Rap: Practice

What Practical Preparation Did I Do

Before the first rehearsal, I didn't know which song I would pick, so I didn't prepare lyric sheets and such, which would've been helpful in the rehearsal instead of relying on the internet. I did listen to songs within the genre, however, which helped me prepare ultimately for the performance. 

What Musical Preparation Did I Do

I practiced my part individually, as I needed help to nail the tone of voice as well as the phrasing of my vocal parts. It helped when I would rehearse over the original track, trying to fit into the phrasing of the original version, but also recording myself rehearse helped greatly. 

How Did My Band Develop The Song

The goal for the week was to perform in a rap battle, so we developed my section by selecting the section of the song I was performing, and ensuring the instrumentalists knew the arrangements of the chords/the structure of the section. We also developed a small intro, as we had to keep the section relatively short due to the nature of the task, and we also added an abrupt end, again keeping with the style of a rap battle.

What Role Did I Take In The Band

This task involved me taking a section of leadership in the band. As a vocalist, I chose my own song for the performance, and also decided on the arrangement and structure of my section, guiding the instrumentalists of the band to keep to the correct chords, corresponding to which section I was choosing to perform. 

What Kind Of Performance Was This?

The performance for this week was a rap battle, which would be filmed and recorded live. The recording was also in a 360 degree arrangement, with the musicians forming a circle around the film crew, who where in the middle of the room. 

What Were The Stylistic Traits For My Other Band Members?

For my section, the instrumental was quite simple, with a simple rock drum beat, as well as a repetitive guitar riff and a simple bass line. It also featured some guitar motifs on a lead guitar, but was ultimately kept very simple. Another vocalist performed a musical theatre song, which involved a lot of unison parts and stops in the instrumentals. This song also had a more jazz inspired sound to it. Our third vocalist picked a more pop inspired song, which featured a lot of similar unison and stop parts for the instrumentalists, and the fourth vocalist performed an improvised freestyle rap, for which the instrumentalists created a simple rap beat, with simple 4/4 drums and accented guitar chords.

How Did We Decide Our Aims And Objectives

We knew that we needed 4 different rap sections for the rap battle performance, so first we decided on who would be taking the main vocal roles in our band, as well as determining which songs we would be performing and the sections of each song that we would use. This helped the instrumentalists figure out their parts according to the decisions made by us vocalists. After this we focused on getting our different sections tight, ensuring the instruments and vocals fit each other before deciding on the order of our performance. 

Two Examples Of How I Listened To The Opinions Of Others

The rap I ended up choosing was not my first choice, my band member thought that my first choice was too short for the performance, which resulted in me changing my song choice. The instrumentalists also arranged to start and end of the section, as they had to create a short and concise intro, and I just added my vocal parts on top, letting them take the lead in this aspect.

How Was The Order Of The Arrangement Decided?

Me and my fellow vocalists decided on our order based on the excitement of our arrangements. My rap was the most laid back, so I performed first, then the second and third performers were chosen due to their upbeat and more exciting choice of songs, which left our fourth performer, who we left last as he was planning to perform a freestyle improvised rap, which would ultimately be the most exciting part of our performance.

Videos of Rehearsal