"Hey look ! There's nigh !"

Alas, the final post of what has been a year of an 'all-out' stress-fest. I may keep this post brief as the majority of the exciting stuff has been and gone (but also there is a BBQ that I need to attend).

My dissertation was completed two days before the due in date and handed in on the due in date.

Mission 1 complete.

Reflection ? "If only I had started it earlier..."

Pfffft

I struggled, but I managed to do my research paper and evaluation for my individual. I'm not going to lie, it was as dry as a rice cake in the sun, covered in sand which was then put into a dehydration machine, which was then set on fire; but nonetheless it was completed. It's about slide guitar or something...

Mission 2 complete.

Bonus level ?

No.

Reflection ? See previous reflection status. I probably should have put more effort in, but I don't think it was physically possible with the mental state I had achieved whilst writing it.

Digital media project ? That got nailed. I think it went well considering all the previous trouble it has produced. I think that the voice-overs are incredibly cheesy and I should have cared more towards the end, but I think the final product was amazing compared to the initial video (that's how I presented it). Handed in on time too !

Well that's about it son.

Time to chill out, BIG STYLE.

Auf Wiedersehen my bloggy chums.

The end is nigh... about yay nigh.

Hello again, it has been a while (again) since my last post which I apologise for. I have not been posting recently as I have been incredibly busy doing various tasks to write about in this blog...

This may be a long one.

So I'll pick up from where I left off. Midway through April was the Easter break, which was good but also a massive hindrance at the same time. Before the Easter break I had a rehearsal for my slide guitar project, it went really well and I think I may have spoke about it in the previous blog. However this would prove to be the penultimate band rehearsal as the Easter break became a big dark void that sucked various band members to various locations around the world. This worried me slightly as I then realised that my show was the second day back from college and I only had time to do one last rehearsal. I chose to schedule a rehearsal in the second week of the holidays as the majority of my band had returned back to Scotland. This meant I had the first week free, so I went back to Alness for a few days. It was wild. Upon my return I had made a point of making sure I knew all my songs and parts for my rehearsal. This included me learning a new tuning that I did not know about for Storm Of Worry. The day of the rehearsal came quickly and I soon found myself (and my band) standing about in Clearwater setting up. The majority of the band were there and I asked them to learn all the songs, which they had done. During the rehearsal there was a small indecent with a Bee stinging a vocalist, but that was a short lived drama. The band rattled through the songs, going over certain bits that had some uncertainty. We also discussed stagecraft and uniforms. Overall I was very happy with what we achieved in the rehearsal as the band played through all of the songs with ease and I had a chance to practice properly with my equipment and a decent volume. I felt that the main vocalist could have learned his lyrics before the rehearsal and I would have liked to been able to hear my resonator with the band, but other than that the rehearsal was excellent. I decided to have one last rehearsal with my singers two days before the show to iron out any uncertainties that they had with harmonies. My singers were very competent and knew what they wanted to go over. The rehearsal was a little bit nerve-racking as it was close to the show but it seemed to give the singers more confidence with their parts. I would say that rehearsal was also quite successful.

On the day of the show I was surprisingly very laid back but also very excited to play the gig. I had a tough time getting all my gear to the college because of the sheer volume of stuff. Three electric guitars, a resonator, my amplifier (AC30 = heifer), my vast collection of pedals, my five-tier guitar stand and my back pack which was filled with cables, costumes and various other items. Carting all that about was a good laugh as I had various other rehearsals and classes throughout the day. I had set the time of the show to half past seven because I knew that I would have a long set and clearing up time. Luckily there were no bands on before me so I had an ample amount of time to set up and sound check. I asked my band to get to the venue for four o'clock and the singers for five. I planned to sound check at about half past five. The sound check took a bit longer than I had anticipated as my resonator posed a challenge for the engineers, but it sounded great. The sound check finished forty five minutes before the show and I told my band to go and get something to eat and get changed, but I had no time to chill out. I met several guests that attended the show, arranged lighting, arranged recording, got changed and found an announcer. It was very warm in the venue... I had specified to my band that they model their dress code on videos of Ry Cooder's band, they seemed to get the idea. I had also supplied them all with set lists and the engineer with a stage plan. The venue slowly filled up before the start of the show and my anticipation grew to a new level, I was incredibly excited. Me and the band walked on-stage to a full house, I was delighted. The songs in the show ran in this order:

