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Gibbs Reflective Cycle: Communication - Coggle Diagram
Gibbs Reflective Cycle: Communication
DESCRIPTION
I aimed to improve communicative skills with the band both onstage and during rehearsals, aiming to become less apprehensive and more confident.
FEELINGS
Prior to the experience, I felt apprehensive about meeting new people and nervous about talking to new band members, let alone performing a song with them before we had even met or rehearsed together. I felt considerably unsure about how well the performance would go.
During the experience, I was surprised at how smoothly (for a first performance with strangers) it went and over the weeks during following performances, onstage communication with things such as eye contact, nods etc. became somewhat second nature. Although I felt the first performance lacked consistent communication, it didn't take long for everyone to feel comfortable with each other and communication became natural.
After the experience, I felt far more confident about my abilities to meet new people and communicate with new band members when it's needed. With each new band I felt increasingly confident with my communicative skills despite there being different people.
EVALUATION
What went well was my increased confidence in onstage communication over the weeks, beginning with nervousness and ending with an almost intensely communicative solo with the two other guitarists. This positively augmented the performance on both an individual and band level and was improved in direct response to lecturer feedback.
What could have gone better was my initial lacks of communicative confidence or awkwardness when put in a new band. While this only lasted for the first rehearsal/performance, it still negatively affected the extent to which I both visually and physically communicated with the band.
In the end, however, the experience was complete as it ended with me achieving my initial aim which was to effectively communicate onstage with the rest of the band to bring about a good performance.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I feel positively about the development of my communicative skills as I achieved my aim of becoming less anxious and more confident. I felt that by the end of the lessons I was able to communicate onstage during performance not only effectively, but naturally.
For example, over the first two weeks feedback from lecturers was focused on communicating in rehearsal and while performing live. Very quickly, however, this feedback stopped as we progressed in our communicative skills.
ACTION PLAN
In order to be better prepared for this experience again in the future, I need to keep playing with new people and rehearsing with bands to ensure I maintain my current level of ease and efficacy with onstage communication.
Despite the fact that the experience was overall positive and successful, I could still improve my onstage communication by perhaps making gestures, looks etc. more obvious and making sure that before even starting the song, the other members understand what the gestures signify (ie. a fill, the pre-chorus, another bar etc.)
In line with lecturer feedback, an area of priority in onstage communication for me is ensuring that other band members know where they are in the song and, if not, how I can communicate where to come in again.
ANALYSIS
The reason why communication was initially lacking was due to my nervousness prior to lessons.
This nervousness led to me being less inclined or confident about onstage communication with other band members, most likely to the detriment of the performance.
What could have been done to avoid this would have been spending more time getting to know the band members in lessons and initiating more rehearsals outside of lessons so everyone became more comfortable with each other. Alternatively, I could have tried things such as mindfulness techniques to help lessen nervousness or anxiety before lessons.