"Back On The Right Track"

By now it is obvious that it's not just me that is finding our current Graded Unit work tiring, frustrating, and um...tiring, which actually makes me feel better about it. IT'S NOT JUST ME!

...so the holiday lag is completely gone, time is running out, and in the words of Charlie Sheen 'I got one gear...GO!'.


This week began in a normal fashion, bass lesson on Monday where I demonstrated a chord sequence I had put together and then played the melody I had constructed over the top. This was a very successful task in opening up my mind in 2 ways, the first; how to piece together a good chord progression, the second; how to construct a simple melodic line using different scales that fit over the chords. Both very useful skills that I require to develop further to aid me with composing and in teaching. That was closely followed by a quick chat with Marlisa Ross about my Graded Unit portfolio I am currently developing (nearly done!). The rest of the day was pretty laid back to be fair, no Creative Industries class due to people doing their mock interviews (got mine this Monday!) and Music Theory was pretty straight forward. I got my 'weekly' dose of exercise between 4pm and 5pm with my return to dance class after missing a few weeks. I rather enjoy getting to through people around and flipping them upside down!


Tuesday saw me jamming along with folk, working on putting together an original composition by The Lost Hounds very own, Amy Rayner, a quiet afternoon with no Reggae rehearsal (I can't believe it's all over!) but back in later for the typical Tuesday rehearsal with The Lost Hounds. Another new song under-way and some good work on the 2 already complete. Let's hope we can get the others finished before the Drouthy Neebors gig!

On Wednesday I once again was showing around some new faces, yet another greatly enthusiastic bunch. I'm looking forward to working with some of these guys next year, that is if their spirits aren't broken too quickly with the abundance of college work they will have to endure! I also managed to get a video recording done of myself playing one of my bass pieces for my portfolio. I will attach a link to it further down.


Thursday morning was another opportunity to get my creative juices going when in Song Writing class we had to use our time to compose an indie tune. This was pretty successful, although we never quite got it finished in the time given. I took a back seat for much of it but used my knowledge more to guide others in order to achieve that 'Indie' sound. Certainly a harder task to carry out when there are more of you unlike the previous week when we had written a Reggae song. In the afternoon I spent time rehearsing with the Funk band also playing the Drouthy Neebors gig. We simply worked our way through our set which consists of:

• Everybody Dance - Chic
• Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen  (better known as the theme tune from the Men In Black films)
• Too Funk To Druck - Original composition of mine
• Cut The Cake - Average White Band

Friday was quite a productive day! I got up expecting to be teaching early on but no lesson appeared...tut tut Jenny! I will get that video of you being silly posted on here at some point as my revenge. So sure enough I decided to use my time constructively and went about recording myself doing a couple more performances to be used in my portfolio. I managed to get good takes of both 'Shame' (Barlow, Williams) and 'Rewind' (Nutini) however I had to drop a few decibels from my usual singing volume as the video camera is very sensitive to it! I also spent some time on Friday writing up some more of my lesson plans. This folio of mine is starting to look great now with most of the materials being done!



And now the BIG Highlight of the Week!!!
Ok so this week has just flown by, it's that time where everything that needs to be done must get DONE and in order to keep the stress levels at bay, what better than a game of rounders! Yes, it has been a long, long time since I've taken part in a game but Wednesday changed all that. It really was top class and I'm delighted that I got the first home run. Brings back memories of a healthier me! Great game, great FUN!



So there you have it once again. Another week, another story. I could rant on this Blog forever, I've rather enjoyed doing them. Still a few more weeks to go and then my ramblings may be silenced...maybe.


Go check out my Facebook page for all the videos mentioned above @ www.facebook.com/iambobhollis

The JP Parsons Project...we are NOT racist!

Well another eventful week within college this week. I spent a lot of time in the theatre checking out many of the degree level projects which were all absolutely brilliant! A lot of great musicians on show. On Monday I attended my bass lesson as normal but not much was done due to my bass instructor's bass falling apart (LOL!) and other than that I had no classes. At mid-day we were entertained with a Jazz workshop featuring Ronnie Goodman, Pete Honeymoon and David Newton. They played there way through some timeless pieces, making it their own, such as 'Cheek To Cheek' and 'The Girl From Ipanema'. The show then split into the second part where some students got the opportunity to take the stage and join in the fun. I thought the show was great and think the college should do more like that. David Newton...what a damn good pianist! A pleasure to watch and listen to.


Tuesday kicked-off with a rehearsal with The Lost Hounds at 9am, followed up by a recording session in the studio at 10am. This was a great experience for me as I have had little opportunity so far to actually do some studio work. It took us a little while to get going as we kept debating whether or not to use a click track but in the end we went for it using one. I had a quick listen back to our track 'This Lonely Road' and was happy with my part. I didn't stick around long once my part was done as I had to run off to JP Parsons Reggae rehearsal which began at 10am also! I think I got there about 11.30am and we were still rehearsing at 2.15pm so the it was a long morning for me.


Wednesday began with showing more students round the College ( sorry...University! ) whilst they were here for interviews and auditions. A very enthusiastic bunch indeed! As we were walking round we noticed that in the theatre there was a talk being held featuring Jim Gellatly (freelance broadcaster, ex-XFM broadcaster), Del Cotton (managing director of Hire-A-Band), Davie Scott (singer/songwriter/Pearlfishers) and Rik Hart (professional sound engineer). We managed to stop on in for the most of it and it was really great to be able to get some first hand advice from the people themselves from all areas of the industry. Del Cotton's wise words of advice were something along the lines of "If you're a munter and your music's crap then who's gonna hire you?". Great advice Del, tell it like it is...but then can you explain how the hell Beth Ditto managed?! Jim Gellatly better watch out too as I still have his mobile number, he may end up with a cheeky wee phone call or two!


