I write this whilst battling with seemingly incurable man-flu. Only the male readers will be able to truly empathise here. It took it's grip a few days ago and just doesn't want to let go. If this is my last ever post, and the man-flu finishes me off... well, I had a good run!
Anyway. Sympathy fishing over. I've got loads to talk about, and lots of things that should be taking priority over this! Our University term has started back up, and I think we're all relieved to be back. It's been a long old break - term ended mid-December, and we frantically worked on our assignments which were handed in during the second week of January. Then we had a month's break, so it's been ages since we had lectures and tutorials.
We all reconvened this week - full-timers started on Monday, and us part-timers came in on Tuesday. It's been interesting to hear what everyone's been up to. Lots of musical projects and collaborations have been flying around it seems.
Me and Mark took our collaborative project to the next level on Monday evening, getting a talented singer in to lay down some vocals for two of our new tracks. Marika turned out to be a gem - a true pro with an amazing voice, and bags of energy and enthusiasm. We got some great vocals recorded, and look forward to working with her again in the future. We now will be mixing and producing the tracks, before sending them to some of our new industry contacts (made through the course), to get them critiqued and to see if our confidence in the songs is correctly placed.
Tuesday was a fun day, catching up with all the fellow songwriters. I can't put into words what a great bunch of people are on this course. Such a positive, inspiring collective, and I realised how much I'd missed seeing everyone. For us part-timers, this semester will be all about re-writing our solo tracks from last term, and collaborating.
We were given a task yesterday - pick one of four songs (as written/recorded by Commercial Music undergraduates), then go away in groups to re-write and try to improve the song. I picked a song called "Bitter End", and in my group were Mark, Kim, Annie and Miles. In just over an hour, we managed to completely re-write the song, and I reckon it sounded really good. As a group we gelled really well, and it was such a fun experience. So much so that we've decided to write a song from scratch as a five-way collaboration. Should be interesting!
We have also now received all our song critiques. Jez Ashurst and Paul Field have critiqued all the songs we wrote last term, and we have also been critiquing each other's songs, as part of last year's Solo Songwriting module. I received five critiques from my peers for four different songs. It makes interesting reading, and I'll definitely be taking everything on board! For next Tuesday, we have to re-write one of the songs critiqued by our peers. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into that.
I've also got another music-related project going on, albeit nothing to do with songwriting. A chap from sonicstate.com contacted me through the course, asking whether I would fancy doing some music tech equipment reviews for their website. I jumped at the chance, and am currently in the process of reviewing a Yamaha DTXM12 drum module. My review will be filmed, and if it makes the grade then hopefully I'll be appearing in an internet browser near you!
Ciao for now,
Pat
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