Carol Singing

Yesterday was the schools annual Carol Concert at the Church of St Lawrence, and it was an absolute disaster as we couldn't really get much practise in beforehand. The main problem was that no one knew the timing to "Last Christmas" by "Wham" but who cares we all had fun.

Tomorrow there is more carol singing this time in the foyer of Sainsbury's, this may also be a bit of a disaster but who cares about that, we all had fun none-the-less and it meant a morning off school. So does tomorrow at Sainsbury's, I.'m not complaining

Not Again...

It's that time of year again, Christmas, and to no surprise I still hate it. Why? Simply because I'm a tight scumbag who doesn't like spending money, especially on other people, but if I don't buy them anything I feel like a bigger scumbag so I guess I'm screwed. Oh well. My Christmas shopping is done at least so I can now treat myself to the Steam Christmas Sale and get serious playing the Serious Sam games which are some of the greatest games ever created.

A New Song (and a little more)

OK, I've come up with a (disappointingly) none horror punk song, about some guy getting dumped, and it doesn't really need much work done to it, it just needs to be recorded, and I will get this song recorded properly instead of just using GP6 to get the audio, which won't work anyway, because you need lyrics for a song to actually work. All it needs is a final verse to conclude the song and a guitar solo either before or after it.
This will be my first version of the song which may actually be made to sound either more metal or more punk, but I doubt it, it may just be made slightly more rocky, it's just that I can't really write guitar solos very well (at the moment).

Completely unrelated, I'm getting various ideas in my head for various books, the books may be a bit short though, it depends on how much I can come up with for them. If I ever get around to writing any there is a website my girlfriend told me about where i can upload them as .pdf files and you can stick it on your kindle or whatever e-reader you own, or just your PC if you find reading off it comfortable (I don't)

I also need a drum beat as well thinking about it... damn, I hate writing drumbeats.

Bye Pippa

I was just down the vets with my girlfriend while her 14 year-old dog, Pippa, got put down. I never liked dogs (in particular Doberman Pinschers, but Pippa was a Border Collie), but I was there while she got put down, unlike with Tiga, the 16 year old Tabby who got put down just over two years ago. I loved her, more than I ever loved anything or anyone else, but I wasn't there when she died, I never attended the little funeral my mum held for her, and I never found out she had died until a month afterwards.
Just before Dana and I left the Room where Pippa was, the vet talked about her cat, who she had to put down, I'd absolutely hate to put down my own pet. That short little story of her cat made me sad, because it reminded me of Tiga, the only one who never scolded me when I did wrong, was always there when I wanted comforting, and when I was cold, she would sit on my lap and act as a hot water bottle to warm me up.
I miss Tiga, and I know Dana misses Pip' already...

Facebook

After getting bored of having 300 odd people on my friends list who I don't care about, I realised there was absolutely no point in having a Facebook account... so I deactivated mine. The stupid site tried to make me feel guilty about it as well by saying that people would miss me, like my step mother and my girlfriend.

Bye bye Facebook.

Psychobilly? Hell Yeah!

Me and my girlfriend have decided it would be insanely cool to have a psychobilly band, the best part about that is if we do it correctly we won't need a drummer (we don't have any friends who like our favourite music and can drum). So step 1 teach her how to play bass and make sure she buys one, (which she will be in a few days). Step 2 get her playing slap bass like a pro and step 3, move her onto double bass (there are 2 in school)
The problem with this idea is that the psychobilly bands we know of don't have any bass tabs on the internet and I can't (yet) play guitar in a rockabilly fashion (I can at least do the punk side)

Chemistry

Now since I'm such a genius, I chose to do A-Level chemistry... Not my best idea, but thankfully not my worst. If your wondering me choosing chemistry was a bad idea simply because I didn't really get it at GCSE level, the only reason I got through was because of my friend Bronnie who sat next to me, but now I don't have a friend in my class to sit next to. So basically my next 2 years are going to be confusing, and hard.

Other than that, they'll be fine, and hopefully I'll be playing an Oktober Annihilator at the year 13 concert, can't wait.

