Working as an ensemble and essay writing

Working as an ensemble can be tricky because everyone has different opinions and so on, however it can also have its benefits such as lots of different skills are being brought together to create a piece of music. We have struggled so far as a group because we feel like it would be helpful if we had some people in our group who could play other instruments such as trombone, drums and other instruments to create a fuller sound. Although we can use protools to help us do this we have had several rehearsals where we have spent hours trying to figure out how to use the programme and we have had no joy so we decided that we were wasting too much time rather than working with the skills we have.

"The conductor must develop a rehearsal plan and schedule (or general strategy) as well as acquire many teaching strategies to rehearse effectively" Preface, Conducting and rehearsing the instrumental musical ensemble.

Next time we do group work I think we should assign a conductor within the group.

Blending voices has been something we have had to work on as Meg and I have powerful voices whereas Abi not so much and we also need to blend our tones to sound like one voice when in unison and when harmonizing.

Another aspect of this module I have found tricky is essay writing. I have not had much experience at essay writing in the past and the main thing I struggle with is finding references appropriate to what I am writing about. 

For next year, I would like to improve my essay writing skills by using the library services and spending more time planning my essays.