I was involved in two projects; the forming of the Glee club, and the Sonic Thrill February tour.
The Glee club seen me play piano for the rehearsals when needed, organise a band for one of the performances, lead and then play with said band at the Christmas concert.
All of the above was accomplished, though I feel I should have got more into the Zoho side of things.
Zoho
Zoho is a website based tool used for planning/carrying out projects. It has several, very useful features for ensuring everyone works together as a group.
Without it, we would have probably used Facebook. But not everyone uses Facebook. Zoho was useful for its milestone and task applications. Using Zoho, you can set different tasks and milestones for individuals or the band as a whole to accomplish by a set time. For example, I could give Nic the job of booking a venue for the 24th of March. If it go to the 24th of March and he hadn't marked the task down as 'done' in the Zoho main page, we would each begin to receive emails telling us that this task hasn't been done in time, and that it should be done asap. You can choose for it to send you emails daily to remind you, so if you're putting the work in, there is no excuse for you not to have done what you were told to do by Zoho. Zoho is a tool that allows a band/group/business to do something without the risk of one person doing everything. If you are set to do something, Zoho will let you know via email, text, Facebook message, anything (if you know how to work the complicated preferences menu).
One little feature I liked about it was the little gauge at the side of the screen that measures how much of your project has been accomplished. The more green this little gauge is, the more work you've done. When it is fully green, everything has been done. I must say, it was rather satisfying seeing the little red gauge get more and more green as time went on, letting me know that everyone was doing their part.
Though like most tools (which is what Zoho basically is: A complicated tool), Zoho has its ups and downs. Its advantages are that IF you use it well, it can keep you up to date and make sure you don't miss any important deadlines. We all had our individual tasks on it, but some of us did things assigned to other people anyway; while it's useful, it is difficult to get to grips with. We didn't use it as much as we could have, and certainly didn't use it as in depth as we could have. But as Annette said, this year was just to help us get used to it. We've been told that Zoho is important for next year, not this. We'll see.
Zoho
Zoho is a website based tool used for planning/carrying out projects. It has several, very useful features for ensuring everyone works together as a group.
Without it, we would have probably used Facebook. But not everyone uses Facebook. Zoho was useful for its milestone and task applications. Using Zoho, you can set different tasks and milestones for individuals or the band as a whole to accomplish by a set time. For example, I could give Nic the job of booking a venue for the 24th of March. If it go to the 24th of March and he hadn't marked the task down as 'done' in the Zoho main page, we would each begin to receive emails telling us that this task hasn't been done in time, and that it should be done asap. You can choose for it to send you emails daily to remind you, so if you're putting the work in, there is no excuse for you not to have done what you were told to do by Zoho. Zoho is a tool that allows a band/group/business to do something without the risk of one person doing everything. If you are set to do something, Zoho will let you know via email, text, Facebook message, anything (if you know how to work the complicated preferences menu).
One little feature I liked about it was the little gauge at the side of the screen that measures how much of your project has been accomplished. The more green this little gauge is, the more work you've done. When it is fully green, everything has been done. I must say, it was rather satisfying seeing the little red gauge get more and more green as time went on, letting me know that everyone was doing their part.
Though like most tools (which is what Zoho basically is: A complicated tool), Zoho has its ups and downs. Its advantages are that IF you use it well, it can keep you up to date and make sure you don't miss any important deadlines. We all had our individual tasks on it, but some of us did things assigned to other people anyway; while it's useful, it is difficult to get to grips with. We didn't use it as much as we could have, and certainly didn't use it as in depth as we could have. But as Annette said, this year was just to help us get used to it. We've been told that Zoho is important for next year, not this. We'll see.
The Glee club still runs, but we're needing an extra recruitment boost for future performances; something we're working on now.
The project that gave me the most work, however, and that was more valuable in terms of experience gained was the Sonic Thrill Feb 2011 Scottish tour.
And that, I feel, was a great success.
To start off, we each worked toward the same goal; tightening, solidifying and then recording the songs we had. Booking practices was a shared venture. We each did that.
After that, individual roles were given; Nic booked gigs, Matt booked van hire, I booked accommodation, Hannah booked train times, Kieran did promoting and bus travel, etc. There were some minor hitches along the way such as some tickets not being valid, meaning we had to spend more, etc...but in general, the tour was a huge success.
I will say this, though; it was very, very costly. I didn't expect us to make a profit from the EPs and touring just yet. I expected to pay and in return, receive lessons for future career moves, live performance experience, and a hint about what life as a musician can be like.
And I must say, I learnt all of the above, and some. For a start, we learnt the importance of organisation. When bands read the Gig information for bands pages we'd made on Facebook, there were no issues; bands knew who was bringing what gear, who was using what, and what time soundcheck, etc, was.
When a band turned up an hour late without a guitar amp or their own snare drums, it was obvious they hand't taken the time to research the info we had sent them.
There was even a case where, at an over 18s gig only, we'd sent a message to all of the bands confirming that they were all of age and that they would bring ID if there looked like there would be any doubt.
One band was half underage, the other forgot to bring ID. The result was that the lineup was shifted around so that one band could play and then leave, and Nic, who promoted the gig, received hails of abuse from the venue staff.
