A1 - Connecting Dots

I decided to add a new song to my usual set list of four that I use for open mics as I wanted to be able to switch out my material and have more repertoire to choose from. I chose a newish song that I wrote called "Connecting Dots" but I knew I needed to properly prepare it before performing it as there was plenty there that I was definitely not confident about.

When beginning to practice the song, I didn't know the words very well and so I kept forgetting them especially at "my throat is tight" and at the beginning of the bridge. I did have the words on paper beside me but I tried not to look at it as in an attempt to help me learn the words. I also had trouble getting the right chords as I was so used to playing the other four songs at open mics, my hand often resorted to what I was used to (e.g., I often went from Am to D instead of G due to this pattern in "Stronger"). I managed to mostly remember the melody correctly other than for the bridge as it changes and I haven't had as much practice on it and this wasn't helped by lack of memory for what the chords change to. I managed to remember the basic words though. But, having not much confidence, I didn't open my mouth much and therefore some of the notes are a bit flat and sound whiny due to having to come through my nose as there simply isn't enough space in my mouth. 

I worked on the words more between these practices which meant I forgot them less and was able to focus more on the melodies. Despite this, I struggled moving into the bridge as I forgot the chords again which meant, even though I remembered the bridge in isolation, in the context of the song the bridge's tune escaped me and meant I got a bit lost. However, I have worked out a way to remember chords in the future which is to make some kind of word with it. For example, I'd pronounce the chord progression of  "Connecting Dots" as "aggduh" as it is Am, G, D, E. I think that this will massively improve my memory of chord progressions resulting in more smooth performances. Unfortunately, I think that my voice was still too whiny due to my mouth not being wide enough for the necessary noise to come out. 

For this practice, I decided to just sing a cappella as my guitar and memory was improving but my mouth shape and singing was staying the same. I worked mainly on having a wider mouth and singing out as well as remembering the melody properly. This was more challenging than I had originally thought it would be as the melody was harder to remember with the notes in the chords guiding it as well as the words disappeared more due to no guitar triggering the memory of them. I think that this rehearsal went well and I showed improvement in my mouth shape and sound. I think that the next step is to put these two things together but I'm unsure how easy it will be to maintain a confident stance singing wise when I'm also playing guitar. 

In this final practice of this song, I put together the work I've been doing on my singing separate to my guitar and memory. I think that it went well as my voice is different than in the first two practices I did although I didn't manage to do it quite as well as in the a cappella practice but I assume that that's to be expected as my attention is split in more ways and can't just be focused on my singing. I managed to (mostly) remember the words without looking as well as using the correct chords throughout (using the chord-word method) which meant I managed to achieve a smooth transition to the bridge which allowed space in my attention to remember the melody and words of the bridge and it felt more natural transitioning to a different section of the song. I feel more confident about the open mic on Saturday and I think it is much more likely to go well now. 

I think my overall performance went well as I didn't forget the words at any point even without having them to hand which is a very useful skill for being able to concentrate on the performance aspect and not having to worry as much about the musical situation. I do think that I look slightly bored during it because I haven't really expanded much on the performance aspect and I'm nervous as this was the first open mic I'd done after two/three weeks of not doing them. I think I managed to open my mouth enough to create a good sound and not go flat by have the note compressed but I could've been more expressive with it as I do look a tad like a robot. The way to improve this is to further film my rehearsals of the song and watch them back and keep doing it to improve and note on small things I can do during certain parts of the song to give off the feel that I want it to. I managed to keep a relatively good tempo throughout the song due to mainly playing the same strumming pattern but also moving my hand in time when I wasn't strumming constantly. However, I did speed up during the parts where I wasn't singing and I've found that I have a tendency to do this a lot. As well as playing the song faster in general due to nerves. In order to improve that, I need to be more aware when performing to stick at as constant a speed as I can throughout the song.