Inga Eichler's scholarship at Tech Music School Part 4

I spent Christmas and New year´s eve back home in Germany where I did some recordings with my dad on keys and my brother on drums. It was great to hear them noticing that I have improved a lot in my ability as a bass player since I saw them last summer. And although it just has been 3 months of studying I have made a big jump in my abilities, which is due to Tech´s spot on teaching and it´s great teachers. Also the fact that I play and practice my instrument every day has naturally made me a better player. Before I came to Tech I never really practiced much and even though I´d always have rehearsals and gigs over the week I´d be busy with school or a full-time job. The thing is though that there are some things like sight reading or learning all sorts of scales that require muscle memory and regular practicing. Tech has given me the chance to make music every day, playing bass guitar is “what I do” now and I´m enjoying every minute of it. I´m also busy with my two covers Bands, one which consists of Tech students. Of course you can´t always like all the cover Songs you play but we try to avoid really awkward ones to keep it as much fun as possible. I also discovered singing backing vocals for me.

The course is getting more and more complicated now. While the first term was more of an introduction where everyone started with the very basics so that we are all on the same level, in the second Term things move much faster. In our fretboard lesson, where it´s all about scales, arpeggios and knowing your fretboard we cover the different modes at the moment. This for example is something I never practiced before and that requires a lot of work. In Aural it´s not just major or minor anymore but four note chords and compound intervals. I enjoy the Aural lessons very much, which is probably because it´s one of the easiest for me. I also find it very useful because I noticed that when I want to transcribe stuff it happens at a much faster pace because I instantly know the intervals between the notes. I´m also very much looking forward to this terms assessment in T.A.C (Transcribing, Arranging, Composing) which is to arrange a cover version of a Song in another genre (a Bluegrass version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for example, not a bad idea actually, i´ll have a think about it) I haven’t decided what Song I arrange yet but I think it´s gonna be fun because it also requires that we team up with other musicians from the school and record a decent version of the Song.

There´s also the two studio sessions every class has per term, of which we already had one this term. While in the last two sessions we were asked to come up with a bass line to an already existing Song this time our ability as a sound engineer was more required than playing our instrument. We were all asked by our teacher Jim to prepare a one and a half minute section of a Song consisting of Verse, Bridge, Chorus without a drum beat. When we brought our recording in on the day we were then asked to communicate to a session drummer what kind of beat we were looking for and then record him. It was great to hear everyone´s composition in my class. They were all very different. While I tried myself with an early Funk keyboard riff driven Song we had everything from Punk to cheesy Rock Ballad to experimental Jazz. The drummer who worked with us that day was really good because he was able to adapt instantly to all these different kinds of genre. For the next studio session there´s gonna be a session guitarist in. I find that very interesting because it teaches us how to communicate our ideas to a session musician and then how to record him.

I also very much enjoy this terms repertoire of Songs we play in our Live Performance Workshop lessons. At the Beginning of the Term it was all about Funk and I learned very much because that genre is kind of new to me. It´s not just that, I´d say, I actually learned to love it. In all the other lessons like Stylistics and RSS it was all about how to play with the right 16th-feel and what makes something “funky” We also talked about all the different funk artists. I literally spent the last few weeks not listening to anything else than Funk, which shows how inspring the schools lessons are. Of course it´s also the teachers who talk with so much passion about their subject.
The next genre will be Reggae and although I think my “Funk-phase” is not over yet I think I´m gonna enjoy it. Loads of the people on my Diploma course got into the habit to rehearse for their LPW every Monday evening. I enjoy going there and I find it very helpful, It´s better if you played the Song with a Band beforehand at least once because otherwise you will have the original recording in your head when you´re on stage and you´ll be a bit irritated when you notice that what you play doesn’t sound like on the recording. I guess that you sometimes tend to underestimate the huge difference between playing or singing along to a CD and playing the same Song with an actual Band.
This is my diary for this month. Next month I might come up with a fancy interview again.
Keep on rockin`!

Inga