Thursday 16 December 2010

Thursday 16th December 2010

Hey Guys, sorry for the lack of update the last week has been a really busy week completing work and rehearsing hard for the yule fest performance which ran really smoothly and sounded really good. It was successful and i think all the audience enjoyed it which is a bonus since all the past gigs etc we've put on have had something wrong with them and run with difficulty and end up being a disaster. Work is coming along slowly and needs handing in tomorrow.

Tuesday 30 November 2010

30th November 2010

Hello fellow bloggers,

This week has been slightly more productive than previous weeks. So far, Glyn, Myself and Jez have got the new song (under the temporary name of "This One") under way and ready to start getting it down on logic and start messing about with it, building up the layers. The christmas gig will be interesting. Christina's had to back out of it so vocal-wise it's a lot to learn but on some of the tracks such as; Peggy Sue, King Creole, our Original creation, I'm A Believer and These Boots Are Made For Walking. I'm quite glad actually to have the chance to be more than just a backing singer, but am slightly worried about the choice of songs due to my vocal abilities. Shall be interesting to see what can be acheived from it.
On a different note, I have a concert coming up in February, which i'm hoping can be marked as part of the course as well as my own reasons out of college. Would be really good if i can be marked for solo performace as well as group performance with the bands within the college. It would also be a good chance for me to be marked on a type of music i'm more comfortable with and show my abilities rather than just the type of music i have to do at college. I'm still happy to do the stuff at college, but to use outside performances as extra will make things better for my overall mark - hopefully.
This past Friday was really unproductive. Most people were down in the studio recording the 60s tracks again because they were so bad the previous friday before. This threw practice out of the window. We're just beginning to start on the 70s and 80s style tracks now which i'm slightly excited about. The tracks i'm looking to do are; Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and Carly Simon's 'You're so Vain' these are songs that work well with my vocals and are great songs to do and have up your sleeve. Once we manage to get everybody together to practice all should work well... i hope.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Tuesday 9th November 2010

Hi Guys!

Last week a group of us (Glyn, Saara, Jez, Mike and myself) started working on a new song called this one. Hopefully will be able to use it for compositional work amongst other work we've done. Personally I'm finding the written work gets in the way of everything and takes all my time when i'd prefer to do more practical work and more theory, but it's slowly getting done. The 60s tracks that we're doing - i'm a bit confused with atm. I was off ill on friday the 5th and Tim was off last friday so we couldn't practice the two covers songs and christina came up with a composition in the style of the 60s, which sounds really good. My main worry and concern is that i'm only needed on one song i don't know what i'm doing for the other two and we're playing live next friday. Not sure when we're going to get time to go through it all and decide before next week.

Thursday 28 October 2010

songs for the future of this year!

So far this year, i have started writing a track which uses a solo vocalist (mezzo soprano - based around my own voice), a choir (sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses) and orchestra consisting of flutes, clarinets, soprano sax, trumpets, bass trumpets, trombones, horns, violins, violoncellos, triangles, tambourines and a drum kit. I am hoping to get this song recorded at the latest at the beginning of next year along with any other songs i write in the meantime. I also plan to perform the Lander live with FranetiC and the LanderQuin in a club somewhere asap so we can publicize all of us and our work. Not sure yet how it's all going to work but i've been assigned the task for the three of us and so plan to get it sorted as soon as possible with a good set list - using whatever songs we can come up with together. Needs more sorting yet but hopefully can work it out before the year is up. That's my update for now on plans for this year.

songs i have been involved in writing!

These are the songs i have been involved in writing so far from last year!


The songs include;

Coming Home - written by a group of us at the mill (myself, Glyn Read, Alex Fisher, Lawrence Landers-Cooke, Rob Munro, Simon Gregg and a team of others throwing in ideas as we went along. The song is performed by the band Sub Zero with myself, Glyn Read, Richard Digby-Smith and Sophie Williamson on the backing vocals.)

The Lander ft. LanderQuin - Written by FranetiC and the LanderQuin, I only helped with the engineering and the backing vocals on the track.

