No Pain, No Gain.

If there is something that I've learnt this week other than the basics of cello playing, it would be the very title of my post. Not that I didn't know this before, but it has been nice to have a reminder. I'm talking about real, physical pain and that can stop you in your tracks. On Monday, a blister started to form on my hand from drumming and the way that I hold my sticks - just on the left hand though, so might right hand technique must be perfect. I popped it and it's starting to heal nicely now even if it is still painful, but then it gets better. During my practice on Thursday, two more of these menacing devils developed - one rather large just above a join in my little finger and one at the base, I popped these last night and have been suffering quite a lot today. Playing bass with the level threes was challenging this morning, though not as painful as expected - it was only for half an hour.

During our recording session today when we were recording the grand piano, we had to set everything up. The twisting and screwing of microphone stands was extremely difficult yet some how I still managed and held back the tears whilst swearing under breath. Later when we were recording percussive hits using sounds from the piano, unnoticeably... things started to get more destructive to the health and wellbeing of my hands. I had been using my right hand to replicate the sound of a bass drum. It did hurt, but I didn't take any notice. It wasn't until the end of the session that I noticed a part of the skin on my little finger was hanging off and it wasn't until I got back into the studio upstairs that I noticed I had a rather large bump just below my wrist which has since become very bruised. One thing I don't feel is irritation. I'm not irritated by the fact that I have caused damage to myself, heck I hardly knew that it happened. This shows to me that I put in my all and that I must have thoroughly been enjoying playing percussively on such an incredible instrument to manage to completely ignore the pain. It wasn't even a matter of tolerating it, my brain had literally not registered that there was something wrong until afterwards. I probably could have continued and sprained my wrist and I still wouldn't have known.

It's amazing what you can do when you're running off inspiration and the right amount of sleep. I went to bed rather early yesterday after a long day practicing and then working on my essay for several hours. During the session today, I was constantly reminding myself of the piano guys and asking myself, "what would they do with an open top grand piano?" and of course put the answers forward into practice.

Is Music Theory A Science?

A quick google search defines science as “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.” [Google, 2017] which to my interpretation answers the question as both yes and no, making things difficult and rather confusing. Yes, to learn music theory, frequent practice is essential - this is the practical activity, doing this becomes intellectual within a class or study group that share the same interest. To understand music theory takes deep understanding and to “systematic study”, methodically improves the logical thought processes needed to master the ideology, concept and correct use. Analyzing both the rhythmic and harmonic structure furthers the knowledge and understanding - this can be done simply by reading a musical score - this is observation.

The behavior of music theory is one that is more difficult to portray to someone with little knowledge of the subject, maybe the simplest way to explain this is with basic moods. The most commonly used keys are Major and Minor - Major, sounding simple and happy usually and minor, sounding more harmonically complex and generally, dark and sad. Going back to analyzing scores, you can observe the behavior or mood of the piece by focusing on the harmony used within the chords. A blurred line starts to emerge once you focus on listening to the piece of music rather than the score because each listener will interpret the full sound of the music differently, even though this is still important practice and should still be considered a part in the observation process - just using our ears.

I think the real answer to this question is that it is a matter of opinion over fact, but I certainly do believe it to be true. I understand that it is difficult for non musicians, disheartened scientists or even music theorists themselves to accept music theory being realized as a science in it’s own right, but I think it depends on a mix of the level of knowledge a person has on the subject, understanding and finally the ability to apply the knowledge. My most basic way to summarize this would be that non musicians may just accept music theory as a completely different subject that only directly relates to music (which is true), but could not possibly fathom any form of link to the science surrounding the subject because this is neither what they know or have been taught.

Originally answered on Quora.

Nicholas Carol Nelson

Hello everybody, today I would like to introduce you to my new friend. I have been meaning to post this since Saturday 7th when we first met. We met by chance really. I got talking to a lady who is one of our regular customers at work just before Christmas. Her name is Carol. She mentioned him a few times, but then the next time she came into the store she didn't give him much recognition and I was unsure whether to ask not.

On Friday 6th, I decided to go into Ilkeston - my home town, after Uni. I don't usually do this. I was debating going into Nottingham, but it was like I knew there was nothing there that I wanted that day. This all happened on the off chance, usually I would just go straight home.

