Forth Time’s a Charm: Week 4

Hello and once again it’s time I bring you tales of my life from this week of college. I hope you have a glass of water with you because this week’s post will be a bit dry, as not that much has changed (except they live underwater)(*sigh*). Anyway as I previously mentioned, I was at a wedding. I must say I had a lot of fun, but I tore the gooch out of my best suit doing the cha-cha slide, which doesn’t really help much with anything at all. But other than that it was all very good. I don’t think there is any other news. If I remember any news whilst I’m typing, I’ll type it.
So this week in research and analysis class we talked about how to write a literature review, I would like to impart what I learned about literature reviews, however I may have switched off because of maximum interest limitations. I actually only really remembered what we did in that class because my flatmate told me. Although I do know we have to write a literature review for our dissertation and submit it in the near future. See! I was listening! Also in that class we talked about being more reflective in our blogs. Well, I feel that I should have listened more intently in that class, as I would have learned more about literature reviews. There, I’m putting my learning in action. The remainder of that class was spent ‘doing’ the ensemble proposal. We sat around for a while and tried to fathom out what to do, which to be honest was quite a simple task, but due to our lack of care we just didn’t do it. I’m pretty sure we finished it but I think we could have done a better job.
Well you can probably guess what happened in the digital audio multimedia production class. Not a whole lot. Again we fought with our proposal, which is becoming a recurring theme of the class. Although this week, our lecturer asked us to propose our proposals to each other, which I found to be quite helpful as it helped unravel the mystery that is the task of that class. But to many people in the class this seems like just a time-wasting task for four weeks in. There were quite a few people who had informed me of their concerns of the class.
After that we had ensemble practice which I thought didn’t go very well. The first hour or so we spent looking for a room to practice in. If we didn’t have help from Ronnie we probably wouldn’t have had any success. I think we should have gone down to the practice room a bit earlier. Once we started practicing, we had realised that we had forgot most of the songs and we hadn’t had a practice for a couple of weeks, so we were pretty rusty. This made the practice quite unproductive as we were just going over old material which we should have already known. I also felt that all our playing was a bit sloppy. I think we all should have practiced the songs really. However the dance moves were spot on!
The next day I had my advisor meeting. It was fine. No real issues. I had to raise issues regarding digital audio though, but that’s my duty. After that I had a meeting with my designer. He produced a mood board with various images on it. I was impressed; however I had noticed that other people’s designers had sketches and pictures for them. But what can I say? He’ll have something for me next time. During this time we looked at different fonts which took my fancy. It was fine. We have also been given some more written work for a laugh. Great. Some sort of case study about performer’s who have designs that impress you. I’m sure I’ll be able to fit in my part time art critic’s job with my degree work (actually to counteract my initial cynicism, I probably could do that, I’m only in college two days a week and if I did a bit more knuckling down and did my work straight away.)(*sigh*).
The final class of the day was specialist production, which filled with tragedy. First up, I was handed back my proposal as I had some corrections to do which actually isn’t much of a tragedy. I went away and corrected my mistakes, but apparently that wasn’t enough. He said that I had to put some quotes into the justification, which I don’t understand because it’s a proposal for my project... I’ll do it anyway. But the main tragedy was my sound engineer dumping me! I was distraught for seconds. But ‘my case’ was handed to another sound engineer, whom was a bit unsure of taking my proposal to give him an idea of my project. I think he hadn’t been to the class before; he seemed like he didn’t know what he had to do. This should be fun.
Well I should post again next week.
Daryl

Third Time’s a Charm, Occasionally: Week 3

Hey everyone, it’s that time of the week again where I mandatorily ramble on for a bit about stuff that has or hasn’t happened. Great. Might be a bit dry this week, as not a whole lot has went down. I’m going to wedding tomorrow, just thought I’d add that in there. I’ll tell you about it next week.

Well I’ll start the way it usually goes down. This week I received a call about depping for someone, however it’s not your usual dep. I have been asked to fill in for a guy in an Abba tribute group, but wait it gets better, I have to dress up in some sort of cat suit and miming is also optional... I won’t lie, I am looking forward to it as I reckon that it will be a good opportunity to meet some contacts plus it’ll be an easy £75. Also this week I was asked to write a petition letter, as I am Daryl Hockin Esq.: Student Representative P.I. It was a known issue that instrumental tuition (the absence of it from our lives) had been talk of the town and word on the street was that people wanted it. Badly. Some would do anything to get it. Even pay. So I set out with my posse to write a letter that would “fuck the establishment”. I won’t lie; the letter looked pretty good and read rather well. But despite the effort from all the signatures and admin, the letter’s only effect was a meeting shortly afterwards, which supplied a very firm and roundabout ‘NO’. Student Power!! (Fails again).

