After a restful sleep in my own room, in a bed built for a girl half my size, I had my shower, and headed off to breakfast for 7am … the time we were told the night before. Turns out that there was a miscommunication with the kitchen staff, who thought it was 8am. We therefore had a belated breakfast, and then made our way off to warms ups. Hilarious team building type games woke the remainder of us, and now had all the students (myself included) ready for an action packed day.
The morning was filled with a course outline, which clarified a lot about what we were covering at the Academy during the two weeks. From looking at the booklet, and the timetable, we are going to really be put through the ringer. There is so much covered in this course. It’s exciting to see a number of very talented industry professionals will be working with us during this time, so we are being guided by some of the best.
After a brief morning tea, we sat a class focusing on “Song writing Fundamentals”. This focused largely today on creating a solid song plan when creating an original piece. All of the things that were covered made complete sense, but it was enlightening to hear about constructing a clear song concept, supporting it with an appropriate angle, all whilst pulling on the emotional heartstrings of your audience. The song title task which supported this was also very helpful.
The remainder of the day focused around an informal concert. All the students (performers and instrumentalists) were broken into 3 different groups, and flicked off into different spaces within the campus to create a show for the tutors (without clear direction). Everyone was instructed to perform a piece for this concert, whilst using the skills within the group members to support them. This was challenging for some, as the tutors advised us to perform a piece that showed off our abilities. This meant that some didn’t have appropriate chord charts for the task, and needed to construct something on the spot. I found it fulfilling, as I managed to play bass guitar for the majority of our group numbers, which I haven’t done in a long time. I chose my informal concert song choice “Miss You” by Phil Doublet, because of the easy key for other band members, the straight forward structure to the piece, plus the element of Kiwiana in a very Australian heavy group.
The informal concert showcased the diverse wealth of talent on this course. Everyone did themselves proud under the tense, stressful, scrutinising eyes of the course tutors. I was proud of my team, as I felt we gave a solid performance with very little time to rehearse each item. A+ to everyone. I know have a number of other country artist songs to check out.
It’s late again. I’m chatting with some of my class mates, and playing a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity again. This game cracks me up. It’s time to knock it on the head now however, so I complete this blog, as my head hits the pillow. Bring on another action packed day tomorrow.
The morning was filled with a course outline, which clarified a lot about what we were covering at the Academy during the two weeks. From looking at the booklet, and the timetable, we are going to really be put through the ringer. There is so much covered in this course. It’s exciting to see a number of very talented industry professionals will be working with us during this time, so we are being guided by some of the best.
After a brief morning tea, we sat a class focusing on “Song writing Fundamentals”. This focused largely today on creating a solid song plan when creating an original piece. All of the things that were covered made complete sense, but it was enlightening to hear about constructing a clear song concept, supporting it with an appropriate angle, all whilst pulling on the emotional heartstrings of your audience. The song title task which supported this was also very helpful.
The remainder of the day focused around an informal concert. All the students (performers and instrumentalists) were broken into 3 different groups, and flicked off into different spaces within the campus to create a show for the tutors (without clear direction). Everyone was instructed to perform a piece for this concert, whilst using the skills within the group members to support them. This was challenging for some, as the tutors advised us to perform a piece that showed off our abilities. This meant that some didn’t have appropriate chord charts for the task, and needed to construct something on the spot. I found it fulfilling, as I managed to play bass guitar for the majority of our group numbers, which I haven’t done in a long time. I chose my informal concert song choice “Miss You” by Phil Doublet, because of the easy key for other band members, the straight forward structure to the piece, plus the element of Kiwiana in a very Australian heavy group.
The informal concert showcased the diverse wealth of talent on this course. Everyone did themselves proud under the tense, stressful, scrutinising eyes of the course tutors. I was proud of my team, as I felt we gave a solid performance with very little time to rehearse each item. A+ to everyone. I know have a number of other country artist songs to check out.
It’s late again. I’m chatting with some of my class mates, and playing a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity again. This game cracks me up. It’s time to knock it on the head now however, so I complete this blog, as my head hits the pillow. Bring on another action packed day tomorrow.
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