Merry Christmas to all. Yes you too!
No college this week as we start the festivities however there is no rest for the wicked and I am about as evil as it gets.
I managed to use the start of this week to look over all my course work so far and remind myself of the tasks that lie ahead as I develop myself in the mould of a west end singer.
My confidence is growing all the time in this area and from the beginning of the graded unit until now I have managed to rest all the negative thoughts of lacking experience and possibly not being good enough.
The research I have been carrying out has been a big help as the variety of roles and tasks within each west end production are many and I feel that with the right commitment I can go forward and gain the experience I may need to prove myself. I am now moving on to research my 4th show, Chicago, which I have had some singing experience of from the vocal showcase I participated in throughout 2008/09. I have found it difficult however to break away from the mainstream stereotypes associated with each musical, whether it be film or television adaptations, and see this as a potential weakness that I must sort.
This week saw the last gathering of the year for Fuzzy Buck, my band, and we managed to master more recording techniques within my home studio. I feel that our experiences together are contributing towards a healthy band relationship and also reflecting in the music we are producing.
I leave it there for this week since you are all busy holidaying etc.
Until next time, I am you know who.
Friday 25 December 2009
Friday 18 December 2009
That's A Wrap!
The last week of college before the holidays was contradictorily hectic and empty.
First of all I started my week ahead of schedule after submitting my entry for The 2009 John Lennon song writing competition two days earlier than needed. Although I was not completely satisfied with the final mastering of the recording I was happy enough to have my song considered. It was a big confidence boost being able to multi track different instruments all by myself and it was a reminder than I am maybe better at multi tasking than I give myself credit for.
Tuesday was all about performance as I started the day with some Christmas Carol rehearsal before performing at the lunch time carol singing in the union. I am not a big fan of Christmas and do not celebrate this Christian past time although I do respect their customs and took part in this performance with a smile on my face.
After a small break I went into the rehearsal rooms to practice with "The Beetles" for our evening gig in the theatre. We had completed our sound check in the morning and managed to practice our set twice before the final performance. I felt that our practice had a lot of energy and gained more the second time and further more during the gig itself. For me this build up of energy helped to improve our performance and I can see how this kind of positive attitude is essential in lifting the crowd regardless of how talented you may be as a performer. The gig came and went quickly and we received some positive comments from our peers. I enjoyed performing for my fellow students and also enjoyed taking the opportunity to get to know more of them better.
I had no classes on Wednesday but it was the day of my audition for Rocky: The Musical which I was looking forward to and was hoping for any type of involvement. I was told the audition went well but I felt my acting was mediocre and my singing was well below standard. It was great being involved and I am now more aware of the importance of delivering a quality performance at these early stages of project involvement. I have since been cast as "Tony" and am thankful that I will have the chance to add something of relevance to my portfolio.
Thursday was another empty day however music theory managed to prevail in it's usual format. We are currently working on transposition and intervals. I find transposition easy as it is a skill I have used a lot while teaching myself different instruments however I realise that I am not so strong with identifying intervals and again I have the opportunity to focus on a weakness and hopefully enhance so I can pass the final set of tests in this class. This was the only class of the day and with all my DAW work complete I managed to finish off college before the holidays with peace of mind.
I will now look forward into the new year and start focusing on my Beatles presentation, vocal presentation and also the up and coming targets set out in my graded unit action plan. My west end show research is ongoing and I am almost finished researching "Grease" which will be the third show I have researched and I feel I am gaining more knowledge in musical theatre.
Well like I said that's a wrap, so tune in next Friday to find out how much I have managed to fit into another week, after all it is just another week.
Peace and love,
Daniel
First of all I started my week ahead of schedule after submitting my entry for The 2009 John Lennon song writing competition two days earlier than needed. Although I was not completely satisfied with the final mastering of the recording I was happy enough to have my song considered. It was a big confidence boost being able to multi track different instruments all by myself and it was a reminder than I am maybe better at multi tasking than I give myself credit for.
Tuesday was all about performance as I started the day with some Christmas Carol rehearsal before performing at the lunch time carol singing in the union. I am not a big fan of Christmas and do not celebrate this Christian past time although I do respect their customs and took part in this performance with a smile on my face.
