Category: Unit 8

Monday the 20th of May 2019

This morning I was in reasonably early because I managed to wake up at the crack of dawn and have a wash, make breakfast then get a lift in to college where I proceeded to sit and wait until lesson started.

Within our first lesson we went over our stylistic analysis with Chris to make sure that we are working at the best of our abilities, I have finished mine all I have to do now is get it checked properly and then add a bibliography so I can achieve the best possible grade for myself.

Everyone began to have their one to ones in the morning but I had to wait until the afternoon to have mine, because I do not have to retake English or Maths so in the time given whilst waiting I finished some work and placed a few more posts in to my drafts section for me to post later.

When it came to my one to one yesterday it was over and done with quickly, Chris handed me my results and told me the areas I would have to improve within to achieve a distinction overall in the end. I wasn’t far away from working at excellent all round but I didn’t do some small attributes which I will do now knowing what I have left out.

This morning I was in reasonably early because I managed to wake up at the crack of dawn and have a wash, make breakfast then get a lift in to college where I proceeded to sit and wait until lesson started.

Within our first lesson we went over our stylistic analysis with Chris to make sure that we are working at the best of our abilities, I have finished mine all I have to do now is get it checked properly and then add a bibliography so I can achieve the best possible grade for myself.

Everyone began to have their one to ones in the morning but I had to wait until the afternoon to have mine, because I do not have to retake English or Maths so in the time given whilst waiting I finished some work and placed a few more posts in to my drafts section for me to post later.

When it came to my one to one yesterday it was over and done with quickly, Chris handed me my results and told me the areas I would have to improve within to achieve a distinction overall in the end. I wasn’t far away from working at excellent all round but I didn’t do some small attributes which I will do now knowing what I have left out.

After my one to one we went to sit in the mac room until everyone came back from the English Lesson, turns out Millie was already back from her class so Chris swiftly put us in a rehearsal room to get to work as a full band because Millie has nearly recovered to full health, however she hasn’t sung since she left ill so she was a bit rusty.

We went through our set to start off with as a warm up which was something special, the batteries within Lewis’ Bass died so it sounded a bit odd on his end not to mention how dull his strings sound because he hasn’t changed them since he brought the bass which is interesting…

All together we sounded tight but our tone was awful all round Lewis couldn’t figure out what was wrong so he kept playing around with his tone but so did I as I didn’t sound how usually did. I think somebody has mucked around with the levels in the room we went in too which isn’t handy.

By the end of the rehearsal session, I had a headache from how loud Lucy’s drums were, I need to invest within a better pair of earplugs or ask everyone to keep their levels at a reasonable amount so I can hear myself think.

When I came out I put my instrument and pedal board in the cupboard to be locked up over night so I don’t have to carry anything in tomorrow because there is a maths exam on so I won’t be able to get a lift in to college and carrying expensive equipment is hard to do especially when the sun is out.

Nothing too exciting happened today, but I will be sorting out my written work to post on here so you can see what I have been doing in my free time, I will see you all then!



Wednesday the 15th of May 2019

This morning I had a guitar lesson, we went over a chord progression he had written on the board and I then had to play through it.

After that tedious exercise we went through scales which consisted of the chromatic scale starting on all different, the major scale in 8ths and many more.

I will continue to practice in my free time to achieve the best possible grade in my upcoming exam, I can achieve this by using my practice routine which can be found under my Unit 7 tab!

Once my lesson was finished we were supposed to have a rehearsal session but our singer is still very ill and the rest of my band scampered off, so I was left in the corridor for an hour.

During the time given, I began to write up my proposal because Chris has asked for it to be on our blogs by next week. So I have a week to write up a rough but stable copy to slowly add to and improve as the term comes to a close.

Afterwards, I was pretty hungry and I was getting fairly agitated from there being so many people loitering within the corridor so I decided to go get lunch with my partner and take a much needed break.

My day was then finished with some Grade Three theory which is always interesting, today we went over Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales.

