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At the start of this academic year I had told myself that I wanted to improve my all round performance skills as well as persona as a performer. This led to me putting myself in unformattable situations to better my skills as well as help with my confidence as a musician. Over the course of this academic year I have done a variety electronic and instrument based performances. Before starting on any these performances I had promise myself to ensure that I stick to my goals as well as being on top of all my practises, both in groups and individual work. This is due to myself sometimes not practicing as much as I need to and skipping steps. However, I wanted to change that as I know I am capable of sticking to my program. I also wanted to ensure that all the performances went as well as smoothly as possible and that I was able to showcase my ability to perform to the highest degree.

The first performance I had taken part in this year was a digital performance in one of my modules which had consisted us doing live recording and looping on Ableton. I was extremely excited for this module as live looping is something I have wanted learn and do for a long time. When it came down to start on the project and create a live set I had felt very anxious as this was something I had never done before and I wanted to create a exciting and technical performance. I had also wanted to create a performance that clearly showcases the skills we have studied in class. Before I had started I had watched a few examples of live sets online and studied what skills the performers used and tried to follow some of their examples and incorporate my own style and sound to them. After a few days of practicing and experimenting with alternate sounds, I was quickly able to pick it up and had a clear idea of how I was going layout the set and what sounds and instruments I was going to use. Once I had created all the tracks and had a clear idea of how I was going execute, I had started to practise running from start to end of the set. My practise consisted of me going through the set every day and adding and changing certain aspects of the set which I felt that needed to be changed or improved. After a week of practicing I had felt a lot more confident with myself and using Ableton and could already see a change in my confidence. When it came down to the day of performing Infront of my class I had felt very nervous as well as excited. However, during the performance there was an issue with my software which had had an overall effect on the performance. Luckily, the technical issue had nothing to do with my preparation and was just a fault in the system. My teacher was very understanding that the issue was out of my control and allowed me to resubmit a video of my running through my set in my own time which was greatly appreciated. When I had re submitted the recording everything had gone to plan and my teacher was very impressed with the overall set and sound I had produced which I found very comforting due to it being the first time I had created a live set.

Another example of a performance I had taken part in his year was last semester where a fellow college of mine had an assessed performance and needed external players to accompany him. I had offered to play drums for him. At first I was little nervous to play drums for him due to not practicing or playing drums for at least a year and had lost a lot of my confidence. In order to prepare for the rehearsals with the rest of the band, I had decided that it would be beneficial to run through some basic exercises and rudiments to remind myself and ensure that my playing was up to par. I would run through the different exercises with a metronome to make sure that my rhythm and timing was perfect, I would then slowly begin to raise the tempo once I had felt confident with the previous speed. This had definitely had a significant impact on my playing and helped with my confidence. When it finally came down to start practicing with the band I felt that I was ready and felt more confident which had allowed me to play better than I had expected. When it came to learning all three pieces it felt a lot more fluent than I had expected which I was very satisfied with. I had attended all the rehearsals to ensure that If there were any changes, or sections which had been altered, I was aware of them and could adapt my playing to them. Playing with a band had also had a large impact on my playing as it meant that I had to focus a lot more on my playing in order to keep everyone in time, as well as playing with purpose is a lot more different than practicing by myself as it requires more attention to all the players and how they are playing and ensuring that what I play is perfectly in time and all the solos and fills are as clean as possible. When it finally came down to the actual performance, I went on stage feeling like I had prepared myself well and was focused on giving the performance my best. During the performance I was focused on my playing as well as ensuring what I was playing was in time and making sure my dynamics matched all the different sections of the tracks. In the end it was all a success and I had felt extremely happy with my performance and felt like I had reconnected with the drums again which had made me eager to get back into practicing a few times every week.

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My concert review consists of two performances that I had gone to watch. The first was Matt Suttons drum recital in which he was accompanied by an ensemble. They had played a variety of classic records which I found extremely refreshing and felt that they had played them extremely well. During the performance I had written a few comments on both Matt as well as the rest of the band. At the start of the performance Matt had made a small mistake by hitting the snare at the wrong time. However, he had played it off extremely well and continued to play which I felt was very important as it made it less noticeable. I think that when someone makes a mistake during a performance, the best thing they can do is to continue playing as a lot of the time the audience will not always acknowledge it. The overall dynamic of the performance was excellent. An example of this would be during a breakdown on one of the records, Matt played very quietly to create more room for the guitar solo rather than playing loud and aggressively. I found the that the back-up singers harmonised well with the lead vocals. The lead singer was hitting very high notes at certain sections which would not normally be easy to accompany. However, the back-up singers had sung the same section but an octave lower which, in my opinion, made the overall texture of the vocals smooth and very enjoyable to listen to.