Thursday was a rough morning but I was pleased when, for the first time so far this academic year, our songwriting class actually got to go write a song!!! Ok, so maybe not quite the first time but it felt like it! We decided to go down the route of a Reggae song as a few of the guys from class needed assistance with ideas for there Reggae band. Within about half an hour we had it, starting with a simple, off-beat, guitar riff, fills on the keys, a groovey bass line and some laid back beats on the kit. I sat and wrote some lyrics from the top of my head, jammed through it a few times and HEY PRESTO...one Reggae song done! This was followed by D.A.W where I encountered problem after problem with trying to get a microphone to work with Cubase. After an hour or so of fiddling, twiddling, sheer frustration and the help of 3 members of staff it turned out to be a simple little problem. Another lesson learned. So let's hope that this week I can go in, set-up and get the recording done asap as my project is ever closer to completion!
 Band rehearsal with the Funk band (still nameless!) in the afternoon went smoothly. As we have an upcoming gig in Dundee we decided on our short set-list and ran through it a number of times. With the near completion of my original composition we decided to through it in our set too. Let's hope when our guitarist joins us next week that they can lay the finishing touches to it and really make it shine! So far things are still on track with these guys but time is drawing close, let's keep up the good work everyone!

...and now The BIG Highlight of the Week!
This weeks big highlight is without a doubt awarded to performing with JP Parsons Reggae band, on Friday afternoon, as part of his final project. After many many weeks of hard practise and great team-work the show was an absolute hit! I'd just like to say to everyone that this has got to be one of my favourite gigs I have ever been involved with, thank you so much to all of those who came to watch and listen! We all had such a great time and glad that our hard work eventually paid off...although there were certain elements that were not to everyone's taste, eh Ronnie?! But to be fair a totally topical experience was had by all, we had laughter and it made us smile : )


Well that does it for this week...no more Reggae band which upsets me but now looking on to my Funk band and of course The Lost Hounds up and coming gigs. Plenty to keep me going...oh and my Graded Unit stuff, all is well with that. See you tomorrow Marlisa!







"Don't forget your history nor your destiny" 
- Bob Marley

'Carry On Teacher'

Well here it is, the second instalment. This Blog to is to cover last weeks events which I have not yet mentioned.


So, with the return to College on the Tuesday for me (should've been Monday but due to gigging never made it back until Monday evening) saw the continue of rehearsals with both JP Parsons reggae project and The Lost Hounds (our Blues band!). Another productive day for both groups, the reggae band played through our entire set and spent a lot of time tidy things up, adding a few dance moves and generally having a laugh! To anyone interested in seeing exactly what we get up to I recommend you come see the show THIS FRIDAY at 1.30pm in the theatre, not to be missed. The Lost Hounds continued rehearsing an original song  entitled 'This Lonely Road', written by myself and some help on the lyrics from Amy Rayner, as we knew we had studio time coming up ( it was today but it will feature in the next blog). We also began work on, and completed, a new song which is very 'boogie woogie' blues, especially with the addition on Jamie Wilson on keys. Thanks Jamie, sounds awesome!


Wednesday was a great day for me as I had the pleasure of finally taking my first guitar student, Jenny Baillie, for her first lesson. It felt good to be back in the teaching seat! The lesson itself went very well, Jenny having already done some guitar made things a lot easier to bash on with and I'm looking forward to this weeks lesson. We spent our time just looking through some chords and then putting them into action with a couple of songs. Well done Jenny! I did however make a fatal error in not charging my camera completely and only caught the first half of the lesson on tape...Oooops! Lesson learned. Thanks Jenny!





Thursday was also a pretty productive day. In song-writing class we were split into groups of 3 and given a short musical extract split into 3 parts and had time to rehearse it then play it for the rest of the class (team-work). Short, simple, but good fun! D.A.W. was also good for me as my piece that I'm working on is almost complete, I just need to get an acoustic guitar part in there and some vocals so let's hope I can get that done this week as it will be one less thing to worry about. The afternoon saw myself, Jamie Wilson and Ivan Sveda in for our Funk band rehearsal. We had a quick run through our covers which are progressing nicely and also jammed (improvisation) through my original piece 'Too Funk to DRuck' and began works on Jamie's original piece too. A very nice bass line I must say was given to me by Jamie for it so I was very pleased!


Friday was a somewhat less productive day, although it did see me take another lesson (this time I made sure the camera was fully charged!), Sean Harkins who doesn't play guitar but knew a couple of chords already. Again this was a help to get him going. Similar to Jenny's lesson we went through some more chords, worked through a couple of songs and tried adding in a rhythm pattern with the right hand to enhance the sound. A very enthusiastic lesson and likewise we are both looking forward to the next one. Thanks Sean!


...and now the BIG Highlight of the Week!
This weeks big highlight for me got to be having been back in the teaching seat. It felt a little uneasy at first being on camera, which is something I'm not used to when teaching but it was definitely a great experience. Glad to have such enthusiastic people to teach, the last time I taught was in August so good to get back into the swing of things. Thanks again guys! Stick at it.


So there we have it, another fun filled fabulous week. Well that's all I have time for. I leave you with a quote from Kindergarten Cop...I mean would you like Arnie as your teacher?!?

