Another week of college goes by and although it was halved this week due to internal events I still managed to progress with all current projects and was able to clarify a few things before deadline days and test times arrive.
I am feeling more confident with music theory than I have ever done before in my life and believe that my sight reading skills are improving quickly so I must take advantage of this learning sprout and practice reading music more. I was flicking through a guitar tutor book that extensively covers a few areas of music performance and production for the budding guitarist and throughout the theory sections I was noticing many mistakes regarding scales, keys, chords and other fundamentals. I was quite shocked to find such a high level of mistakes and shudder to think what the ratio of mistakes is amidst the global library, however I did take some inspiration and confidence from the fact that I noticed them. Ending on a high I have also settled my life long debate regarding when to use a sharp and when to use a flat and will now live the rest of my life in musically correct harmony.
College band practice was a bit rough around the edges and being a man down didn't help. With a practice gig next week and the final performance in 3 weeks the pressure is on to sharpen up our routine and hopefully deliver a quality performance come gig time, else the quality of my portfolio evidence decreases!
On the plus side my first study went well again and I feel I am gaining momentum regarding the improvement of my solo performances. I have covered 3 songs with ease and am now moving on to a bigger challenge with a song I think will showcase my talents and improve any chance of successfully proving myself as a west end singer.
Creative musicianship was spent covering a few project deadlines and also the all important music theory revision. Next week is test time for music theory and I am confident that if I focus during the test I should pass comfortably. It is important for me to achieve a high grade throughout most of my classes to enhance the cohesion with the type of evidence and level of planning I have already committed to within my graded unit.
The highlight of Wednesday was attending the meeting arranged by the degree hons students to arrange auditions for Rocky: The Musical. As I mentioned before I am hoping to secure a prominent role in this production and use the process and performance to clarify my abilities within my portfolio. I have already began researching the two movies covered and will also be practising "Eye Of The Tiger", as well as reading small scripts for the 4 different male roles. This early involvement has already shown me that a west end singer needs to be more committed and flexible than the front man of a local rock band, although I'm hoping to be both.
Although I had completed my planning document I have the opportunity to improve the document and gain feedback to then further improve before the final deadline, which I will make the most of as I feel any chance to improve my grade in small steps will greatly improve the bigger picture.
Had another recording session with Fuzzy Buck this week and although we were also a man down we progressed well and have now started work on multi-tracking our second song. We have 4 songs completed and hope to add another 2 to contribute towards a self-published EP. Our new bassist has taken to the songs quickly and is also suggesting riffs and ideas for new songs which will be a big help as we hope to move on and secure some gigs to performs our songs. Daniel Dundee has not been forgotten and final takes are now being completed for his entry in this years John Lennon Song Writing Competition.
The West End show research I am carrying out continues and next week I will report on the differences and similarities I have found between the first 2 musicals researched, Les Miserables and The Lion King. I am glad I have been doing this research and found the same style of research useful when I looked for information to help with any audition for the Rocky musical. Through this I am seeing more how to transcend different skills into other areas of my course and hopefully this will help me get the best out of each class and use each module to support the progress within other modules.
If you are still reading I am going to say bye for this week. CORRECT
If you're still reading I'm going to say bye for this week. WRONG
Sta bene,
Daniel.
Friday 27 November 2009
Friday 20 November 2009
Role Play!
A more positive week for myself this week as I look to gaining more experience as a musical show singer and also look at how different roles I carry out already can contribute towards the evidence I need to support my application to become a west end singer.
The biggest opportunity at the moment looks to be any possible involvement with the degree project titled "Rocky: The Musical". There are auditions next week for parts in this musical and I think if I can secure a prominent role then this may provide me with the foundations of the type of evidence I wish to include in my portfolio. The musical itself will be written and produced by 2 degree students and plenty involvement from myself will help me gain further insight into the world of musicals! Having completed a SWOT analysis I have identified areas in which I am not experienced enough in and hopefully involvement with such projects will help me improve any chance of getting any job as a west end singer.
