CSM5 schedule draft

Pre-production
June -September = 3 months

In this space of time I intend to spend many hours weekly collaborating songs with each other, sampling interesting sounds and building a sound pallet. Then moving on to constructing and composing the bulk of my repertoire for my 3rd year EP. I plan to record most of it using either sample based sounds or using my MBox to record live instruments.

However i am away for about a month this summer on holidays and at festivals e.t.c. and I am also moving house, so time will be sparse. This means that i will have to put in double the hours in the latter half of the summer so as to make sure my tracks are complete.

I also plan to intensely work on my production/mastering skills as they leave much to be required.

Providing my audio recordings go as planned i also plan to record a lot of my DVD content over the summer months ready for production and editing in October.



Summer school
September 6-10


Hopefully by this point i will have at least 5 or so tracks to present for analysis by tutors and peers, i can then receive feedback about them, allowing me to alter, remix and improve them.


Pre-production conclusion
September – October = 1 month


Further continuation of improvements and amendments, possibly experimenting with new MIDI instruments and tones on tracks seeing which sound richer.


Production 1
October – December – 2 months


Starting full time production of my chosen tracks, aiming to get one track done per week realistically. I also plan to use this time to record any DVD content that i intend filming in Newport, and finishing the whole shooting process.

Xmas
1 month


I intend to review all my work at this point and evaluate any other improvements that can be made to it. I also plan to continue editing my DVD content and plan my DVDs artwork in this time.

Production 2
January – February = 1 month


I will use this time to make any final adjustments and remaster any work that requires it, but i ideally don't want to plan out this time to do anything majorly time consuming or heavy, because i would rather leave it as back up time in case I encounter any technical or unforseen difficulties earlier in my schedule.


HAND IN
February 4th 2011

Work experience evaluation

Now looking back at my last 2 weeks as ticket sales coordinator i think a respectable amount of tickets were sold. However i think these figures could have been greatly improved upon, and i intend to make sure they are when selling tickets next year.

Here is a list of improvements that i think that if put into place could possibly boost future ticket sales:

• More varied live sets to try and meet more potential customers tastes
• Try using different locations around the uni to sell, rather than just the one spot.
• Try flyering more intensely as this proved to be very successful in promoting word of the show.
• More door to door ticket sales
• Greater online presence, and bigger group messages on online social networks.
• Try organising a few free gigs in the university to raise awerness about the show and make tickets available for purchase at these gigs
• Printed tshirts for sales reps to wear, giving them a more professional edge
• Organised trip to Opal 1 accomadation and Alt yr Yn campus to sell tickets, giving students more convinience.

More information and evaluation to come after ticket sales have finished and final ticket numbers are collected.

Work experience week 2

After nearly completing my second, and final week of selling tickets and work experience as ticket sales coordinator i am pleased to report that the overall sales numbers are good and in general i think the show was promoted quite well.

We managed to sell 60 tickets so far for the both nights, mostly concessions and student tickets, but tickets are still being sold even as i write this.

We also found there to be a strong preference for people wanting to buy tickets on the door. Also, students not living on campus generally told us that they would prefer to buy tickets from the riverfront directly, purely for ease of access, and after speaking to the box office at the riverfront today this proved to be true, as they also report good sales.

Ticket Sales Rota (work experience)

Here is the completed rota for the ticket desk sales team, although last minute help was sometimes recieved and sometimes there were dropouts/no shows, but this give the general overview of the two week timetable:

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 1 a success.

After finishing my first weeks work experience as ticket sales coordinator i think it has been a good success and i think word about the csm6 show is spreading fast.

Overall ticket sales numbers were not amazingly high, only selling about 25 tickets, but i think that could be due to several reasons, mainly that the uni cashpoints were not operating for almost the entire week during our ticket sales and nobody had any money! This was an unfortunate and unforeseen occurrence which couldn't be helped. However we still struggled on and persevered and sold a decent number, and had several promises, enquiry's and verbal reservations about tickets being sold in the second week of sales. Also i personally managed to sell tickets to Tom Bond (Student president) and the students union team, raising the overall profile of the show.

I optimistically hope that ticket sales will improve this week, as it is that much closer to the date of the show and hopefully the uni cashpoints will be operational and stocked with cash.

Here are a few photos of the first week of ticket sales, showing some of the live music we had, our setup and the promotional poster:

And the work begins!

As my work experience this year i was lucky enough to get the role of being the ticket sales co-coordinator for 2nd year CSM, working closely with Ben Fitzharris of the 3rd year of the course.

Despite not being able to confirm work experience elsewhere at my other choices this option actually suited the situation very well,  because it gave me several advantages:

• Almost Zero transport costs and inconvenience, because 95% of the work was done on the uni campus, with a little coordination needed with the Riverfront theatre in Newport's city centre, easily accessible by the university's free bus service.
• A good chance to make new contacts and befriend other musicians in the 3rd year.
• Get a taste in advance for the amount, and pace of work for my own 3rd year show next year, and the style and method of the running of the show.
• A chance to evaluate this years ticket sales, and sales methods and improve on them for next year.
• A chance to combine my work experience and my CSM6 contribution into one.

As ticket sales coordinator my main roles are:

• To organise a rota for ticket sales desk duty in collaboration with the 3rd year, and to organise and recruit assisting ticket representatives from my year group.
• To take part in manning the ticket sales desk myself.
• Maintaining contact with the 3rd year students regarding personal tickets for friends and families, and account for these with the general public ticket sales.
• To think of sales methods and promotion ideas for ticket sales within the uni.
• To implement these ideas and collect any necessary equipment for them, e.g. PA systems and microphones, and to make sure that this equipment was used properly and returned on time.