Moving on to my week of college endeavours firstly was my research and development class, which was as wonderfully entertaining as ever. We got some sheets about something or other and then we ‘read’ them, but I’m pretty sure they were probably important. I still have them. Honest. Then we moved on to something else about learning how to make surveys, it was quite useful, or it will be at least. As we did that we also worked on our ensemble proposal as a group and didn’t watch funny videos on YouTube. Also during this time, we were called up individually to discuss our dissertation topics. It was seen that my Music and Alcohol topic was the strongest. I explained the various things that would be covered in my dissertation. Once again I will elaborate later. But I came up with a witty title on the spot, which I am half and half proud of and ashamed of.

Music and Alcohol: Gin and Tonic Chords.

I am the king of puns. However, I think that I could come up with a better one with a larger time-span. After that class was the riddle class, where we, once again, wrote proposals, which didn’t go anywhere. I just want to do a spoof trailer. Please let me get on with it. I could have done research for it, if there was Internet in that room, but there is not, which therefore stunts the growth of my project.

Ensemble this week was a bit of a failure too. The bass player and the sax player had to play with their other band this week, so we decided to write the group proposal. However, Tiffy had his new Micro-Korg with him and one thing lead to another and we ended up we worked on the choreography for the Blues Brothers show... I just can’t get that Charleston right in the chorus....

The next day we had that ‘meeting’ and we all know how that turned out. Afterwards we met up with our designers for our portfolio again. We were puzzled by this sheet we had to fill out and why I had to make a mood-map (which had some cool stuff on it). I really should listen more sometimes. But we eventually got the sheet finished and discussed what he had come up with, which wasn’t actually anything. It was ‘in Glasgow’ apparently, which from past experience means that he’s done bugger all. I let him off cause he’s a nice guy, but I did tell him to have something for next time.

Despite all the non-productivity of the rest of the classes, Production was the odd one out of the ‘week’. As this week we met up with our sound engineers and discussed our ideas. I met my engineer by shouting “Anyone wanna do some Pop music?” which was followed by the reply “Yeah Ok”. My engineer is called Bryan and was interested in helping me out with my project. I gave him a copy of one of the songs that I had written to be part of the project. I have yet to hear his thoughts but I think he will have some good ideas.

That’s it for this week guys.

Daryl.

College Week 2: The Streets

Hello again, it’s that time of the week where I tell you about my life (at college). This week’s post will be written in advance of posting as, unfortunately I temporarily have no Internet connection. However despite that oh so tragic news, it is just a Trojan horse of good news waiting to attack you with glory. The news is that I and two of my fellow college mates have finally found an abode in which to dwell for the college terms. We live in a flat now and not the ‘street’. We are overjoyed. In other news this week, my eye still looks horrendous as it is all zombie-like and red. Also this week, I shall be putting my student representative status into force with a ‘student power’ letter, but we’ll hear more about that later.

Now to talk about this week’s college based antics. As per usual, first up on Monday morning was the research and management skills class, or what it really should be called, the dissertation appreciation society – with mandatory membership. During this week’s class we discussed how to do a bibliography properly, it was very essential. We looked at previous dissertations of form former students to spark inspiration. It inspired me to write a poem. Not really. Although we did have to write our own bibliography for the next research and management class, problem was I didn’t have a topic for my dissertation at that point. So skipping forward in time a few days and hours, I sat down with my laptop and racked my brain for things I was interested in which I could write about. I thought about the Average White Band for a while, but then I couldn’t really come up with a topic that involved them directly, maybe a cameo mention but that’s just not the same. In the end I came up with three topics:

Music and Alcohol – Let the Good Times Roll?

When Did R&B become R’n’B?: A study of change in context.

Music and Movies: Does a Soundtrack Determine a Film’s Success?

Although all of these topics are my ‘children’ I must choose the strongest to develop. I think the Music and Alcohol topic will be the strongest for a dissertation topic as I reckon there will be some room for ‘experimental’ research to come to a conclusion.

