Instrumental Study

1.1 Day to Day Maintenance Requirements of My Instrument

a) What are the maintenance requirements of my instrument?

to  maintain my instrument i have to make sure  i can maintain my voice by making sure not to over use it by shouting.

b) What Can I undertake personally?

make sure i know all the lyrics to the songs im performing and make sure i dont damage my voice by resting it and continuingly drinking water. 

 1.2. Personal Health and Safety Issues 

a) What Health and Safety issues are there that you need to consider when playing your instrument, and when approaching your playing style?

i need to ensure i dont damage my voice when singing 

b) How should you review your own approach to these issues when playing your instrument?

i can make sure that i dont push my self too hard and make sure i dont use too high of a not

2.1 Reviewing Personal Goals

a) What are the personal goals that you would like to achieving in playing your instrument?

to be able to sing any song in confidence and be able to hold a note for longer than i can now. i would also like to be able to do different notes e.g.higher or lower pitch

b) How do you intend to achieve these personal goals?
continue to work on it and practice often

The agreed plan with my teacher is to:

1. Attend and take part in 1 hour of practical lessons per week, for a minimum of 15 weeks. 

2. Attend and take part in a 20 minute lesson for my instrument, for a minimum of 15 weeks. 

3. Review and reflect upon my lessons and progress each week on my blog, for a minimum of 15 weeks. 

c) Blog of all rehearsals - you must state what you have achieved, and what you plan to do next week.

week 1

in this lesson i started to decide which songs i would be performing for my agenda. i still need to finalize my decision on what songs i will be performing.

i find that looking for songs to perform is quite difficult but i think i'm still getting the idea of picking the right songs to perform that will be as good as it can be.

week 2

This week i continued to practice one of the songs i have chosen for my 8 minutes to record. which has been difficult due to the fact i need to research my lyrics and piano chords but the wifi at school was down today.

considering that the wifi was down i found it nearly impossible to do my work but i found the song choosing quite easy. 

i have chosen to do  we don't talk anymore by charlie puth because i feel like i have a slight understanding of the song and understand the singers feelings.i have also chosen let me love you by justin beiber ft dj snake because i like the song and feel like i could do a good performance of this song.for my last dong i think i will be doing closer by halsey because it is one of my favorite songs and would enjoy performing it.

i need to be able to work on my ability to play the piano and sing at the same without getting it wrong.

i feel like i can prepare for my performance by practicing a lot and often but be able to maintain my voice.

week 3

today i decided to work with danny due to the fact that we were doing to same songs we have decide to do in the name of love by martin garrix and bebe rexha

i found it quite easy to start the decision as i has someones else's opinion on the songs

week 4

this week me and danny started practicing our songs for the recorded performance we both decided to start with don't let me down by the chainsmokers then moved onto alarm by anne-marie.

i think practicing had a little bit of difficulty due to my shyness and the fact everyone was in and out of our practicing area but we still managed to get some work done.

i think my lesson could have gone better im not really keen on singing in front of people but i don't think i would be able to learn the chords for piano in time to record.

my last piano lesson went well even though i was late i still remembered  the majority of the things we learnt before summer i still need to print out last weeks work for practicing.

week 5

This week Danny was practicing chords for Alarm and i was practicing the lyrics for the same song it went well although i feel we would work better  

week 6

this week we (me and danny) decided it would be better for our performance if we used an amp so i can sing comfortably. 

i find this week was a little better than last week due to the fact we both decided to add the amp so we can both practice comforbally.

i think that the lesson could have been better if we had introduced the amp sooner we could have got more work done. 

week 7

this week i continued to work on my singing for 'in the name of love'  while danny continued to work on his guitar. i found that because me and danny weren't working together we could get a lot more done so we will be more prepared for the recording. i feel like the lesson could of gone a little better if  i could of got more work done. i still haven't been able to attend a piano lesson because my teacher didn't show up.

I recorded my performance here. I am going to write a review below to discuss what went well, and what I could try next time. 

week 8

this week i got an ipad and decided to practice the lyrics for alarm which went really well

practicing went well but i still need to practice some more.

week 9

this week danny was in his guitar lesson for most of the practical time we had so i helped josh with learning  twinkle twinkle little star on the piano because he wanted help.

my lesson could have been better if danny wasn't gone for so long we could had got more done than was done today 

week 10 

my piano lesson was good we started practicing jingle bells  

Evaluation of Recording

this is our recording for "in the name of love" i find that although i knew we sounded good i couldn't help but keep the volume of the backing track louder than you can hear me for my peace of mind. i feel to improve this piece i need to be confident enough to lower the volume of the backing track so you can hear a) dannys guitar and b) my singing

week 11

this week me and danny continued to practice alarm i continued to practice the lyrics and danny has almost finished practicing the chords and we are hoping to be able to record in two weeks time.

the lesson could have gone better if we could have done a bit more practicing but i am overall glad by the amount of work we actually got done.

week 12

this week danny continued to work on his chords for alarm while i was continuing to work on lyrics 

this week went well but i think we need a couple of more weeks before recording anything.

week 13

this week me and danny tried to record but we came across a lot of difficulties so we ended up not recording. this week could have gone better if we had managed to record my instrumental went well and we continued the song im working on. 

week 14

dany wasn't in this week so i was suppose to record my singing but i don't feel comfortable recording my voice so i decided to practice my piano work and record that. the practicing went well but it was quite hard to concentrate. this lesson could have gone better but the piece on piano i'm working on i find very hard to understand.

week 15

this week me and danny were doing separate work as he needed to practice his chords and i needed to wait for him to finish rehearsing his chords to be able to practice singing.

week 16

this week danny is in Austria so i have been practicing for my solo. i will be performing anne marie's ciao adios because it has the same pitch that i can sing and handle perfectly with practice.

i have not been able to go to my music lesson last week as my teacher was absent.

year 11

week 1

this week me and danny practiced to record heathens by twenty one pilots and nearly finished i have learnt the majority of the lyrics and danny has nearly learnt all the chords for us to record

i think danny and i could stop having the small breaks but im not sure because the small breaks help us concentrate when we are doing our work but we are also losing practice time which will mean we might not meet the criteria.  

my music lesson will start up again next week and i am going to make sure i am there on time so i can get the most out of it and use it in my course work.

MISSING ANOTHER RECORDING

3.1 Review of your progress

a) What comments has your tutor made about your progress?
he said that i made a lot of progress in a short amount of time 


b) What are their reports on your:

i) technical ability
I am able to learn the technicalities very quickly, I have tried to focus on breathing in the right places of a song. 

ii) dexterity
I have tried to have more dexterity with my voice by learning a wider variety of songs. I'm starting to make a list of the songs that I can sing now. 


iii) stamina
my teacher says that i have very good stamina. I used to not be able to focus on singing for too long, and my throat would hurt. I've become better at this now. 

iv) control of the instrument
I have tried to focus on hitting the right notes more accurately and more often. This has got better now. 


3.2 Final Evaluation

a) What are your achievements, in relation to the personal goals you chose at the beginning of the course?

My personal goals were:
to be able to sing any song in confidence and be able to hold a note for longer than i can now. i would also like to be able to do different notes e.g.higher or lower pitch.
i have achieved the ability to sing in front of a few others and keep singing without freaking out.



b) What are the strengths in your progress?

i am remembering what i am singing  and what the next part of the lyrics are

c) What do you need to continue to work on as a performer?
i need to practice more often so i can remember the notes i need to sing and when they are.