Avante…

Hello all, long time no speak!

Nearly finished the degree now. Have been accepted onto the PGCert. course for the following year, which is the first portion of a Master’s.

Life seems to be flashing past quicker than I can comprehend; opportunities come and go faster than I can reach out and grasp them… Improving my reactions, surely, but not allowing me a full understanding of any one thing.

Monday 15th of March was ‘International Blackadder Status Quote Day’ on Facebook. Mine was;

“Coffee, Darling?”… “Ooh… Cappuccino!” – Blackadder The Fourth.

Classic.

- B.

Canon…

Summer is over, yay!

What a boring holiday. Great for the first three weeks, and after that, just a long expanse of waiting.

Tomorrow is the start of my third and final year at university. A BA (Hons.) in Professional Musicianship (Guitar).

I have no idea what I’ll do when I finish. I have this theory that so many people go into higher education not because they’re investing in their future, or because they truly love the subject that they are studying, but because they are afraid. Because they have a fear of venturing out into the unknown. Because it buys them time to figure out what boring, uninvolving day job they will have to take up to fund their own miserable existence, on the promise of a glint of happiness and self worth at some point in the future.

Ben.

Appassionato…

So… its been awhile, right?

I finished the second year of my degree here at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music/University of Sussex. Awaiting the results as we speak. To be honest, I’m fully expecting to fail at least one module, and my coursework definitely wasn’t up to scratch, but what’s done is done.

I have noticed I’m playing my instrument less and less. I listen to music constantly, but don’t feel the urge to practice as much as I would like. I don’t think I could ever lose my passion for sound, but lately I feel torn by other centres of emotional and personal gravity in my life.

My plans for the holiday are to get into shape, hopefully, and give the guitar a little rest – after all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say.

Am I looking forward to my third and final year? Sure, I guess. It’ll be great to see all my friends again, and get back to doing what I love. But… I think you can only be a student for so long. My problem is that I worked for awhile before becoming a full-time student, and thus I know what having disposable income is like; unlike many of the other kids on my course.

It’s hard to be poor by choice. I want different things now than I did when I started. I understand that I need this degree to get a decent job, or whatever I choose to do, but I’m not sure I’d still want to do it if that wasn’t the case.

Still, hopefully it’ll all go off without a hitch. A new academic year looms, and somehow I can’t help but feel a slight excitement – even with all this other stuff going on.

Ben.

Amore…

I came up with an awesome-O quote today; “I am not in love; I have just settled into a state of comfortable misery” – Ben Ashley.

Also; “Classical music is like being raped in the ear. Jazz is the abortion you have to get afterwards” – Ben Ashley.

In other news, BIMM is cool, the BA course is pretty amazing; learning loads.

In other news, I have mostly recovered from the injury I sustained last term, although it has left a lasting bend in my little finger on my left hand. Oh well…

Still dragging myself along in life, as usual. I need some big motivation.

Ben.

Disciolto…

Long time no see!

How is everyone?

Not much happening here really… Had time off for the Christmas and New Year break. Recently been listening to a lot more Japanese music – everything from rock to hip-hop.

Should really get practicing, but injured my finger shortly before the break, and it hasn’t fully recovered. It’s not broken, but still quite painful around the joints, which I’m hoping will go away in time for my start of Term 2 at B.I.M.M….

I will update again when practice resumes. Mainly going to be looking at 80′s rock, and whatever that entails (read: legato, string skipping, sweep picking, tapping, modal switching, etc.). Should be a lot of fun, considering my Whitesnake obsession, and my scalloped fretboard!

Ben.

Crescendo…

So, I have started my Research Methods project already.

My aim, I suppose, is to examine secondary school Music education, and establish whether, after three years of compulsory Music education, and perhaps another two years of elective Music education, students have a basic grasp of both the theory and history behind Western Music.

I am going to administer a twenty question multiple-choice test to two classes from three schools in England. I am also searching for a high school in America who would be willing to have two classes from their school of the same age range sit the test.

I believe that not only is Music in schools underfunded, but it is taught badly, to a flawed curriculum, containing nothing of use to modern, contemporary Music. It is, afterall, another language.

You don’t hear a conversation in English, and have no idea what the words mean, how the sentences are formed or where they come from, how to understand, or even repeat the ideas expressed… It comes naturally, from hearing people talk every day from being an infant, and it is also encouraged by parents reading to children, and teaching them to do the same.

How then, can most people hear music every day, yet have no idea what is going on? Isn’t it sad; that is, being able to enjoy a piece of music, but have no understanding of it at all?