[after the kids start complaining about "police school"] 
Detective John Kimble: Oh, come on... 
[shouts] 
Detective John Kimble: Stop whining! You kids are soft. You lack discipline. 
[shouts] 
Detective John Kimble: Well, I've got news for you. You are mine now. You belong to me. 






This is me on a good day teaching....


This is the bad....

'Take It Easy' ...read with caution, it's a BIG UN'!

Right then...where have I been for the past few weeks?! 


Well I'm sure we all enjoyed our lovely 2 week break which caused major distractions, upset sleeping patterns, has thrown any sense of organisation out the window and now has suddenly caught up on all of us! My apologies for the delay...let us now back track the numerous events that have been going on in my life recently. Where to start though, where to start...


PLEASE NOTE ; The following events may not have occurred in the order they appear. 2 weeks of holidays can really leave you disorientated and makes it difficult to think backwards and keep things in chronological order!



So my holidays started in the traditional fashion of a wild night out (networking?!) followed by a party in residences. I was woken the next day by a friend to ensure I didn't miss my train home to discover I couldn't walk properly, not due to still being drunk (well maybe partially) but having injured myself the previous evening...somehow. Anyway the journey home was an interesting one trying to drag a case and carry a large bag whilst limping.
 The first week was not a very productive one at all. A lot of time catching up with friends, some which I hadn't seen in a long time! I did however get my networking assignment done for Creative Industries class. I can happily say to Ronnie that I certainly do a lot of networking (going to a pub counts right?) so the assignment was no problem. It wasn't until the 14th when the fun really began as my band, More From Jim, had a gig in Dumfries at the DGone sports and leisure complex where they frequently host entertainment events. It was a strange one for us as it was a youth event, featuring 6 bands including ourselves, which sure enough meant NO DRINK (you'll be starting to think by now does he actually do anything other than bloody drink?!). On arriving we noticed the sound guy was a local boy whom we'd had 'difficulties' with before but thankfully things went much smoother this time, although our manager did have to go tell him twice during our set, and I quote, to "STOP F*****G AROUND!". We played a 40 minute set mixed with originals and covers and the place erupted into a sea of dancing, skanking madnesssssss!!! A fantastic response from the crowd, a lot of faces we see regularly at our shows and also a lot of new faces to entertain. All in all a great night was had by all! ...the gig was merely the beginning of the night for us though...


This show was quickly followed up on the 16th when we returned to local bar The Shed, Annan to play to the usual crowd of drunken loonatics, which actually disappointed us that night. It's not often we have our full 7-piece line-up on show, two gigs in 3 days with all of us, but when we do we play our hearts out. We played hard, tried our usual crowd interaction, a couple of jokes here and there, we jump around, even threw in a few new songs but everything we seemed to try that night went down like a lead balloon! The crowd just weren't with us but we played and got paid so who's complaining? Overall a quite disappointing night from my point of view but hey these things happen.

Fast forward now to the 22nd (nothing interesting happened between the 17th and the 22nd...honest) where I was back in my local, The Blue Bell, the best pub around, with my dear friend Sarah (a member of staff there)  where we entertained a rather small audience with our guitar duo, One Night Stand. Sarah used to be a student of mine and never thought she'd ever gig but that all changed sometime ago now. In case you were wondering too Sarah is a lot older than I (I'm not even going to guess how old it would be wrong of me!) and the gigging originally started as a one-off show, hence the name One Night Stand, but we continue even now to do a few shows here and there, playing a wide range of music, a lot of which is older than I am! Due to the nice weather that day I believe many people had been out all day and couldn't function properly to spend the evening out enjoying our music. It was a nice relaxing night really, a couple of friends were down from Perth whom I did not expect to see so that was a nice surprise too. Overall a great, relaxed night with maybe one or two pints too!


This next night the fun continued as One Night Stand headed on out to a pub at Hoddam, a large caravan park just a few miles away where we had played last Easter weekend too. Unfortunately the owner had forgotten to put up the posters advertising that there would be live music...silly Don! Not to worry though Sarah and I came prepared and by chance had a couple of posters in our cases so promptly went and stuck them up at the main gate and over the beer notice board. Needless to say the crowd was rather small for our first set, small but not quiet! Our own little fan club decided to join us that night (i've always wanted groupies, haha!) so it sounded like there were 30 people there! Thankfully as time went on people started to drift in and the place really picked up and we even achieved one or two sing along with the whole pub joining in which was really pleasing. The after party was also very enjoyable although I was someone out of place being the only male (YES, groupies!). The haggis and tattie scone rolls were particularly appreciated!


...heard enough yet?!? Well the fun doesn't end there...


The following day (we're on Sunday now) I was expected to return to Perth but things didn't quite go as planned. After More From Jim having already turned down a gig for this day due to unavailability of certain players another opportunity arose for me back at the wondrous Blue Bell. Having only went to watch the football, enjoy the BBQ and sneak in a few more pints of Guinness before returning to Perth I was 'coaxed' into playing one or two songs. Then things escalated as the pints kept appearing (and disappearing), One Night Stand once again took the stage and played through a few numbers, more ex-students of mine appeared and insisted I play along with them so I did ( I think there were 3 different students all wanting to play songs) and as time went on I simply didn't bother leaving...it was far to nice a day to be going anywhere but the Blue Bell, that and I maybe just couldn't resist free Guinness...come on I'm a student, we are bought cheaply! Haha!





