I guess the thing that gets to me the most is that we get 4 hours or less a WEEK to rehearse everyones tracks over the course of 8 weeks which in my opinion is disgraceful i hate the way we're expected to put on a full show without proper rehearsal time its retarded and after all this we're expected to blog about everything and summerise rehearsals in this blog firstly:

1. I'm performing on almost every track theirs at least 14 tracks and the original idea was 2 tracks per person so not only did i have to learn their first track but their backup aswell so time has not been a luxury

2. I'm having alot of personal issues at home and at college with a certain someone in my class its been really getting to me because theirs just shit everywhere i go and all i wanna do is play music and people in my class giving me shit for not doing this certain part right the thing about that us i like adding my own input to the tracks if i do exactly what the original musician did it would be pointless and i was always being pressured about being late or whatever but thats mainly because im always too busy learning EVERYONES track and rehearsing with them and ive been trying to keep my own creativity level at a high for everyones tracks ive been extremely busy at college over the ast 8 weeks and i wont lie it has been incredibly stressfull and all the drama ive been through hasnt helped either i play on if you may call me being dramatic but im being real i cant be expected to do all these things because im not the average person in terms of mentality.

Lastly all i wanna say is i tried and if it aint good enough then im sorry but its the best i could do.

show

It's going to be a complete disaster in terms of certain people havent rehearsed its getting to the point where im going to leave ive had enough that is all

1st official rehearsal's

*Blog for the 11th of Jan 2011*


Today when the rehearsals officially started i went through a breif runthrough of 4 tracks:

For Daliya:

1. Violet stars happy hunting by janelle monae was one of her choices. With this track it is a very different, weird track its really funky and i enjoyed playing it with the selected band of course where this is only the first rehearsal some people were getting rather confused with the chord progression & way to play it most notibly was Louise she was getting rather frusterated with it and i didn't really understand why she didn't have any patientce with what we were doing. This is something she needs to get over along with her shyness in order to play not only this song but all the others aswell or she will ultimately come un-stuck in the end.

The only other person i have my doubts with is Pete while we were learning and trying to rehearse the track i thought he was being quite lazy about it only sorta playing when he thought was right dont get me wrong i like pete but as a musican to another musician he needs to get his game face on.

All in all the track will need some major work done to it in the further weeks of Daliya's rehearsal time. And i am yet to find out about her other choice.
Pete: Drums
Daliya: Vocals
Louise: Guitar
Solomon: Keyboards/Synths
Me: Bass

The next person i had a rehearsal with was Jon:

1. Whats my name by Rihanna was actually a suprising success musician wise Jon took my aside breifly and played me the first note and i pretty much knew where to go for the rest of the song. The chord progression didn't stray to far from the usual progression in R&B so for me it wasn't difficult. Daylia's vocal performance was rather supurb even though it was the first rehearsal of this track it was sung very nicely. As for drums once again i felt Pete was being lazy with it. I also felt that i couldn't follow him very well as a bass player and he's a drummer which are of course two key elements of band driven music. We'll have to see what happens in later rehearsal times
Jon: Keyboards
Pete: Drums
Daliya: Vocals
Malakai: Vocals
Me: Bass

2. Broken Hearted Girl by Beyonce was also an easy-ish track to follow for me and it was a pretty good rehearsal in this track the only instruments present were Piano, Bass, Vocals and a few violins's (which we dont have to worry about) drums come in a little later on in the track which we will have to see about because we didn't have drums for that track *ahem* other than that im sure this will be one of the easier ones.
Jon: Keyboards
Pete: Drums
Daliya: Vocals
Me: Bass

And finally James's selected track:

1. Juno by Funeral For A Friend i was more than happy with James's song choice mainly because the band that perform this song are one of my favs and the song is my fav song by them so i was pretty open minded about the track seeing as i already knew how to play the song in full. The only thing i will say is that James needs serious practice time for the strumming pattern for the track which he finds really difficult but im sure he will nail it with loads of practice. I'm playing bass plus im singing/screaming on the track.
James: Guitar
Gary: Guitar
Pete: Drums
Me: Vocals & Bass


END OF TRANSMISSION...

song plans

For my track i am stuck between ideas. The songs i have chosen are:

Rise from your grave by Glamour Of The Kill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0vIvdk5p9M

& Day in Day out by Architects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOeP51WZO8

The band:

Pete on drums
James on guitar
Gary on guitar
This is the band that i want for either of my tracks but for the Architects track i would need someone to play bass for i want to completely front the band with just vocals but if the Glamour of the kill is chosen as the track i will play Bass and Sing for the track.