Sixth Form

Since I'm now back at school, maybe I'll get some work done, on a new piece or two, annoyingly I only have half the amount of music lessons I should have (damned Business Studies). The music tasks are pretty much the same as last time: performing solo, performing in a group, singing, compositing, practising and extra curricular something or other. For the composition I have to hand in one complete piece and some pieces that aren't finished that I have been experimenting with, so it's slightly easier than last time I think. The best part is: even at school I have too much free time, that's actually quite annoying, none of my friends have a free period when I do.

Results

Yesterday I picked up my GCSE results, and I'm actually happy with them. here they are...

Geography: D

Graphics: C

English Language: C

English Literature: D

GCSE Music: E

Religious Education: G

Mathematics: C

Statistics: D

Science: A

Additional Science: A

BTEC Music: Distinction (A)

I.C.T: Distinction (A)

Those are acceptable I think.

Circus?

Well I've just brought a unicycle, seemed like a good idea to me, and it should be arriving on Thursday. I brought it because it seemed like fun, then my brother mentioned that at university they have clubs teaching people how to do circus acts like riding a unicycle, at first I never considered the circus, but it does seen like a fun idea. I'm not paying £9000 a year for uni' though, forget that.
I'm sure that I came up with a few interesting ideas between now and my last post, but I can't remember them and I think I may start playing the double bass again because it was fun. I definitely want to go back to school though, I need something other than computer games running through my head all the time, I can't help it X3 is a good game... so is Skyrim, and so is WoW.

Death Threats Again :D

When walking home from that pretty pathetic youth group I attend every Friday four blokes in a hideous orange car pulled up next to me and threatened to stab me if I killed someone's girlfriend. Well, since I don't know the bitch they are on about I guess I can't kill her... they gave me no name after all. They also think that stuffing my cadaver in the boot of their car would be a good idea, idiots, when they get pulled over for being pissed they'd get arrested for having a corpse in their boot as well, plus there was a witness to threat, so my disappearance wouldn't go unrecognised as a possible murder. they really thought out their plan. But what do I care about dying, I have enough difficulty trying to go to sleep as it is, death would be a blessing, an infinite sleep, never ending rest, pure bliss...

It's All Over...

I can't believe it and I'm in complete and utter shock. Normality is no more, I has just finished my last year of compulsory education and now I have about 13 weeks off school until I can apply for Sixth Form.

LOTS OF SLEEPING!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!

I have done it, after ten months I have finally brought the Dearmond M-75T and I can't believe it. but that isn't my only highlight of the week (and to be perfectly honest I don't actually know what to say about it. However, here is a review from Ultimate Guitar: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/electric_guitars/de_armond/m-75_t/index.html. I have also realised that I have been putting the hyphen in the wrong place all this time).
I have two other interesting things that have happened this week, well to be honest they aren't that interesting but fun nonetheless. Number one: I went and watched a stage performance of Grease, which was absolutely awesome, and number two: I realised how cowardly chavs are, I got bothered by about nine of them all of which could over power me any day, but they were all too scared to hit a nerd, a complete idiot who plays WoW and worships Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. I can't really be arsed to type out that story, I got some rocking to do...

Almost There

cant wait on Saturday (the 12th May 2012) I will be finally buying that Dearmond M75-T, I've only been awaiting that day since freaking August.

The Axe

I have sold my guitar of awesomeness... It doesn't seem right not having an electric guitar, thankfully in about 4 weeks I'll be able to afford the De-armond M75-T, in the unfortunate event of that guitar being sold all I will do is continue saving until I can afford an Oktober Annihilator, which would mean I'll have the most awesome guitar in the school. If the De-armond is unsold then I shall buy it and still have an exceedingly awesome (if not really girlie) guitar.
Then after that guitar I can get the electric violin and then get back to saving for about 9 months in order to get an Oktober Devilwing bass. my guitar life will be epic... Or at least, I hope so... In fact scrap the violin...

A Trick

I was watching a live video of Love Like Blood - Blitzkid, and part way through the song Argyle Goolsby unstraps his guitar and plays it more like and upright bass by throwing his guitar in the air and catching it on the right note, and dropping it and catching on the right note. The bass is only supported by his left hand, so I'm thinking, "that is freaking awesome, I'm gonna have a go!" so i have a go and within about 60 seconds my left arm has died and I can hardly play the simplest of bass riffs. Need to practise this, because showmanship is key.

