Above the clouds

It's been a while since I'd felt recognised for what I do for my music, until last night. I had got chatting with some ex-students that I'd met before, more in passing but they had seen me perform before. It was amazing to hear from them that they find me inspirational, I mean they are much younger than me and they spoke it so grown up. Respect is a big thing for me as it goes far but I really appreciated the kind words. I shiver at the word "talented" sometimes but never refuse it as a compliment. I work hard for what I do and I'm glad they see it in someway, or maybe not.

It's reminder of how far I've come and something I will never forget. These eight last eight years have been a musical journey and one that is ever changing its path. I still don't quite know where I'm going but for someone younger than me to tell me that I will go far really boosted me and with my recent levels of motivation, this was something that I really needed.

I'm glad we all got chatting, some of them I'd never really had chance to speak to properly just with class and social groups and the way things are in a college setting. I've offered a couple of them a chance to work with me in a band and it works well to carry it on. The band will be for my uni project and I will write all the material and I can see potential just from talking to them which gets me excited. However, I still want to see the musicians available at hand at uni. I'm starting to get to know and fit in with some folk but it's a hard turn pushing in and is something I don't really do. I'm patient and generally seem to wait for interest which is probably a bad thing but it's sort of working.

In other news things are getting busy. I'm a little behind with my research project but I know what I'm doing and my recording project is coming along really well and I have two bands booked in the next couple of weeks (Left Hand Lane and Red Six) that will count towards this module. Some, admittedly are back up plans but I'd rather have more, than less. I've already recorded artists at this point, Nottingham band The Jellyfish are Calling and Pianist Marcus Livingston. I received feedback on both today so I have some new pointers to guide me.

Projects and Things...

Deadlines are starting to appear and I had my very first one last week. I managed to achieve it but all in all I still feel a little behind. I have a lot of reading to do and some primary research. I will be able to focus more on my research project after this week since the deadline for my creative studies is this week and once that's out of the way I wont really need to think about it again, except perhaps keeping in mind my plan for the academic year to get it all done. But yes, once this is out the way I'll have more free time to crack on with the what has now become main focus module for this semester, my research project/dissertation. A part of me still cant believe that it has to be done before Christmas but, I believe it is possible. I've been working on my ethics form today since that has to be in by the end of the week too and its all starting to become a little more clearer and I have a good structure for the word count and my disposal and various other templates too!

I feel like I'm picking up this week... finally. I picked up a cold this Saturday gone and before that I hadn't been very motivated to do work anyway but today has been pretty productive. I mean, I've still got to rewrite the proposal for Creative studies but I know exactly what I want to do now and it will reduce my work load a little too over the course of the year. I'll be looking for bands to record very soon-ish, one for my research project and one or two for my recording project. That's what I'm most excited for, getting back in the studio again. At the moment, my best days are Thursday. Even though they are pretty slow starting with a 9am lecture that lasts two hours, we have our workshop in the studio just after for two hours and sometime we will even go into these sessions earlier to maximise the time and experience we get. I've thoroughly enjoyed every workshop session so far, even though I don't always learn something new I always get to play about with pro tools and work out how the two downstairs studios work. They are a little complex, especially being used to Logic and Clarendon's not-so-trusty RS1 where you have to patch everything in. I'm still not used to not seeing the gain structure, it seems hidden in the Rednet software but it is clear as day.

I'm going out later. This is a new bad habit it seems, Wednesday evening at the tap. It's always a laugh and I think its exactly what I need mid week. I still don't have many friends here in Derby, and the ones I have made I only see once or twice per week so going out and seeing some of my Nottingham friendies perks me up socially.

Big Steps

Although my first couple of weeks are not quite over, everything is now starting to pick up the pace as the realisation that this semesters workload is due in about 10 weeks. For me this means handing in both my recording and research project by early December whilst making progress on my creative studies album project.

