Bobby's Blog for College

  Research on being a drum technician To be a drum technician you don't necessarily need any qualifications but you do need skills. You will need a deep, hands on understanding of drum kit components and how to tune and maintain them, coupled with strong organisational and communication skills to manage gear and collaborate with sound engineers and artists.  Key technical skills include fast setup and teardown, rapid problem-solving for on-the-fly fixes, troubleshooting, and knowing how to quickly tune drums and replace hardware, while soft skills such as adaptability, anticipating needs, and a positive, non-ego-driven attitude are crucial for a touring or session environment.   Technical Skills Drum Kit Knowledge:   Have a comprehensive understanding of drum kits, components, hardware, and cymbals, including how they function and interact. Tuning and Maintenance:   Be able to tune all types of drums and perform regular maintenance on hardware, pedals, and cymba...

 A musical scale is where you have a group of notes that go up and down the fret board A chord is a combination of notes that usually made up of 3 or 4 notes An interval is a gap in between notes A tone is two notes apart and a semitone is one note apart the scale of C Major is C D E F G A B C Tone Tone Semitone Tone Tone Tone Semitone The F major scale is F sharp, G sharp, A sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, and F

My Local Music Scene The local music scene in Swansea is pretty cool for many reasons. Firstly let's start with The Bands ; in my time i've seen Bruce Dickinson in the Swansea arena, I have seen multiple iron maiden tribute acts around Swansea in venues like The Hanbury and The bunkhouse. Im just going to name as many Swansea venues as I can. The Bunkhouse, Hangar 18, The Hanbury, Crowleys, The Strand bar, Swansea Arena, Swansea.com Stadium, Sin City, Patti Pavillion, Im probably missing a few but thats all. The best gig i've ever seen was Slayer at the Blackweir fields with Anthrax, Amon Amarth, Hatebreed, and Mastodon. I don't know many local bands but there was a band years ago called S.E.X which was an incredible band. Soundhaven Bunkhouse  Rhonda street studio Pros of sound haven you know how much time you'll have in there. its not awfully expensive no stairs staff are friendly and very helpful. they provide a drum kit and microphones you bring your own amps Th...

 The Telharmonium was an early electrical organ, Developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1896 and patented in 1897. The electrical signal from the Telharmonium was transmitted through wires and it was heard on the receiving end by means of "horn" speakers. Like the later Hammond organ, the Telharmonium used Tone wheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by additive synthesis. It is considered to be the first electromechanical musical instruments. the Telharmonium (also known as the dynamophone) was unsuccessful for a number of reasons; One being its size and complexity, the machine weighed several tons and could not be moved or transported with ease. The instrument required a lot of Electrical power to operate and the sounds it produced were very limited as it lacked a lot of the features the later Synthesizers would have. The creator behind this was Thaddeus Cahill who built three different prototypes for the Telharmonium; his first (Mark I) had weighed over 7 tons, th...

  Preformer- Pulp (Jarvis Cocker, Mark Swift, Peter Dalton, David Lockwood) Genre - Indie Rock Lyrics- Relationship  Who Wrote This Song? - Pulp (Jarvis Cocker) Audience- Common People Influences - Pulp were inspired by bands like David Bowie, ABBA, T rex, and The Smiths Rhythm Scheme-  It is narrative because there is a story behind the track but it is also autobiographical because it shares personal life events and emotions.  There are many repeated lines in this track, especially in the chorus where the line "wanna live with common people like you" is repeated 7 times. There is lots of titles clues in this as common people is said many times. Tornado of Souls- Megadeth Performance Performer - Megadeth (Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, Nick Menza, David Ellefson) Musical Context Genre - Thrash Metal Lyrics- The song is about a relationship that turns sour and as Mustaine describes it, he feels like he is trapped in the eye of a tornado. Who wrote it?- Dave Mustaine a...