One of my favourite aspects of this performance was the smooth transitions from one track to the next. It is not an easy thing for one to be able to transition from one record to the next without making it obvious to the audience. However, they had executed it so well I was not able to tell when first piece was finished and when the second one had started. It definitely made me want to see if our band could replicate it for our own performances. I found the guitar solo in Purple Rain to be played perfectly. Not only did the guitarist play all the correct notes and melodies with no issues, but the feel and movement of it was perfect. One could tell when he started to play that he was completely in the zone and was able to play it almost effortlessly. I found the harmony between the electric guitar and bass to be excellent in terms of how the performers played as well as there being no harmonic clashes. The timbre of the bass was smooth and rich and gave the overall performance a nice and thick texture. The last thing I had written in my notes about the performance was the dynamics on the piano. I felt the piano was able to accompany the other elements in the band very well. They were able to create space when needed extremely well when needed as well as able to take up space during the build ups to the choruses.

The next performance I had watch was Shannon Do and Margaret Roberts performance of Sonata In D Minor for Cello and Piano. I found the harmonisation of the piano and cello work well together. Both performers well able to accompany each other well as well create space for each other. Their movement throughout the piece was very comforting and was clear that they actually enjoyed the pieces that they were playing. They also were very articulate with the tempo markings which was a fundamental part of the overall sound and feel of the piece so I found that very good.

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I was the concert coordinator on the 15th of March and was in charge of ensuring that everyone had all the equipment and facilities they need to ensure they have a successful performance and to make sure the performers arrived on time for their tech rehearsals. Prior to the tech rehearsal I had emailed all the performers asking them what equipment they need as well as if there is anything specific they need to ensure they have a good show. Once I had gotten all the information back I had relayed it to Shiv as well as the manager and assistant who were helping out on the day as well. Once I had gotten to the PATS building the morning of the concert I had helped set up the chairs for the audience and ensured all the information on the programs were correct and had all the performers on their chosen tracks on it. Once that was completed I sat and listened to a few of the rehearsals and then when it was time for the concert to start I made sure that everyone knew that time they were on and made sure that when the first band had started, the next were in the green room ready to go on stage to ensure there were no delays and the concert could go smoothly. Once the concert was finished, I had helped put back some bits of equipment and collected up any left-over programs and then met back up with Shiv to see if he needed help with anything else.

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My ensemble participation involved me playing Piano, alongside my fellow class mate Sam Jones, in which we had put together a band together involving two other students from CMT. At the start of this module we had met up together to discuss what style of tracks we felt we would be able to perform to a high standard of quality, as well as what instruments we would want to play and what extra elements we would need in order to have a successful performance. After a few days of exchanging ideas, we had finally come to a conclusion for the set list in which we were both happy with. I had decided to step out of my comfort zone and select the piano as my specialised instrument for the module. Although I have been playing piano for a few years, it had been a long time since I had performed and played in an ensemble with the piano so I was extremely excited to start practising and working with a group of excellent musicians. Once we had found a drummer and singer we began to practise the records around 2-3 times a week. Myself and Sam had also had arranged rehearsals for both us in order to perfect specific sections in the three pieces to ensure our sections did not clash with one another. We had also practised our individual solos and had set out a plan as to what we will each be playing for both our solos. Alongside our group rehearsals, I had also started having piano lessons via zoom with my allocated teacher, Alex Curtis. In these lessons we had gone over all the tracks as well as going through a variety of important exercises to help improve my knowledge of theory and fingering exercises to help improve my movement up and down different octaves. He had also helped give me ideas for my solo which I had found extremely helpful as I was struggling to write a section which I felt would be able to showcase my ability. I had also spent an hour every day in the music building running through all the pieces on my own and experimenting with different melodic phrases as well as practicing all the pieces to ensure the group rehearsals were successful. We had also had a tech rehearsal prior to the performance where we had ran through one of the tracks Infront of one of our teachers. After the run through he had given us some feedback and tips to help improve our playing both individually and as a ensemble. He was very happy with how we had all played and felt that we worked well as a group. He had also given us some constructive criticism which was that we were playing too quick. Due to this piece being in 6/8, he felt that it would make more sense to play slower than at a fast pace. In the next group rehearsal we played the record slower and agreed that it made it sound better and fitted the vibe of the track.

I had felt that the overall performance had gone extremely well and felt that everyone had played their sections perfectly. I had left the stage feeling extremely happy with how all the tracks were performed and felt that I had played exceptionally well with only a few small mistakes which I felt were not very noticeable. I also felt my solo had gone well with only one or two issues. I would say that the small mistakes were due to being very nervous on the day of the performance as I wanted to ensure my playing was up to par.