Country: Practice

What Practical Preparation Did I Do

Before rehearsals, I listened to the three songs from the brief to familiarise myself with them, and also printed lyric sheets in preparation. I also annotated the lyric sheets, making sure to differentiate the phrases. I was also strict on not straining my voice, as I was sick in the leadup to this brief, and wanted my voice to be as healthy as possible. 

What Musical Preparation Did I Do

In rehearsals, I recorded my singing so I could look back on the recordings. I struggled with the phrasing of some of the songs, so I practiced specific sections on repeat to ensure they were correct, which was also aided by my annotated lyric sheets. 

How Did My Band Develop The Song

My band had very little time to rehearse together, as we only found out our band about 20 minutes before our performance. We didn't know which of the three songs we would have to perform, so in our 20 minute gap, us vocalists focused on splitting each song into parts and quickly rehearsing. When we were taken into the audition room, we were given our song, Salty Dog Blues, then we rehearsed the structure of the song, ensuring the song flowed smoothly and also adding a vocal harmony to link to the bluegrass subgenre. Overall, we kept very close to the original track, mostly due to the time constraints of the brief. 

What Role Did I Take In The Band

In this brief, me and my fellow vocalists all collaborated equally, each contributing to the preparation of the song. I took leadership in creating a harmony, as we wanted to add a quick harmony in the chorus to add texture. I also took leadership in my independent rehearsal, as throughout the week I was left to rehearse individually as the audition bands were not revealed until the audition day. 

What Kind Of Performance Was This?

This brief was an audition, having us rehearse individually throughout the week as we didn't know our bands until the audition day. On top of this, we also had to rehearse three different songs, as we also didn't know which song we would be performing until the audition. 

What Were The Stylistic Traits For My Other Band Members?

Our guitarist played an acoustic guitar, linking to the bluegrass genre, and also used a flatpicking technique, commonly used on banjos and guitars in the genre of the song. Our drummer played on a cajon (drum box), as the original track had no drums, so he kept the drum beat simple and played with his hands. Our bassist played the root notes of the chords, as the original recording also didn't have bass. 

How Did We Decide Our Aims And Objectives

At first we had individual rehearsals, so I practiced each song, redoing parts that I found hard or didn't get right. I also focused more on the songs that I found hard, like Boy Named Sue. We found out our bands around 20 minutes before our audition, so we spent that time splitting the vocals of each song into solos, and practicing our parts together. When we got to the audition room, we had 20 minutes total to set up, rehearse and record, so we decided to record in the last 5 minutes, leaving 15 for set up and rehearsal. Since we had so little time to rehearse, we focused on the structure of the song, ensuring that we knew when each part came in. One thing we could've done better is to rehearse the ending, as we didn't co-ordinate our ending so it ended up sloppy. 

Two Examples Of How I Listened To The Opinions Of Others

One of my fellow vocalists came up with the idea of adding a harmony to better match the genre of the song, so I came up with a harmony to use in the audition. On top of this, all four vocalists, including myself, had to collaborate to split the verses between us, each deciding who would be better in each section. 

How Was The Order Of The Arrangement Decided?

For the arrangement, we stuck to the original structure of the piece, mostly due to the fact that we had very little time to rehearse as a band, so it would be easier to keep to the original, which we had all rehearsed to.