13/06/10
This will be my final blog! As I sit here in front of the computer with my ankle in bandages I feel a wave of relief at this fact. The latter half of this week has been one of tying up loose ends and attempting to recover from wedding related injuries. The wedding which was on Thursday was truly lovely. I was not only a guest but also involved in organising the music and playing the piano too. Unfortunately towards the end of the festivities wet grass and questionable shoes led to the familiar snap of my ‘Glastonbury Ankle’. Joy of joys.
Lessons have been going extremely well. In Phillipa’s lesson on Saturday we started to look more at the ABRSM Grade 5 theory material. I am determined to help her pass the exam by November. Georgie is coming on similarly well, and little Josh is just flying along too.
Wednesday
Audition! Scales. Done. Arpeggios. Done. Clare De Lune. Done. Did I remember to bring a second piece to play with me. No. In usual fashion I’d forgotten about that bit. I was preparing to play a piece from memory when Andrew remembered he had a copy of the Chopin piece that I’d played for my assessment. All in all, aside from that little glitch, I feel the audition went quite well. I spoke about what I hoped to achieve during degree and about what I felt I had achieved during the last 2 years studying for HND. Rather than being nervous I think I was just relieved that there was finally light at the end of the tunnel to getting all the work finished. It’s been a hard slog but I don’t think I have enjoyed anything more in my life than these 2 years at college. I’ve learned some hard lessons about time management and organisation and I am determined to put what I’ve learned to good use next year. I really really hope I get accepted for degree.
Monday, 14 June 2010
06/06/10
It has been the most beautifully sunny week. However, we have spent the majority of it down in the windowless bowels of college, rehearsing for the Composition class performance on Friday. Having this time all working together so intensely for long periods of time has made me realise just what we can achieve when we have the motivation and most importantly time. I have no doubt that given the time in the rehearsal rooms that we’ve had this week that we would be able to put together the performances for group work that usually takes us half a semester to put together. It was really enjoyable to play on a variety of different tracks as well. Liam’s compostion ’Music For An Animated Short’ was great fun to play and really effective, and it was great to get that contrast with pieces like Daryl’s which was quite reggae influenced and Mark’s that was very swing-based. I ended up singing on my own piece which was one of the most nerve-wracking things I have done in my whole time in college. I have sang and played on-stage before but it has always felt like playing a part. We are invariably dressed up and working to a brief. It feels very different to be singing your own song on such a big stage as yourself. The gig went well I think and was really fun to do, the adrenelin come-down afterwards was not so much fun!
The course work is coming together as well. DAW is nearly finished, and I hope I have nailed Adorno, cantankerous old communist that he was. It is just really a case of waiting to see if I’ve passed everything.
It has been the most beautifully sunny week. However, we have spent the majority of it down in the windowless bowels of college, rehearsing for the Composition class performance on Friday. Having this time all working together so intensely for long periods of time has made me realise just what we can achieve when we have the motivation and most importantly time. I have no doubt that given the time in the rehearsal rooms that we’ve had this week that we would be able to put together the performances for group work that usually takes us half a semester to put together. It was really enjoyable to play on a variety of different tracks as well. Liam’s compostion ’Music For An Animated Short’ was great fun to play and really effective, and it was great to get that contrast with pieces like Daryl’s which was quite reggae influenced and Mark’s that was very swing-based. I ended up singing on my own piece which was one of the most nerve-wracking things I have done in my whole time in college. I have sang and played on-stage before but it has always felt like playing a part. We are invariably dressed up and working to a brief. It feels very different to be singing your own song on such a big stage as yourself. The gig went well I think and was really fun to do, the adrenelin come-down afterwards was not so much fun!
The course work is coming together as well. DAW is nearly finished, and I hope I have nailed Adorno, cantankerous old communist that he was. It is just really a case of waiting to see if I’ve passed everything.
