"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..."