Wednesday 20th November

Today was just day full of practicing in the rehearsal room. We adjusted some minor things that needed a bit of tweaking such as the ending for feeling good and we ran through all 3 numbers constantly for a few hours. We got into the studio and set up everything. The drum kit was fully mic’d up with a sound barrier constructed around it in order to not interfere with the mics recording the bass and guitars. We managed to record “ain’t no rest for the wicked” however another music group had the studio booked so we had to leave and wait until Thursday. 

Thursday 21st NovemberToday was the day of the recording. The studio was already set up from yesterday, however I borrowed a 16″ Sabian AAX crash cymbal from the recital room as I usually use 2 crash cymbals for my set up. We had a quick warm up and gave our first recording a go starting with “ain’t no rest for the wicked”. Although we had recorded it yesterday, we decided we would re-record it as we weren’t too happy with how it came out Wednesday. After 2 attempts we finally had a version that we were happy with with no mistakes. After that we moved onto “Tie you mother down” which again took several attempts. I was having issues with my headphones as I could only hear one guitar, the bass and vocals were too quiet and I couldn’t’t hear the rhythm guitar. I found the best way to deal with that issue was to only have the headphones on one ear and keep the other ear free to listen to the other instruments. Upon doing we instantly sounded tighter and achieved our final recording. Feeling good was the biggest problem for all of us. We had done around 9 takes before we got a recording we were happy with. I think it was just a case of us being in the studio for a few hours we were starting to lose focus. The vocalist forgot the words, I was at fault for several takes as I had switched off and started making silly mistakes with regards for my timing and missing notes. However we managed to get a recording that all of us were happy with and upon listening to it we were pleased with results and hearing it through the studio sounded much better and reassured our negative doubts. 

Thursday 14th November

I arrived at college today full of excitement and anticipation as it would be the first time that I would have played and recorded in the studio. Unfortunately we could not record today as the studio was having technical problems and one of our guitarist’s could not make it into college. Alas another day of practise. Today we used the recital room again which cheered us up a bit. We did not practise for long though as the room was booked for the afternoon.

Friday 15th November

I did not attend college today as the studio was still not working and the rest of my performance group couldn’t make it in. Today I stayed home, had a long practise on my kit and did some more Uni work.

Wednesday 13th November

This is the week where all performance groups are to record in the studio while being filmed. The other group were in there for the majority of the day and we have been allocated the Thursday to get our recording done. Unfortunately we could not get into any of the practise rooms all morning due to them being booked by other classes, so instead I decided to do some work on my blog and my essay. We managed to get into a practise room around 1 o clock which meant we managed to run through our set several times and discuss any concerns or constructive criticisms we had for each other. I suggested that in the song “Feeling Good” maybe in the first verse it should be just the bass, drums and the vocals as the guitar on top sounded too much and I wanted the song to build. The boys agreed and we gave it another grand it sounded much better!

Thursday 7th November

Today one of the boys couldn’t make it into college so our practise was focused mainly on “Ain’t no rest for the wicked” and “Feeling good”, specifically just our individual parts. We started the practise with “Tie your mother down” as you can never practise too much and then moved on with perfecting the other two songs. We were practising in the recital room today which was great news for me as they have a good quality acoustic kit and a full pack of Sabian XS cymbals consisting of a crisp pair of hi-hats, a 14″ crash, an 18″ crash and a 22″ ride. I feel more comfortable on this kit as it is the same set up I use at home. It was a fun practise to play on a stage as well with the full PA and stage lights and I felt there was definitely more energy within the group.

Friday 8th November

Practise today was a short one. Our lesson had been cancelled so we managed to set up in one of the practise rooms and run through our 3 songs a few times. We are at the stage now where we all know our parts and it sounds tight. However, I feel that there is still room for improvement mainly on my behalf. I tend to have bad habits as I started as a self taught drummer, sometimes I will overplay and try and make things too complicated. I tend to do this when we are running through the songs for the 5th time in practise and I get bored, but in the final recording I know I will play to the music and only play drum fills when appropriate in order to keep the beat steady and not drown out the guitars, bass and vocals.

Wednesday 6th November

Today was our first day back after half term and I was a little worried as to how we would sound given that we hadn’t practised for a week. Between shifts in work I had practised nearly everyday for around an hour and a half. My individual practises consist of warm up exercises to build up my speed and get my hands and feet in sync. This usually takes around 5-10 minutes. Then I run through my band’s set list (the band outside of college) which takes roughly 45 minutes. Then for the remainder of my practise I found myself working on the college band and running through the songs. I found that this helped dramatically! The boys had been hard at practise as well which allowed us to play through our chosen songs with very little mistakes. After running through all 3 of our songs, we then jammed a few songs together which is where we came to the decision to drop “Tick tick boom” for “Feeling good” by Muse as we felt the creative arrangement we had for it was much more engaging to perform. So our 3 performance songs as of current are: “Tie your mother down” by Queen, “Ain’t no rest for the wicked” by Cage the elephant and “Feeling good” by Muse. 

Thursday 24th October

Todays practice started with a couple of run through’s of “Tie your mother down”. We were using the practice room with the acoustic drum kit which I found my individual performance to be much sharper on. I was making less mistakes, could clearly hear myself and kept the beat nice and steady as a drummer should do. After a short break we headed back to the practice room and gave “Tick tick boom” a run through. We made it through the whole song with hardly any mistakes being made. We played it through a few more times and went back to the queen number. Both songs were sounding great after only 2 rehearsals so we took a quick break and had a bit of a jam with each other. From this little jam session came the idea to do a third song “Ain’t no rest for the wicked” by Cage the elephant which we then spent a good hour working on. We also debated on wether or not to switch “Tick tick boom” with “Feeling good” by Muse.

Wednesday 23rd October

The 21st of October marked my first day on the course. A late starter I was filled with nervousness and anxiety. How far behind was I? My class had been on the course since the 9th of September so I was worried as to how much catching up I had to do and if I would manage it. Upon being told about this performance piece I found myself being introduced to a talented group of musicians consisting of 3 electric guitarists, 1 of which was on bass for this project and a singer who were in need of a drummer. The songs that the boys have chosen to perform are “Tie your mother down” by Queen and The Hives “Tick tick boom”. Luckily I already knew both of them. I knew the queen number from a band audition I attended a few months ago and I am currently playing the hives number in my current band. I sat down at the kit not knowing what to expect from our first run through and we made it all the way through the song. There were several mistakes on my behalf, partly down to the electronic drum kit I was using (Roland TD-1K) and the fact that I had not played the queen number in several months. However, we took the time to listen to the song a couple of times in order for me to learn the different fills and refresh my memory. We practiced the queen number for the rest of the day and managed to get it sounding tight, however theres a fill in the last chorus that differs from the other choruses which seems to be problematic so we will have to work on that section.

Welcome to my page! My name is Adam and I play the drums. I have played drums for a few years now and I have played in a few bands. I recently started taking drum lessons in order to enhance my playing and I have found that by doing so, I feel more relaxed and loose on the kit and it has really opened up my playing. I have recently started a foundation degree in popular music technology and have been given a performance assignment. This blog will be used to document the weeks leading up to my performance and will give me a chance to reflect on my own personal performance during rehearsals, as well as the overall group performance.