Broken Child - Written, produced and engineered by myself with the help of Christopher Raymont on the backing vocals and as assistant engineer.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Wednesday 27th October 2010

Finally, here's hoping it works!!!

I have tried and tried and tried for ages to get this up, it's the first track i've properly created ever so any constructive criticisms would be great! thanks

Broken Child by CharBakes

wednesday 27th October 2010

Well, 50s out of the way, over and done with, with no going back and changing it, we move on to the 60s. Last week's live lounge recordings for the college radio, Newton Abbot radio and Coombeshead College radio was a total shambles. Listening back to - at least my - vocals made me cringe. I thought i sounded awful. However, this time for the 60s I aim to make a much better job of it. Hopefully by then the Tech guys will have learnt what they are doing and can make a much better job of doing their jobs too, making our lives (the performers) easier with the ability to succeed in sight.
All the performer groups have chosen their cover songs to perform. My group have chosen to perform the covers; Wild Thing (poss) by The Troggs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwRrXjWgkaY
These boots are made for walking by Nancy Sinatra; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRkovnss7sg
and I'm a believer by The Monkees; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts
We've done really well in the practice we had this afternoon, we've managed to work out the whole of "i'm a believer" and "these boots are made for walking" on all the basic instruments (bass, guitar, vocals and drums) there's just a few other instruments needed adding to the "these boots are made for walking" such as a keyboard with the saxophone on (or some other jazy instrument) and some sort of percussion on both "i'm a believer" and "these boots are made for walking".
Tim's already working on an original 60s song for us to perform so when we return after half term we only really need to practice all of them over the corse of the three weeks remaining and then perform them live. Hopefully make a better job of it all this time..... :)

Wednesday 27th October 2010

As a follow on from the 50s style - these are the songs my group performed on the radio;
I need you - our original song
King Creole - this was one of our covers

Friday 8 October 2010

Friday 8th October 2010 - 50s Style Music......

Well..... first blog entry since returning to college. We've been looking at the 1950s style of music for the past few weeks. We have learnt 2 covers and created one original piece. The group I was a part of learnt Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly and King Creole by Elvis.
We only have one recording of our practices, which was today's practice because the Live room we practiced in doesn't have a recording device. However, this afternoon we performed our practiced songs live on the radio. The link will go through the college radio, Newton Abbot radio and Coombeshead College (not sure the spelling's correct, sorry). The recording of the tracks was not particularly good i'm sorry to say.
I think one of the problems was that the Tech guys hadn't set up properly, they were fiddling with the headphones and faders etc during the recordings, which was off-putting and made it a pain for us recording and also the producer wasn't talking to anyone - nobody knew what they were doing or anything. I don't think i'm the only one to find this really annoying, another thing i've noticed is that they don't talk to anyone in the studio so we have no idea what's going on most of the time.
However, rant over, other than technical difficulties, listening back to the tracks, there are some good parts that make the music sound along the right tracks. There are the parts that sound musically terrible at times but altogether, considering the problems we were working with, it all sounded not too bad.
Hopefully the next period we look at - the 60s - will be a much better live room experience for all.....

Thursday 1 July 2010

1st July 2010

Well, tomorrow is the last day of this years course. Eek still have a lot of work needed to finish for tomorrow to hand in so I can pass the course. Shall have to work really hard tomorrow so i get it all done. The race is on this is going to be interesting -_- oh well once tomorrow's work is done and handed in, I only then have to focus on the next year of the course in September great :D

Friday 18 June 2010

Friday 18th June 2010

well, been a few days since the last post. It's the second to last week of this year of college (for me at least) all work practically finished. Will have some more set by Simon on Monday to complete/start over the summer holiday and i now have some inspiration for the next half of the course next year. Had a huge chat with Simon today about everything and a moan about how the year has been seriously disappointing for some of us. Hopefully next year all will be sorted properly and i will achieve the goals i aim for. I'm actually really positive that as long as i push hard enough, i can get the work experience i need, and i can sort out everything i need to. i think next year i will sort out what i need and not rely much on the college at all, every time i've relied upon the college to provide certain things and to do certain tasks, things never get completed. Next year has to change :) positive thoughts flying.... all achievable.... now for success :D

