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I found the initial idea of recording sounds and matching them with the short film a massive task, to take my mind off of the task ahead I created my LOGIC project and I downloaded the film from Moodle and inserted it into the workspace. Scott then taught how to bitmap which was very cool so I went through the film bitmapping parts where I'd like music or a change in music. That's how I started the project.

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I was thinking of how to record the sound of the Black Hole and I thought that was impossible so I decided to try create the sounds myself using my Pedal Board. I hooked up my electric guitar to my reverb and delay pedal strumming muted chords and adjusting the time and feedback knobs on the delay pedal to create this eerie Sci-Fi sound which I thought sounded pretty much like a black hole, even though there is no sound in space.

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I am planning to make a soft LoFi sound track which could be used as study music, I will use LoFi sounding keyboards and drums to create this.

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To create the study music I used the music I studied to as inspiration which are the tracks played by LoFi Girl. I took the soft vinyl sounds and drums from the tracks to put into my own. I enjoyed the simple added 6th and 7th chords as well as the use of the pentatonic and major scales which I used in my own chord progression and melodies.

For further research as to know what virtual instruments to use, what effects to use and how to EQ it all I used this Youtube video I found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDSf-6j0PV0

This channel doesn't only explore Lofi but other types of genres all using Logic as a DAW which made following along really easy.

This video taught me what virtual instruments are good to use , how to EQ them and what effects to add which helped create that chill Lofi sound I wanted.

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List of all instruments and sounds used 

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I first went to the virtual instrument Library to chose all the instruments I wanted. I chose the grand piano, electric piano, firefly pad and chopped up drums. All instruments were inspired by the ones used in the YT tutorial.

I then found samples from the ones available on Logic. I decided to use Hard rain, Noisy Vinyl FX, synth riser and Lobby conversation.

I will record the drums first with the MIDI keyboard straight into LOGIC, that way I have a solid beat to work with.

To add more rhythm I will add a Bass line just using the roots of the chords I came up with.

With rhythm now in place I will add the piano on top using the MIDI keyboard (plugged straight into the computer and then into Logic) with the chords I came up with, I will replicate with Pads and keyboards to add a real sense of atmosphere and variety.

I will then record a rhythm guitar playing soft chords replicating the piano and adding a few melodic features (doing this fingerstyle), I recorded the guitar by DIing it straight into the audio interface and selecting the input I was plugged into.

To finish it off, I will create a melody which will be played by a lead guitar using the same DI recording technique this time with a plectrum.

I recording everything to the same volume trying to get a healthy input by adjusting the gain levels on the interface. This way I could mix everything easier and there would be no distortion or popping.

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I recorded all the tracks using the loop feature and once they were recorded I layed out where I wanted certain parts of the song to start and end.

I decided to start with samples a found which added more atmospheric features which were vinyl scratches and rain sounds. I then added the pianos and pad which acted as an introduction.

I used a white noise riser to transition into the main section which included all the recorded features.

This then transitions to a drop where it just includes the Lead melody, the firefly pad and samples.

This then builds to the final main chorus featuring everything again transitioning into the outro where it ends.

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To add cleaner transitions and dynamics I automated the volume at the start and at the end so that the song fades in and fades out

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I wanted to add a High filter cut in the break section of the song so I selected the individual tracks playing in that section and created a Bus track (using cmd D) so I could automate all the tracks EQ at once

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To add separation and space in the guitars I added reverb and delay. By doing this it added good clarity and atmosphere which added to the calmness of the track.

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To EQ the pianos I added a high cut and a low cut only including Mid frequencies which made the Piano sound as if it was coming out of a phone. I learnt how to gain that effect from the video I used as research.

Through this I got the LoFi tone I wanted on the pianos

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On left is Scanner Vibrato, on right is Silververb 

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To get that Lofi girl tone on the Piano I used the effects shown in the video I used for further inspiration, which were Scanner Vibrato and Silververb. The Scanner Vibrato added a chorus which I adjusted using the depth control. This effect is stronger on the electric piano than it is on the piano.

I used silververb to add more sustain to the piano.

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Once I was happy with everything I lowered all the tracks and reset all the volumes to achieve a solid mix with all the instruments. Once they were all mastered I automated the volume all the tracks to have cleaner transitions between sections especially towards the end.