So, I arrived at Ilkeston and parked up just as the parking warden was starting his rounds. That was an interesting experience. I got my ticket and went into my first shop. I didn't really want anything, or at least I didn't think I did. I ended up coming out of B&M Bargains with a collapsable stool and birthday present for my dad... oh, and some snow bites that were reduced with it being the 11th day of Christmas. I dropped all of this back to the car and went on to my next stop. I didn't really know where I was going or what I was doing. I was very tired and was questioning why I had even bothered.

My next stop was a charity shop - this is where things got interesting. A familiar couple spotted me enter the store, followed me in and immediately got my attention. It was Carol and her husband. We got chatting and we talked about him, his cosmetic condition and his availability. Carol had used him many years ago for practice and even played with him in performances. She continued to tell me more about him, but I still didn't know what he looked like. We decided that it was time that I should meet him, so we exchanged phone numbers to sort the rendezvous later that night over a phone call.

The next day came quickly, I had not been this excited in a while. I was still trying to imagine what this handsome tackle may look like. I entered the couples house and then the lady introduced me to him. He was lying down on the floor with his back to me at first until she picked him up and held him upright. He was very well strung if not, a lot of tension. Carol sat with him at first to show me a few tips and tricks, not long after he was leant against my lap comfortably if not slightly awkward. The first date is always a bit messy. The bow did through me off a little, though I am used to the eccentricity. In the end, I won him over with a generous £60. He's still settling and not quite sure what's happened or even why his accomplice of 42 years has seeming just abandoned him to be passed onto a new generation.

This is Nicholas Carol Nelson - My Cello.

Our first drive home.

I think I'm in Love!

All of the name choices come from names of those that inspire me or have made it possible for my love of music to grow. Nicholas - The full seemingly disused first name of Dr. Nick Redfern, a passionate music lecturer who has always fully supported me (also, it's Christmasy), Carol - The name of the lady that sold him to me and was fully convinced by her faith that he was destined for me. (Again. Also, it's Christmasy - Christmas Carol), Nelson - The surname of Steven Sharp Nelson, most famous for his contributions to the work of the YouTube sensation, The Piano Guys. An incredible cellist and huge inspiration.

First Day Back At Uni In The New Year

Even though it's been three weeks, it feels like I haven't been away. Today is a strange one and certainly hasn't gone exactly as planned, although I have managed to get a fair load of work done, even if I still have much more to do. The feeling is different with the presence of a new year and I can sense the January blues lingering and the largely agreed feeling that we have come back too soon. Don't get me wrong I feel more than glad to be back, but the tiredness and realisation of just how close some deadlines are drawing is really quite alarming.

As I write todays piece I am sat in lesson, but that's ok though because our lecturer hasn't bothered to show up. Alongside writing today's rant I've been working on my Music in Context essay which must have roughly 2500 word count. I'm finally pushing along with it. I've been struggling to focus over the festive season with there being so many flashy things, bright colours and other distractions.

Later edit: I surprised myself today when I managed to add some new ideas to my sequencing project, I thought I wouldn't be capable of such creativity with it being the first day back and did I mention I am tired due to lack of sleep? That was my own fault, staying up until 2am and then I didn't even prepare my clothes.

I did run into a problem with Logic Pro X today, quite literally. I was pacing away with my vague new idea, relishing about changing the time signature from a joyous 6/8 to a sudden 6/4 and how unusual the transition sounds. I started to edit the drums for this new section and I must of clicked something that had gone unnoticed and it wouldn't let me edit any other MIDI even apart from the one already open. High-hats - thanks, guys. After around three quarters of an hour of becoming more and more frustrated, restarting Logic several times to see if that solved the issue I finally decided to "google it". It was a simple fix in the end which makes this experience all the more painful, after which I saved my work and gave up. I thought I did well considering in the weeks leading up to the Christmas break, I would spend most of this class time finalising assignments. That being said, there is some achievement here at least.

I have two books to return this Friday which I borrowed from the library before Christmas, neither of which I have managed to sit down comfortably and read. I think I will give one of them a scour over tomorrow otherwise it will be a waste. I feel awful having not done much work over the Christmas break and each time I remind myself I tell myself I must be a terrible student, which isn't good for the morale.

Maybe I will learn from this for later this year and the year after and remember just how many problems I have caused for myself, that or I'll experience this all over again. The later sounds more familiar.

