Set Lists and Studio Times

8 hours of rehearsing for the gig in July. Our set list is simple and perfectly planned.
It looks something like this.......
Terraplane Blues-Robert Johnson
Thrill Is Gone-BB King
Knockin’ On Heavens Door-Bob Dylan
Goin’ Mad Blues-John Lee Hooker
Hoochie Coochie Man-Muddy Waters
Drunk-Tommy Tucker
Harpoon Man-The Paul Delay Band

Here is a flyer for the gig itself.

In further news my own compositions have taken a positive turn and I am going to be in the studio next week recording 3 tracks, all different instrumentals with a live band set up who have all learnt what I have written.
Kind of ironic really, I want to make it as a session player yet I have people being session guys for me to get started.....

Here is a shot of some of the music from the tracks:

The first one, a metal inspired piece called ‘999’.

The second one has yet to be christened however I am using the working title ‘Acoustic Gold’.

And the third one has been aptly named ‘Groove Ladder’.

The studio session is booked for 5 hours on Tuesday and 3 hours on Wednesday and then by the weekend I will have a rough mix of the songs to listen to and outline any tweaks to make.
I am rather excited for next week.

Last Friday the 22^nd April, I was involved in an open mic night down at the new Welfare Club where I am working.
I played a 4 song set to finish the night off.
The first two songs were:
Knockin on Heavens door
Pretty Vacant.
The line up consisted of guitar, bass, drums and shared vocals.
Next we played:
Rockin In The Free World
For this we had a harmonica player come up and join us to jam.
The final song of the night was:
Mustang Sally
For this we had lead vocals, backing vocalists, guitar, bass, harmonica and drums and a very extended ending to keep people wanting more.
My friend was kind enough to fllm some of the set for me and I have posted the video of ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ to Youtube for all to feast their eyes and ears on.

I have also been looking at my practice routine that I do daily on the guitar. Today I timed it and it is exactly 2 hours and I started it just 5 weeks ago and I am already seeing improvement.
This works out a 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for 5 weeks.
So the Match wud be 2x5= 10, 10x5=50, which means I have improved my technique and playing ability in 50 hours, I think as I can really see the benefits I will be keeping this up from now on and I encourage all musicians to do the same, practice makes perfect after all.

Night All
x

Cool.

Filling In Some Blanks

Due to technical errors beyond my control the website has not allowed me to post updates for a week, I have reported the problem and it seems to be sorted and hopefully will not affect me again.
Last week I was hired by a singer/guitarist I know to come and gig with him.
The gig is to open a night of music on the 1^st of July in South Wing-field for a Biker’s rally weekend.
We have spent 8 solid hours rehearsing so far and have comprised a set of acoustic blues music lasting us half an hour to entertain people with.
I have found this to be a fun and yet challenging experience so far as I am used to simply jamming out blues numbers on my electric or with a live band but with just two acoustic guitars and sharing vocals the sound scope is a different one to play with.
We have combined covers of numbers by the like of BB King with the original Mississippi delta songs of the likes of Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson utilising chordal patterns with simple melodies and slide guitar solos, we are even going to do a nice bluesy cover of ‘Knockin On Heavens Door’ By Bob Dylan and I am putting a Harmonica part into it.
After we have practiced tonight I will load up the final set list.

The week before last I began embarking on a new expedition to exploit myself musically.
I am going to make simple videos of me performing my own songs or covers of songs I have learnt which can express my technicality and feel levels and will upload them to the internet and post them to people who are looking for guitarists for hire.
My first two videos to go up tomorrow will be covers of:
‘Hey Joe’ - Jimi Hendrix
‘Surfing With The Alien’ – Joe Satriani
The both cover wide aspects of feel playing and technicality and are two of the songs that heavily accelerated my playing ability and increased the pleasure of playing guitar for me and they are both by two of my guitar idols.



Jimi Hendrix



Joe Satriani

I will update this more tomorrow with hopefully some more positive inputs.
x

Short run but good fun

This is a rather sad post I am afraid.
The two separate project bands I have been involved in have ceased to exist.
Deceive The Fallen has fallen through as it is not easy to rehearse and therefore cannot be ready to perform, I believe Ross is taking on the project just as himself and recording and publishing an EP, I wish him all the best in this.
Also the Valley has come to an end due to lack of communication from the singer and the willing to show commitment but never follow it through. There are talks of a potential reforming of the project with the drummer, bassist and myself with a different singer but we shall have to wait and see what happens there.
In the small uprising upside of things my compositional work is beginning to flourish again and the construction of my website is well and truly underway with my official photos back and waiting to be used so watch this space over the next week.

bad press is better than no press?

Unfortunately the recording last week fell through at the last minute, for whatever reason, the place had been double booked and I was not required for recording. I was disappointed as I had been pumped for it all day, that potential pressure on me was driving adrenaline through my veins at 100mph. But alas it did not happen. Sam has promised to pass my details around to other people at the college in need of musicians to record and we shall be rescheduling his session so there may be hope yet.
I have not mentioned Deceive the Fallen work much so its time I did, I have learnt all the required new material and we have a practice session on Monday, the room is booked from 10-2 so I think we shall get a fair bit done. Will be good to get together again and I know Ross is anxious to get the project out gigging which I am more than thrilled about.
Hope it all goes well.

