Right now, I have a lot of things going through my mind. I'm not so much worried about the assessment itself more everything that is surrounding it. This week, I have four deadlines. One tomorrow - this assessment for Live Sound. Then I have two deadlines on Wednesday, one that is a Music Business assignment and the other a simple research proposal for Music in Context. I'm not really that worried about either of those two, especially now my Business one is almost complete and reading very well if I do say so myself. I still have some last few bits to add like a reference list and a few extra bits, I have about 200 words spare with my word count.
I have a gig tomorrow night after lessons have finished and hopefully will be doing the practice one in the daytime too. I believe both are in The Venue, which I still like to call "The Recital Room" as it is it's former name that I'm more familiar with.
I'm mostly worried about my Live Sound Assignment, combined with the other levels of work that I have to do that are preventing me from making a proper start. The assessment I mentioned tomorrow should be a breeze if I can manage my own patience and step up the leadership a little without telling everyone what to do; after all, we all have to take it in turns to show off the skills that we have learnt. I think I'm a little more relaxed after todays short practice session setting up the PA, channeling some drums and having a chat with AO. He seems pretty confident that I should get a good grade, I just hope I do enough and don't forget anything.
Monday, 6 March 2017
Thursday, 2 March 2017
Happy World Book Day!
Mostly for the purpose of my Music Industry assignment on the internet, new media and music I have been reading "The Naughies, A Decade That Changed The World." by Tim Footman. I've just been focusing on Chapter 8 - And The Band Played On, as he talks about iTunes, the iPod, Napster causing the industry's decline, YouTube and Glastonbury. Maybe, I'll have a glance at the other Chapters once it is back in my possession (One of my lecturers wants to borrow it because it's good).
General Updates 101
It's been a busy week already and it will certainly be a busy month. There is absolutely no stopping this month because if I stop, I fail. I have found sometime to give myself a bit of a break this week, but I don't think its possible anymore. I need to switch to non-stop overdrive just like January to make it through March, but I knew this anyway and I've not really helped myself with my lack of essay writing. I'm currently finishing off my music business assignment that is due in next Wednesday and I'm just shy of a thousand words from finishing it. I'm, hoping that I can get it complete today, mainly because to be on target with the rest of work I really need it out of the way, plus then I can still get some feed back tomorrow possibly.
Working with the level 3, year 2's is becoming interesting. We had a bit of a slow start with forwarding ideas to me about songs, but I think we're getting there now and starting to sound like a new band. Their project is to write and perform half an hours worth of completely original music, which is quite a challenge for me too. I'm playing the drums for them and still don't have all that much experience (or at least I feel I don't feel confident enough, AS recons I've had enough time on a drum kit), I do surprise myself sometimes. We have had two practices now and today we managed to run through the whole of one song, A completely new song that I had to figure out a drum part for and I actually feel quite proud of myself.
It was nice to have a chat with A.O. today about my groups live sound assessment next week. It's made me feel a bit more confident about everything anyway regarding how he will be assessing us and knowing exactly what I don't need to be worrying about. Now, I just need to continue working on my essay so I can start his!
Working with the level 3, year 2's is becoming interesting. We had a bit of a slow start with forwarding ideas to me about songs, but I think we're getting there now and starting to sound like a new band. Their project is to write and perform half an hours worth of completely original music, which is quite a challenge for me too. I'm playing the drums for them and still don't have all that much experience (or at least I feel I don't feel confident enough, AS recons I've had enough time on a drum kit), I do surprise myself sometimes. We have had two practices now and today we managed to run through the whole of one song, A completely new song that I had to figure out a drum part for and I actually feel quite proud of myself.
It was nice to have a chat with A.O. today about my groups live sound assessment next week. It's made me feel a bit more confident about everything anyway regarding how he will be assessing us and knowing exactly what I don't need to be worrying about. Now, I just need to continue working on my essay so I can start his!
Friday, 24 February 2017
Live Sound Focus Week. Day 5.
24/02/17
All members of the group were present today which helped us move along faster. At the very start of the session we set ourselves targets so that we could get certain things done by a certain time. We allowed ourselves roughly half an hour per task which seemed to work quite well as we managed to finish early. I think we all worked a lot faster today because of having these goals in place, in the end we managed to shave off an hour from yesterday which is excellent overnight progress.
I have one last lesson on Tuesday to practice doing all of this again and then the following Tuesday it is our practical assessment on this module. I'm feeling quite confident with everything now, especially the mixer and signal flow which are probably the most important things. I've tried to prioritise my understanding of these things because of that. It was helpful that I already knew how mixers work by having a simple one at home and that I have experience with mixers within DAWs like Logic and GarageBand. I'm starting to get quite excited by it, but I still feel a little nervous about the other stuff we'll have to do. For our assessment we won't just be setting up the PA system we will have to coordinate people; the bands and adjust the sound for them so it sounds perfect on stage for them and also perfect through the PA as much as possible. No pressure, but I really am looking forward to it.
All members of the group were present today which helped us move along faster. At the very start of the session we set ourselves targets so that we could get certain things done by a certain time. We allowed ourselves roughly half an hour per task which seemed to work quite well as we managed to finish early. I think we all worked a lot faster today because of having these goals in place, in the end we managed to shave off an hour from yesterday which is excellent overnight progress.
