HAYDEN NEWTON ASSESSMENT SEP 2015

Assessment for bars 1-10 of Crosstown Link (Rockschool Grade 1)

Hayden, while your playing is well executed and confident, you have not reproduced the phrasing correctly. I notice that you played the part without any rhythmic accompaniment (eg. the audio backing track). Why is this? Are you also trying to learn the piece without first playing along with the backing track? You need to make sure you do this in order to verify that your phrases accurately fit the rhythm and start/finish at the right points. At this point I am unclear whether you are having trouble memorising the phrasing (which I suspect) or whether you have an issue understanding how to feel it.

You should also play along with the original track (or listen to it afterward) to verify that the phrasing you have memorised is correctly reproduced. Are you doing this?

Finally, I recommend that you record your performance along with the backing track both to guide your phrasing and so that you can check afterwards whether you have played it correctly.

Craig, thank you for the feedback. I have at first been playing without the backing track to improve my accuracy in terms of the right notes and to learn more of the song. I have tried the backing track a number of times but two things happen, sometimes l find it difficult to pick out the phrasing changes from the track, and when l listen hard for the changes l am behind with the track, because l cannot slow the speed down. I will continue with the backing track to see where it gets me or if you have any other advice that would be appreciated. Thanks .

Hayden

If you can't slow the backing tracks down you need to download and use Transcribe:
http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/download.html

Many thanks will do done another session today with the backing track same issues will go for Transcribe. Thanks H