A Year of 2016: Summary

When you ignore the mound of celebrity deaths, this year hasn't been too bad for me. It's normally something that goes unnoticed, but with all of the social media coverage the stories are everywhere. The death of celebrities doesn't tend to effect me and with what seems to be an bottomless list this year I have only really connected with a few, but that doesn't mean that the rest are unimportant. Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood, Ronnie Corbett, Gene Wilder and George Micheal are those that I will miss the most. RIP.

I feel like I have achieved most of the goals I set for myself this year, the lager goals and some unexpected. Let's start from the beginning of the year, shall we?

In January this year I had my audition for NCN Clarendon, which went really well apart from failing my music theory test and having to re-take that another day. I did pass that the second time, thankfully. In February, I had my audition of MMU. I remember the long drive wth my friend Joanne to the Crewe Campus which vaguely reminded me of Ilkeston School with it's layout. It was a very enjoyable day and I was surprised that the lecturer that interviewed me knew of Dmitry. I continued to write more songs when I found the time from the inspiration I found from a combination of visiting Clarendon and MMU and later released my first original music video on 22nd February. This was a big achievement for me, made possible from the use of my Mac and new camera at the time, my Samsung WB350F and made only within a few days once the editing process had started.

This year has been a strange one for new obsessions. I currently have a storage unit rather like a bookcase apart from it has three cupboards and three shelfs, on top of which sits the entirety of my larger figure collection. Most of them are either Nintendo or Doctor Who themed and it's just something thats continued to grow through this year. No doubt I will add more to the collection soon. I now collect Doctor Who comic books and novels and I am already up to well over fifty between them both. An even more recent obsession is my new found love for the Nintendo Gameboy Pocket. I have three of those now.

I did start to make another music video with my good friend, Kieran. It is still in the works and I think we still need to record a few extra parts, that and I still need to re-record the vocals for the song. I'm debating now whether I should do it again or ask around the college to see if anyone wants to do a better job than myself. I'm still not comfortable with my vocals. I know my confidence has improved massively over the years, but I've still never sung live on stage and I'm not sure I want to. But, I do. It's really difficult to explain. I really want to get this one finished and released early in the new year. Maybe I could use it as a part of my course? ... hmmm.

A lot of this year has been a waiting game and that is probably why I felt so let down on Enrolment. I don't really want to mention what happened all over again because I've already wrote about it back then. I think I'm over it now, but thinking about it still angers me. If I wasn't waiting I was probably working, but then theres a certain contrast where the two become the same thing.

Regardless, there's no better feeling than achieving something. Or at least, at the end of the year there isn't. I just re-read through my blog post summarising last year, "Hopefully, this time next year I will be a University student." I remember wondering if I'm going to get on with Uni and if I was even going to get in at all. I had just sent off mu UCAS application. Where would I be exactly? I suppose you can never really know what's around the corner.

For this new year, I feel like it's only a necessity to set myself goals again. Resolutions tend to be things that go amiss, so I shan't bother with those. Without goals, how will I be able to know if it has been a successful year at the end of it otherwise? My main goals are as follows:

1. To pass the first year of my course - This one is must and completely obvious, but I would be stupid not to include it as a top priority because otherwise there would be no point in myself being back in education. 
2. Not to get too distracted from work - This applies mostly to my Uni coursework, but then also to the extra work I do outside of my course such as recording. I have noticed patterns in how I distract myself from doing the work needed to be done. This needs to stop if I want to be successful and achieve a better grade.
3. Enrol for second year of my course - Another one that again shouldn't need mentioning, but I still need to turn up, right?
4. Collaborate - I want to work with those that want to work with me, this could be anything from a simple practice, sharing theory knowledge and even recording a track either with them or for them. This should be something that happens natural throughout the year, not a once only thing.
5. Enrich myself in knowledge - If I finish my first year feeling like I haven't really learnt anything, I must have done it all wrong.

I am debating finding a new job in the new year, but it's not something I want to focus on although arguably it could be something that helps improve my focus. The weekends are just something I can't look forward to at the moment. I just feel like there is no respect for me at work as there is when I'm at Uni. Is it the subject I've chosen to study? Is Music not academic enough? Is it because I work part-time now? Either way, I still pull my way and don't understand how it's fair that I should feel undervalued.

I may add more to this within the next week. I'm still currently in the state of accepting the new year and the fact that it is now nearly January 2017. I'm not happy about the January part. I don't want to experience January. I have a few deadlines coming up shortly. I do wonder if there will ever be a year when I don't ask "Where does all the time go?", but for now I'll leave it here.

