The 8th Week...

Hey guys, what's going down ? So here it is, 2 months of degree style blogging. Do I feel any different? I feel older and I also feel that time goes much faster than it used to. Well this week has been a very busy week indeed. Firstly I had my first class tutoring guitar, which I felt went quite well. I have 6 students whom I will be teaching for a 6 week program. This week I started right at the very basics: The guitar anatomy, how to hold the guitar, how to fret, how to use the right hand, the names of all the fingers on the hands and other pieces of information... Which I can't remember what they were but I do have the lesson plan. I also used this time to introduce the students to each other and get acquainted with them. And like I say, I think it went quite well and I look forward to next week. Also this week I played a gig with my band, The Xylophone Race, in the aid of Halloween. I went as a pimp. I think we played very well considering there was a FREE BAR. A mighty fine incentive. However it was quite a good gig in a cosy venue. We also mingled with the North Highland College UHI members, which was a mild addition to inter-UHI relations. If that really matters in the grand scheme of things. I did meet some sound chaps though. Another mild bit of news for you, but awesome news for me, is that I got my 1975 Vox AC30 fixed this week AND it's on it's way to Perth as we speak!!! WOOOOOOO !!!!! TONE !!!!

Now to talk about college. Monday was very unproductive. I initially went into college early to discuss my position tutoring outside of college, which was the most beneficial part of the day. The first class we had as per usual was Digital Audio Production Multimedia. No real work got done as I was asked to go and sing for a band which my flatmate jokingly put me forward for beforehand. In short, I was replaced very quickly... I was a little bit embarrassed. However I did return to class, but I found that everyone left to go and watch that band, so I followed suit. I think people may have stayed if Pete was there, but he wasn't. I'm not saying that his presence was needed for us to do work, but I think people would have stayed if he was there. And unsurprisingly last weeks band work must have been some freak miracle, as this week it resumed its normal dormancy. I am certainly pissed off with this outcome. We really do need to get the finger out our arses, well their fingers out of their arses. I'm sure they know who they are.

Tuesday was a mixed bag of treats. In our art class, we met up with our designers and he finally brought something to show me. I wouldn't say I was enamoured with what he had shown me but it's good to know he's doing something. We then had to present our case study to the class, which I'm pretty sure I was one of a small handful of the class that had done the work. This put me into a position where I was liable to do a presentation, which I'm not going to lie, I was quite unprepared for. However I did have a presentation in the eventuality of me actually presenting that day. With some very relaxed and improvised 'honesty', I 'sailed' through the presentation. Now I'm not sure if Helen was impressed or annoyed, as I did swear once or twice during the presentation (which I did apologise for) but I also 'raised some interesting points'. I'm not sure, but I do know it was supposed to be 'relaxed'.

I had booked some studio time for production class, and I'll be honest again, I felt went pretty badly on Tuesday. The producer had asked his friend to play drums on my track, which I wasn't too keen about as, I felt, he wasn't very good. He was adamant that he was playing drums on the track, I kept asking him to play the part that I had written, but he refused. So I decided to end the session as I thought it was a waste of my time. This is the only class that I'm actually worried about as it ends this semester and we have done bugger all for the class. We arranged another session for the Friday, which also went up shit creek. We agreed to meeting the studio for 9am, that includes the musicians I had 'booked', to start recording some more tunes. However, a certain producer was hungover and didn't make it in until... Noon. I was very angry. I had to apologise to the musicians I had asked to come in. We only laid down a drum track that day. I was very disappointed.

So that's this week in a blog-shaped nutshell.

Daryl.