The Video:

Frankenstein

I now feeling rather down and depressed since reading Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. I have to say the book was nothing like what I expected it to be, it hasn't struck fear into my heart after all, instead it has plagued me with a very slight depression.
The best thing about this week is that after it all my coursework will be over and done with so the horns can be thrown and i can get back to doing the Monster Mash, and in about 6 weeks time I should have my new guitar. I won't be treating myself until then so for now I guess I should actually do something productive.

A Graveyard Smash

As far as I can tell Glorified Sound Check, the band I was supposed to be playing bass for, no longer exists. So the plan is to start my own band and unfortunately I am missing a few key ingredients, a guitarist, a drummer and friends that play these instruments. I guess in order to fix this I must engage charismatic George and convince my not quite friends to hang out with me a bit more and form a band, I have ideas of people that might be willing to join, but is it enough to just have an idea? No it's not, therefore that idea must be put into effect and as soon as I can I shall see if I can convince me target band mates to join me.

A Nice Soothing Song

Yesterday was the school's talent show... and I was performing in it alongside my girlfriend Dana. We sang a song which is one of our favourite songs, Ghost River by Nightwish. the song started off with Dana singing quite softly, and then I come in singing screamo and scaring the audience to death. During the interval I see two children no older than 4 years old, and realise they were in the audience. Damn. Earlier today I learned that both the children ended up crying during mine and Dana's act and all that I could say to that was "It sure was a good job I didn't know they were there. Otherwise I would of scared them a lot more."
No surprises but we didn't win the competition or get in the top 3, I guess we both knew that from the start because metal singers never seem to go anywhere in talent shows. Either way this goes towards my music GCSE and when I put lyrics to the crappy Guitar Pro 6 recording of "You Look So Pretty" my music GCSE will be mostly sorted and just missing the exam.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention, in the interval I went to give my friend Francesca a high 5 and she literally jumped out of her skin... funny as hell.

DayDream

This time when I say I've wrote a song, I give you a link to download the music. Admittedly it isn't technically a song, there are no lyrics, but its a piece of music none the less. The title of the piece is DayDream simply because it reminds me of my countless daydreams in geography.
If you remember when I said I was going to "recycle" old riffs, that is what I did for DayDream, I took the intro riff and chord pattern from The Spaceman Cometh, i used the chord pattern from Lies to make part 2 and i even used the "Unicorn Riff" as an outro.
Here is the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zyc79zag8mfz3kx

(If it sounds strange that's because its all recorded with the Guitar Pro 6 Sound Banks)

The Concert

Next Thursday is the year 11 concert at school, and I hate to say that I am currently under prepared and wishing that Jacko had told me he wouldn't do the guitar for me earlier. That means I now have to choose 2 songs which can be easily played on guitar, I Love Rock 'N' Roll, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot. I'm gonna miss out the solo for Hit Me With Your Best Shot because I can't trill for shit, but, the solo in I Love Rock 'N' Roll is quite simple so I should do fine there.
The Day after that My graphics coursework is due in, well I don't have to perform that on a stage so that isn't of high priority.

The Bard

I had a brilliant idea that I should buy a Lute and be a bit of a bard... then i discovered that a Renaissance lute is about £900

 Well bang goes that idea. So my next thought after about 2 hours looking at lutes was to go with the slightly more modern approach and spend £45 on a mandolin. With that i can play random chords and sort of sing about whatever is happening around me.

Hooray!