I have also been thinking about the different roles I portray as the solo artist daniel dundee and also as front man of the band Fuzzy Buck. For me these roles are different although they are played by the same person, me!, I can see how I can use them as evidence of my ability to act, project dialogue and maintain character on stage.
College started off well this week and in band practice we done more work on our original compositions. Again I found a use for role play as I switched character to improve the likeness to the Beatles in our psychedelic track. I had previously been sounding too much like a mellow Jim Morrision and found that opting for an angry John Lennon was the key to enhancing the psychedelic qualities of our track. It has also been very productive having Michael around during band practice as we are now getting honest feedback on our performances which is helping us progress and improve.
My vocal lesson was back on track as my tutor returned and I have began working on another song as well as having more options for future performances, which I hope to use as evidence in my portfolio.
I am feeling a lot more comfortable with music theory at the moment and I have discovered that I am improving at sight reading and also notating music due to the exercises we have been given. The test is in 2 weeks and I feel confident that I can pass as long as I keep a regular study pattern.
I have also completed the planning stage of my graded unit and feel I have all I need to move forward and that each step of my action plan will provide me with more experience and evidence come interview day.
In session skills this week I took the opportunity to show my diversity and spent the session as rhythm guitarist, which was a fun change despite the dodgy squire telecaster I had! We went over 2 songs and I felt I handled them quite well despite not practising guitar that much recently.
I finished off Thursday by completing my first Cubase/Reason project and although it is not my greatest creative contribution I feel that it has turned out quite well. My emphasis throughout this project was to explore the operations of these audio programs and using many of the different options I now feel I have better knowledge of both Cubase and Reason. This will be of great assistance when I need to record 4 songs from the musicals I am researching to contribute to my portfolio.
My West End show research has continued with The Lion King and already I have noticed great variances from Les Miserable in terms of me being able to transcend successfully across different musicals. The Lion King offers songs that are not entirely in English and call for a greater need of phonetics as well as having a more varied and complex style of costume.
A busy week, and one with a better outlook I thought!
Tune in next Friday to find out how the audition goes!
Ciao tutti, Daniel.
The biggest opportunity at the moment looks to be any possible involvement with the degree project titled "Rocky: The Musical". There are auditions next week for parts in this musical and I think if I can secure a prominent role then this may provide me with the foundations of the type of evidence I wish to include in my portfolio. The musical itself will be written and produced by 2 degree students and plenty involvement from myself will help me gain further insight into the world of musicals! Having completed a SWOT analysis I have identified areas in which I am not experienced enough in and hopefully involvement with such projects will help me improve any chance of getting any job as a west end singer.
I have also been thinking about the different roles I portray as the solo artist daniel dundee and also as front man of the band Fuzzy Buck. For me these roles are different although they are played by the same person, me!, I can see how I can use them as evidence of my ability to act, project dialogue and maintain character on stage.
College started off well this week and in band practice we done more work on our original compositions. Again I found a use for role play as I switched character to improve the likeness to the Beatles in our psychedelic track. I had previously been sounding too much like a mellow Jim Morrision and found that opting for an angry John Lennon was the key to enhancing the psychedelic qualities of our track. It has also been very productive having Michael around during band practice as we are now getting honest feedback on our performances which is helping us progress and improve.
My vocal lesson was back on track as my tutor returned and I have began working on another song as well as having more options for future performances, which I hope to use as evidence in my portfolio.
I am feeling a lot more comfortable with music theory at the moment and I have discovered that I am improving at sight reading and also notating music due to the exercises we have been given. The test is in 2 weeks and I feel confident that I can pass as long as I keep a regular study pattern.
I have also completed the planning stage of my graded unit and feel I have all I need to move forward and that each step of my action plan will provide me with more experience and evidence come interview day.
In session skills this week I took the opportunity to show my diversity and spent the session as rhythm guitarist, which was a fun change despite the dodgy squire telecaster I had! We went over 2 songs and I felt I handled them quite well despite not practising guitar that much recently.
I finished off Thursday by completing my first Cubase/Reason project and although it is not my greatest creative contribution I feel that it has turned out quite well. My emphasis throughout this project was to explore the operations of these audio programs and using many of the different options I now feel I have better knowledge of both Cubase and Reason. This will be of great assistance when I need to record 4 songs from the musicals I am researching to contribute to my portfolio.
