OFFICE/ DREAMCHASER

I've got so much to tell you!  I knew what I needed. Now how to get it....

My mum has a part time job in a small office, and to be honest, she doesn't really need to do it, so I basically asked if I could do it instead.

BANGIN'! - My first office job in the bag. Yes its dull and I just answer phones, but it is the first run of the ladder (of rubbish jobs) before I can get the job I want in a record company.

NEXT PLEASE.

Toby ( who we've all now come to know as my new guitarist) and I went to do a cheeky little 'open mic' night at a venue called 'Shoot Pool'.  It was great fun, and we were well received. It was the first time I'd sung there. After we played, I was approached by the guy running the night (Mr Paul Adams), who basically said 'well done, nice voice, come down more often and we can try and get you working with some of our musicians and writing'. !!! Well great! That's what we want isn't it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCx6cNso3J8

I added Paul on Facebook. And decided to ask him, in a bid to become the more self sufficient version lof myself, if he need a hand setting up before the open mic nights, i.e 'a bit of free manual labour, in return for him teaching me how to set up and use the PA system etc'.

His reply was fate. I'm sure!

MR. PAUL ADAMS

Little did I know when I messaged Paul, that not the open mic night, or 'JAM JAR' as it's called was just the tip of the iceberg.  Amongst the musicians at shoot pool, a company had emerged, named 'DreamChaser Entertainment '. A company set up to promote and work with new artists to help get them started. Not only did Paul say yes, he then offered me the opportunity to be some what of an 'apprentice' to the company. I go to shoot pool Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, where I help and get taught to set up for the Jam Jar and gig nights. I occasionally guest host the evenings and am being taught to sound check and tech the events.

STEVE RICHMOND

'We've also got a studio, if you'd be interested in learning how to record people...?' said Paul. UMMMMMMMMMM yes!! I, obviously, want as much experience as possible, in as many areas of music as possible.

Well, Steve Richmond, of DreamChaser Entertainment, has a small studio in the back of his house, where he records the artists and they have kindly offered to take me in and teach me how to record others, and record my music as well. 'Oh by the way he also does video editing as well if your interested in getting involved with that...'

SEB JAMES & GRAHAM IDDON

I'll be 'mentored' by Seb, who is also a guitar teacher and has agreed to give me guitar lessons each Monday, who along with Graham, will teach me all the tech-ing I need to know. If Seb needs promoting of an artist done, he comes to me and I will crack on with social networking.

So that's the team, along with a few other assistants etc. a bit like myself.

STARS Bar

By this point I had been getting up and singing at open mics at shoot pool and the green man, (where I did the first gig I told you about, where I met guitarist Toby). But 2 isn't enough. I had a night to myself and decided to wander down to 'Stars' another bar in town which had an open mic on. While I was there I bumped into Graham. Now, hosting this was a guy called GLYN DEVEY. don't worry, it's not essential you remember all of these names I'm just trying to give you an idea of what's happening and all the people I am creating a network with.

Glyn, and insane guitar player, had a good old chat with me after the open mic night and I explained to him that I'm not working for DreamChaser entertainment. Turns out he is also involved with the company. So that's good. Glyn is happy to do some songs with me at the next open mic. I also met another musician, Mark Scobey, who I sang with at the open mic at stars and then again at shoot pool.

None of that would have happened had I not gone down and 'got myself out there' as it were.

Back out of the bubble,

When I returned from my three weeks in the Disney 'bubble', I was itching to get back into it. Whilst in Paris, I began writing my own songs (though I'd done this before, I think these ones have a far more appropriate to the sort of sound I want to be associated with). I began to think about the 'next step'.

The questions that came to mind were, 'What do I need to do next?' and 'What is holding me back?'

• Obvious things to me were that when I play gigs I literally turn up, sing, and leave. I don't have the knowledge to set up or use a PA system to sort the sound levels or qualities, nor am I capable of rigging up all the gear such as drum kit, mics, guitars etc. And it dawned on me that when I go back to London, wanted to kick start my new career, I will be held back by this. I need to be as self sufficient as possible!!!