30/05/10
This week has been a veritable nightmare! My parents are on holiday, Tennessee has been off school and I have had my Graded Unit Interview and Presentation and also the deadline for articulation. Thursday night saw me pulling an all-nighter, ironing out my score for articulation, finishing off the Powerpoint presentation for the next morning, and generally stressing about everything. The articulation score has come together well I think. It has ended up being 52 pages long and it was a real challenge to attempt to score the string and brass sections, but the triumph of finally printing it out and putting it in a folder was immense. It was also hard to write about a piece that has so many elements in it. It would have been possible to continue pointing out features and devices for pages. The graphic score part was actually quite fun to do. I ended up making a giant pop-up card. Nearly super-gluing your fingers together at 4am is not so much though. The graded unit presentation was a different kettle of fish altogether. I know that others had produced all-singing, all-dancing presentations but what I really wanted to focus on was the job in hand, namely teaching. All the teaching work I have done over the last year at drama and privately has really focussed my mind on what I want to do but also why I wanted to do it and I felt that it was important to put this across during my presentation. I think the presentation didn’t go too badly. I wait with baited breath for the results!
On a brighter note - The fundraising gig went AMAZINGLY well. All the bands were fabulous and we raised £650 on the night for Pancreatic cancer. This however will be the last time I organise an event like this so close to al the course-work deadlines. Having to confirm all the bands, beg for the P.A, sort-out running times, raffle prizes and basically do everything on top of college commitments has nearly given me an anuerysm. But I am extremely proud of what we managed to do. Arran the sound engineer was truly amazing and did a great job and it was great to see all the college from NQ right up to honours year come-together to support something like this.
This week has been a veritable nightmare! My parents are on holiday, Tennessee has been off school and I have had my Graded Unit Interview and Presentation and also the deadline for articulation. Thursday night saw me pulling an all-nighter, ironing out my score for articulation, finishing off the Powerpoint presentation for the next morning, and generally stressing about everything. The articulation score has come together well I think. It has ended up being 52 pages long and it was a real challenge to attempt to score the string and brass sections, but the triumph of finally printing it out and putting it in a folder was immense. It was also hard to write about a piece that has so many elements in it. It would have been possible to continue pointing out features and devices for pages. The graphic score part was actually quite fun to do. I ended up making a giant pop-up card. Nearly super-gluing your fingers together at 4am is not so much though. The graded unit presentation was a different kettle of fish altogether. I know that others had produced all-singing, all-dancing presentations but what I really wanted to focus on was the job in hand, namely teaching. All the teaching work I have done over the last year at drama and privately has really focussed my mind on what I want to do but also why I wanted to do it and I felt that it was important to put this across during my presentation. I think the presentation didn’t go too badly. I wait with baited breath for the results!
On a brighter note - The fundraising gig went AMAZINGLY well. All the bands were fabulous and we raised £650 on the night for Pancreatic cancer. This however will be the last time I organise an event like this so close to al the course-work deadlines. Having to confirm all the bands, beg for the P.A, sort-out running times, raffle prizes and basically do everything on top of college commitments has nearly given me an anuerysm. But I am extremely proud of what we managed to do. Arran the sound engineer was truly amazing and did a great job and it was great to see all the college from NQ right up to honours year come-together to support something like this.
23/05/10
I am too busy to write much this week. Been running around begging people for raffle prizes for the fundraiser, doing loads of college work and also have no babysitting as the folks have gone off on their yearly sojourn to Cyprus. Think of this post as a kind of cliffhanger for the culmination of everything next week.
I am too busy to write much this week. Been running around begging people for raffle prizes for the fundraiser, doing loads of college work and also have no babysitting as the folks have gone off on their yearly sojourn to Cyprus. Think of this post as a kind of cliffhanger for the culmination of everything next week.
16/05/10
Went to watch Elaine and Rob’s degree project, ‘Rocky - The Musical’ on Tuesday. It was amazing considering the utter stress I’ve seen Elaine under during the last few weeks. Coupled with the work I’ve done at drama it’s really inspired me to get going with the musical project I’m planning for degree. I know that a lot of people fancy writing a musical, since being involved with this production but I’m hoping that the experience I’ve gained from working with drama will allow me to create a really professional show.
Managed to get the posters done for the fundraiser really cheaply through my friend who’s a printer. Got them all up around college this week as well. Have also started selling raffle tickets for the event. Now I need to start working on getting some more really good prizes.
