Month: Oct 2018

Monday The 8th of October 2018

My weekend went well considering how garbage my week was previously, I started to watch the documentary about metal that Jason gave to me on Friday which has so far been interesting.

Within music business, we went over the job roles again and Chris gave the class a big ol’ chat on how much detail he wants put into the work. He said mine was fine and that I just needed to add in what role I’d like to do and what it further entails, which I then proceeded to do at lunch as I wasn’t up for hanging out with my band members.

After that, we had rehearsal which can either go two ways, but before today’s session Chris sat down and gave our guitarist a chat and then the both of us, Chris and Jason eventually sorted it out as what he said won’t be tolerated as lightly as it was the next time. Then as a band we went through a couple of songs before the session ended, because then our singer had to a leave to attend a funeral which is sad to hear.

The next rehearsal session was cut short again as our guitarist wasn’t willing to go through anything which is always great, so then when they left I went and saw Chris about finishing up sorting my bass out which I learned a lot from, last Friday he didn’t have the right size trust rod adjuster so he brought his Fender jazz bass in and we went from there.

He also thought to put me in another band to help them out with the lead guitar work so I get the best of both worlds, which is going to push me as a player but it should go ahead with flying colours and I hope to further impress Chris and my family on what I’ve achieved within music for the past 3 years with hard work and dedication!

Album of the week

Purple Onion – The Les Claypool Frog Brigade

It was released on the 24th of September 2002.

The label it was released under is called Prawn Song Record.

It followed two other live releases by the band, and it is the first release of the Frog Brigade’s original compositions, while the brigade regulars are consistent on the majority of the record such as Jay Lane, Eenor, Skerik and the new percussionist Mike “Tree Frog” Dillon many special guests appear on the album as well!

The Album totals within 56 minutes in length and its genre is Experimental Rock.

My favourite track on the album would have to be either ‘Whamola’ and or ‘Ding Dong’.

‘Whamola‘ was a live show staple and the song was eventually named after the unique instrument that Les employs- it’s a one stringed bass played with a drum stick, which enables him to achieve some pretty cool sounds with just one string.

It features a single string which is manipulated via a pulley-and-lever system, the pulley mechanism is mounted in place of the tuning pegs at the top of a double-bass-style neck, which is attached to a wooden or metal body featuring a bridge, pickup and stand. The Whamola is played by hitting the string with a drum stick and either fretting it against the neck with the other hand or using the lever to alter its tension and change the pitch.

The song then later appeared as the theme for South Park’s Season 10 and on wards, it was remixed with the other song primus made for them also which keeps the authenticity for older fans!

Purple Onion was released on vinyl for the first time on the 24th of November, 2009.

I like this album because it allows Les Claypool to unleash his and vent his madness fluently and it goes without saying that it definitely to pleased his hardcore fans to this very day. His work isn’t as near edgy enough or the same level of his works with Primus but it’s like a well needed breath of fresh air!

Wednesday The 3rd of October 2018

Today we only had half a day to get things done because the college had a open evening, so we only came in for rehearsal, well I did at least because my guitar teacher was at a funeral and I teach myself Bass with some special help from Chris on the side.

Rehearsal was a bit heated as me and the lead guitarist are having a bit of a petty argument over whats going on in the sessions, etc and how I am acting up, which I’m not which is fun times. Apart from that I worked to the best of my abilities whilst feeling like absolute garbage on the side, I felt like I was at fault and I was bringing the drummer and the singer down because me being silent and his bad mood.

After rehearsal, Chris saw my email about him and that was fun, I understand that Chris is a very busy guy at the moment so I just let it play out. But I knew that talking to him and showing him what’s going on would be ten times better than me being sad.

But after that fun was sorted out and Chris cheered me up a bit, I went home and got myself ready to go and help out at the Henry Cort open evening in their music department considering Ben (Mr Chilcott) helped me get as far as I am now in college. Chris and I agreed also that I should come back in on Friday to sort out my basses action out so its a lot easier to maintain so that should be fun also!

Tuesday The 2nd of October 2018

We went over ‘Mercy’ by Duffy in rehearsal today by request of our singer, it’s a Pop Soul song so its fun for her to sing as it’s within her vocal range and she likes the style as well, personally I think it suits her perfectly. The bass line is fun to play around with because the song follows a 12-bar blues progression and it compliments the vocals and the keys also, the drums are pretty laid back and simple but it is just what the song needs to make the impact that it does.

In composition, Chris had to go deal with an issue, so one of the HNC’s ran then class. We started a new 30 second piece based on a washing machine which was interesting, I’m still getting used to Logic X so it was fairly difficult to get into, but I will be sure to improve it before I have to submit it in to Chris. I’ve started off with imitating the sound and the motion of a washing machine on the drums to give it that chugging feel, but I can only get better and it will come together eventually.

After composition, we had Pop Music in Practice with Jason which is always fun times for both parties. My other band mates started to do an analysis of ‘Mercy’ by Duffy but I was still doing my break down of ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ by Bon Jovi, so I was incredibly confused with what I was doing but I didn’t want to frustrate my peers and or interrupt Jason, so I chose to listen in and make a few notes on the song and kept my struggle to myself.

After lunch we had rehearsal again, so we proceeded to go over the structure of ‘Mercy’ which is always fun to do at the end of the day. But we eventually called it a day because we didn’t know our parts incredibly well and we were all getting frustrated and hardwired to self destruct.

Dorset & Hants 2018, Bournemouth Littledown Centre Gym

On the 29th of September, I competed for the second time this year and I’ve improved in the span of seven months from a Bronze to now a Gold and a Silver. I train with my team on Monday and Thursday evenings, and occasionally Wednesdays if i can get there after college.
DB9B06AF-708E-4147-800D-6A0685912F10

Monday the 1st of October 2018

During theory this morning, music business, which consisted of going over our Job Roles within the Music Industry when it comes to Live music.

As previously mentioned, I based my work upon one of Primus’ live gigs and that went very well, Chris enjoyed it but to further improve it he told me to add which role I’d part take within and even consider doing in the future, my report can be found under the Music Business section on my blog!

After this we had rehearsal until lunch which was alright I suppose, we went over the set list which I’m not to happy with what we are playing. We were told by Chris and Jason that our set has to be more than four genres to be considered acceptable, but at the moment the songs we have are ‘I Want You Back’, ‘Mercy’, ‘Sex On fire’ and ‘Chelsea Dagger’. The first two songs are alright as we can really express ourselves but the other two Rock songs aren’t the best for showing our capabilities, so I’m probably going to ask Chris to come and suggest something else and talk some sense into our guitarist because I don’t have the nerve.

Then we had lunch which was alright, I went to the library and decided to finish up some work as I’m like that and I tend to take a lot of pride within my craft ever since secondary which is nice to see that every thing has transferred over without having Ben by my side.

At the end of the day we had rehearsal again so we went through ‘Chelsea Dagger’, my enthusiasm was lacking whilst playing this and the guitarist soon picked up on this and starting calling me a ‘slacker’ and kept saying that I was ‘slacking’ which cheesed me off. This then resulted in the session ending early which is never okay, so next time I’ll be sure to be more assertive and take control and dominance within the rehearsal sessions.

 

 

 

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started