Jack Dorsett Level 3 Music Diploma
Rehearsal Log
9th of September, 2021
For the December project, 'Winter Warmer', we've been tasked with splitting ourselves into groups and coming up with a range of 3-6 songs to perform just before Christmas. These songs could either be covers or originals, however we are, of course, encouraged to create and perform more originals. To start off the process, we all stated what music we like and what we'd like to do in the band. Within the group there are a number of people interested in producing, including myself. Accompanied by a minimal amount of vocalists and instrumentalists, we split into three groups - one including Lauren, Declan, Tom and Ben, another including myself, Sonnet, Kieran and Aaron, followed by a rap/producer duet: Victor and Jack G. I think Lauren's group are focussed on making pop music, my group are creating for a rocky-bluesy-metal sound and the duet seem to be going for UK drill sound.
So, now we've established what groups we're in; we have to come up with a basic plan and start to get to know each other. My three bandmates bring out their phones and share different songs. I listen eagerly, although I don't contribute anything as I don't really know a lot about rock music. A couple songs by Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and a few smaller bands were played and we already had an idea of what we wanted to do as a band, although I wasn't too sure what I'd be doing in the band as I don't play any instruments. As we had a vague idea, we decided to go upstairs to play some songs and also start to rehearse - this is where things got scary for me. Obviously, with me not knowing any instruments, I had a difficult time figuring out what I could do. At first, I thought I could play piano, as it's one of my main objectives to learn the instrument, but soon realised that I'd need to practise a little bit before I could rehearse actual songs with the rest of the band. The drums belong to Kieran, Sonnet seemed to be gravitating towards playing bass guitar and Aaron was in a similar shaped boat to me. He had recently started learning guitar, but he already has experience with singing, so I think he wanted to do that, moreover, he already has experience with an instrument, the guitar, leaving the lead vocalist space eerily vacant. At this point my new lecturer, Laura, walks in and we tell her the plan - obviously she notices I haven't got an assigned role and suggests one of my worst fears: singing. Instantly, I'm persuaded into at least giving it a go, as to be fair singing is the reason I started music when it's traced right back to the start.
With our roles decided, we start rehearsing with the first song being 'Dark Necessities' by 'Red Hot Chilli Peppers', followed by 'Seven Nation Army' by 'White Stripes', adding onto the list with, quite a difficult piece in terms of vocals; 'Rock and Roll' by 'Led Zeppelin' and finally concluding with the classis 'Sex On Fire' by Kings of Leon.
I started off hesitantly, very slowly warming my voice up and eventually getting to a fairly comfortable stage where I can project my voice. My voice was weak and wobbly as we started, but considering I didn't know any of the words to the songs and I hadn't heard my singing voice in a very, very long time, I think it went quite well, as did others. I got very embarrassed at the fact you could hear me in the corridors and even outside, but my classmates boosted my confidence when they told me they were quite impressed.
In conclusion, the first day working with my new band went really well.
16th of September, 2021
As we've now established our bands and roles within; it's now time to begin coming up with a more advanced plan. I'm not completely sure if my bandmates appreciated this, but I took control of this situation by suggesting a song, different to the original 4, to learn. I think when they heard it, they were sceptical, as it wasn't a rock song - more of a slow ballad. The song is an acoustic cover of The Weeknd's 'Nothing Without You'.
Although this didn't particularly fit in with the band's planned style, Kieran, Aaron and Sonnet all started to learn and play it. In the acoustic version, the singer is accompanied by a lone guitar - as everyone needs to be involved, we changed it a little bit; of course Kieran played the drums, Aaron was playing the guitar and Sonnet was on bass. So, everyone started learning their pieces while I waited but I made, what I believe is, a huge a mistake: I wasn't warming up my vocals. Honestly, I don't known how to 'warm up' my vocals, but I think I should've been singing. On the other hand, I had thought about it, but I was too busy worrying about people knowing their parts and I didn't want to distract them.