Went to watch Elaine and Rob’s degree project, ‘Rocky - The Musical’ on Tuesday. It was amazing considering the utter stress I’ve seen Elaine under during the last few weeks. Coupled with the work I’ve done at drama it’s really inspired me to get going with the musical project I’m planning for degree. I know that a lot of people fancy writing a musical, since being involved with this production but I’m hoping that the experience I’ve gained from working with drama will allow me to create a really professional show.
Managed to get the posters done for the fundraiser really cheaply through my friend who’s a printer. Got them all up around college this week as well. Have also started selling raffle tickets for the event. Now I need to start working on getting some more really good prizes.
21/03/10
The Hip-Hop Gig
This week has been stress, stress and more stress. I have suffered immeasurably at the hand of Franco Fabbri and am still unable to successfully type the word ’semiotic’ on the first attempt. However, ’appropriation’ seems to come with relative ease. Why is this? The dreaded Will Smith Medley that was planned for the grande finale’ of our Hip-Hop set inevitably bit the dust on the morning of the gig. After spending most of the day in college on Tuesday attempting to create a believable backing track from samples taken from the actual songs we intended to medley on the dreaded CuBase, I finally had to admit defeat as the final product sounded not unlike a poorly put together karaoke track. HOWEVER! It is better to try and fail than to never have tried at all! The ditching of the track was met with true Dunkirk spirit by the hasty re-working and inclusion of Rapper’s Delight . We did not succumb to the pressure of Glasgow and rose suitably to the occasion. This last minute change of plan also allowed me time to set my paws on some proper hip-hop bling-bling. I would like to mention that the morning of the gig was also the first occasion in which we were able to rehearse in a proper rehearsal room with a working P.A. Such are the occasional joys of Perth College. The gig went, I believe, rather well. I feel we were able to deal smoothly with any on-stage hitches and last minute changes that occurred. I also felt that it was a good gig in so far as we had great fun on stage and I think the audience enjoyed it too. Beer was drunk in celebration, kebabs were eaten in hunger and a good night was had all round! It was a real change to be performing outside of college and I think this really added to the atmosphere and sense of purpose for all of the bands. It is soul-destroying to work over such a long period towards a performance only to be faced with a practically empty hall (and no chance of a beer afterwards.) So thanks to Andy and Marlisa for organising everything. Next time Wembley? Everything was filmed for Graded Unit so next weeks task will be to get everything off film and onto computer to begin the task of editing. Will the joyousness never end!?
Almost as exciting was my first lesson with a proper pupil on Tuesday afternoon. - proper meaning small child who I have not met before. Scary stuff! Josh is 7 and totally new to music but a really quick learner. Can you tell this early whether someone will be good ? I’m not sure but he certainly picked up the key concepts quite fast. I really hope he gets ‘the bug’. Anyway, it wasn’t half as scary as I imagined! Another lesson next Tuesday where we shall reconsolidate what we learned last time (crotchets, minims, semi-breves, barlines, loud and soft…….) and move on a little further in the book!
My child off with tonsillitis again so a missing of classes Thursday and rehearsal with Ross on Friday. I hope to make this up to him on Monday! On a brighter note, parents evening alleviated any fear that my child may have sociopath tendencies. She is doing really well, “has not a mean bone in her body” “ has a calming effect on other students” and will “never be in danger of suffering from high-blood pressure”. Hooray…. Onwards and Upwards…..
