Inga Eichler's scholarship at Tech Music School Part 2

It´s great that I get to play music every day. Also being around so many nice people and good musicians is very inspiring. Many events took place during the last month; one of them was the original Bands Night where we got to see other Tech students and their Bands playing. They were all very different, from prog rock to Soul and they all sounded quite good.

My course is still fun as well and although we are still doing quite basic stuff it´s getting more and more complicated. The advantage of starting with the very basics of playing your instrument is also that you get to polish up the foundation of your playing. As most of us are pretty much self-taught there are always thinks you overlooked or bad habits you developed (like wrong hand position for example).

We also had some great tunes in our Live Performance Workshop this month. The one I particularly enjoyed was “Long Train Running” by the Doobie Brothers. It´s a very Bass-driven Song and it was fun to play. The LPW pretty much became part of the weekly routine, everyone is not that nervous anymore. I also like my Rhythm Section Skills lessons where we play a different Song every week to a click. Although that sounds quite easy it can actually be quite tricky, especially if you never played much with a click before.

I also discovered working with Music Software on a Computer for myself. Apart from the Music Technology lessons we have every week we can also use the schools well equipped computer room every time it´s free to work on our Projects.

In the beginning of November we had our first studio session at Monster Trax Studios in Chiswick. After getting there (which was really not that hard, guys!) We got introduced to our teacher and the studio equipment. I´ve done some studio recordings before but I didn´t know what we were expected to do. The actual aim of the lesson was to make us familiar with a studio environment. First we talked about the different components of a studio (Mixing Desk etc.) and the different roles of people involved in a studio session (producer, sound engineer etc.) Then we got to do our task, which was to come up with a Bassline to an R´n´B/pop tune we hadn’t heard before. What we did first was working out the chord changes of the Song and because the whole Session lasted about 4 hours we had plenty of time for each step. Although the tune was not complicated it was it was still challenging to get the right chord changes and play a matching Bassline. Then we took turns recording what we came up with and I think we all did pretty well, guys! All in all it was very interesting and I´m looking forward to our next studio Session (which is going to be in December).

Being busy studying and working I was surprised to find out that we soon were to have a half term break of a week. I must admit that I didn’t do much college work during that break but I played a gig in Camden with two of my friends from Ireland who came over. It was great to have a break but I was actually looking forward to the Monday after (honestly, guys!) which shows how much I enjoy going to TMS.

There were also two Master Performance Showcases in November. This is where the boys and girls from the Master Performance course get to perform a couple of Songs on a “real” stage at the Redback. I went to both nights because one of my flatmates was playing (well done, Marc!) and it’s always nice to go for a night out with Tech students. All the Bands I heard were pretty good and because they performed the same songs it was interesting to see the different versions by each band.

Although I planned to go to as many Master classes as possible even if it´s not a Bass Master class I just found the time to go to one so far. This time it was Bass player Phil Mulford. He´s one of the best Session Bass players in London and very busy working for the X-Factor shows. He actually “made it” as a Session Musician. During his Master class he not only showed us his bass playing but also gave us loads of handy tips on how to be a professional Bass player.
Overall I had another great month at TMS. A certain routine has creeped in but there´s always something going on and it´s not at all boring.

Talk to you next month and keep on rockin´!