My West End show research has continued with The Lion King and already I have noticed great variances from Les Miserable in terms of me being able to transcend successfully across different musicals. The Lion King offers songs that are not entirely in English and call for a greater need of phonetics as well as having a more varied and complex style of costume.
A busy week, and one with a better outlook I thought!
Tune in next Friday to find out how the audition goes!
Ciao tutti, Daniel.
Friday 13 November 2009
The Philosopher's Box.
I finished off my week at college by missing my train home by no more than 5 seconds, however for some reason this trivial issue lingered with me and whilst I sat in the semi-heated glass box on platform 2, I began to consider my varying journey's and the detail in each step made. I saw many points in this particular journey where I might have saved myself 5 seconds and achieved my goal of catching the early train and this led me to think about the planning of my graded unit. I am already slightly concerned that I have no experience as a West End singer yet I must collect enough evidence to prove that I can be a successful and professional singer in a West End show. I think that if I don't give enough attention to the detail in the planning stages then the final outcome may leave me in an undesirable position. I have also been affected by the lack of response I have had regarding local amateur societies, which is mainly due to me building up my hopes too early and maybe thinking with a hint of "everyone will stop to help me". I have managed to motivate myself again and realise that if some avenues I go down are a dead end then I just need to find another relevant avenue.
On the plus side I am eager and excited at the possibility of any involvement with the degree projects and in particular, "Rocky: The Musical". I believe that these types of opportunities will be the best for me to try and expand on my experiences and aim them towards applying for the position as a lead role or understudy in a West End show.
On Tuesday night 4/5 of Fuzzy Buck gathered for their second jam which went really well with everyone having an improved awareness and feeling for the 4 songs we are working on. I also managed to test out some of my recording set up and using Cubase I recorded some stereo takes of each song we were jamming on. Getting use to my home recording facilities will be essential for next semester when I plan to record myself performing different musical songs to include in my graded unit portfolio and presentation.
Wednesday saw me back at college and in band practice we spent most of the time working on our psychedelic composition which I think will give me scope to gather evidence showing aspects of my showmanship and acting abilities which will contribute towards my portfolio for the graded unit.
In research and analysis we looked at "The Beatles", also known as The White Album by many atheists. This is one of my favourite Beatles albums and I am very happy to be covering 2 songs from this album with the college band. For the presentation I am feeling confident and already have most of what I need to complete my presentation but as it isn't for a few weeks yet I have plenty of time to run over it and fine tune my performance. This presentation will also be another opportunity for me to demonstrate my acting abilities and communication skills.
Thursday always comes round too soon although I do enjoy the thinking time I get in the graded unit and music theory classes. If I haven't mentioned already I passed the music theory test I was dreading and am now cautiously moving on with the next outcome. The graded unit action plan is due to be handed in next Thursday and although I have completed it I will spend the rest of the week checking over the cohesion of my plan and also the detail and relevance of how I will shape my development towards providing an impressive portfolio as a West End singer.
As for my West End show research I have now moved on to The Lion King. I feel that my research of Les Miserable was too comfortable for me as I know and like this musical. I think that once I've completed researching The Lion King, which is less familiar to me, I can then look back and review how I researched Les Miserable and try to offer something different to the opinions I have held since I first saw Les Miserable.
This weekend I will not be moving from my home until I have made satisfactory progress with the song that I am intending to enter into The John Lennon Songwriting Competition 2009. I have a deadline of 15th of December to submit this entry and will report later on my progress.
That's about all for this week and hope that next Friday I have some more positive things to offer my blog book and the eyes of those looking in.
Daniel I Am.
On the plus side I am eager and excited at the possibility of any involvement with the degree projects and in particular, "Rocky: The Musical". I believe that these types of opportunities will be the best for me to try and expand on my experiences and aim them towards applying for the position as a lead role or understudy in a West End show.