The Hip-Hop Gig
This week has been stress, stress and more stress. I have suffered immeasurably at the hand of Franco Fabbri and am still unable to successfully type the word ’semiotic’ on the first attempt. However, ’appropriation’ seems to come with relative ease. Why is this? The dreaded Will Smith Medley that was planned for the grande finale’ of our Hip-Hop set inevitably bit the dust on the morning of the gig. After spending most of the day in college on Tuesday attempting to create a believable backing track from samples taken from the actual songs we intended to medley on the dreaded CuBase, I finally had to admit defeat as the final product sounded not unlike a poorly put together karaoke track. HOWEVER! It is better to try and fail than to never have tried at all! The ditching of the track was met with true Dunkirk spirit by the hasty re-working and inclusion of Rapper’s Delight . We did not succumb to the pressure of Glasgow and rose suitably to the occasion. This last minute change of plan also allowed me time to set my paws on some proper hip-hop bling-bling. I would like to mention that the morning of the gig was also the first occasion in which we were able to rehearse in a proper rehearsal room with a working P.A. Such are the occasional joys of Perth College. The gig went, I believe, rather well. I feel we were able to deal smoothly with any on-stage hitches and last minute changes that occurred. I also felt that it was a good gig in so far as we had great fun on stage and I think the audience enjoyed it too. Beer was drunk in celebration, kebabs were eaten in hunger and a good night was had all round! It was a real change to be performing outside of college and I think this really added to the atmosphere and sense of purpose for all of the bands. It is soul-destroying to work over such a long period towards a performance only to be faced with a practically empty hall (and no chance of a beer afterwards.) So thanks to Andy and Marlisa for organising everything. Next time Wembley? Everything was filmed for Graded Unit so next weeks task will be to get everything off film and onto computer to begin the task of editing. Will the joyousness never end!?
Almost as exciting was my first lesson with a proper pupil on Tuesday afternoon. - proper meaning small child who I have not met before. Scary stuff! Josh is 7 and totally new to music but a really quick learner. Can you tell this early whether someone will be good ? I’m not sure but he certainly picked up the key concepts quite fast. I really hope he gets ‘the bug’. Anyway, it wasn’t half as scary as I imagined! Another lesson next Tuesday where we shall reconsolidate what we learned last time (crotchets, minims, semi-breves, barlines, loud and soft…….) and move on a little further in the book!
My child off with tonsillitis again so a missing of classes Thursday and rehearsal with Ross on Friday. I hope to make this up to him on Monday! On a brighter note, parents evening alleviated any fear that my child may have sociopath tendencies. She is doing really well, “has not a mean bone in her body” “ has a calming effect on other students” and will “never be in danger of suffering from high-blood pressure”. Hooray…. Onwards and Upwards…..
14/03/10
Where has Graham gone?
Ah…. The joys of playing 4 hours of piano on a Sunday lunch time. More specifically a Mothering Sunday lunchtime. At times I love my job but after four years in the same place it becoming slightly lack-lustre although swapping Saturday nights for Sunday afternoons has meant less having to fight with the ever-increasing volume of the dinnertime crowds. However….. The boss has disappeared! A sharpish transfer to Edinburgh! And we are to have a new manager in May! I have now seen out approximately 7 of them - although I fear I have lost count some-what.
Spent Saturday night working on Fabbri (may black-horned imps prick his heels for eternity in a fiery pit ringing with the screams of the souls he has tortured in life and filled with the stench of the charnel house). That was fun.
Friday was practice with Ross for his degree project. We’re working on the Oletta Adams’ track ‘Get Here’ along with some Paul Young. More work on the horrendous Will Smith Backing track is follwed by articulation class and an hour and a half with the wonderful Keith Jarrett. Who I quite like. Pete explained to us what is expected of us in regards to course work for assessment. We have to choose a piece of music, produce a score, write an analysis of the track and also produce a graphic representation of the piece. I feel the stress piling on my shoulders already. I think the key is in the choosing of the track. Although in a notational sense some pieces of music may be slightly more complicated I think they might possibly offer more scope for analysis and graphic representation.
Thursday we had a one to one with Marlisa. Which was nice. Everything seems all good but the prospect of completing all I intend to achieve in relation to Graded Unit hangs heavy on my soul. I think time constraints are a real issue as far as it is concerned. Where as most people will be using their Easter Holidays as an opportunity to put some real leg-work into the completion of Graded Unit presentations and portfolios I shall be attempting to entertain one easily bored insomniac 6 year old. I fear I shall have to be either cruel or devious or both in order to get any work done. Logistics! It’s all about the logistics! Later on Thursday we ran over Fabbri again (although unfortunately not literally). Session skills yet again was comprised of a lot of hanging around and slow-coach sound engineering students. Again I recorded nothing. I think it is as frustrating to Gav as it is to the rest of us, although , as with real-world gigs, real-world recording sessions involve a lot of hanging about so I suppose it’s true to life. Afterwards started on Will Smith Backing track in DAW as have decided it just is not going to work with the keyboard….. it had better bloody work with cuBase!