After a small break I went into the rehearsal rooms to practice with "The Beetles" for our evening gig in the theatre. We had completed our sound check in the morning and managed to practice our set twice before the final performance. I felt that our practice had a lot of energy and gained more the second time and further more during the gig itself. For me this build up of energy helped to improve our performance and I can see how this kind of positive attitude is essential in lifting the crowd regardless of how talented you may be as a performer. The gig came and went quickly and we received some positive comments from our peers. I enjoyed performing for my fellow students and also enjoyed taking the opportunity to get to know more of them better.
I had no classes on Wednesday but it was the day of my audition for Rocky: The Musical which I was looking forward to and was hoping for any type of involvement. I was told the audition went well but I felt my acting was mediocre and my singing was well below standard. It was great being involved and I am now more aware of the importance of delivering a quality performance at these early stages of project involvement. I have since been cast as "Tony" and am thankful that I will have the chance to add something of relevance to my portfolio.
Thursday was another empty day however music theory managed to prevail in it's usual format. We are currently working on transposition and intervals. I find transposition easy as it is a skill I have used a lot while teaching myself different instruments however I realise that I am not so strong with identifying intervals and again I have the opportunity to focus on a weakness and hopefully enhance so I can pass the final set of tests in this class. This was the only class of the day and with all my DAW work complete I managed to finish off college before the holidays with peace of mind.
I will now look forward into the new year and start focusing on my Beatles presentation, vocal presentation and also the up and coming targets set out in my graded unit action plan. My west end show research is ongoing and I am almost finished researching "Grease" which will be the third show I have researched and I feel I am gaining more knowledge in musical theatre.
Well like I said that's a wrap, so tune in next Friday to find out how much I have managed to fit into another week, after all it is just another week.
Peace and love,
Daniel
Friday 11 December 2009
It's Showtime!
Next week brings a busy time for myself as I look forward to performances and an audition before the Christmas break.
Firstly I would like to thank Brian Lane Green for taking the time to leave a comment on my blog.
This week of college was strange as everyone seemed a bit anxious with regards to the gig next Tuesday in the theatre. Our Beatles band practice felt a bit mundane but we did manage to push through this feeling and get some constructive work done. Hopefully with a small practice on Tuesday afternoon everyone will be feeling more confident, including myself.
On the same day as the gig I have a small carol singing performance which will be a good experience as we will have a small first time practice just shortly before performing. These types of short time-scales within projects are helping me develop at a satisfactory rate and I have more confidence now that I will be able to provide quality evidence in my portfolio as a west end singer.
The biggest positive of the week was finding out I passed the next 2 outcomes of music theory and have only 2 left to do before the end of semester one. Through music theory and session skills I am seeing good progress with my sight reading skills and am also finding through a better practice and warm up routine I am developing better control within my vocal range which I am hoping to expand.
Having submitted my final draft of the planning stage of my graded unit I now look forward towards creating a portfolio. I will have to gather as much evidence as I can before editing the final content. As I have mentioned I am concerned by my lack of experience but believe I can collate enough evidence to show that I am willing and able to deliver as a west end singer.
On Thursday we had a visit form an ex-degree student named Laura. She now works for Perth and Kinross Council amidst the joy of community music. Laura showed great passion for music and also for the individual during her talk and I'm sure she motivated a lot of students discussing her experiences. For myself I liked how she discussed the historical links and importance of music in culture and also how she repeated the importance of transferable skills. I did agree with her assumptions of 99% of musicians and have found similar problems throughout my music career. Overall her talk was comforting and probably more relative than previous talks as not so long ago she was in our shoes herself.
It has really been a week of tying up loose ends and in DAW class this week I completed the work required for outcome 1 and also got a sneak preview of the content of outcome 2 which I will now investigate further.
Fuzzy Buck have finished most of the work on the 4 written songs and will now take a little break before Christmas although myself and one of the guitarists do have some work to do on vocals and lead guitar which we hope to do soon.
I am also almost done with the Daniel Dundee track for the John Lennon Songwriting Competition 2009 and am hoping to have the track uploaded for consideration by midday on Monday.
Most of my weekend will now be spent brushing up on my Beatles performances, my Rocky impression and my Cubase skills. It's not the most exciting plans but in the long run I will have more to celebrate if I dedicate some time to these projects now.