Next up was the mystery bag of a class, Digital Audio Production Multimedia. This week the mystery started to unravel a bit more as the lecturer explained more about the final product. Although still not as ideally clued up on the class as I’d like to be, I have a rough idea about what I’m going to do. Essentially he would rate our idea on paper first before we are a loud to do anything about it, so I spent most of my time in the class this week writing a proposal and then waiting in a queue for him to read it, which never happened. However I did finish the proposal and then later e-mailed it to him, still awaiting a reply. My idea for the class is to film a spoof trailer for an imaginary film and the write, record and overdub the music for the trailer. I hope it goes well.

After that was band practice for the ensemble project, which I have recently found out that we have to write a proposal for and an essay about the chosen topic. That doesn’t really tickle my fancy. However despite this band practice went off to a promising start. Once we tuned up and plugged in, we went straight into a whole load of the Blues Brothers. Soul Man was our first tune, which might I say, we nailed pretty quickly, even with some dance steps. It was great fun. Second we played Sweet Home Chicago, which was also very fun to play and a guitarist’s blank canvas. We jammed that out for a while and it was sounding great. I had some mild concerns about the Sax player as she didn’t seem to play along with that song, but that may have been my fault as I didn’t tell her the right key, but I have full confidence that she will be able to do it next time. The third song we played was the Blues Brothers big hit; Everybody Needs Somebody (To Love). Once again it was a really simple song to play as it’s pretty much straight comping all the way through; however it is also really fun to play. By the time we had done that an hour and a half had went by and we had to let the bassist and the saxophonist go to their other band. I think what would have made this practice more productive would have been a medium for all the band to listen to the songs, for example a CD, as we ended up listening to someone’s iPod headphones going through a microphone, which wasn’t really adequate. After people went home I stayed around and jammed with the other band. They were doing soul music and songs from the Commitments. They didn’t have anything prepared, so we jammed for a while and then went home.

The next day, I had a lie in which was sweet. This was because I did not have a student advisor meeting. Joy all round. So, I ambled into college for noon where my first class was that arty class, Presenting a Personal Portfolio. This week we met our designers. It was strange meeting all these new, cool, trendy faces we had seen around carrying big black portfolio cases in person. I was teamed up with a guy called Marc. We introduced ourselves and then we walked around for a bit trying to find somewhere to do business. We settled for under the stairs where another musician/designer team were. I started by telling him about myself, what influenced me musically and what I envisioned my final project to be about (slide guitar). He furiously scribbled down notes about my musings and then he showed me some of his work. I liked what he had previously come up with and he said that he has a ‘simple but effective’ artistic style, which I feel is appropriate for my project. After that we exchanged details and walked back to class. He told me the ideas he had off the top of his head and I agreed with what he imagined. After we returned to class, we made a short amusing video about our conversation. We discussed everything we went over previously on the video. After that we said our goodbyes and left. I was then asked to do some sort of ‘mood-map’, which I think is like a mind-map but with pictures. I may have trouble doing that, as I don’t have the Internet or a printer to find inspiring pictures, I could always just use a magazine though.

The final class of the week was our first dose of production. Despite my initial scepticism for my choice, I think I will really enjoy this class and it will benefit me. I would also like to give a big hand to Dave Patterson (the lecturer) as he has been the only lecturer who has explained a class in plain English which everyone understood the first time round. The aim of the class is to produce a 20 minute EP of music. There. Simple as that. Even wrote the proposal already. My idea for this class is to produce some pop music. I think this will expand my compositional versatility further. I plan to record and produce a pop song I wrote called Be In My Arms, as this has been on my agenda for a while and I would love to get it done. I will also write 3 more pop songs to fill the remaining time, but I intend to keep the same quality. I will produce those and put them on a CD. We also get paired up with a sound engineer, so I won’t have to learn about all the recording equipment and software straight away. I may even get my graphic designer to maybe do a cover for the CD. I am actually really excited; I think this project will be excellent fun and a learning experience.

So that’s it for this week, I thank you for reading.

Catch you next time.

Daryl.

Back to square one. A different square one with more words. 11/09/2010

Hello 'everyone'.

If you've just joined 'us', my name is Daryl Hockin, and you are reading my blog.

Why a blog you ask ?

Well I'll tell you, but after I have told you a little about myself.

