Introduction

The 'Blue Jam' small scale tour blog has been set up as a tool for performance students of South Devon College. The idea for the Blog is so that Students can document and evaluate their rehearsal and performance progress for the Performance 1 and 2 modules.

Please find details of forthcoming performances aswell as regular Blog updates on rehearsals as they appear.

Enjoy

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Audience comments & Feedback from The Parkers Arms Gig

Quotes taken from Audience questionnaires:

'It Would have been good to have more songs & perhaps slick change overs'

'Different performers interacted differently, some better than others'

'More talk is needed in between performances'

'Hill Billy G is worth 10 alone!!'

'It was awesome! Do it again!'

'Really enjoyed it, felt the performers put a lot of effort into the making, more professional than I expected'

'I like the malted milk song!'

'I loved it!'

'I loved the songs and really got in to singing along- loved it!'

'Thought it was brilliant, awesome singing, well done guys' big love Vicky x

'

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Blue Jam Performance at South Devon College

Gallery Performance Part1



Gallery Performance Part2



Gallery Performance Part3

Thursday, 5 November 2009

Rehearsal progress week comencing 02/11/09

Sophie

" Thought i'd put some notes up on the progress of the song 'If You Wanna Be Bad/ Lets Make A Night' by Bryan Adams. I feel that we have really progressed with this song, especially in terms of arrangement, structure and vocals. The first rehearsal went really well, with Dan and Dale on guitars, they picked up the chord progression really quickly and Dale has come up with a solo as well. John and I decided to alter the lyrics to suit the arrangement and the vocals for this song have improved in terms of style and character. The next rehearsal included Scott filling in the bass guitar part and Steve Banks helped us with arrangement and style of the song which was very useful. He suggested we start off quieter and build the song to a crescendo for the second half 'lets make a night'. The most recent rehearsal was really good in that we have Abi on drums and Helen on keys. It really added to the quality and mood of the song and it was great to have the extra accompaniment. After practicing the track over we focused on improving timing/stop time and ending.


Wednesday, 4 November 2009

TIPS FOR SINGING IN A GROUP

Even though "Amazing Grace" was amazing (!) here are a couple of tips for making it uber-amazing

Style:

  • Add vibrato – bit of spice
  • Add tone (more spice) more air over the top of the vocal
  • BV’s – this is where a bit of drama comes in - act a little bit, more of a black gospel feel
  • chime in on the groove (listen to Motown, get some grooves in your head)

Blending:
Watch -

  • Becoming one with your neighbour – watch others’ lips
  • Keep one eye on the leaders lips – objective is to sing as one – taking into account pauses and length of notes. Good idea is to stand in a circle in rehearsal and watch each others’ lips
    Match interpretation of the leader – breath stops, etc...

Listen -

  • Listen to one another – use breath control / support It is not about listening to one person’s style. If you are too loud, then you need to tone it down (volume) by adding a bit of air over the voice. Conversely, if you are too quiet, sing louder - we need to hear your part
  • Holding back or toning down is not becoming timid – sing it out, don’t be shy Think of it as we are all making a casserole with different ingredients and spices and we need to blend different flavours
  • Be careful not to sing your own interpretation - that can be too distracting (unless the song calls for it) and it looks like we are fighting each other

Space –

  • pauses are just as important as the notes, and extremely effective

Happy Singing!

Followers

'Blue Jam Reading List'

  • 'Pop Music: The Textbook' by Peter Nickol, Julia Winterson and Tony Bracheno
  • 'Set Your Voice Free' by Roger Love
  • 'You Can Sing' by Carrie and David Grant