Click here for the link with my CV for jobs outside of the music industry
I am not currently employed however I have recently done a promotional gig for ACM which has been blogged about here.
I have also been employed by a studio to work with a band as a co-producer and drummer which has been blogged about here.
As far as jobs outside of the industry go I have worked at a fish and chip shop for 8 months and I worked as a baking demonstrator for 4 months - these have been noted on my CV linked above.
Jobs that aren't on my CV include walking a dog for 18 months and touring with a covers (77) band around the UK for 7 months.
These jobs have assisted me in the industry mildly as working in the fish and chip shop has taught me how to deal with distressed people as we would occasionally get unpleasant customers. Despite being taught hygiene standards and till work these skills do not assist me in the music industry.
Being a baking demonstrator helped me greatly with talking to a crowd and people in general. It involved me discussing the methods on how to make bread to children, older people and large crowds. This has greatly helped with my confidence and my ability to portray ideas to a large group of people/band. It has also taught me how to make a great loaf of bread!
Walking a dog has hardly helped me in the music industry however touring with a covers band has been incredibly beneficial. It helped with setting up kits, learning songs quickly, dealing with tour hours and sleeping in a van/hotel and a lot more.
Update: April 2nd 2017
I am now currently employed by CeX Guildford
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Project 2: Task 4 - Evaluation
What happened?
After months of preparation and hours of individual and group practice, we performed our funk version of Neiked's Sexual twice. As a band; we were syncopated throughout due to our many rehearsals, some of which have been documented on my blog.
How was I feeling?
As far as creating the song in the first place went, I feel that the previous task that we did had a huge impact on how well the cover went as we had gained knowledge on how cover songs had been done before which helped us develop our covering technique. I took the roll of the MD/Producer in rehearsals so I had a large creative input so I felt a little bit of pressure when performing lest people disliked our song.
Due to the immense amount of practice that my group had put into this project, I was feeling incredibly confident about the song itself and I am very confident in my playing in front of others which add to this. This can be evidenced by my stance and charisma on stage (when I'm not being blocked by lead vocals). There was a large amount of syncopation and eye contact between all band members due to our confidence with the song and each other's ability.
What was good and bad about the experience?
In it's entirety, the performance went incredibly well. In the recording you can hear that everything is in time, although I did accidentally play over the bassist's fill in the second performance before the 2nd verse but other than that I cannot recall any major issues with the performances. Due to the fact that we stuck to our Gantt chart we remained on schedule which is why we did so well.
Although there was some lack of communication between the producers at first we quickly picked up the pace and did some recordings on our to get past this problem. This meant we could play it to our producers in better quality and gain feedback of them as well as rehearse the song in our time.
What sense can I make/take from the assessment?
After the assessment, I have gained more confidence in my ideas as a composer and MD as I am happy with the direction the song took and the overall product. The entire project was made to make sure we plan out what we do, work well together, work to a deadline and adapt songs to different genres. I feel like I have a gained a wider knowledge on all of these things and this is demonstrated by our performance. The overall performance went incredibly well due to everyone trying their hardest and I have learnt thast even if a group aren't always practising together, they can still put on a great performance as a collective despite only rehearsing as an entire group few times.
What more could I have done?
For the project I had planned most of the rehearsals, contributed a large amount of ideas to the song and recorded some rehearsals using microphones and not just a phone. I believe that there was not much more I could have done for this performance other than perform it and practice it with my friends even more than I already had.
That being said, during the early days I could have had more of an input on what we did by being more accurate and demonstrative to the vocalists in what I wanted, for example; in the pre-chorus the vocals sing "you are you are" differently and if I had mentioned that idea earlier we could have changed the song even more.
Action plan
I believe that this assessment was incredibly well done by everyone in my group and whilst I can't pick out any minor flaws in the performance as we cannot see the raw footage, I would happily work with this group again and in the same way, as the performance was awesome.
My plan for the future is to work closely to how I worked on this project as I believe it went incredibly well. I felt like I did good taking charge sometimes and adding my own melodic ideas, despite playing drums. To conclude, I am veryu happy with how this project went awnd the way we prepared for it
After months of preparation and hours of individual and group practice, we performed our funk version of Neiked's Sexual twice. As a band; we were syncopated throughout due to our many rehearsals, some of which have been documented on my blog.
How was I feeling?
As far as creating the song in the first place went, I feel that the previous task that we did had a huge impact on how well the cover went as we had gained knowledge on how cover songs had been done before which helped us develop our covering technique. I took the roll of the MD/Producer in rehearsals so I had a large creative input so I felt a little bit of pressure when performing lest people disliked our song.
