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During these rehearsals, I spent the majority of my time deciding whether I wanted to perform as a solo artist, or work with somebody else on their songs.

In the end I made the conscious decision to perform my self-composed songs, as I knew I wouldn't be capable of getting a good enough grade just playing the guitar for somebody (my skills are very limited as you are aware).

It's difficult to tell how well I'll be able to pull off a set with my own songs at such an early stage, but we shall see!

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Stool or standing? I'm undecided as to whether or not I want to have a motionless, yet emotive stage presence, or pounce around with lots of energy... I guess I'll have to decide what fits best with my set, as I'm yet to decide on which songs to perform.

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I have been thinking about adding a range of different sounds into my set; however, with it being live, I'm more likely to make noticeable mistakes on stage. Rather than using an acoustic guitar, I'm considering an electric and it'd mean I'd have to yell my lyrics a lot more, but it'd be less dowdy for the audience.

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A full band setup for the final performance, it is! In today's rehearsal, I was initially practicing with Nathan on the keys and myself on the acoustic guitar and vocals. With Nathan's ability to learn a track pretty quickly, the process was really quick and easy.

As the session progressed, James became free and hopped on the drums mid-way through rehearsing a track and - despite us all being a little scattered at first - it sounded 100x better compared to performing it as a soloist.

The song's I'll be rehearsing each week are two of my own: Caramel and Stupid Cupid. Two songs I've had written for a while and am relatively confident performing with.

I'm unsure as to whether or not the set would sound better with James on the Cohan rather than a full kit, but next week we're planning to mix around the arrangement and see what works best for us all.

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1x vox
1x acoustic guitar
1x drum kit (inc. breakables)
1x jack to jack cables
1x keyboard (using DI)
2x DI box and cable
1x bass drum mic and 2x overhead mics

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As mentioned previously in last week's rehearsal log, this week pretty much consisted of messing with the instrumental arrangement to see what worked best.

After mixing up the percussion and occasionally incorporating a tambourine, we of course decided the first arrangement (James on drums, Nath on keys and me on guitar and vocals) worked the best.

I was initially wanting to make the set a little eerie, inspired by Massive Attack's 'Paradise Circus', however it was hard to pull this off with my limited vocal ability, so we decided the more we drowned my voice, the better it sounded... In a nice way.

I'd say to improve I need to add a little more flare to my stage presence. At the minute, it all sounds okay, but juts needs to be a little more exciting to watch, with my songs being quite mellow. Next week will be a case of working on smooth transitions between the two songs, in preparation for the final performance.

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Caramel is a song I submitted for my EP project previously in the term and, in my opinion, is the easiest to perform. The chord structure is simple, as is the song generally. Despite this, I sing it in a relatively high key which means I have to excessively warm up my vocals in order for it to not go horribly wrong. Despite this, there aren't any crazy key changes or complexities which makes it short and sweet to sing.

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QS16 2 Cate Nathan James Critical Feedback

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For both of my songs I will be the lead vocalist and guitarist (acoustic), James will be performing on the drums and Nathan will be on the keys.

I've chosen this structure in order to get the most out of my performance as a solo artist, whilst also attempting to make the songs sound somewhat professional.

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Stupid Cupid is my favourite out of the two, purely because of the more interesting chord structure and melodies within it. Unlike Caramel, the progression from the verses to the choruses are more intense and interesting. I'd say - forgetting the depressing lyrics - is a lot more up beat in regards to the drum pattern.

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Stupid Cupid -

James, drums.
Nathan, Keys.
Myself, acoustic guitar and vocals.

Caramel -

James, drums.
Nathan, Keys.
Myself, acoustic guitar and vocals.

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Dress Code -

I don't think I'm overly concerned about what we all wear for the final performance. As long we all look relatively smart - I'd be happy with a smart casual dress code.

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During the planning process I contributed towards organising the group structure and marketing planning. For this, I pencilled in who would be performing with who and what songs people wanted to do, and later helped decide on a theme for the event.

This was all relatively successful, despite a few moments where the class became a little rowdy and irritable; however, we were generally efficient with communicating each others thoughts, ideas and preferences.

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Soft, dark lighting with a smoke machine during the choruses.

With the songs being quite emotive, I'd like the lighting to create a relaxed and moody ambience throughout the set.