I will sign off now but tune in next week to find out how the gig went and how I fared in my audition.
Ciao tutti.
Firstly I would like to thank Brian Lane Green for taking the time to leave a comment on my blog.
This week of college was strange as everyone seemed a bit anxious with regards to the gig next Tuesday in the theatre. Our Beatles band practice felt a bit mundane but we did manage to push through this feeling and get some constructive work done. Hopefully with a small practice on Tuesday afternoon everyone will be feeling more confident, including myself.
On the same day as the gig I have a small carol singing performance which will be a good experience as we will have a small first time practice just shortly before performing. These types of short time-scales within projects are helping me develop at a satisfactory rate and I have more confidence now that I will be able to provide quality evidence in my portfolio as a west end singer.
The biggest positive of the week was finding out I passed the next 2 outcomes of music theory and have only 2 left to do before the end of semester one. Through music theory and session skills I am seeing good progress with my sight reading skills and am also finding through a better practice and warm up routine I am developing better control within my vocal range which I am hoping to expand.
Having submitted my final draft of the planning stage of my graded unit I now look forward towards creating a portfolio. I will have to gather as much evidence as I can before editing the final content. As I have mentioned I am concerned by my lack of experience but believe I can collate enough evidence to show that I am willing and able to deliver as a west end singer.
On Thursday we had a visit form an ex-degree student named Laura. She now works for Perth and Kinross Council amidst the joy of community music. Laura showed great passion for music and also for the individual during her talk and I'm sure she motivated a lot of students discussing her experiences. For myself I liked how she discussed the historical links and importance of music in culture and also how she repeated the importance of transferable skills. I did agree with her assumptions of 99% of musicians and have found similar problems throughout my music career. Overall her talk was comforting and probably more relative than previous talks as not so long ago she was in our shoes herself.
It has really been a week of tying up loose ends and in DAW class this week I completed the work required for outcome 1 and also got a sneak preview of the content of outcome 2 which I will now investigate further.
Fuzzy Buck have finished most of the work on the 4 written songs and will now take a little break before Christmas although myself and one of the guitarists do have some work to do on vocals and lead guitar which we hope to do soon.
I am also almost done with the Daniel Dundee track for the John Lennon Songwriting Competition 2009 and am hoping to have the track uploaded for consideration by midday on Monday.
Most of my weekend will now be spent brushing up on my Beatles performances, my Rocky impression and my Cubase skills. It's not the most exciting plans but in the long run I will have more to celebrate if I dedicate some time to these projects now.
I will sign off now but tune in next week to find out how the gig went and how I fared in my audition.
Ciao tutti.
Friday 4 December 2009
A Little Bit More!
This week seemed to whizz past for me and as I gather my thoughts and recall my week I see that I have done quite a bit and that my current weekly routine is doing a lot to help me develop in all the areas that I need to in order to pass as a west end singer and also progress with my own personal projects.
I started the week with another Fuzzy Buck recording session and we have now recorded our 3rd track and hope to get the 4th done next week before commencing a new batch of writings. I am also half way through completing the track for the John Lennon songwriting competition and am looking good for the deadline.
By Wednesday I was back at college, however there was not much band practice as some members were off ill. I believe we are confident and able enough to gather and perform after a sound check so I am not that anxious about the performance on the 15th December.
Another vocal lesson went well and I had performed 2 songs after my warm up and will now move on to trying a Brian Lane Green cover of "Crying", made popular by writer Roy Orbison and then covered later by KD Laing. This song is quite slow and demands a lot of big breaths and sustained notes whilst adding a lot of vibrato to finish phrases. I am finding that my research of material is going a long way to contributing to my final performances and hope to continue this trend within my west end show research.
I finished off the day in research class discussing band set up and projects for next semester. I have now to deliver a short presentation on elements important when scoring music for a vocalist. It is important to make this presentation concise and relevant as it is aimed at helping other musicians, who may not be vocalists, to score music for a singer effectively. This will be another opportunity for me to include some more quality evidence in my portfolio.
Thursday began with a test in music theory and my biggest mistake was not going to the toilet before I began my test. I had no problem understanding any of the questions and felt quite comfortable answering them however the annoyance and distraction of my bladder pushed me into running out of time as I quickly finished off the last question. I felt silly afterwards but on the positive side it is another reminder of how small distractions can become bigger and affect the final performance and hopefully I will not be repeating these type of mistakes.
