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These are all of the other performances I did, but as I either wasn't the front man or only did them as a one off, i consider them as less relevant to my aims and goals throughout the FMP, hence why they aren't reflected on as heavily.

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Pro:
'You make the most of the space you've got considering you play guitar and sing'

Con:
'I would advise warming up before performances to ensure you don't strain your voice' - Morgan Bell

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Because of the COVID-19 virus, large gatherings of people could not go ahead. This unfortunately included gigs and concerts, as there is little to no room for social distancing at such events.

As we get deeper into British Summer Time we will be allowed to gather in larger and larger groups, building up until the 21st June, where (hopefully) all restrictions and regulations around social distancing will be dropped. Unfortunately, our gig schedule lines up in such a way that our final FMP and graded performance will be before this date, so we will have to adjust how we do things in order to remain inside the parameters that the government set to keep us safe.

From the 17th May 2021 we will be able to gather in socially distanced groups outside, so for our final performance will have a proper audience. Until then however, we will be renting out the scout hut located just outside of the college campus to allow us to practice in a similar - albeit more enclosed - setting.

While the government plans to have completely lifted lockdown by late June, concert planners are worried about receiving confirmation on if they can go ahead or not, and they need to know soon. (Gemma Peplow, Sky News) This is a strange situation for everyone involved in planning and organising a concert, and if they aren't given a proper heads up with enough lead up time to prepare, the festivals and gigs may have to be cancelled purely down to a lack of time to get everything ready. This is something that briefly worried me while we were thinking of the logistics of our final FMP, as I wondered what would happen if the government decided that even outdoor gatherings weren't safe. Upon further reflection though, I came to the conclusion that there would always be a way around the issue, for example we could have had our performances through zoom or teams.

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The majority of summer festivals are unlikely to go ahead without more certainty from the government, despite the new lockdown-easing roadmap, a representative for the sector has told Sky News.

Paul Reed, chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals, said that while the prime minister's four-step COVID-19 rule-lifting plan is cause for some optimism, the costs and logistics involved in putting most festivals on are too great to leave decision-making until later in the year.

Festival organisers say they could find themselves in "big trouble" financially if they decide to go ahead only for restrictions to change.

Outdoor large performances with a maximum of 4,000 people will be allowed from 17 May as part of Step Three of the roadmap, but the majority of festivals are looking to Step Four, starting on 21 June at the earliest, when the government is hoping to remove all legal limits on social contact.

However, the route out of lockdown is dependent on coronavirus cases, deaths and hospital admissions continuing to fall. These will be constantly reviewed and a week's notice will be given before full confirmation of each step.

Mr Reed told Sky News the average festival will need to make a decision on whether to go ahead by the end of March, and currently there is no COVID-19 insurance in existence to protect them.

"Time is running out," he said. "We do need urgent intervention on insurance. We're very appreciative to have a 'no earlier than date'. But if festivals are to go ahead, we need that intervention before the end of March. If that doesn't happen, unfortunately, you're not going to see much of the festival sector this year and [it] will therefore need support until when we're able to return beyond this."

As part of the roadmap, the government has announced a research programme using pilot schemes involving testing and other measures to run events with larger crowd sizes. However, this does not start until April.

Glastonbury has already cancelled this year and it seems impossible that big festivals due to take place before 21 June, such as Isle of Wight and Download, can realistically go ahead, although no official announcements have yet been made.

AIF member festivals on average take six to eight months to plan, sometimes more, Mr Reed said, and the costs involved are huge - the average for an AIF member being £6m.

Organisers are hoping for an announcement on insurance in the Budget next week, with 90% of AIF members saying they cannot go ahead without it.

"Really, we're only going to know if we can proceed with festivals, with larger scale festivals, on 14 June," Mr Reed said. "For many of them, they may be able to delay their decision date by a little bit.

"But there are certain essential things that they will need to commit to paying for if their events are going ahead, not least things like medical provision, police services, essential things that will need to be in place. It's not just about the artist deposits or the production costs.

"And frankly, that point in June will be when many festivals would be on site building their festivals, even if they take place in July or August, depending on the scale.