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To achieve a more interesting sound, I added a wider stereo sound by automating the Pads panning left to right throughout the entire track.

To also separation between the Piano and the electric piano I panned the electric piano right.

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To bounce my project to an Mp3, I went to File-Bounce-Project. I then selected Mp3 turned off normalise to keep all my dynamics and then saved it to my desktop.

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For the overall track I'm happy with the full sound I was able to achieve. I found the recording process pretty simple and straight forward as I use garage band which is really similar. I did forget about looping the tracks and then recording over them making separate takes and then choosing the takes you want or merging them together. This could've made the recording process with the guitars a lot smoother and quicker rather than stopping the recording all together and deleting it.

I found finding the instruments in the virtual library easy as I had a video to reference. I found it tedious at times trying to find the perfect sounding instrument for my project.

With using automation I found it hard to navigate, kept wondering how to automate panning or EQ so it took me a while to figure all of that out however I did manage to learn it all.

I wish I could've chose maybe a cover project to introduce more plugged in instruments, maybe I could've been more creative and experimentive by adding more live instruments. I felt that 2 guitars in the project was enough as it's quite a simple track and I didn't want to overpower the other features. Overall I'm happy with the final mix but felt I could've be more creative and more fluent in Logic.

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For the performance I mostly worried about all the instruments playing with each other in time and knowing the structure of the song. This was because during rehearsals we never properly practiced the transitions and just focused on playing the whole song at once, this meant that the movement from verse 1 to chorus, for example, felt a little hesitant.

For myself I felt confident in knowing how to play the different beats for each song and keeping the tempo of the song. At first it was quite difficult as drums aren't my 1st or 2nd study instrument so I didn't have that technical, playing knowledge. I knew the band relied on my part so they knew what the structure was so I used that as an incentive to do as well as I could.

The things that went well were the harmonies in each song, it added a lot to are overall performance, making each song more of our own. I also felt the communication within the band was good as well. The occasional glances as well as auditory cues worked really well helping us flow through the songs a lot smoother. I also felt the whole band enjoyed the performance and that we had a good time on stage.

As I said earlier I think the band could've had smoother transitions and have had better knowledge of the layout of the song. Also if Aidians strap didn't break during the performance. I think we rushed the tempo in some of our songs, definitely in the first one but that's more my fault.

For future performances I would make sure the band would know how many bars they need to count before the next phrase in the song just so it gets tighter and more confident and then practicing those transitions from one phrase to another.

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I received a TASCAM recorder from the bursary and I didn't understand why, I only just turned it on this week whilst wearing headphones and it was incredible. I heard noises I've never heard before. It was like a live ASMR video. I ended up just listening the sounds around me through the TASCAM instead of listening music because those everyday sounds were very interesting. I decided to then go outside with it and record myself walking around in the park picking all sort of noises like birds and rustling leaves, I recorded myself on the bus which is a sound I'll use in the Foley Project. I also went around the house to record the noises needed like a printer, footsteps, door handles and chocolate bar wrappers. From there I figured out how to transfer the WAV files to the computer and insert them into the LOGIC Project

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After 30 minutes of moving sounds around I managed to fill in the sounds for the first 30 seconds of the filming realising that I have a lot more sounds to record, knowing this I will watch the film a write down each sound I will need to finish the rest of the film and record them with the TASCAM

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My list of sounds to record after watching the film 

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My list of sounds to record after watching the film 

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At first I was just going to record all the sounds with the Tuscan recorder which was going really well and I had all the recordings added to the film. Unfortunately I didn't upload my logic session to endive correctly which left me with only a third of the film complete and a few days to finish it before the deadline. this led me to find sounds and download them to finish the other 2 thirds of the track before I ran out of time. To download the sounds I used freesound.org which is a website full of free to use sounds. With the list I made before I simply had to download the sound and import it straight into logic.

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I decided to make an eerie sounding soundtrack with a tense and suspended feel. Through that I look at video game music mostly from Minecraft to try and recreate the big sounding synths they use when exploring in the caves or when night time comes. I mostly looked at a track called thirteen which has this really dark feel to it and sudden impactful sounds. I also wanted a sci-fi feel so I look at the interstellar theme and how they used a repeated melody adding suspense to the overall track.

Through all this research I tried to merge the 2 ideas into one track using a minor key, (D minor), having that repeats melody and including deep sudden sounds.

