Assignments, Assignments, Assignments...

I'm sure that we are all feeling the same at the moment, by we I mean the general demographic of students that read some of my posts lately. I'm currently sat in the HE Common room working on my Sequencing plan that's due in tomorrow whilst simultaneously writing this blog entry and panicking about all of my other work that is also due in the next week and even further after Christmas! I mean, really, I probably shouldn't be writing this and I should probably just be focusing on my work, but as a student, generally it is just some kind of inability that one should to do as one should. It just doesn't happen.

I personally tend to focus for about and hour or two within the right environment, but it really does have to be the right environment. I struggle to work at home because doing assignments at home mean I have to do them in my bedroom and there are just way too many distractions in there. If it's not my Mac, it's either going to be my PS3, GameCube, N64, SNES. That's not the end of it. Then there's the handhelds, though I think you can start to understand why I fail to concentrate at home from that shortlist above, alone.

I'm feeling quite content that I've nearly finished this small piece of work (In context to some of my essays that are due in after Christmas with 2000 plus word counts). I've mostly been writing about the structure of a Dream Theater song namely, 'Take The Time". The structure of the song is all over the place in an organised manner, but probably only to someone who understands music theory to a knowledgeable level or is at least aware of the concept of ridiculous time signatures. If you're not familiar with their style of music, it is very complex, but I'd much rather focus on something like this than some shitty house track. Electronic music really doesn't phase me if you haven't guessed already. I can't wait to show Mark tomorrow and use the ol' phrase of "Matt said it was ok, so yeah." heh.

The Importance of Self Motivation

This is something that I often forget about myself, mostly because I tell myself most of the time that I am lazy. Which arguably I am to an extent, although recently have become more of a morning person, I think it is the winter season that does this to me and not necessarily just Uni. The darker mornings are more welcoming for eyes.

Back to the point. I've been looking back and re-reading through some of my old blog posts, some from over four years ago now and its actually pretty easy to find a excerpt where I call myself lazy, but then I also stumbled across one particular post from March 2013 where I was clearly the complete opposite. I had completely forgot about this up until now too! There was a time when myself and another musician, Lucy Mearns were arranging practice sessions and then we eventually arranged our own recording session where I brought my Soundcraft Compact4 mixer into college, and an old laptop to use with it to record an original song that we had been rehearsing. 

It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's fair to say that we were both self motivated to do this and this was all extra curricular. I personally think it is important that I continue to do things link this. This was my way of forcing my self into music technology. I was still learning how to use my mixer at that point because I had only owned it for about a month and had briefly looked into methods of recording audio. It all feels so long ago now. The knowledge I have now regarding music technology is much more refined although, I am still learning some elements like synthesis.

My most recent acts encouraged by my self motivation would be the cleaning of the college piano that I mentioned in my last post, coming into college for practice sessions with the FE Students and most importantly coming into college to do work on my essays and sequencing work and then also working on those at home. I know there are other areas currently where I could do with a bit more self motivation to dive more into the subject, but it proves to be difficult when its not something I'm 100% interested in. At the moment for example, I have a short assignment that is due in on Wednesday to do with writing about the structure of a specific song relevant to the genre that I have decided to replicate with sequencing and then create a plan... I still haven't properly started it. I have work at 2pm today so I don't really have much time to work on it now, all I have done so far is chosen a song. I think this will end up being something I do on Monday. There really isn't a lot to it and that probably doesn't help my interest levels.

Once I have food, I might have a quick go at it today before work. One thing I have noticed with my self motivation is that most is for extra curricular activities, but that doesn't mean its not relevant to my field of study. I'm keen to build up my musicianship and be versatile with what I can do and what I want to do. Basically, I like to keep my options open. 

A Tale of an Old Piano

I originally posted this exclusivly to The Piano Guy's Fan Group on Facebook but I thought it would be a great idea to share it on here to. This version is slightly edited to suit the stlye of my blog.

This is a photo of the piano we have at my college. It's old. I'm not sure exactly how old, but it was here when I first started in 2010 (not long then before I personally discovered the piano guys) and I'm guessing it is much older than that.


I didn't play it very much in my first year, in fact I'm not even sure I knew of it's existence back then. My main instrument is guitar and I didn't put much time aside for piano back then as I was trying to master my guitar playing instead, well at least improve it.



My second year was a little different. I started learning bass guitar too and slowly started to rekindle my piano playing. In my first year, we didn't have any pianists on the course, but that year we did and it allowed me to see how the two of them played differently and what stylistic I liked either performer.

Both were classically taught and I remember watch them both play amazing piecing of music on either this very piano during a break or another keyboard during a practice session. This motivated me to want to practice more.

Another thing happening around the same time was a lesson called Keyboard skills, which effectively basic piano lessons but lead and taught by our college professor. The only one with a doctorate/Phd in music.