Happy New Year, everyone! Hello, 2017.

Mad Day

I spent the most of the 16th Christmas shopping around Derby and Nottingham. It took me a while to get there, but I decided to go down on the bus and ditch the car for the day. My car had already cost me enough in fuel from an unusually poor performance in mpg, just from leaving that little bit later in the morning and catching all of the traffic. Something I should take note of when I go back to Uni in the new year.

I brought most of the presents whilst and Derby and a few little bits for myself, then I decided to get the Red Arrow to Derby early afternoon. The traffic seemed ok. I just caught site of a Facebook post that there had been a major accident on the M1 and was trying to find out more about it. The coach goes over the M1 using the brigde of the A52 and when I looked over, the traffic heading northbound was at a standstill and there was nothing heading southbound. I found out that they had closed a part of the motorway to carry out an investigation, but I didn't think much of it as it wasn't affecting my route. I got into Nottingham pretty quick actually. I had so many big bags to carry it was unbelievable. I ended up buying myself more things in Nottingham too, some new trainers - perfect for the new year!

I picked up a few other bits and decided it was time to start heading home not long after 4pm. I did go to Broadmarsh Bus Station first to see if the 21 was due as that takes me to my doorstep, but there was a 45 minute wait so I took the free bus to Victoria Centre instead to catch my only other option, The Two.

It was very busy when I arrived. There were queues of people waiting for different buses. I had never seen it so busy before. I decided that it wasn't even worth trying to que up because I couldn't even tell apart where one line end and another line started so I sat to the side patiently and started browsing through a Doctor Who book I picked up whilst I was in Derby earlier. Whilst reading, I was listening to the people queuing grow ever more impatient. Some people had already been waiting at least half an hour or more at this point. I distinctly remember one woman constantly going on about how this had completely ruined her day and this angered me. I remembered the duel incident of earlier that day and I knew this was the after effect of it all that yes, had inconvenienced a lot of people, ourselves included but the thing to remember is that regardless of the story two people died that day. One murder and one suicide.

When the bus finally arrived Trent Barton were fantastic. They knew there was nothing they could really do to make the bus magically fly back to Ilkeston. Our driver shrugged his shoulders and the female customer service rep that was on the bus with him announced to everyone that they don't need to worry about paying and just ordered us to get on the bus. Two buses arrived near enough together, both easily an hour or so late so the heavy que of people was divided quite well despite both buses being full.

Getting out of the city centre was the easiest part and seemed quite promising, but when we passed the bus stop U4 on the very edge of upper parliament street we all saw more huge queues of people like I had never seen before. I had never seen that bus stop so busy, the que was starting to trail around the corner of Maid Marian Way. When we hit Canning Circus that's when things got really slow and sluggish again, from just turning off onto Ilkeston Road down to the next 50m took us about 20 minutes. Traffic was at a standstill. Gridlocked. There were cars trying to filter out of the side roads and we couldn't use the bus lane yet because there either wasn't one or there were cars parked. To get from Victoria Centre to the cross-section at Radford Boulevard took us at least 40 minutes and then some one decided to block the bus lane. This happened twice and the second time our drive lost it. He beeped him. The car driver didn't move. Our driver stopped the bus and got out, knocked on his window and told them to shift up and merge so there was enough room for the bus not to block the crossroads. Everyone cheered him, welcoming him back like a hero. It was quite an amazing moment.

Our journey started to get a little easier from this point since we could now use the bus lane. We drove past half a miles worth of traffic within minutes. The ride did still seem to last forever though, it was nice to hear people chat to each other and keep each other company. I didn't join in so much apart from laugh at the odd funny situation but, I had my iPod set up to keep me entertained. I set myself up quite tactically. I know I was going to need a lot of room and that there was no chance I was going to get two seats to myself so I hugged onto a luggage hold and dumped all my bags in there, shopping and rucksack too. The only problem I probably caused for others was my refusal to move down when our driver told us to, I just wasn't going to leave all my stuff there. I don't know how people do it.