Wednesday.
Practice. Stuck in the smallest room ever again! Without a properly functioning PA! Been trying to programme backing tracks in to my keyboard for the ill-fated Will Smith medley over the beginning of the week. Not convinced it’s going to work. We have to put together a soundtrack to a Tom and Jerry cartoon excerpt in Marlisa’s composition class. The instrumentation and compostion in the original scores of similar cartoons are of great complexity and I think even though we have a strong group of musicians that this will be an extremely challenging task.. Hope to perhaps have a look at it during DAW tomorrow and see where we may be able to work on sound effects that we can trigger on laptop during the actual performance. First Study is plodding along well also. Feel much more confident with my scales both Major and harmonic minor in 3rds and major scales in 6ths. The harmonic minor 6ths are still causing me grief but I believe they will come with practice. Generally ….All quiet on the western front.
Oh and now we all have to audition for degree. My cup runneth over.
Where has Graham gone?
Ah…. The joys of playing 4 hours of piano on a Sunday lunch time. More specifically a Mothering Sunday lunchtime. At times I love my job but after four years in the same place it becoming slightly lack-lustre although swapping Saturday nights for Sunday afternoons has meant less having to fight with the ever-increasing volume of the dinnertime crowds. However….. The boss has disappeared! A sharpish transfer to Edinburgh! And we are to have a new manager in May! I have now seen out approximately 7 of them - although I fear I have lost count some-what.
Spent Saturday night working on Fabbri (may black-horned imps prick his heels for eternity in a fiery pit ringing with the screams of the souls he has tortured in life and filled with the stench of the charnel house). That was fun.
Friday was practice with Ross for his degree project. We’re working on the Oletta Adams’ track ‘Get Here’ along with some Paul Young. More work on the horrendous Will Smith Backing track is follwed by articulation class and an hour and a half with the wonderful Keith Jarrett. Who I quite like. Pete explained to us what is expected of us in regards to course work for assessment. We have to choose a piece of music, produce a score, write an analysis of the track and also produce a graphic representation of the piece. I feel the stress piling on my shoulders already. I think the key is in the choosing of the track. Although in a notational sense some pieces of music may be slightly more complicated I think they might possibly offer more scope for analysis and graphic representation.
Thursday we had a one to one with Marlisa. Which was nice. Everything seems all good but the prospect of completing all I intend to achieve in relation to Graded Unit hangs heavy on my soul. I think time constraints are a real issue as far as it is concerned. Where as most people will be using their Easter Holidays as an opportunity to put some real leg-work into the completion of Graded Unit presentations and portfolios I shall be attempting to entertain one easily bored insomniac 6 year old. I fear I shall have to be either cruel or devious or both in order to get any work done. Logistics! It’s all about the logistics! Later on Thursday we ran over Fabbri again (although unfortunately not literally). Session skills yet again was comprised of a lot of hanging around and slow-coach sound engineering students. Again I recorded nothing. I think it is as frustrating to Gav as it is to the rest of us, although , as with real-world gigs, real-world recording sessions involve a lot of hanging about so I suppose it’s true to life. Afterwards started on Will Smith Backing track in DAW as have decided it just is not going to work with the keyboard….. it had better bloody work with cuBase!
Wednesday.
Practice. Stuck in the smallest room ever again! Without a properly functioning PA! Been trying to programme backing tracks in to my keyboard for the ill-fated Will Smith medley over the beginning of the week. Not convinced it’s going to work. We have to put together a soundtrack to a Tom and Jerry cartoon excerpt in Marlisa’s composition class. The instrumentation and compostion in the original scores of similar cartoons are of great complexity and I think even though we have a strong group of musicians that this will be an extremely challenging task.. Hope to perhaps have a look at it during DAW tomorrow and see where we may be able to work on sound effects that we can trigger on laptop during the actual performance. First Study is plodding along well also. Feel much more confident with my scales both Major and harmonic minor in 3rds and major scales in 6ths. The harmonic minor 6ths are still causing me grief but I believe they will come with practice. Generally ….All quiet on the western front.
Oh and now we all have to audition for degree. My cup runneth over.
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