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Screen recording and voice over talking about the sound track 

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Screen recording and voice over talking about the sound track 

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the audio is quite quiet so you'll have to wear headphones

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Song and Artist

One of the songs chosen by our band was Stargirl written and performed by McFly.

Within the Band there are 4 members

Danny Jones (Lead vocals and lead/rhythm guitarist)

Tom Fletcher (Lead vocals and lead/rhythm guitarist)

Dougie Poynter (Backing vocals and bass)

Harry Judd (Drums and Percussion)

Structure and Character

The Genre of the song is Pop/Rock with the mood is very energetic and fast paced with a fast tempo, (BPM of 156 in 4/4) and has a solid straight forward beat. The instrumentation in the song is quite spaced out with guitars coming in and out, especially in the verses and the middle 8 however the sound becomes quite full in the chorus when the distortion guitars come in.

The structure of the song is layout like this:

Intro (Drum Fill) on the upbeat, 1 bar

Verse 1 (16 bars)

Pre Chorus (2 bars)

Chorus (16 bars)

Guitar instrumental (1 bar)

Verse 2 (16 bars)

Pre Chorus ( 2 bars)

Chorus (16 bars)

Bridge (16 bars)

instrumental (4 bars)

Trumpet solo (8 bars)

First half of verse 1 (4 bars)

pre chorus (4 bars)

Chorus (20)

Outro (4 bars)

Lyrics

The theme of the song is about liking a certain girl, its quite fantastical, comparing her to a star and having to go to space to get her with many references to space like mentioning the famous line from Apollo 13 "Houston we have a problem" or mentioning parts of the galaxy like Earth, or the Milky Way.

The song is written in the 1st person and has a lot of words to do the story telling within the song. There is a repetition in lyrics especially with the ending of verse 1 "I wonder why, I wonder why, You never asked me to stay", which is repeated again at the end of verse 2 as well.

The difference between the verse and chorus lyrically is throughout the verse, Mcfly write about fantasising the girl, and how to convince her to be with them. However in the Chorus Mcfly talk about the fun they would have together whilst in space.

Melody

The key of the song is in Eb and the rhythm of the vocal line in the verse is short and fast with a few quick phrases like "hey!". This fast pace in the melody stays consistent within the verses how ever in the bridge it slows down and the melody is a lot longer to slow the pace of the song before entering the solo part.

The range of the melody is close until the almost like a conversation until the end of the verse when the range jumps up into the chorus with the highest vocal note being Cb5 (sung at the start of the bridge) and the lowest being an Fb4( sung near the end of the bridge).

Hooks

The main hooks in the song is the guitar riff played at the start of the song in the verse and entering verse 2 from the chorus and the vocal ooooo's at the start of each chorus which occurs 9 times in the song.

Chords

The chords in the song are pretty complicated in the verse but the chorus its quite simple.

The chord sequence in the chorus would be,

Eb Ab Eb Bb Eb Ab Bb Eb Ab Eb Ab Fm Gm Abm Bb Eb

The complicated chords in the verse include Ebadd#11 Ebadd11 as there is a chromatic descending pattern in the chords.

The verse sequence looks like

Eb Ebadd#11 Ebadd11

Apart from that slight variation in the verse the chords are mostly major.

My own part

I am playing the Lead guitar part as well as backing vocals for the song. My main role is playing that guitar riff in the verse and playing a guitar solo instead of doing the trumpet solo. Through doing that I help with the rhythmic structure of the song from the riff and get to play the interesting melodic lines. Techniques I used in the guitar playing is muting strings when playing chords, string bends and hammer ons in the solo. When developing the song I helped by teaching the song structure to the band and how to count into certain sections. I also helped with giving out guitar parts to the other guitarists to make sure we all weren't playing the same thing.

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To get into a better habit of being fully prepared and ready for a rehearsal our band decided to book a rehearsal room before the register so we could go straight into our room without having to wait in the line. (also so we could always take the best room). For myself I also took advice from Ni and printed out chord sheets of both the covers we were doing which made practicing so much easier as I could point out what part of the song I wanted to go over or telling people what chords we are playing.