We had to name the scale and then write out the name of its relative counterpart in the empty scale below, we only managed to get through one as Chris had to speak us through the whole process.

I understood the task but because it was the end of the day my focus was dwindling and the heat did not help that at all, anyway here’s my work below:

After this I then took off to spend the rest of my evening with my partner and family because it’s my brothers fifth birthday.

Me and Ethan decided to buy him a present on the way home from college which he was pretty happy about, tomorrow I will be doing lots of work you can be sure to here from me soon!

Tuesday the 14th of May 2019

This morning started off with Aural Perception, today’s lesson was about intervals. If you didn’t know about them before intervals are the distance between two notes. Chris went initially went through the construction when building a major scale which revolves around this formula.

As an example he used the C Major scale which consists of the following; C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

He then went on to tell us how to form triad chords with the notes within the scale. Lets just say if we wanted to make a C major chord we would have to use the first, third and fifth notes in the scale to form the chord which would form C-E-G.

He then went on to show us how each and every chord is made, here is my chart for reference:

As we are all in college and training musicians we all have to start using Roman Numerals more often, however this is easy for me as I started to use them a couple years ago when I first started theory.

Chris then went on to tell us how some chords are minor, others major and one being diminished. Yet again, I wrote them down in the following chart below:

As the lesson was drawing to a close we were then told how to figure out any chord by using semitones, I made yet again a chart telling me how to below:

For example if I wanted to play a A minor on either guitar or piano, I start on my foot then I’d move three semitones or frets which would be a C, then I’d move to find the next note which would be four semitones which would give me E, this would then form A minor (A-C-E).

After this lesson we had rehearsal, our singers condition has worsened over night so we were left to figure out more lead sheets in our room.

Today we figured out ‘1999’, I’ve got my part nailed and the structure I just have to work on it and eventually get tighter with my band. This evening I will work on finishing all my lead sheets for Thursday so it’s another thing off the list!

This then was followed up with by a lesson with Jason, I decided to maintain my blog by sorting a few posts and rearranging the order of things. Then I scheduled all of my blog posts to post so if I forget to do them on the day it’s already done for me.

After lunch we ended up sitting in the Mac room trying to withstand Chris’ utter jive which is difficult when it’s the end of the day. He went on about some show filmed in Hamble and I spaced out so much that I can’t recall half of it.

That’s it for today, my guitar lesson should be tomorrow which will be interesting, I’ll see you’ll then!!

Monday the 13th of May 2019

This morning we went through the assignment brief as no one made any sense of it, turns out it is easier than I thought and Chris simplified even more which is great, I will be posting my progress under my Unit 8 tab for the next month.

During rehearsal we went through ‘Kiss’ without our singer because she has fallen ill with tonsillitis and our drummer is stuck performing in a musical all week so it was just me and the bassist until our drummer came back in for half an hour.

We went through the song twice with the track playing behind us and we have figured out the structure and what style we are going to play within. Our drummer laid down a funky shuffle which fits in perfectly, I played my part but added some scratch noises and heavy picking which pushes that funk feel.

Collectively we tried to help our bassist to figure out his part but he has to go home and listen to the song as I couldn’t get through to him as he was in a funny mood. I wanted to try the other tracks on our set but no one else had learnt their parts yet so we are going to leave it until next week.

After lunch I went and sat within the mac room and started to write up all eight of my lead sheets for each and every Prince song we are planning on doing, so far I have done the following;

  • Take Me With U,
  • Let’s Go Crazy,
  • Purple Rain,
  • Kiss.

Chris then took my works to put in my evidence folder so I don’t have to worry about losing which installs some peace of mind, hopefully I’ll have more done by Thursday.

Tomorrow we shall be up to considerably more and I’ll be sure to write everything I’ve been up too!

Section 4 – Bibliography

Section 3 – Evaluation

I will be evaluating my performance and recalling daily on my Musicians Blog on a site called WordPress, here is the link to my blog: https://elliethornton.music.blog/ 

Ever since I started college, I have kept a daily diary entry of what I have been up to. I am aiming to plan out and perform a successful showcase whilst representing myself. There will be derailed diaries showing my progress leading up to the gig and a written evaluation after the show has taken place.