1. Get Rhythm - Ry Cooder
2. Heartache Tonight - The Eagles
3. Henry - Keb'mo'
4. Ramblin' On My Mind - Robert Johnson
5. Dixie Chicken - Little Feat
6. Jealous Guy - Pahinui Brothers
7. Feelin' Bad Blues - Ry Cooder
8. It Hurts Me Too - Elmore James
9. Storm Of Worry - Sonny Landreth
10. Dark End Of The Street - Bobby King and Terry Evans
11. Let's Work Together - Ry Cooder

The crowd enjoyed the show and the feedback has been flattering. I am delighted how the show went and I am very proud of my band for doing such a good job. The majority of the numbers went without any problems. However I noted a few hiccups. In Storm Of Worry we missed out a verse and Heartache Tonight was quite sloppy, but other than that it went really well. Other concerns are that I went well over the set time and I had a few gaps in between songs whilst I changed guitars. I don't think going over my set-time is a huge problem as there were no acts on after me. I tried to over come the gaps with some stage/audience banter, however I think I would have benefited from having some planned 'gap filler'. I have actually had the most compliments about the song I did on my own, Ramblin' On My Mind, which I was worried about as I had never sang and played on my own on-stage before. Overall I feel that my individual project was a success and look forward to gigging that show again.

Here is a video of Henry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd_J-UR7qQA&feature=channel_video_title

I can't really say as much about the written part of the individual project as I haven't totally focused on it. I have started it though...

My dissertation is looking pretty healthy. Last week I handed in my first draft and there were only some minor changes that had to be made. I'll keep you posted on it's progress.

The DAPM project may have been overlooked recently, but that's all going to change now. At least I have handed in my contract.

I have finished all my work for film and TV class. Three videos with the accompanying scores. I have written music for scenes from Pride and Prejudice, A Fistful Of Dollars and Loony Tunes. I am a boss.

The Art class proved to be very useful after all. Helen was fantastic and finished my poster design before the holiday, so I had time to distribute posters all around the place to advertise my show. I think this was a useful tool as it reached more people. I also handed back contract for that class too.

I was involved in a few other shows too. I think they all went pretty well.

I'm going to stop now.

Let's just face it, I ain't as regular as I used to be. 23/03/2011

SLIDE GUITAR DEGREE SHOW - 26th April 19:30 - Perth College

Get to the Facebook event page and attend ! (found below)

As you can see I now have a date for my individual performance. I have also had a photo shoot since the last time I posted. Aren't I a handsome boy ? (Rhetorical) That photograph was taken by one of two very talented photographers that were supplied by Helen. They took a lot of photographs. That class has almost finished, I just have to have a few more meetings regarding material with Helen and that should be it. I am keen to see what she has conjured up.

Over the past few weeks I have been quite busy with rehearsals and college. I am in several different bands and it's starting to catch up on me now. But most importantly, I am on top of my own project. I usually have a rehearsal with the singers on a Sunday night which I think is very productive as we go over the melodies and harmonies. This is useful for me as then I know the singers know their parts when it comes to a rehearsal with the band. The band rehearsals have been very successful so far. We have went over most of the songs and nailed some of them too. The songs which I think we are struggling with the most with are The Dark End Of The Street and Dixie Chicken, but I could have told you that before I started the project ! They are pretty tricky, but I have a good feeling it'll come together soon though. I'm glad that I have been lucky enough to have such a good band behind me. As for the written part of this project... I do know what I'm doing, I just need to do it.

My dissertation has been gathering dust for a little while as I had decided to focus on the research aspect of the dissertation aka the experiment. The experiment is a very valuable part of my dissertation as it will provide many facts and figures. I am fed up of explaining what my experiment is about so I may just 'copy and paste' you some information. By the way the scale is 'patent pending'.

Here are some notes from a recent presentation:

• Listening abilities and playing abilities during different stages of intoxication.
• There are 4 tests throughout the experiment which each of the subjects must take.
• Each test is comprised of –

Ø 10 Aural questions on intervals

Ø Approximately 2 minutes of music analysis

Ø A filmed performance

• Intoxication is measured by a new scale...