So...this week I have the  BIG Highlight of the Holidays! :

My BIG highlight has got to be...oh I don't know! It was all so good. I think it has to go to being in The Waverley (yes that's a pub!), after the DGone show, where they have a real pinball machine, it was awesome! Also on that same night I couldn't believe my eyes. A few folks I know were playing a darts game and to finish my friend Beanman needed a double seven. He jokingly said to our friend Emma to try and so she did and hit it first time! The look on his face (and hers) was priceless. Definitely the highlight of the holidays!


Well people I'm gonna wrap this one up, but wait...there's more! I'll be posting a second Blog to cover the past weeks events too seeing as this only covers the holidays. Wow events in order, and who says drink is bad for you? It's the other days of the holidays I'm confused about, the days I wasn't drinking! Thanks for reading. Hope I haven't bored you to death. I'm just about to add some pictures to this to make it look a bit more colourful and less boring. Cheers  : )





SSSSSSSHHHHHH-TING!!!

Keith Lemon...what a funny guy! BANG TIDY!

                      

'Everybody Dance'

Dum dee dum dee dummm...

So...it's not quite Sunday and as opposed to the past 2 weeks I've taken the notion to be a day early this week with my blog (it's one less thing to do tomorrow!). So how have things been getting on this week? Well, Monday  saw the class sit a Creative Industries assessment, which was rather unfortunate for all living in the residences due to being without internet access for lengthy periods of time over the past few weeks. It also saw me bravely return to dance class run by Marlisa (she sure likes to see us work, where's the whip?!) which was absolutely great fun...tiring, but fun!

 Tuesday I found very tiring also, having stiffened up a bit from dancing and having to attend 3 bands, one after another between 12pm and 5pm really took it out on me. One of the situations that arose that day was a problem with keeping motivated, and not just for me. By 4pm or so at my Blues band rehearsal everyone seemed to be really tired, feeling down or just not 'feeling it' and this resulted in a non-productive practise. I don't think any of us could come up with a solution yet we struggled on in our attempts to create new materials and make the best of it. This is an area where I think we could all use some inspiration on how to keep ourselves creatively motivated even on bad days.

Thursday on the other hand was a largely productive day. In the morning I got to give a very short, presentation like talk about a few selected live performances I had chosen (from Youtube) on different stagecraft techniques. This was a great way for us to actually take the time to observe what bands do on stage and what really works well to enhance the overall performance. The task we were given initially was simply to go and find 3 examples of good movement, communication or crowd interaction from bands on stage and give a short explanation as to why you chose that particular example. Later in the day, when working in our bands, we got allocated some time in the theatre on the stage to try putting some of these actions into practise...I'm hoping Marlisa's dance class will help me improve my foot coordination, it's hard enough worrying about what your playing (and singing) without having to worry about which direction to move! I must admit though if we work together on adding a few more techniques I do believe the overall performance will really stand out. We can do this team! ..."Everybody Dance...do, do, do clap your hands".
 Also on Thursday I managed to add a guitar part to the current project I'm working on in Digital Audio. I have chosen to produce a version of The Coral's 'In The Morning' and all it requires now is for me to hit the studio and lay down some vocals so I can then concentrate on mixing it. If only the studios weren't shut after 6pm...

Here is a link to Chic's classic 'Everybody Dance', one of the songs we were developing our stagecraft to;
                    
                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOx81aG-EN4



and now...The BIG Highlight of the Week! This weeks BIG highlight has been chosen as I found it to be a very successfully completed task carried out by myself, Fraser, Amy, Wendy, Ruaridh (is that how you spell it RORY?!) and Stewart. After having joined Marlisa's Songwriting class, our task this week within our groups were to write a short piece that included at least four examples of the concepts we had been discussing in class. We included A cappella, Stop-time, a counter-melody and...well I forget what the fourth one was but I really really enjoyed this task, found it very helpful and the short piece we came up with I thought was absolutely brilliant! I could have played that same tune all day, very catchy! Thanks guys, great team-work! As always a pleasure to work with you all.


Well that just about does it for this week. Other things include having started writing more new songs for myself, jamming with Alissa to help her with song ideas and also began sorting out lesson plans for teaching. It was very tedious the other night spending about 4 hours or so drawing up guitar chord diagrams but they are now done so I'm happy. Tomorrow I must look out materials for both guitar and bass lessons that I begin teaching as of this week. Looking forward to be being back in the teachers seat!

Well there we have it...









"And now for something completely different..."

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Well hello again!

                          Sorry for the delay with this weeks blog once again, it is due to the same issue as last week when the college network went down all weekend!

So we are settled into second semester and the realisation of how much work is to be done between now and June seems to really be getting the better of some people...what's that old saying? "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I too feel the enormous pressure of the ever-growing workload at the moment as I have volunteered myself into extra band work ( currently 4 bands which are a Songwriting class band, a Funk band, a Blues band and a Reggae band which is a degree project! ) and unfortunately 3 of them all take place on the same day! I really enjoy working with so many different groups as it broadens and strengthens my knowledge and ability of many genres that perhaps I wouldn't have chosen to listen to or perform. Also all the people in each group are great to work with too, it amazes me how much you can learn from another person.

