Learning Outcome 3

Types of audience: eg peers, friends and family, public

Communication: type eg verbal, physical, musical; with band members; with audience

Stage presentation: image eg costume where appropriate, stage make-up; stage presence and awareness; use of space eg movement, placing of equipment; sight lines

Musical competency: intonation; instrumental tuning; pitching during performance; tightness; tempo; handling of section changes; beginnings and endings; technical proficiency; critical listening and response to ensemble requirements eg balance; sensitivity and dynamics

Here are three of the many songs we performed throughout the musical. These are live recordings from one of the shows!

This is a good example of complex time signatures, as it starts in 7/8.

Go Go Joseph was fun for me, as it had a driving, energetic drum part with a drum solo towards the end.

I enjoyed playing this song, as I did my best to put my own reggae groove in it. I did not play the written part as I did not think it fitted at all. The song was meant to be stereotypically reggae, and so that's what I played. I made sure to use the reggae kit on Roland drum module. This was a fun piece to play.

Evaluation

I am really pleased that I took part in this. The week I spent practically entirely at the church was really good, as firstly I got to play drums a lot of the time which is always a bonus, and secondly I just got to know a lot of people from both the band - and the performers, and had a great time.

The shows were practically full every night, even sold out on some nights. The audience varied from kids, college students up to elderly people. They all seemed to think it was great.

Communication

The communication between band members was great. Because we were sitting at the back of the church behind the audience, we could whisper and signal things to each other without distracting anyone. David was perfectly in the centre, with us on each side facing him. I could see him perfectly and even talk to him from where I was. This made communication between us work very well. He could also see the performers from that position, which meant that he could communicate with them too.

Performance

I think that I played quite well on the whole. I didn't make too many obvious mistakes, and managed to stay well in time in stranger time signatures and so on. I was also pleased with my solo in Go Go Joseph. I think that everyone paid attention well, and there were no major disruptions or bad parts of any of the songs on any of the nights. The guitarists and other tuned instruments all made sure to tune up before each performance, and we always checked our levels each night to make sure it was all perfect and ready.

Self-Critisism

Something I found particularly challenging was all the use of rubato and ritardandos. I am used to playing music with a set beat/tempo, or recording to click tracks. However, a lot of parts of songs would suddenly slow up, and were controlled by the conductor. This is alright if you are playing something like a wind instrument, as you can slowly start blowing into it. However, a drum hit is so sudden and instant, that although I tried to hit them in sync with the conductor, sometimes they weren't all that accurate. I also had trouble slowing down properly at the end of some songs. I would like to improve on this for next time I do a show, and get better at predicting the changing tempos and ritardandos.

  Here is a review of the show from the Henley Standard:

The Monarchs

Earlier this year, I formed a band called The Monarchs with Spencer on guitar. We then recruited a bass player (Rowan Haynes) and a guitarist/singer (Mo Evans). We initially decided to aim for our first gig at Gig Night 2013 as part of the Henley Youth Festival. This gave us three weeks from starting the band to doing the first gig. We started practising immediately, with the plan of writing two songs before then.

Here is a video of us discussing part of a song we were writing at our first rehearsal:

We eventually got two songs roughly done. Here is a video of us rehearsing each one.

Can You See Me rehearsal:

One Step Closer rehearsal:

We had only had 4 band practices before the gig, and managed to get two songs done in that time. We then performed them at gig night. Because I didn't know them off by heart yet, I wrote out structures and had them on the floor by me in the performance.

Here is us performing both songs at Gig Night 2013:

It went surprisingly well considering we had been together for only three weeks and were very under-practiced compared to other bands. However, we were spotted and thus put forward to play at the Gala Night of the Henley Youth Festival - a night with a combination of some of the best performances from the festival (Could include dances, acting, singing, bands etc). This was really good.

Here is us performing Can You See Me at the Gala Night:

Unfortunately after this, we split up because our singer, Mo Evans, wanted to pursue a solo career instead. It was however a brilliant experience and a lot of fun.

Learning Outcome 2

These are two solo performances I did at the Music On The Meadows festival in Henley. This festival was a great opportunity for me to perform solo, as I was originally going to be playing in the evening part of the day in the battle of the bands with my band The Monarchs. However, since we split up before the event, I opted to keep our slot and play two solos instead. The event was outside on a bandstand. There were about 2000 people there in total, with over a thousand watching me. This is the largest audience I have ever played to!

The first song is Rope by Foo Fighters. I aimed to stick to the part with this one (Learning it by ear), and played it pretty much as it is played by Taylor Hawkins on the original track. I managed to get hold of a drum-less version of the track which is what I am playing to here. I also had a metronome click in my headphones to better stay in time - especially in the drum solo. At one point the song cut out for a second before resuming where it stopped. I am not sure why this happened, but it didn't really affect the overall performance so it was not too much of a problem. 