At the start of the rehearsal we would all get warmed up and tuned up. After around 5 -10 minutes of doing that, we would have a discussion about what we wanted to achieve in the rehearsal. For example, "lets practice the transition between the songs and then play both songs together without stopping". From there we would practice the things that needed attention and attempt to achieve what we wanted which we would. Half way in the practice we typically had a 15 minute break, get fresh air or just a change of scenery as we would get overwhelmed by playing the same things over and over again and felt our ears could use a break. I found the breaks very useful and would feel very productive coming back into the rehearsals afterwards. After the break we would spend the remaining time just playing what we rehearsed and really fine tuning it before packing up.

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From the first week of being a band we jammed and played a few things, from that week we had a rough idea of a riff / chord progression we wanted to do. When the song writing sessions started we decided as a band just to stay together as we all ready had an idea and just work on it and add structure and lyrics. We managed to write out lyrics and a melodic idea for the vocals but no structure was made until next week when the group was half the size. So looking back, we might've been more productive in our own smaller groups.

The week we wrote the structure the band was void of lead singers which made the process easier as I felt we could focus more on the instrumental parts and how everything was going to work together instead of trying to write lyrics and melody. In that session we figured out the chords for the pre chorus, the chorus and the outro of the song. Since we had extra time I decided to write lyrics and melody for the chorus along side Ellie.

When we came back as a band after the holidays we were hit with illness and we were again void of any singers and what we needed was lyrics and a melody for the pre chorus. During this session we decided to spend half the the rehearsal just practicing the cover songs to prepare ourselves for the up coming performance. After our break I wrote out all the lyrics and a melody for the verses and the pre choruses with the band just playing the chords and beat on repeat for me and then we rehearsed the original song with everything now done. I also sent the lyrics to the band chat.

During the week before the performance we finally had a singer, so I taught the melody to Mason however the vocal line was too low for her voice so she was able to change the verse melody for us which sounded a lot better. From there we just rehearsed all the songs.

What's worth noting is during every performance we would record a voice note or video of what went on and that recording would be send to the band group chat. After I made the melody for the verses I recorded myself singing it and gave that to the group chat as well. that way, everyone in the band would be on the same page and decisions can still have input from everyone.

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Screen shots of my notes from the rehearsal 

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Screen shots of my notes from the rehearsal 

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Voice recording of me singing the melody to the Band Chat 

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Voice recording of me singing the melody to the Band Chat 

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I wasn’t able to make the last rehearsal before the Wednesday which was the performance day. During this rehearsal Nadz changed the melody and the lyrics a little bit and then sent the new lyrics along side a voice recording of it and it was very useful and amazing. Nadz was what we were missing bc she did an amazing job. Whilst looking at the messages, Nadz Ellie and Mason happened to belly so we ended up calling just to go over the details in further depth. From there we felt really prepared and ready for the performance the next day.

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I really enjoyed the last couple months with this band because of many things. As a group we really fitted in well with each other and instantly became great friends with each other. I felt the organisation was so much better than the last band. We felt more structured and prepared just due to the fact that we took on the advice and feedback from Andy and Ni and actually did it in practice, such as bringing in chord sheets, sending voice notes, rehearsing the parts we struggled rather than the whole song from the start and many other things.

The rehearsals itself were very good. There was always a plan as to what to do, what we wanted to achieve and we actually set goals for ourselves to improve as a band. There were moments where we would leave the rehearsal rooms for a break and when we got back, some people, myself included, wouldn't come back but only a few times and when that did happen it was always when there was only 30-20 minutes left. As a band we always left notes on the chat and recordings so everyone was on the same page no matter if they were there or not.

The final performance was amazing. Me and the band had just a great time on stage performing. There was great stage presence, the transitions were great and the overall sound we managed to create was what we wanted. As a band we definitely achieved what we wanted. Things we could improve on is more stage communication. When we finished the first song I had to change guitars and I felt I didn't take long but the bad started the introduction before I was ready and no one checked to see if I was. There was also a bit of a hesitation at the start of the performance which could've been fixed if we looked at each other before starting. I also felt the time taken to prepare on stage was a little long, mostly my fault as I had to bring 2 guitars on stage and hook them both up as well as my pedal board. I should've asked a band member to help me. Not wanting to waste anytime I tried to do everything as fast as possible leading to me forgetting to adjust the settings on one of my pedals and turning the amp on which I had to do during the introduction of the second song and right before my solo. I also forgot the chords in Mr Blue Sky for the chorus so I decided to improvise and play the melody as well as imitating Mayson which actually turned out well but I should've learned the chords and memorised them fully. Overall I'm very happy with how the performance went and I can't wait for the next one.