I have one last lesson on Tuesday to practice doing all of this again and then the following Tuesday it is our practical assessment on this module. I'm feeling quite confident with everything now, especially the mixer and signal flow which are probably the most important things. I've tried to prioritise my understanding of these things because of that. It was helpful that I already knew how mixers work by having a simple one at home and that I have experience with mixers within DAWs like Logic and GarageBand. I'm starting to get quite excited by it, but I still feel a little nervous about the other stuff we'll have to do. For our assessment we won't just be setting up the PA system we will have to coordinate people; the bands and adjust the sound for them so it sounds perfect on stage for them and also perfect through the PA as much as possible. No pressure, but I really am looking forward to it.
Thursday, 23 February 2017
...What Was I Saying?
It seems I have been sought out and requested to help out with yet another college project - I actually feel quite honoured. A level 3, year 2 band decided they would like me as their drummer for their next assignment which is to write original songs and the set list needs to be about half an hour long. Of course, I've taken on the challenge even though I'm not entirely sure what they want to do yet genre-wise.
It's kind of funny because when drumming opportunities started arising at the beginning of the academic year, these guys rejected me... and the other half of their course. Now they've seen me play, I guess they have changed their minds and more comfortable with the idea of having a newbie drummer because of my general music experience? I don't know, maybe I'm making this up, but it makes sense and I've gone from three projects - Level 1, Level 3, year 1 and BA. Finishing the BA stuff yesterday, thinking that there will now only be two projects for me to worry about and now I'm back at three by working with the level 3, year 2s. I'm quite excited about this one. I can technically play what I like as long as it fits the style of music they choose to write. First practice is next week.
It's kind of funny because when drumming opportunities started arising at the beginning of the academic year, these guys rejected me... and the other half of their course. Now they've seen me play, I guess they have changed their minds and more comfortable with the idea of having a newbie drummer because of my general music experience? I don't know, maybe I'm making this up, but it makes sense and I've gone from three projects - Level 1, Level 3, year 1 and BA. Finishing the BA stuff yesterday, thinking that there will now only be two projects for me to worry about and now I'm back at three by working with the level 3, year 2s. I'm quite excited about this one. I can technically play what I like as long as it fits the style of music they choose to write. First practice is next week.
Live Sound Focus Week, Day 4.
23/02/17
We were faced with a different kind of challenge today by people not turning up, we were lacking in numbers. It's quite difficult to set up both ends of the system with only three pairs of hands rather than five, because of this we took longer than we should. In a way it was good to have less people in the group because it meant that those that did attend; myself, Adam and Rob could learn more within the lesson by rotating setting up channels faster so we all had more chance to work on the desk. Despite having less crew it was still a productive session and I think Andy was quite proud of us all for becoming more comfortable with the desk and getting quicker at setting up the channels. We weren't all that much faster than yesterday because of the same reason I've already mentioned, but we still managed to get everything sounding pretty great.
We were faced with a different kind of challenge today by people not turning up, we were lacking in numbers. It's quite difficult to set up both ends of the system with only three pairs of hands rather than five, because of this we took longer than we should. In a way it was good to have less people in the group because it meant that those that did attend; myself, Adam and Rob could learn more within the lesson by rotating setting up channels faster so we all had more chance to work on the desk. Despite having less crew it was still a productive session and I think Andy was quite proud of us all for becoming more comfortable with the desk and getting quicker at setting up the channels. We weren't all that much faster than yesterday because of the same reason I've already mentioned, but we still managed to get everything sounding pretty great.
Andy also took it in turns with us to go through the signal flow of the whole system so that he knew we understood everything. I was quite impressed myself by not needing too many hints and getting through it quite quickly compared to the others, if not the fastest.
It was a level 1 band that came in to soundcheck for us today and they really are so talented, I'm quite proud of them for getting though the competition the other evening too!
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
As One Project Finishes, Another One Starts...
Everything seems to be rushing along at the moment and it is becoming harder to fit in little things that are not relevant to college at all. I don't have much spare time with the level of involvement I've induced onto myself with the other students. Today, we recorded the final performance of a fifteen minute piece composed by BA student, Emma Cochrane after a quick refresher to remind us of the structure, tempos and it's changes. This is the second time we've recorded it officially as a performance because the last time we played it way too fast, over two extra practice sessions we managed to nail it (pretty much) after replacing the keyboard player for Nick and sacking the bassist and replacing him for acoustic guitarist, Kirsty.
It was great to get to work with those two professionally and use the practice rooms for a different means other than band rehearsals. It has been a pleasure to work with Emma too and offer my support to a higher levelled course for a change and in-effect stepping up. For Emma to teach me her composition, it has not only took my ability to read music and knowledge of music theory, but a great deal of communication and directing which is what her assignment is all about, allowing me a sneak peak of what's to come in a couple of years time. I don't think it would be as easy to view these kinds of skills had the composition been as short as the average pop song.
Now this has come to an end, it is now time to help the level 3's with there genre assignment. I think only have to learn four songs with them, they just have to be completely different and totally obvious that they belong to different genres and from what I understand we don't have all that many practice sessions to get these songs ready. First practice is tomorrow morning bright and early and we will be focusing on some jazzy stuff. After I will be practicing with the level 1 band and hopefully I can motivate them to run through the whole of their setlist. It's not long until their big gig now in the CCT, that happens in the evening of March 7th - The same day I have my Live Sound Assessment in the morning!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)