drummer had a small drumming solo in the ending and the bassist had a moment where the instruments dropped down slightly. The cues were difficult to figure out because the song has a big intro with a lot of guitar but because the lead guitarist wasn't playing the original intro pattern it made it harder to figure out. However if I wasn't sure I could look to my other band members, we knew there was gaps between each verse so that wasn't bad to learn. The lead guitarist said straight away in our first rehearsal that he wouldn't be playing the original lead bits and he would just be improvising which I think we all understood because in such a short amount of time he wouldn't be able to learn the whole song, however it did throw me off when it came to the timing of my solo but that's no fault to him.
< This is me practicing a section of the guitar solo in the original song.
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