It is all starting to feel a bit intense, maybe as it should. I've been given a deadline of Monday next week for my position paper for my dissertation and I'm not even 100% sure what I want to do it on anymore. In these two weeks I've learned that the summer research project which I started last year is a bit too loose and difficult to investigate especially regarding collecting primary research data. I did originally plan to run with a similar idea since I had found so much on it but if I'm aiming for a first it's no use with just secondary literature. This puts me in a position where tonight and tomorrow (before I go to work at least) I will be thinking of new areas that interest me that would be more realistic to write about given the timeframe.

Whilst my dissertation is a big concern (as it is for everyone I would imagine) there are other areas of my course that are going really well. For my recording project we sort of managed to sort out groups between us today. It might be a bit crazy working as a group of four but the people that I'll be working with all seem dedicated and we all seem to have good knowledge and ideas already of what we want to do, just not yet in paper form as a proposal. We'll have to do that soon and agree times for recording sessions but this should be easy enough to do as long as we can all make it.

I've had a fair bit of time in the Neve studio now. I was inducted to the set up last week with the others and today in our workshop session we recorded some drums using the Glynn Johns technique and it sounded fantastic by just correctly panning the channels without and further mixing. We started with three microphones and then added another to give the snare some more definition. The drummer, George was great to work with and I need to remember to check out his bands. I think he said one of them are King B. Yesterday, I was able to get in the studio to record some drums too but with a spot mic-ing approach. This proved to be quite successful and I even learnt how to take audio recordings out of Pro Tools to pass on the work (I don't generally use Pro Tools) I think even with the stuff I'm going to do for my recording project I will probably take it out and put it into Logic Pro X to mix.

In the back of my mind however, as well as all of this is the looming doubt of this album I'm going to have to keep working on and not forget about. I have five potential ideas for songs currently, some of them only short but they are real, solid ideas I can build on. Maybe not this week though, this week its time to focus on my dissertation since I have a small deadline to meet for this now.

I'm doing better than I thought with the whole meeting new people thing although I already wish I had made more effort to talk to others in the last couple of weeks but I seem to have a nice small friendship circle developing but it certainly is hard being a direct entry student.   

Planning?

I have spent most of this evening making a plan for the most of the academic year ahead, when I say most I mean all of the autumn semester and the module within that that branches into next year. I did plan to make progress on written work that's due soon tonight but that seemed to have slipped through and instead I have composed a potential track for my creative studies module - which I guess is still productive at least, just not in an order that I had imagined. I have however started reading through a literature review from last year that I wrote over the summer thinking that I could potentially use it for my dissertation but I will have to sift out all of the bullshit first or maybe even start a fresh with a similar or new idea. So, I have a vague outline for now of just how this semester should be but I still have my proposal to write for my creative studies and thoughts on this recording project. I have a lecture on my research project tomorrow which I'm looking forward too, hopefully it will give me more inspiration to march up to Kedleston, sit in the library and get my head down.

First Lecture

This made me realise just how much work I have to do to make this happen. I find Micheal quite easy to listen to as he's a really good speaker. He spent 20 minutes just on the first slide, which I think is great. He did say thats probably covered everything but he'll run though the rest anyway. I don't think he planned on keeping us for the full 2 hours. I got some new ideas out of his lecture anyway which should benefit my project which runs through the academic year.

I have 24 weeks or so to produce something (an album most likely) and less than two weeks to set that path and submit my proposal. This has rattled my head a little since I have so many ideas and I need to choose the best that is also realistic.

I would love to fully enable the rhythmic delights of Iguana Palava and create some really interesting stuff but can't do it on my own. Realistically, material would have to be written before Christmas, ready to go into the studio for the new year and I'm just not sure I can manage that. I'd like to hope so but this first lecture was also an eye opener for how difficult mixing in with 3rd year students that have already settled is going to be. I spoke to maybe one of them yesterday in agreement that my timetable is also not fully functional and thats all I got.