Sober Drunk Completely

Intoxicated

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

¡ This scale is used to measure the level of intoxication of each subject.

¡ It works much like a pain scale at a hospital where the subject uses their own perception to judge their state. Their judgments are also monitored by a sober counterpart.

¡ This scale eliminates the need for different variables such as: weight and height of each participant, units consumed .ect.

¡ However this scale can only really be used on experienced drinkers.

This experiment has many variables which could tamper with the results, such as:

▪ The environment of the experiment.

▪ Social distractions between the subjects.

▪ Consumption of food.

▪ Faults with equipment.

▪ Competition between subjects.

▪ Other distractions.

▪ Being out of practice with the material.

▪ A misunderstanding of the questions or material.

▪ Not a large enough demographic.

¡ This experiment will be repeated with more subjects soon.

I hope you can make sense of that.

I also previously mentioned that I had a presentation. It was about my dissertation topic, which ironically was another reason that my dissertation gathered dust. I am pretty confident that my presentation went well.

I have also recently received marks back from previous classes. Remember that horrible production module ? Well it came back to bite me one final time. I was disappointed with the mark I got back for it, but I could see clearly why I received that mark. On the other hand that is that class finally over, no more strife! I also received my marks back for the ensemble performance, which was pleasing. I got a good mark for that class, which is good.

In my actual classes I have just been busy with the work. In the Digital Audio Production Multimedia class I have finally finished my contract and I have been busy editing my video and adding music. In the film and TV class I have been doing a similar thing. I have already finished one video for the class and I'm not far off a second. I seem to be the only one in the class who scores out the music first. I am cool.

The final bit if news is that I have had is that I start back at my job teaching in April.

Click the link !

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103025686446057

Goodbye

Daryl

Weeks 4 AND 5 of semester 2 !

Hello once again. It seems that events occur on a bi-weekly basis, as one week will be uneventful and the next will be CHALK-a-BLOCK. I think I might just skip week four since that was the 'dud' week. Well actually on the Wednesday of that week I played a gig with the HNCs in Dundee's Fat Sam's. It's a great venue and some of the bands that night weren't too bad. The other highlight of that week was an ABBA show on the Saturday. As per usual it was entertaining.

So on to the past week. During my dissertation tutorial on Monday, I realised that I had not done any work for this week as I was busy, so I discussed with Marlisa my future intentions with the dissertation. My next step is to do an experiment... Mwah ha ha. But seriously, that is my next step as it will help my research for most of my dissertation. I would like to explain the experiment to you but that's all I have been doing this week with people. I mean come on give me some space. I'll maybe tell you next week. Or when I have done it. Anyway, this week I have drawn up 'test papers' and experiment parameters for the experiment, so watch this space.

Next on a Monday is DAW. This week I spoke to Mike as I wasn't sure if my project would be valid *mild panic*, but he reassured me with ways I could present it to make it valid *Score*. Afterwards I just kept on working on the video.

-Insert Monday night practices-

Tuesday brought a late start as we don't have to go to Helen's class for a while (diplomatic reasons). However I did go and see Helen as she is my designer. I feel that she knows what she is doing with the project, so I'll just go and see her next week for an update.

In film and TV we were asked to pick a video for one of our finals. I chose a clip from Pride and Prejudice as it would give me a chance to write for and orchestra. It is also a thing that I would feel comfortable writing for as I 'like' using Sibelius. It just so happens that my copy of Sibelius I have at home as buggered up, so I have to go into college and use theirs on my days off...

Tuesday night brought one of my band rehearsals. Amazing fun. It was the first time that I've had the whole band together with a singer and keys. We ran through all the material we have been working on in the rehearsals. It was sounding great, a few more and it'll be fantastic.

Other than that, it's been pretty quiet.

Sorry for the short post, I am 'quite' busy.

Cheers guys

Daryl

Weeks 2 AND 3 of Semester 2. I bet you're excited.

Hello again. I'll be honest, there hasn't been much going on the past two weeks singularly, therefore I am pluralising this post. I know ! Some cutting edge work right there. Rather that do a chronological analysis of the past week, I'll talk about each class for both weeks in the same blurb. So I'm just going to crack on.

