I've been working with Madison (piano), Nimai (Bass) and Barnaby (Drums) to be able to play my song "Demons In My Head" at the Red Brick Building gig which is a launch gig for the Strode Live Album 2024. We've played this song previously for another gig but we haven't played it for a while and so we were bringing it back to our memories with the addition of having Barnaby on the drum kit rather than on the cajon as we're trying to make it as similar to the recording on the album as possible. In this rehearsal, we struggled with timing as we commonly got faster (especially on the pre-chorus and chorus) and this threw me off as I'm already aware that my timing is dodgy and I've massively struggled with it in the past and it's something that I'm improving on with practice. Other than the timing, I think the rehearsal went very well as everybody remembered their parts and when we did go out of time, we communicated with one another to try and stay in time with each other despite not being in the correct time in general which shows our ability to adapt to the situation so even if we're in a live show, we'll be able to adapt and make it more hidden. Next time, I'd like to mainly work on our timing which I also feel I need to do personally by myself at home with a metronome as I had forgotten how fast the song seemed during the chorus and so I need to practice with that faster tempo.
/23/04/2024/
For this rehearsal, there was only three of us as Nimai was unfortunately not in. We adapted to this and managed to do well in the song despite not having a bassist. In order to improve our timing, Barnaby agreed to have a metronome in his ear whilst he played the drums so that he'd be in time and, as a result, we'd all be in time as we'd be able to follow him. I think that this improved our overall timing but it still wasn't perfect as Barnaby struggled playing with a metronome which threw off my timing which, in turn, made him (and likely Madison) more confused about the timing but we did hit specific points in the song at the same time for the necessary impact.
/24/04/2024/
In this third rehearsal, we made the decision to switch Barnaby back to using a cajon as he had continued to struggle with the timing playing on a drum kit. This worked out really well as he was able to play along with the metronome a lot easier and it made the whole song feel much tighter and more polished. It also came with the added benefit that we didn't feel as deafened as the cajon wasn't so loud and it also meant that the instruments all had a more balanced volume making it easier to do rehearsals and be able to follow along in the song. Nimai wasn't there for the first part of the rehearsal which meant he had less rehearsal time however, it did give us time to figure out what we would do in a live situation without our bassist and nobody to fill in - we agreed that when not playing the normal piano part, Madison would play low root notes of the chords on the piano to add the bass feel and make sure it doesn't feel empty or thin. I think that the rehearsal went well overall but I need to make sure that at the audition, I project even though I'll have a microphone and I enunciate all of my words properly.
/25/04/2024/
The audition differed slightly from what we were used to in the rehearsals as I was standing as appose to sitting but, luckily, due to my experience in open mics where I now always stand, I was able to adapt to this easily. We managed to keep the timing throughout the whole song and I was next to Barnaby which meant we could communicate about timing with one another and stay in time with each other as it was the most important that we stayed in time as then the other two could follow us and prevent them from becoming lost. I didn't forget the words or mess up the chord progression or forget any of it which is good and shows that I've rehearsed it and was prepared for the performance. However, I did get nervous and I think that I probably didn't open my mouth enough which resulted in my voice being quieter and slightly flat at points due to the sound not being able to properly be produced. In order to prepare for future performances, I need to record myself practicing and use that footage to learn how it feels to open my mouth properly in order for me to be able to do this when I'm unsure. I also think that experience in performance will help hugely as I often find that new places/situations will unnerve me and therefore cause me to not open my mouth as much due to a lack of confidence. In order to combat this, I will work on the persona of which I put on when performing as well as attempting as much research as I can about the venue in order for me to feel more comfortable when I'm there.
/10/05/2024/
Before the performance, I felt really nervous and worried that I was going to forget something or that something was going to go wrong. I was so nervous that I struggled tuning my guitar despite it having an in built tuner. I think this was a mix of being nervous and not being able to hear the guitar due to the song before me playing. In order to fix this, I got Madison to help me by putting her ear to my guitar so she was able to hear the strings and confirm if I was making it more sharp or more flat. Interestingly, during the performance, I did not feel as anxious as I did before or afterwards. After the performance, I immediately went back to being shaky and having what I call "jelly legs". I think that because of the practice that I've had of playing this song in front of live audiences, it's given me the ability to enjoy the song whilst I perform it which means that I consequently suffer little and enjoy performing - it's just the before and after where I struggle. Despite having said this, I did still have some nerves whilst performing - most notably towards the beginning where my voice is quite shaky at points and I even change bits of the melody without really realising it as I was worried about sounding bad or out of tune. I think that this didn't happen too drastically though and was fixed by the second verse and so I think that I was able to do a good job of keeping control of my voice. I also didn't mess up any of the guitar which I think is also a result of the practice and we all stayed in time. I relied on staring mainly at the top of the wall at the back but I did occasionally look at people in the audience for a small bit of audience interaction to improve their experience. I think there are still improvements to be made, mainly upon my confidence in everything that's happening. For example, at the beginning of the performance, I stand waiting to play unsure if I'll get a signal from the sound technician or if I should just start playing. In future, I should ask the sound technician in advance so that it's super clear and I don't have to feel awkward about it or create a few seconds of awkward silence for the audience.
See technical roles collaborative project here See Tyler collaborative project here Project (with Madison Kent): Create and release an EP with a music video. The EP will have three songs: 'Separated by Water', 'When I'm With You' and 'Meadows and Graves'. Two songs were written by Madison (Separated by Water and When I'm With You) and the third song we wrote together (Meadows and Graves). We did this by having a common goal and clear idea of what the song was about which is the autistic experience from our perspective. I found it difficult as we had to communicate everything we were doing so we remained on the same page. This process meant that it took a lot longer to write the song which I found difficult as, when writing by myself, I do everything very quickly. Something we compromised on was the melody as Madison wanted to add harmonies and so we kept the melody more simple as to make this easier. To prepare for recording, we practised for gigs and ...
See technical roles collaborative project here See Madison collaborative project here /24/02/2025/ The above video is me and Tyler discussing the plan we have for our collaborative project. He explained what we're doing for the project as well as the goals and restrictions and I explained our 6 week plan to complete the project in time for it to be marketed for the gig at The Loft which would be an ideal time to market it to everyone. 1st song - travelling (coming home and waiting) - 128bpm 2nd song - cool tuning (moving house) - 95bpm 3rd song - slow happy song (settling down and kids) - 70 bpm - Song get slower over course of EP to show the idea of changing from a city to the countryside as well as the idea of settling down and being calmer and less hectic as you get older 1st song ideas: G A C G x3 Verse G A7 Am G chorus - going back home and waiting at home; partners, married, just them, coming from city home to countryside - Road never ends; 100 miles ...
My brother is making a game and he's relatively far through it. It's a clicker game but with slightly more to it as it basically has zombies coming towards a wall and the player has to click on the zombies to kill them and they can heal the wall as well as collect resources from the mine and this is all based on clicking things. They can also upgrade things. He wanted music for his game and gave me a specific brief on how he wanted it to work. He wanted to have different levels of intensity depending on the amount of enemies on the screen and he wanted to have about 6 different 8 second loops per intensity level. The minimum amount of intensity levels would be around three (although there would probably be more) which means a minimum of 18 different loops to suit the intensity. He wants all of the loops to be able to naturally lead into any of the other loops so that it doesn't sound disjointed or strange. He sent me four references of music that he wants it to be like...
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