Final External Unit


Task 1: Planning 

My candidate number: 5109 My centre number: 17343.
My name is Joshua Jones. The instrument I will be playing for this performance is vocals. The brief requires me to play 10-15 minutes of appropriate performance in front of an audience.

Through my performance, I want to achieve the following personal goals:
1.     Personal Goal 1: Build enough confidence to continue performing in front of crowds on stage.
2.     Personal Goal 2: To be able to recite all of the lyrics of my songs whilst on stage
3.     Personal Goal 3: Create a solid and firm stage presence 

To help achieve the above goals, I think I have the following skills that I can use:
1.     Skill 1: My first good skill is being able to create a presence on stage.
2.     Skill 2: My second good skill is the ability to perform confidently in front of people.
3.     Skill 3: My third good skill is that I can work with other people well and without needless confrontations.


I will know if I have achieved my goals at the end of the assessment because I will be given feedback by Mrs Giblin, Mr Flowers and Mr Gower that will inform of how I’ve done. I will also be able to interpret how well I’ve done and if I think I achieved my goals by looking back at the performance myself.
I've had feedback from Mr Flowers and Mr Gower saying that I sung all of my lyrics perfectly and that I created a presence during my performance, meaning I achieved personal goals 2 and 3. I have also completed Personal goal 1 as after my Final Performance, I've performed One More Light with Megan in House Music and we've got to the final.


The audience I am performing to is the local label A and Rs, as well as Mr Flowers who was assessing my performance. Their expectations will be that I perform my songs confidently to show that I have rehearsed and practised well. I will meet their expectations by singing confidently and not being afraid.

I will perform music in the following style/styles: Rock and Alternative. This is because I believe these styles fit my voice well and I can use the lyrics and messages in these styles of songs to create a certain presence during my performance.

My personal image for the event will be a mix of calm and emotional because I need to put across a powerful image in order to achieve a distinction. I will be wearing school uniform to the performance as it's during school time.

My ideas for the performance are to create a powerful image and project myself to the audience well. I will achieve this due to the practise and hard work I have put in, in order to reach my goals. I want to achieve a varying image of calm to more loud and aggressive back to calm whilst consistently showing power, technique and emotion.

The set list I will perform as my given repertoire will contain the following songs:
1.     Song 1: Artist/Band: Gorillaz   Song title: Busted And Blue   Estimated length of song: 4:10   I have chosen this song because it fits well with my voice.
2.     Song 2:  Artist/Band: Three Days Grace   Song title: Gone Forever   Estimated length of song: 3:27   I have chosen this song because it fits well with my voice.
3.     Song 3: Artist/Band: Enter Shikari   Song title: Dear Future Historians   Estimated length of song: 4:00   I have chosen this song because it fits well with my voice.
4.     Song 4: Artist/Band: Linkin Park   Song title: One More Light   Estimated length of song: 3:30   I have chosen this song because it fits well with my voice.

The total estimated length of my set list will therefore be 14-15 minutes. 

I have chosen to play these songs in this order because this order fits well and feels like a real set with an intro, heavier song, calmer song, outro.
I will need to involve the following people in my performance: Megan who is playing guitar for One More Light and Mr Gower who is doing piano for all 4 of my songs.

I will need the following resources and equipment: 
  • A microphone and a piano for Mr Gower. I don't need any backing tracks as Mr Gower is playing piano for all 4 of my songs. 



When performing live, I will need to consider the following health and safety issues:
Health and Safety Issue: Stray cables. How I will make sure I am safe: By moving any cables that are in the area in which I'm standing.
Health and Safety Issue: Extremely high volume. How I will make sure I am safe: Making sure the volume of the piano and the microphone are at an adequate level.
Health and Safety Issue: Spilling water onto the electrics. How will I make sure I am safe: Either keep any water/liquid away from any cables/electrics or make sure a lid is tightly on any bottle that is nearby.


