Live Performance Review

Performing my own material in front of my peers was an achievement for me as it was something I had never done before and something I was very nervous about doing. When performing live so much can go wrong and this is unsettling to any performer. Because the material I was performing was entirely my own, I was more nervous in showcasing it in case it received a bad reception. However, it also meant that I was more familiar with the material and due to meticulous rehearsal there was less chance I would make mistakes in the live performance. ‘In a state of flow, there is no room for irrelevant thoughts’ (Kircher, 2011), when performing live one's mind must be solely on the task ahead. There is no room for error and if a mistake is made the performer must be able to recover immediately so as not to lose their audience. I didn't make any mistakes as such, but I was very nervous when beginning my song and this led to the vocal characterisation I had worked on not being as strong in performance as it could have been. Due to being one of the final performers I had not had the chance to warm up or do any vocal exercise prior to performance and this too effected the quality of my vocal arrangement. If I were to perform again I would include the piano melody to my piece, as due to time constraints I did not record this and I feel like it could have added another dynamic to the piece.

Songwriting

Debbie Poyser, writing for SoundonSound says “Always carry a notebook when you're out, so that you can jot down any song ideas that occur while you're going about your daily business.” One of the main things that I struggle with when writing is inspiration. I took this advice on board and began writing about every day life and my daily routine. Certain things began to stick in my memory, things that I did regularly or things that annoyed me. The first piece I wrote was after a late night trip to McDonalds which had occurred because I wanted chicken nuggets and we had non in the freezer. The song was entitled “20 McNugget Sharebox please” and is about the lengthes one (I) will go to to acquire nuggets. The song is bluesy as it is about my personal problems transposed into music.
The bridge of the song is spoken word as this is a musical technique of vaudeville, as well as simple, catchy lyrics and a simplistic melody to sing along too.

Having completed one song the inspiration for a second came much easier. I wanted the songs to be humorous and to relate to my audience, which is essential of a successful vaudeville piece.
I decided to write about a journey on the metro, for those who don’t know The Tyne and Wear metro is owned by Nexus and provides public transport across the North East. A journey on the metro is normally relatively comical on it’s own but at the time of writing the metro’s were constantly breaking down or being delayed, which inspired my rant.
The lyrics are simple and easy to pick up and sing along too as well as the song having a simplistic melody. The song also features spoken word, all musical technique of vaudeville.

Composing

I began composing on a piano. I have a very limited knowledge of piano chords however and composed initially using just notes. I devised a melody of A, C# and E played after one another. Which was simplistic but about as far as my piano ability stretched. I then discovered that these notes actually built up to create an A chord. I can play an A chord on guitar and so I began playing around with guitar chords and then deconstructing these chords on piano to create my melody, I also did this with an E chord (E, G# and B) and a D chord (D, F# and A). The rhythm section remains built up of these chords in their entirety and is played on guitar. The melody is the deconstructed chords played note by note on piano. In my final piece I have recorded the rhythm guitar section to sing along too as I do not possess the piano techniques to play the melody over the top myself and time constraints meant I couldn’t record a pianist playing my melody.
I initially decided to use bar chords in my chorus, still A, E and D as they could be played whilst singing. By playing them as bar chords I eliminated a strumming pattern – which is what I struggle with when playing guitar. However I thought that by recording the verse and playing the chorus the piece would come across distorted in performance and so I elected to record the entire track and leave in the strumming pattern for a guitarist with a much greater ability than myself.

My final composition is entitled “The Ballad of The Tyne & Wear Metro”, the song is written in the style of pop, but with the characteristics of musical comedy as it is to be performed as a music hall style act.