final major project evaluation

primary discussions about our final performance indicated the need to

showcase our programme in a suitable public venue. i utilised my knowledge in this
field by suggesting to the group we use the bridgwater arts centre and it was then
agreed upon. this was the basis of our organisation, we discussed the important
matters in a meeting scenario and decided upon outcomes by taking the majority�s
vote. this is how we decided the ticket prices, the theme and also how we
delegated roles of importance. the ticket price was set to five pound standard and
two pound concession. in my opinion the standard ticket price was too much
especially as we wanted to attract a young audience along side of older viewers
and the event was on monday night. unfortunately due to the venue�s prior bookings
this was non-negotiable. if we was to do this again, early booking would be a
definite action. the theme for the night was decided upon as �back to the future�
and as a concept would include performances of music from the past five decades.
the role of importance i was assigned was to manage promotions, i was elected to
this role due to my experience in the field as a diy event organiser and promoter.

as a promoter for this event my priority�s depended very much upon getting
posters and fliers from the design team . once i received them i reproduced them
and placed them all around the local town and especially around college, yet i
still didn�t think this was enough. from my experience i have learnt that probably
the best promoting tool for these type and style of events is the internet. i
created a new poster on my computer and hosted it on the internet. i then created
a code which enabled me to post them onto people pages on networking sites such as
www.myspace.com. i have attached a copy of the poster i created at the back. i
decided to emphasise the rock and pop aspect especially to attract the younger
audience as they were more likely to view the poster as it was on the internet.

as a performer at the show it was important to ensure rehearsal time was

managed properly. however, first of all the group decided it was best to decide
upon a full programme of songs and then select specific band members after. i
believe this was a much more professional approach. to decide on songs to play we
selected numerous tracks from each of the decades which we thought would work best
in a live music environment. from that i pretty much had band ideas due to
experience playing with specific group members, yet wished to show my diversity
and did so by volunteering myself to join other bands on a couple of songs. i also
wished to display my diversity so choose to play different instruments in a number
of pieces.

as i was included in a total of eight songs to start with it was obvious

with the performance approaching fast that time was of the essence. the high
number of songs needed to be rehearsed by all the group members meant there was an
obvious need for timetabling this aspect. we had the practice rooms for two hours
and three quarters for two days a week and pitched together to create a schedule
which was fair for all bands and meant minimal clashing for performers in a fast
variety of bands, this is why it concentrated on songs rather than groups for time
and space placement. this took some time to do but saved a lot of time in the long
run.

as the weeks past i learnt the pieces in my own time at home and my bands
utilised the rehearsal time to concentrate on structure and perfection. along with
doing this we also made sure not to waste the precious time we had and purposely
choose not to run through entire songs just to observe and fix small sections. we
demonstrated out musical skill by doing this, starting and stopping at selected
points of the pieces. within rehearsal times i began to take specific roles in
each song practice. it was apparent that the people who where most adamant on
certain pieces took the lead role as it was their selected piece, within these
groups i ensured not to waste their time by only playing when necessary and
following their instructions closely. i choose to do this specifically as they
obviously knew the songs a lot better than i did. in some songs i took a more
important role such as lead guitarist or front man (singing vocals) for the
practices where we rehearsed these songs i often shifted to take a lead role. as
more pressure was on me as a performer i wanted to ensure i was going to be
successful on the night. this was very important to me as i believe confidence
makes a much better performance.

during the lead up to the performance we decided to cut one of the pieces
selected due to lack of time to prepare, no performance is better than a bad one.
this meant the time we ha spare could be dedicated to perfecting the other
selected songs.

when the day of the performance arrived we utilised the morning session as a
final rehearsal and ran through each of the songs in that environment. we then
assessed if it was ready for the final show and made any necessary adjustments.
this included inviting one of the lecturers to join us in one of the pieces as it
still felt like it was missing a synthesiser. after this morning session we held a
final meeting in preparation for the night, making sure everyone was sorted and
that all equipment had transport as well as the people that needed it. we moved to
the venue in the after noon and set everything up ready for pre-show run through.
this was necessary as we needed to check certain logistics such as tuning changes
and instrument swaps. it became apparent that the line up in the programme was
fine and everything was prepared in that division.