As for my bass studies I was caught a little off guard as my instructor requested that I re-record my assessment pieces as the previous ones didn't have a great audio quality ( due to recording equipment ). I wasn't expecting this as I knew I had already done them, all from notation too may I add, so I hadn't looked over the pieces in a few weeks but sure enough Jason ( bass instructor ) wished for them to be recorded there and then. After a quick panicked look through and with the added pressure I managed to play them pretty well, without any accompaniment and have since received my grades for the pieces. I was very happy when I was awarded an A for one of the pieces and a B for the other and just in case you were wondering the two pieces were 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' - as played by James Jamerson and Stevie Wonders 'Master Blaster'.


...and now time for the BIG Highlight of the Week! 

Looking back at last week's blog I was more than worried about the upcoming Music Theory exam. Well now a week on after having sat it I no longer worry as I was one of very few that sat the exam and passed! A couple of silly mistakes were made but they are to be learned from. I am now more confident in this area of my studies and hope it continues to improve over the next few months as it will coincide nicely with my bass studies as I continue to focus on developing my music reading skills.

PASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASSPASS

I once again have the...pleasure of showing around some new faces this week so I am looking forward to that, some more recording with Hannah I suspect and must look into preparing some of my lesson plans for my Graded Unit project. A whole heap of fun! Well guys that's all for this week, thanks for reading.

"Good times to be had..."

P.s. if anyone actually bothers to read these posts you will enjoy this video. Go check it out, it will make you smile!

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YPl0d3yso&feature=fvst

'Time Well Spent'

Hey folks!

A couple of days late this week for the blog thanks to the college network failing on me! But not to worry, these things happen. Well what can I say about this week? To be honest it has been full of ups and downs, my self-motivation has slipped completely this week and I feel it hasn't been a very productive one in many ways. I have sat and composed a few new songs on guitar, with lyrics, done recordings with Hannah, completed my planning stage for the Graded Unit Project (which I can't send at the moment, thanks again college network) and even though I know I can't post this yet I have sat and written this blog! It is currently 13:48 and the remainder of my day is to be spent revising for the Music Theory test I have tomorrow, which to be honest I'm not looking forward to!

One thing that I was involved in this week though was guiding students that were here at Perth College on Friday for their auditions. This for me was a great experience getting to meet some new faces, some that will hopefully re-appear on the course in September! Our group were mostly quite enthusiastic people that seemed very keen with the exception of one or two quiet ones. It was also quite nice to find out a bit about their background as musicians and what they look forward to doing in the future. It's scary to think that it has already been a year since I was the one coming up here for my audition, how time flys eh?!

BIG Highlight of the Week! this week has to be doing some recording on Saturday in Hannah's bedroom. I was asked to come and add some bass to a recording which I was more than happy to do! It took a number of attempts as I had no music to follow but we got there eventually and it is now sounding pretty good thanks to Hannah sitting playing about with the mix on Cubase. This then lead us to begin recording one of our own tracks, entitled 'Time Well Spent', that we had written a short while back. After a quick switch from the bass to an acoustic guitar we were on a roll. After just a couple of takes for the guitar we took it in turns to add our vocals, again each taking only a few attempts to lay something satisfactory down. We then sat for ages listening to the track and manipulating certain areas on Cubase which was the boring bit but soon got it sounding reasonable! Thanks Hannah! A much better day than sitting in my room and of course 'Time Well Spent'.

Check out our song by following the link below, remember this was done in a bedroom with a basic mic and had little mixing time...

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5xQBYKDRGg

Hope you enjoy!

                       

PEACE OUT!

"And in other news...Daddy Was A Cross-Dresser"

So where are we at now? Week 6 or so of this blog?


I know what your thinking...'what the heck is this going to be about with a title like that?!' READ ON TO FIND OUT!


The week began as any other normal week, bass lesson Monday morning was great! I played through some of the short classical duets I mentioned last week with Jason (bass instructor). Also was given the task to learn Stevie Wonder's 'Master Blaster', once again from notation only, which to be honest could use a little bit more work!


I rather enjoyed Tuesday as it held only band work. The first task of the day was to be creative and come up with a short musical phrase that contained an example of an ostinato and then perform it in front of others from the class. This was a short task but quite enjoyable as it tested our ability to work well as group and meet our deadline (as we only had a short time in which to do carry out the task). In the afternoon it was time for band practise with our newly assigned 'Blues' band. As it was our first rehearsal we spent the time jamming through a few ideas whilst lyrics were being written and this lead to one or two really good ideas! A great group of musicians to be a part of, looking forward to this week.



The Big Highlight of the Week has to be awarded to the task given in 'Song Writing' on Thursday morning. Mary has been really inspiring when it comes to finding new ways to be inspired for writing material. Having carried out a few tasks which include; writing a song inspired by an image, keeping a diary, taking someone else's lyrics and composing a piece around it, but this weeks task takes the biscuit. Using an article from a newspaper. We were teamed up into groups of two and set about finding a 'suitable' article which myself and Billy took to very seriously. Having glanced at a mere few pages it soon jumped out from the page at us...an article written in from a guy about how his dad was a cross-dresser and he was too embarrassed to ever introduce his girlfriend to him. Anyway Billy and I decided our song would be done to a like-ness of Aerosmith's age old classic 'Dude Looks Like A Lady'...except we had to have an original title, hence there was the birth of 'Daddy Was A Cross-Dresser'. I also think that in years to come it will reach a great level of fame, just as Aerosmith's song, and become an age old classic of our children's time, kinda like what would happen if Kid Rock were to  do a cover of it (please note the heavy sarcastic tones used here).

The whole week was topped off with a weekend full of joyous celebration, a great chance to catch up with a few faces back home, play alongside a few too at a party in my local on Saturday night, a whole heap of fun!