Perhaps my study will prove that more needs to be done to give children in schools at least a very basic idea of what music is, and what musicians do.

Ben.

Concerto…

Had an interesting day today. Made me think about how often people see music as just a part of everyday life, and not anything special in its own regard, as we do. This, in turn, allowed me to realise that the world is full of people like that, and to get someones attention, you have to put enough energy into what you do to convey whatever message it is you’re really trying to send.I suppose it doesn’t matter what vehicle you use for this. Your chosen medium could be anything, I guess, not just music. The materialistic nature of modern society means that everyone takes 95% of everything in the world for granted. To reach out and touch someone requires not only organised thought, and a plan of action, when it comes to what you’re trying to achieve, but YOU have to actually believe in what you’re trying to say.

That said, once you produce solid, consistent results, people start taking what you do for granted. You can put new stuff out; in our case, pieces of music, but it could be anything, remember – and they’ll buy it, because they know you’re behind it, and they have made themselves believe that they’ll like it, whatever it is.

Since starting back at B.I.M.M., I have been listening to a lot of stuff I wouldn’t normally, to try and broaden my ailing repertoire. It hasn’t worked. I suppose with music in general, and the guitar especially, there is an initial learning curve. Once you’re past that, you get stuck in a rut. This rut just gets bigger or smaller, depending on how much new material you absorb, but you can never quite get out of it – you will always be learning new things, and never feel like you’ve mastered the instrument – but your playing, to you, will always sound mostly the same.

Or at least that’s how it feels to me right now.

Had a lesson on Session Skills today. I get such bad Red Light Syndrome, it’s really embarassing! I had a couple of incidences last year in Pre-Production, where I had to play in front of the class, and my head just goes blank, my hands start to shake… But I think I might have made a mistake taking a lesson where the sole purpose of you being there is to be able to make simple, good parts up, on the spot, and play them over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.

It doesn’t happen to me on stage though. People here at B.I.M.M. keep banging on about either being in a band, or being a session musician. Neither of which I really want to do. There are other ways to be a professional musician. I like making my own music, and I like playing in front of crowds. Considering that my main goal is to become a cruise ship musician… Should I have taken this module?

Then again, I don’t want to just give up on it because it’s a little bit harder than the rest of the stuff we’re doing. I’ve never really been a quitter, and the lecturer taking the class is one of my favourite tutors – such a good musician!

Not sure what to do. Also, time is a factor, I can’t do more than a few lessons in one module, and then switch to another, because I’ll never catch up. I might take one more class of Session Skills, to see if I can actually get used to doing it – there’s no point failing the degree because I took a module not condusive to my main goal, is there?

Then again, I probably won’t fail – I’ll just have to work really damn hard at it.

*Sigh*

Any suggestions?

Ben.

Bolero…

Bolero art

Hey everyone!

Started back at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music today, on the B.A. (Hons.) Professional Musicianship course. It’s refreshing to be back after what was summer break, but what felt like years.

I was practising away, and created a new riff/picking pattern that I quite like. I tried to base it on a weird, bolero-esque rhythm, hence the title of this post, which you can hear in modern metal guitar riffs today.

I’ll try and post a clip or a video up when I next get the chance.

Ben.

Accelerando…

Hello again everyone!

Today I’ve been enveloped by a piece of music I loved long ago, and then fell out of favour with. As a guitarist, I’ve always tried to keep an open mind to most types of music; you never know – one minute I could be asked to play some light blues, the next minute, a spanish neoclassical improv…

Don’t you find that sometimes, you’ve been listening to the same things so much that you start wanting craving a piece of music that you haven’t heard for awhile?

First, it gets in your head… Then you notice you’ve been humming it all day, and you go home, and dig through a massive pile of records or CD’s to get to it, and as you put it on, you can’t remember why you stopped listening to it in the first place?

This happens to me at least three times a week… Extremely annoying when I have work to be getting on with.

Ben.

An Anacrusis…

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the first post of this brand-spanking new journey into the world of contemporary music.

My name is Ben, and I’m currently doing a degree in Modern Musicianship.

I enjoy not only the technical aspects of music; the actual creation, and rendition of classic, popular, and contemporary music – but also the often overlooked factor… The emotion and feeling that some artists weave into their pieces to connect with the end listener, and ultimately, how to recreate that – how to capture it for use in my own music, and to help others do the same.

Stick with me, and we’ll delve into the archives – examining different pieces, and by the end of this ‘blog, we will have discovered the secret to making our own music truly great.

(In theory, anyway)

Ben.