Overall punctuality was lacking and so we lost a considerable amount of valuable rehearsal time (over a 1/4). In addition to this, one of our group members who is a guitarist was not present and so we could not rehearse "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers as planned.
Instead, we started on Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and managed to get up to the second verse. We arranged our rendtion with accompaniment from a keyboard, guitar and a cajón, as a full band (as featured in the original recording) would be unsuitable for the relaxed, live lounge setting we are aspiring to create for our final event.
We harmonised very well together by the end of the rehearsal, by which point we had split the first verse between myself and Serena whilst Kian led the chorus and I harmonised with him. As a group we collectively harmonised the introduction which is a recurring motif in the song but we opted to sing only the vowel "ah" as oposed to the "ba-ya-ya" that Seal sings in his original arragement.
The original 1994 music video released for "Kiss from a Rose"
In this session we made some adjustments to our agreed set list as Elica and Tamara requested to switch their songs "Ignorance" (by Paramore) and "Hurt" (by Christina Aguilera) to Paramore's "The Only Exception" and Jessie J's "I Miss Her" respectively.
Paramore "The Only Exception"
Jessie J "I Miss Her"
We also clarified each of our job roles within the group as there was some confusion. With this information we can produce an accurate flow chart which details our job roles and responsibilities and how they correspond with one another.
We discussed the dates we wanted for the date, aiming for the end of April and settling on Thursday, 1st of May at 7PM. We approved this date with our tutors but still need to confirm it with the venue. We also set our date for rehearsals of the group songs (which will feature musical contributions from everyone in the group) as every Monday from 2PM 'til 4PM.
We then turned our attention to the matter of refreshments on the night. Kian and Serena suggested people who they know who could possibly volunteer to serve condiments and beverages (both non and alcholic) - though these would be incurred at extra cost which I will have to budget for as the head of finance.
We also arranged to go to wholesale retailer Costco the following day to research the cost of food that we may wish to sell at the event so we can produce a shopping list later which is not too extravagent and reduce the likelihood of overspending - had we skipped researching and starting buy food without properly calculating how much we are likely to sell, profit margins etc...)
We arranged that either and/or both my mother and Crystal's father would chaperone us on our Costco trip - mainly because one needs to be a member of the store to purchase from there (which both of our parents are) and secondly for the free transport.
Our local costco in Kingston, Milton Keynes
The following day, me, Kian, Serena and Crystal - transported and chaperoned by her father - made the trip to Costco to research their produce and prices. Whilst browsing I took pictures of the produce we discussed potentially buying for our final show.
Serena, Kian and myself met at my house, where we rehearsed Erykah Badu's "Otherside of the Game" for an hour and 30 minutes. Kian had learnt the chords for guitar in his own time and brought both an electric and an acoustic - as he prefers playing with the former.
In our arrangement, Serena led the song, whilst I and Kian supported on vocals and Kian also accompanied on his electric guitar. We incorporated elements from various recordings of the song, including the one below.
For example, we harmonised the line "pays the bills" - as seen at approximately 0:35 in the video - similarly to how Badu and her band performed it for this particular live recording. However, I suggested that we not harmonise anything until after the first verse, to build interest as the song progressed. This differs from both the original studio recording (which doesn't contain any harmonies on the "pays the bills" line) and the live performance featured below in which the line is harmonised throughout.
Below are the lyrics of "Otherside of the Game" - green text represents the sections of the song which we rehearsed to a near-performance standard and red signifies areas which are much more of a working progress.
Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills
What we gonna do when they come for you
Gave me the life that I came to live
Do I really want my baby?
Brother tell me what to do?
