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.

Episode VI: Return of College

Week 22.10.09 - 23.10.09

First Study Rant: First study this week was fustrating at best. I had worked hard all week to create my solo verisons of ''Im a Loser'' and ''Back in the USSR''. I performed them, granted not as good as i would have hoped, but they were completely ignored. I asked for areas of improvement and he just played to himself, teaching me nothing. First Study is a class in which i would happily go without!

The Rest of the Week: We began a new piece in Session Skills which was fun to play at first! Being only 3 chords all the way through, it got a bit weary! In digital audio, all of our stuff got wiped form the desktop, so i had to start again! Was well gutted as i loved that tune that i'd created! This week saw us taking the Music Theory exam. I thought that it went well, it was easier than i first anticipated. I found that ''clapping'' rhythms realy hard so that is definalty an area in which i need to improve. In graded unit, we got together in our ''job groups'' and discussed the SWOT analysis and possible questions in the interview.

Outside of College: My musical career outside of college is going slower than i would like! Im really excited to be able to jam with greensmith and to hopefully get a recording of one of the songs that i wrote! I hope that with a recording, it will be alot easier to find a drummer. I am making some posters to put round college to advertise. Im hoping to find someone from the college who is as musically minded as i am, as the last drummer i had was not so musically driven! I just want to be gigging in a band again. It is what i love!

Episode V: Holidays are coming, holidays are coming...

Week 5 – 14.10.09 – 15.10.09

The Holidays are here, oh I’m so glad
Beer to be drunk and good times to be had
Musically, i had a blast
With practice regimes so i can play really fast
I worked on my scales, chords and songs
But mostly i was at work, where i used some tongs
I am a chef there; i cook for men in suits
Meats and soups, with the occasional fruits
Also i went to an Alice in Wonderland party in Dundee
In a pink cat suit which made it hard to pee
That was my week, in a song so short and sweet
I have to say, i prefer this blogging to tweet.........er!

Episode IV: A New Hope

Week 4 – 7.10.09 – 8.10.09

This week has been quite a different week for me. The week began with the departure of my drummer, due to commitment issues with his University course. Obviously quite gutted, i then looked to finding a new drummer. A good friend of mine, John Green smith, has kindly agreed to session one of the tracks for me, so i can go ahead with the scheduled recording. This will allow me to have one professional track to show a potential new drummer, who can hear what the band is all about! Things seem to be looking up for my career outside of the college.
Things are also going well with my band in Creative Musicianship. We have 3 covers completed now and a few originals floating around. First study was as useless as ever being honest. I’m really not enjoying this aspect of the college. I prepared two Beatles solo guitar compositions as requested and he didn’t even listen to them. In Creative Musiccianship classroom edition, we looked at more Beatles albums and started to create our own version of the track, ‘’insert track name’’

Thursday kicked off with Graded Unit where we had a guest speaker from the Scottish Arts Council. Clare the music officer talked about what funds are available to us and how the whole system works. After spending the first 10 minutes trying to figure out what accent she was speaking in, i found this talk quite interesting. I learned that i could get funding from up to £2000 which would be very helpful towards my musical carreer. In Music Theory we were reinforcing our knowledge of time signatures and rhythm recognition. I feel quite confident about the exam in two weeks time, although my rhythm recognition needs much work. Session skills became interesting as we went into the rehearsal studios. Little did i know that we would be playing ‘’what becomes of the broken hearted’’ on loop, for about 2 hours! Although the sight reading was very useful, i was confident in the fact that i had changed my graded unit from Session Musician to Instrumental instructor!

Here come the holidays!!!!

Episode III: Return to Sensibility

Week 3 – 30.09.09 – 1.10.09

After reading other students logbooks and being told of the importance of a thoughtful, informative entry, I have decided to give an in depth analysis of the past week at Perth College. I will also be talking about last Thursday (24th September) to make this Logbook in weekly order.
Last Thursday began with my student advisor meeting with Andrew. I managed to talk to him about my feelings towards Kevin Murray and his teaching approaches. I find that Kevin plays to you rather than teaches and there is not enough emphasis on my strengths and weaknesses. To be honest, i’d be happy if he would just know my name! Andrew comforted me with the knowledge that after the Christmas break, i will be able to change my first study tutor to Stephen Murphey. Music Theory went well; i feel that i am coping well with time signature recognition. Although, i have discovered that my mind tends to work to 4/4 crotchets, which leads me to a disadvantage for the clapping exercises involving off beats and any rhythm without four crotchets in a bar! I have been downloading tracks with odd and irregular time signatures to combat this. With practice, i am confident that i will be clapping alot louder in class! In Graded unit, surrounded by what can only be described as hospital beds, we were joined by Pete Honeyman. As an experienced session player and instrumental instructor, i looked forward to what he had to say. I learned that instrumental instructors only work half days and that you do not have to be a master of your chosen instrument. There are always going to be people better than you, so learn from them rather than trying to be the best. He also talked about the flexablilty of this carreer and that it is guaranteed work. My initial choice of carear was to be a session musican, but after Pete’s talk, i have now switched to instrumental instructor. I began to think back to when i set up my own Rock Schools back in secondary school and the satisfaction i received from my ‘pupils’ performing with interest and excitement.
On Monday, i had another practice with my new band, outside of the college. The jams have been going really well and i really hope to be gigging soon! Its a whole new world for me as i am the lyricist, sole guitarist and singing of the band. I am loving every minute of playing in this band as i am discovering talents i thought i didn’t have.

But, the past few weeks at college have been quite hard for me in regards to fellow students. After being kicked out of my college band, ‘Kaboom’ things just havnt been the same. The guys that i hung out with throughtout the whole of first year now bearly talk to me. It’s such a shame because i used to love coming into college and hanging out with everyone. Now there is a feeling of unrest. It has made me doubt my abilities on the guitar as that’s the only reason i can think of that would have resulted in this. My confidence has been seriously dented and it is effecting my playing. I really hope that this situation is brief and that things will go back to the way they used to be.

Wednesday kicked off with band practice with a band i am really happy to be in. I feel that all members contribute equally and we work well as a group. We covered ‘Taxman’ and ‘Back in the USSR’ and well as our own take on ‘’Like Dreamers Do’’ which was good fun! I then walked into first study thinking that i was going to learn nothing. But Kevin surprised me by laying out to me what was required of me this year. He helped me pick out my pieces that i needed to compose and arrange with advice on how to go about it. I am creating my own versions of ‘’Back in the USSR’’ and ‘’Something’’. This got me really excited about first study and the future looks a little brighter for my lessons with Kevin Murray! Then Creative musicianship where all the bands performed their take on ‘’Like Dreamers Do’’. I found this quite interesting hearing everyones ideas and seeing students that i haven’t seen playing before!
Thursday began with me thinking i was late for Music Theory as my phone had died and had no realisation of time. I walked into the class that wasn’t mine and felt like a right prune! In the actual class, we worked on our clapping rhythms and time signatures. I feel that the practice is really paying off with my clapping rhythms. Im not at full volume yet, but i hope to be by next week! Graded Unit was invaluable this week as we looked over past Graded Unit folders. I saw what was required for a pass and took note of what some of the past students had done with their folders. I am looking forward to putting together my own folder. Session skills looked at contracts and that they are legally binding. We were also put into our ‘session’ groups for this semester. In DAW, i had so much fun creating a dance tune on Cubase, using the knowledge i have on keyboard to create a memorable melody!
All in all, a good third week at college! I think that is everything so catch you next week for Episode IV!

Alex