'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..."