DPC class - Comparison of Professional Site

During the course of the year I have been working on my personal website -

www.stevenmorrisondrums.com

I have put a lot of work into it and I am keeping it up to date with all the current projects and gigs that I have running. I have a lot of information on it about me, my current bands, endorsements, gear, press, links and photos, amongst other things like having my own stevenmorrisondrums.com business cards and my steve@stevenmorrisondrums.com email address as I purchased the domain name.

I have chosen an industry professionals website to compare my personal one to. This industry professional is Steve Gadd.

http://www.drstevegadd.com/index.htm

Steve Gadd is a world renowned session drummer who started his drumming career in the late 1940's and is still to this day touring and playing around the world. Needless to say, his website has much more content and information about everything he has done over the years so there is a lot more to read.

Personally, I think that my site has most of the same ideas, like the personal biography, current projects, tour schedule, discography, endorsements and similar. Over the course of the past year when I have been building this site I have taken guidance from other professionals sites along the way which has led to my site having most of what I need, nothing too random, over the top or disinteresting.

I am not particularly convinced of the layout of Steve Gadd's Menu selection on the left hand side of his site. It runs in alphabetical order, although I find it quite easy to get a bit lost on the menu and it seems quite randomly ordered. I specifically tried to make my menu easy to navigate, without having too many page breaks I think it is a lot easier to find what you are looking for. I like the fact that he has a lot of personal information and pictures from around the world, you can find out a lot more than you could usually find on someones personal site. I just think that there is so much there, and It could possibly be laid out in a less complicated way which would make it much easier to navigate.

Clicking around his site, I think I have taken a lot of hints from professional sites, even things like the gear list and an in depth description of the gear I use are similar to what Steve has on his site. I think that if I keep going as I am with detailing everything I do and keep it all up to speed, with any luck in the future my site will eventually have a discography the same length as Steve Gadd's.

DPC class - Opportunities for Independent Musician

I think that the idea of 'making a living' in the music industry would generally be a dream come true for any budding musician, however through the opportunities I have had this year I have realised that there is a lot more to it than what meets the audience on the surface.

Obviously I am still trying to find my feet in the industry, although I am more or less certain that I will make myself a living one way or another in the industry, realising now that I have earned the right connections and opportunities to hopefully make that happen if I keep on working as hard as I currently am at it.

Through some online research, I have realised how many other drummers there are who more or less offer the same basic idea. They offer session playing and lessons in their local area along with usually playing in an original or covers band. It seems to be the standard. I believe that the problem I have with regards to getting into session work, is that the employers of session musicians would look for a  wealth of experience over someone who is willing to learn and truly throw all they have at something. Usually it helps to be a session drummer who already has a name for yourself, unless you are hand picked through audition processes, or work for agencies.

Searching for "session drummer uk" this is the top hit on google -

http://www.mattmcdonough.co.uk/

A perfect example of what I have mentioned, and exactly where I would ideally like to be in my career within a couple of years.

Online session drumming seems to be a new way of doing things. The ideal positives about this are that you do not have to worry about any travel expense or carting your full set up back and forward from a studio. If you are lucky enough to have an entire studio set up capable of producing a high standard of audio recording then you are already set up for it, all you need are the drumming abilities to be able to cater to a wide range of artistic tastes.

I think this is a great idea, more and more people these days are using home set ups, so if you follow the trend then the likelihood is that the work will follow. I personally love being in the studio and pushing my abilities to get a great drum take. The downsides to this process are the fact that you are not actually playing in a live setting with the band to get a real feel for the track before you record it, also that you would have to have some really high standard gear to produce the same quality as a professional studio, so it would be a true investment to get that up and running in the first place.

DPC class - Copyright on Personal Site

I personally can see copyright being a particularly grey area of the creative industry these days as I think that it is more than likely a lot easier to "get away" with infringement on a small scale than it was say 10 years ago before the take over of social network/youtube and other online sites like lime wire or mega upload (although there was a recent conviction of the founder of mega upload, however this was infringement on a huge scale and it was not a short process). 