Well I know know roughly what's happening next Thursday for my birthday: I'm gonna wake up as usual and do my paper round, I'm gonna go to school, I'm gonna (hopefully) get given some guitar picks, I'm gonna get a detention, I'm gonna go Dana's, we will then go mine, get issued with cake and chicken. YAY! for my sweet 16 I get a detention and my step mothers bland chicken recipe!
How do I know this? Well for the guitar picks; about a month ago my mate Jacko asked me when my birthday was so he could give me some guitar picks (as a thank you for the amount of times he has borrowed mine). For the detention; yesterday I had a bass lesson, in the middle of physics, my teacher said she doesn't mind me going to them as long as I come back after school... Thursday is her best day for this. For the chicken: earlier my step mother didn't listen to me when I said Dana doesn't like pork and so she brought her up a pork dish to eat, she refused it then felt bad, before Lyudmila left the room she said "next time you come, I make chicken for you." The cake should be pretty explanatory.
My current thoughts are... my birthday will be just as dull as last year, and the year before that, and that, and so on. the last time I had a fun birthday was when I was 7... 9 years ago!

And Now For Something Completely Different... I Wish

I have started work on another musical project, there is a problem though... I think a double bass would sound better than my electric bass. Now I have a reason to buy a double bass which I have been wanting for slightly longer than this blog has existed.
so...
£380 - Deamond M75-T
£249.59 Stagg Rocket 3/4 size double bass
£74.25 Electric violin (doesn't seem to have a proper name)

On the upside at least i have something to look forward to.

Anyway my new musical project is simply to create a horror-punk song out of the 12 bar blues.

Musical Madness

I have had a day of song writing, so I'm happy. Basically I helped Dana write her song for music, by that I mean I asked her for a chord pattern then played it on guitar. I did come up with random ideas for my own songs which I may create sometime.
The main thing on the agenda in this blog post is a song by Burzum this song in fact:

Anyway I have decided to shorten the song so there is less in the way of time spent listening to the song and sing it in English (none of the lyrics are wasted just musical interludes are). The song is currently tabbed, so I will sing my version along to the tab and record that (I'm missing some technology that would allow me to record a better version of the song, at the moment anyway).

keep Living

As the fairly random sounding title suggests, well it doesn't really suggest it but that isn't the usual thing I'd write for a title, anyway, I have wrote a new song called "Keep Living" and I am currently tabbing and hopefully perfecting it on Guitar Pro 6. Hopefully soon there will be a video uploaded so you can finally listen to a song which I wrote.

Acoustic Guitar?

I feel as though I should get an acoustic guitar so I can attempt to write songs easier, saves me untangling my jack (which I have now broke). An acoustic would make it easier for me to quickly get an idea out into song form. All the ideas I have came up with seem to leave my head before I can get my guitar plugged in.
Well if I decide to get an acoustic guitar it will just add to my expenses. right now im saving the £380 for the Dearmond M75-T, the another £75 on an electric violin (because my acoustic violin isn't full sized... and electric violins are cooler), I may add another £250 onto that for a BC Rich Virgo bass guitar, and now the acoustic guitar. I think I'll leave it after the violin.

Need's Some Hot Sauce

Well I metaphorically need some hot sauce to spice up my life. My classmate Elliot however, thought it was best to give me some sauce which he believed was insanely hot, so I had some, wasn't hot enough for me at all. It was almost tingling in my mouth  that's it. This was most likely because I'm used to the food my dad makes which is usually doubly spicy.
Either I've decided that my life is actually a little boring despite the fact I enjoy it. This is why I rarely have anything to write about, I mean today's highlight was falling asleep at Dana's house, while listening to Dark Passion Play (Nightwish). It turns out I was just warm and comfortable.
Very Interesting day.... Hopefully we will actually do something with that band. My mate Matthew McLean is thinking about doing a black metal solo project, now that would be cool, if I still lived in Birmingham I'd join him. So now all I have to do is wait.

Improvisation Is The Future

OK well I'm back in school tomorrow, which is neither good or bad. Now my plan was to record a song during my music lesson for my GCSE the way I shall do that is by making up a riff/chord pattern now and tomorrow I'll make up the lyrics as I go along. This could be fun, especially since I'll put that forward to my teacher using it to get my music GCSE, I can't wait.

2012

Hello it's 2012 if your interested in what I have been doing for the past week here is a video.

But if you can't be arsed to waste 15 minutes watching this then you aren't missing much.
Anyway with it being 2012 I've decided to create a youtube page for my music.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/GManMusic01?feature=mhee
I will be uploading my songs to this channel.