Monday 7 June 2010

Monday 13th June 2010

so far, since my last post there has been very little to do other than assignments. the showcase didn't go ahead in the end and we are now on the final stretch of assignments for the remainder of the college year. In the form of gigs, there have been a few still at the blue cargo and now the little coffee shop down the road - the coffee republic. These are mainly taken by the bands because they have the most material, for the rest of us are focussing on getting the assignments in on time etc. I have almost completed my single now - containing 3 tracks. This, along with the midi keyboard assignment, are the last assignments needed completed before the end of the course. These need to be completed by the end of this week and then we just go back over all our work and aim to boost the marks up to distinction on those attaining merits and passes.

Monday 26 April 2010

Monday 26th April 2010

Well, been back at college for a week now, though in my case one day due to illness. We were supposed to have done a presentation on what we plan on doing for our showcase in May, though that kind of went to pot so to speak. Not too sure whether there's going be a showcase anymore, due to the fact that hardly anybody has started writing their plans out. To be honest, nobody really understood what we had to write about, what needed adding and what all the diagrams etc were about, however, it's seriously disappointing that we may not be able to perform, though i can't see us lot doing any better than we usually do. (no offence to anyone, but so far we really haven't been any good).
This aside, we have a new assignment set, which is to produce a single. This is really going to be a challenge for me, so far i only have roughly 4-5 songs and that's pushing it. I really need now to create more songs.
For one of my songs so far - Broken Child - i've decided that the backing vocals don't sound right at all, so i'm having to go back a step to recreate a male backing vocal that will be up-to standard for the song so fingers crossed. I have a lot to complete in the next few weeks.
As for Matt's assignments well...... that'll have to wait till tomorrow when i find out just how many assignments i have to do. : /

Monday 29 March 2010

Monday 29th March 2010

Well.... two days of college left before easter holidays.... I've now managed to finish writing the backing to my song "Broken Child", with the help of Pete. It was fine until putting it all together - it was all out of time, so have had to cut out the vocals completely and put all the backing instruments into a set time and tempo and make it all fit together and sound good rather than the scrambled mess it was before. Having completed this, i am now looking at what i can add to it, what needs changing, followed by focussing on recording my lyrics.
In terms of the showcase, i have a few ideas as to what i can propose, yet am not too sure whether i can pull it off in time. I have a few songs that i can perform, such as: Coming Home (I may/may not be singing lead vocals, that's to be decided today), can possibly do City Falls (that needs to be sorted between all involved in that song, and needs sorting out to make sure that the harmonies work well with everything else - this was one of the problems we had at the christmas gig, the harmonies clashed with the keyboard) I have this song that I'm looking to finish, "Broken Child", which at the moment is looking promising - only am not entirely sure how that's going to work being performed live. Am looking to write more lyric this easter which i can then write backing tracks to straight after easter when we return. Am not entirely sure if these will be pulled off in time so have my fingers crossed.
Am also hoping that once finished off today - or at least fully recorded - whether it's a draft or the entirely finished product - i'm looking to post it on my blog and hopefully get some feedback on it good or bad. This may take a while though, i still have to work out how to upload music on my blog....

Monday 22 March 2010

Monday 22nd March 2010

Back again blog with more updates.....

Since we've come off timetable i actually feel i've achieved more than when we were on timetable. This week past where we've had time to catch up with any out-standing work has been a real help to me. I managed to come up-to-date with all my work by friday, leaving me with not really much to do. Friday was a real challenge to start with, trying to think up what i could do for my final developed starting point. Both Larry and I had the same problem of only having two starting points to develop at the moment and needing another one. Unfortunately, Coming Home, although is being developed, will take until after easter before it really gets anywhere and Glyn, Rob and Alex have other things to do at the moment. This meant me and larry had to put our heads together and decide what our best option was. We decided to book out rehersal room A and record one of our own creations. Mine being Broken Child and Larry's being Copycat. It took roughly three attempts but both are now uploaded onto the computers and ready to use. This is really helpful because i have so many ideas for the song that i can start to put in place this week and slowely watch it all come together.
By the end of this week, I want to have written some more lyrics that i can then record and work with also. So fingers crossed :) Am in a real creative mood at the moment - just hope it lasts.....

