Yesterday

Yesterday at college we had a talk from Perth College lecturer and session musician - Pete Honeyman. Peter told us about life as a young session musician and instrumental instructor working all over the country. Listening intently, as I realised this might be the career that I will pursue after college, I realised that I have a big hill to climb before I can walk down the road of the session musician.

The key things I learned about session work is that you have to be versatile and adaptable. You can always plug your guitar in and play in the style or manner that you prefer, you have to be able to play the instrument the way that the producer or MD wants you to - whether that be playing distorted or clean; finger style or with a plectrum, or even just playing the acoustic guitar. Whatever the situation, you have to be prepared and have the right equipment.


I’ll be honest and say “I cannot use a plectrum to play the guitar…”
I taught myself the guitar when I was fourteen and preferred using my fingers to play as I realised I could play both melody and accompaniment. Since then, I have never really bothered to pick up Satan’s plastic and try to sweep-pick my nuts off. After what Pete has said, I know now that I will need to vastly improve my sight reading skills and my guitar technique.

So yeah lets try and use a pick…oh dropped it…oops dropped it…ahh sack it… Hell yeah, just played a pinch harmonic with my fingers ;) alllright, high five!



Besides the talk, the word session has been hitting us from all angles. Thursday afternoons see us in Session Skills class with Gavin. For the past couple of weeks he has also told us of his career in session work, ranging from outside events and television shows, to studio recordings and adverts.
Within the next week or so, Gav will be making us create our own band/sessions and testing our sight-reading, teamwork and organisational skills. I do look forward to playing some Motown.





P.s. If anyone is actually reading this, Eat Dr. Ape have a gig on the 2nd of October at ‘Maggie Mays’ in Glasgow. Its quite an important gig so it would be great to have everyone along to support us :D

All I've got to do...

This past week at college has been more intriguing than the first. Class talks from successful teachers and degree graduates have only increased our knowledge on what other options we have in the music industry after we leave college or university.
Fiona McKenzie, the predecessor of the great Marlisa Ross, attended our graded unit lecture on Thursday afternoon and spoke of her life in the music industry. Teaching and performing, whilst still always learning, Fiona seems to have enjoyed every moment of her music career, working her way up the ladder and finally living the dream (as the nation of obesity would so commonly describe it). Fiona has worked her way up the ladder - teaching music to children and adults and conducting vast orchestras, she is now the musical director (MD) of ‘Centre Stage Music Theatre’ in Kilmarnock.

Her life as a musicians has had its ups and downs, but this just shows you that not everybody leaves college or university and just teaches one instrument, plays one instrument in one band and is just stuck in one dead end job for their whole life. Her speech on Thursday, accompanied by her mute male friend, was a joy to listen to and I hope to leave college with the same drive that she has.

Oh, by the way, I have chosen Session Musician as my job to apply for in graded unit.



Beside this talk, in band class on Wednesday we discussed what songs we are going to learn for our Beatles covers gig in 12 weeks time:

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
“Octopuses Garden”
“Sgt. Pepper”
“Come together”
“Help”
“Hey Jude” &
“All you need is love”

(These being narrowed down to around 5 or 6 songs after we find out which of them we perform the best)



Right, I'm off to play guitar and learn some Beatles songs!

Got a wedding party tonight, going to get totally lamp shaded! :P



Woooo, Eat Dr. Ape, woooo!

Blogtastic

Well hey there gang! My names Chris Findlay (Tiffy).

My life consists of college, working, chillaxin, and most importantly playing in my band - "Eat Dr. Ape"

Music wasnt always my ambition until the age of 10 when i started piano lessons. Enjoying playing piano led to my enjoyment of music itself and also led to me learning the guitar at the age of 14.

Upon leaving school I tried to be a smartarse and go to university - I attended Aberdeen University for three months until realising that I didn't enjoy the course and wasn't really academic enough.. and so I came back to good old perth... Yeahhhhhh!!

I worked for a year and then began my HNC in music at 'Perth College' in September 2008. Now after a year of essays, gigs and tests, we are finally 1 year smarter than we were before :)

Its onto HND now and for the next year i'll be updating all you blog stalkers on my life status (i.e. What i'm having for my lunch, how ill/well i'm feeling, and also leaving random R.I.P messages in condolence to he families of celebraties that I have never known personally and don't really give a shit about...what?)
But no, really, for the next year i will update you on myself, my band, and my life at Perth College and my coursework.

Enjoy ;)


*cough* Buy 'Eat Dr. Ape' on iTunes *cough*