Blues: Practice

What Practical Preparation Did I Do

Before rehearsals began, I listened to the song a few times to become familiar with it, although I could've listened to the song more and learnt the parts better. I should've printed lyrics before the performance, which is something I'll learnt from in future. I also did general research on the blues genre, helping me understand the musical characteristics of blues.

What Musical Preparation Did I Do

For this performance, my musical preparation was lacking. I should've done more technical rehearsal, recording myself to check my performance or even practicing my improvisational skills.

How Did My Band Develop The Song

We decided to split the song up, allowing for the insertion of instrumental solos throughout the song. Me and the other singers decided to split the verses into 3 solos, allowing for improvisation without clashing. We also improvised adlibs in the various instrumental sections, and one of the other vocalists made use of call and response to add texture to our arrangement. 

What Role Did I Take In The Band

In this performance, I took direction from others, collaborating in parts but often letting other band members take leadership roles and following their direction. 

What Kind Of Performance Was This?

This performance was a class workshop, as we developed the performances over a week before presenting our arrangements along with a short presentation on the blues genre and the elements we featured.

What Were The Stylistic Traits For My Other Band Members?

The bass player of our band played a riff in the original version of the song, keeping his part very close to the original, but in our developed version, he played a walking bassline, a common feature of lots of blues songs, especially rhythm and blues. For the original arrangement, our drummer played a simple beat with a slower tempo, making use of straight rhythms, whilst in the rhythm and blues rendition the tempo quickened, and our drummer used drum fills in unison with other instruments, as well as short rests to accentuate the gaps between sections.In the original version, our two guitarists played simple riffs and chords, our lead guitarist added licks between bars whilst our rhythm guitarist strummed chords on beat. In the rhythm and blues rendition however, our rhythm guitarist muted a lot of their chords, adding a layer of instrumentation the the rhythm section whilst our lead guitarist added syncopated chords along with short riffs in sections. 

How Did We Decide Our Aims And Objectives

First, we needed to practice the structure of the song, making sure we properly learned the 12-bar blues structure. After that was good, we put the whole song together, which also involved solidifying the intro and outro, as well as the timings between the sections of the song. Our next aim was to change the song to a different blues subgenre. We changed each of our parts, ensuring they fit the rhythm and blues style, before putting everything together and, again, fixing the intro, outro and transitions of the song. After this, we rehearsed each version, ensuring everything was solidified and that everyone knew their parts. 

Two Examples Of How I Listened To The Opinions Of Others

My bandmate and fellow vocalist, Poppy thought that call and response in the final verse would be a nice addition to link back to our research of rhythm and blues, so I listened to her ideas which we then implemented into the song. On top of this, the instrumentalists of the band where the ones to come up with the arrangement of the song (the order of the verses and instrumental solos in between), so I listened to what they had come up with, figuring out where my parts of the song were and ensuring that the song flowed smoothly with the whole band playing.

How Was The Order Of The Arrangement Decided?

We decided to put instrumental parts in between the verses to split up the vocal parts. We also decided to feature some improvisation in the instrumentals, adding short phrases on top of the instrumental. Overall, we stayed relatively close to the arrangement of the original song.