LO1 - Know effective instrumental or vocal technique through a structured practice routine

Task 1: THE PRACTICE ROUTINE – DO’S AND DON’T’S

·         Complete an independent study of the most important elements in an effective practice routine.

·         Present your own priorities for technical development as a performer based around SMART targets.

·         Keep a daily practice diary over a period of at least two months, showing how you’ve applied and responded to the targets set in both solo and ensemble performances.

·         Make sure that you include analysis of your strategy – what have you changed during the period of the diary? Why?

·         Record and present your findings in the form of Blog, with embedded audio and video showing improvement over time.

This provides evidence for: P1, M1, D1

December Interim Assessment: short individual presentations on progress made with each bullet point.

 

Practice Diary

 

 

Above is a screenshot of the practice routine that I developed on Excel to help me through my performances in this subject, this routine is also to help me develop overall as a musician.

 

I am going to be sticking to this practice routine for the duration of one month and will record myself playing the same song at the end of each week so that I can see how much I have improved and developed due to this effect practice schedule.

 

I have set myself targets in order to help me progress through learning the song I have chosen to record over the four weeks. To begin with I decided that I best have a go at the song for the first, listen to the recording and then implement targets after that first recording.

 

Week 1

Here is a link to the first recording of the song after learning the song for one week.
https://soundcloud.com/spencer-farrance/big-big-big-practise-week-1

 

Week 1 Targets:

1. Practice the fingering more on the fretboard, make sure to try and make out the shape of each chord before you play the notes.
2. Practice the slides, make sure to be accurate and not slide to fast up the neck and miss the note all together.
3. Focus mainly on the third part of the song (further up the neck), remember to switch to the neck pickup and work on the rhythm.
4. Figure out a solo to play in the improv' section so that you aren't worrying about having to come up with something on the spot.
5. Practice the outro a bit more so that you aren't relying on reading the music all the time.

Week 2

In order to progress through the second week I decided that I needed to work a lot harder on the song and put all of my targets into action. I began to go over and over the chords, making sure that I plan out the layout of my fingers before I actually play the notes. I also went over the slides continuously to make sure that I didn't over shoot them or do them out of time from the song. The part that I focussed on the most was section three, all of the different rakes and licks were quite hard to learn because a lot of them are off of the beat which meant that my timing had to be perfect. I also started to work on a solo that I could remember so that I didn't panic when playing the improv' section. I didn't really give myself enough time to practice the outro though because I was focussing so much on all of the other things.

Week 2 Targets:

Here is a link to the recording of the song from the second week of my practice routine.
https://soundcloud.com/spencer-farrance/big-big-big-practice-week-2

1. In this recording I noticed that my accenting and vibrato wasn't quite how it says it should be in the music, therefore I decided that that was something that I needed to focus on.
2. The solo still needs some development and work.
3. Some of the phrasing in the third section is still a bit off and inaccurate.
4. There are still mistakes in the ending so that needs to be practiced, make sure to use the chords shapes like in the beginning.

Week 3

To be able to play the song to more of a grade six standard I decided that I was better to focus a lot more on the articulation, dynamics and phrasing. In order to perfect this I went over specific parts of the song that has a lot of crescendos, palm muting and vibrato. I also focussed a lot on developing and remembering a better solo so that when it comes to recording it, it isn't so sloppy and rushed. When practicing the third section's phrasing I played it a long to a click track so that I got the timing better, this helped me to work out the rhythms more accurately. I also worked on perfecting the ending which I found quite difficult because it wasn't really based around specific chords. None the less I managed to player it better than the week before.

Week 3 Targets

Here is a link to the third week of rehearsing the song as part of my practice routine.
https://soundcloud.com/spencer-farrance/big-big-big-practice-week-3

1. Here you can hear that my accuracy of the notes isn't as up to scratch as it should be, I'm hitting some duff and wrong notes throughout the song.
2. I'm going to better my use of the Wah-Wah pedal in the guitar solo because it isn't quite as expressive as I think it should be.
3. The ending is still very sloppy and needs work, therefore I will be mainly focussing on this for next week.

Week 4

This week my main focus was on the ending of the song because despite my efforts I am still struggling with it. In order to better the ending I have decided to just continuously play it over and over until I stop making mistakes, this classic method proved to be what I needed to do all along. Another thing that I focused was the accuracy of the notes hitting. I made sure that all of the notes I was hitting were loud and clear and were the correct ones. In order to improve the use of the Wah-Wah pedal I decided that it would be a good idea using it for everything I play just so that I get used to the feeling of the song and how to express my playing through my foot movement on the pedal.

Week 4 Outcome

Here is the recording of week 4 of the practice routine or you can watch the video of me performing it below.
https://soundcloud.com/spencer-farrance/big-big-big-practice-week-4

Here is performance of me playing the song Big Big Big after four weeks of practice. You can see in the video that all the practice has paid and the song is executed to a relatively good standard.

Overall I think that my practice routine was very effective and that the improvement of my playing is clearly showed through the recordings that I posted via SoundCloud. If I were to do this again I would probably do it for a longer duration of time with more than one song to practice so that it broadens my technique and ability even more.