In saying this, I am not in anyway implying that infringement is the right way to go because I also believe that free download/ file sharing sites are contributing to the fact that the music industry has come so far downhill in recent years. If you spend £6,000 writing, recording, publishing and touring an album, unless you have a lot of money to spare and are not trying to make a living from music, Ideally you would hope to make at least some or all of that money back through sales. I think that in the days before free file sharing sites, when the only way to get your hands on a decent reproduction of the album was to buy a hard copy, it could have been a lot more possible to make a decent amount back from your sales of records/ merch/ tickets. Obviously there were still things like cassette mixtape recordings and such from radio play but I don't think that would stunt your sales anywhere near the way free download sites do these days. 

That said, when I was creating my site I had to be aware of copyright for different media aspects, including music recordings, photos, trademarked names (magazines/Newspapers/ brand logos), newspaper/magazine articles and videos. 

Through a previous college course studying photography, I have a basic understanding of what photo copyright entails. It is similar to music copyright (in its simplest form) in that as long as you have the genuine permission of the copyright owner to use their photo, then it is usually ok to do so. I usually make sure that they are credited wherever possible for the photography and I provide a link to their site if possible. 

There have been a couple of instances where the publishing of newspaper articles that I was involved in haven't been possible due to copyright. The Birthday Suit were featured in The Sun Newspaper and I was recently involved in a Press Release for the Scotsman and Evening News. Naturally, I wanted to show these articles on my website, the best way to do this would have been to scan the hard copy of the article and put this on my site, although after contacting the copyright department of The Sun they had said that this may not be a great idea "just incase" of any issues. Another slight problem was that I have the OK from the Evening News' Photographer that it is ok to use the photo from the press release on my site, along with a mention and link to say that the copyright is owned by the Scotsman however I am not able to use those photos for any other means. I asked about using them for another press release and was told, understandably, that this was not possible. 

I don't actually have any music physically posted on my site other than links to youtube videos, however I do have links provided on my site to sites which feature music by my different bands. I have the permission to use these links and have them on my site by the people who built those sites (excluding the link to my personal facebook). 

Another way in which I had to be careful with copyright was using my endorsement companies logos on my site, Although part of the endorsement agreement was that I promote each brand as much as I can so really it wasn't a problem after the agreement had been made.

I believe that I am complying with legal copyright requirements because I am not exploiting the media in any way, I am not making any money directly from it being on my site either. I simply am showing what I have been involved in so far in my career and all I really feel I am doing is advertising these papers, photographers and sites in a very positive way. Of course if a problem was to come up, I would like to get it sorted in the best way possible.

Performance Blog, Tour With Rod, Sessions with Broxburn & Livingston Brass Band for Scottish Championships

The past few weeks have been hard work, however it has definitely payed off and I have learned a lot of lessons about time management, how the industry works with different promoters and gigging cultures around the uk, what it is like to be thrown in at the deep end with a high pressure reading gig and have to learn a lot of different techniques in a very short space of time, amongst many other lessons learned. Unfortunately, I missed the last couple of weeks of performance class, including Jazz week and Salsa week, as I have been on tour with Rod Jones and The Birthday Suit around the UK. I was still involved in a couple of rehearsals and recordings for these two weeks, I played "Take Five" and I was involved in percussion for "Guantanamera". Further analysis of these processes will be posted in a later blog.

Although I have been noting everything that happened, as I realised how much I have been learning when I was playing with these professional musicians out on the road.

The tour with Rod was an unbelievable experience, playing all over the UK to so many different people as the headlining band was a truly amazing thing to do. Seeing press reviews, advertising and other online presence along with people approaching us at gigs for photos and autographs was a lot to take in, although It has definitely set my sights on where I want to be and where I am aiming for with my career in music. Rehearsals for the tour were relatively short and sweet. With the main two being two weeks before the tour for four hours, and one other a week prior to the tour, again for four hours. That being said, with the level of musicianship of the members of the band, that was all we needed. Its great to know that you can relax in the thought that the other members of the band know exactly what they are doing and they will always be on top form when they need to be. That way you can relax into your own part and not have to stress about whether or not everyone else is with you. That being said, being on absolute top form every night is hard work on your mind as well as physically, especially when you are playing every night putting on a visual performance and a technical performance, and on the road for at least a few hours everyday. On top of that, occasionally the setlist would change and songs would get "pulled out of the bag" on the night, so being able to keep up with that was a real test of character. Another unbelievable test of nerve was when the full set in Manchester was filmed and recorded professionally, 5 or 6 cameramen all onstage and around the crowd (which was around 100 strong), along with one right next to me filming my every move. It was a great experience, although truly a nervewracking one to know that everything I did was going to be evidenced on film AND recorded audio. The lesson learned was that if you play like you are known to and always do, then the camera will capture this and show everyone how much you love what you are doing. This is exactly what I did. Throughout the tour I had been told by many people, most I had never met, that I was interesting and entertaining to watch on stage simply because I get so lost in the music and just enjoy being on stage playing drums, so I am looking forward to seeing the final product.

