21/03/2011

I was off Wednesday due to having to arrange a fundraiser that same evening. I contacted the college to notify.

1st Study

Steve was off so we all went through to Cameron's. We immediately set out on 'dog river' which the whole class is gradually getting better at. I have pretty much completed the song but need to do some finishing touches. The middle section is the only part I need to work on. It changes position so can be strange to sight read. We then went onto 'all the things' which is fine and I really have the melody sorted. We also played through 'summertime' which is tabbed out so it isn't too difficult. I shall work on all the pieces for next week.

DAW

Daw was an absolute disaster. The computers wouldn't work for me and I only managed to get working 7 minutes before the end of class. I literally didn't get anything done. I know how to fix the problem but it took all of class to figure it out.

Band

Aidan and I went to the practice room and pretty much completed the song. We have all the sections finished, we just need to practice. We have one week until the gig. I have my own work to present to Aidan so we should be ready for the gig. We are arranging separate practices to be ready. We have arranged one for Tuesday in fact. I have been enjoying band and we are really making progress. I look forward to the gig. We went away with the idea to practice and be ready to start on new material in the next practice session.

14/03/2011

Session Skills

No one really arrived for session skills for some reason. I met Gavin and he gave me work to work on for next week. It is 'sir Duke' by Stevie Wonder.

Music Theory

We had our 1st Theory assessment. It went quite well. I am yet to find out the result. It was harder than i thought it would be. It covered everything we had done over the past month or two. I feel I should have at least a B. The first rhythm recognition question I feel I did quite poorly in. The rest of the exam I feel went ok, with exeption of a few examples but again overall I think the mark will be generally quite high.

Graded Unit

Music Theory took priority over Graded Unit so we didnt have any meetings.

1st Study

We had steve first and we paired up to practice improvisation. In the pair one would play chords while the other practiced they're improvisation. I found it ok, I am interested in chordal improvisation so I was exploring that. Cameron asked us to demonstrate 2 pieces to him just as an update to see how we are doing. I played my piece with Scott. We began with 'all the things you are.' I played reharmonised chords while scott played the solo that was given to us by Cameron earlier. Scott then in the B section played his reharmonised version over mine. It worked quite well though we will need to work on it. We then played 'summertime' which I hadn't played in a while. Still it was fine as I was sight reading and wasn't doing it from memory. Though still a bit of work needed.

DAW

Daw was really fantastic. I made great progress in my piece again so I am pretty much finished with the exception of mastering and perhaps adding a few more melody lines with the cello on Reason. I shall be finishing next week and then I must crack on with my website.

Band

Aidan and I have paired up and we went off to the room with the real upright in it. We didn't make as much progress and we would have liked but we still have a better understanding of the parts we are going to play and we worked out a melody over most of the sections. There are three at the moment. I look forward to playing live with Aidan. We plan to get the electric grand piano on stage with my Fender Twin Reverb. It will a jazz sort of set up. We plan to work on the same piece next week and perhaps start a new one. I have material already so I shall include this in the rehearsal.

7/03/2011

Session Skills

We ended up in the recording studio laying down the Al Green tune we had been wokring on. I enjoyed the process though I feel I could have produced a better last take. It ok though. It took us
perhaps 5 takes to get it down tightly. Nicole then layed down the vocals seperately. We will hear the end result next week. There will be brass recorded on top of it as well. I am enjoying session skills.

Graded Unit

We had individual meetings with Andrew. We talked about the deadline and the interview. I am currently on track with my graded unit and plan to create a pop up book style portfolio.

Music Theory

Unfortunately my meeting with Andrew over ran and music theory was full. I was meant to be in the class but people from the different group took part taking away spaces from the people who were meant to be in. OH WELL!

1st Study

Steve was off again so we had Cameron for the whole duration. We worked through all the pieces. We are all getting to end of the pieces and look like we are nearly ready to record them.

DAW

I got a lot of work done this class. I managed to almost fully finish a piece on Cubase with the beginnings of orchestration using reason re-wire. I am really enjoying the class though need to catch up on my website design.

Band

We have now started our new groups. I am doing a duet with Aidan. We have already started a tune Aidan wrote. Its funky and the timing is interesting. We have 4 weeks to produce 4 songs. We have already made a good start. In this 4 weeks we dont have to score our pieces though in the next band we will be writing for other musicians. I look forward to this.

28/02/2011

Wednesday I had an appointment in Edinburgh so I phoned in to let college know of my absence.

1st Study

Steve was off so we had Cameron for 3 hours. We went through all the pieces we are going to be presenting for our exam. We have begun a tune in various timings being influenced by Eastern music. I have been re harmonzing all the things you are as well. I feel prepared for the exam.

DAW

I worked solely on my CUBASE project. I didn't get much done as I was trying to figure out various tones and effects I could add to my track. I know where I am now so I can now concentrate on writing and recording. I will work on my website next week as well.

BAND

We watched our band gigs at FAT SAMS. We had to evaluate each other and ourselves. The performance was better than I thought. There were still some mistakes which was inevitable. Over all though I gave the band and myself a B plus. It was interesting watching myself back on video. I learnt a lot about my stage work and what I need to improve on.