Friday, 9 December 2016

Solo Performance Review

I have now completed my solo performance. Unbelievably, I changed my piece again the weekend before! How professional. I had to change Baby Blue by Badfinger to Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. Mostly because I just couldn't play the fingerpicking part at the end of the song. I had tried a lot to learn it, but the chord progression was just too complex to play in time with the piece, so, only the weekend before the recording date I chose to change it to something a little simpler, but also a little more complex. I learned the acoustic guitar part to Ring of Fire in a matter of minutes, the piece wasn't very complex at all. However, I decided that I would sing for the performance - which was something that I never would have considered, and had never done before (Singing in front of people). I listened to Johnny Cash's recording and tried to sing along in different pitches, eventually coming to the conclusion that I have a bass voice - perfect for Johnny Cash!
I spent a number of hours working on the vocals and guitar, until I felt that it was right. I then asked Jack to accompany me, playing the electric guitar chords whilst I added a riff over the top. The riff was a little hard to work out, as it is my version of the trumpet line that Johnny had in his original recording. Admittedly, it wasn't perfect - during the recording I did struggle to remember it a bit and played some of the wrong strings, but I felt that it sounded quite fluent and confident. Jack playing the chords underneath the riff made the performance sound more whole, it added a layer to it that made all the difference.
My performance of Not Alright by Me went well as expected, I knew the piece like the back of my hand by the time of the performance. My favourite part of it was the successful transition from fingerpicking to plectrum during the guitar solo, which I tried to put as much passion and soul into to get the best outcome. I really feel like that was conveyed in the performance. If I was to change anything with that piece, I'd like to revisit the main riff - it sounded good but I played the wrong string a few times causing a palm muted sound.
If I had to change something about my performance of Ring of Fire, I would most likely just add a drum to the piece, as I was playing it at my own tempo - different to the original piece as I was unable to play along at the original speed. This was a downside to the song, but I felt that it showed interpretive style and could hopefully get me a better mark for the performance.

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