Music Rehearsal Diary

12th October 2015

I am ready to start the rehearsing for Somewhere Only We Know by Keane also Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. We sat down and discussed what songs we wanted to do, so we at least knew one song. I would like to achieve at least go through once through Somewhere Only We Know and to also see if we knew what other songs we should be doing and in what order so really just a talking rehearsal, hopefully we all agree on what songs we should be doing. We went through all the songs and I knew Somewhere Only We Know already so that’s I guess a little head start for me, we just went through Somewhere Only We Know by Keane and Hallelujah as a group and it sounded pretty good for a first go, but we just need to fit in the drums to the right bits in SomeWhere Only We Know. Hopefully have the time to go through all the songs on our list and see if they all fit or if they need to be rearranged also see if we need to do any different songs.

13th October 2015

We had a conversation about what other songs we can add into the performance  and we all agreed to think about some other songs and we would talk about them in the next lesson. To go through somewhere only we know and fix any rough patches in the song that we need to, and talk about other songs to add. We went through summer anyway now and it was good.  We talked about other songs and we found out that Louis can play similar songs that we suggested like Iris and i see fire so we had an idea  to do three songs together and two song separate girls and boys. I will target for next lesson is to think of two songs that we can do separately girls and boys.

20th October 2015

 We didn't really prepare we just went straight to rehearsing. Trying out our new songs we've added to the performance with help from lyrics and keep going through the songs to get them perfected. We went through the new songs and it sounded okay but we needed to work on them big time! They really did need working on and that's okay because we have only just started going through them today.we need to keep practising the two new songs.

2nd November 2015

We refreshed our minds on the plan to have two separate songs and then we got rehearsing.Going through the new songs that we have added and to plan the other songs that we do it separately so we can so we can choose the songs.We spoke about new songs for the two separate songs  and we went through the new songs Iris and i see fire again and we are nearly done with the lyrics we hardly made them now. We need to keep going through songs and thinking of ideas for songs

3rd November 2015

We sat and spoke about on the song choices and we agreed that Ollie and Louis will be doing Mr.writer, but Amy,Jenna and I couldn't decide on a song just yet as either only one of us doesn't know it or it doesn't sound right when we sing it. Look at songs for the girls and me to sing also going through all the songs at once (somewhere only we know, I see fire and iris) without stopping. we went through all the songs but we couldn't think of a song for us girls to sing.We need to keep thinking of songs that won't be too hard for us to sing.

10th November 2015

We didn't really prepare just went straight into rehearsing. We hopefully are going to record but only  if we get around to it and going through the songs.We listened to Ollie and Louis perform mr.writer and it needed to be practiced a bit but other then the face it were the first time we had heard them they sounded pretty good.We didn't really get around to recording but i mean we aren't in any rush to record. Same as last week keep looking for songs.

16th  November 2015 

Amy,Jenna and I talked about the song choice and it were out of a few but we chose All of me because Jenna played it on piano. We need to try and break down somewhere only we know as it sounded good but not the best it could sound.We made somewhere only we know a little bit better but still needs working on and we introduced microphones to out set and it was the first time we used microphones in our rehearsals and it sounded pretty good but we were struggling to hear the guitar. Next time we will hopefully practice with the microphones so we can not drown out the guitar while singing.

17th November 2015

We finally set the microphones up on stage and spent the whole lesson using them and this helped us understand how loudly we need to be singing and how to make sure we get heard around the whole room. I think that next lesson we should do something like this again because we found it very beneficial 

11th January 2016

We spoke about the order of what the songs will go in for the performance. perfect our songs to the best we think we can. also go through some rough patches in i see fire and correct those. We went through the songs and added some different things to somewhere only we know, like a few harmonies which do need to be worked on big time,i'm harmonising to Jenna and she is also repeating apart of the song when it says "where have they gone" and so Jenna sings it again after while the rest of the singers sing along with the song normally. Next lesson we should practice the newly added parts to somewhere only we know.

12th January 2016:

We just went straight into performing/ rehearsing. We are going to hopefully perfect somewhere only we know, and try adding some harmonies to I see fire. We added some harmonies to i see fire and Amy is singing different lyrics over the rest of the singers towards the end of the song. Next time we should go through and record I see fire.

19th January 2016

We didn't warm up we just went straight to rehearsing.We will have a quick run through of all of the songs.We recorded somewhere only we know, listened to it and worked on the parts that didn't sound its best on the recording. We need to think about how we could improve any of the 3 songs.

