Darkness

Today we performed our compositions, and we also critiqued each others songs. This was really helpful to see what others had to say about it. We got generally positive feedback, such as:
- Fantastic melody
- Lovely harmonies
- Great use of dynamics.
- Good improvisation techniques.
- Haunting but in a good way.
- Well structured and put together.

The only negative feedback we received was that our lyrics were unclear when we sang. This was useful to hear as we hadn't noticed! Hopefully our song structure and writing style helped everyone to understand what the song was about, and I will definitely work on my clarity of words in future performances. Because of this, I want to force myself to improve on this, so I have decided to perform my solo live rather than record the vocals. This means that I will have to focus a lot on singing clearly, and I have plenty of time to work on that.

I was happy to receive the feedback that our song was haunting, as that was one of our aims. The lyric 'I know I am a passing image, caught in an immortal circle' gave us the idea to make the song slow and minor, creating this 'haunting' effect. This encouraged me to continue working on my solo piece, as it is also in a minor key, and has a quite dramatic and tragic story to it. This song has some relevance to me, so I will be able to feel the lyrics as I am performing it, but the dramatic writing style also will help me to connect to the piece.

One thing I wish we had included was more sound and effects. We had decided to record it in one take rather than record it in bits and pieces, as I feel that I perform better when I am playing the piano at the same time. Another group included a twinkly sound which was relevant to their song, as it was whimsical. That sound would not fit into our song, however, we could have added some strings using my keyboard, or a flute, as these instruments would have added depth and interest. Having said this, one piece of feedback we received said 'simple but beautiful', so perhaps it was a good thing that we kept it simple! For my solo piece, I would like to make my own backing track using Sibelius, and then I can add effects and emotive sounds.

It's never nice to receive negative feedback, but we received constructive advice, and the positive feedback made us feel quite proud of our work.