In the meantime...

"BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER"

"Life Goes On"

WOW! Is it really Sunday again already?!


This week has been a bit of fun one for me. Early in the week I got a chance to view video's of the performances in the theatre ( from week before Fat Sam's) and it really gave us all a chance to look back and reflect on how we appear on stage as well as a bit of comparison to the Fat Sam's Gig. I personally found that some people had taken a huge leap forward when it came to the Fat Sam's gig which really was a huge boost for them. The video's also sparked a lot of simple ideas as to how a lot of people can take the next step to improving even more, things as simple as bands making use of the full stage rather than all being bunched up in the middle! All in all reflection is an important part in becoming a better performer.



One of my main focuses this week has been to really work on my reading of music (particularly bass clef). I managed to download some pieces from www.virtualsheetmusic.com that have really helped me. As most of the works on there are classical pieces I used my initiative and got some double bass parts and cello parts including '12 Easy Duets' by Mozart, for double bass. These pieces are short but very useful as they came with MIDI and Mp3 backing tracks which have two different tempos (slow and fast!) and a click track. Also as they are duets each part has a tune and an underlying bass part so it has been quite fun to play around with them! I have actually shocked myself in being able to pick up a number of them in such a short time so here's to carrying on with that. A lot of the parts are in different key signatures too so it has tied in nicely with what has been discussed in Music Theory class over the past few weeks. If anyone so wishes for a copy I'd be more than happy or if any bass player out there has the desire to go through them together then come on down! They are duets after all! Let's have some fun with them!


I'm very pleased to say too that this week has really had my creative juices going and I have spent a lot of time composing some new songs (on acoustic guitar), with lyrics. I didn't have to look far to find my inspiration...a few weeks ago a dear friend of mine that I used to work with in teaching unfortunately passed away. He was a great man that always made me laugh, his passion for music was second to none and he really did have a lot of influence on me as an aspiring instructor. I was pretty upset about the whole ordeal because I enjoyed working alongside him and the last I saw of him was in August before moving up to Perth, so I decided that I would, using John's influence, write a song in dedication to him. Now John was a big fan of folk music so it did make me laugh when you would hear him playing a 'modern' song but somehow always manage to make it sound like a folk song. I thought to myself, folk isn't really a genre I know much about and certainly haven't played but I just looked back in my mind and thought "How would John play it?". I began with a simple chord structure so I could try and get my fingers round a best attempt at a finger-picking style and when I was happy I grabbed a pen and the words just seemed to flow on to paper by themselves. Hopefully sometime soon I will pop into the studio and get it recorded as for someone that doesn't know about folk other than what he heard a great man once play, I was very pleased! Below I have added a copy of the lyrics to show others.
  John was a very talkative man (just like me infact), he always had a story and I'm supposing that's why we became such good friends, as those of you that know me already have learned that I never shut up! Anyway that is all for this week. I hope you enjoy.


Life Goes On


Tell me a story,
One I've heard before,
But each time there seems to be just a little bit more,


When you were a young man,
Singing songs on the road,
Each song had a story just like the ones you told,


There'll be days go,
The days go by,
Well it's sad to see you gone but life goes on,


Tell me the story one more time,
Tell me the story with one more line,
Tell me the story of your life,


Tell me a story,
Like how you know Ralph McTell,
Or play me the 'Streets of London' 'cause you do it well,


Play me the guitar,
In a style true to you,
If you show me how maybe I could play it too,

Tell me the story one more time,

Tell me the story with one more line,

Tell me the story of your life,

Tell me the story one more time,

Tell me the story with one more line,

Tell me the story of your life,

Tell me the story one more time,

Tell me the story with one more line,

Tell me the story old friend of mine,

It is sad to see you gone but life goes on.

Perhaps some of you will get a chance to hear it some day, until then...

"it's sad to see you gone..."

Giggity-Giggity-GIG!!!

Well this week has probably been the most exciting week I've seen so far in the wonderland that is Perth. There has been loads of stuff to do! Personal highlights include performing at the HN gig at Fat Sam's in Dundee (WAHEY!) and attending The Scottish Brass Band Championships (Saturday only) at Perth Concert Hall, which is always a pleasure because it always comes with a side order of copious drinking!!!


So...Wednesday arrived, I felt like crap in the morning but managed to maintain a spring in my step as the excitement of playing at Fat Sam's that day was building inside me (I always get a little hyper when I know I'm going to be performing). The conversation on the journey to Dundee was perhaps a little too thought provocative for that time of day for me  but the free lift there was certainly appreciated (thanks Mary) and it gave me a chance to discuss other things from my course. Anyway, we arrived at Fat Sam's a little later than planned and sound-checks were already under way. All the bands were told the running order, some were more happy than others which makes no sense to me. Nobody ever seems to want to go on first. WHY NOT?!! I rather enjoy being on first! Why you ask? Simple. Get on, put on a damn good show and then make the next band have to work even harder to at least match, if not top your performance! They bloody hate it but I love watching some peoples reactions...you just see that look creep across their faces and you can almost hear the "Uh-oh" they're thinking in their heads! That said I don't think there was an added pressure to anyone's performance on Wednesday as every band was absolutely brilliant. A lot of hard work and effort had been put in by all and it definitely showed throughout the entire gig, so well done to you all!
 Sound-checks could have definitely been organised a bit better however. It did mean a lot of people were stuck waiting around for a long time whereas if it had been thought about beforehand every band could have been given a designated time to be there for. It could have saved a lot of hassle! Also I think they should have started them earlier as by the time one of the bands I was performing with had completed the sound-check we had less than half an hour left to go get lunch. This did annoy me as I don't know Dundee well, I would've appreciated being able to go wander about for a while but as one of my bands were on at 5pm I had no option but to ensure I returned promptly! All in all I don't have much else to say except it was a fantastic event, I look forward to the next one and working with as many musicians as possible throughout this semester. I'd also like to say thankyou to Alissa Toolan's band for playing a fantastic version Blondie's 'Maria', best song played all day!

oh...here's a little out-take photo from the gig. Claire Komar and her facial expressions caught on camera!