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During this project I did feel very overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do due to the fact I only attended around 4 tech classes because of illness and out of college work. If I actually took the time to look at the project as a whole I would've realised that it actually wasn't too bad. I did book practice booths a few times to work on this project, a time where I could really stick in and get some work done. It was frustrating at times because you think you've recorded all the sounds for the film and there's a few missing left to record. A week before the deadline I just had the background music to do to finish it off and I managed to upload the latest logic file incorrectly leaving we with only a third of the recorded sounds. I didn't have time to record or recover the files as I left my tascam at home and I wouldn't be in college as I would be in Spain. So to finish the project I downloaded a bunch of sounds and import them into the project. It did leave me with a project I'm not that proud of as it doesn't show all the creative recordings I had to do. However designing the sound track and adding that in made the project really enjoyable and exciting. The way I was able to express a certain feel through music was really interesting. I liked the use of pedals and repetitive melodies in the music. It was very simplistic and I could explore other musical features but the track worked very well in the end and I didn't want to ruin it. I think overall, the final film ended up being pretty decent but I could definitely use more preparation and time keeping to be on track of my projects and not have to stress too much.

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To start out the project I firstly cleaned everything up, trimming all the tracks to remove the background noise. Once that was done I added EQ to all the vocals, I did a low filter cut to around 200 hertz on all the vocals to remove the mud and then increased the high frequencies just to add a bit of clarity. For the backing vocals I did the same but to make them softer I decreased the mid frequency's as well. For the Guitar I did a low cut to around 100 hertz and had a low mid frequency boost so the bass notes rung out bigger, I then increased the high frequencies as well and then combed through all the frequencies with a high Q factor to remove any of the unwanted frequencies that sounded bad.

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Chopping up the vocal to remove unwanted noise  

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Chopping up the vocal to remove unwanted noise  

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For this session I focused on the overall dynamics and the positioning of sounds. I started by adding a compressor to all the vocals and guitars. For the vocals I had the threshold at -37 at a ratio of 2.3.1 and I added 5db of makeup. For the guitar the threshold was at -27 at a ratio of 1.3.1 with also 5db of makeup. After adding the compressor I added panning and volume automation. I changed the lead vocal to have the stereo left and right panning. I moved the high harmony left and the low harmony right. To add a choir effect I positioned the lead oooos in the centre and had the others around it like a semi circle just to have a whole surround sound. For the automation I added fade outs at the end of the song as well as the backing vocals when they come to an end.

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To add more to the song I decided to add a few effects to all the elements. For the vocals I added a short reverb and a long reverb as well as delay to make the overall vocal mix more full. For the Guitar I added a light reverb as well to add more clarity. I got bored of the song playing with just the guitar the whole time so for fun I added piano playing light chords, a bass playing root notes and a drum kit. I panned the piano left and added reverb to it and I added a little reverb to the drums

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The original plan was to play a grade 8 rock school guitar piece , Mind the Gaps. I practiced this for around 2 weeks and used the guitar lessons by learning the scales and shapes across the neck to help with the improv solo part half way through the song. However as of recently, I've been more involved with vocals with my band and wanted to show my vocal ability in my performance. To do this I decided to perform a song I wrote called Drive Anywhere which was a song I recorded and released on spotify in late November. The guitar part in the song features added 9th chords which was something the lessons were teaching back when I wrote the song which played a part in what chords I chose to use.

I felt the performance went really well. I think for the future if I were to do one again to use a microphone as when I sung the lower part at the start of the song it came out really quiet. However the guitar strumming and playing came out really stron with the dynamics I put in so I was really happy about that. Overall I felt pretty confident and relaxed in the performance and apart from those things I mentioned I wouldn't change anything about. it.

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After the performance we decided to keep Mr blue sky in the set list but to drop stargirl as we are wanting to work with more funky groovy styles than rock. The 2 songs we decided to add were Bad and Smooth Criminal both by Michael Jackson as we were inspired by a band who merged the songs together and we wanted to try that for ourselves. The past few weeks we have been rehearsing those songs as well as adding to our own original song as well. As I'm now doing lead/backup vocals in the band I've attended one of Ni's vocal classes to help with learning the new harmonies we want to add to Mr Bluesky.