He slowly became my biggest motivator. Not only did I recognise his intelligence, but in a way I befriended him and we started to arrange private tuition sessions within college when we were both free. At times teaching each other. We started with modal scales and eventually contrasted into general theory and then figured bass.
t was also around this time, that I generated A LOT of interest in The Piano Guys from first discovering them on YouTube (Late 2011/early 2012). I was so blown away with the quality of their work, their ideology and passion that I felt like I needed to be able to do the same and be on the same level as their talent. From that point I was hooked on them and I've not missed a video since, music or behind the scenes.

This became common and most of the time, you guessed it, we practiced at this piano. Because of his influence I started practicing regularly at this piano. At almost every opportunity (Unless someone else was using it). I still practice at this piano, but now just solo when I have the time. The professor is still in my college, I just don't think he would appreciate me chasing him about anymore now I'm studying for my HND.

When I first started back here again in October, one of the first things I remembered was this piano and it's location. I had to check it was still there. It was, but it was in a mess. Some novices had stuck note names everywhere on paper with sellotape. I would understand if this was a primary school for young children to learn, but this must have been carried out by 16+ YO's. So today, I finally decided to take action.

This morning I was that magic fairy that made the old Knight piano's keyboard clean again. I piggled off all of the stickers and brushed off some of the sticky residue with my Christmas jumper. There are still thicker bits remaining, but I didn't want to ruin my clothes too much. It already looks a lot better. Tomorrow, I may just bring in some trusty Mr. Muscle's furniture polish and a cloth and finish the job.

I love this piano. So many memories from last time around mostly from my second and third years and no doubt there will be some new ones for this year. Some of my class have already had a short jam with me. I feel like it's only my duty as a repayment for all good times sake.

I've sat at this particular piano many times through my college years whilst either being schooled or just practicing and now I'm back here again studying my HND cleaning the same piano.


I guess the moral of this tale are:

Always practice
Remember your roots
Find people that inspire and motivate you


If anyone can think of any more from morals from this I would love to hear them and update this post to include them.

Beaten & Bruised

I have been learning to play drums now for about a month an a half and with my last few practice sessions I have noticed a few bruises starting to appear. I have a set at the very top of my leg where I have been accidentally hitting myself with my sticks when I have the snare drum set up too low. I have a large bruise on the outside of my right leg from where it has been rubbing against the the floor top and then to top it off, another bruise on the top of my right foot from when the beater of the bass drums hits me back. That was just from using one specific kit, the one that sounds the best in The Venue, but also kills you slowly.

The snare of the kit in The Venue is very well tuned and easily makes it one of the best sounding kits in the college, bar maybe the one in Recording Studio 3 that my lecturer Rob tuned the other week. That one sounded pretty nice too. All of the snares in the other practice rooms desperately need tuning. I would do it, but I don't have a drum key and I'm not 100% how to do it either even though Rob shown us. Most of them have tape over them to either dampen them or try to make them sound like they're tuned, which also stops the rattling sound, but just doesn't match the sound of a properly tuned snare. I can really hear the difference now. It's something that I struggled with when Rob first shown us.

I'd say that my drumming is coming along nicely. I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable with the kit as a whole now and understand more quickly what sort of sound (or noise if you like) that I want to make. This is going to help me with my sequencing too because I will need to be able to map out drum tracks and knowing me, it's not going to be a simple "four to the floor beat" with the progressive rock track that I will be working on. I'm still undecided whether or not to revisit an old piece or start a fresh. I guess I have today to decided. I will have to pick out a sound to to then pick apart and talk about it's structure.

Another Day, Another Lesson...

I've rather liked this weeks Wednesday if I'm honest. I don't have many lessons on Wednesdays so they are fairly short and sweet. My Uni day starts at a quarter to one in the afternoon and usually passes by rather quickly starting with Music in Context. Todays Music in Context lesson did seem to drag a little bit as today was the Deadline for the Bibliography for the next two essays due in. I, being a good student had already handed it in to my tutor the day before so I wasn't one of the ones rushing to finish the work. It was a fairly simple task. I understand that some people had been on holiday or away, I just don't get how people can leave it until last minute. Admittedly, I forgot that I had to hand it in as a pdf file, but that was easy to sort out.

With everyone else finishing their work, I was left to make a start on my essay. I managed just over one hundred words today. It doesn't sound like a lot but it has been checked over and I seem to be on the right track with it by not referencing too much and paraphrasing.

Again, if I'm honest our next and last lesson was a little boring today. I don't know if I'm just being mean because we had a teacher in training, but I feel like he may have just confused me. He focused the lesson on electronic music and made it seem like thats all we could produce in sequencing. I find it difficult expressing any kind of excitement for electronic music other than the really cheesy stuff, my best example being: Soul Control - 'Chocolate Choco Choco'. Even that is arguable whether it is even strictly electronic music. He went on to show us some basic electronic drum patterns and I sort of just looked up in shame. When you know your music theory up to grade five standard and you are being shown how to create a rather basic "four to the floor" drum beat using only semi-quavers in a 4/4 time signature and how you should learn to recognise the drum theory, you start to question a few loopholes. What about the triplets? Which, I may add, he did not cover. I'm not even gonna start on the powerpoint.