Next up was my wonderful day out on Saturday attending the Scottish Brass Band Championships in support of my home town band 'Annan Town Band' which were awarded 3rd place in the 2nd Section. After having met with the band on Friday evening to enjoy their rehearsal at St Matthews Church, followed up by joining them for a fantastic 3 course meal (when was the last time I had one of them!) and a light refreshment or two (or 10!). I think it was around 3.30am by the time I finally reached destination bed only to have to rise again at 7am!
 On the Saturday morning it felt nice to get my head clear on the walk down the road en route to meet up with the band. As I arrived most were looking bright eyed and bushy tailed with the exception of one. Big man Scott Carson (that's right named and shamed cause I know he'll never read this), one of the bands bass players, seemed to have bitten off more than he could chew when he was found feeling very very poorly. So poorly in fact that an ambulance had to called out to ensure he was in safe hands as the band had to hurry away to the rehearsal room at the concert hall. Unlucky big man, I personally thought it would've taken a bit than a a dodgy kebab to floor a butcher of your stature! For anyone that's ever in Dalbeattie (Dumfries & Galloway) and needs fine organic meat or prize-winning haggis then Carson is your man! Check out his website at;
http://www.thcarson.co.uk
I hear he does a big 10" special.

But after all that excitement it was merely the beginning of my crazy day. Annan were drawn to play second out of 12 bands, so it wasn't long until myself and wee Bob (cornet player with Annan Town Youth Band) were enjoying them performing. I thought they did absolutely terrific I just wish I could've been on the stage playing with them! Immediately after the band had finished they joined me and wee Bob out front, promptly deposited their instruments back on the bus, grabbed a couple of sausage rolls and then hit the pub! I'll not bore you with the details of the rest of the day as I must admit they are quite clouded! Essentially there were frequent visits in and out of the concert hall to listen to various bands perform and to support friends in other bands. The results came in at around 2.30pm and Annan were very happy to be awarded the 3rd place. A well deserved result. Well done everyone! ...the rest of my day spent out with a couple of trouble makers was memorable, yet I forget the details!

What a fantastic week! I'm looking forward to new bands this week in practical musicianship. It's gonna be so FUNK-in good!

I leave you all now with a Josh Groban quote;

"There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva."

z^! Skills 'N' Thrills !^z

So here we are at week 3.

This week I want to have a little look into a few of the skills, listed in last weeks post, in action. Not only are these skills key to being successful in a job but a lot of them apply to other aspects of life.

Firstly lets take a look at communication.

Communication is something people do from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep these days, particularly now with the ever increasing popularity of social networking sites and mobile technology such as calls, texts, Blackberry IM, etc. I'm sure if you were to take away phones or internet access the majority of people would be lost without it. They wouldn't know what to do because of the lack of communication with friends, relatives or colleagues. It almost seems like the convenience of being constantly connected to one another makes a lot of people feel closer. Everyone is just a call/txt/IM away!
 I personally find that sometimes this can have a negative effect. I'm sure everyone has had one of those days where they just wish they didn't have a phone, right? Surely we could just switch the phone off, yeah?! But we as humans seem to have grown dependant on this permanent connection to each other. Facebook is a prime example as you have a status box where you can tell your whole network of friends exactly what you're thinking as soon as you've thought it. I think that being able to share my thoughts is great...but others use it to express idiotic ramblings about how they hate someone, or so and so has been upto this behind my back, etc. are the days of privacy over? I guess what I'm trying to express is that communication is a powerful tool when used correctly. You can have good and BAD communication. From a teaching point of view tools like the internet are a joy! There you can access unlimited numbers of sources and materials, a lot of them free, which you can use and share or even add to yourself! This is great, it can save a lot of time writing out notation or TAB for guitarists/bassists when someone else has already done it. You can provide your own social network page or website for your students so that they can contact you with any queries, you can post homework assignments, keep them informed with current musical events, anything! Look at all the online learning that you can undergo today. This is the true beauty of communication. It just depends on how you choose to use it.


Secondly lets take a look into team work.

Team work is an essential in life. If one part of the machine fails to operate correctly then the whole machine fails to operate correctly. Looking into the work that I've done so far within bands at college the overall team work that I have experienced has been very positive! Various tasks have been set including learning covers, writing original material and covering stagecraft. One of the hardest tasks was simply agreeing on which songs to play as everyone had varied taste in music. This ties back in to communication in a sense as we used our communication skills to narrow down our choices without one person being left unhappy. For some people the genre that had been set was not to their liking or perhaps not the best suited to their abilities. They may have found some aspects of writing a song difficult, for example a 'Blues' song, simply because they knew very little about 'Blues' or don't have much experience in composing, whereas another band member may have found that composing is an area where their strengths lie. One situation that occurred when looking into stagecraft was that some band members feel more at home on the stage performing than others do. It wasn't until looking back at the video footage of the performance that we realised how noticeable this was to the audience and it doesn't reflect well on the band, especially if you play well but stand around like a bunch of stiffs! All it took to help our situation was a little coaxing, a little more practise at movements on stage and 'voila' after the next performance we looked back and thought 'yes, that's more like it!'.
 Essentially in band work you may not be good at everything and if you can see that someone has difficulty within an area i.e drummers writing a song, then lend a hand. Even a little reassurance from you can be enough to boost confidence in an individuals abilities and a lot of time it is confidence that is lacking.