Well as per usual Monday started with going to see Marlisa about my dissertation. The first week we discussed that I needed to write an introduction for the next week. However in this first week I was pretty busy and also stuck on a starting point, so the next dissertation meeting was -very- similar to the previous, but with more apologies. This week, I think has helped me more as I explained my problems and received some guidance. I'm pretty sure I'll get it done this week. I also used this time to discuss what to write about for my individual research project. I think I'll be able to start that this week as well, if the dissertation progresses that is.

The next port of call on a Monday is the Digital Audio Production Multimedia class. Prior to the first week, I finally received the video I am composing music for, which really helped with the class... The first week of the class, I would say that I used my time effectively as I edited musical ideas that I had for the video into the video. This took a lot of patience as I had to find out how to use multiple time signatures in Cubase and then work out each hit point of the video. It took a while, but was 'worth' it. The next week was far less productive, as I just corrected mistakes and had a creative block. No it's not a cop-out. Honest.

Jump forward a day and that takes us to Tuesday and that starts off with the portfolio class. The first week was mildly awkward as I had not told my designer that he was fired because I had not seen him. In the morning he text me asking if we could meet up in the afternoon, I asked him to come at midday. In the class I had started to write my press release for the press pack when he came in. I took him outside and told him that I would no longer be requiring his services. He understood and left. Apparently that's only the second time a designer has been fired... I promptly went back to writing my press release. The next week I was late for the class as I was attending a student representative meeting. Which, think went quite well as I raised several issues that the students were concerned about. *Good Rep* Anyway, I arrived later on in the class and Helen had some work to show me. I was impressed, I liked the stuff ! I'm eager to see more.

The class which follows that is Film and TV. I'm not sure about the class' current format as I seem to be struggling with composing in a set time. I think I'm not comfortable with writing on Cubase, which is contradictory but that's how it is. I think I would prefer using Sibelius as I think it would get me into composition mode. I mean I do like the class and I have been working in the class, but I feel that I just can't do my best with the time constraints of the class. Plus we have been doing different things every week, so there's no recapping. I think I will get on better when I start work on my chosen pieces.

I also met with my supervisor for my individual project this week. It's Steve Murphy. I explained my project and what I have done so far with it. He was impressed with the choice of topic and my organisation so far. Speaking of which, last week I had two rehearsals: one with the band and one with the singers. The band rehearsal went all right, we struggled with Dixie Chicken as it has a complicated harmonic structure which needed a vocal line for the band to follow. However Heartache Tonight went very well. The singer's rehearsal went very well. I had the practice in my flat with two vocalists and a pianist. We went over all the songs the band had done so far. The harmonies were good fun, I even joined in with the singing. I hope to have all my singers there next time, can't wait !

I attended some other rehearsals too, both of which consisted of musicals. They were good fun !

I was busy last week due to an ABBA gig at the weekend, which required me to travel. It went well and hopefully there's some more work to come from it.

Catch you later !

Daryl

Semester Two: The Streets

Hello, that was quite a break wasn't it ? Looks like we're back to college, but it seems not for long. There's only three months until the finish line and there's a lot to do...

Like this blog.

Well I'll cut to the chase and go over this week. Monday saw us in with an early start and a meeting with the staff. At this meeting it was explained that we had a 'new' timetable and a new class. We also discussed our projects, wrote the members of each band on a piece of paper and assigned new time slots for our dissertation meetings. It was wild. Following the meeting was a rather large gap between 'classes', so I attended Alex's Lord Of The Blings script read through. It's quite funny, but I honestly don't get the relevance, but I'll do it anyway for the banter. On a similar note, I am an idiot. I have taken on 7 other projects other than my own... I am a fool, but at least I'll get to play my guitar. I will list the projects: Alex's Project, Alison's Britpop Musical(Acting/singing), Tess' Cowboy songs project (?), Natalie's Supertramp set, Jp's Reggae set, a song or two in Tiffy's Disney project and a few songs in Paris' Musical songs thing. Plus I'm helping out with an HNC band on Wednesdays. I am going to be a busy boy.

