Back at college now for what I have been informed is the last 9 weeks before all assignments are to be handed. So, writing a three minute piece, creating and finishing a portfolio showing all the “fantastic” experiences I have had in my musical career (which I feel really hasn’t even begun as of yet), a PowerPoint presentation and graded interview and countless essays are just a few things that have been placed on my to-do list. Of course this shall all have to begin promptly if I am to avoid losing sleep and what hair I have on my head however, for the time being this is getting slightly too negative for my liking and so I’ll just get onto the weekly events.
Technically Wednesday was the beginning of my week due to my late return on Tuesday evening and as I arrived in for 9.00a.m I was reformed with my Led Zeppelin band to discuss our next project which was agreed to be the 1970 Isle of White festival. I was happy with our choice of songs and am confident that this time we will be able to pull off a passable performance. This was soon followed by my drum lesson which turned out to be exceedingly beneficial to my texture playing of styles. The advice I received has given me more to think about when playing in different styles and so I hope overtime, with practice that my texture will improve leading to me becoming a more versatile and diverse drummer.
In afternoon composition class the group was given deadlines for our three minute pieces and how we should be structuring ourweeks. The second half consisted of the first of many talks on the instruments we would be using in our songs with the guitarists taking the limelight. The talk was somewhat helpful and I just hope that when I hand out my sheet music next week it will make sense and sound like I expected. This task will greatly help me on my aims as a musician for the more I understand about writing music the stronger and more confident my general understanding of reading it will become. I just hope I can finish it in time.
Thursday was as usual a stretched day starting with graded unit where the dates for our interviews were handed out. Four weeks from the day I will be suited out and hopefully proving why I am right for the job confidently, delivering my epic fifteen minute presentation on my incredible skills and talents...in a perfect world that is. More realistically I will be in my rags cowering in the corner panicking over my few slides of presentation that don’t seem to be working while rummaging for my misplaced portfolio. Just hope I can get somewhere between the two. The pressure of small deadlines will hopefully help me to be more organised and prepared for as a session musician this skill will have to be accomplished.
In history a date has been set for our Adorno essay and yet again it all seems a bit too close for comfort. I am in desperate need of some intellectuality before I can begin so if anyone knows where I could purchase some I would be most grateful if the known address could be sent to me.
Session skills was for the first time in weeks productive. The music for Grtis ain’t Groceries was handed to me and we were put in the studio and told to be ready in a couple of minutes to record with click. I really don’t have to go in into detail of how this benefited me on my aims as a session for musician for this was as real as its going to get in the college at this time - except of course the fact there was no money involved. I managed to nail it and was happy to sit back and watch as each musician went into to gradually layer the track. I hope that next week will be as eventful.
Digital audio seems to have never been mentioned in my weekly blogs for I felt the class did not go anywhere however this week after talking to the lecturer we are now back on track and at the moment I am currently creating a web page advertising myself as a musician. Although the page will not be published the task has given me ideas for when the time comes to advertise myself via the web as a working musician.
Friday’s articulation class was as interesting as ever as we delved into African music and the association it has with blues roots. Every week I find this class more fascinating and take away a great deal of artists to look into helping to expand my knowledge of music outside of popular music terms.
In terns of our transcription assignment I have finally chosen the piece for analysis however it sadly wasn’t my first choice. At first I wanted to tackle the opening of Elgar’s cello concerto in E minor, then I lowered my standard to attempt Eric Whitacre’s unaccompanied choral piece Sleep however, with both, there just wasn’t enough time to transcribe the scores accurately in the given time slot. So now I’m in the middle of writing out Regina Spektor’s “Us”. The song is a straightforward transcription however the words have an ambiguous and deeper meaning and so I hope to grab my 1000 words from a lyrical perspective.
Apart from college my only real out of hours event this week has been a traditional band practice. The band has now chosen a date for a half twelve concert sooner than I hoped for and so now we are choosing material for the up and coming gig. Although I am happy that we have a target to aim for and am sure that the gig will boost my confidence as a fiddle player I feel that this slight pressure will rip the fun out of coming together and playing the music. I surely hope that this doesn’t happen but as the date draws closer I am sure that tensions will rise.
So that’s that, next week is surely to be a hectic one as I begin to play for degree projects and my own HN2 performance. An update will follow one week from today on these activities!
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