Now everyone knows their parts, it was down to me and my shaky confidence to put a performance together. When I started singing the nerves kicked in, I had completely lost all the confidence I had just built up. I repeatedly stuttered the first line, singing it terribly, for what was probably about 20 minutes. In the end, something else happened that had made me feel more aggravated than I already was, and I think Kieran and Aaron were, understandably, getting tired of it, so they went to get some food. Sonnet stayed in the room and switched his bass guitar for an acoustic - this is when we had the idea to play the song in the speakers so I could adjust my voice to it. As soon as we did that, we realised we were actually playing the song slower than it was supposed to be. I also finally started to get comfortable with singing and promptly decided to turn the speakers off and follow Sonnet's guitar playing. After a few attempts with Sonnet, my voice had eventually warmed up and I was ready to sing along with the rest of the band playing their own instruments - and that's exactly what we did. Minor problems came up; Aaron was struggling to keep up with the song, which is understandable as he's only just started learning guitar, I had a fair amount of voice breaks and found myself wincing at my own voice multiple times. I think this was because there were a couple areas of the song that my vocal range couldn't reach. On the contrary, Aaron still played well and didn't give up (I probably would've), Kieran and Sonnet were comfortably playing their instruments and I started to project my voice more and use vibrato, in my opinion, fairly well in a few areas of the song.
Expectedly, someone made the suggestion to play a different song, although I can't remember who. The song suggested was one of the original 4; 'Rock and Roll' by Led Zeppelin. If I'm being completely honest, I really didn't want to rehearse this song as I had finally got comfortable with 'Nothing Without You' and was enjoying singing it, however; I knew that if I said no it wouldn't be good for the band - it's unfair. We only had the time to run through the song a few times, but I think it was good and I ended up enjoying this song as well. I felt bad for Kieran and Aaron as I had a feeling they would've preferred to play faster, louder, heavier music and when we did we didn't have much time; so next time I think I should consider how my bandmates feel instead of being so focussed on something I want to do.
20th of September, 2021
Today was surprising; we were told we had another rehearsal session. Usually we only rehearse on Thursdays in the morning, but for some reason we had an opportunity to rehearse today. Unfortunately, I had some bad news - I decided I don't want to sing anymore because I was worried about performing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy singing and apparently, according to my bandmates, I am good at it, but the thought of performing this early into the year makes me feel really uncomfortable. However, this could be a sensible idea in the end as I want to learn piano as well and I think learning piano is more important than getting better at singing. As well as this, we don't have anyone playing piano so it works quite well.
After I had told them the bad news, a solution was quickly found; Aaron replacing me as the lead singer. This seemed to me like a perfect fit - Aaron has a very explosive personality which is perfect for a lead singer, of course he also has a very unique voice. Now we've established who our new singer is; it's time to select a song, The song we chose is: 'Somewhere Only We Know' by 'Keane'. The reason we picked this song is mostly because it's easy to learn on piano and it involves instruments that the other band members can play; drums and bass. For this song, I play piano, Kieran's on drums, Sonnet is on bass guitar and Aaron is obviously singing.
Firstly; Sonnet taught me the chords. There were three different sets of chords that I had to learn;
Verse:
A C#m Bm Esus4 E
Pre-Chorus:
F#m C#m D Esus4 E
Chorus:
Bm Esus4 Bm Esus4 E
It didn't take me long to learn the chords, but it took a short while for me to be able to play them smoothly. When I did, we started playing, and singing, and it went really well. It sounded very natural and not as if we had only just started learning it.
After a few times rehearsing the song, Guy came into the room and asked us to record a podcast / interview.
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When we finished the podcast; we rehearsed the song a few more times and I came to the conclusion I think I should practise as much as possible outside of college so I can smoothly switch between chords - I have a keyboard at home that I can use. Apart from that, me and the rest of the band are finding it really easy to work with each other during rehearsals, or at least I think we are, of course there are minor complications; such as messing about and getting easily distracted, but we make up for it when we're performing.
23rd of September, 2021
By this point, it was routine to come into college on a Thursday, quickly pop into Simon's room to grab a microphone and other equipment, and head on upstairs to rehearse. With each session, we all found it easier to get started. Within only a few minutes of entering the college; I had placed myself in front of the piano and started playing the keys, that I had learnt just a few days before, for 'Somewhere Only We Know'. To my surprise I played all the correct chords and didn't make a mistake the whole way through my first attempt at playing the chords - this wasn't an actual rehearsal though, I just went through the chords quickly to see if I remembered them, as I didn't get round to practising at home. The rest of the band turned up a couple of minutes later but had unfortunately forgot some equipment. I decided to go downstairs to get the equipment for them.