"There's a large issue around insurance as well... We've been pressing for this for festivals and provided a lot of information and data to support that ask. There's been a lot of conversations both with the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) and the Treasury around such a scheme, but it's not forthcoming and it's not confirmed. And if it isn't confirmed by the end of March, then the expectation is that organisers will press ahead and commit costs.

"It's half a million pounds to put on a 5,000 capacity festival. You go right up to some of our larger members, which is 70,000 capacity, and it's over £12m. So the issue is having to start committing that cost without any sort of insurance.

"I fear that if government don't act on that before the end of March, then you're still going to see widespread cancellations of festivals this year."

Mr Reed says he is pleased the government's research programme is looking at ways to deliver large-scale events without social distancing, as significant reductions in capacity leave many "logistically or economically not viable".

The AIF has been working with the government to provide guidance for the industry, he said.

There is also the issue of having artists from overseas on festival bills, although Mr Reed said the feeling is that festival-goers will be happy to accept line-ups that are less international this year.

Oliver Jones, director of the 15,000-capacity Deer Shed Festival, due to take place in Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, at the end of July, told Sky News if insurance does not become available and they have to wait until mid-June for confirmation, they could potentially find themselves in "big trouble financially".

"If we were to press go now on the full Deer Shed Festival, as advertised, we could get to the middle of June and have the whole thing cancelled," he said. "The main issue with that is that there's no commercially available cancellation insurance."

Last year, Deer Shed ran a small, socially-distanced event - where campers got their own loos - which could be an option this year, Mr Jones said. Another option is to put on a 4,000 capacity event as per the Step Three rules, should they go to plan.

But the best option would be insurance.

"We are very hopeful that Rishi [Sunak] in the Budget will announce some kind of government support for slippage in the steps unlocking," Mr Jones said.

Following the government's announcement on Monday, Greg Parmley, chief executive of Live - a trade body for the live music industry - said the sector had found itself "at the back of the queue to reopen" and called for the Chancellor in the Budget to "provide the economic support needed to ensure the jobs and livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of people that work in our industry exist as we come through this pandemic".

Mark Davyd, chief executive of the Music Venue Trust - a charity which represents grassroots venues - also called for more support.

Sky News has contacted the DCMS for comment.

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COVID-19: UK festivals could face 'widespread cancellation' without more support, says industry representative

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The majority of summer festivals are unlikely to go ahead without more certainty from the government, despite the new lockdown-easing roadmap, a representative for the sector has told Sky News.

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Practicing the post chorus guitar lick - week 001

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Practicing the post chorus guitar lick - week 001

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In our first practice as a band, I was having some trouble perfecting the guitar lick after the chorus in Teenage Dirtbag, so I went home and practiced it. It wasn't perfect for the first week, documented here and in the first performance of this song.

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- Research favorite front-men/women such as Patty Walters (As It Is) Joe Taylor (Knuckle Puck) and Ben Barlow (Neck Deep)

My aim for my FMP is to become a better frontman, and to improve my ability to put on good show.

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Ben Barlow is the lead vocalist of the Welsh pop punk band Neck Deep who performs alongside Sam Bowden, Matt West, Seb Barlow and Dani Washington. While Barlow is not the most technically gifted singer in the pop punk scene, he has a certain stage presence that is undeniable. I would like to take Barlow's crowd interaction and incorporate it into my performance.

He is one of my biggest influences because he manages to perfectly balance high energy movement alongside a fairly good performance technically speaking, making for an entertaining, unforgettable show, as shown in the video below

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Neck Deep -  Full Set (Live Vans Warped Tour 2015)

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I have, by most people's standards, quite a lot of experience with performing to an audience. This is through my association with NMPAT's Rock School, alongside other gigs and concerts I have planned independently and with my other bands. I have always found however, that I somewhat lack the stage presence and confidence that many other front men of bands have. My main aim for this FMP is to improve this quality of myself, and become a more rounded, confident musician because of it.

