David's blog

Today, I got a hdmi cable through the post, and I now have a very large monitor for my computer, I wish I had got one a long time ago, as they are also so cheap.  I brought so I could see the DAW a lot better, I am surprised how much better it is to see,  Its also a lot easier to type too, I don't have to bend over the laptop any more. Today was also a historic day for the Welsh rugby team, they beat South Africa for only the second time in history, I did think they were a bit lucky with the sending off.

Another fairly tough day on the music tech course.  I have some concepts explained to me, but they are not easy for me understand a lot of the time.  I am not too keen on doing the assignments either to be honest.  Today, my first idea of composition was changed, I thought you just build up from the bottom up and I guess in a way just hope it works, but I guess that was a bit naive, it involves having a tune, or riff to work with in the first place I guess, the same as I do with the guitar. I am still struggling with the interface too, its not very VI friendly, I don't what to click to do what, and there are small bits on there which tough to see.

 A few months ago I went for an interview for a job in a call centre.  When I got there, they said, they would do the test first, which I guess made me feel uneasy as I was not told about these test, I was uneasy because, I was worried that the tests would be in a format I would not find accessible, anyway, the people who were setting the tests were, were very helpful and got me what I wanted, but the hastle could have been saved, if I was told there was going to be a test and I could have asked for the test to be in a certain format, one of the testst was a psychometric test, which asked some strange questions, which I eventually lost patience with and did not bother to answer  them properly, they just seemed to go ond and on. Anyway to cut a long story short I did not get the job, due to the tests apparently, I thought I had done badly on the other tests, not the psychometric ones.  Other vacancies have come along in this place in the last few months and I haven'...

https://soundcloud.com/david-jones-8/c-erddoriaeth-ty Above, is a link to piece of music I completed, with a lot of help from the teacher, the other day, its done in Reason, I have now started another one, and its not easy I think I have understood things like what the combinator does and how to get going then I get into a mess again and its very frustrating. I am not too sure if I will ever get the hang of this programme. I guess this piece of music has to be a bit differerent and I need to do more work on my own, but I am still floundering around, I am not sure if its because I can't see some of things going on or not, the teacher also explains things and I can't quite grasp what he is on about it does my head in, more frustration.  basically the whole thing is very frustrating to be honest, I have not been too well lately either which does not help I guess. The fair was in the village today, I did not take much notice of it, maybe that is because of th way I am feeling...

After reading an article about House music, it was recommended I listened to this, and take note of the structure of how a track is put together.  In my course today, I worked on a part of the piece called the break, where, the piece changes from one thing, which it needed to, as it was getting a bit boring.  I had originally put this break in randomly I guess, but it was advised I put it in the 65th bar I think, which was not explained why, but then again I did not ask either. the break ends in the drop, which was explained but it went over my head really.  This house genre is new to me, but it seems a good gnre to get the hang of computer music as I call it. I came across other terms today, too, like closed chords and open chords, keyboard playing is not something I really want to get into doing but it seems it is going to be part of the course and most midi controllers are based on the piano.  I also used some filters too, for the bass and the drum, to get som...

Today I had another go at writing a House track and nearly finished it, it sounded really good, the drum thing the 4 on the floor was done and then some other things were added to pad the sound out, the bass was just a simple root bass thing and then the tune wast strings played in a simple tune with 3 notes.  The arranging needs doing tomorrow, I was given a lot of help from the teacher but the aim is to do it myself one day, just create one from scratch, I don't know much about house music but I like the beat, I think its because it comes from disco.  I found it really interesting how different sounds made the tune change, there are so many different sounds you can get from these computer machines, I hope this type of learning will help me with other aspects of music, that is hopefully help me play the guitar better I guess, who knows.

Yesterday on the music course I learnt where to put your fingers when you start playing the piano, today I was told how to do a bass line in a piece of music, and how it is suppose to go with the drums  I had been told by a friend that the bass and the drums go together, but was not sure what he meant, now I think I know really. Also today I think someone explained to me how a function works on the interface, so I will give it a go one of these days. There was not that many on the course this week, maybe it will not be carried on, well I hope that's not the case it would be a shame really.  I think I am learning a bit more about this program reason too, its not that easy to find things, but I am sure I will get the hang of it in the end.  I still seem to have the same interest in learning how mixers work, the one at the school does not work right at the moment, but it will be good to do some recording on it.