Performance

My first band practice was the song "Say It Ain’t So" by Weezer. This song is from their first album, self-titled and released in 1994. I played the bass in this performance with my bandmates Noah (guitar and vocals) and Fin (drums). My timing was good; however, I went off time before the second chorus and the bridge. I could improve upon this by practicing the full song more. My technique during the song was consistent and solid, I made use of minimal finger movement while playing to ensure the timing and notes played were correct. I also used variation in my playing by utilising octave notes. I believe more practice is necessary for me to play this song to the level that I want to, outside of playing it I am very familiar with it as it is one of my all-time favourite songs that I have been listening to for years. I have no complaints at all with my tuning.  I don’t believe that the way I play the song is true to the original as I just followed the root notes of each guitar chord with some variation. I think it would have been better if I kept my fingers plucking at a consistent velocity to ensure there were no variations in the volume I was playing at.

Next time I will ensure I am plucking at a consistent velocity to keep volume regulated. I will also work on my timing to make sure I won't go off time again. As this was my first time playing on video in over a year I did feel slightly nervous and therefore hesitated slightly with some of my variations, my stage presence also needs work (more confidence, look happier while playing). But I  believe that all these goals will be achieved with more practice and performance.

I think overall the performance went smoothly except for some technical difficulties with Noah’s distortion pedal. I am happy with the bands playing and our dynamic together works well for us, though we all could benefit greatly from more practice together.

The second song we are practicing as a band is named "I've Been Riding With the Ghost" by Ohia. Once again I played the bass with my bandmates Noah (lead vocals and guitar) and Fin (drums).  Compared to the last song we did on video I believe my performance was considerably better. I did not miss any notes or forget when to go into the chorus etc. There was also no technically difficulties this time except for Noah's microphone being delayed. My tuning was correct for the entirety of the song. My technique whilst playing was consistent which helped me keep in time and keep the volume of notes the same. I definitely could have been more familiar with the source material. Because of this I am not sure that I played true to the original because of this but I doubt I have because I played using the root notes of the guitar chords Noah played.

Negatively speaking the worst part of this practice personally was my stage presence. During this recording I think I look absolutely miserable and this is something that must be improved upon for the performance. To improve this I will need to keep my mind in check and remember to liven up a bit and enjoy myself. Aside from this I don't see any glaring issues with this practice.

Overall we are definitely improving together as a band now we've had more time to practice together and adapt to eachothers styles of playing. I feel as though if we stay on this track of improving we will be more than ready for the upcoming performance.

Our band affectionately named "Dave" performed in the college theater room. We played a 3 song set that is as follows: I've Been Riding With the Ghost by Ohia, Say it Ain't So by Weezer and Destroyed by Hippie Powers by Car Seat Headrest. Firstly overall I think the perfomance went very well and we all enjoyed ourselves so much. However it wasn't perfect. There were some techincal difficulties with Noah's distortion pedal and I played the wrong notes in the start of Destroyed by Hippie Powers. This was because I think I got too comfortable on stage and stopped paying attention to what I was playing which is a really stupid mistake I am ashamed of making but I digress. Aside from some other minor hiccups we all stayed in time and flowed from one song to next really well. All the practice we put in together did pay off during the performance especially because we all had some strong nerves going onto stage. Our first song (Riding With the Ghost) went really well with no major issues. During Say it Ain't So I made my own slap bass line for the final chorus which was extremely fun to play at expense of definitely annoying the sound engineer. This song also went without any issues aside from the aforementioned distortion pedal error. Our last song did not go as smoothly for me during the opening moments of the song, however from there it was smooth sailing. This performance has taught me a lot about what it really means to be in a band and sucked me back into the world of performing. It really felt as though all the techniques I had gathered in practice such as octave variations and my mental work on stage presence paid off here. If I were to do this performance again I would definitely take much more time to listen to the songs I was unfamiliar with. The main issue we had in retrospective was not practicing the set back to back as if we were actually performing it. Because of this we were getting worn out on stage especially by the last song. I also would have liked my own microphone for backing vocals, though I am an awful singer it is fun. I think we really nailed our dynamic together as a band down for this performance and just really feeling the groove together. To conclude though we were not perfect we definitely performed to a good standard in my opinion and all gained beyond useful insight we can take with us into our next project.