Due to the immense amount of practice that my group had put into this project, I was feeling incredibly confident about the song itself and I am very confident in my playing in front of others which add to this. This can be evidenced by my stance and charisma on stage (when I'm not being blocked by lead vocals). There was a large amount of syncopation and eye contact between all band members due to our confidence with the song and each other's ability.
What was good and bad about the experience?
In it's entirety, the performance went incredibly well. In the recording you can hear that everything is in time, although I did accidentally play over the bassist's fill in the second performance before the 2nd verse but other than that I cannot recall any major issues with the performances. Due to the fact that we stuck to our Gantt chart we remained on schedule which is why we did so well.
Although there was some lack of communication between the producers at first we quickly picked up the pace and did some recordings on our to get past this problem. This meant we could play it to our producers in better quality and gain feedback of them as well as rehearse the song in our time.
What sense can I make/take from the assessment?
After the assessment, I have gained more confidence in my ideas as a composer and MD as I am happy with the direction the song took and the overall product. The entire project was made to make sure we plan out what we do, work well together, work to a deadline and adapt songs to different genres. I feel like I have a gained a wider knowledge on all of these things and this is demonstrated by our performance. The overall performance went incredibly well due to everyone trying their hardest and I have learnt thast even if a group aren't always practising together, they can still put on a great performance as a collective despite only rehearsing as an entire group few times.
What more could I have done?
For the project I had planned most of the rehearsals, contributed a large amount of ideas to the song and recorded some rehearsals using microphones and not just a phone. I believe that there was not much more I could have done for this performance other than perform it and practice it with my friends even more than I already had.
That being said, during the early days I could have had more of an input on what we did by being more accurate and demonstrative to the vocalists in what I wanted, for example; in the pre-chorus the vocals sing "you are you are" differently and if I had mentioned that idea earlier we could have changed the song even more.
Action plan
I believe that this assessment was incredibly well done by everyone in my group and whilst I can't pick out any minor flaws in the performance as we cannot see the raw footage, I would happily work with this group again and in the same way, as the performance was awesome.
My plan for the future is to work closely to how I worked on this project as I believe it went incredibly well. I felt like I did good taking charge sometimes and adding my own melodic ideas, despite playing drums. To conclude, I am veryu happy with how this project went awnd the way we prepared for it
Thursday, 2 March 2017
Project 2: Task 2b - Short Summary
Our project started out very up n the air and challenging as we were unsure what to start of with. Ideally we would have had more of an input from the producers but we got there in the end. We played to the vocalist's strengths and went for a middle ground between their styles which is how we ended up with funk.
The song structure and rhythm had many changes as the genres switched and we listened to more funk music and worked on the song more. I believe that the song has taken a new form and sounds just as good with our funk changes. The song sounds original and fits the criteria of the task well as you can't really recognise the song due to the change to the melody and the intro. Only when the vocals come in can you really tell what the original is.
Although we only got to meet one of our producers once throughout the entire thing, I am genuinely happy and proud of the band and how the song has changed and improved over this term. I look forward to being able to lay this and have it recorded.
There will still be small practises in pairs for the next few days before the performance to perfect the parts but nothing will be change. The vocalists will work on the harmonies, guitarists on stage presence and rhythm section on getting as tight as possible (as previously mentioned).
The song structure and rhythm had many changes as the genres switched and we listened to more funk music and worked on the song more. I believe that the song has taken a new form and sounds just as good with our funk changes. The song sounds original and fits the criteria of the task well as you can't really recognise the song due to the change to the melody and the intro. Only when the vocals come in can you really tell what the original is.
Although we only got to meet one of our producers once throughout the entire thing, I am genuinely happy and proud of the band and how the song has changed and improved over this term. I look forward to being able to lay this and have it recorded.
There will still be small practises in pairs for the next few days before the performance to perfect the parts but nothing will be change. The vocalists will work on the harmonies, guitarists on stage presence and rhythm section on getting as tight as possible (as previously mentioned).