On Tuesday night 4/5 of Fuzzy Buck gathered for their second jam which went really well with everyone having an improved awareness and feeling for the 4 songs we are working on. I also managed to test out some of my recording set up and using Cubase I recorded some stereo takes of each song we were jamming on. Getting use to my home recording facilities will be essential for next semester when I plan to record myself performing different musical songs to include in my graded unit portfolio and presentation.
Wednesday saw me back at college and in band practice we spent most of the time working on our psychedelic composition which I think will give me scope to gather evidence showing aspects of my showmanship and acting abilities which will contribute towards my portfolio for the graded unit.
In research and analysis we looked at "The Beatles", also known as The White Album by many atheists. This is one of my favourite Beatles albums and I am very happy to be covering 2 songs from this album with the college band. For the presentation I am feeling confident and already have most of what I need to complete my presentation but as it isn't for a few weeks yet I have plenty of time to run over it and fine tune my performance. This presentation will also be another opportunity for me to demonstrate my acting abilities and communication skills.
Thursday always comes round too soon although I do enjoy the thinking time I get in the graded unit and music theory classes. If I haven't mentioned already I passed the music theory test I was dreading and am now cautiously moving on with the next outcome. The graded unit action plan is due to be handed in next Thursday and although I have completed it I will spend the rest of the week checking over the cohesion of my plan and also the detail and relevance of how I will shape my development towards providing an impressive portfolio as a West End singer.
As for my West End show research I have now moved on to The Lion King. I feel that my research of Les Miserable was too comfortable for me as I know and like this musical. I think that once I've completed researching The Lion King, which is less familiar to me, I can then look back and review how I researched Les Miserable and try to offer something different to the opinions I have held since I first saw Les Miserable.
This weekend I will not be moving from my home until I have made satisfactory progress with the song that I am intending to enter into The John Lennon Songwriting Competition 2009. I have a deadline of 15th of December to submit this entry and will report later on my progress.
That's about all for this week and hope that next Friday I have some more positive things to offer my blog book and the eyes of those looking in.
Daniel I Am.
Saturday 7 November 2009
The Week In Review: Part II
Firstly it's Saturday and not Friday so let's just get that out the way first. Apologies to anyone who tuned in!
This week at college was one of the first weeks where I felt in total control of all the subjects on my course.
Wednesday brought band practice and my singing lesson, both going well despite absences, and with new tutor Michael on board the band received a lot of direction and advice regarding our choice of Beatles songs and how we are performing them. Finished the proposal for my research presentation and am now looking towards creating the PowerPoint presentation that I will use to see, "What's Inside the Apple Corps?"
The day was topped off by confirmation that I have passed Outcome 1 of music theory and can now get on with Outcomes 2 & 3 which I feel more comfortable with. Gotta love your comfort zone!
For the graded unit class on Thursday we had Lorenz Cairns in for a chat who proved to be more helpful to my own cause compared to previous speakers. He talked about his experiences throughout college and becoming a session player/singer. His information regarding performing as an understudy in a West End show was very helpful and has given me a better idea of how to gain more experience through the possibility of being an understudy myself.
Session skills followed music theory and towards the end of the class we had a dozen or so musicians and performers in one session which brought a good atmosphere and gave more energy to the performance. Straying from the Motown collective we were given Princes' "1999" to perform and I felt we did very well and that it didn't feel to far away from the Motown vibe.
DAW class was cancelled so I finished off the day listening to some of the HN1 bands performing in their first gig of the year, I believe. I was very impressed with some of the singers and am now looking forward to shaking a tail feather myself.
I will report back next week regarding my West End show research and have also decided to shift my weekly blog to a Friday so that I can effectively report on my week and also make better use of scheduling in between college weeks.
Finally the great Fuzzy Buck are back! Had a jam last night with 2 guitarists I work with and also Steven, a bass player from my course. I am the front man of Fuzzy Buck and we partially split early in the year, however after finding a great bassist and drummer from college it looks like the Buck are back! Last night's jam went better than expected and I am feeling motivated again about writing and recording with other musicians again.
Think I'll leave it at that for this week and all being well I shall be back this Friday.
You, me and everyone else!!!
