I sat in the HE Common Room. It wasn't quite. There were already what sounded like dancers and actors warming up for their rehearsals. I tried to read my book, but because of their noise I just couldn't focus. I aimed to finish my chapter, but I just couldn't do it. They were reading through a script, very loudly indeed. I didn't last very long in there. After about twenty minuets (I really don't know how I lasted that long) I decided it was time to go to Lidl which was only a short walk away and I had plenty of time to kill.
Lidl is where I buy my cheap, large bars of milk chocolate. 30p for 100g. Bargain. I also found something else rather tasty this morning, I discovered that they sell blueberry muffins for 49p so naturally I brought one of those too. It was worth every penny.
When I got back into college I decided to sit in the music corridor, where I would have normally sat all of those years ago. I just couldn't face going back into that room, not at this time in the morning. I even had to take some Nurofen to make me feel better after my earlier experience. On of my fellow students, Barry spotted me and waved. He was heading for the HE Common Room, coffee in hand. There was no point in following him, I knew he would be back out of there soon. I was right. He didn't even last five minuets. He came rushing back out towards the music area and complained about what he had just experienced and all I could really do was agree with him because I did. We need another common room, thinking about it. Fast.
We actually had Rob this morning and I discovered the the likes of his teaching style. I was very impressed. Again, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe I thought because he was younger that he wouldn't be as great, but no I really feel like I learnt as much as as if Andy Oakley was teaching us just like the previous week. This comforted me. We learnt about setting Levels, Compression and Reverb. I was quite ok with the levels that was quite simple, it was just remembering to listen to the difference it makes to the track as a whole when you turn something up or down too much. It can work both ways. Compression is something I've heard of, but never really knew what it was. After today, I feel like I know how to apply basic compression at least with a good benefit to the track, but I definitely don't understand it fully yet. There are a lot of controls to take into consideration. Reverb felt quite easy although we did it in a different way to the other effects (EQ/Compressor) because we sent all the channels (apart from bass) to a bus channel so we could work with the same reverb sound across all of the tracks with more ease, it was just a matter of how much to add because too much reverb is always obvious to me.
Break time. Not much happened if I'm honest. I sat and ate a peanut butter sandwich, a bag of crisps, mini roll and a bit of the chocolate I brought earlier, but then went off to wait for the next lesson with the others upstairs. One of my lot was offering iced fingers to everyone. My understanding was that he had just brought them and no longer wanted them, but neither did anyone else. It became quite comical. I think eventually he palmed them off on our tutor Matt who didn't seem to have much choice in the matter.
Matt's lecture in our Music Industry lesson was themed around music business, a very in depth session. I quite like his pacing though, he doesn't go racing a head. He doesn't really wait either unless you tell him, but I was just scribbling stuff down that might be useful anyway. All of it is useful in a sense, I just aim for the key facts. Sometimes these things save research time even though I'm guessing most of that is inevitable.
Our last lesson, Creative Music Technology was a little different. We had to decide which piece of kit we wanted to work with for now to draw up a presentation about how to use it and a hand out with the basics of how to use it as a quick reference for anyone else on the course or just really anyone in the college that wants to use it. The task seems quite simple and easily achievable, but its not going to be possible without research.
I didn't really know what to choose so for the sake of my own comfort I went for the Roland GR-55 Guitar Synth. I might end up changing this choice if possible (I'm sure it will be possible). I remember when the college first got these in when the were first endorsed by Roland, but I never had a chance to play them back then, only to watch the demonstrators. I had a rough idea of what it did already, using the thing seemed to be quite a pain as a beginner. It seems to work at its best when it has been programmed more desirably. I've ben watching a few videos on YouTube to give more ideas. I only really had a play through some of the different sounds. I know that there are hundreds of sounds on there, but I only had about an hour. I was using a midi guitar too and had to get familiar with that too. It's very sensitive so if you even touch the wrong string you're almost guaranteed to hear it. I didn't like that fact. I didn't have a guitar pick on me, the one I had with me was in my bag and that was too far away in the other room. It probably would have worked at least a little better with a pick I imagine just so then I could be more accurate rather than just using my fingers. I did feel a little more outside my comfort zone in this last lesson, having to actually use the gear and in a sense almost just sit down and teach myself how it works.
I brought myself my first Build a Bear today, it's an Eevee. She's rather large and is currently sat on my desk. She's my new mascot. No regrets.
No comments:
Post a Comment