We are also going to be within competition with the other bands in my year group because we are competing for a space to play in Ferneham Hall at the end of year ceremony, with hard work and perseverance I am sure we will get that slot among a few other talented bands! 

Section 2 – Project Concept

For our new unit I will be playing a creative showcase which will be set up outdoors underneath a marquee which is something I have played within before.

All my previous gigs with college have been indoors up until this point so it makes a nice change, especially because of the weather which seems to draw more people out and about. With my experience of playing Meadowside Music Festival, I know that the audiences seem to come and go throughout the day rather than the fixed audiences indoors that we’ve played too before.

The sound is completely different to what it is indoors which creates a whole different atmosphere for the listener, not only will there be good music from all bands but hopefully great weather too! 

Within comparison to the stages we’ve played upon before, this time around we will have finite space, so we must think carefully about the stage layout. This issue will be addressed through my band’s tech spec which I’ll attach as its own PDF document for reference.

We are going to need a back line built upon a Drum Kit and a Guitar + Bass amp, there will also need to be doing backing vocal mics (one within the front line and the other in the back line for our drummer). The front line will have a vocal monitor, front of house speakers and a microphone for our lead singer. Not only do we have to fit all our equipment in the marquee and give each other some leg space, but we also must be able to engage and interact with our audience successfully to put on the best possible performance for our audience.

 We will be dressing up in purple representing the man himself but toning it down from our previous hot and heavy costumes considering how the gig will take place outside. If we have cooler clothes we won’t get as sweaty, so we still look visibly appealing to our audience. 

Our set will be a fitting tribute to recently deceased legend, Prince and it will contain his greatest hits and a couple songs off his iconic albums Purple Rain and 1999. This is the running order of our set: Cream, Let’s Go Crazy, Take Me With U, Nothing Compares 2 U, Kiss, 1999, When Doves Cry and Purple Rain.

The showcase will take place from 17:00 until 20:00, there are 6 bands playing so each set will have to be 30 minutes each, this is including change over time too. 

As of where the marquee is placed, our audience can be in front of us or to each side in which being my left and right. my focus will be engaging with the whole crowd but mainly my wing, this will open the opportunity for the rest of my band to interact with the audience as well which will make our performance more heartfelt. Within college we will have 5 hours a week maximum to rehearse so by the 13th of June we should have a high-quality set which showcases our individual talents, and this only intensifies when we combine as a band.  

Section 1 – Rationale

At the very beginning of this course I thought I knew a lot about Music from the get-go but that is partly false. I started knowing how to play guitar and bass, alongside a great understanding of Music Theory.

Over the time I’ve been here, not only have I passed my Grade One Theory Test, now I am studying for my Grade Three Test which just goes to show how quickly I am developing and understanding what it takes to be a musician. By the end of this academic I should have passed my Grade Six Guitar exam which paves the way towards taking Seven or Eight, I may even push myself and take Bass alongside!

I have also learnt how to set up front of house speakers which is something I didn’t know how to do. On top of that I was enlightened upon Copyright and Royalties which is something I was vague upon beforehand. Now I know that there are 4 different types of Royalties and 4 collection companies, alongside 5 types of copyright.

In school I was heavily involved within Music so the skills I picked up along the way helped massively when it came to moving up to college, others on my course didn’t take Music at GCSE or were involved as much as me so they’ve had to start from scratch.

As a Musician my confidence has definitely improved, as ironic as it is I had stage fright when I first started playing to crowds so I’d always stare at my teacher or my fret board but now I have the confidence to actually look at my audience and engage with them. I think this is a huge achievement for me personally, without the practice and the time I’ve put in I wouldn’t be who I am today.

When I succeed, especially within Music, it gives me great pride and confidence within myself as I know I can get far with the subject and hopefully become a Music Teacher in the future. 

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