Year 12 Concert

Thursday (24th April) was the Year 12 Concert, it went quite well to be honest. However, my solo pieces didn't really go to plan, and I have been told to stick to just playing an instrument, or just singing, not both, so I think I'll just play my bass from now on (at least until I can comfortably do both). I was temporarily inducted into a band for the concert, they call themselves "Cyan Cities" which is a name I don't really expect to be seen on any posters.

As a band we mostly work quite well together, we just have major problems with our front man Sam, for two reasons. Reason one: he can't sing to save his life, he's terrible, even if you auto-tuned him, he would be miles off the right notes. Reason two: he steals the spotlight, which probably isn't much of a problem, but since this was being recorded for an exam, and he wasn't being examined (it was just me and our drummer, Joe, being examined), he was being a tad inconsiderate. If your wondering he had his guitar amp up really loud, so you couldn't hear my bass, or the drums, thankfully though, our lead guitarist (Mikey) understood that this was for an exam and turned his amp down, which meant we couldn't hear him over Sam.

I imagine if we replace Sam, we might be a reasonably good band, but until then who knows, if we're lucky people will start taking the mick out of him for his horrendous performance and he'll either quit or learn, I don't care which, but if he quits we'll need a replacement. Replacing rhythm guitar would be easy, I can think of three people who would (probably) be willing, but a new singer is a bit harder.

The Next Concert

I will be honest, when it comes to my guitar playing I have been an idiot. Instead of actually practising songs for my exam I have been working to improve my guitar playing as a whole, which is good in a way, but not right now. Now there is a Concert in less than three weeks time, and I haven't practised for it. Crap!
I suppose I could perform some of the songs I've already done before like My Dying Bride and Helena, but I don't really feel like doing Helena again because I've performed it recently, so I'll choose another Blitzkid song, maybe En Infinitus Sleepus (Lullaby). Blitzkid songs are easy enough to play. but I have to do two more songs as a group, currently Walk Like A Zombie and Are You Gonna Be My Girl, I may have to change Walk Like A Zombie to Smells Like Teen Spirit though.

Inheritance?

OK so recently my girlfriends mum decided to sell my girlfriends laptop so she could buy Windows 8 for their new computer, and now she is scared that her guitars, bass and violin will also be sold. Fortunately for me this means I get a violin, and acoustic guitar, my old electric guitar back, and a Fender Squier Jazz bass.

I've been wanting a violin for awhile now, but I've never actually brought one, so I'm chuffed to bits with that. The acoustic guitar needs its action adjusting but it produces a lovely sound. My old Lodgestone guitar sounds great when plugged in, and it feels good to play too. Finally the Jazz Bass, its unfortunately not as balanced as the original fender but it still produces a sound which fits almost every genre of music imaginable, in fact it fits all genres (unless you try to add distortion).

Right now I'm also trying to save up for a small mixing desk so I can actually try and record something, but Steam keeps throwing games in my face that look incredible, so if I can resist not buying Farcry 3 or anything equally as awesome for the next two months, I should be fine, I may however treat myself to some more Nerf darts...

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.

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)

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...

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...

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.

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.

Christmas

Well I have to say that I'm a very sad person for updating my blog on Christmas day but I don't really care. My lack of a life has kept me going for so long now.
Anyway I would like to say that I have a Camcorder now so i can test that and if its any good I will record some songs on it and upload them to Youtube. I also have some guitar slides which can make my songs a little more interesting. But for now I shall tuck into my chocolate and listen to AC/DC since I now have the Iron Man 2 OST (and then I can listen to 2112 by Rush 'cause I just got that as well)

Winning

The first part of this is about the violin, it's a small high pitched instrument which can be played with a bow or by plucking the individual string, and I've been playing one. The reason I've been playing violin is because they are awesome and since Dana plays violin I asked her to teach me to play(especially since I'm teaching her guitar and bass). They're a pain in the neck missing the frets so it means you have to guess where to put your fingers, luckily there are little dot stickers on her violin which mark out the points to place your fingers. So far the only thing I don't like about violins is how much of a pain they are to tune, it took me most of my break time tuning it, leaving me with about five minutes left to play, long enough for Dana to teach me how to play "My heart will go on" which is simple enough at least. Now I shall have to get myself an electric violin... but for the time being i can just take my brothers acoustic.
The next part is about my graphics work, which was great since our usual teacher was away we had a cover lesson held by the queen of derps (and I think she's ace because we get nothing done with her). this meant I could quickly finish and print out my graphics work which needs handing in in lesson instead of after school. Win.
Finally I had a day with Jazz which naturally went well. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to describe it in an interesting way (for you readers).

Shark

I've just wrote a new song which is entitled "Shark". Conveniently the song is about a shark who terrorises the local fishermen because he thinks that all fishermen are complete and total dicks which must be annihilated (or something along those lines) but does it matter why a shark is trying to kill someone? of course it doesn't its a shark and they don't like people.

Download tab here: http://www.mediafire.com/?g324c3noj72b36y
Tab includes lyrics and is saved as a .PDF so you just need Acrobat Aeader (which is free) instead of guitar pro 6 (which isnt free)

Squealies

Now that I'm done with my geography detentions I can concentrate on my graphics detentions. Oh joy! Any way that's actually two subjects off my back because I realised that Imogen is six times better at singing than playing the bass guitar (and she's barely average at singing). this means instead I can teach Dana bass and she is willing to learn it as well.
Squealies are really what I wanted to talk about because I've now worked out roughly how to do them but I can't yet get them done quickly there is about a second delay between the initial note until it becomes a squealy, or pinch harmonic if you prefer. I ended up rushing from my geography lesson to the music practise room at lunch just to claim it before anyone else can, which involved saying no to Jazz, and when I got my guitar and got in to find the EPIC amplifier I was using earlier still there someone else came in then left because I beat him. I connected my Lodgestone guitar to the amp and started playing "pumpkinpatch murders" by "Blitzkid" and after god knows how many tries I hit the squealy in the intro and it sounded so epic with the effect of the amp (it was all a bit high pitched made it sound like stereotypical metal, a bit like "3 Inches of Blood") and I was very impressed with that.
Overall it was a good day too.