In the past week I have been compiling my evidence for my folio and designing my website. My evidence is mainly videos of me playing. I have set up a plan for how i will do this for example i will video myself learning a song for one of my bands, then video me rehearsing with said band and finally performing the song once completed. I have also started videoing myself practicing my first study pieces and rudimental exercises.

External to college I have been playing in bands and gigging as much as possible. I recently hooked up with another Dundee drummer called Howie. He has been playing for much longer than myself and has progressed to writing his own tunes. In his band he is the singer and he has kindly asked me to be his drummer which for me is a great privilege. This will be a great opportunity for me to learn some great things from a great drummer as well as getting my name out there to people who may snatch me up for other work.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on structuring my website and learning how to use the program iweb, which is what I will be using to create my website. I have also been compiling evidence for my website such as videoing myself practice, videoing practices with different bands and videoing performances with these bands. I have taken  photos of performances and studio sessions to design my website as well as use as evidence.

In session skills I have now completed three sessions in the studio. The first first session was done in class time where me and my band had to record a song we had be given to learn. The second session was with the same band however this time we were recording a jingle which we had to write ourselves. The third session was in a different band and was actually for us to have a quick practice, because there was a sound production class in progress we had to be recorded. It was a good experience working with other students in a studio environment.

In my first study classes I have been working on funk grooves. In the second half of the drum lessons all the drummers are gathered together to go over a series of grooves. After the teacher plays through the grooves we each get a chance to try it on the kit in front of each other. This is a good experience for becoming a session drummer because not only is it good to learn different grooves in a variety of styles but to be learning with other drummers watching me adds an element of pressure. This kind of pressure is found in lots of different session drumming situations so learning to deal under this kind of pressure is very important.

Over the past few weeks I have been gigging around Dundee outside of college. I currently have two original bands whom also learn covers and I have one cover band. I have been playing gigs as regularly as possible and I have even hosted a couple of my own gigs. I have been doing lessons every Saturday afternoon with Scot Donald and will hopefully be doing some more session work through him in the near future.

In the past couple of week back from the Christmas hollidays graded unit lechtures and tutorials started back. I am begining to structure a framework for my website so first I had to take the person specification from my chosen job and split the criteria out as headings (tabs/pages). I  then had to give sub headings which would allow me show evidence of me full filling the criteria needed for the job. The sub headings would be places in which we would put evidence into practice i.e my core units, such as group work or first study.
I drew up a diagram on a peice of paper first the way I have decribed above.
I am also getting ICT for promotion class which is showing us how to use iweb, a program designed for creating websites.

Outside of college i have been working on my graded unit work as well as other things. This enables me to go into college havning a structered and good idea about what I have to do. I have also been regularly drumming wether it be practicing at home, my weekly saturday lesson, rehearsing with bands or gigging. I am seeing some inprovements in my druuming for example my versatility and ablity to jump into different surrondings and not be as nervous however i still have to impprove more to achieve my goals. I recently designed business cards for promoting my service as a session drummer and also as a private tutour. As it is still very early days I have only a few people interested although if I continue to promote the im sure it will pay off. Every sunday I host Open Mic at The Globe Bar. I this gives me a chance to work in a group (my band) when we are playing but also when we are running the open mic and keeping everything to schedule. I believe it helps the band grow as well as helping each indevidule grow themselves as a musician.

Over the past two weeks I have been up to my eye balls with playing gigs and practicing with bands so I appoligies for being a week behind on my blog. I have been in contact with multiple venues to secure gigs and open mic nights, it has done a lot for my perfoming and orginisational skills as well as expand on my networking opportunities. I am have also strated experiencing paid gigs and it's helpful for buying equiptment, Ive found myself paying money to make money these days. With regards to my college work I just recently passed my theory test which was focusing on rythm; Identifying time signatures, Note groupings, notating rythms etc. When revising for my theory exam I found myself developing a farmiliarity with iregular time signature which made me start to use them in my drumming. Signatures like 5/4, 7/4 and 7/8 have been my main focus for grooves and fills however with my rudimental exercises I have been working on playing 5's over a quarter note click track. I find 5's the most unusuall. I have also been compiling my development stage of my graded unit by recording practice sessions with bands and also me on my own, working on pieces for my course work and for bands i will be gigging in. For now i will continue to do what i am doing and continue to devlop and progress to the next level.

Blog 1

Over the past week I have been practicing drums for at least a couple of hours every day. I have been building on my foundations i.e rudiments, stick control, co-ordination etc. When I oractice the drums i always practice with a click track (metranome) which i believe helps to improve my playing expinentialy. I have been gigging inand around dundee a lot over the past week aswell, I think this also improves my playing with regarads to confidence and experience. Not only have I been working on my first instrument i have also been working on my second instrument which is singing, I often sing and play drums at the same time or at diferent time when I am gigging. Time signatures are things I hae been looking into at the moment with regars to identifying them from listening to tracks and trying to learn the drum beat, which a lot of the time requires me to write them down first. I think working with iregular time signatures is one of the starting points at becoming a more versitle performer aswell as learning different styles. Aswell as gigging I have found myself practicing inbetween times with multiple bands (4-5) to ensure a tight and well excecuted performance is delivered. This requires me to be punctual and make sure I am attending the practices at the correct time if not early to provide time to set up and warm up.

Here are some links of me playing gigs where i use my vocals and drums togather and seperate. The last two were not recorded within the last week however I do these things on a regular basis. If you are following me Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the videos. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDSRRqUn-ss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx6QXo86RIk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGW1Ia5k3os&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUV8sBnedU0