When I arrived back to the recording room, I was gifted with the information that Sonnet had wrote a song. He explained that, yesterday, he had broken up with his girlfriend, which led to him writing the song. I was extremely excited to hear this song and I think Kieran and Aaron were as well. We all readied ourselves to listen to Sonnet's song. Sonnet started playing some chords - most of the song consisted of A major, E major, D major and D minor chords, accompanied by a pre chorus of E major, D major (both played twice) and D minor chords. and started singing. I think we were all quite gobsmacked. Soon after; he showed me how to play the chords which were relatively easy to learn and switch between. Kieran almost instantly had a rhythm to play on the drums and Sonnet moved on to telling Aaron how to play the bass on the song since telling me what the chords are.
We rehearsed the song several times and I loved it. I think it's really catchy and the fact that it's very simple makes it good - it's not overcomplicated which makes it easier to play as well. After a while we decided to record a video of us performing the song, to put on here, so I asked Victor, from another group, to use his phone as his had the best camera that could capture everyone - even though I accidentally cut out Kieran.
19th of October, 2021
Recently I haven't had a lot of time to work on this website and I've also lacked a lot of motivation - in most things, not just this website. As I haven't updated this website in a few weeks I'm going to write a recap of what the band and I, who still don't have a name, have been doing.
Previously we had only rehearsed covers and a single original song; now we have 3 originals all written by Sonnet. Obviously I had pulled out of singing very early as I got worried about performing, so those covers were out the window, and we had only rehearsed 1 cover with Aaron singing, 'Somewhere Only We Know', but he decided he didn't want to do it anymore as he said it didn't feel right. Luckily Sonnet's first original had been brought to attention before Aaron made this decision and he had already shown us a couple of ideas that could be, and have been, progressed into full songs. At this point we have 3, mostly complete, originals. Of course Sonnet is the mastermind behind all of them - coming up with chords and lyrics, but the recent 2 need some more lyrics. Along with this information, on one of the days that I was absent, the band did another podcast with Guy.
As mentioned before; we have 3 original songs now. The first one, titled 'All The Time', was completed very fast - it doesn't need anymore lyrics and we all have established what we need to play and when within the song. We have made 2 versions of the song; 1 with a saxophone solo, performed by Sonnet, and 1 with an acoustic guitar solo, also performed by Sonnet, at the same point of the song. We all have the same roles for all 3 songs except for 2 where Aaron dips in and out of providing backing vocals. When we recorded the version with the sax' solo I had in mind the idea of mixing and mastering it to make it sound like an actual song, however Guy had informed me that it'd be difficult to do as the microphones would pick up other sounds, but I still tried to make it sound as professional as possible - by using EQ and compression along with some reverb effects for the sax'. We decided that, when we have the time, we're going to record it solely for the purpose of it being a fully recorded song, instead of a performance recording.
The version that we recorded without the sax was recorded today along with our 2 new songs.
The 2 new songs kind of came out of no where. They had both been started while I was absent but I quickly learned the chords to both of them. Throughout them; Sonnet mumbles words of his vague ideas as he hasn't finished writing the lyrics - which I think is a great way to develop a song as you start to realise what would sound good. Neither of them have been officially named but, to avoid confusion between the files, I took a couple of lines out of each song and called them that.
When we first formed the band we were tasked with compiling approximately 15 minutes worth of music together for a performance in December. Now; we're very close to achieving that. Considering the fact that when we first formed the band; I had never sung in front of anyone and didn't know how to play any songs on piano, Aaron didn't know how to play bass guitar and Kieran was predominantly a guitarist I think we have all progressed a lot individually. In terms of the group's progress I am extremely proud of how we have come together to build a bond and create songs. Considering the fact that we didn't know each other just over a month ago, except Kieran and I knowing each other from last years level 2 course, it's mind-blowing to think we now have 3 original songs we can all perform fairly well, except for a couple of small mistakes - of course with practise we will eliminate those mistakes. I'd like to give a huge amount of credit to Sonnet as we wouldn't be at the point we're at without him - he is the one with the lyrics and the ideas for songs. We're all trying to start ideas obviously but at the moment he is the main reason we have material to perform and I'm extremely grateful to be working with him.
1st - 15th of November, 2021
Upon our return to college we discovered the tragic news that Vince, my previous music teacher and most of the reason I did so well last year, had passed away. For most of us, specifically the ones that were taught by Vince, this has been really hard to process. However, I know Vince wanted the best for us which is why we need to push on and make him proud.
