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

'

Blue Jam Performance at The Parkers Arms

Blue Jam Performance at South Devon College

Gallery Performance Part1



Gallery Performance Part2



Gallery Performance Part3

Rehearsal progress week comencing 16/11/09

Rehearsal progress week comencing 09/11/09

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.

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!

SING SESH 1

'Singing Sessions' for those who love to sing!!!

We thought it would be a good idea to put some vocal coaching tips onto the blog for everyone to have a look at in their spare time to help with vocal technique and performance. The first sing sesh focuses on breathing taken from Roger Love's 'Set Your Voice Free' (Love, Roger 1999) 'Chapter 3 Breathing' in 'Set Your Voice Free' by Roger Love 1999.

1. Good Posture
Stand up straight, with your feet shoulder width apart. Roll your head around to ease any tension in your neck, then hold your head level, with your chin paralell to the ground, not tipped up or down. Let your shoulder blades slide toward the centre of your back so that they're back and down.What were looking for is the physical ease that comes from good alignment.
Bend your knees slightly-just relax and unlock them- tuck your pelvis under

2. Inhale
Place your hand on your stomach, with your middle finger on your belly button. Imagine that your stomach is a baloon, and as you inhale, let it fill with air. When it is full, blow the air gently out through your mouth.
Try this for a few minutes, remembering that you just want to blow up like a balloon without lifting your shoulders or puffing up your chest.

3. Focus on the Exhale
As you exhale, keep your hand resting on your stomach, and be conscious of when your muscles tighten. Remember, the goal is not to pull anything in. Just let your stomach fall to its neutral position.

please comment? In what way has this helped you?

Sophie, John,
Hellen and Dan

Well here it is, our first Blue Jam Blog Post

JOHN

"Feel really positive about our rehearsal sessions today, finding my song 'Malted Milk' very hard but me and Dale have now tried to simplify the chords first so we can get an idea of the song. was really worried when we had so many songs to learn but you guys (1st Years) were great and we even managed to play some of the tracks already which was cool. Oh and thought it was really good session to learn about singing amazing grace and me being a tenor! also love the Bass singers, hope you all liked our Blue Jam Proposals?"

SOPHIE

' I really enjoyed our rehearsal session today, it was great to work with the first years, and everyone was really positive. I particularly enjoyed the group work on 'Amazing Grace' and even though it seemed daunting at first for some we all pulled together and it sounded great. It was good to hear everyone on their instruments for example - Abi on drums and Helen on keys for 'I Just Wanna Make Love To You' it was wicked to work with different people and experiment. '

HELLEN

I thought the rehearsal with the 1st years was excellent and we achieved much more than I would have thought for a first rehearsal. Scott was really helpful in organizing others and helping with their techniques. I also thought 'Amazing Grace" was truly amazing - those students who thought they couldn't sing and might have been intimidated by the situation - really shone through and just participated enthusiastically. I'm really grateful for the level of commitment of our students.

"Blue Jam" Tour is on!!