This week, i could not even leave my flat due to iced roads and bus cancellations. Unlucky for me, my place of work is 5 mins walk from my flat, so my week was focused on gathering funds.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Know a Drummer?
To all that read this Blog,
If you know or know of a seroius drummer that would like to play in a classic rock band with heaps of material and gigs lined up, please let me know!
My number is 07854318335
The bands myspace is
www.myspace.com/newdelusion
Thankyou
If you know or know of a seroius drummer that would like to play in a classic rock band with heaps of material and gigs lined up, please let me know!
My number is 07854318335
The bands myspace is
www.myspace.com/newdelusion
Thankyou
Episode XV - Ice Age!
Week 15 - 6.1.10 - 7.1.10
Happy New Year Everyone!
Well, not a great deal has happened this week, due to an Ice Age! I just about managed to get back from up north when i was told that college was cancelled this week! Arg! Could have stayed at home longer! Ah well, meant that i worked all week and got a healthy pay check! Woop! As i cant really leave the surrounding area much, i have been working on both my presentation and the list of musical terms that were given to us. Its taking a while for the terms to sink into my head, but if i keep repeateing them, i think i might have it sussed! The presentation is comming along nicely, although im not looking forward to talking for 15 minutes! I dont even stay on the phone to my family for that long! But i hopefully will have enough information to keep yabbering on for that amount of time!
Hope to have more relevant activities next week!
Until then , its goodbye from me....
Happy New Year Everyone!
Well, not a great deal has happened this week, due to an Ice Age! I just about managed to get back from up north when i was told that college was cancelled this week! Arg! Could have stayed at home longer! Ah well, meant that i worked all week and got a healthy pay check! Woop! As i cant really leave the surrounding area much, i have been working on both my presentation and the list of musical terms that were given to us. Its taking a while for the terms to sink into my head, but if i keep repeateing them, i think i might have it sussed! The presentation is comming along nicely, although im not looking forward to talking for 15 minutes! I dont even stay on the phone to my family for that long! But i hopefully will have enough information to keep yabbering on for that amount of time!
Hope to have more relevant activities next week!
Until then , its goodbye from me....
Monday, 4 January 2010
Episode XIV - Goodlyburing Down The House!
Week 14 - 16.12.09 - 17.12.09
The week of the Beatles gigs! I feel that i was prepared for the setlist, yet i felt nervous as this is the first time i have been on stage for a while! We had to be there at 10 for the soundcheck, which was another Perth College farse. The levels wernt set and it was a whole 5 hours until the first band went on! So after soundcheck, it was time to kill some time! We had a couple of run throughs of the set, then went for a drive through at Burger King!
When watching all of the performances, i felt that each band had something that they could improve on. There was one guitarist that sound like she wasnt plugged in, there was little to no movement on stage and the originals were not sounding like the Beatles that much. I am in no way saying that my band were the best, because we were not, i just felt overall, there wasnt alot of effort gone into these performances. Then again, nobody was really enjoying the Beatles as a project.
Our set went quite well, although Dan didnt explain why we were all dressed up in random costumes. We were each representing a song in the set list: I was the magical mystery tour, Dan was the Taxman, Patch was Please Please me, JP was Blackbird (with a Jack SPARROW hat:P) and McNeil was Back in the USSR! Analysing myself, i felt that i over played my part, and therefore lost the integrety of the band as a whole. I have to learn to harbour my excitement and channel it wisely. Saying that, i really enjoyed playing our psycodelic song, using my ipod as a slide:) If i was to grade our band, i would have said a low B.
Well, thats it for another year, i hope that all of you that read this have an amazing christmas and a drunken new year! See you in 2010!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The week of the Beatles gigs! I feel that i was prepared for the setlist, yet i felt nervous as this is the first time i have been on stage for a while! We had to be there at 10 for the soundcheck, which was another Perth College farse. The levels wernt set and it was a whole 5 hours until the first band went on! So after soundcheck, it was time to kill some time! We had a couple of run throughs of the set, then went for a drive through at Burger King!
When watching all of the performances, i felt that each band had something that they could improve on. There was one guitarist that sound like she wasnt plugged in, there was little to no movement on stage and the originals were not sounding like the Beatles that much. I am in no way saying that my band were the best, because we were not, i just felt overall, there wasnt alot of effort gone into these performances. Then again, nobody was really enjoying the Beatles as a project.