I feel like I'm being a bit brutal so I'm going touch on the brakes and stop it now. Apologies in advance if he somehow ends up reading this, but maybe take it as advice.

Today was also the day that I had my first proper tutorial with Matt, my tutor. He's ace, really couldn't have asked for anyone better. Originally, I was going to go first into the music office but I told the other two guys that they may as well go first because I know I'm going to go on. I had a lot to talk about and I was right. It's good to be considerate sometimes. I do feel like Matt might have seen me as a problem child at first, but I hope our chat cleared a few thing up for him too. I'm really not just doing this course because I had no other option and my mindset is now completely fixed. We talked first about the things he needed to talk to me about, general things like asking me how I'm getting on with each individual lesson to work out my weak points more than anything and then eventually I got to talk to him about all the other bits that had been ticking over for the last week or so. I had them all written down, almost too organised but I spoke about almost everything that I felt I needed to. He also cleared up a few misunderstandings regarding the Sequencing lesson earlier and told me that I could do literally what ever genre I wanted as long as it meant I could replicate it in Logic and meet all of the criteria. I'm now thinking of doing a progressive rock track for that, even though the guitars might end up sounding a bit pants but I would much rather create something well within a genre that I am interested in. There is literally no point otherwise because I'm just not going to have the same level of motivation. My talk with Matt did end up being about half an hour long and I knew it would be. I think it could have gone on much longer if we had time because I still missed some little things I wanted to mention because I didn't write them down! Silly me. I guess I will know for the next time...

The Last Few Weeks...

I've been quite busy these last few weeks regarding Uni. The first practices with the FE Students took place last week and I'm quite happy with how they went, both for different reasons. The band that I am playing drums for is a level 1 band and the standard is very high. I was glad that I put so many hours into practicing on a kit beforehand as it really has paid off.

I was quite happy that we managed to somewhat get all the way through our first chosen song: Evanescence - Bring Me To Life, in our first practice session. I still need to work on nailing my part even after our second session today, but it's starting to sound better now we have the layout down. We have decided on our other songs too! Heart - Barracuda and Muse - Psycho. Next practice we will be choosing another song that will almost definitly be a Green Day track from the 90's.

Their assignment is to pick, practice and perform four or five songs (maybe more, I can't remember. It's not my assignment!) from different decades. We have quite a while to practice everything as the big gig isn't until sometime next year in February.

These guys aren't the only set of students I'll be working with this year, I will also be working with the level 3 year 1 students. On the first assignment that I'll be joining them on I will be playing bass. This gives the guitarist in the band a chance to shine a little brighter, it's not my course so I don't mind playing bass for them. To me, it's all about the experience this year. I've been out of practice for a while and it's about getting back into it whilst contending with my own course learning new skills. It's interesting to see that the students I'm working with seem to be on a level playing field in terms of preparation as both groups have at least three songs to focus on for now, the only difference is that the level 3 group that I'm working with already knows exactly which six songs they will be doing.

I bumped into Dr. Nick Redfern the other day, a lecturer who used to help me out loads with my music theory work last time around. It was nice to have a bit of a catch up and I reminded him that I had completed a quick arrangement of one of his old keyboard assignment pieces. He has since commented back my work and seems to really like it. I replied joking that maybe I should work on the full orchestral score next, maybe that will become reality. He eventually let me into the band practice room I had booked for my solo practice on the drums. I very nearly convinced him to give me all of the codes for the rooms too, but for now I've just got the one that my tutor gave me today.

We have been given a couple of new assignments today for different lessons. One for recording and another from our Music Industry class. The second being the more interesting of them both. The recording assignment is fairly simple and basically to create a recording journal complete with photos and reasoning whilst the Music Industry assignment is focusing on the internet and how it has effected the music business. We've had a fair amount of lectures around the subject and I've been finding the figures of popular digital sales both encouraging and interesting.

Tomorrow is the day I have to do my presentation on the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesiser. I've watched a few of the other students work and that has relaxed me, but that doesn't mean that I won't get nervous. Nerves always seem to be a good thing though, a good reminder of being human. In a sense I am worried that I may have done too much work. I've certainly had a lot of areas to cover and research about in a fairly short amount of time. I do feel extremely prepared with my prompt cards at the ready, but at the same time now I just can't wait to get it over and done with and just generally out of the way!

Drum & Uni Life Photo Album

I thought that I should make a quick post about two of my new public photo albums on Facebook. One to keep a record of my progress on learning to play the drums and another generally anything else to do with Uni.

Please click the two links below to view each one:

Drum Practice Album

Uni Life Album