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!