Break The Silence: Updates

These last few weeks have been a struggle in regards to meeting deadlines, both starting and finishing off assignments that I had completely forgotten. Simply slipped of my list! So, I've been hard at it meaning I've been quiet here. I have a lot of updates to announce, in terms of progress and new things. I already mentioned one in my previous post, but it worth mentioning it again due to it's success; The Nottingham Improvisation Club. We have had three sessions so far and a decent turn out each time, with two performance opportunities coming up on behalf of the college. We are at the stage where we have had suggestions and valuable feedback to make improvements to make the club even more enjoyable which have been considered and plans for the next session are already in place. All being well, we will be improvising to visuals, specifically an sci-fi silent movie. I have been trying to keep a journal of the clubs happening to track our high and low points and the success. I've have produced a short report for all the members to read regarding their feedback as we hit our first month together this Wednesday.

Tis be practice gig season again! Last Thursday I played a short practice gig at college with the almighty level 3, year 2s. They have been coming up with some mega original material that often challenges my drumming abilities, but the ideas and musicality is fantastic. I did mess up a little, but I'll let my self off due to the complexity and the fact that I've still only been playing drums for less than a year. I think even my rapid progress was enough to leave the Scoffmeister shocked, he was full of praise. Also, I played another practice gig today with the level 1s. We only played one song as our second original wasn't quite ready and my even be completely scrapped. I really hope not, for the amount of work we've all put into it.

This week I'll be finishing off my presentation ready for Tuesday next week. The presentation is generally about barriers artists can face once they make it into the music industry. I've focused mostly on Linking Park with the way their sound changes frequently and how their fans react to this. I'm a little apprehensive about this one, as I now have to do it a day earlier than everyone else so that I can attend a conference. I am looking forward to the conference mind, even if it is a bit of a mystery currently. The East Midlands Scholarship Conference 2017. The description is a bit vague, but I feel like it will be a valuable day and it's certainly something to look forward to.

It's quite hard to believe that my first year is almost over now and the final few deadlines are fast approaching. Once my presentation is out of the way, all that remains is to finish my final track, produce a music video for it and then a website as an online portfolio of what I have done throughout the academic year. A lot of it feels like a bit of a blur now as it all starts to come to an end, especially with all of the the other little things on the side with working in various college bands, but I know I have learned and gained so much. It's nice to have the respect of the FE students as I work with them so much and even those that I don't work with have seen me perform and shown their admiration, one even said I'm a great role model. Equally, it's an honour to have the opportunity to work with them. Most of them are so talented and it's a nice reminder of what I had to do for my previous courses and how I can achieve that so easily now.