I have received my planning stage of my graded unit back from my tutor and am confident that after a few more final touches I will have a draft that I am happy with ready in time for the deadline next week.
In digital audio class this week we covered mastering techniques when looking to burn recordings to CD or other formats. This was very helpful as it is the next stage I am needing to cover with my solo and band home recordings. I have also been doing further work to my project and will complete some fine tuning next week before submitting the final mix.
This is the last week of the research on the musical The Lion King and already I have seen how much a west end singer would have to diversify. The concept of the 2 musicals studied so far are vastly different in prospective as one is regarding humans and the other animals. This also contributes to a huge contrast in scenery and costume which seems to work the cast more when the set is more complicated. I think Les Miserables is a lot easier for a singer/actor to relate to and is less restrictive during performance. A positive factor with The Lion King is that the music is very spiritual and uptempo which might contribute to the motivation of the performers. Next week I move on to Grease which I have more background knowledge of but will not regard this until I carry out my routine of research.
On a final note I have a date for my audition for Rocky The Musical and luckily I have now 2 weeks to prepare myself to impress. I will be happy with any involvement and have all I need to hopefully convince the producers I am capable of delivering.
I shall leave now before Friday becomes Saturday and I fall behind schedule.
Until then I am Daniel.
I started the week with another Fuzzy Buck recording session and we have now recorded our 3rd track and hope to get the 4th done next week before commencing a new batch of writings. I am also half way through completing the track for the John Lennon songwriting competition and am looking good for the deadline.
By Wednesday I was back at college, however there was not much band practice as some members were off ill. I believe we are confident and able enough to gather and perform after a sound check so I am not that anxious about the performance on the 15th December.
Another vocal lesson went well and I had performed 2 songs after my warm up and will now move on to trying a Brian Lane Green cover of "Crying", made popular by writer Roy Orbison and then covered later by KD Laing. This song is quite slow and demands a lot of big breaths and sustained notes whilst adding a lot of vibrato to finish phrases. I am finding that my research of material is going a long way to contributing to my final performances and hope to continue this trend within my west end show research.
I finished off the day in research class discussing band set up and projects for next semester. I have now to deliver a short presentation on elements important when scoring music for a vocalist. It is important to make this presentation concise and relevant as it is aimed at helping other musicians, who may not be vocalists, to score music for a singer effectively. This will be another opportunity for me to include some more quality evidence in my portfolio.
Thursday began with a test in music theory and my biggest mistake was not going to the toilet before I began my test. I had no problem understanding any of the questions and felt quite comfortable answering them however the annoyance and distraction of my bladder pushed me into running out of time as I quickly finished off the last question. I felt silly afterwards but on the positive side it is another reminder of how small distractions can become bigger and affect the final performance and hopefully I will not be repeating these type of mistakes.
I have received my planning stage of my graded unit back from my tutor and am confident that after a few more final touches I will have a draft that I am happy with ready in time for the deadline next week.
In digital audio class this week we covered mastering techniques when looking to burn recordings to CD or other formats. This was very helpful as it is the next stage I am needing to cover with my solo and band home recordings. I have also been doing further work to my project and will complete some fine tuning next week before submitting the final mix.
This is the last week of the research on the musical The Lion King and already I have seen how much a west end singer would have to diversify. The concept of the 2 musicals studied so far are vastly different in prospective as one is regarding humans and the other animals. This also contributes to a huge contrast in scenery and costume which seems to work the cast more when the set is more complicated. I think Les Miserables is a lot easier for a singer/actor to relate to and is less restrictive during performance. A positive factor with The Lion King is that the music is very spiritual and uptempo which might contribute to the motivation of the performers. Next week I move on to Grease which I have more background knowledge of but will not regard this until I carry out my routine of research.
On a final note I have a date for my audition for Rocky The Musical and luckily I have now 2 weeks to prepare myself to impress. I will be happy with any involvement and have all I need to hopefully convince the producers I am capable of delivering.
I shall leave now before Friday becomes Saturday and I fall behind schedule.
Until then I am Daniel.
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