I went on a trip to Solent University with my year group today, and it was a pretty cool insight to how this particular UNI operates.
The trip is a way in which we could meet the lecturers at Solent and record one of our songs from our set for the upcoming Christmas Showcase and due to the fact that we will soon be competing to perform at Solent Sound, a competition for young musicians hosted by Solent University, thats if we get voted through of course, but I have high hopes when it comes to it as I know if we put our heads down and worked hard we could win it for our college and ourselves.
I payed the drummer from my band for a lift there and back to Southampton which was convenient for me, but the traffic getting there was awful not to mention my navigational skills from the back of the car.
When we finally had arrived we briskly walked over to Solent University, the building that we went into was fairly new and its facilities to me were very impressive considering I have not yet looked round any Universities yet.not just in the music department but the building as a whole.
When we arrived in the music department, after many flights of stairs, we were separated into our bands and each band was sent into a rehearsal room with a lecturer from the university. We played our chosen song ‘Love Rears Its Ugly Head’ by Living Colour so that the lecturer could hear what we sounded like as a band without his critique.
He then worked with each of us in order to improve our sound. For me, he focussed on helping my guitar part have a more “ rock” sound, encouraging me to really bring out the sound within my guitar by properly hitting it so my strings were to resonate more and then the body would come out more.
Another area he touched upon was me focussing heavily on my fretboard, so he then told me to stare either at the audience and or too my band and perform it to them every time, even when I’m soloing because my muscle memory is there.
One of the last major things I will talk about is my use of dynamics, I was told to try without palming muting myself when the singer is singer and do what I want because guitar is one of the huge elements to this song along with the drums.
After working with the lecturers, because they all came in and out after they had heard that a band were covering a Living Colour song, and then running through the song a few more times, we were moved into a studio to record our track which was exciting and frustrating as you never know how many takes you’ll need before it peaks a standard you are all happy with.
Although I am now quite used to recording by now, it was still a fun experience as the studio was very open so that we couple see each other. We were also limited with time, which meant that none of our recordings were perfect except the final take where we all cracked down and gave it our all after all the hiccups we had previously experienced, but we might be able to edit them once we get back to college as we were given the tracks back.
The trip was a overall good experience and it was interesting to see what the music facilities at Solent are like, but all in all this is just giving us all a look at what further education may have installed for us.
Ellie Thornton Music 