• I also rely on a guitarist, unless I was to rock up with backing tracks, (which I personally hate doing) I always have to find myself a guitarist if I want to accept a gig which is no good.  Yes, it is do-able but it is far from ideal. So again I WANT TO BE SELF SUFFICIENT!!    I need guitar lessons.... ! (I've owned a guitar for 2 years, picked it occasionally, tried to learn a few songs,but nothing's ever come of it)

• I also decided, that what brought my moral down last year was not having a career. I do not want to wake up 30 and poor and as a struggling waitress on minimum wage. Its just not for me. So now I am clear that singing is 100% what I want to do, and my head is back on straight, I need to ensure that money is coming in so that I can keep justifying singing gigs even if they may not be paid. However, as I know I am completely unsatisfied in a flat, un-progressive job, I tried to imagine what I wouldn't mind doing if singing for a living doesn't work out or just takes a bit longer than I hope.        I  would quite like to work for a record company. It'd be perfect, as I could keep networking and learning about the industry as I work my way up through the company however the 9-5 formality of the job would allow me to keep doing my music in the evenings and at the weekends. PERFECT. So I would need to go into that, I would think, through the admin side, perhaps work as a receptionist or PA for someone. Except, I have no experience in office work. So I need to find a easy to get office job, to get some experience, to get a better office job, or maybe a personal assistant job, and so on and so forth until I have enough experience to apply for one with a record company.

then...

"Arghhh so what happened next??" I hear you cry, in anticipation of my crazy story. haha.

So after a very well received gig, toby and I have continued to duet, covering each other for harmonies and so on and so forth. I decided next that one open mic night a week is clearly not enough, as that's just one venue, one venue in Aylesbury I hasten to add. BUT I also had a brief 3 week interlude where I popped back to Disneyland Paris...

 

And don't ask... coz I cant answer that!

 

 

videos from the gig in bicester

Toby and I cover 'be mine' by Robyn.

 

And 'use somebody' by the kings of leon

 

 

Black horse and a cherry tree, by KT Tunstall

 

amongst a few others... :p

What's going on!

Ok, so module 2 has been completed, and we're all on the edge of our seats waiting to hear back if 1- we've passed, and 2- our proposed inquiries have been accepted.
Luckily for me, whether mine has or hasn't, my inquiry has become so relevant to my current life that I'm going to keep you updated anyway :)

So, what on earth has been going on?!
Since my last blog, I believe I was about to do a gig in Bicester with my new guitarist, who I began to work with after we met (networked) at my first gig in a long time.
The gig went fantastically well, we were very pleased with the out come and I managed to get some videos of some of the songs, just for you :p

 

'I'm yours' by Jason Mraz

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Appendix F

Critical Reflection Portfolio

 

One of the key things that I have learnt is that to find out what I want to know, I must first realise what I don’t know. Whilst reflecting on task 2d (see appendix 1), I found that there was pattern to my continuous stunting of my career but by realising this I was then able to go about tackling it. I began to look at self esteem and confidence issues and how they may affect the success of a performer. However, this then raised the question of ‘what is success?’ and ‘what does it mean to be successful?’ (see appendix 2)

I got very involved with discussions on the SIG groups and found that everyone has a different opinion of what ‘success’ is (see appendix 3), thus making it extremely difficult to comment on whether a performer is ‘successful’ or not. I needed to change my tactics and to change my negative frame of mind. In my spare time I ran a half marathon, which was a massive achievement for me and left me feeling extremely positive and with that I found that ‘success’ was far too subjective. I decided that to change my life and career now I needed to be proactive, and what it came down to was ‘not knowing’ how to go about beginning a career as a recording singer. I previously felt, like I was sitting on the edge of the BAPP course not being 100% involved, but by making my inquiry completely relevant to my career now and useful to the progression of it, I have now submerged myself completely into the inquiry and my ‘self testing experiment’. To find out what might be useful to me, I first needed to find out what others had done previously, so I conducted some pilot data analysis (see appendix 4). This led me to finding reoccurrences in methods used by other singers, which in turn led me to the inquiry topic ‘Inquiry into the most effective ways of entering the recorded music industry as a singer’.

