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!