The time soon reached one o'clock and I started to realise that anything could happen any minute now. I kept on looking towards the double doors that lead towards the music area in a sort of paranoid sense. I didn't know who was going to interview me, but I knew that there was a high chance that it would be someone that I already know. I must have looked towards those doors serval times. I had already spotted several students that I had worked with before and were one working on courses below me. They made me feel a little bad for neglecting my education without saying anything, just with the thought that they were about to undertake the highest level, the BA course.
At around five minuets past the hour, I remember looking towards the double doors and seeing Dr. Nick Redfern appear out of them, followed closely by Andy Scoffin. Nick went straight towards his group of five or so soon to be BA students, but then noticed me sat on the rather large pink sofa just a little further down. I'm surprised he recognised me, he created me very well and made me feel very welcome again. It was almost like returning back to my second home. He walked quickly towards me past all of the small brightly coloured chairs open armed to hug me and ask how I was. We had a short general conversation as the other students started to look over, surprised also like, what is going on? It was all very nice though but, he was stood there for so long that I barely noticed Andy come up behind him ready to take me away for my audition. I think it's fair to say that Nick unexpectedly talking to me made me feel much more relaxed and so did Andy, really. It was like being greeted by old friends.
I asked Andy if Fern could tag along for the audition, which he agreed. So, off we went. Andy lead the the way through the double doors and down the long corridor towards the circle, then through to the music area. I know the college very well having studied there for three years already an I noticed many changes, for starters in the circle area they now have a few vending machines. When we all walked through to the music area, it seemed like they had literally decorated anything the could see... or that was 'decorate-able'. The were CD's permanently stuck the walls, data side showing all the way down a column. There were still pictures from when I was back at the college three years go of past gigs, photos of Paper Cape and from the Tribute band performances. It was like a short trip down memory lane. Even the the stairs had been 'slammed up', laced with silver metal. There were also many final records stuck to the walls and when we got to the top of the stairs, this was the best bit. The PC Suite had be transformed into a Mac Suite. Every monitor had a Mac Mini connected. The only problem I found with them is that they seemed to run slowly at times but, I thought that that might be because they all run from the same server. You don't need a login or anything to use them either, you just literally jump on.
Anyway, Andy gave me the task of writing a short essay about other a gig that I have seen or taken part in. The last time that I performed is now nearly two years ago so, I figured maybe I should write about the Piano Guys concert I went to back in June. I know a lot about them and I knew that I would be comfortable writing a copious amount in such a small period of time. I think I ended up spending nearly an hour on it in the end but, I wanted it to be perfect. I think I knew I had probably already gone slightly off topic a few times but, I kept reading over it, correcting myself and adding little bits hear and there.
After I had handed my finished copy to Andy, it was time for the dreaded theory test. I had been worried about it for a while because I felt a bit rusty on the subject. When I was last in college, I studied all the way up to the required Grade 5 and then continued onto grade 6 with help from Nick but, again it had been nearly three years since I had to put the knowledge that I had learnt into practice. I knew it was in my head somewhere, I just ad to somehow push it to the front of my brain. I did have a quick ready of my copy of 'The AB Guide to Music Theory Part 1' on the bus beforehand and even shortly in reception. Andy asked me fist if I felt comfortable to have a go at the test at this moment, I answered a little unsure but still had a good attempt at it.
After everything, I felt like there were only a few little things that completely threw me off. At the beginning, there were questions on identifying time signatures and describing them with the terms give such as Simple and Compound and then, Duple, Triple and Quadruple so I had a guess a little with that one because I just could remember how one of them was classed, technically. The other little bit that threw me was just at the very end, when asked for meanings of certain Italian words, so translations of music terminology but, I had never seen them before... and I feel like if I had, my old lecturer Dmitry would have just shrugged it off for the test because lets be honest, unless you're studying classical music they are a tad useless.
It took me around an hour to complete the theory test. I felt so sorry for my friend Fern because she had been sent back towards reception after watching my audition and had just been sat for around two hours. I couldn't exactly check my phone until after because I wanted to stay focused. When I delivered my finished test to Andy he explained that he doesn't usually mark them and that he will leave it for Kirsty Proctor (Another one of my old lecturers). He went on to tell me that she will be away for a couple of week so I would have to wait until she comes back off holiday to hear my results. At this point we were sat in the smaller of the two music offices. There was one other guy in the room who I was unsure of who he was, he looked familiar but we wasn't introduced.
I had a reassuring chat with Andy Scoffin to finish off the day. He went on to explain that the degree is a much more different mindset to undertake compared to the further education courses that I had done before and went on to explain why. Through this I found out that the course is based mostly on artist creativity, where basically that means that there are simply no covers of songs. Everything is original material and that excites me. I have a lyric book with many of my own song ideas already that I can't wait to put into practice properly. I think Andy already thinks I have found my own knack to songwriting since I was on the intro to music course because I co-wrote a duet with another fellow student at the time, Dagmara for the the theme of Valentines day.
After such a great, mad day I couldn't wait to get home. It had been a good day and could not have been much better. I felt like I did pretty well at the end of it all. After being subjected to write an essay instantly and test my theory skills I was well and truly knackered. It took a while to get back afterwards because I decided to go on the bus. It was nearly six o'clock by the time I got home despite leaving the college at around half past three. I didn't realise that the interview could have gone on for so long but, all the work that I given to do just seemed to keep adding on time. In the end, I guess that the whole thing lasted as long as it needed to be.