25th January 2016

We spoke about yesterday's target. Use our self-set prep to improve our songs.Everyone's thoughts and opinions about how we looked performing to how it sounds have tried to be added the best we could to our songs.Think about more songs for next lesson to try and meet the 15 min mark.

26th January 2016

We prepared ourselves for today's lesson by making sure we all knew the order of what the songs go in before going through without stopping.Today we will see if we can go through our whole performance without stopping.We got through 2 songs without stopping but then we had to discuss  if the boys were doing their song and ours before i see fire ( the ending song ). Hopefully we will go all the way through without stopping next lesson.

2nd february 2016

We went straight to rehearsing. Hopefully we will go through the whole 15 min performance without stopping, same as last week as we couldn't do it. Same thing as last week, starts good but ends badly and with us having to stop, we just seem to struggle with remembering the order of the songs. Our target is the same as last week's.

8th February 2016

We made sure we understood the order of what the songs go in.We plan to go through the whole set without stopping once.We finally did it after 2 weeks, we successfully went through the songs without stopping. Try to record or ask for someone else's opinion on our best song so we can improve next lesson.

9th February 2016

We asked Sir to listen to our strongest song. We also asked sir for some advice on how we can improve our strongest song (somewhere Only We Know) and add his response. We took in Sirs advice and added his suggestions to somewhere only we know, he helped Ollie with the drums, and encouraged Jenna to do what she did when she repeats a part of the song. practice what sir added to our song.

6 WEEKS!!!

26th September 2016

Me and Jenna went to practice, on the grand piano in the hall, the song we have chosen to do as our duet in the 15 min set. The song we will be playing on the piano and singing is Dancing on my own by Callum Scott. Jenna has her music lesson through this point, so he helps us with the chords so we can perfect this before recording very soon. Then once her lesson is over we have 15 mins together to rehearse it a few more times and then i will have to go to my music lesson at 10:00 am.

Monday 31st October 2016

Me and Jenna went straight to the grand piano as we had to pick 5 new songs for a new 15 min set, we sat and went through loads of songs and finally we picked a few: A team, All of me, Say you won't let go, and the song that Jenna wrote. But we couldn't pick between Yours or riptide, this we still need to decide. We sat and just played through all of the songs to make sure we could sing them good and to see if Jenna could play them all. We did this until 10:00 when i had to go to my music lesson.

Monday 7th November 2016

Jenna and I just went through out new 15 min set. We have to go through a few songs more than the other as I don’t know all the words off by heart and Jenna needs to know how to play them through fully with no breaks. The song I need to learn a lot is Say you won’t let go by James Arthur, I know the first verse and chorus but then it ends up going downhill, so that is my target. 

Monday 14th November 2016
We got permission from sir to go onto the piano. This is where we spent all of our lesson.We tried to find a song to play as our 4th song on our 15 min set. We tried i hate you i love you but this didn't fit  in with the rest of the songs. We spoke the rest of the lesson talking about potential songs, this was until i had to go to my music lesson at 9:50 am.

Monday 9th January 2017

We all had to rearrange and think of new songs to do. Were sat in the hexagon and listened to music, all different types from different ages, some newer then others and some older then us. We finally decided on all of the songs and the order they will go in. 1st will be No scrubs, 2nd will be When You Love Someone, 3rd will be Wonderwall, 4th I want you back

23rd January 2017
Jenna and I went into a separate room with microphones to practice the songs we would be doing for the 15 min performance. We also changed one of the songs to a Bruno Mars song which is when I was your man. We made this decision because we don't have a lot of time left and i have to learn the words to When you love someone and I want you back and so i will not have enough time to learn Wonderwall. The Bruno Mars song fits our voice pretty well. We went through the songs and realized we need a lot of work with no scrubs as its quite a quick song that you need a good voice to sing as you have to concentrate on the words instead of your singing.

6th February 2017
We left our period 2 lesson to go straight to the hall to watch other performers and so  we can rehearse for our performance. One of the other performers were not ready in time so our group took their place. As we got closer to performing we became more nervous. We performed no scrubs but we were still nervous, this made us sound well not the best. Other students started to walk in and started watching which made us go into shock and we refused to sing anymore. We then performed our whole set again during period 4.

20th March 2017
Since we have done our performance sir told the performers that is we have reached the 15 min mark and want extra marks that we could perform a solo, he recommended it to help us boost our grades. Now we all just have to think of songs. I spent the lesson listening to songs that I am thinking about doing. The songs i have rounded down to are ' Your Song' by Ellie Goulding , 'Some Like You' by Adele or 'Yours' by Ella Henderson. At the moment I don't know how many songs i need to do so I have a few in mind.