Performing live both has it's advantages and disadvantages, as live you can fully portray the emotion behind the song and can communicate with the audience on another level. The downside however is that as it's live, any mistakes have to be covered up, as you don't get a second chance. It is the 'unique personal identity with which they infuse their productions’ (Burgess, 2013) which helps make a piece sound different and unique and also makes the artist connect at a deeper connection with the audience, which I feel like I tried to get across with the lyrics in my song.
When I performed my piece, I feel like there were some things that I did well. First of all, the way I sang the lyrics was something that was improvised as I never practiced actually singing the lyrics to the melody the same way all the time. I feel like this way of singing helps to create and mimic the natural flow of a story when written in a book - as people can read and interpret the words in their own way.
I also feel like the way that I changed and played around with the dynamics worked in my favour as I used a soft and quiet tone at the beginning of the song with lyrics such as "Little girl, crying out for somebody to help her now". When it got towards the final chorus where I sing about being there and hoping that the girl stays strong, my voice was stronger and louder than before, reflecting the feelings in the song to the dynamics.
Another thing that I enjoyed when writing the song and performing it, was how I toyed with the actual structure of the song. The only part where the lyrics were the same was in the verse, with the first and last line being the same, as opposed to the chorus in the song always being the same. When i performed this, I tried to clearly sing these same lines to get across the point that the verses portray the emotions of the figurative girl, and how the circle never ends. The chorus however represent the feeling of another voice, one of reason and safety that wants the girl to be safe, and that's the reason as to why I changed the lyrics of the chorus.
Getting the audience to participate was another thing which I thought worked well. It's something as a performer that I think is important to create a connection with the audience and make them feel involved in the song itself. Getting them to 'Ooooh' - which is what I did - helped to also create harmonies which is impossible when solo without the use of a backing track or loop pedal. Therefore, it helped to build and create a crescendo to act as the end of the story, ending on C chord harmony which is nice to listen to.
There are a few things which I feel I could have done better for next time however. I feel like I wasn't warmed up enough and as a result, my vocals at the beginning of the song weren't as strong as I wanted them to be. Doing something as simple as a vocal warm up would've benefited me and meant that I would've have been more pleased with my singing.
One thing that did go wrong was the fact that I believed the guitar to be out of tune when I first started which put me off with my timings meaning the piece didn't flow as well. In hindsight, I should have checked first before playing the piece however I think that I must have knocked that guitar slightly, putting one string out of tune. This affected me up to the first chorus and it was only then that I was able to get back into the actual timings of the song, however it was still something that was on my mind the whole time, something that is described as "Self One" (Green & Gallwey, 1987), which is the negative thoughts in the head that constantly remind you of the mistakes.
‘In a state of flow, there is no room for irrelevant thoughts’ (Kircher, 2011) which is something that I will keep in mind for next time when performing. If I were to do the song again, I would work on the audience participation bit as I feel like that could have been extended and improved a bit more. Something that would work would be having more people on each part, then it would help to create the uplifting feeling of being happy and safe and reinforce the idea that it's a happy ending.
Although there were things that went wrong within the performance, I still feel like I kept control and when it did go wrong, I tried to improvise and cover up, something that artists of any form struggle with. With every performance, I feel like I become a stronger performer and am always learning and exploring new ways of improving each time.
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