Episode X: For Those About To Rock...

Week 10 - 18.11.09 - 19.11.09

This week i have been focusing on what is required of me to become a sucessful instrumental instructor. Through reading the coursework of the Primary Teacher degree, i have now a far better understanding of what is required of me. One thing that i did not know is that now you have to tell your pupils what they are going to learn and what they will get out of the lesson. Each lesson plan created through the Curriculum for Excellence has to state this. I am going to take this into concideration when i create my own lesson plans. I have also realised that there is such an importance in keeping an active classroom. When a teacher is just talking to you, non-stop, there is a tendency to 'drift off' and not take in any information. But through involving students and creating lessons that have more than just copying from the board, there is more chance that the information will 'sink in' better. I have also began to teach my flatmate how to play guitar. I am trying to treat this as the real thing, by setting a set time when we will be doing this. I also have been attempting to write lesson plans for him. Luckely, my flatmate is taking this seriously too and is going to give me feedback each week. I will start to write up this feedback next week.

As for college, our Beatles band, ''The Beetles'' practices have been not as productive as i would have hoped! We tend to play the cover we already know over and over with no focus on new material. We have nailed 'Taxman', 'Back in the USSR', 'Magical Mystery Tour' and 'Please Please Me''. We have an original composition which is based around the Beatles psycodelic era. It really fun to play because i can go mental on the guitar with crazy effects and use my ipod as a slide! In First Study, i showed Kevin my two pieces and he said they needed alot of work. They have had heaps of work!!! But i took on board what he said and hope to please the man next week! In the compostion class, we went back down the practice rooms and focused on our original material. It went really well, i think we will be ready for the practice performance in 2 weeks time!

I had a band practice with Greensmith today which went really well. We are working on the song 'Liquid' which we will be recording on the 4th December. I actually cant wait! It sounding really tight and im more comfertable with singing the chorus now. I am still looking for a new drummer though, i hope to find one from the college! If you see anyone, let me know!


Next Week will see the return of the M.C. Keating, as i attempt to rap about my week.

x

Episode IX: Those who can, Teach,

Week 9 - 11.11.09 - 12.11.09

I have been thinking a lot about my graded unit profession this week. To begin with, i saw this as a requirement for the course, and that nothing would come out of it. Now i am seeing this is a realistic career for myself. Granted my dream is to play in a successful band and live on the stage, but there is no harm in delving into other areas! What i am finding most advantageous is that my girlfriend is studying to be a primary school teacher. This has allowed me to see the amount of work necessary for an efficient lesson and how the curriculum for excellence works. Through helping her with her work, i am learning invaluable information.

I have began working on my Rock School lesson plans this week. I only have 6-8 weeks to do this, so my lessons have to be precise and relevant.

Graded Unit this week was very helpful as we were shown examples of 'A' pass plans. I took a healthy amount of notes and i now understand fully what is expected of me. In Music Theory, we looked at chord inversions, melodic and harmonic minors, 7th and Dominant 7th chords and modes. As we studied this in great detail last year in First Study, i felt quite comfortable with these subjects. I have also been keeping up with my 20 minutes of sight reading a night which has helped a great deal in this class. I am finding Session Skills more tedious each week. I feel the pieces that we are given are not challenging enough on guitar, so i am not gaining anything new from it. So instead, our band played Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' with myself rapping. I gained more satisfaction from this that in the last few weeks of this class! I think i am going to explore my new found desire to be a Rapstar...

In other news, my band outside of college, aptly named 'New Delusion' has been quite active. Myself and my bassist have been working on a lot of new material in which we hope to show to Greensmith in the next few weeks. We have also set a date to hit the studio and record 'Liquid'. I am still searching for a permanent drummer, but the addition of Greensmith has given the band the boost it needs.

Right now, i am working on my presentation for the Composition Class. I am having way too much fun creating this powerpoint...

Episode VIII: The Sound of Progress

Week 8 - 4.11.09 - 5.11.09

This week has been an exciting week for me. I have been asked to create another Rock School for Kinloss Primary School. This involves me creating lesson plans and teaching children from ages 7 through to 10 how to play musical instruments. The last time i did this, the response from the kids and the staff was amazing. This will give me much needed experience in the field of teaching.

Wednesday at college saw our Beatles band getting our songs tighter with the welcome arrival of our new lecturer. This week also saw myself singing vocals on some of the tracks. I am slowly discovering my voice which is inspiring to me, as i wish to continue singing in my musical career. In First study, we worked on some classical 6th progressions and scales, which i actually found quite interesting. I know, the first blog where i haven't ranted about first study!!! In our composition class, we looked over the next two Beatles albums and then got to create a 'psychedelic' Beatles song. We turned off the lights and i used my ipod as a slide! It was really good fun! We also got the chance to see another group from another class. There song was brilliant! They had the lights off and the dude had a lighter and read from a book. Awesome.

Today i also had a jam with John Greensmith. We went over my song, 'Liquid' and its sounding really good! I love singing that song and i hope to be recording it soon!

On Thursday, we got our results back for Music Theory Outcome I. I passed with 62%! Although happy that i passed, i feel that i could have done a lot better! I will be testing myself in the up coming weeks to keep on top of it all. In Graded Unit, we had a talk from Lorenz Cairns. It really was an awesome talk. With use of good humour, he told us of his rise to fame, and all the steps along that way. This made me see Lorenz in a totally different light. It also made me think about my own career. What he stressed is that you need good communication skills and personality to really succeed. I thoroughly enjoyed his talk. Session skills is making me realize that being a session musician is not the life for me. I find it quite repetitive and not enough creativity to keep me interested and inspired. DAW got cancelled for some unknown reason, so yet another early finish!

To the Edinburgh Fireworks!!!

Episode VII: Illness and Nostalgia

Wednesday saw a further progression with our Bealtes band, as we jammed through ''Please Please Me'' and ''Magical mystery tour''. I feel that our band is really connecting well, and we have a massive advantage of our singer, Dan, sounding like a fusion of McCartney and Lennon! First Study saw me playing for a grand total of 30 seconds, a personal best for me! Our composition class was cancelled due to some kind of lecture meeting thing, so we had the afternoon off. I chose to work on some long overdue college work in the library.

When i got back to Edinburgh, my stomach started to become really painful and after many drugs, i chose to take Thursday off, to recover. I found out from a fellow student what i had missed and plan to catch up over the weekend.

I had heard today that my old band, newly dubbed ''Feel Free Conspiracy'' had performed on the friday past. Whilst i am happy for them all, i was disappointed to hear that they had performed material that i had written with them. This whole situation has highlighted the fact that this industry is very tough and you need to be strong to succeed. Everything happens for a reason.