Once upon a time back in the early mid-naughties, a strapping young lad picked up the guitar and tried to fathom out how to use this feat of engineering. Further on down the road he went to 'study' the guitar and do some more fathoming at college. That boy was me, Daryl Hockin.

I have survived two years of music at college to obtain my HND. However I 'craved' more of this and now here I am typing this blog for my 3rd year, my Bachelor of Arts degree. If you were an avid fan of my first series of blogs (from the HND graded unit archive), you are sad but you will be satisfied with this second series.

Now to answer that question of yours, I have a blog because I don't like writing but also I have many classes in college which require me to keep a logbook. Besides, I can't check Facebook with a regular old pen and paper, so an electronic version is more suitable.

In this blog I will probably talk about my classes and experiences chronologically, unless something really cool/shit/important has happened then that will take priority. Also social events will probably precede college stuff, just to get the ball rolling (but in no means overshadow it).

OK.

Let's do this.

Alas, back to college. It's been good to see everybody again after Summer, where pretty much across the board nothing happened to anyone. My main qualm over the past few weeks has been trying to find somewhere to live. I would say that being 'homeless' has affected my first week of study, but that won't be a problem for long as I have found somewhere to live and hopefully will move in next Saturday. Whoop. I would also like to thank my fellow collegiate, Natalie, for letting me sleep on her floor the past two weeks.

Anyway, the week before we started officially, I went into college to help with inducting the new HNC students. And I'm not going to lie, I had a good time. It was cool to get to meet new people and more musicians. It also let me step into the shoes of people from the other side of town, aka the lecturers.

The next day was our inductions, not a whole lot to say on that matter. A couple of new faces and a shit load of old ones. Signed some forms, looked at sheets, no biggie. Went home.

Ok, now to my actual days of college. First up was a class called Research and Management Skills, with a name like that I was expecting lots of crazy antics like making animals out of balloons and some light disco dancing, but I was severely disappointed. In the class we actually talked about our various choices on topics for our dissertations. This included a sheet of previous dissertation titles which we had to rate. Very interesting. We also talked about deadlines. We also talked about our ensemble and individual performance projects, but I'll get to that later. I know what the question on your lips is right now: "What are you going to do your dissertation of Daryl ?!?", and the answer is that I'm not so sure yet, I'll get back to you on that one.

I'm not going to lie, there is a lot of work to do. I'm pretty sure if I fart I'll have to write a proposal for it.

The next class was called Digital Audio Production Multimedia, another spin-off of DAW. Initially I thought I had this class in the bag, but really long winded speeches with long words and no jokes really threw me off the understanding trail. I'm not really sure what I have to do for that class, but all I can fathom from it is that I have to put music to a piece of film or something. I mean by the end of the class I was thinking of writing a short film that was set in Dundee, what's that about ? I really don't know what's going on. He got me worrying about catering for my film crew... I don't know how that happened. I will need some more clarity on this class before I can really talk about it properly. I also have to write a load of proposals and logbooks for this class too.

The next class was the practice time for our ensemble projects, finally some actual playing of instruments! For our ensemble we will doing songs from The Blues Brothers. This tickles my fancy. We plan to watch the film(s) together at some point as part of our research. However because we didn't know any of the songs, we decided to learn a few for next time. This time was not 'wasted' though, as Tiffy, JP and I jammed the Commodores smash hit Easy, that was good old fashioned fun. You may be wondering what I am planning on doing for my individual project. Well it's slide guitar, I'll elaborate a different time.

The next day we had our advisor meeting, all we really did was sign into Blackboard. Then we had a class called Presenting a Personal Portfolio. It was kind of the mystery prize of the classes. We had a brief for that class and I getting from it that it's somehow linked to that DAW spin-off. However I understood the jist of this class a lot more as it was quite well explained. We basically get paired up with a designer and we make a promotional package about ourselves; posters, CD covers, mugs, coasters ect. I am photogenic, so this will be easy for the designer.

Finally the last class this week, the choice class. We had two options, Instrumental Instruction or Production. Despite Lorenz's persuasive charm, I chose Dave's class production. I have an interest in production, hence the choice. But I also chose it because I have an idea for a project in that class. Once again I will elaborate a different time.

Well, that was my first post for my BA blog.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Or at least read it.

I'll type for you next time.

Daryl Hockin