A New Domain!

I have recently purchased a domain name for my artist website, the domain name is: www.projectdmusic.com - this will be the home of my artist website.

Bought for a very reasonable £10.50 from www.one.com

New Website design

After careful thought i have decided to completely change the architect and design of my website. 


My original design was good, but didn't co-ordinate with the design of my blog or my artwork. With this new design, and using the logo and theme in all my other online artist sites; such as Myspace, Youtube and Twitter i hope to subliminally embed the image of my logo/artwork in my audiences minds, so that they immediately associate it with my music. Similar to how the MacDonalds giant yellow 'M' is used, because we immediately associate the image with the product.

Myspace profile skinned and pimped!

The new myspace underwent cosmetic surgery earlier this morning, gladly the operations were a complete success and the new profile is looking smoooth!

Twitter

Project D, always being one to try and keep up with the times, has created his own twitter account.

This is a very easy and quick way to keep a live news feed of my activity being updated to my website, using twitters embeddable widget.

Project D's twitter account: www.twitter.com/ProjectDmusic

Soundcloud

Project D soundcloud account up and running.

Soundcloud is an invaluable resource to all modern musicians, professionals and amateurs, and allows easy, free distribution of their music, making it easy for others to constructively criticise and lend advice on tracks in progress.

Project D's soundcloud account: www.soundcloud.com/ProjectDmusic

New Flickr account

Project D now also has a Flickr account -

www.flickr.com/photos/projectdmusic  or  www.flickr.com/people/prjoectdmusic

New YouTube account

Project D now has its own YouTube account - www.youtube.com/Dproject11

Myspace

Myspace has allready proven itself to be a powerfull tool in commercialising and marketing music. Hence I have created my own for Project D, adding yet another media platform to broadcast my music, and another place to advertise Project D's website.

I kept the theme minimal and based around the logo, so as not to distract peoples attention from the main content.

Here is the link: www.myspace.com/projectd11

CSM6 Contribution

I have been deemed as ticket sales co-ordinator as my contribution to the 3rd year show, and am going to organize a rota of ticket sales and set up stands around the univeristy promoting the show as much as i can.



I have have also volunteered to help with Leigh Davies assisting with lighting on the nights of the performance.

More work experience possibilities...

Over the last week i have applied to several more companies for work experience, these include:


The Wave (Swansea based radio station) - http://www.thewave.co.uk/


TRL Music (Multi functional music company and record label) - www.trlmusic.com/workexp/


Scarlet FM (Llanelli based radio station) - www.scarletfm.com/


The Music Shed (Derby based studio and music renal service) -www.musicshed.co.uk/workexperience.html


Ninja Tune (London based record label) - http://www.ninjatune.net/


Roundhouse (Creative venue, studio and services for aspiring creators) - http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/


The Crash Factory (Nottingham based recording studio) - www.thecrashfactory.com/


Tom Dick and Debbie (Vocal focus recording studio) - www.tomdickanddebbie-audio.co.uk/


Sony Muisc UK - http://www.sonymusic.co.uk/texts/jobs/


Wrexham Music (Music and artist collaboration project) - www.wrexhammusic.co.uk/

New Track coming soon

About half way through producing my new track now, which i've called 'Son of a Beat'.

Its a low tempo, mellow track, which is a mix of hip hop, funk, and acid jazz. It has a heavy purposeful beat which incorporates a conga rhythm, with a jazz piano and guitar melody.

Its reminiscent of some of the later works of 'Aim' and even has a sort of motown 'Kool and the Gang' feel to it.

Still contemplating adding lyrics and vocals to the mix, not sure if it would sound better as an instrumental.

Hope to finish recording soon though, and then continue to mix and finalize the track. So it should be up on soundcloud shortly!

My musical practice - Drew Burman

At the moment my personal practice of music has been taken on several tangents, due to new found artists, life experience, and even new found methods of recording. My main passion in music is live performance, and always will be. However I understand that is not practical to base a financial living off this and I must have a substantial fall back plan. I would also like to maybe try being a session musician. I am primarily a Drummer, although recently I have started playing bass guitar and I have played trumpet for several years before either of the other instruments. Other aspects of the music industry that interest me are the technical and studio aspects, but I do have very limited skills in these areas, and require far more tutoring before I am as proficient in them as I am with playing instruments, but this is something I am willing to spend time doing. Recently, thanks to my first year final project, and my recent group project for CSM3 I have become very interested in the practice of making music videos, including shooting, editing, dubbing and production. But I would also defiantly be engrossed by making other video material, either for film, promotion, or advertising.

My main style at the moment is a huge fusion of different genres which interest me greatly, and I am interested in making very diverse and versatile music sometimes with no correlation between my tracks whatsoever. Funk, heavy rock, euphoric dance, electronica, house and acid jazz are my main genres which I like creating music in. Although my listening consists more of 80’s and 90’s metal, dance and electronica. I am also very interested with beat concrete.

If compared to other artists id say my main influences would be a combination of the best artists from different genres, mainly people like The Who, Aim, St. Germaine, Metallica, Buddy Rich, Jamiroquai, The Prodigy, Kool and the Gang and Rage against the machine..

After graduation my primary intention is to actually become a fireman. Although this sounds strange of a music student it’s something I have always intended trying for the physical and mental challenge. However if an opportunity in the music world is found, or presents itself to me after graduating I would definitely consider diving straight into the industry and abandoning my other career aspects. Whatever happens directly after university I would eventually like to build up enough capital (either through fire fighting or the music industry) and be able to open my own chain of recording studios, possibly even franchising them eventually. Failing that I would be interested in a career in film and television involving music. And all the time i would be open to any live performance or studio work that was available.