Reflection On The Past 4 Weeks [or Learning Outcomes]

The past 4 weeks was pretty intense. I met a lot of cool people that I will probably be friends with for some time to come. I learned some new things i.e. Jim’s trick for recording acoustic guitar. And most importantly, my brain is back in school mode in regards to the writing and research lectures. Now I need to decide exactly what my goal will look like so I can achieve it by the end of the course. I know it involves running my own record label but I just need to narrow down exactly what it will look and sound like so I can start planning how it will run.

So according to the handbook, I should now be able to (note: some of the proofs overlap):

1. understand the University’s IT resources – proof
2. find key information about their course and about future job options – proof
3. use InfoLinx, the Library Catalogue and other relevant research tools – proof | proof
4. contribute to an informed debate about music industry issues – proof | proof
5. show competency sufficient to use the music department and other studios unsupervised – proof | proof
6. negotiate roles within group performance/studio/business/ promotion situations – proof | proof | proof
7. understand the basics of using Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software – proof | proof
8. plan, rehearse and perform music live in groups – proof | proof
9. show a basic understanding of types of music industry organizations and job roles – proof
10. engage in simple marketing and other promotional activity – proof

Folio Shared [or Sharing is Caring]

My blackboard folio has been shared with Chris…..

The Performance – Area 51

You gotta love this video….my favorite Brady Bunch episode indeed. Ok, let’s get down to business and speak on the performance today. It was……eventful? I’m not sure what the word is to use here but that’s the best one that comes to mind.

I arrived early to school to work in the studio (CR8 to be exact) to finish up some more arrangement on the remix I am working on. Matt, Adam, and Ed arrived shortly after and we met up around Area51. Missing in action was both of our MCs and our synth player but they ended up arriving before we went on stage so all was well.

The performance…..was…..brutal. LOL. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating but I thought it was a 3 on a scale of 1-10. First off, for some reason the keyboard I received was pitched down 2 semi-tones and since I don’t have much live performance experience….it didn’t strike me to play up higher on the keyboard (duh!). Luckily, there was a technical problem so we had to start our performance over 30 seconds in of sour synth bass notes provided by yours truly. At that time, I was able to yell over to Jim (engineer) that the keyboard was out of tune and he was able to fix it within 15 seconds.

Ok so….fresh start….hopefully the audience forgot about what was just heard. We start and its sounding great. Keyboard is in tune….Sid is killin’ it on the piano/vocals…..Jazz’s verse is energetic, etc. THEN….Harold forgets where he comes in and 4 bars roll by with no vocals. At this point I’m wondering if we’re going to extend his verse or just cut back to the hook…..we cut back to hook LOL. Fair enough….the rest of the song went smooth. Mind you, the first time I look up at the crowd (due to nervousness….Im not a performer, remember?) they are just staring at us blankly (is that a word?). So I just go back into my zone and play my bass part.

All in all…..people told us we were pretty good but I’m assuming its because they felt sorry for us LOL. A valuable lesson learned though is that if 1 person is constantly missing rehearsals, it will definitely show in the live performance and WILL affect everyone else in the band whether you like it or not.

The other performances were really good. The ones that stood out were Judy’s group (she has an amazing voice, who knew?), the Frank Sinatra cover was trippy and awesome, the MGMT cover was my favorite and the band Bruce was in was dope too. A lot of talent in our class…..I was pleasantly surprised.

I’m hoping folks don’t remember my performance and pigeonhole me into the “suck” category especially since I’m a producer and not a performer. I’m probably being too hard on myself (because that’s what artistic people do) but I definitely think things could’ve went a whole lot better.

I Feel You Jay….I Feel You

So I decided to do some art for your viewing pleasure today. What’s that you say? Stick to production? Ok….fine. Oh yea, so what does this photo have to do with anything? Well….the look on Jay-Z’s face is how I felt today after finding out that we pretty much showed up to school for nothing.

Originally, the plan was to have a guided rehearsal (I think) with Derek. Well, we got there at noon like we were told to (most of the band at least) and waited around until about 1.40pm-ish to finally get into a rehearsal room. By time we setup and warmed up it was 1.50. We were midway through our song when Ade walks in and says that rehearsal rooms need to be given back now. Yep…..so we packed up and went home. A solid 2 mins of rehearsal.

Luckily I booked a control room to continue work on my remix project, so my whole day wasn’t a complete waste. But…..I feel you Jay-Z

GIS Part 2 for Alix Week 4: For or Against

For or Against

Look at the following statements. Decide whether you are for them or against them. What evidence do you have to support being for or against? (e.g. a quote from a reliable source, a statistic, a well-known fact, an event).

Performers who do not play instruments or write songs are “groups”, not “bands”

opinion

I agree

reasons

I agree bands are a group of people that write and perform music. The question then comes down to what does “playing an instrument” exactly mean? Is an MPC an instrument?