 My influence on musical has been mainly metal based so I will start with Iron Maiden Iron Maiden My dad was the biggest Maiden fan ever. He had been listening to them since he was young boy and saw them live multiple times over the years. My first listening to Iron Maiden came when I got my Music player at the age of about 7. The book of souls album had just released and my dad put a lot of other metal bands on there but nothing stood out to me like the song "Empire of the clouds" an 18 minute masterpiece to close the album. I Stopped using my music player when my phone came around when I turned 10 and stopped listen to metal really, until I rediscovered them in late 2022 and they instantly became my favourite band. Music had a new meaning to me and I found that in Iron Maiden.  Influence Iron Maiden influenced me to play guitar, in 2023 I tried to learn "The Parchment" which was a 12 Minute track from the "Senjutsu" Album. The Parchment was undeniably my...

The History of Music Music is MASSIVE, but one thing that I have always wondered is where it all started and how did it all come about in the first place. The first ever Greek song that I can find was Seikilos Epitaph written in 200BC, there are no chord changes and the lyrics translate to " While you live, shine Have no grief at all Life is only here for a short while And time will take its toll" Below is the musical notation for the score The main topic of what I will discuss is Egyptian music. in 3100BCE, music became an important part of Egyptian life, and musicians occupied a variety of positions in Egyptian society. The instruments of Egyptian music included string percussion, and wind. String instruments consisted of lute, lyres, and harps. Percussion had things like cymbals, drums, and rattles like menats and sistrums. Wind included flutes, oboes, clarinets, and trumpets. Purpose & Context: Music was an important part of daily life, religious rituals, festivals, ...

  Professional Practice During my practice sessions, I would want to aim on my weakness and what I struggle with the most on guitar. these may include speed, hammer ons, picking techniques, more scale knowledge, and more chord knowledge. To combat this, I would spend at least 20 minutes practicing and researching all these things mentioned. 

  The definition of composition Composition in music means writing or creating a piece of music Critical listening is the skill of actively hearing, analysing, and evaluated the speaker's message, rather than just passively receiving it. Hound Dog- Elvis Prestley Instrumentation Vox Kit Clapping (Perc) Electric guitar Electric bass guitar B.V.S x2 Upbeat  Energetic Dance Swing Rock and Roll Tempo - 182 bpm The audience is for teenagers Time signature is 4/4 singability melody- repetitive lyrics- repetitive melody- close notes Heartbreak Hotel instrumentation Electric Guitar Piano Double Bass (Acoustic) Vox Percussion Energy- quite sad and sombre, more of a heartbreak rock song,  downtempo and slow dance This is a live performed track with real instruments Rhythm and feel- 12 bar blues simple rhythm and syncopation Tempo 92BPM Time Signature 4/4 Genre- rock and roll Audience- Teenagers Singability- moderate, more range.

 

God Save The Queen by Sex Pistols Im about to go through each musical context of this track and discuss the different contexts of this track. Historical Context God save the queen was released in 1977 and was a single off of their album "Never mind the bollocks, heres the sex pistols". The song was taken and inspired directly from the British national anthem and was seen as controversial at the time for lyrics such as "There is no future in England's dreaming. The Sex Pistols track was made in rebellion to the monarchy or anyone who enforced an obligation onto people. Cultural and Social Context The general audience of the track was for Britain in rebellion against the monarchy; they wanted to protest through music. God save the queen was made to inspire people to make their voice heard and have their opinions voiced Technological Context The tools used to create this song are your basic rock band; guitar, bass, drums, and vocalist. A distortion pedal was used for th...

                                                                                       Level 3: UNIT 2 First Analysis Angry Again by Megadeth Angry Again is a song from the "Hidden Treasures" EP from the thrash metal band Megadeth. This track was written for the blockbuster film "Last Action Hero" which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger. The track begins with a built up into the main riff and then the drums get into a beat and the bass and guitar play a simple riff with an E power chord and thirds. The lyrics are sung by Dave Mustaine and the lyrics are about being angry at the people in his life such as band producers-- Angry Again was written the day Dave Mustaine left rehab because of his drug use. The song structure is pretty simple Intro Verse 1 Chorus Verse 2 Chorus B...

 1. I want to learn more scales, chords, shred faster, play louder, and learn how to be in a band 2. I want to improve speed and accuracy on particular guitar technique 3. I want to be in a successful band with functioning members and astounding talent.