14/12/09

Hi Everyone... Yep, still 5 of you.

Oh well.

Anyway, this week had a few bits of interest. First up was band work. It was the last practice before the 'gig' last week and it seems that all the songs are all ready for gig tomorrow (Tuesday), which by the way I have sacrificed a perfectly good sock to make an authentic, genuine, accurate John Lennon-esque costume, sort of. Not a whole lot went down in first study, I just went over my pieces with Kev.

Thursday was the day of graded unit gold. In graded unit class we had a guest speaker (I can't remember her name, but I do know she was a former student of Perth college and she works in the community music sector), who I thought gave an excellent motivational speech about our job prospects. It really put a new light on what careers can become available to me once I have my degree, I left the room with a smile on my face. The key points from Laura's speech (Yes, I remembered her name here) are as follows:

• Use your time at college to network and make contacts, as the people you meet at college know people who know people and so on.
• Prostitute Yourself: Do free gigs ! It can lead to paid work and raises your credibility.
• Reliability, Punctuality and being prepared are turn-ons for employers !
• "If you want to get paid professional prices, be professional !"
• And when selling yourself use examples of your work/skills.

So there you go, GOLD. I can apply all of that to being a session musician. Also on Thursday, we learned how to write for transposed instruments, well Bb ones anyway. Which I had no clue about previously. Again on Thursday in session skills, Gavin first handed us Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. It was a tricky we bugger ! But great fun nonetheless. We also got Brick House by The Commodores. I must admit I struggled with the reading initially, but we soon cracked that nut. And finally on Thursday, I got asked by another Honors student if I would play guitar for his Red Hot Chili Pepper's project, I accepted the task. He wants me to learn 15 tunes, nice.

Well that's it for another week.

I doubt that I'll post another one for a few weeks, maybe one next week, I don't know.

If not...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY !!!

p.s. Is it me or is there a lack of feedback on this blog...

08/12/09

Hi you five. How do ?

I decided to roll this week AND last week into one 'big', tasty, eye-hunger quenching blog entry, I hope you're already impressed.

Here comes last week: 

Well that WAS a wild ride ! Wait a minute... No it wasn't. Last week nothing really happened at college as everybody (except yours truly) was either away doing something or just having a day off. Despite me phoning the college and asking someone at college to verify that Gavin's class was off, I kept getting the answer "Well, I haven't heard anything about a canceled class. You SHOULD come in." So I came in and low and behold, I was the only one there. Fantastic.

However, I did have a good jam with my mate Dylan.

This week was a bit more eventful. In Kevin's class he assigned me the task of writing my own Solo guitar piece and polishing up my renditions of Yesterday and Octopus' Garden for the start of January. Already undergone some work ! That shows that I am industrious ! Also this week I re-redrafted my Graded Unit planning stage, it's pretty tasty now ! And we also did a theory test, which I feel had it's ups and downs. Kept me on my toes anyway. In Gavin's class we rattled through The Commitment's song, Grit or Gravy, or something to that effect anyway... Despite not knowing the tune, we showed it a good time.

Out of college, not a whole lot has happened. That could be like experience for when you're a session player and there isn't much work sometimes... Maybe ? No ? If you don't like it you can send it back, just putting it out there...

Thanks again people.