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...