02/12/09

Well....

first things first i have to apologise for being a bit lazy with my blog recently but these past few weeks have been a bit hectic.

To start with this Panto band has been doing my nut in!!! it was so unorganised till like a couple of weeks ago when we finally got a copy of the script an had a full run though. I do feel alot better about it now although the final performance is this friday an saturday an im just getting over Swine Flu! But it just shows you some times you just have to put your foot down and work hard to get the best out of a session even if you don't really enjoy it,Will let you know how it goes in next weeks entry.

Beatles Band is really starting to come together now and we pretty much have all our covers nailed now and have our 2 originals sorted :)

My theory tuition is going really well and i feel quite well prepared for my exam 2morrow and in a strange way im kind of looking forward to it! HAHA!

Session skills im loving more and more every week, im learning so much about the industry and the more i know the more i want to do it!

Now.....Eat Dr. Ape News!!!

well as some of you might know we played in london last thursday as part of the MBF songwriter of the year awards. We were first on and in my opinion we played unbelievably set and put on an unbelievably good show. Unfortunately we didn't win but the experience and exposer was amazing. we got pro photos taken, a prober interview and our set got filmed ant went out live to over 4000 viewers!!! so defiantly a great experience and next week we have 3 gigs :) one of which is on my Birthday!!!!! Bannermans 10th December Everyone welcome.....the more the merrier!!!!!

see ya next week :)

08/11/09

Hey guys,

college over the past while has bin up and down.

In Session Skill we have how bin divided up in to bands and each week we are given a piece of music to learn and preform at the end of the day. This class is proving to be very beneficial in teaching what is expected of a musician when he/she steps into a Session. It has highlighted a lot of my weaknesses in reading so I now know exactly what I really need to work on.

In Creative project we now have a new lecturer called Andrew, I have found this a breath of fresh air to a class that was beginning to get a bit stale. Andrew is giving us alot of good usfull feed back and i can already hear the improvement. In Graded Unit we also got a fantastic talk from Lorenze Cairns about being a West End an Session performer, i found this talk Inspiring and has pushed me to become a more confident person. He spoke about Key skills such as communication skill and the will to succeed :)

On a down side i found out that i Failed my Theory Exam so I have to re-sit it later this year :( I am totally gutted about this as i really tried! so that has kinda knocked me back a bit but if I learnt anything from Lorenzes talk its never to give up! so I have sort myself out with a theory tutor......i WILL pass next time!!!!!!!!

Also in Eat Dr. Ape news we have an exciting announcement to make!!! We have been selected out of all the Universities in the UK that teach Popular music to be on of the 7 preform at the final of the Musicians Benevolent Fund Songwriter of the Year award in London!!!!! I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!! :)

We also have 3 gigs next week and at least 1 a week till xmas so we'r busy busy busy.

anyway iv ranted on way too much now!

Speek soon

JP :)

20/10/09

Hello there!!! long time no speak!

well not much i can say about college this passed week because whe have been on our october holidays

so............

lets talk about Eat Dr. Ape! :)

Well on the 8th we had a gig at the Buff Club in Glasgow which was quite a fun, a very small gig but it could prove to be one of our most important!!! The Promoter "NickQ" turned out to be not just a promoter but the founding member of "The Skinny" and also an ex A&R rep for "X-Phonic records" which is owned by Warner!!!! an he loved us an said that we were "1 of the most existing bands he's sin in a long long time". So he has offered to take us under his wing an help us out with getting bigger gigs and getting in contact with labels :)

Also we played at Bar Bloc in Glasgow on the 14th which was great fun!!! was a small venue but we got a great crowd response and i suppose thats all that matters :)

So yeah........ existing time for Eat Dr. Ape!!!!!

Catch ya next week

JP

06/10/09

Hello again :)

well college news 1st:

Had a very interesting drum lesson it really highlighted my lack of dynamics in my playing so i'm really gonna have to focus on that over these next few months as I feel that having good dynamics i vital in becoming a good session player. Also in creative project we preformed our rearrangement of "like dreamers do" by The Beatles, this also went really well and we had good fun doing it and I suppose thats the true meaning of music, To Have Fun!

Session skills class was also really intreating this week, we learnt all about the importance of contracts in session work an how to put together a professional looking involve.

Now time for Eat Dr. Ape news :)

On tuesday we had our radio interview with perth FM, it actually went better a lot better than i thought it would :) it was good practise for future interviews. We also played a great gig at Maggie Mays in Glasgow and we managed to get enough people there so we beat the evil pay to play scheme yet again!!!! WOOOH!!!

We have also started getting in contact with management companies because we feel that we have taken ourselves to the pinnacle of our knowledge and we now need that extra push that a good manager can provide.

il tell you what from being in Eat Dr. Ae my networking skills have greatly improved an i think it will work greatly in my favour when i later look into session work.

thats all for this week :)

byeeeeee

JP

28/09/09

Hi folks the past week has bin busy busy busy for me.

Eat Dr. Ape have had two gigs this past week.. one in Edinburgh at WhistleBinkies which went really well, we are currently in discussions with them about booking us in for another show :)

we also played at Hustlers in dundee which was amazing!!!! it was the best we've ever played in my opinion :) We get interviewed by perth FM tomorrow so I will let you know how we get on next week.

as for college thats all going well, our Beatles band is coming together well, we worked on our covers and also worked on our interpretation of a sheet of lyrics for creative project class...we shall preform this song at college this wednesday :) In session skills this week we learnt a lot about the art of being a session musician which i found very beneficial, also in Graded unit 2 Pete Honeyman, experienced session musician, spoke to us about being a session artist an what is expected of you when you walk into a session for the first time. I found this indredibaly interesting and he couldn't emphasize enough the importance of being prepared for what ever a producer may throw at you. This had made me realize that i have to work on my diversity alot befor even considering my 1st session.

Thats all for this week folks

Cheers

JP

21/09/09

On wednesday the 16th of September I had a Practice with both my college band and my out of college band (Eat Dr. Ape) which I play Bass in .

In the band practice with the college band we decided on the Beatles covers that we are going to learn for our performance in December. We also got given lyrics to a song so we can put Beatles style to them, this will be preformed in a few weeks.

After college I attended band practice with Eat Dr. Ape, this was in preparation for the gig we had at college on the 18th. The gig went really well and we go an incredibly good response from the fairly large crowed that we had managed to draw into the theater to watch us.

On the 17th we received an email from local radio station Perth FM expressing there interest in our music and how they wish to have us in for a on air interview, this will take place on the 29th of this month.

We have a gig tomorrow in Edinburgh at WhistleBinkies so hopefully that goes well, I shall report on that in next weeks entry.

Another musical opportunity was also brought to me this week. I have been asked to drum as a "pit" musician for a country themed theater production and our 1st practice will be held this wednesday so i shall let you know how i get on.

In Graded unit class the Musical MD from center stage productions came in to give us a talk about music as a business, it was very interesting.

Also in our session skill class we watched a dvd on Motown session musicians "The Funk Brothers"

Thanks for reading

JP Parsons

1st Entry - 15/09/09

At the beginning of our college week we got introduced to our new classes, one of which is Graded unit 2. This class involves us giving a presentation on ourselves in relation to a specific job application chosen by ourselves.

I have chosen to apply for a job as a session musician as I feel it is one of the music careers that I am best suited for.

This blog is going to be a weekly update of my progress throughout this module and the on going year.

cheers folk

JP