Why can’t I find an article to back this up??

Instruments are gendered (e.g. harp, flute = female; bass, drums = male)

opinion

I agree with this statement.

reasons

I believe instruments are gender specific due to stereotypes of the images and visuals we are exposed to with many bands from an early age.
Here is an interesting article on an experiment with children and gender-typed preferences for instruments: http://www.springerlink.com/content/n21mrkwxk2ahp4ry/fulltext.pdf

“Pop” is not a genre

opinion

I agree

reasons

Since pop is short for “popular”, how can it be a genre? I believe it is best used to describe genres. For example, “he’s a pop rap artist.” The article below explains the term pop as an audience descriptor (typical place the music is listened to):

A Taxonomy of Musical Genres – pp. 6-7

Neither music nor culture can belong to any group

opinion

I agree.

reasons

By saying music or culture belongs to one group in particular, you’re then saying if I like hip hop then that means I can not like skateboarding which is obviously untrue. Music and culture overlap groups. Here is an interesting article on culture: http://www.sustained-success.com/uploads/411_Culture.pdf

Position Opening – Hospital Club [CiR]

I checked Blackboard earlier and found a lead to what seems would be a cool position at the Hospital Club for a program called Creatives in Residence. It seems very interesting and sounds like its right up my alley so I applied. The application was pretty intense as they asked several essay style questions but I’m confident I’m awesome enough to get a call back. Fingers crossed….

GIS Part 1 for Alix Week 4: Feelings About Studying

FEELINGS ABOUT STUDYING

Which of these statements do you identify with?

	Identify or Don’t Identify
I am not sure I will find enough time to study.	Don’t Identify
I am apprehensive about how my studies will affect other areas of my life.	Don’t Identify
I find it hard to concentrate for long periods.	Identify
I have not done an exam for a long time so I am anxious about putting pen to paper.	Don’t Identify
I am worried about my grammar, spelling, commas and full stops.	Don’t Identify
I am worried about the language required for assignments finding the right words.	Identify
I do not think I have a wide enough vocabulary especially under pressure.	Don’t Identify
I worry about the technical elements of the degree course.	Don’t Identify
I am worried my mind will go blank when I need to give presentations.	Identify
I am worried about taking tests and exams.	Don’t Identify
I am worried I will find it hard to get down to work.	Don’t Identify
I am anxious because English is an additional language for me.	Don’t Identify
I wish I could read faster.	Identify
I am not sure how to cope with distractions at home.	Don’t Identify
I worry that the other people on the course will be better at studying than I am.	Don’t Identify
I am afraid I will fall behind in my work.	Don’t Identify
I am not sure how much to discuss my studies with other people.	Don’t Identify
I feel nervous about performing in front of a new group of people.	Identify
I am worried about doing presentations.	Identify
I am concerned that I will miss the coursework deadlines.	Don’t Identify

External Link to Portfolio Still Not Working

Ok, so today I decided to test the external link to the sample portfolio I made for Stu and……its still not working. Luckily, yesterday Chris told us how to submit a ticket to IT dept. so I will do this now and see what kind of results I get. My guesstimate on ETA of fix = 2 weeks. Hey, I’m just being realistic.

Broken portfolio link: http://161.74.13.36/webapps/bbcms/portfolio/launch?pid=_49_1&tid=_16_1

**UPDATE: Since I’m awesome, I figured out how to download a zip version of the blackboard online portfolio – Keith Portfolio

**UPDTATE 2: FixIT ticket submitted

Research and Study Skills with Alix H. [Fishbowl Activity]

Today we had an in class activity where Alix placed us four students at a table and we had to either compare, contrast, criticise, define, describe, etc. of the given topic. My group had to criticise reality music TV shows. We chose to attack X-Factor and we criticised both sides of the show (the good and the bad).

This exercise showed us that we need evidence to back our opinions and arguments. Without evidence (i.e. references), arguments hold no weight.

She also spoke about how papers need to be written in 3rd person (I feel like I should’ve known that) and as well paragraphs need to be consistent in length (something else I didn’t know). Will download her PPT from today and go through it once more refresh what I learned today.

The band plans on rehearsing one last time today to lock in on our performance and arrangement. For some reason, I feel a lot less pressure about performing than I did 3 weeks ago. I guess that comes along with practice….

Alix’s PowerPoint

Heavy Metal – Time To Top Yourself?

I finally got around to reading the article on Heavy Metal music and suicide this past Sunday. It was pretty boring to say the least but what I learned about the background/basis of the article was interesting. Chris set us up for failure on this one (lol, just kidding). But a valuable lesson was learned that just because an article is peer reviewed doesn’t mean it is not biased or skewed.