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!