Afterwards we had our usual class of Digital Audio Production Multimedia, however with a slight change. We have a new lecturer for the class, Mike Brown. During the class he interviewed people and asked about their progress. I was not interviewed, however the class was actually properly explained by Mike and now I actually understand what I have to do, which is a nice thing to know two thirds of the way through the year... However in the class I didn't do any work as I had not yet received the video for the project. I have now received the video and now I can do work. Go me.

Tuesday was also 'productive'. It started out with a meeting about Alison's britpop musical. We discussed available times. Tuesday night. There. Personal portfolio class, started with disappointment as, surprise surprise, my designer was not there. I had also heard he was in New York and he STILL hadn't done any work. This annoyed me greatly. I spoke to Helen about his reliability and it was decided that I had to fire him. Boo hoo. However on the upside, my designer is now Helen, which is great ! I'm looking forward to see what she will produce. During the class I made her a mood-board as a 'guide'. It included various pictures of guitars and stuff. It was cool. I also have to write her a bio for the website ? Oh well, sounds good. Afterwards we had a new class, Film and TV. It was pretty good, writing music for film and TV, bonza. However this week my work came to a halt as I was writing a theme for Prison Break and I couldn't find a decent bell sound. *sigh* I spent most of my time doing that, I had only wrote about two notes. I was mildly ashamed. But I'll get it next time...

Wednesday was good day ! I had my first rehearsal for my project and it went brilliantly ! It was only a practice with the rhythm section but it was sounding good for a first rehearsal. We went over Get Rhythm, Jealous Guy and Let's Work Together. Initially I was a bit nervous as I had never played slide guitar in a band before, but after a couple of run-throughs I was tearing it up ! Get Rhythm is quite a tricky number as it has some intense right-hand comping. I think I'll need to practice that a bit more. It was also decided that the songs is also tricky geographically and the band need to follow the vocals, which we didn't have this week, but don't worry, we got through. I am really excited about this band.

Also this week I handed in my evaluation for the ensemble project and I bought a load of books for my dissertation research.

Catch you next time.

Daryl

This is getting dusty...08/01/2011

Hey guys, due to snow, wind, rain, travel, economic climate, jury duties, new year's resolutions, retail, agriculture, magnetic north, average mpg, soul food, diabetes, paranoia, pessimism, optimism, socialism, interpretations, misinterpretations, time, space, Randy Newman, processed foods, the before and the latter; I have let my blog become dated and unkempt, for which I am sorry. So in the long and short, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Well it's been a while since my last post so let's pick up from where we left off. It was a nuisance when the snow came and ruined every body's plans and endeavours, for example my college routine. I had so much work to do: Production project, evaluations, Ensemble research, a Blues Brothers gig, a photo shoot, a literature review...

Here is how I will go about this:

PRACTICAL PURSUITS

WRITTEN WORK

OTHER

Well as I recall that the first task I completed was my photo shoot. I had scheduled a photo shoot for one of the snow days, but that was cancelled. So I tried to get in contact with my designer to arrange a time, however Mr Hill perceived to be a tricky one to get a hold of and liked to tell fibs about when he was and wasn't in college. As I remember, I was watching some of the performances for the ensemble when one of my peers told me that they had spotted my designer in the college. Therefore I proceeded to find him and have a chat about his progress with our project. However he was nowhere to be seen, so I went and saw Helen and she knew exactly where he was. We found him and I arranged a new time for the photo shoot. I also found out in from our discussion that he had not finished a logo for me nor a portrait. This was disappointing as Helen had scheduled a time for my 'art' class to present what they had done with their designers within the next couple of days and portraits, logos and photos were on the bill.

Fast forward a few days to the day of the photo shoot. There I was, standing outside the photo studio, on time and on my own. Half an hour later, my designer shows up with his camera. I wasn't that annoyed as I knew that something was going to get done. So we went into the photo studio and took photographs of my in various poses with my guitar. He had a lot of ideas which I was impressed with. Marc took over 200 photos, which was surprising as we were only there about half an hour. We proceeded up to the Mac suite to look at the photos and I selected a dozen of my favourites to work on. I was very impressed with his photography skills. However, he said that he couldn't edit them in time and suggested that I did it myself for the presentation. So I got my Photoshop hat on and edited my photos for the presentation. I'll include one of the photos for the blog. The next day I did my presentation to my class by myself and I explained that I didn't have a portrait or a logo yet but I had some fantastic photos. The presentation went well but Marc and I will have to get the finger out if this project is going to come together in time.