Thursday 18 March 2010

Three development ideas

ok so i've put one set of lyrics up on here. these are the final two... Coming home - which although me and larry wrote all the lyrics between us - larry and i together wrote the chorus and i wrote both verses - now i know this comment will piss a few people off - such as sub zero - but it's truth therefore i'm using it as one of my developed ideas :) any one with any objections can take them elsewhere.

ok so coming home lyrics....

ch/ 'Mama' i'm coming home,
'Mama' i'm coming home,
I've been away for so long,
But 'Mama' i'm coming home.

v1/ The things i do, the things i see,
Having fun with my family,
Running along the beach in the sun,
I don't remember having so much fun.

(chorus.. with harmony added)

v2/ The places i've been, the people i've seen,
I've been lucky to have followed my dream,
But now i'm back, and that's for sure,
The world will give me so much more.

(chorus with harmonies)

Middle Eight Instrumental (2 cycles)

(chorus with harmonies)

v3/ The things i do, the things i see,
Having fun with my family,
Running along the beach in the sun,
I don't remember having so much fun.

(chorus x2)

And i'm in the process of writing another set of lyrics at the moment so will publish these on my blog as soon as i have finished writing them :)

LYRICS!!!!!

ok.... i mentioned that i'd written lyrics to a song i am in the process of writing on logic..... well.... these are the lyics :) It's called Broken Child

Broken Child

v1/ Down in the park,
In the lonely hours.
Not a child in sight,
Just a single growing flower.

v2/ And yet in the dark,
A child will weep.
The same little girl,
Who's planting flowers in her sleep.

chorus/ And yet here she stands,
On a cold, dark, lonely night
Alone and broken,
Not the will left to fight.

v3/ The wind in the trees,
Will whistle a tune to her.
The same little tune,
That would send her to sleep.

v4/ The day that he came,
Her life turned around.
She was beaten and kicked,
'til she couldn't hold out no more.

(chorus....)
last line/ Not the will left to fight.....

It's only minimal - i haven't done anything much - just standard verse/chorus which is the same tune throughout and still needs work. but there's the basic lyrics :D
This i'm also hoping can be used as one of my three developed ideas.... so any feedback will be apreciated :)

I'm feeling pretty positive at the moment :) i was beginning to give up hope of being able to finish writing a few of my own songs and putting them altogether, making them look like at least like the beginning of songs in progress rather than just thoughts all mish-mashed onto a few pieces of paper.
After handing simon a tape and hoping he could make the sound at least tolerable and be able to transfer it onto a cd for me.... my plans had to be re-shaped due to just how horrendous the outcome of the sound was from the tape. Although the music on the tape was my cover versions of a few songs, and none of my own work, it still made me feel slightly lost on the best way to next go about recording songs due to the problem of not being able to get the necessary people into the college to record in the studio.
However, major turn around in mood. I still haven't quite worked out how i'll manage to record the lyrics into logic yet and put them with my backing track... hopefully it works well and fits together (fingers crossed).... yet i have managed to at least write a bars - mainly scrambled atm - but they should hopefully fit with the lyrics i've written for it. I think the next week will be dedicated to finding a way of recording the lyrics into logic and making everything fit, since simon's away and i'm practically up to date with all work... yay!!!
Am still trying to find a way of recording cover songs onto a cd as well as though and can't seem to find any solution to that problem. The problem being i can't get the necessary people into the mill at any time to record, and i can't use anyone at the mill as substitutes becasue none can read written music other than myself and i can't perform all parts. If anyone has any solutions i'd be grateful :)