I'm gonna have to be more assertive in the coming days, getting to know everyone or I have a feeling I'll be more reliant on outsiders than ever or basically just myself, but that isn't what University is about. I should be mixing in. Making new contacts and fully utilising them. I'm a bit disappointed in myself actually. I know I'm quiet at first and I know it's hard but I need to break this barrier now and just say stuff. Anything. I can't go back to being a mute now, not when it matters most.

Welcome Week

Since I'm new to Derby, I thought I'd tag along during the timetabled welcome week. There was one for each course, some I understand had separate ones for 2nd or 3rd year direct entries like myself but there was only one for all Popular Music with Music Technology students. 

There was a mix up of rooms during our first session which was amusing. The lectures were told on their timetables that they were elsewhere to us. They did find us and come down to us but it was funny being the one of the few waiting around at the start thinking, "is this all of us?" There was only 3 or 4 of us waiting by the door before anything happened. I managed to mix with a few of the other students by the first session; Danielle, India, Jay, Michel, but most of us still went off on our own for the short break. We rejoined after lunch to talk about timetables. Obviously, the ones they were handing out weren't really for me but for the first years but I was using theirs as a guide to understand how they worked; room code, module code etc. 

Tuesday was pretty long but for good reason, we met the careers and employment lady who talked about how she can help us get placements and further work and even answered some of our own questions that we'd left for her on post-it notes. After this, it was time for my first proper visit (this side of the year) to Kedleston campus for a bit of a tour. By this point in the week I had made connections with Petra. We walked up to the Kedleston together from markeaton and had been chatting quite a lot about what we're wanting to do. We was expecting two, one as a library induction and a site tour but the guy that lead us claimed their is only one so we went with that. It was much shorter than expected as we had been given an hour slot to do what we originally thought was two tours but this just meant that we had a longer break. This gave us chance to pick up loads of freebies, mostly pens as we spoke to all the 

We had to get back in time for a monster jam session at 2pm. I got talking to a few more of the guys through this but it was hard work since their was so many guitarist but were told that we didn't have to play if we didn't want to, but I wanted to of course. Kimmy wanted to play everything. I started trying to sort playing bass, one of them had a dodgey input so I had to swap it for the other which worked fine. I didn't play much bass since the other guitarists, Tom in particular were noodling about and our drummer (whom I'd met before on the applicant day) was still moving the kit about. So we couldn't really do much, not at least without a drummer until he was ready. Eventually, he had a bit of a play then disappeared so that was my chance to take the drums. A risky move when I had not played in a good couple of months but I'd say it went well, I managed to hold together 3 jams at least and one of them got quite progressive. Interestingly, me and Tom always new when the ned was coming but the others not so much. Maybe it's because the others didn't want it to end. We had a comical moment with this actually which involved me hitting the high hat bell as he played the last note and we both just laughed. I did end p playing a bit of guitar. I played someone else for a bit which was an ok experience, it was an Ibanez but then I switched over to mine. I think Phil (one of the lecturers found my guitar quite interesting). I moved around the different practice rooms to see what was happening. I nearly lost my drum sticks and lead at one point because I left them in another room by accident. I got talking to the guy that runs the music society (not sure if he's a first year or not, probably not and I can't remember his name) but he's really cool. He has a band together already, the other two member Guy and Sam seem really nice too. Great musicians. We ended up jamming to Pina Colada, me playing piano with the boys singing along to end the day. That was nice.

Wednesday was pretty simple but an early start for the equipment centre induction which finished earlier than expected since we hadn't enrolled yet and they planned to set up all of our accounts but impossible without being enrolled. We did however have enrolment timetabled next, so they were kind of in the wrong order basically. I met Ben in cafe today, a Photography student. He seems an interesting character with a good sense of humour. I'd noticed him before sat outside Birtannia Mill and we got chatting. We had a similar problem in the last session where because it take so long on the admin side for enrolment, we couldn't see everything we needed to find exactly where out course resources were.