When bands read the information, however, everything went perfectly. There was an understanding of who used what, and the nights became a lot more enjoyable.
We felt let down by some of the independent promoters, however (Nic promoted most of the gigs bar a couple). We had sent flyers and posters to all the venues for them to display. A couple didn't bother. We even found one of the opened envelopes under the sound desk one night, full of all of the posters we'd paid to send.
In most cases, everything was good. We mixed with other bands, made friends, had a few drinks and then played music, which everyone seemed to enjoy. In the venues where we had a decent audience, at least. A couple of gigs on the tour may as well have been an open band practice. In such a case, though, we tried other ideas in songs, seeing what worked and what didn't. There wasn't really a 'bad' gig on tour.
We sold quite a bit or mercy too, especially at Electric Circus, in Edinburgh. There were even people who flew from Germany just to see us. They were given CDs for free.
As well as learning the importance of promoting, we learnt the importance of communicating as a band. The tour was spent with us crammed together in the van (or a bus/train in certain circumstances) so there was plenty of time for us to bond.
"I think tonight we should skip this 5/4 part out and go straight into the bridge"
"We should try this part differently tonight."
"That's a terrible idea. Shut up."
Many bands are scared to voice their opinions on songs, but touring and playing as much helped us start to get more comfortable around each other when discussing our songs.
I personally also learnt a lot about how I want my keyboard set up. I was able to tell the soundtechs my specifications, and in some cases, provided my own back line amp as a monitor, which they appreciated. They were also impressed by my use of MIDI on what would normally be a standard stage keyboard. Which, to be fair, is very simple, but if others don't know that...
After every gig, we always took time to chat with the sound tech and were always thankful, no matter the sound. I think they appreciated this.
Touring was an experience, and I probably haven't described it half as well as I could have. Because of it, we were given a gig at King Tuts, one of Scotland's most popular venues, and our fan base is growing more rapidly since it. Touring is what an independent musician needs to do to get themselves out there. You need to spend money to make money. People don't get this.
From this project, I have learned a substantial amount, about both gigging and myself as a musician. There is still project work left to do for Glee, I believe, but if this is what my HND1 project has been, I can't wait to see what HND2 brings.
Now I need to begin work on my final exam pieces. Fantastic.
And I must say, I learnt all of the above, and some. For a start, we learnt the importance of organisation. When bands read the Gig information for bands pages we'd made on Facebook, there were no issues; bands knew who was bringing what gear, who was using what, and what time soundcheck, etc, was.
When a band turned up an hour late without a guitar amp or their own snare drums, it was obvious they hand't taken the time to research the info we had sent them.
There was even a case where, at an over 18s gig only, we'd sent a message to all of the bands confirming that they were all of age and that they would bring ID if there looked like there would be any doubt.
One band was half underage, the other forgot to bring ID. The result was that the lineup was shifted around so that one band could play and then leave, and Nic, who promoted the gig, received hails of abuse from the venue staff.
When bands read the information, however, everything went perfectly. There was an understanding of who used what, and the nights became a lot more enjoyable.
We felt let down by some of the independent promoters, however (Nic promoted most of the gigs bar a couple). We had sent flyers and posters to all the venues for them to display. A couple didn't bother. We even found one of the opened envelopes under the sound desk one night, full of all of the posters we'd paid to send.
In most cases, everything was good. We mixed with other bands, made friends, had a few drinks and then played music, which everyone seemed to enjoy. In the venues where we had a decent audience, at least. A couple of gigs on the tour may as well have been an open band practice. In such a case, though, we tried other ideas in songs, seeing what worked and what didn't. There wasn't really a 'bad' gig on tour.
We sold quite a bit or mercy too, especially at Electric Circus, in Edinburgh. There were even people who flew from Germany just to see us. They were given CDs for free.
As well as learning the importance of promoting, we learnt the importance of communicating as a band. The tour was spent with us crammed together in the van (or a bus/train in certain circumstances) so there was plenty of time for us to bond.
"I think tonight we should skip this 5/4 part out and go straight into the bridge"
"We should try this part differently tonight."
"That's a terrible idea. Shut up."
Many bands are scared to voice their opinions on songs, but touring and playing as much helped us start to get more comfortable around each other when discussing our songs.
I personally also learnt a lot about how I want my keyboard set up. I was able to tell the soundtechs my specifications, and in some cases, provided my own back line amp as a monitor, which they appreciated. They were also impressed by my use of MIDI on what would normally be a standard stage keyboard. Which, to be fair, is very simple, but if others don't know that...
After every gig, we always took time to chat with the sound tech and were always thankful, no matter the sound. I think they appreciated this.
Touring was an experience, and I probably haven't described it half as well as I could have. Because of it, we were given a gig at King Tuts, one of Scotland's most popular venues, and our fan base is growing more rapidly since it. Touring is what an independent musician needs to do to get themselves out there. You need to spend money to make money. People don't get this.
From this project, I have learned a substantial amount, about both gigging and myself as a musician. There is still project work left to do for Glee, I believe, but if this is what my HND1 project has been, I can't wait to see what HND2 brings.
Now I need to begin work on my final exam pieces. Fantastic.
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