Holiday Time Once Again!

A busy week of activities once again as I finish off the last week of college before we start a 2 week holiday thanks to the historical Christians!
I started off my college week free of west end show research and the glam band and seen a big improvement in my vocal lesson as I showed a better control of the projection and range within my voice. I have been slightly concerned by the stress placed on my voice by recent activities and have set about researching different methods and treatments for resolving these issues. Between tutor exercises and herbal remedies like honey and lemon tea I am finding new ways of conditioning my voice on a daily basis which will be a skill that is needed if I am to be successfully employed as a west end singer. I have started working on another 2 songs and am enjoying the challenge of learning songs quickly then developing the dynamics within my own performances.
We had no band practice however we were briefed on the outline for the new outcome which sees us gather into bands who are to represent a year of albums or a festival in any given year. These topics will give us a huge variety to choose from as we attempt to perform across 5 different genres as well as composing our own relevant song and representing another in a different musical style. Myself and Jamie Mann, a fellow singer/songwriter, have assembled a band consisting of ourselves, 2 guitarists, a bassist and a drummer which should be more than enough to create a varied and big sound. We have been looking at showcasing "Woodstock 1969" however I am now swaying towards Monterey Pop Festival 1967, which I feels opens the variety of genres we can replicate.
In our graded unit we were fortunate to have a speaker from a video games company who is involved in musical composition and sound design and has celebrated success on a global level with games such as Grand Theft Auto 2/3. I was particularly impressed with Stewart's knowledge on the differences between musical composition and sound design and felt that he demonstrated a great deal of knowledge in the field. I was particularly interested with regards to the development of my own acts and record label and see these meetings as networking opportunities to showcase my own talents and potential. I am hoping to contact Realtime Worlds with regards to licensing my own material for them to use in their video games or even develop myself as a freelance composer through their services. I have took a great deal of knowledge from the various speakers who have attended this class with the biggest factor being all their emphasis on the importance of transferable skills and also multi-tasking. I believe these are areas in which I am strong and have found  the advice of these speakers inspirational in fine tuning my skills and abilities.
This week saw me eventually lay down some vocals in session skills as I attempting to recreate "Moondance" by Van Morrison, which turned out alright although I feel I was acting a little like Harry Connick Jnr within my performance. Having got my maiden journey out the way I can now go on a do the vocal tracks on a variety of other Motown and funk songs which I hope to include in my portfolio.
Last but not least I want to mention Rocky rehearsals from this week which I felt went quite well as the entire cast attempted to deliver the first outline of act 1. There are 2 acts within this musical and we have skipped across most of the scenes from both but now set about the process of gelling it all together. I can see that my involvement in this will help me develop my organisational skills and my awareness of stage production. Simple tasks like be ready in the wings make all the difference in a successful show and I am trying to focus on picking up the necessary skills and knowledge to assist me with this task.
Overall a good week and I sign off for a few weeks as I look forward to hard work and relaxation across the Easter break. I will return to my blog on Friday 16th April 2010 and update on all the activities and progress I have made within.
Until then,
I Am Daniel.