Reading this back it seems that it sounds that I didn't enjoy the hard work, that is far from the case. I live to push my boundaries and challenge myself and I am actually really proud of how I have handled the past few weeks. I feel that I really had my head screwed on and made good impressions with people, including Rod and the guys from The Birthday Suit, the promoters from around the UK, Sean Murtagh who deals with my stick endorsement with Los Cabos Drumsticks, Clare Truan who deals with my endorsement with Lion Cajon Drums amongst others I met on tour like the guys from The Birthday Suits  PR company A Badge Of Friendship, Producer Dave Eringa and all the other bands who supported and opened for us at the shows.  I already have dates in the calander for Wickerman Festival, Rhythms Of The World Festival in Hertfordshire and also waiting on confirmation on T in the Park to play with the Birthday Suit plus other dates currently being arranged. Another surreal experience was going to John Henry's and Matt Snowball's Music suppliers in central london, seeing accomplished session musicians just walking around the street outside and also tech supply sheets for Matt Cardle, Noah & The Whale and The Vaccines, I have made a connection with Kent who deals with the Idlewild account in Matt Snowball's suppliers so I can get gear shipped from London if needs be. A strange lesson I learned in Manchester was when I was talking to a few people after the show about everything that had been going on, how we had trouble with a van that failed it's MOT and the desperate struggle to find a replacement. A few days later, a review appeared online written by one of the people who I had been talking to, quoting me, my name, age and things I had said. Obviously I had been telling good stories and had nothing in anyway negative to say but it made me realise that in that situation of being the "headline" band, you really have to watch what you say and how you act at all times as you never know who could be in the crowd or who you are talking to.

Alongside this, I was asked to play with the percussion section in Broxburn & Livingston Brass Band for the Scottish Championships on the 11th March. This has been a steep learning curve as I had never really attempted to play in a section before. Also, I had no idea that the week before the contest, there would be a late rehearsal practically every night that week and also an early one on the day of the championships, still having college and work to deal with alongside these rehearsals has been really hard going, although I feel quite good about keeping everything afloat and being able to deal with having so much on at once. Admittedly I unfortunately missed my drum lesson on the friday due to me stupidly messing up my schedules, although I am keeping on top of everything that I am doing in my lessons and everything for my solo assessments. I can definitely feel that everything I'm doing is counting towards developing my overall musicianship and playing skills, helping me make important contacts in the industry and just getting the vital experience that I need to get to the next stage.

The past month has without a doubt been hard work although I have lapped up the experience for all it was worth, loved every second of it and really learned a lot from it all. I can feel in myself that I have progressed in my playing, as well as in my mind with how I deal with the pressure of having lots of different things to do. My diary is always full, although I don't see this as a problem in the slightest. I live to be busy and I enjoy the rush and buzz. I especially love the feeling of accomplishment when you pull it off, put on a great show and everyone goes home happy.

REH - Rehearsals and Technical Difficulty Notes

This year in college I have really been pushing my technical playing ability and I can finally feel that it is starting to come through in my everyday playing. 

The pieces that I have chosen to play for my end of year assignment are as follows - 

High Maintenance - Big Phat Band

What Is Hip - Tower Of Power

Blackbird Special - Stanton Moore 

I feel that through choosing these tracks, apart from them being a complete contrast to what I am used to playing, the drum lines are very thoroughly thought out by the player on the tracks. They are not just playing any old beat, they have actually worked out the patterns that they play and that have mastered that technique of playing, which makes them extremely hard to learn quickly. 

I played the Tower Of Power track for my solo assessment in January and I actually feel that it went very well. Unfortunately over the christmas period I was stuck in work more or less every single day and it was hard to find the time to rehearse the track as much as I would have liked to. This however opened a new door to how I practice. I had less time to practice, so this made me focus on what I really had to get right and work on that alone. Having less time made me really focus my practice time to get the most out of it which I think actually progressed my playing over christmas without me even realising it had happened. 