Project 2: Task 2b - Song Changes
Summative Assessment details: Sexual by Neiked, Original Version By Neiked
Key: D
Tempo: 108 BPM
Genre: Pop
Time Signature: 4/4
Time Signature: 4/4
Instrumentation:-Bass Guitar-Synthesised Keyboard-Drums-Tambourine-Sound effects (Clock Tick)
Structure:
1. Intro (4 bars)
2. Verse 1 (8 bars)
3. Pre-chorus (8 bars)
4. Chorus (8 bars)
5. Verse (8 bars)
6. Pre-chorus (8 bars)
7. Chorus (8 bars)
8. Instrumental (8 bars)
9. Breakdown/ middle 8 (8 bars)
10. Chorus (8 bars)
11. Outro (8 bars)
Cover Version, By Alex Hancox, Max Crawford, Alice Milburn, Marley Mason, Jacob Vallance and Karina Balagova
Key: Bm/D
Tempo: 135 BPM
Genre: Funk
Time Signature: 4/4
Time Signature: 4/4
Instrumentation:-Lead Electric Guitar-Rhythm Electric Guitar-Bass Guitar-Supporting Vocals-Lead Vocals-Drums-Percussion (Tambourine)
Structure:
1. Intro (16 Bars)
2. Verse (8 Bars)
3. Pre chorus (8 bars)
4. Chorus (8 bars)
5. Instrumental (2 bars)
6. Verse (8 bars)
7. Pre chorus (8 bars)
8. Chorus (16 bars)
9. Breakdown/middle8/solo (16 bars)
10. Chorus (16 bars)
11. Breakdown (32 bars)
12. Outro (4 bars)
1. Intro (16 Bars)
2. Verse (8 Bars)
3. Pre chorus (8 bars)
4. Chorus (8 bars)
5. Instrumental (2 bars)
6. Verse (8 bars)
7. Pre chorus (8 bars)
8. Chorus (16 bars)
9. Breakdown/middle8/solo (16 bars)
10. Chorus (16 bars)
11. Breakdown (32 bars)
12. Outro (4 bars)
Changes we have made to the original to make the song funk rather than pop:-Gave the song a heavier sound-Use of guitar riffs-Repetitive rhythms-vocal style full of chants and exclamations-Memorable and repetitive bass lines-Tempo of 135-Sharp stops and chokes in the song-Breakdown instrumental sections-Ad-lib vocals-Upbeat drums-Higher register guitar partsWe came up with this list together which is why it is identical our blogs but it is efficient and describes the changes accurately. We have taken inspiration from a lot of funk artists with the changes we have made. We listened to a lot of funk to inspire our cover and make it as funky as possible
Wednesday, 1 March 2017
Project 2: Task 2b - Last Documented Rehearsal
This rehearsal took place on: Thursday 2nd March
Attendance
Attendance
- Everyone attend this rehearsal eventually
This was going to be the final rehearsal where we play everything we had done in front of our producers before the assessment
Result
We got to meet our second producer for the first time and perform in front of him. We are very confident with our performance and the producers really enjoyed it to. We have high hopes for the assessment.
My verdict
Despite the poor attendance from certain individuals, I have a lot of confidence for the performance and hope that the producers get the soundcheck done relatively quickly.
Result
We got to meet our second producer for the first time and perform in front of him. We are very confident with our performance and the producers really enjoyed it to. We have high hopes for the assessment.
My verdict
Despite the poor attendance from certain individuals, I have a lot of confidence for the performance and hope that the producers get the soundcheck done relatively quickly.
Project 2: Task 2b - Final Band Skills Rehearsal
Attendance
What we planned
We aimed to finalise our song and make sure we had it down as a band with the structure and dynamics etc. We wanted to receive feedback from the lecturers so we knew what we could improve for our final performance.
Result
I received useful criticism on my playing during the chorus which lead to me hitting the snare harder, driving the groove more and giving the song a nicer sound. As whole they wanted the song to be tighter in certian part as the more we played the more relaxed we got. They also wanted vocal harmonies in certain parts to add depth and volume.
My verdict
To address the criticisms received our band will be working pairs to improve the piece as it will be more beneficial. To get the harmonies correct both the singers will have a rehearsal together, to get the structure 100% and tight the lead and rhythm guitarist will work together and to get the groove tight the bassist and i (drummer) will run the song together.
- Due to it being Band Skills, a lecture exclusive to the performance course, the producers were not asked to or expected to come.
- The entire band was present
We aimed to finalise our song and make sure we had it down as a band with the structure and dynamics etc. We wanted to receive feedback from the lecturers so we knew what we could improve for our final performance.
Result
I received useful criticism on my playing during the chorus which lead to me hitting the snare harder, driving the groove more and giving the song a nicer sound. As whole they wanted the song to be tighter in certian part as the more we played the more relaxed we got. They also wanted vocal harmonies in certain parts to add depth and volume.
My verdict
To address the criticisms received our band will be working pairs to improve the piece as it will be more beneficial. To get the harmonies correct both the singers will have a rehearsal together, to get the structure 100% and tight the lead and rhythm guitarist will work together and to get the groove tight the bassist and i (drummer) will run the song together.
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