 I will need to spend 20 hours at school preparing, performing and evaluating the event. 

Week 19 Thursday 18th January 2018 (2 hours):
Plan: I practised One More Light on the guitar and vocals.
Week 20 Thursday 25th January 2018 (2 hours):
Plan: I practised One More Light on guitar and vocals with Megan.
What went well: We learned the chords and riff and can play them well.
What needs work: We need to practise playing the guitar in time with each other.
Week 21 Thursday 1st February 2018 (2 hours):
Plan: I practised Feel Good Inc. and Robot Boy with Kujay and Nigel (these songs are part of their setlists.)
What went well: We practised well and got a considerable amount of work done.
What needs work: We need to continue practising to finalise timings etc. ready for the performance.
Week 22 Thursday 8th February 2018 (2 hours):
Plan: I practised my guitar skills today along with revising parts of One More Light.
What went well: I managed to get some work done towards my final performance.
What needs work: Making sure I know all of my songs off by heart.
Week 24 Thursday 22nd February 2018 (2 hours):
Plan: Practise singing One More Light with Megan playing guitar.
What went well:  I know the whole song off by heart and Megan can play all of the chords.
What needs work: We're just putting some finishing touches on the song as a whole.
Week 25 Thursday 1st March (2 hours):
Plan: Practise One More Light with Megan.
What went well: We've almost got everything spot on and we're doing full run-throughs of the song in lessons.
What needs work: Ironing out any mistakes with the song.
Week 25 Thursday 08/03/18 Dress Rehearsal Performance (2 hours):
Plan: Do the dress rehearsal with Megan, then myself and then with Kujay and Nigel.
What went well: My song with Megan went really well and my song with Kujay and Nigel did as well.
What needs work: I need to focus on my own performance a little bit more and make sure everything is perfect and that I can remember all of the lyrics of by heart.
Week 26 Wednesday 14/03/18 Final Live Performance (2 hours):
Plan: To perform a song with Megan, do my own setlist and then do a song with Kujay and Nigel.
What went well: Everything went very well, the song with Megan went very well, my set was said to be amazing and near-flawless and my song with Kujay and Nigel went extremely well also.
What needs work: One of the only improvements that were suggested to me was to not have to use prompts for lyrics (just in case I forget the next line on the spot.)


Task 3: Evaluation 
Strengths Reflection: I remembered all of the lyrics to One More Light for Megan's
performance and I performed the song really well. I didn’t go wrong on any of the notes and I created a firm presence on stage. For my own set, I performed all 4 of my songs to a great standard with high levels of technique and accuracy. For Kujay’s set I remembered the piano riff off by heart and performed it with fluency and accuracy.


Improvement Reflection: An improvement could be that I wouldn’t need to bring prompts up with me in case I forget any of the lyrics on the spot. If I were to perform these songs again I would work on not having to use prompts. Also, maybe speed some of the songs up a little as I was in danger of running over the 15 minute mark.

Improvement #1: Not have to bring prompts on stage with me
Strategy: Rehearse without the prompts over and over until I no longer need them at all
Improvement #2: Not run over the required time limit
Strategy: Speed up a couple of the songs
Improvement #3: Create a little more of a presence on stage
Strategy: Look around rather than just in one direction and maybe walk around the stage a bit

Feedback from others: Mr Flowers and Mr Gower both said that they could hardly find anything wrong with the performance and had to nit-pick to find any ways to improve the performance. The only things they said that could be improved were not having to bring prompts up with me and to try and engage a little more as I didn’t move very much during my performance.

Conclusion: I think that my performance went really well as I performed all 4 of my songs to a high standard showing that I’ve been putting lots of effort into practising this setlist. It went much better than my dress rehearsal and I didn’t have any stoppages throughout the entire set. I also think that I performed One More Light with Megan very well with great levels of technique shown and also Robot Boy with Kujay and Nigel as I played the piano riff for the song consistently accurately.


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