I know you got to get your hustle on, so I pray
I understand the game sometimes
And I love him strong but
Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills, yes it does
What we gonna do when they come for you
God I can't stand life withoutcha
Now, me and baby got this situation
See brother got this complex occupation
And it ain't that he don't have education
'Cause I was right there at his graduation
Now, I ain't sayin' that this life don't work
But it's me and baby that he hurts
Because I tell him right, he thinks I'm wrong
But I love him strong
He gave me the life that I came to live
Gave me the song that I came to give
Pressure on me but the seed is grown
I can't make it on my own
Summer came around and the flowers bloomed
He became the sun I became the moon
Precious gifts that we both received
Or could this be make believe
Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills
What we gonna do when they come for you
Gave me the life that I came to live, yes you did
Don't worry baby
I know there's confusion
God's gonna see us through, yeah
Peace out to revolution, but we paid though
Don't you worry, keep your balance
(What you gonna do, What you gonna do)
The work ain't honest but it pays the bills
(Yes it does)
Don't you worry keep your balance
(Don't have to worry baby)
Gave me the life that I came to live
(Yes you did)
Don't you worry keep your balance
The work ain't honest but it pays the bills
Don't you worry keep your balance
You gave me the life that I came to live
Gave me the song that I came to give
Pressure on me
But the seed had grown
I can't make it on my own
Summer came around and the flowers bloomed
He became the sun I became the moon
Precious gifts that we both received
Or could this be make believe
Oh yeah
Badu is with you baby
We gon' make it, yeah
Me, you and the baby
You gonna do
Whatcha you gonna do
Go, yeah, baby, baby
Oh go on
See I ain't tryin' to bind your life
But I want you to do what's right
I'm your wife
Peace out to revolution
I know there's confusion
You gonna what you gotta do now
By the next rehearsal I aim to have learnt all the lyrics so that we can focus our attention on perfecting the arrangement so that we can start performing it as soon as possible so that it will feel completely natural by the time of our major performance.
In this session we pressed forward with key marketing and staging plans, naming the event The Lounge, in refernce to the live lounge staging of the event.
To create a chilled lounge environment we will need the following:
- Lamps (lava, fairy)
- Candles (possible health and safety issue)
- Flowers (rose petals)
- Sofa chairs
- Stools
- Rugs
- Warm colours: cream, brown
We also compiled a list of critical things we need to check at the venue before the event:
- What lighting they have available for us to use
- What Public Address system do they have and is it suitable for our event
- Number of chairs, sofas and tables
- If cafe is available for rent and at what cost
Also
during this session Kian began learning the chords for Erykah Badu's
"Otherside of the Game" on an acoustic guitar whilst me and Serena sang
through the song, with her singing the lead vocals and me providing some
backing. I improvised harmonies based on this live recording of the
song:
In this session we presented our ideas thus far before the class, covering our choice of event, venue and style as well as fundraising, how much we've raised and how much we plan to raise. Our presentation was not as detailed or as organised as it could have been due to numerous members of the group (including myself) not sending their slides to Tamara (who was tasked with creating the PowerPoint presentation) until it was too late, at a time when she was not available to add them and so it was less cohesive than it should have been, which somewhat reflects tensions and divides within the group. A consequence of this was that ideas were presented to other groups which had not even been shared with or co-signed by the rest of the group - such as the lounge set up.
After presenting, I felt it was paramount that we all compile a list of things we need to accomplish as a group and also individually by the next session so that our time together could be used most effectively. This is the list that we made as a group:
- List things we need
- List things we have and can contribute
- Research cost of obtaining things we don't have
- Create name for event
This is the list of tasks I set for myself to complete by the next session:
- Update Finance spreadsheet
- Inquire into cost of Lounge set-up and update expenditure
- Present updated financial report
- Draft design ideas for posters and tickets
Lastly, we set a £2 entry fee for our games tournament, which we postponed indefinitely and added the game Injustice: Gods Among Us.
In this session we discussed our plans to host a Games Tournament in college - for which Crystal secured sponsorship from entertainment retail giant, HMV, who offered to provide a games console and video games.
During discussion, one of the games that was a favorite amongst the group, Call of Duty: Ghosts, was ruled out as it can only be played by one person at a time. We eventually settled on Halo 4, which can be played by a maximum for four people at a time, allowing us to have up to 16 players participating at the tournament at one time on four consoles. We also finalised our console choice, picking Microsoft's Xbox 360 over Sony's PlayStation 3 as Crystal could bring in three Xbox consoles to add to the one provided by HMV.
Furthermore, we set a date for Thursday, 27 November, 2013 to hold the tournament and Dylan and Luke went to speak to students of a Games course to see if they could offer assistance or be interested in participating, whilst myself, Kian and Serena had our first rehearsal of "Otherside of the Game", which we plan to perform together during our final performance event. Due to the time we spent dileberating on various elements of the games tournament, we did not have time to achieve much during our short rehearsal but I became more familiar with the lyrics.