Thursday was mainly the welcome talk at Derby Theatre which I didn't realise until recently that the Uni own this theatre. Interesting. It was as welcome talks go, I guess. Lets get everyone excited about university and the surrounding city. Some parts were quite inspiring and made me realise a few things, other parts were humorous like when they were introducing our lecturers with another group and they thought Micheal was absent even though he was stood on stage and completely missed off Phil. Brilliant. We were given out maps after to find our way around the city. I'm sort of familiar with Derby but still don't know my way around that well, not like Nottingham. I buddied up with Petra and we did the main ones around the city centre, the music shops and nipped in Ryans bar. We bumped into Ben again before we headed back. It was a really wet day and we got soaked from walking around, so much that when I went back to my car my jacket was soaked. I swapped to my coat to nip up to Kedleston and on retiring my jacket was still wet!

Friday was an easy day, turn up at 11am for a performance from singer songwriter Mitch Ross. He sung and played acoustic guitar for us through Phil's little Bose system and it all sounded very good. I  thoroughly enjoyed his performance, his cover and originals were strong. He played a Phil Colins song that I didn't recognise until he reached the chorus. I love it when covers sound so original. We had one more lecture in the afternoon about well-being and how to look after ourselves which sounds a bit patronising at first. The lady shown us some breathing exercises for when we feel overwhelmed at the end of the session, I'm not sure if the lady had already exited the room. I hope she had, Phil was well wishing everyone a good weekend and Micheal said, "Lets go get depressed". His sense of humour kills me, I swear.

All in all, It's been an inspiring week to be reminded of the facilities available to me, find out about all the other little things that will be useful such as careers advices, wellbeing and the library and its just been great to familiarise myself with both Markeaton Street and Kedleston Campus. It's been a nice opportunity to meet the new students too and maybe for them to even meet me. 

The Start of UoD

I've had one hell of a great summer, all of which I need to write more about, back date and post pretty soon but more recently it's been a tough couple of weeks. It was easy getting back into the swing of work after returning from Spain for the third time but welcomings from those closest made it hard. I had an argument with my mum the first night I saw her, which wasn't even the first night I got back. It doesn't help that I don't feel as close to my parents anymore since they're always disappearing to the caravan, although I still love them. I've labelled our family caravan "The Home-wrecker" even though I've been once with a friend and it's quite nice. The argument continued to the next day when she apologised and said her piece again. Her words are still ringing through my head and I've not been great since although I'm doing my best to keep my shit together and stay strong.

The good news is (maybe, dependant on how well I handle it) this is all in time for a whole new experience; starting UoD. Tomorrow is the start of the welcoming week where I'll get to meet other students and fully enrol. It feels like it's been a long time coming now. I was getting really excited about everything whilst I was in Spain as I received all my confirmation emails and a few with further information but it's been harder to maintain that since. I'm hoping this week will bring back the energy that I seem to lost. I've been struggling to motivate myself to get out of bed, snoozed many alarms and just felt useless. It's not like I've been having a completely bad time either, I've been out with friends drinking (which is apparently a new thing) and I have all the support I could ever need. It's almost a mystery to me why I'm still struggling so much even though I know the answer, I mean there are a few other problems stacked on top, some of which aren't even mine but are becoming slowly. 

I'm not really feeling anything now upon the eve of starting a fresh and I'm quite sad about that. It is a mix of things though, I believe. Of what I explained and maybe some hidden anxiety of meeting new people, having to deal with that, be an adult ect. Another worry is I have a whole new city to get used to. I'm not very familiar with Derby, only the main city centre as a pedestrian so basically I don't really know where I'm going. Or I do, but only just? I had a bit of a test run the other week with a friend which wasn't so bad, but that was mostly to see what parking is like. That was pretty easy but god knows how busy it will be during term time.

I'm still wondering what time I should leave tomorrow morning. I could leave ridiculously early and avoid all traffic at something crazy like between 6-7am or risk it at 8am. I don't need to be there until 10am but, I want a good free parking space. I'll probably leave later than I want to. Never mind.