School Gigs "18 (Part two)

The last two weeks have been pretty hectic but extremely fun. I only really mentioned it the opening of the tour in my last post as I had so many other things to mention. Since then I've collected an array of stickers as memorabilia from some of the schools we visited and have plastered them all over the schedule. It was a slow start at first while the students got used to the ordeal of loading and unloading the van but we started to get a little quicker in the first week. My only real day off was the Tuesday of the first week since we had no gig but then we were straight back to it on the Wednesday. Wednesday was also pork pie day, which seems to be part of tradition whenever we play in Melton Mobray. AS brought mine this year as a thank you since he's been lacking with the chocolate. One of the highlights from that week came from visiting Ye Olde Pie Shop when AO returned out from the shop stroking his pork pie.

Some of the schools we played, I was familiar with from last year. Melton Vale, Yeoman Park, Carlton Digby are just a few from the first week. By Friday, an illness was starting to sweep through the group and a couple of the students really weren't feeling to strongly about performing. Sets started to be cut down and into the next week we saw absences effecting bands being able to play. I also picked up the bug which made me a little slower and less responsive but still somehow survived turning in everyday despite being ill. The was one day during the second week when I was the only member of my band that turned up. AS did try to contact me but I think I had already left the house and missed the call so I still tagged along to help, which with almost a whole band missing, I'm sure they needed it. Looking back it feels like the most of it was spent travelling which I've quite enjoyed. Its been nice to be driven about and be able to take in the surrounding as well as overhear all of the tour bus banter between students. Laughing and joking, getting to know some of them a little more. Some of the topics discussed should probably remain on the minibus.

The only real problems I've had are related to my own work, since these school gigs relate to another course. While helping the lvl 2s boosts my performance skills and gives me more experience working with the other students, it means I cannot fully focus on my work. Its been especially difficult to balance this time around with illness making its rounds. I did try to produce some visuals within Modul8 but it decided that it wasnt' going to play. After rendering the video, the file would not work. This was quite infuriating as it took a lot of my time during the only spare time I had and as a result, I got nothing out of it, which means I'm now having to really push hard to get work done over today and tomorrow to be ready for Wednesday (Which I'm really not looking forward to.)

It's sad that I'm not sure I'd be able to do this all again next year. It's an amazing experience and the kids love it. I feel like  I want to keep helping out but at the same time, this time next year I will be focusing on my BA. It's hard for me to take in at the moment that actually, my current course finished in less that three months. It's crazy. I'm looking forward to it, though. I firmed my place this morning to study at The University of Derby and sorted out the student finance. It's becoming evermore real that it's the end to an era here in Nottingham, for me to study at least. On a positive note, I can't wait to get to know Derby as a city much better.

School Gigs "18 (Part one) + News!

It's been a long while since I've posted again and if honest it's mostly due to laziness this time around, plus I've had a few deadlines to panic about such as a 1500-2500 word report on Synthesis and Sampling which had to be in last week. At least that's out of the way now. In comparison, it feels like the next two weeks are going to be a bit of a holiday. School Gigs are always fantastic, we started our tour today. It can be a lot of hard work setting up, tearing everything down to do it all over again the next day, but it's the reception is always extremely rewarding. We play at a lot of Special schools as well as regular junior schools and their response is just so genuine and loving. One of the students I work with summed up todays on stage experience very well, "As soon as you're on stage, you feel like a million dollars." The kids really love it. I've played school gigs many times now, so much I'm starting to lose count. Is this my fourth or fifth?

As much as I know, I'm going to enjoy this little tour. I still have other bits of work that I can't really finish while this happens. Things I ned to do whilst sat at Mac. I finally brought Logic last month, as I gave up going in during half term. That certainly saved me some fuel! ...Somewhere, yet stung the purse of £199.99. It took a couple of days for everything to download and instal with my internet speeds, but now I'm all set. The only thing my little studio is missing these days are some proper monitors and I'm in tow minds whether or not to buy them or some monitoring headphones. Anyway, I still have my Realise project to finish off which is sort of flailing at the moment. I know what I'm doing, or need to do (I think). Most of the uncertaincy comes from it mostly being unfinished. I've got a lot of work to complete over the next couple of weeks to be able to pull this together successfully. A bit of filming, editing and recording some bass. Realistically, I need to set goals for each week now so the workload doesn't become unmanageable as we're about to rehearse everything.

It doesn't help that I'm still a stressy mess about Uni choices... yet more decisions to make! UoD seems to be my favourite option at the moment and I've booked an "Applicant Day" to see what its like. The have the same Gold award so, I'm hoping they're basically as good as DMU just closer. I might be looking into Huddersfield too, but I don't think I'll have time to view properly at this stage. At least confetti is still an option. I have a day to myself tomorrow and most of it will be spent catching up with my project. In the morning, I'll be doing something a little more unusual (for me) first. I'm finally going to apply for a passport. Mostly because I've been asked to help out in Spain this year by my old tutor Kirsty and you know what? Yeah, I quite fancy that. Something a bit ridiculous (again, for me). I've never been abroad so surely there's no better time while I'm still twenty-three.

No doubt, I'll post more updates on school gigs once its all over. It can a challenging time but it really  is so rewarding. Remembering last year, AS couldn't thank me enough last year for all the help, no doubt I'll get the same thanks again, hopefully including chocolate.