Evaluation of Group Performance

 'Music is my life, it is a reflection of what I go through.'-Lenny Kravitz 

This week was our assessed group performances. My group did a country style version of 'Reflection' from Mulan and an acoustic style version of 'Man in the Mirror' by Michael Jackson.

I think a positive of our performance and rehearsal process was playing to each others strengths and showcasing everyone equally. I think the band enabled us to explore everyone's talents and it was clear this came across from feedback of the audience. It also meant we were able to add variety within the piece and constantly keep it musically interesting and engaging. because there were so many options with what we could do when arranging. I think another strength was that were were strong stylistically and I know this from audience feedback. The use of the viola in the country version of 'Reflection' was especially poignant as it immediately reflected the style alongside the tempo and the adaptation of the vocal timbre. In 'Man in the Mirror' I think use of me writing a rap to fit in not only kept the piece varied, but also added style and edge to the piece. I based the lyrics upon the second verse but focused on the idea of our theme of reflection to come up with these lyrics.

'I've been a victim of a selfish kind of love that's left me scarred.
And it's time that I realize that I'm falling apart.
That there are some with no home, and I guess I've always known,
That it's not only me pretending they're not alone.
And I'm seeing all around me that people are getting scared,
People are getting scared of the people who said they cared.
And I'm seeing on the news that things just ain't right,
Love turned into hate and hate turned into fight'

I think the first negative of our performance was that it wasn't tight and accurate because of not enough rehearsal and this was especially poignant in our first song 'Reflection'. Due to lack of rehearsal and lack of productive rehearsal, especially on the day of assessment, it sounded messy and not as clean as it should have been. This meant we didn't sound good as a unit although individually we were quite strong. I think sounding tight and together as a group is one of the key elements to a successful group performance and I think for various reasons we didn't reach this and were unsuccessful. Mainly because of lack of co-operation and teamwork off stage,especially before the performance, which then I felt reflected onstage. I also think accuracy needed improving because we weren't as sure in what we were doing which reflected in aspects such as tempo or pitch. I think another negative was that the performance wasn't aesthetically pleasing. Although we wanted it to be visually simplistic and minimalist I really think we could have added to it to make it a little more interesting and engaging to match the sound that we were producing. I think it needed to be simple so that it didn't detract from the singing, but at the same time if we were to improve on this performance next time I would definitely add a little more movement to make it more engaging visually.