Friday 5 March 2010

Thursday 18th March 2010

ok... so... five weeks since my last post. A lot has happened within that time. I'm not sure what's happening for the April gig, that seems to have gone slightly out the window there are very few practices going on for that and it hasn't been mentioned in a little while so am not too sure what the verdict is. Looking back to the first gig in February, it didn't actually go too badly. I was only needed for one song - the first one which was the cover of supermassive black hole by muse. Out of all the times that this song has been sung by the few of us at the mill, this has to have been one of the bad versions we've done. I personally didn't like the fact that i could only hear my vocals over larry's, and even then i couldn't hear much at all. though that's my opinion. For most of the rest of the envening i spent listening to the other songs the band's performed. Altogether my opinion of the gig... well it wasn't the best everybody did. I spoke to a few people afterwards and pretty much everybody said the same thing... you couldn't hear the vocals over all the other instruments which to be honest just backed up my thoughts during the evening.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Getting ready for the next gig in April

last week was busy for most people preparing for the gig on sunday 7th the two bands had to perform for at least 45 minutes each, using the remaining people to help featuring them as "guests". It wasn't so busy for me and a few others who weren't doing much for the gig - in my case only one song. However, gave me time to start on some of my assignments instead, so came as a plus to some extent.
This week, however, will be hopefully more satisfying work-wise and will keep me busy. I'm beginning to put together some material with a few others for this next gig in April which will be better from my perspective. It will be nice to get back in front of the mic again properly and regain some confidence lost. As for assignments, I'm slightly worried about this assignment Simon's set, but also am quite excited to try something new other than just making music in different styles it will be interesting to see how to put together something for a video and fun i think.
To be honest, i wasn't too happy with last weeks gig. Personally, i realised just how much confidence i have lost since last being in front of the mic. Plus there was a lot of things that really pissed me off - sorry guys but i'm going to bitch slightly :( - i thought it was everyone's responsibilty to sort out their designated tasks - such as photos, websites, marketing etc. I got really ticked off with the way people were blaming other people for not doing a job that wasn't their responsibility. For example - it wasn't up to me and Larry to sort out the marketing - yet we were moaned at because it wasn't done. It should have been up to everybody to sort out their own tasks.
sorry guys - had to be done - no hard feelings.

Thursday 28 January 2010

another week

well, last week was interesting...
catching up on some of my long list of assignments that i've had since i was snowed in a few weeks back. Still not up-to-date though which is really depressing.
However this week has been slightly more eventful...
this week i've been asked to sing Super-massive black hole, possibly Venus, and possibly doing backing/duet on another song - the name elludes me at the moment - on the 7th of feb at the blue cargo, which will be interesting. However, i'm still struggling to get back up-to-date with my assignments which is really really worrying me, i'm half-way there but i need to sit and do these caompositions for simon - which i'm really struggling to get done alongside other assignments, and i also need to rehearse for this gig which i taking place in less than two weeks.
I think tomorrow will have to be sitting down and concentrating wholly on simon's assignment - these compositions and then next week dedicated to rehearsing with the groups to get these songs into shape - this is going to be a bloody tight one - but we'll make it through :) eventually

Monday 18 January 2010

Monday 18th - Back to Normal

Another Monday morning at college.... backtracking the previous week.
well last monday was no college for me due to the snow and ice blocking me at home, however in on tuesday which was interesting - there was hardly anyone in so there was little we could do rehearsal wise - and Matt's lesson was a big catch-up for me getting back on top of my essays.
Friday wasn't much better from my perspective - we started off with having to do a talk about ourselves about our ambitions, initial thoughts when we walked into college, what we want to do later on with music etc, and then we were set another assignment about different styles of music where we have to write four different styles on logic and write an essay to back it up.
Hopefully this week will be slightly more interesting.

Sunday 10 January 2010

A New Start

monday 4th of January... back to college, start off was an assignment - evaluating the christmas gig. Followed by another sorta brief assignment/theory about 4 different sequences, and going through the list of 10 songs that everybody needs to learn - some people - like me - need to learn all of it while others only need to learn some of it and the remainder need to learn more than just one part of each song. Which in my case is really difficult to learn all the songs from scratch because i've only heard of three of them.
The remainder of last week was unfortunately missed from college, due to illness on tuesday and the terrible turn of the weather for the remainder of the week and for next week. There is no way, due to weather conditions, that i will be able to get to college next week either :( which is really irritating me because it means that i'm seriously falling behind with everything unless there is a miracle tonight and weather conditions suddenly change - warm up etc then i'm stuck at home :( so next post will have to be when i return to college...
sorry guys,