Inga Eichler's scholarship at Tech Music School

It all started when I saw the Ad for a Scholarship in Hot Press Magazine. I´m actually from Germany but I went over to Ireland after High School for a gap year. After they told me that I was the lucky one to get the scholarship for the one-year Diploma things happened very fast. In the beginning of September I went to London to look for a flat close to the school. I was already in contact with some other Tech students and I was glad that I didn’t have to search for a flat on my own. In the end we found something nice just a 10 minute walk from Tech. My flatmates are all great fun and because we all share the same passion for music I feel very much at home in my new flat.

Soon my Induction day was on and we were all a bit nervous about it. What if everyone else is better than me? What if the other students don´t like me? All that sort of stuff. In the end we all survived it and I met loads of nice people. I had my Induction day together with the guitarists (I´m a bass player by the way) and it started off with all the teachers introducing themselves. That was a big bunch of names to remember in the first hour. After that we went on a little tour through all the different buildings and finished off with a very interesting visit to the Asian Music Centre (around the corner from Tech Music Schools).

Next on was an actual music lesson where we were introduced to our first Live Performance Workshop song. In those weekly workshops we get assessed on a song we play together with other students from Drumtech, Vocaltech, Guitar-X and Keyboardtech. We also talked about the basics of being a musician and the concept of the most important factor being to play effortlessly. Overall there was much talking about the matter without actually playing the Bass so all that made me very eager to finally get started. I also noticed that all my teachers are active working musicians which is different to my previous music teachers in School. Although that means that they might sometimes not teach for a week because they tour the world; it makes the lessons far more real and practical and I feel very close to what´s actually happening in the music business.

After the Induction day most of the students went to the Redback, a pub in Acton, for a Freshers event which included a BBQ and Tech Bands playing. There was also a little music quiz (where I won a Cap, yippee!) and everyone had fun. The Bands playing were amazing; some of them were teachers and some students from the Degree course. The Freshers events are a great opportunity to network and its always easy to talk to people because we all share the same common ground.

The following Monday college started and we had our first lesson at 9am!. Although I have to get up early on Mondays I´m very pleased with my timetable because on most days I just have two hours of lessons in the afternoon. Some students even have whole days off, so there is always enough time to practice, work or do whatever you have to do. The first lessons I have on a Monday are Bass Stylistics and Fretboard, which are both practical lessons. In the first lesson we studied different Bass lines of various styles every week and the second lesson is about Scales, Chords and their connection to the Fretboard. For all my lessons except the Live Performance Workshop and the Rhythm Section Skills lessons, where we play with other guitar students and a teacher on Drums; I´m in a class with other Bass players concentrating on all things bass. The bass course is the smallest of the instruments however I see this as a plus as there are plenty of gigs for me to get! My fellow Bass players are all great fun, we get along very well. We all come from different backgrounds, have different tastes in music and everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but they are all very good musicians. I find that very interesting, it´s the first time in my life I met so many Bass players all at once.
Later that day we had a lesson in Music Theory, Sight Reading (which is quite tricky) and Aural (ear training).

The next day I had my first lesson in Rhythm Section Skills, where we play a different song every week together with some guitarists and the drum teacher. It is different to LPW though because we don´t get assessed on the way we play, it´s more that we talk about how things sound and how you can achieve a certain sound or feel. In the afternoon I had my first Live Performance Workshop playing “In The Midnight Hour” by “Wilson Pickett”, which is a fairly easy and fun Song to play. Although I like the song and I´d prepared myself, I was a bit nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect. In the end it went ok and now, two weeks later, I can see that everyone is getting more relaxed and confident every week.
The following days I have a mix of theory and practical lessons, including one Music Technology class which I find very interesting because that whole field is relatively new to me. I think it´s great that we all get an opportunity to learn more about Music Technology and that we get to use the college´s top equipment.

After all the studying and practicing we went to Freshers night at Camden Lock. It´s a great venue and the place was packed with Tech students (probably mainly because of the great drink offers). The teachers bands were amazing; it was great to see the teachers on stage that just taught us a couple of hours earlier.

At the weekends I don´t get to go out much because I work in a Bar. Although I don’t get much sleep it´s fun working there and there´s a live Band playing every night. What´s left of the weekend is usually taken up practicing or rehearsing. I remember that before I came here I asked myself how you can study a full time course just playing Bass guitar. Fact is they manage to keep us very busy!

During the year at Tech there are going to be different master classes every week. Those events are evening classes where people from outside the school hold a seminar about a different topic or instrument. I went to a seminar which is part of the schools Artist Development Program where former students and tutors from the school talked about all the other aspects of the music business, excluding music. They underlined the importance of networking and professionalism.
I also started to go to Tech Music School´s choir because even though I´m not a singer I think it´s fun to sing with all those good singers and it can be handy to keep your voice from getting too rusty for singing backing vocals. There are many opportunities to get involved in interesting projects outside your timetable at Tech and one of my aims is to take part in as many as possible.

Overall I’ve had a really good time so far, I met loads of nice people and I’ve learnt an awful lot. Talk to you next month, see ya!
Inga Eichler