Gig Evaluation Unit9
Lets Stay Together- Al Green
I was quite happy with this performance as I feel that it really shows my vocal range and my blend from chest to head voice although Finn and I have performed the song once or twice in the past, and we both agreed that it wasn’t our best performance of the song as I felt my voice was slightly shaky at the start, partly to do with nerves and the fact that I couldn’t hear the piano in my monitor, Finn noticed that he played the wrong chord just after the first chorus but luckily it completely worked with the vocals.
At the very beginning the piano was in mono and the sound engineers quickly realised and switched to stereo which you can hear in the recording, I also think this could have something to do with the fact that I couldn't hear the keys in my monitor at the start, next time I will definitely make an indication to the sound engineers if i couldn’t hear something.
Dream A little Dream-
One of my ultimate jazz favourites, it is a beautiful classic and I feel a real connection to it. I also love that the song has been covered and interpreted by lots of different artists which really inspired Finn and I while researching and listening to the versions. Our performance started off risky as Finn started a little faster then we had rehearsed and I was unaware of this, until I sang the 1st note in which something quite magical happened, we both used telepathy to agree on a new tempo and the song flowed from there. We definitely feel that we need to work on our rhythm when rehearsing, so we can avoid a hiccup like this again.
The key change really lifted the song, although I felt that I could have engaged with my diaphragm more to support and project the notes I was singing in head voice. I think I added a bit too much chilli to the pot with my vibrato and definitely could of held back a little with it for a more sentimental affect.
Under Your Spell- Original song
Under your spell is a song that I started to write recently, then played to Finn and we both developed the song from there, we still believe that it is unfinished but thought we would have a go at performing the song at the gig and were both very proud about how the performance went, our feedback for the song was very positive and most said that we should record the song professionally which we have both thought about and have now agreed to take it into the studio and work on production. I will talk more about the song in my songwriting project.
Moon River- Audrey Hepburn
Moon River is such a special song to my family as it was played throughout my childhood and my nana's favourite song. I really wanted to video record this performance and show my nanny, as she is in hospital at the moment and I thought maybe it would be a nice surprise for her, which it was indeed and brought a massive smile to her face. One of the best things about this song is its simplicity/sparseness, it's almost like a lullaby and that is why we choose to end our set with this song. Finn and I took the basic structure of the song and really made it our own. As the song was so short we decided to repeat the verse again this time changing the key, adding dynamics for tension and pausing on one legato note to give the song a climax which I felt was the highlight of our performance.
The combination of that and Finns outstanding playing and phrasing hopefully did justice to such a sentimental song, we will definitely be adding ‘Moon River’ to our usual set and developing it even more.