Even with High Maintenance, which is a high tempo modern Jazz Big Band piece, I can feel it settling nicely into place, the drum solo and parts where the horns move through bars are getting progressively easier to play. 

Another side of this, was learning the songs for the Music For Scotland audition. For this I had to learn the original drum part to play as close to the original as possible. It's so much different than playing a "cover" you are getting payed to replicate that song to people who are used to hearing the recorded and produced version, so you have to be better than the record when you play it live, which is quite an intimidating thought, although it is a great challenge which I really enjoyed. It looks so far like I have been accepted to work with the Music For Scotland agency along with a band of great musicians and singers from college, I am really looking forward to that!

Performance Block - Week Commencing 19th Dec 2011 - 20th Jan 2012

I have really enjoyed this performance block in comparison with the first one, more or less because this time I have done so much more playing and performance in college as opposed to at home. I feel like I have really progressed my playing over the past few weeks and over the christmas break.

The first week of performance saw the Drum workshop with Richard, this was a new experience for most of us as we decided to compose a drum core piece to play at the christmas concert. With only one day to write and rehearse a piece from scratch it put all of us under a lot of pressure and really brought the best out in all of us.

This block, I have played in both the big band and folk ensemble, which I really enjoyed as it is a different setting and style of playing than what I'm used to. In big band, we played Flight of the Foo Birds, You Make Me Feel So Young by Frank Sinatra and also High Maintenance by The Big Phat Band. It was great to get a chance to get to grips with High Maintenance as I plan to play it for my end of year assessment with the Big Band.

Over the Christmas break, I was working a lot, so I struggled to find time to practice for my solo assessment when we came back to college, this actually made me really focus when I was practicing as I didn't have as much time to get to where I needed to be, this started a new outlook on practice for me as I focus a lot more on what I need to practice in a short space of time rather than spending hours and hours practicing not really getting anywhere or pushing myself.

When we came back from the break, I joined one of the Small Jazz Ensemble workshops which was really cool. Scott gave us a lot of really good pointers for playing in a small ensemble, like to really listen to what each person is playing and feed off each other, feeling the tempo as a group rather than individuals etc. through playing in the Big Band, I also got a chance to get involved with Dale Birrell's Creative Music Technology Big Band Piece. This involved him recording parts of the big band, and sampling them using his laptop during a live performance. This was a great experience as it was completely out of the ordinary to have a "laptop" solo during a piece.

Colin's Songwriting workshop was a great help, I always seem to struggle when I'm trying to write anything other than a drum part, it was great to get an insight into Colin's way of thinking and to feed off Ideas from others in the workshop too.

On the last day of the block, I was in the studio with Owen and Ciaran playing some more Folk sets. This was cool as I was playing cajon, so it was a different setting to what i am used to playing in the studio, playing without a click track on some sets makes you realise how you need to work on internalising time, it was great to get a sense of how tight folk ensembles can be, all knowing the structure, repeats and stops for each set.

I really enjoyed this performance block as I did a lot more playing than last time, I felt a lot more involved with different bands and workshops. The only issue I think is that a lot of stuff still clashes, however this would be expected as there is so much going on at any given time.

College Work and Gigs

Been a busy few weeks with gigs with The Birthday Suit and Dirty Rose, due to this I have unfortunately missed out on a couple of lessons with Richard in college but we will catch up on these. I have been working on new techniques for dynamics that he gave me and also on picking my solo assessment tunes. I think one of these will be "High Maintenance" by the Big Phat Band, also Blackbird Special by Stanton Moore, both will envolve using brass sections and are both very technically challenging.

I also missed the recording of "funk" week in performance class. I had originally been involved with the original rehearsal of " Stealing Watermelons" by the Chambers Brothers. I got one of the DFM drummers to stand in for me when I was in Dundee gigging. The process of rehearsal for this band was really good, I actually really enjoyed playing the track as it had a really nice feel to it when everyone was playing it and locking in with the groove.

I have been working on some modal tunes for improv class working from the worksheets that include tracks like " So What", "Impressions" and others. 

Today in performance class is Jazz week, so I will find out what track we are playing and start working on it today!