Individual practice and preparation - American Honky Tonk Bar Association

 Individual Practice and Preparation 

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 prep I took for this task is different from all the other performances because we were set 3 songs to learn not just 1. Those songs were Salty Dog blues by Earl Scruggs, A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash and American Honky Tonk Association by Garth Brooks. We where allowed to use lyric sheets in the performance and because I decided to just do singing I spent my time listening to the songs and getting familiar with the structure.

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.

- When learning the 3 songs I wanted to make sure I did it authentically so I worked on certain lyrics in the song to get the western pronunciation right. In songs like Salty Dog Blues it features a prominent harmony so I learned the lower harmony because it was outpowered by the higher harmony in the original, I knew not many people would learn it.

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.

- There was not much to do to develop the songs because I didn't know who was in my band however I made sure I practiced with some of my classmates so I could know how the song would sound on guitar/piano. I tried to make sure I got the timings right because I didn't want to be the one holding my band back especially because we wouldn't have performed the song together yet.

What role did you take in the band? E.g. musical director/workshop leader; taking sectionals; taking direction; responding to feedback

- Obviously because these were not chosen bands and we only found out on the day the goal between us all was teamwork just put everything we practiced on our own and put it together. There was no leader because we all did our own work and practice.

Rehearsal and development  

American honky-tonk bar association take 2.m4a

Boy named sue take 3.m4a

SALTY DOG BLUES TAKE 2.m4a 

What kind of performance situation was this? (Rehearsal, gig, recording, video shoot, audition etc.)

This performance was an audition styled performance, we were given 3 country songs and on the audition day we only were going to perform 1 but we didn't know which. We had 5 days to practice and learn the structure of each song, we didn't have to perfect it but we just needed to know the timings.

What were the stylistic traits for the other players/instruments in your band

My band had quite a good selection of instruments, the singer who was with me learnt a higher harmony which sounded great, the singers also all had to sing in chest voice to make it more powerful, the bassist played a walking bass pattern and the guitarist played power chords. However, the features of all of our band weren't in the intention of being stylistic we all just tried to learn the songs correctly.

How did you decide on your aims and objectives?

I decided that I was going to feel semi confident with all 3 songs even though AHTBA was my favorite song I didn't want to focus my time on it unfairly because if I ended up with a different song then I'd be unprepared.

Give two examples of how you listened to each others' opinions

I wouldn't say there was a moment where I listened to anyone's opinion in my band but in my prep before the guitarist I practiced with said that the key I was singing A Boy Named Sue in was wrong and I was confused because I had been practicing that key the whole time but it turns out I was listening to the wrong version. I also listened to the opinion of my classmate I was wondering if I should play guitar for the task however when I talked to them about it they said it'd be easier just to sing so I'm not stressed about perfecting it all on guitar which I agreed on, I believe if I would've played guitar that the performance would not have been as good.

How did you decide on order of solos, cues, key, lyrics, arrangement and improvisation?

Immediately when I talked to my other singers I said that I wanted to do the first verse only because the second verse's timing really threw me off so I knew I could sing the first verse perfectly. My other singer did the harmonies which we were all fine with and we all sung the chorus together to not complicate the order. Because I was first it was my job to figure out where I came in but I didn't overcomplicate it I knew the first bit of the song played the same chord and it moves with the lyrics so even if I got the timing wrong my band would have to move with me, looking back that was a risk just in case they couldn't hear me but it did all work out in the end.