a small technical issue became obvious during the run through as there was
a lighting rig provided by the venue and no one there to operate it. i devoted all
the spare time i had to learning how to use it and programmed a chase setting
along with a still setting for the slower songs. the programme implied that i
notified someone when i was performing so they could take on this role for me, i
followed these actions and it was set. i believe it�s important to mention this in
my evaluation as it is vital everyone works as a team in a such an event an
everyone looks out for one another. by doing this job i feel like i really helped
everyone.

my observations and experience of this event render me with numerous

opinions. the first song i performed in was �i wanna hold your hand� by the
beatles. in this song i took the role as lead and only guitarist. it was a fairly
simple performance as there were no solos and i think i played very well.
performance observations showed i found myself un decisive on my mood of movement
and performance appearance, i believe this was due to my lack of knowledge for the
style of the piece. the communication with the rest of the band was good and at
one point i even demonstrated this by interacting with the bassist.

the second piece i performed in was �fight for your right� by the beastie
boys, in this song i took the role as front man and both played bass and sung most
of the vocals. my attitude and style was on top, i had energy and attempted
interaction with the audience. as this song is of a generic party style i believe
it worked very well and did stir the audience. my only bad point in this
performance was a small memory lapse during one of the verses where i pulled back
from the microphone and missed a line of vocals. this wasn�t very noticeable as
the stage feel covered for it and the energy made this an even greater
performance.

in my third song i played lead guitar performing �breakfast at tiffany�s�

by deep blue something. the simple structure of the song allowed me to experiment
with sound and also included a short guitar solo. my timing and rhythm was strong
and the simplicity enabled me to interact with the audience more, i did this by
stepping to the front of the stage and mouthing the words to audience members.
i�ve seen this done in many professional and think it does enhance the atmosphere.
the band was very tight together and was very entertaining to watch back. the weak
point of this however was a technical problem, when i switched to distortion on
the amp the settings were un balanced and rendered the second chorus and the solo
with a very empty sound. i did attempt to correct this but was not very
successful. it is vital that if someone is delegated to a role in charge of
equipment they make sure that the amp settings are level. i did ace the solo yet
it was hard to hear on the play back because of thus mail function of
organisation. i did however use my experience to notify the next bands so they
were aware f what had happened and could prepare to change it.

�perfect ten� by beautiful south was the next song i was performing in, i
played bas guitar and this was a very prominent part of the song. i believe my
performance was strong in this and it really seemed to work the crowd. as i
mentioned earlier, we asked a lecturer to step in an it was a very good idea, the
song sounded full and my stage presence was very good. i achieved this by moving
around a lot and interacting with my band as much as possible, this meant eye
contact sharing enjoyment. an audience member tends to feed off of the energy of
the artist and if the band are having a good time, is much easier for the viewer
to.

the final three songs which i performed in were �so alive� by ryan adams,
�plug in baby� by muse and �control� by puddle of mud. they were played one after
the other in that order. i played drums in so alive, this was a straight 16 beat
all the way through at quite a fast tempo. i think by playing this well i
demonstrated good skills on drums and emphasised my flexibility as a musician. my
performance techniques were actually quite thought out, as a drummer its hard to
move etc especially playing something complex. i choose to concentrate on facial
expression and head placement to show my involvement with the song and i think it
pulled off. a few slip ups were barely noticeable and easily subject to be blamed
on by heat on stage and maintaining that speed.

i strapped on a base guitar for plug in baby which saw the first of my worse
two performances of the night. the rest of the band started this song way to early
as i hadn�t had the chance to plug in to the amp. this was down to poor
communication as the guitarist thought i was ready. a quick recovery meant we
restarted and i was ready, however the next problem was that the g string was out
of tune. i had no chance to tune it before the song as i was already on the stage
etc. i guess this is something to point at logistics and could have possibly been
thought through. i still attempted to be energetic but was difficult, i modified
my playing to miss the notes on the g string but i think this really cost the song
a lot of it�s sound.

i played base once again in my final performance for the night, this should
have been a real show stopper but further tuning problems cost it a lot of affect.
my performance techniques in movement and energy were still okay but it was
obvious i tuned wrong when i dropped to d. also the guitar was out as well i think
this could may well of been because of the temperature on stage effecting the
instruments.

in conclusion i believe the event was of great success from both a

organisation and musician point of view. as the set up meant change overs after
every song it was very difficult to maintain a high quality of sound yet it was
very well done. the main thing i got from this event was a big reminder to enjoy
yourself while performing, after all that�s why musicians do it. i think everyone
had a great night, the staff, audience and the artists.