This week has seen a general alteration in my end of year project proposal as my original idea has proven to be insufficient to sustain an entire research project. My designated tutor has suggested ideas and bands to open my project to a broader topic. At the moment it seems that Acid Jazz is still my main route and I still hope to research down the musicological route of the layering of the drum tracks and bass to create the rhythm section. Although this idea has opened up new topics and bands to research and perform, I still need to take into consideration the many variables such as the authenticity I can create with the musicians I have at liberty and the justification I have for each track I choose. I now have an idea of the musicians I propose to ask and a few of the Jamiroquai tracks I hope to insert into my performance. By next week, I shall hopefully have a greater understanding of my topic of choice and the tracks I hope to use in my end of year performance.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Individual Project Proposal
Individual Project
So with the second semester just around the door it has become a pressure to consider my individual project and the topic of which I am going to consider. Although I have considered a variety of project proposals I feel that I have to choose what is best for capabilities and resources at hand. With this in mind I have decided to base it on the Acid jazz band Jamiroquai, focussing mainly on the rhythms and grooves that the band have created throughout the last 18 or so years they have been around. I hope to demonstrate how these grooves have developed with each alteration that the band has had in line up and with the sales of their records. Now that I have organised my band, work has begun to get the first four tracks sent out in plenty of time for the first rehearsal. Although time is slightly against me due to other commitments within and outside of college I hope to have the project and research strongly started by next week.
Ensemble performance and feedback
So from my last update the performance has been and gone and we now have watched back our performance and received our final grades. Firstly I would like to back up to the weeks before the assessed gig and the many lessons and stressful times we had.
It did seem that from two weeks before the gig we were going to be incapable of pulling together a 40 minute set that was of a decent standard for the deadline especially with all the snow that had fallen causing a total breakdown in communication and rehearsal time. Even though there were issues, it became clear that even under this pressure the end product can still be achieved with focus and determination. It is apparent, as a band, we work significantly more efficiently in one week than the countless weeks of no progress we suffered through. Reflecting back on the recent events really revealed to me how much work could have been accomplished in this time slot if we had put our minds to it since day one. It also got me considering my general rehearsal time and work ethic and how if I tried to work as if I was under slight pressure the results would become much more awarding.
Anyways the day of the show came and for the most part, we played a successful show. Although there were a few glitches we all kept in a professional character and pushed through. Personally I felt I performed well with the acceptance to a few areas I could have demonstrated better. It did feel though that we had achieved something that had not been accomplished at Perth College for a while by performing a style that for a great deal of time had not been seen.
So after watching the gig back the overall performance seemed to be at a reasonable level and I was happy to see that all my hard work paid off as I received an A for the performance. I now hope that my research project will reach the same level of success. Grades should hopefully be handed out in the next few weeks.
That concludes the ensemble research and with its end comes many new beginnings. I hope now to explore the route of jazz further in my spare time and use this boost to better my understanding of the complex style. It is also the beginning of my individual project as I now begin researching into ideas and styles to independently create from scratch...well...with a little help from a few others!
An update will commence soon!