Building Up Experience

By chance earlier on today I stumbled across an acquaintances posting a status on face-book advertising for a guitarist to do a last minute recording of a song.
The song is “Someday” by Nickleback and I have played this before and so I got in touch with Him via Email and said I am available to do this recording if you so wish to use me.As of not 5 minutes ago I have spoken on the phone to Sam and he is more than happy to have me do the parts. I am required to play all the guitar parts, rhythm and lead and also the bass line to which I have quite happily said yes.
I will be going to the studio he is working in at Joseph Write College in Derby town centre between 2:30pm and 4:30pm and I will receive credit on the recording and he has promise to pass my details round to anyone else looking for a session guitarist after I have worked for him.

Some times I just look at things and smile.

Peace out

Just another little update...

Successful news!
A few entries ago, December possibly, I mentioned a collaboration with a friend at University who is on a Games Design course, he had been assigned a project which consisted of him having to design a game sequence, constructing characters and levels and simply asked me to create a sound track for it.
Well I finished the sound track last week and have given it to him, and I am proud to say he is extremely pleased with the results and has opened the door on another opportunity for me.
It would basically be the same idea expect span over 8 weeks and working with multiple people at once, possibly even multiple arrangements to be made, I intend to weigh out my options and see if it will be possible to take this on board however it does need careful planning so as to not make my schedule to hectic lest I fall behind with my university work.
Here is the track I arranged:

http://soundcloud.com/nikolaus90/game-level-track

In other good news, the band I am part of, The Valley, played another gig on Saturday night at The Red Lion in Sandiacre.
Again we did two forty-five minute sets to a decent crowd who were extremely enthusiastic and really up for a good night. We added new songs in and this time I was asked to re-arrange the set for the night.
The order consisted of:

Last weekend The Valley spent recording out four track demo which we are going to be taking to venues all over the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire area to get us playing as much as possible which means constant work to be put in all the time, a bit of pressure never hurt I say.
The tracks we recorded were:
Stuck In The Middle
Sound Of The Underground
Hedonism
Blue Sunday

Blue Sunday is again another example of my compositional work.
It is a new instrumental I have composed so there’s a bit more variety at our shows, plus it never hurt to give singers a break and steal the limelight aha.

Here is a link to Stuck in the Middle

http://soundcloud.com/nikolaus90/stuck-in-the-middle-3/s-JZq7o

and Blue Sunday

http://soundcloud.com/nikolaus90/blue-sunday 
I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

Night allx

It's not what you know...

As of 20 minutes ago I have set up some more work for myself.
A friend has asked me put together a 45 minute set with her for a gig in Fenbruary, Her singing and me playing acoustic guitar and doing backing vocals. We have arranged a meeting/jam at her place on Wednesday night to discuss songs to work, I am rather excited about this whole operation as I have only played acoustic at jam nights before, not an actual set.
Also, through the connections I have, I am now in touch with someone who is setting up a new record label in his studio in Derby and is looking for available session players. More on this to follow as I am expecting an email through tommorrow.
I also have another job.
The drummer in The Valley has his own band who play strictly original material and they want a new guitarist. They will be recording a new 10 track album next month and they have asked me to come down and record some lead guitar parts on the tracks then potentialy in May join them for live gigs to play the new material.
Oh yes the ball is certainly rolling for me.

Live and Gigging

I have a second band placement.
I am the guitarist for The Valley. A four piece outfit consisting of Drums, Bass, Guitar and Vocals, a new to the scene but quickly cathcing up with the game Femal Vocalist. Based in Ripley, Derbyshire, slowly but surely accquiring gigs left right and centre and making a good name for ourselves.
I am the only guitarist and aswell as play I have been responsible for learning and workingout/transcribing all the songs we do and I have a large creative input ionto how we perform them, Taking covers of songs & making them our own, getting that balance of a bit of the old slotted into the new.
We have performed once this year, it was on the second of January at the Generous Britain in Ripley.
We played two 45 minute sets and started at 6:30pm. It was a busy night with good support and we are sure everyone went home with smiles on their faces, a good time was had by all.

Our two sets were:

Set 1:
Maria-Blondie
Sound of the Underground-Girls Aloud(our punky metal version)
Who Knew-Pink
Johnny B Goode-Chuck Berry
Hard Days Night-Beatles
Rockin' In The Free World-G3
Honky Tonk Woman-Rolling Stones
Bad Moon Rising-Creedance Clearwater Revival
One Way Or another-Blondie
House Of The Rising Sun-Animals

Set 2:
Loose Control-A Nick, Mick nd Stu Instrumental
Teenage Kicks-Undertones
Molly's Chambers-Kings Of Leon
Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison
Zombie-Cranberries
Hedonism-Skunk Anansie
Black Velvet-Allanah Myles
Stuck In The Middle-Steelers Wheel(punked up)
Since You've Been Gone-Kelly Clarkson
In Demand-Texas
Stand By You-Pretenders
Don't Stop-Fleetwood Mac
Mustang Sally-Commitments(Valleys personal Jam version)

We are practicing again this weekend and I have been given 5 new tracks to transcribe and learn.
They Are:
Proud Mary-Ike & Tina Turner
I'm Not Dead-Pink
White Wedding-Billy Idol
Wishing Well-Free
Beer-Reel Big Fish

I have transcribed up to Wishing Well and will have them learnt by practice on sunday.
Awesome.

I will attempt to upload videos of the band performing later for you all to sink your teeth into.