The second piece is Heartbreaker by Michael Jackson. In this piece, at one point at the beginning of my second drum breakdown/solo, I noticed that the bass drum had slipped forwards to the point where my double bass pedal had locked up. For this reason I had to stop for a moment to pull the bass drum back to where it was. Other than this though, I don't think that I made too many mistakes - considering that it was improvised. There were one or two small slips, but they weren't detrimental to the overall performance.

Here I have two more solo performances. Both were recorded in one live take.

There performances were performed to camera. I managed to play both of these pretty much error free and am pleased with my performances in both videos.

Learning Outcome 1

An Effective Practice Routine

I have done quite a bit of research on effective drum practice routines, and I came across this plan on a website. http://www.elephantdrums.co.uk/blog/guides-and-resources/drumming-practise-regime/ 

The plan seems like a very good logical way to improve my drumming, as it makes you set targets of specific things you want to improve, and gives your practice focus and an aim. Just by reading it, and how much it apparently helps your drumming, I am already motivated to give it a try! I will start the plan, and follow it over a two month period. I will be focussing in on aspects of three of my grade 8 pieces. I will adjust the plan to fit me and my spare time. I will follow this routine for two months.

Here is my current standard of playing of my three grade 8 pieces. I will watch these videos back and select the things from my playing and specific parts of these pieces which need improving most.

This is my current standard of Bo Diddley:

This is my current standard of Overture:

And this is my current standard of 7evens:

PHASE ONE – Practice Pad
Here I have chosen some parts of my hand or foot technique that need improving. I selected these by watching my playing back and look at the particular techniques I am having trouble with.

My list:

1. Improve accuracy of drags
2. Pata fla fla pattern with triplet hi hats (3 against 4 pattern) increased speed
3. RllrrLRllrrLRllrrLrrl pattern in 7/8.
4. Chops (between hands and foot - RLBBRLBBRLRLBBRLRLRBB etc)/also as triplets

PHASE TWO – Drumkit

Some parts of the pieces I need to improve on:

My list:

1. Accents throughout the pieces
2. Groove in 7evens using hi-hat foot
3. Solo in overture
4. Not rushing in overture when playing fast ride cymbal

Putting it together

You’ll be working on these topics for thirty days straight (schedule permitting)!
So, get back to what you’ve written/typed down and add this figure to every topic: 0/30.
When you’ve completed a day of practise, you add a number to that figure. So after three practise sessions your log should look like this for each topic: 3/30
Woodshed until you reach 30/30.
If you feel really comfortable with a groove or technique after only 20 days/practise sessions, pick something new and start from 0/30.
If you think you need more work on some things, add 10 more days. Or start from zero (that will surely be the case when developing hand or foot technique and/or advanced coordination).
Focus for 20min a day on each of the techniques/grooves/concepts you picked.
Work exclusively on that! Don’t lose focus!

My schedule
I will work on each of these for 15 minutes a day. This adds up to 2 hours practice a day which I can just about fit in.

January/February 2013

Improve accuracy of drags 60/60

Pata fla fla pattern with triplet hi hats (3 against 4 pattern) increased speed 60/60

RllrrLRllrrLRllrrLrrl pattern in 7/8. 60/60

Chops (between hands and foot - RLBBRLBBRLRLBBRLRLRBB etc)/also as triplets 60/60

Accents throughout the pieces 60/60

Groove in 7evens using hi-hat foot 60/60

Solo in overture 60/60

Not rushing in overture when playing fast ride cymbal 60/60

The Results

If you stick to your practise routine, preferably practising on a daily basis, 30 practise sessions n a row, you will be astounded by how much your technique, grooves, chops will improve!
And now the best part of it!
You’ll need one hour and ten minutes at the practice pad and the same amount of time behind the drums.
It totals up at 2h20min for your daily practise routine.
It’s not that much is it!?
If you’ve got more time on your hands, you can choose to dedicate more time for each area.
The idea is to develop a focused, systematic practise routine and achieve a lot more in less time.
Let’s say you can’t put in the hours for a while because you get really busy gigging, teaching or working at the office, when you get back to it, you’ll know exactly where you’re at and for how long have you been working on each area of your playing.
Give it a shot and you’ll feel and hear the difference!

I have successfully completed 60 days worth of practice of this. Admittedly it took a little over two months as there were some days where I just didn't get round to doing the practice. I have however definitely improved upon these things. The improvements didn't come quite as quickly as I expected, but they are definitely there. I am not sure how fast I would have improved just practising my normal way in comparison, but I don't think I would have got these things up to scratch as well in the time period!

I am very pleased with the practice routine. Although I have since stopped following it (Due to being very busy with A levels) I have generally noticed that my practice has become a lot more focussed since I followed this, and I am seeing faster improvements in my playing these days than before. I am going to continue to use the routine I used and adapted here, and continue to adapt it until I have a practice routine that works perfectly for me. I am taking my grade 8 very soon now, and am pleased that I have learnt how to more effectively practice. I will be putting this routine back into use shortly, and I hope that it will help me get the distinction I am aiming for!

Assessment Criteria

Learning Outcomes