The next major task of semester one was the Production module project. Last time there was a whole lotta work to do. There were a lot of evening sessions with my producer, the musicians and I since the last post. Thankfully the project got done, but it was by the skin of my teeth and not really the standard that I wanted it to be. This project has made me think about what had went wrong and what I should have done better. There were a lot of mistakes in the time management factor on both mine and my producers behalf. There were also other mistakes such as lack of technological knowledge, bad file management and musicians not learning the parts that I had given them. Those were the main time wasting factors in the project and I feel that I have actually learned from the experience.

I will talk about the last session as it is the freshest in my mind. The final session was on the day before the deadline and we had yet to MIX and MASTER the three tracks. This was unnerving. We spent most of the time mastering the first track Be In My Arms, which wasn't the best use of our time but produced the best result from a production point of view. The second track we mastered was Groovy Mama, which went a bit pear-shaped as my producer LOST the Bass track for the song. Instead we had to settle for an old Bass track which was quite bad and we just mixed the other instruments over it so it wasn't that noticeable. I was not happy about this, but due to time constraints I had to take it. It was awful. And finally the last track called Hurricane, was mixed and mastered in under and hour, so it was very slap dash. AGAIN my producer lost takes from previous sessions, so we had to settle for a MIDI piano in the song. The mixing was also very rushed so there is a lot of clipping in the track which I, again was not happy about. Once the tracks were 'mastered', the college closed and I went home, where I made a make shift CD cover and case for the CD. This was another aspect in which time affected the quality, but at least I made it myself. I then added the three tracks which I had recorded with my producer at college to the CD, along with two tracks me and a friend had done previously. Another problem arose from this. The two tracks I had added were not mastered to the same level as the three I had done at college, which meant there was a big jump in volume between the tracks. However I could not do anything about this as I do not have a studio in my flat... I handed it in the next day with the evaluation and hoped for the best. The evaluation went over all of those problems and more !

The Blues Brothers brought me a lot of woe on paper, but the performance was very good fun and was well received. As the end of semester came creeping round the corner, as did rehearsals for the Blues Brothers Ensemble project. A few of the songs were very off the cuff and kind of blagged in my opinion but I'm sure the audience didn't see that... I enjoyed the show very much as we incorporated dancing into a couple of the numbers which was very entertaining for the audience. We also dressed up in suits and glasses, similar to the Blues Brothers styling. I think the whole thing went very well, however if there was one thing I would have done differently is to start the rehearsals earlier and keep them at a consistent time. The written part of this assignment brought me a lot of grief as the initial topic for the essay was just awful. There really were no sources for it. So I decided to take it in a different direction. I looked at the musical arrangements of the Blues Brothers' songs and compared them to the original versions. This was a better topic to look at but it was not a good idea to change it a few days before the deadline. Time is the most deadly factor in any assignment and I learned that the hard way this time. I'm pretty sure the quality of my assignment was affected by the lack time. I'll probably go as far as saying that I think that paper I wrote was quite bad. The moral of this story is no to procrastinate.

An example of the opposite of this was my literature review. I started it early and finished it within plenty of time. I also think it was really good...

Do it now = Win

Do it later = Fail

Well I think that's near enough it for semester one. I'm just preparing for semester two now...

I did some other things apart for college ! I think they actually contributed to the pressure as they were happening parallel to each other. For example...

I finished my first round of teaching guitar. The snow affected attendance for my class. On the last lesson there was only one student that came in... He got a gold star ! (Not really). The attendance of the last few classes affected my ability to hand out teacher evaluation forms for the students. I handed out two and I didn't get any back... (The reason I handed out two was because there were only two students that came in because of the snow). I really hope I get another chance to teach again as it's quite rewarding teaching and I like having a proper job.

I also took on a contract from Centerstage to do some lighting for a show in Dunblane. I value my time there as I learnt how to operate a lighting rig and I made some contacts. Plus I had a great time meeting some new folk and staying in the hotel for free. The job was also well paid. Again I hope to get more job offers like that.

Also it's a bit late but MERRY CHRISTMAS.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me.

You've already had a happy new year...

Next time I'll be back in the saddle again.

See you later.

Daryl