Our set went quite well, although Dan didnt explain why we were all dressed up in random costumes. We were each representing a song in the set list: I was the magical mystery tour, Dan was the Taxman, Patch was Please Please me, JP was Blackbird (with a Jack SPARROW hat:P) and McNeil was Back in the USSR! Analysing myself, i felt that i over played my part, and therefore lost the integrety of the band as a whole. I have to learn to harbour my excitement and channel it wisely. Saying that, i really enjoyed playing our psycodelic song, using my ipod as a slide:) If i was to grade our band, i would have said a low B.
Well, thats it for another year, i hope that all of you that read this have an amazing christmas and a drunken new year! See you in 2010!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Episode XIII: As Others Rise...
Week 13: 9.12.09 - 10.12.09
This week was very short due to their being no lessons really at all!
In First Study, i recorded another piece for my portfolio. With every lesson i have had, i keep thinking what i would be doing if i were in Kevins position. I need to think of creative and inspiring ideas to keep my pupils interested. I need to keep the lesson relavent and set goals for each lesson. I feel completely out of my depth in his classes, when it shouldnt be that way, you know? I do not for one second doubt his ability as a guitarist, he is amazing, but i do doubt his teaching methods. We also had a music theory class, where we began to look at the material for the second semiester. I also got my results back for my Music Theory exam: 64%. I was quite disapointed with myself, as i thought i did alot better than that! I have a long way to go if i am to be able to teach this to my own pupils one day! As most of our group were involved in their own band projects outside of college, thursday was cancelled!
In other news, New Delusion is doing really well on myspace at the moment! I have 3040 views in 2 weeks! I cant wait to find a drummer who can help me forfill my dream.
I have also heard that if you type in words into these blogs, they come up in google search. So here i go:
Barack Obama, X-Factor, James Hetfield, Anchorman, Axl Rose, Jimmy Page, Windows 7...
haha
Alex
This week was very short due to their being no lessons really at all!
In First Study, i recorded another piece for my portfolio. With every lesson i have had, i keep thinking what i would be doing if i were in Kevins position. I need to think of creative and inspiring ideas to keep my pupils interested. I need to keep the lesson relavent and set goals for each lesson. I feel completely out of my depth in his classes, when it shouldnt be that way, you know? I do not for one second doubt his ability as a guitarist, he is amazing, but i do doubt his teaching methods. We also had a music theory class, where we began to look at the material for the second semiester. I also got my results back for my Music Theory exam: 64%. I was quite disapointed with myself, as i thought i did alot better than that! I have a long way to go if i am to be able to teach this to my own pupils one day! As most of our group were involved in their own band projects outside of college, thursday was cancelled!
In other news, New Delusion is doing really well on myspace at the moment! I have 3040 views in 2 weeks! I cant wait to find a drummer who can help me forfill my dream.
I have also heard that if you type in words into these blogs, they come up in google search. So here i go:
Barack Obama, X-Factor, James Hetfield, Anchorman, Axl Rose, Jimmy Page, Windows 7...
haha
Alex
Episode XII: A New Delusion
Week 12 - 2.12.09 - 3.12.09
With my rapping alter-ego, M.C. Keating out of the picture, i can now give a serious account of my musical week!
On Wednesday, i got an earlier bus into Perth so that i could be ready for our practice gig with the Beatles band. But as to nobodys suprise, the practise gigs were cancelled! On top of this, our drummer had suspected swine flu, so we couldnt even practice as a band! Our lead guitarist was a no show too, so the practise was scrapped. Instead, i made my way to the practise rooms where i worked on my two pieces for first study. As i had a recording to do today, i felt the need for some extra practise. The pieces went well, although we only had time to do one recording! I was then told that Kevin Murray was to be away next week, so my next lesson would be in 2010! Woop! This gives me loads of time to perfect my pieces and to impress simon...i mean...Kevin!
I then went to go and practice with my own band, New Delusion. With the recording on friday, a last minute run through was essential. With working with Greensmith, i feel that i have displayed 'teacher-istic' qualities to guide him through the songs that the previous line up had written. I had to show him the drum parts and ultimatly what i wanted to do with the song. I also had to correct him and praise him when he got it right. With drums not being my first instrument, this gave me a massive confidence boost! We then had musical composition class where we were meant to be practising our Beatles songs, but our band was missing from this morning. Since i had been up since 6 this morning, i decided to take ir easy and head to ASDA for some well earned munch!
