Rehearsal Diaries: Beggars Folk Music Club

Rehearsal Diary: 29/04/26

The intention of this gig was to be at a retirement home, but a different idea was brought to me: a local folk music club with another friend who had been asked to play there, to which I was welcomed to join in for a set there. The plan is to perform this very short set on 14th May. With the set being much shorter than the other sets I will be playing, these diaries will end up being shorter and less.

So today me and my friend Mia filtered through a few acoustic, folk songs that she already knew and had in her pocket to make rehearsal time much more sweet for both of our busy schedules, we played through a select few songs and created a small, 5 song set which will give us a decent 15 minute set to perform at this club.

Together we put together this list of songs which sounded at the best out of what we played, though more may be added when the club reach back to me about how long the set can be.

With the whole focus of this project being related to audience engagement, interaction and reaction, we decided to filter 2 songs to have little to no guitar in and have the songs as acapella + me on the cajon which works much better acoustically than a full drumkit as a way to let the older audience take part.

This rehearsal went exceptionally well despite the time being a bit later and Mia being tired from something important prior to the rehearsal.

I don't see a world where we will have many problems coming from these rehearsals as the songs are simple, our dynamic is very stress-free and the set is short and sweet.

Today we got a recording of Freight Train as it is the only song that we decided will have completely no guitar so it was the best way to practice Mia's sole vocals and my overall timing being the only instrument playing.

These rehearsals won't be as consistent as the rehearsals for the gig at The Alexandra as the set is already short and Mia has her own studies to focus on, however we next plan to have a rehearsal on a similar note to today on Saturday.

Rehearsal Diary: 10/05/26

We couldn't do the Saturday last week due to Mia's revision, exams and her own gig coming up on the Sunday, and we struggled to get a rehearsal during the week because I fell ill during the start of the week and then she did towards the middle of the week. We finally managed to find some time today though, even if it was a very short rehearsal going through The Gambler and Freight Train. We decided this set is something we can take a lot easier with the set being short and the patterns being simple and repetitive, we will most likely have one more on the 14th which is the day we are planning to play at the club. A creative decision we made was to make all the songs acapella with just the cajon carrying the rhythm as it is something that will get the audience easily involved and matches the vibe at the folk club.

The recording of The Gambler is too big for this blog but will be attached in my student work folder.

Rehearsal Diary: 14/05/26

This wasn't much of a rehearsal as it was in the venue. This was more of a final check of the set before we played. Mia would sing the song and I tapped the table to come up with a decent idea on the type of pattern I would actually be playing for each song. With this set, rehearsals weren't the most important thing as Mia knew the songs quite well already and with me playing the cajon rather than an actual drum, there wasn't much for me to learn, it was more of a case of feeling the melody and creating a rhythm to pair with it. In my opinion, the whole point of these rehearsals was not to learn or practice the songs but were a way to get together and make sure we were happy with the songs we had picked out, to make sure they matched what the audience at the folk club would want. These rehearsals were a way for me to get feeling of the song more than actually listening, learning and practicing each song.