In the end our bus ride took well over an hour and a half. I didn't time it to be honest so it could have been closer to two hours, definitely if you include the waiting times. I will certainly remember this bus ride, not because of how long or stressful it was. Or even how bad it was or the uncomfortableness. I don't understand the full story of what happened still with all of the different news reports, but I feel like I experienced a part of the pain the murderer must have felt when he felt the need to end his life by jumping off the motorway bridge with the way it it affected us all. All those people stuck on the motorway. No one should feel like they need to commit suicide, ever regardless of what they have done or even what they want to do. It was all I could think about during my journey back home, that and reminding myself of how thankful I am for where I'm at now. The guilt and the heartbreak. Two people died that day, neither of which was me. That is a reason enough to still be alive. I still made it home.


My thoughts go out to the families of those affected at this festive time of the year.

Clearer Thoughts...

So, most of the deadlines have now passed for this month with only one remaining. This one is a little less terrifying as it's a skills audit where I basically just need to write about myself and point out any areas that need improving, which for this course is probably a lot. Most people find it really difficult to talk about themselves, I think I still do but I understand the whole evaluating process a lot more and the importance of it.

My main downside is that I tend to take it right from the top, if I feel it's necessary. I've typed up quite a lot already and I feel like it is very nearly done. It is something that I knew wouldn't have much of a problem with just because of how much I blog on here. I tend to end up using this as a reference.

I also cleared the air last week and had a catch up with Dr. Nick Redfern. I brought us tea and coffee from the college canteen and we stuck it back into a classroom eventually after a short stop off at "reprographics" or rather, the room with two large printers. The canteen was just way too noisy and as Nick put it himself, "chavy". He shown me his new Facebook group, 'Mentoring for Life' that he had not long set up last month and expressed his irritation that not one of his 3rd year students had used it yet and they are predominantly who he designed it for. The idea of the group from what I understand is that every member, whether they be a current or past student helps each other learn and progress as a mentor, but the group has been active for about a month now with no active users posting and discussing other that Nick updating the description.

I personally think that the Facebook group is a great idea once it starts being used actively, but I think it is already causing a stir since I introduced our head of Music, Andrew to it and he didn't seem very keen I think mostly because of the social media platform that it's on. The thing is, is that we're all HE students that should be able to be sensible enough with this sort of thing, but I do understand the possible breaches of lectures having contact with students outside of class time other than email as it has the potential to endanger either party. Since I'm now a member of this group, I suggested to all the members in a post that Campus Society would be great site to use in conjunction with this group and to no surprise didn't get a response. Facebook groups are strange things from my experience because of the layout of the site. It is easy to see when someone is online and rather than talk within a group or even a group chat, given the option it is obviously easier for most people to just send messages via the chat feature one to one.

Nick seems to have created his own den within the college, which is completely normal. When I was last at NCN Clarendon before this course, the keyboard lab used to be in a huge, spacious room downstairs that's strikingly similar to the HE Common Room, but now this has been moved into a room about a quarter of the size with somewhere between eight to maybe ten keyboards stuffed inside. It took me until the second visit to this room to notice that Nick was also using it as a second office with it being too noisy in his actual office. I'm pretty sure the room is smaller than my bedroom, and I struggle to fit one keyboard in there along with other furnishings.

I feel a lot better nearing the end of this term. The December haze is still in place but there's really not many days left until I break up for Christmas from Uni. I will still have to traipse to work at the weekends. The subject of work is ever becoming more monotonous by the day. The more I go, the less I want to be there. It's really not healthy, but it's just how it is and I need income from somewhere. Saturday shifts tend to flow quite nicely but for some reason that I just can't place Sunday's just feel so slow. We had our Christmas meal the other day and I feel like it was an absolute sham. We went to Frankie & Bennies and I sat opposite our store manger and his wife. I spoke to my colleagues mostly before we were seated and had a couple of laughs around the table, but my manger never said a word to me. Not even, "How's Uni?" To make things even better the food was shite and they wanted well over £200 between us all (14) including an automatic service charge of £17.50 which thankfully they removed in the end after arguing). I really don't understand the hype for this food chain.

I will still have a couple of assignments to work on over the Christmas break. I want to get some research done at the library for our Music in Context essay before it closes and then while I'm away from college, I'm planning it so that the first week off I will be fairly focused on these couple of assignments. I don't want to do anything Uni-work-wise during the week of Christmas to give myself a decent break, I've been pretty flat out since the get go especially with working with the other students. Then finally the week after that I will get back into focusing on assignments. That's the plan anyway, no doubt I might stray from it a little bit with it being Christmas, but I'll be happy I could get a good chuck of the assignments out of the way.

I will probably post again before Christmas but just incase I don't, Merry Christmas everyone! :')