And lastly lets have a quick look at flexibility and adaptability.

As you are already aware I have had experience as a guitar/bass instructor already. Being flexible and the ability to adapt are certainly beneficial to everyone. I would have students in for lessons that would last only 30 minutes so every half an hour you would have to adapt to the next student and their needs. For example I could have been teaching a young, beginner bass player followed by a 60 year old with an acoustic guitar that wanted to do nothing more than play songs by The Eagles, followed on by an advanced electric guitarist that was working on improvisational skills. It was very demanding! In order for everything to run smoothly you had to be very organised and there were days where things didn't run so smoothly!
 Every students lesson was based on a weekly basis and eventually I worked my way up to a full schedule of nearly 40 students at one point. The difficulty came more than once when somebody took up a new hobby or some form of extra-curricular activity and suddenly their allocated time slot was no longer any good to them. Trying to find another suitable time slot involved juggling around a few other bodies so that everyone was happy but it was easier said than done most of the time. There are a lot of people, especially the ones still at school, that have a LOT of hobbies.



So there we have it. One thing that I try to keep in mind when thinking about these skills and others is that a lot of them can be closely linked to one another i.e. bad communication skills could have a negative effect on team work so it is important to improve in all your skills whether it be work related or not.

Remember there is no I in TEAM...u may be thinking yes but there is a ME. Well if that's how you think just make sure that the ME counts and that the ME is a team player.



Until next time...
YOU STAY CLASSY SAN DIEGO!!!


Bob

Key Skills for THE JOB!

Well here we have the second instalment of this here weekly blog. This weeks task is to try and outline some of the key skills required when working as a guitar instructor. Fortunately enough for me I have had 3 years experience already, working with students of all abilities from the age of 6 to 60!


Some of the more important skills required include;

•             Self-motivation
•           Communication 
•           Commitment
•           Team Work
•           Creativity
•           Flexibility and Adaptability
•           PATIENCE!

Self-motivation is absolutely essential when it comes to this line of work. From my experience, having had 30+ students every week, you must motivate yourself! This involves ensuring that you have planned ahead and organised each individuals lesson to their needs. Everyone is different, everyone enjoys different music, everyone learns at a different rate so learn to be open minded and organised. This ties in nicely with the need for good communication skills. In order to achieve the best results for yourself and your students, being able to relay information in as simple-a-fashion as manageable makes life easier for everyone. 

 I believe music is supposed to be a fun experience for all that participate in it and so being creative certainly does help. What works for one person may not work for another, or they may struggle with things that others find relatively straight forward i.e rhythm, scales. Sometimes these things can be very boring of even stressful for you and the student so trying to find a more enjoyable way to put them in to practise always comes in handy. Being able to judge material suited to each individual is a key skill in its self too! Make sure that difficulties are not occurring because the material you have selected is way above the individuals capabilities...it can be very off-putting for them. Also ensure that they are not too easy otherwise there is no learning of new skills or development of the skills already in place.

 As an instructor it is highly likely you will be expected to cover more than one school in the area so flexibility and adaptability will be needed. I personally find it takes me a little while to adapt to new surroundings at first but remember it can be intimidating for students to meet a new teacher too. This is where team work really helps out. A strong teacher-student bond can be a help on the road to success. One way in which I achieved this is by giving students options. As I said earlier, everyone is different and they all have varied tastes in music. People change too and so can their taste in music so always keep the options open. To ensure students were progressing at a suitable rate I had materials which they MUST complete whether they liked it or not but to keep the balance I made sure to ask students what they would like to be learning. This is where I had to go away and learn songs by bands I've never heard of in order to show them. It's a good way of creating a bond,  it keeps it fun, it's encouraging for the students, but most of all you as the instructor will learn something too. Never expect something from the student that you wouldn't expect from yourself. Commit yourself to helping others...it's your job!

The most important thing in this line of work though has to be patience...in abundance! Imagine dealing with a 6 year old that can barely sit in a seat for 5 minutes? Or a 60 year old guy that takes about half an hour to even register that he's in a guitar lesson? Some days it can make you laugh, a lot of the time it can really start to get up your nose! In order for all the other key skills listed above to work successfully you must (and I can't stress this enough) have a load of patience. Especially if you're already having a bad day!

Well I hope this has been helpful and if anyone thinks I've missed anything essential please feel free to leave comments. Remember this is based on MY experiences, other peoples do vary! 

Everybody's different.

KEEP IT FUN!!!

Bob 

Welcome!

Hi there!

              My name is Bob Hollis and this is the first blog of many!I am currently a student at Perth College UHI, (well technically it is now The University of Highlands and Islands) studying the Popular Music course at HND level. These blogs will be added on a weekly basis and will revolve around work from our Graded Unit and my push towards becoming a guitar/bass instructor.

...it took me a while to realise that we are using BLOGGER.COM and not BLOGGERS.COM...glad I noticed though!