I think I will achieve this aim through sheer brute force, in the sense that if I simply force myself to go out in front of an audience weekly and put as much effort and passion as I can into putting on a quality, charismatic show, my confidence and stage presence will gradually grow.

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Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts trust is the county's biggest arts teaching provider, providing lessons inside and outside of schools.

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Performance: Teenage Dream duet with Gracie Mellon (i & ii) [Piano and Vocals]

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Performance: Teenage Dream duet with Gracie Mellon (i & ii) [Piano and Vocals]

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There is no footage for either of these performances that I can find, but as they were both cut from the final performance, it isn't a big issue.

First Performance:
Pros: One of the few pros about this performance is that, for whatever reason, it seemed to be a crowd favorite in some regard. My piano playing was fairly on point throughout, and there was a decent level of crowd participation.

Cons: There were several glaring issues with this song. Vocally it was arguably my worst performance. The issue here was the fact the song was in such a low registry, and we hadn't fully rehearsed the harmonies to a performable degree.

Improvements: To prepare for next weeks performance of this song, I am going to practice at home, attempting to support my diaphragm more to ensure I hit the more extreme low notes present on this song.

Second Performance
Pros: This performance was slightly better than the previous one. Our harmonies were tighter, and it was an all round better performance in terms of hitting the low notes.

Cons: Unfortunately, this song is still leagues behind Teenage Dirtbag and You Really Got Me. It is wildly under rehearsed which results in much less stage presence and confidence. For that reason, we have elected to stop performing this song, in order to focus more on songs that better showcase our abilities and talents.

Improvements: Although we are no longer performing this song, it has taught me a valuable lesson about rehearsal time management and organization to take into next term. I will attempt to further improve how efficiently I use my time in rehearsals, and ensure other band members do the same.

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My biggest influences as a vocalist and front man are the likes of high energy punk bands' lead singers; a fantastic example being Patty Walters from the band 'As It Is' (See 'front man research') I enjoy performing songs that I can put all my enthusiasm and effort into. For this reason, songs like 'Teenage Dream' (Katy Perry) and 'Peaches' (Justin Bieber) were cut from our final performance.

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Pros: In this performance of Teenage Dirtbag, I managed to get the crowd singing along. This type of crowd interaction is extremely conducive to the style of music TD is, as it contributed to the high energy and good vibes.

Cons: The only cons to this performance were that I was so focused on having stage presence and putting on a good show that every now and then I would have a small slip up make a mistake, but overall it was fairly unnoticeable.

Improvements: In preparation for the next performance, I will ensure I practice the song more - specifically the post chorus rising guitar lick - so that I know it off by heart. This, when coupled with good stage presence, should lead to a much better performance overall.

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Our FMP is to put on weekly performances at lunch at a professional level, ending in a final performance on the last day of term. The plan was to do these performances outside of college, possibly in the car park as to work around COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, however we ended up doing all but the final performance inside and socially distanced as to not disturb other people. All of the performances leading up to the final one are essential for practicing, building confidence and stage presence, preparing us for the end of term performance which will be graded.

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Pros: In this performance, I followed up on the improvements I said I was going to make from the previous week, learning the post chorus guitar part off by heart so I could have more fun with it and put more enthusiasm behind it onstage

Cons: Whilst the guitar on my end was a lot tighter, I feel like my vocals were slightly less controlled, this is most likely because i couldn't hear any of my vox through the monitor.

Improvements: For my final performance of this song next week, I am going to ensure all of the monitor levels are okay, as well as trying to merge the best parts of the previous performance and this one.

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Performance: Teenage Dirtbag (iii) [Finale]

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Performance: Teenage Dirtbag (iii) [Finale]

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Overall evaluation:
Overall I think I achieved my goal of the FMP - improving my front man abilities with this song at the bare minimum. This song went from being performed in a somewhat timid, under-rehearsed fashion to a loud, enjoyable performance with huge amounts of crowd participation. In this performance in particular, the guitar lick I had trouble with in the first and second week was smooth and well refined, my vocals were on point for the most part, with only a few sharp and flat notes, and my presence on stage was at an all time high, proven by the loud chants and singing crowd.