 After researching codes of conduct (see appendix 5 ), ethics (see appendix 6) and how I might go about collecting data (see appendix 7), I decided that my inquiry was quite feasible and potentially very useful to many, other than myself. I then began to write my proposal plan. My academic advisor, Adesola, pointed out the title words ‘most effective ways of...’ would be a different inquiry altogether, and after considering this, I realised I am investigating the ‘most applied methods’ rather than the ‘most effective’. I altered my inquiry title to ‘Inquiry into the most employed methods for entering the recorded music industry as a singer’, and I now feel strongly prepared and excited to begin my inquiry.

Appendix 3, Extract from Facebook SIG discussion

WHAT does it mean to be successful. what is success to you !????

 

Bobbie Pingram For me it's about achieving my goals. Not a measure comparing myself to other people.

Mimi-Lulabell Whitney Sucess to me is being happy, being happy with life, work, family, friends x

Emily Hunt achieving what I want to achieve and being happy with how I have done it.

Louise Dempster Success is meeting my own goals whether it is professional or personal , being happy and healthy.x

Melanie Brown To me, success is achieving dreams and goals you have set for yourself but most importantly success is being happy and content with your life...:)

Gee Bird would you call amy winehouse then,successful?...

Gee Bird so if u end up happy but with no career or with a great career but not happy...are u still successful??

Bobbie Pingram I'd say you have been successful in one area and not the other. Maybe that's one of the sacrifices of success.

Gee Bird how do you mean? to be successful in one area of your life another must suffer?

Melanie Brown Well from an outsiders point of view you would say yes she was...but then was she happy? As I said before that to me is the most important thing. She was obviously battling with a lot of issues. There has to be a balance between a good career and happiness. Was it that maybe too much success made her unhappy because she didnt know how to cope? I believe it must be about balance like most things in life x

Gee Bird see for me, success falls to career straight away.. but iv always been career minded, if success is what you set out to accomplish...(even if its not what you thought at the beginnning) if you achieve it, then you are a success. She had a massvively successful career. but same question falls to all the huge stars who die young. marilyn monroe, etc.. they were successful, no?

Change of plan!

basically what happened is, I was sitting here, banging my head against a brick wall thinking 'I have no idea what to do next!!!!'. You see, what was troubling me was that I have my question, but when I looked at task 6b, I thought 'what questions am going to ask towards that if I conduct an interview?' Hmm well it all got very stressful, and then I went to the campus session. Within which, we had enough time to talk through any issues we were having with the course. Rosemary made the suggestion to me that perhaps I don't need to conduct pilot interviews, focus groups, observations and surveys. She suggested that perhaps I only analyse existing data. For example, rather than conducting interviews and observations etc., I only consider what's already been written.  (Rather than trying to interview Lily Allen, I would look only at autobiography and interviews with her, that have already been done.)

I need to find literature regarding getting started in the music industry:

http://musicians.about.com/od/musicindustrybasics/tp/Five-Ways-To-Jumpstart-Your-Music-Career.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMXlmn1JzIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWf9CgJS2gI

Lissie

http://news.qthemusic.com/2010/08/interview_lissie_-_blonde_ambi.html

Justin Bieber

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/docview/250027694/13DA198C3B17D9E331B/4?accountid=12441

Articles on becoming a singer:

http://rt5vx6na7p.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=BECOMING+A+COMMERCIAL+SINGER&rft.jtitle=Back+Stage+East&rft.au=John+Henny&rft.date=2008-05-29&rft.issn=1930-5966&rft.volume=49&rft.issue=22&rft.spage=22&rft.externalDBID=BACS&rft.externalDocID=1496128201

changes in the music industry (to digital)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2013/02/27/music-industry-stops-losing-money-finally/

http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/13/the-music-industry-has-irreversibly-changed-the-labels-have-not/

http://bloggermouthsocial.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/the-music-industry-then-and-now/