September 2015: Wombourne School of Music, Saving Money and a Year with No Questions Asked!

Well, I missed last month’s post, sorry about that. September was something of a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows for me, and that got in the way of having anything remotely resembling the kind of focus I needed to get my thoughts together regarding what to write in a blog. By the time my head was in a clear enough place to write a blog for August, I was also ill and it was nearly October, so I thought I’d just leave it until then and cover both months. The fact that I’m two weeks late with this is not helping matters.

I’m enjoying teaching for Wombourne School of Music, it’s a great team to be a part of. It’s a lot less intense than I’m used to with Dudley, since almost all of the lessons are one-to-one and are a lot easier to pace for that reason. I also had a good gig with them on the second Sunday into September when I played an acoustic set at their ‘Concert in the Courtyard,’ and accidentally started a band with Andy and the other Matt who teaches there. We jammed out a few songs on guitar, bass and drums and nearly ran away with the whole afternoon! It’s also a much wider range of ages and motivations than I’m used to, because I teach a few adults there as well as some children of a younger age than I would normally deal with in Dudley.

I did a lot of gigs over August and no small number of them in September and I’m starting to wonder now whether it would be worth investing in a small P.A. system and doing some gigs for myself. At the moment they’re mostly open mics, and while I usually enjoy doing them, they’re not usually worth any money (except for my PRS claims and I don’t know what that’s going to look like until my first one comes through, hopefully at the end of the month!) and I think I could be doing more to make it worth my while.

Of course, it’s easy enough to say that I should be doing this because I enjoy doing it; it shouldn’t be about the money. I would challenge that; for one thing teaching guitar is my main source of income so to a certain extent it does have to be about the money! But here’s the thing: I don’t very often spend any of the money I get from music. I save it instead.

So, for example, I get £20 from No Questions Asked from doing the Jam Nights in Wombourne on the last Tuesday of every month. That can by me lunch for a few days – or I could save it. I choose the latter, because I’m saving up for a few things – a deposit on a house, fixing my car when it goes wrong (it might) or even just a rainy day. If I put the money I get off making music to one side and save it, then what I’m doing with the band has some mid-long term value for me. The value is always there, don’t get me wrong. I always enjoy playing live and it’s never a bad thing to meet new musicians and make new contacts. But things either happen from it or they don’t. If I save the one reward I know I will receive, there will always be a point to the gigs I’ve done that I’ve been paid for. How much money have I made from doing this? Well, that’s for me to know. It’s never been enough to sustain a living, but over the last few years, the money I’ve been putting aside has run in to quite a significant amount – and has been at least a part of the reason that I still consider this worth my while after doing this on and off for the last 12 years.

Incidentally, it’s been a year since I started my tenure with No Questions Asked, and while we’re not too busy these days as we still don’t have a confirmed singer, it’s nice to be able to say we’ve kept it together all this time.

July 2015: Music Theatre Exams, Wombourne School of Music and Why I Shouldn't Sing After Going Swimming

I was struggling to think about what to write for this one, as I couldn’t think of many things that had happened straight away. Turns out quite a bit, actually:

The first thing that happened was I took a Grade 2 Music Theatre exam. I sang two songs for it: If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz, and Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid.

Yes, you read that right. Believe it or not I’m quite a big Disney fan, and The Little Mermaid is probably my favourite Disney film. Part of Your World was about the right level for me, and because I’ve got so much investment in the song already, I managed to sing it really well. I had to change some of the lyrics around in order for it to make sense (the song is sung by Ariel in the film, who is most definitely female) but I really enjoyed doing that one.

If I Only Had a Brain was a little different: I hadn’t seen The Wizard of Oz before, and apart from Over The Rainbow and some Family Guy cutaway gags, I’d had very little exposure to it. What that meant was that I could bring something of myself into the three characters: Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, without necessarily being influenced by what I’d seen in the film or on the stage. I did watch it in the end and it did help, but not before I’d got the words down and had my own ideas of what I was going to do for the performance. Plus, characterising three voices in one song is not something I’ve had to do a great many times before; it was a good experience!

It all paid off, as I passed the exam with distinction, 93%. I’m very pleased with that, and I’m hoping to take that a long way in the future! Once again thanks to my Vocal Coach Vie Watson for all her support; couldn’t have done it without you.

The second thing that occurred was that I started doing a bit of work for Wombourne School of Music. This is something that I’m hoping to run alongside my work with DPA, doing an evening and a day in the weekend for them. At the moment I’m teaching guitar for them while their regular guy is on holiday, with the possibility of picking up some more permanent work when term starts again. I’m glad I’ve had my experience with DPA as I’m able to bring a lot of that in to what I’m doing for WSOM, and hopefully that will come across in the future.

I’ve been rocking up at open mics and gigs on and off for about five years now, and I’ve always said that no one’s ever the finished product and I’ve always got something to learn. No more was that the case than the last open mic I did of the month, which was on a Wednesday evening at the Saddler’s Arms in Bloxwich. I played my first two songs and found it very difficult to breathe; it was affecting my voice control and I was exhausted by the end of the set. I couldn’t think of a reason for it, until through speaking to some people in the pub I remembered that I’d been swimming earlier that day. Of course, the chlorine in the water had affected my breathing control. I’ve been absolutely caning it at the gym over the last few weeks, but now I need to remember not to go swimming if it looks like I’m going to be singing afterwards!

I had a jam early with a chap called Jon with a view to getting a band together, but to be honest I wasn’t really feeling it, I don’t think he was either and I haven’t heard from him since. It happens, of course, and it might be best to put that one on the back-burner for now. I’d still like to get a band together to play some original material, but it’s a slow process indeed with everybody wrapped up in their own lives now.

Let’s see what August brings…