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six the cat girl Performing ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ LIVE @ Tresham Institute

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First Rehearsal
Rehearsal Plan:
For Teenage Dream, our goal is to take the dreamy pop hit and turn it into a dark, sultry piano ballad. We will attempt to achieve this by playing it in a slightly lower key, slightly slower and incorporating close together vocal harmonies.

Evaluation:
In this first rehearsal, we got the basic structure and vibe of the song down, but we were very much struggling with getting the harmonies to be exactly what we wanted.

Improvements:
In the next rehearsal, our aims will be to get the song tighter in the sense that we will understand exactly what were doing, and to improve the harmonies somewhat.

Second Rehearsal
Rehearsal Plan: For this rehearsal, our main goals were to try and perfect the harmonies to the best of our abilities, and get the timing a little tighter.

Evaluation:
We now have a much better idea of what the harmonies are, how to nail them and also how fast we want to play the song as a whole. We are now going to go home and practice separately in preparation for the performance.

Overall Evaluation
Overall, I think we partially achieved our goal of turning Teenage Dream into a darker piano ballad, however we have come to the mutual decision to stop performing it. We have found it isn't as strong as some of the other songs we do (You Really Got Me, Teenage Dirtbag) and it doesn't help me further achieve my aim for the FMP of improving my front man abilities.

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Pros: All round a solid performance, my guitar was tight with very few mistakes in the actual playing.

Cons: Glaringly obviously, there were some technical slipups. I made a mistake with the effects pedal and accidently put a wah effect on the guitar, and the strap fell off during the second verse. All of this considered though, I still think it was a good, entertaining performance

Improvements: There were really no improvements to be made here, Anything that went wrong during the song wasn't something controllable, but rather random isolated incidents.

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Knuckle Puck - Want Me Around
Trash Boat - Strangers
Mayday Parade - Miserable At Best
Neck Deep - December
Neck Deep - In Bloom
LiL Peep - Falling Down
The Amity Affliction - Aloneliness
Blackbear - idfc (clean version)
Machine Gun Kelly - Candy
Machine Gun Kelly - Bloody Valentine
blackbear - @ my worst
blackbear - i feel bad
RHCP - Scar Tissue

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Patty Walters is the lead vocalist in As It Is, a pop punk band from Brighton. While he does know how to play guitar alongside other things, he prefers to sing exclusively, without a mic stand, which is more conducive to a high energy performance.

I briefly considered doing this within my own performances, whoever i dismissed the idea when i considered it would mean teaching another guitarist the parts. This would've been time wasted that could otherwise have been spent practicing.

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As It Is - Full Set HD - Live at The Foundry Concert Club

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Pros: Considering the fact Brad and I have never properly rehearsed this song together, this went extremely well. There were no mistakes

Cons: Although there were no mistakes, the performance could've been tighter vocally speaking, but considering the complete lack of any rehearsals I think it went very well.

We probably wont do this song again though. It was a good exercise in on the spot thinking and boosted my confidence.

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Absolutely all of these roles are needed and are crucial when it comes to putting on a professional level concert.

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Practicing the post chorus guitar lick - week 002

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Practicing the post chorus guitar lick - week 002

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I managed to improve vastly during week two, and it shows in the second performance. I achieved this improvement through experimenting with different picks and finger techniques.

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The final performance is now complete. My main aims throughout the FMP were to improve both my stage presence, confidence and overall abilities as a front man, in turn becoming a more rounded musician. Reflecting on all of the footage and documentation of the journey on my padlet page, I would say that - for the most part - I achieved these aims. For example, the guitar lick I struggled to play whilst maintaining a good amount of stage presence was something that - with lots of practice - I managed to nail and incorporate into the final performance.

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In the end, I never ended up performing any of the songs I had initially put on the list. This, for the most part, was down to the fact that many of the songs were unfamiliar to most of the people I was working with, and so we ultimately came to the conclusion that it would be best to stick to songs we all at least were conceptually aware of.

Thinking ahead to next FMP, I would like to push a little harder to do some songs that I really enjoy, as I believe this will further improve my stage presence and overall confidence when performing.