This week at college was one of the first weeks where I felt in total control of all the subjects on my course.
Wednesday brought band practice and my singing lesson, both going well despite absences, and with new tutor Michael on board the band received a lot of direction and advice regarding our choice of Beatles songs and how we are performing them. Finished the proposal for my research presentation and am now looking towards creating the PowerPoint presentation that I will use to see, "What's Inside the Apple Corps?"
The day was topped off by confirmation that I have passed Outcome 1 of music theory and can now get on with Outcomes 2 & 3 which I feel more comfortable with. Gotta love your comfort zone!
For the graded unit class on Thursday we had Lorenz Cairns in for a chat who proved to be more helpful to my own cause compared to previous speakers. He talked about his experiences throughout college and becoming a session player/singer. His information regarding performing as an understudy in a West End show was very helpful and has given me a better idea of how to gain more experience through the possibility of being an understudy myself.
Session skills followed music theory and towards the end of the class we had a dozen or so musicians and performers in one session which brought a good atmosphere and gave more energy to the performance. Straying from the Motown collective we were given Princes' "1999" to perform and I felt we did very well and that it didn't feel to far away from the Motown vibe.
DAW class was cancelled so I finished off the day listening to some of the HN1 bands performing in their first gig of the year, I believe. I was very impressed with some of the singers and am now looking forward to shaking a tail feather myself.
I will report back next week regarding my West End show research and have also decided to shift my weekly blog to a Friday so that I can effectively report on my week and also make better use of scheduling in between college weeks.
Finally the great Fuzzy Buck are back! Had a jam last night with 2 guitarists I work with and also Steven, a bass player from my course. I am the front man of Fuzzy Buck and we partially split early in the year, however after finding a great bassist and drummer from college it looks like the Buck are back! Last night's jam went better than expected and I am feeling motivated again about writing and recording with other musicians again.
Think I'll leave it at that for this week and all being well I shall be back this Friday.
You, me and everyone else!!!
Monday 2 November 2009
The Week In Review: Part I
I have decided to split my weekly blog into two parts as I feel I don't have that much to log on the grand diary.
This weeks concludes the first musical I will be researching and hopefully this will give me an idea of how to start any development.
First Study progressed well and my tutor has given me some guidance on what type of material to research with regards to West End musical hits. Prior to this we had a productive band practice and have now a good grasp of 4 of the 5 songs we are to perform and also changed the remaining song from "Something" to "Blackbird", a personal favourite.
On Thursday our graded unit was a one to one with our tutor in which I picked up some valuable guidance on how to develop my planning document and will be working on this soon. Music theory has moved onto pitch related topics which I feel are more of a strength and will hopefully be proved right come test time.
In session skills we have moved on to a third Motown track and the band seem to be getting the hang of working in a session. Almost done with my Cubase project and will be sorting out the final mixing and mastering stage before it's big release!
I haven't heard back from any of the amateur musical societies I contacted but hopefully will have something to report soon.
Onwards in a new week now and another couple of days of college will bring you some more news.
Tune in this Friday for Part II of my weekly blog.
Until then Sto Zitta!
This weeks concludes the first musical I will be researching and hopefully this will give me an idea of how to start any development.
First Study progressed well and my tutor has given me some guidance on what type of material to research with regards to West End musical hits. Prior to this we had a productive band practice and have now a good grasp of 4 of the 5 songs we are to perform and also changed the remaining song from "Something" to "Blackbird", a personal favourite.
On Thursday our graded unit was a one to one with our tutor in which I picked up some valuable guidance on how to develop my planning document and will be working on this soon. Music theory has moved onto pitch related topics which I feel are more of a strength and will hopefully be proved right come test time.
In session skills we have moved on to a third Motown track and the band seem to be getting the hang of working in a session. Almost done with my Cubase project and will be sorting out the final mixing and mastering stage before it's big release!
I haven't heard back from any of the amateur musical societies I contacted but hopefully will have something to report soon.
Onwards in a new week now and another couple of days of college will bring you some more news.
Tune in this Friday for Part II of my weekly blog.
Until then Sto Zitta!
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