Thursday was quite a useful day at college. Again i got an early bus in so i could revise in the library for my Music Theory exam. I got a lot of revision done and felt confident entering the exam! It went well, but i was too slow at working everything out, and therefore ran out of time at the end. Even though i didnt complete the paper, i felt that i had done well. We then had session skills which was honestly a waste of time. The pieces that we are given week after week are either reggae or soul and consist of a three chord guitar part, which gets repeated throughout the song. Our band always gets bored and lashed out on some well known rock and rap numbers. We then had DAW where my piece is coming along nicely. I just need to add an outro to my track, then bounce it down. I am really enjoying DAW at the moment, and i am now realising the full potential of computer based music making and recording!
On friday came the recording! We were recording in Glasgow in LOFI studios, the same place where EAT DR APE had recorded their ep. The recording went well, yet i felt really rushed. We had 4 hours for one song, which might sound alot, but the time went really quickly! By the end, i only had 15 minutes to do all of the vocals for the track! Nightmare! I felt alot of pressure playing both the Rhythm and the Lead guitar parts on top of the vocals. I tried to negotiate with the sound engineers for more time, as they took an hour to set up, but i had no luck. The final copy came out ok, yet i feel it could have been better for the £70 i paid for. It was a good experience and i'm so glad to have my own music recorded.
Have a listen and let me know what you think!
The song is called 'Liquid'
www.myspace.com/newdelusion
Alex
With my rapping alter-ego, M.C. Keating out of the picture, i can now give a serious account of my musical week!
On Wednesday, i got an earlier bus into Perth so that i could be ready for our practice gig with the Beatles band. But as to nobodys suprise, the practise gigs were cancelled! On top of this, our drummer had suspected swine flu, so we couldnt even practice as a band! Our lead guitarist was a no show too, so the practise was scrapped. Instead, i made my way to the practise rooms where i worked on my two pieces for first study. As i had a recording to do today, i felt the need for some extra practise. The pieces went well, although we only had time to do one recording! I was then told that Kevin Murray was to be away next week, so my next lesson would be in 2010! Woop! This gives me loads of time to perfect my pieces and to impress simon...i mean...Kevin!
I then went to go and practice with my own band, New Delusion. With the recording on friday, a last minute run through was essential. With working with Greensmith, i feel that i have displayed 'teacher-istic' qualities to guide him through the songs that the previous line up had written. I had to show him the drum parts and ultimatly what i wanted to do with the song. I also had to correct him and praise him when he got it right. With drums not being my first instrument, this gave me a massive confidence boost! We then had musical composition class where we were meant to be practising our Beatles songs, but our band was missing from this morning. Since i had been up since 6 this morning, i decided to take ir easy and head to ASDA for some well earned munch!
Thursday was quite a useful day at college. Again i got an early bus in so i could revise in the library for my Music Theory exam. I got a lot of revision done and felt confident entering the exam! It went well, but i was too slow at working everything out, and therefore ran out of time at the end. Even though i didnt complete the paper, i felt that i had done well. We then had session skills which was honestly a waste of time. The pieces that we are given week after week are either reggae or soul and consist of a three chord guitar part, which gets repeated throughout the song. Our band always gets bored and lashed out on some well known rock and rap numbers. We then had DAW where my piece is coming along nicely. I just need to add an outro to my track, then bounce it down. I am really enjoying DAW at the moment, and i am now realising the full potential of computer based music making and recording!
On friday came the recording! We were recording in Glasgow in LOFI studios, the same place where EAT DR APE had recorded their ep. The recording went well, yet i felt really rushed. We had 4 hours for one song, which might sound alot, but the time went really quickly! By the end, i only had 15 minutes to do all of the vocals for the track! Nightmare! I felt alot of pressure playing both the Rhythm and the Lead guitar parts on top of the vocals. I tried to negotiate with the sound engineers for more time, as they took an hour to set up, but i had no luck. The final copy came out ok, yet i feel it could have been better for the £70 i paid for. It was a good experience and i'm so glad to have my own music recorded.
Have a listen and let me know what you think!
The song is called 'Liquid'
www.myspace.com/newdelusion
Alex
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