During those two days (Monday the 1st and Tuesday the 2nd), although we went to college, we didn't get a lot of work done. On Monday we decided not to put too much pressure on ourselves to get stuff done as a result of the bad news. On Tuesday, as usual, we didn't have an opportunity to rehearse. We spent the morning evaluating and describing various songs and how they made us feel, and in the afternoon we watched a documentary about the roots of reggae and the genre itself.
The next day we're scheduled into college is Thursday the 4th of November. Unfortunately I remained absent for that day as, on the day before, I had received yet another piece of devastating news. A few days before, on Sunday night, a few of my friends went out in Bath. During the later hours one of them, Ben, had been involved in a fight which led to him being knocked unconscious, and needed to go to hospital. By Tuesday he had passed away. When I found out on Wednesday, I had no idea he had even been in hospital, I was shocked and distraught. I left work when I found out and informed everyone that I would not be attending college on Thursday.
As well as all of this terrible news, Sonnet had caught COVID. As I wasn't in college on Thursday and Sonnet was; I decided that, to avoid risk of catching the disease, I will not be attending college until Monday the 15th of November - the probability of someone else in the class catching it is huge. Of course I know this isn't the best thing to do, but I'd rather do this than risk catching COVID. I still want to try and get as much work done as possible as I really don't want to fall behind.
31st of January, 2022
After yet another huge break from updating my rehearsal log, I am finally back to update it - however we haven't rehearsed that much in the past few weeks, apart from today.
Last week, on Thursday, Sonnet wasn't in college which made it a bit difficult to progress. Kieran, Aaron and I weren't really sure what we were doing, however we did manage to rehearse 2 songs - although we hadn't really discussed why we were rehearsing them. One of them was a song called 'Molly's Chamber's' by Kings Of Leon.
Sonnet had included it in a proposed song list a few days before, but we hadn't really established the fact we're actually going to do it and who plays what. We couldn't figure out a way for me to play piano to this song so I tried to play the drums; that did not work - I got too confused. After that I tried to play bass guitar, which also went horribly wrong. I'm pretty sure we then decided to move onto the next song: 'Enemy' by Imagine Dragons and JID.
This is a song that Aaron had brought up that same day. He loves the song and he wanted to sing it, so we thought we'd give it a go. I was able to play piano for this one so I think it went a lot better. The only problems were that Sonnet had no idea about it (I'm pretty sure) and it doesn't particularly fit within our currently limited set list. To draw the rehearsal session to a close, we acknowledged that we had a lot of work to do and decided that, before rehearsing the following Monday, we need to come up with a plan.
Today, before we did anything, we sat down together and tried to think of a plan. We succeeded in creating a short-term plan; which was to write a new original song. Of course Sonnet already had chords ready, but he had also went a step further and created a track on Logic for us to use as a rough template. As he has written all of our songs up to this point, he wanted one of us to attempt writing the song. We all agreed as it makes sense and it's only fair. The way we determined how to write it was to play the song from Sonnet's phone and try to think of something. My personal way of doing something like this is to let my mind run free and try to emphasise how the song is making me feel so I asked Kieran and Aaron questions like: "How does the song make you feel?" and "Does the song remind you of anything?". For me; it made me think about being away from home. The song sounded like something I'd hear while I'm on holiday and make me think of home. So I started to write my own lyrics, although I took it in a slightly different direction; I decided to write about the fact I am bored of where I live and that I want to travel more. At this point in time I have written the first verse, the pre-chorus and part of the chorus. My vision of the song is that, even though I'm somewhat complaining about where I live, it will ultimately come back to the fact that where I have grown up is a huge part of me and where I will always consider as my home.
So, with a partly written song, we went to get some microphones and XLR cables and set up our instruments and the speakers ready to rehearse. Unexpectedly I had made a return to the microphone for the first time in months, which I'm still having confidence issues with. All went well during the rehearsal, all that is needed now to finish the new song is for me to finish the lyrics which is what I'm going to hopefully do within the next few days.
What went well:
I think we communicated well and developed an idea in a really efficient and thoughtful way. We are also becoming very familiar with the mixing desk, giving us more time to actually rehearse instead of sorting out equipment.
Room for improvement:
I think we should, at this point, be able to get things done quicker. Don't get me wrong we still work fairly quickly, but I believe we can do things even quicker, with the same amount of effort, so we get more things completed. One way we can do this is planning before we even come into college, giving us maximum time to rehearse.