I've got a feeling i will be playing on most of the tracks for the performance (which im fine with)
I know i'll be playing Bass on Daylia's track, *Violet stars happy hunting*
Vocals & playing bass on Petes track, *The metal by Tenacious D*
Bass on Louise's track, *For a perssimest im pretty optimistic by Paramore*
On Gary's track possibly vocals & Bass *either Kasabian or Gary's Original*
Vocals & Bass on Davi's track *The pretender by foo fighters*
Vocals & Bass on Semaj's track *Escape Artists Never Die By Funeral For A Friend*

To be continued...

1st day of rehearsals

We started rehearsing straight after the morning rollcall we went into the acoustic room and started creating input for possible tracks we would play for the upcoming bootcamp show the rehearsal was going pretty well we thought of a few tracks we could mix between classic rock and rap

BFD planning to camera project:

List of the scenes in the video:
00:00 • Band Walks backstage
00:34 • Band walks onto stage
01:09 • Band picks up instruments Close-ups everyone
Curtain’s open
01:34 • Natural disaster clips Feature Sam & Tom2
• Chorus: drugs, drink Close ups everyone
03:29 • Breakdown argument Tom 2 + Glenroy + Margaret and Jon
04:38 • Head-banging Close ups everyone
• Breakdown no.1 Jon gets angry
• Eastern feel section Margaret gossips with Shamar about Jon
• Breakdown no.2 Band leave the stage, Glenroy last comments

List Of locations for the video shoot:
• Live room Band rehearsing
• Changing room Band hanging out/close ups mirrors
• Riverside Fight scene Tom2, Sam close ups
• Southwark park Running, walking

Characters:
Tom2 Arrogant front man ‘’Mr know it all’’
Glenroy Business man, band manager
Gary Weirdo, Addict, Oddboy
Jon ‘’Mr super cool’’ with a bad temper
Margaret ‘’Gossip girl’’
Sam The Punk
Shamar ‘’Mr spender’’ unsigned rap artist
Tom1 Loan shark

Costume’s to be worn in different scenes

Stage scenes Black suites & ties
Other scenes Casual clothes and normal everyday wear

The clothing for my character is a dirty punky look with a bad attitude.
The bands clothes would vary depending on what the image of their character is for example my character is the punk so attitude and clothing alike has to be loud and say ‘’stay away from me’’.

Location ideas and explanations:
At the park it will show the true side to all members in the band we’re going to run at the camera and play fight with each other. The reason why the park was a good idea is to show the other side of misery with happiness and it was a good environment to shoot because it’s a big place to fool around and capture some silliness of the band

At the riverside it will show the dirtier side of London by the river it looks gritty and dirty and perfect for a rage filled fight scene seeing that two members of the band will be ‘’fighting’’. It is also the same location where Glenroy’s character will offer Shamar’s character a record deal.

At the block of flats its supposed to show the darker side of London including the abuse of drugs and violence. This is also the location of Tom1’s character ‘’The loan shark’’ trying to convince Glenroy’s character to pay him the money he owes.

In the end I was not in the video due to me having the flu.

My rehearsal Schedule:

Song title: Not good enough for the truth in cliché by Escape the fate
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmaoK1wsCwk

We had to cut about a minute and half off of the song because we’re only aloud 02:30max and the song was around 03:30 so we had to cut quite a bit off. We decided to take one of the verses and also a chorus away so it would match the desired time.

The goals I set to achieve in my rehearsal was to:

1. To show my selected band the desired track and show them how to play it
2. To learn the song structure and chord progression.
3. For the musicians to play the song correctly and accurately.

I did achieve these goals to a certain extent. The musicians did learn the song rather quickly but the progression of the song took some time because it’s a genre that some of my classmates weren’t very used to overall it went pretty well.

The things that my band achieved:

1. Learned song structure.
2. Guitarist and bassist learned chord progression for the song.
3. The entire band now knows the song.

Things that I personally achieved:

1. As an MD I directed the band very well I instructed clearly and accurately to any changes and progressions needed.
2. In terms of my vocals im very pleased to how they sound I push my voice in places and I learned to stay in tune through the whole song. Also with practice im now able to scream vocals without any hesitation I have the confidence to.

Things that the band need to improve are that they need to show up on time and be prepared to be told what to do because when I direct a rehearsal I like to be heard whenever I talk and taken seriously and my band did that.

Overall my track is ready to go (: