Today felt very tense, well it shouldn’t have been; it’s just me being woman about it.
We managed to get a room for rehearsal and tried to go through “Let’s Go Crazy” properly but Jason came in and we ended up talking to him for most of it, which is a win either way you look at it.
Guitar Lesson, the highlight of my day, I was so hyped to go over the A NATURAL MINOR IN FIVE DIFFERENT POSITIONS. We went through the majority of the grade 6 stuff as me and Jack are cool like that, but Dan chose to mention Iron Maiden and that led us off on a stray, so we decided to give him a few of their tracks along side the Jazz Lick..
Theory was the final push I needed to be completely fed up with college, looking through my book was a kick in the head I knew it was wrong as I did it half asleep, and having someone bloody go on saying that I was wrong and I’m stupid isn’t what I needed.
As soon as that lesson was over I sat in the corridor and thought about things, Jason came and spoke to me which was reassuring, ended my week off on a high note thankfully…
Is this really a Musicians Blog if this is turning into a platform where I complain?
Our rehearsal time first thing in the morning has been taken out of the timetable because you know it’s too difficult to drag your self into college for 9am, it’s not bloody hard is it.
There was no motivation from the rest of my band today, I was ready to go but the others were like MmmMmM there’s no singer. So that’s going to be great, I’d be more than happy to fill in but playing and singing at the same time is pretty difficult. Also I don’t think you’d thing someone like me would sing, which is true.
We gave “Let’s Go Crazy” a try which went well, but from my snobby musicians perspective it feels like there’s a lot missing as there’s not much the three of us can do musically to fill or a sparse arrangement.
Composition this week consisted of my favourite the 12 bar structure huzzah, we recorded hound dog on Logic but considering my sleep deprived state hates thinking early I made it awfully, MIDI is the one thing I have a strong hate towards its like leave these instruments alone they’re not all keyboards.
I began to write up my essay for Jason on ‘Purple Rain’ but looking back on my notes is like looking back at Hitlers paintings, it’s impressive but you shouldn’t be ecstatic when you see them.
That took a lot of energy out of me, plus I had little to no money for food, so when rehearsal came around after lunch I was ready to backflip off a building into the pond. We went through “Purple Rain” and “Let’s Go Crazy” but it’s like 50/50 when it comes to passion at the moment and it’s really digging at me, I’m choosing to show in person as that’s for losers.
Tutor yet again, not fun, I know it’s not meant to be but normally Chris pops some good jokes but I can’t actually recall what happened so, that will remain a huge mystery…
Monday’s are boring. They should be banned, and therefore we should have another day of rest because God is incompetent. Just because he has a perfect sleep pattern doesn’t mean we do, not all of us are perfect images of him or what ever that religious jive states in a big book scribbles.
Theory, on a Monday morning, what more can I ask for; the death penalty of course. Not feeling it this week, this year in fact, I’ve felt overwhelming tired all day everyday, not good.
Can’t continue with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a bit due to personal matters and my own safety which is cool I guess, but yet again so is climbing, so my life is diminishing within purpose as we speak.
‘Purple Rain’ growing to love it really, if I actually step back and just think about something else than sleeping, he was a great musician and there was a hell of a lot of passion behind all of his work. That’s something I’m aspiring to obtain at the moment as I feel like I’m lacking within comparison to other people.
I used to have the mindset of it’s a big competition for the best grade but in reality I’m pretty garbage and it doesn’t take much to do better than me, as I’m not thee brightest or very talented in fact when it comes to music.
Rehearsal hasn’t been particularly smooth, still haven’t found my confidence which is so pathetic of me. I’m going to beat myself up if I don’t pick up my bloody slack next week, Jesus.
Our singer wasn’t in for personal reasons which I respect fully; so I took the liberty of writing up the structure for all of the songs we are aspiring to pull off this term. It’s more than doable it’s just trying to motivate everyone, I’m not a very good leader, yet but I’m trying my hardest.
Home time was imminent which is always good, spent the evening with my partner. I’ve found myself to be a lot more sane and happy with him so what a epic win for me and him.
What can I say to start off this by saying, I have probably inflicted tinnitus.
I chose not to film and or take photos for one as I’m lazy, two I was with my partner and it felt awkward to look like a huge nerd for one of the support acts..
Mutoid Man were entertaining for a band I have heard very little about, pretty heavy so I instantly rate that. Banging tone for a three piece of Bass, Guitar and Drums. My favourite aspect was the guitarist and bassist flipping each other when they took breaks from soloing or playing, that made it so much better.
Kvelertak, Mmmm one of my favourite bands, do I understand a word of what they’re saying, no, but do I enjoy it? Clearly you losers. They’re a Norwegian heavy metal band from Stavanger, they have a new lead singer, prefer their old one as he looked like a embodiment of Normandy, well to me..
Each guitarist broke a string each throughout their set, that’s one of my personal goals to achieve that much chaos.
Turns out someone filmed parts of the gig, so if you want to check out how brutal they were be my guest, but just to let you know I enjoyed every second of it.
At the end of every set they play their self titled song whilst the singer waves a flag it’s the best thing ever.
The men of the hour, Mastodon, solid 10/10 for the meaty riffs and thickkk tone. I completely forgot that they were bringing on Scott Kelly from ‘Neurosis’ so that was like bonus for more yelling!
They played all their hit tracks and a few off their new EP called ‘Toe to Toes’ which is definitely worth sitting down and listening to.
They finished off the evening with ‘Blood and Thunder’ the most brutal thing I’ve been a part of live..
Early morning rehearsal is always torture, we continued to go through ‘Purple Rain’ which eventually led to a solo which I have had very limited time to perfect so far, so I’ll be playing round with the root notes like a bass player, as that’s what I’ve been comfortable doing so far.
In composition we went over Minimalism, I say went over, we took a look at the 12 bar structure for the fifth time. So I preceded to tune myself out until my ears perked up at something interesting, hopefully next week we will do something cool.
In our lesson with Jason we have to put together a essay I want to say on why the album we have chosen is a iconic staple within Music, if you find my life slightly interesting you’d know by now that we are doing ‘Purple Rain’ which is a challenge in itself so I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes down.
After lunch Dan took the liberty of making are room look pretty today, and by pretty I mean, purple…
After spending an hour exposed to it, walking back into the real world is a struggle I’ve got to say.
Tutor, pretty boring, this week was trying not to goto sleep as I didn’t want to with stand the utter jive everyone was throwing about, the good thing is that I have the day off tomorrow as all the losers are retaking English and Maths. That means I can actually catch up on some sleep before I goto see Mastodon Thursday evening, huzzah!
This morning I came in early to receive my report on my work for the last term, which was confusing, but I eventually got my head around it. I’m proud for what I have achieved so far, but I know I can do so much better.
Rehearsal was a bit edgy, scrap everything that I’ve said previously about our brief. We are going to be playing four tracks, hopefully, off Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ my only issue is getting some sick solos down with my pitiful confidence…
We worked on ‘Purple Rain’ today though, mainly getting the structure and the timings right which is always fun, we will continue to polish it tomorrow!
Most of my day consisted of D.I.S but I was practically lounging around waiting for rehearsal as I couldn’t think of anything productive.
However I have pictures from my training at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which are entertaining, here they are:
I slept in this morning, for a bit which I was proud of. I went in a little earlier than I wanted to, as soon as I got in I was greeted to an awful rehearsal.
When Tom finally turned up we did one song then he went until the end of the day when we had theory so that was nice, Millie had an issue in maths. So me and Lewis were left to discuss random stuff, mainly joking about in the corridor whilst a lot of drama went down, pretty pathetic if you ask me…
Me, Jack Gilder and Jack Dodd went to subway, that was the highlight of the day. I brought a sandwich and 12 cookies to share around, as you can see my life isn’t very eventful.
When we got back in we jammed some garbage, practically deafening each other for fun. Theory wasn’t theory again, doesn’t matter anyway because I’ve done my grade 1 and I’m slowly getting through 3 now..
Instead of doing Chris’ original idea for a brief we are going to choose a essential album and play four songs off it. I think the idea at the moment is doing some tracks off Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’, I’m not the biggest fan but I can get behind anything with a kick to the head..
What can I say, today went slightly better than I was expecting. We have changed our style from Jazz to Funk which suits us better as a band, the only drive behind doing Jazz was that our lead singer wanted to try something new, but personally I don’t think she is up to it.
My band chose three songs to take a look at, ‘Redbone’, ‘Crazy’ and ‘Come Together’, I didn’t chose a song because I can’t see this brief going anywhere as like I said not everyone is capable do put in the sheer amount of work.
But to keep myself engaged for the rest of the day and rehearsal I decided that we play ‘Come Together’ as it is an enjoyable song and an age old classic. What we have came up with is very raw but has potential which we will expand upon at the end of the day before tutor.
I forgot to mention that Jason was ill today and that Chris was late in because he had to take his son for an emergency appointment to have his braces taken off which added to the ever growing productivity within our year group!
When Chris eventually made it in we went over the characteristics of different styles like Rock, Classical and Funk. So all the basic stuff that should have been taught in GCSE music and or picked up over time if you play an instrument.
Then it was lunch time, the best time, today I had a Carbonara which was bloody brilliant they have really out done themselves this time as I was buzzing for the rest off the day.
We went through ‘Come Together’ which is pretty tight now I got to say, so we made the group decision to summon Christopher to have a listen and he enjoyed it so that was the highlight of my day as we actually did something right.
Tutor was fun, we went through the matrix for the fourth time and spoke on how our work is going to be marked next week which is the most enjoyable time of our lives.
This morning the exam board (UAL) were in so the day was a bit chaotic from the get go. We were piled into the mac suite to finish up any work and then to put it up on our blogs, which I had already done over my time off so I was left sat chilling.
After the fun that was sitting about for an hour we finally got in the rehearsal rooms, which wasn’t very productive you can tell this by the tone I am going to be writing in..
For this term we have to choose a style that fits our band, like Rock, Soul, Funk and or Jazz, then take songs that aren’t in that genre and make them into it which in my eyes if fairly challenging for the line up in my band.
I don’t want to smack talk as I need to become comfortable playing guitar again which should come back by next week, well I’m hoping and counting upon it…
We have played around with the idea of being a jazz band, which I am going to put right in the clear will not work as no one has studied jazz theory or jazz in general, apart from me. The songs we tried just seemed incredibly empty and when I played ‘Arctic Monkeys’ in a jazz style/form everyone turned their noses up, so.
Rehearsal soon came to an end and then it was lunch which was pitiful, I had macaroni cheese so I was for-filled in that sense. But then it was sitting around hours again, I was loving it really because nothing is more satisfying than doing nothing. During this time others were talking to UAL which was cool, I am just going to sit back and wait for some solid recognition for the mass amount of work I do which sets me in to a manic depression if it isn’t to my standards.
Tomorrow we are going to start fresh and I am going to have to slave tirelessly figuring out new structures for the songs we have chosen and how it would potentially sound. I am going back training tonight so I am going to be in a great mood tomorrow morning and hurting all over as we are shark tanking the new guy because we are nice like that and he’s doing it for charity, his funeral really.
I tend to do this on social media with a lovely collection of photos but this year I suppose to impress the lords of the exam board (Love you UAL really) I’m going to have to go other what I have done musically..
School of Rock!
To kick off my year I had three renditions of my schools take on the ‘School of Rock’ musical. I got to say it went extremely well for the first ever take on a pit band alongside a stage which complimented each other very well.
We left the sound to Ben…
My work space each evening shows you who I am…
Joel’s work space was very loud..
This is what I’d like to call “The Office”.
The Cast of ‘School of Rock’!
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse.
I enjoyed every evening we performed and I would have loved to do it again if I had the opportunity but I’m a big person now with the burden called college.
Leaving Henry Cort..
Yearbook message from Ben..
I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed this part, bitter sweet really. I know I go on but if Ben wasn’t there for my last two years I would have been a completely different person and a pianist, let that image sink in.
Me and some absolute loser?
I’d like to thank the select group of teachers and students that tolerated and enjoyed me for who I am also!
Miss Devonshire, the best cover teacher and you cannot change my mind on that one.
We are pretty (insert profanity here) cool.
Ms. Ferrier and I, what can I say I was good at speeches..
Miss Mapplebeck and I, I’m about fifty percent sure she enjoyed my sarcastic remarks and wit!
Mrs Wilks and I, Rammstein am I right (she taught me German, and by german I mean told me the meaning behind a lot of Rammstein lyrics).
Me and Tanya, we just about managed to avoid what Biology threw at us!
Katie and I, many years of questionable bus journeys.
Prom
Did I enjoy it, no not at all, it was nice to see a couple teachers but after that I wanted to go, luckily I had Jack to keep me company for the entirety of the evening.
Some Green Party member that found his way in?!
Look at us, better than everyone did I hear?
And of course the signature move..
Skoda Man and I, nothing is as trusty worth and reliable as Skoda but maybe Challen is?
Meadowside 2018
My last performance with the first band I was ever in and the other. It was also Dans last as he is going on to do dog walking which is going well and I wish him Good Luck going into 2019!
Anyway here are the splendid pictures!
Joel, Dan, Me, Pip and then Harvey on the floor.
Popping out a fat solo, I don’t think Harvey likes it…
The Signature Badass Shot.
Joel, Ben, Me, Pip and Harvey practically becoming the floor as we speak.
Mosh Pitato, we are original I swear.
RTP, don’t ask me what it stands for.
Siblings are the best.
So Ben thought it would be funny to capture me soloing?
Our Poker-faces don’t exist.
Results Day
So it decided to rain as soon as I get up the road on my bike. Whilst I was riding to the junction Taz wished me luck and drove off which was very sweet of her!
Shoddy effort I know.
A full house apart from German, which wasn’t awfully disappointing. Turns out I got the highest in my music class also so that was the best flex, even though the score was low.
Didn’t stay for long as Ben wasn’t in a talkative mood as he was confused to why the majority of our music class failed..
Ghost at the Royal Albert Hall
Ben introduced them to me when he first joined and something about them just clicked, don’t even bother asking if I’m a satanist you losers.
Nothing like an instrumental.
Pope knows how to play a sax, hmmm, I can get behind it..
The best underrated saxophone solo.
Nothing like a good acoustic shuffle, it is a change to heavy distorted chords I suppose.
Cardinal likes a good costume change…
Me and the infamous Billy Vanilla.
I Know You Got Soul Concert
My first performance with Fareham College, and the best performance of the evening there is not much more to it..
Collecting my GCSE Certificates
It looks like I’m not a massive loser overall.
Representing the best cover band in the south.
Me collecting my award, not to be rude but her hand went up my wrist…
My mum had to sort out my brothers food tech prep so she couldn’t make it, but the good part was documented for all to see. I had Jason there with me for support which was great as I was having a rough evening in general, I appreciated him being there a lot!
Now That’s What I Call Fareham Music!
I’ve been taught by a God named Chris Osman.
Rhythm section, the best section.
Who is this swanky young, hip member?!?
My Bass is bigger than me…
Christmas Time.
Me and my ‘Red Special’.
The best time of year spent with family and friends. The best gift from the best mum ever!
But anyway I’d like to thank everyone that made my 2018 a blast, and to welcome the new people into my life in 2019. I shall see you all then!
Ellie Thornton Music 