Finalising my idea

I had a meeting with lecturer Gareth Jones today to discuss my idea of writing a drum tuition book, it really helped me get a better idea of where to go with it.

I think tasks for now are to look into what's already available in terms of drum tuition books and see what they offer and if there is anything they don't cover (my initial thought on this based on other books I've read is drum care and maintenance guidance) to see if I can pin point a specific audience for my book.

I also need to do research into learning and teaching, since this will be an educational book of sorts. This is a pretty large area, but I can focus it on techniques for learning motor skills over say more academic learning. Not that I should rule it out completely, but the whole learning/ education methods thing is a vast area and I should try to keep myself from getting too distracted by less relevant material.

I will also need to be making a schedule soon, to see how long I think it would take to do the whole book, and then plan how much (how many chapters) I will produce based on that given my time restraints.

Final product will probably be a complete table of contents for the book, and just a select few chapters as demonstration with the audio accompanying these chapters.

Another thing discussed was testing my book on people; whether to do this as part of the writing process (write a chapter, try it out, see if it works and make improvements) or to do it after the book is written and use it as a form of evaluation is something I need to make up my mind on.

Blog design updated!

Sorry if you weren't wearing shades when you opened up my blog.

Here is post from other blog. Did it a couple of weeks ago I guess... C+P GO!


I had my first lecture this morning and caught a glimpse at the level of work required in third year. There was also mention of keeping a blog of our work, so I figured I’d start early to get in the swing of it.
I have a couple of ideas for my major project; recording an album or starting a record label sound relatively straight forward, but would require a lot of dependence on other musicians, as well as dedication on their part and mine to compose 40 minutes worth of material. I can’t see myself going through with it at a practical level.
I also have an idea to make a drum tutorial book, with scores and accompanying audio which I think would have enough depth. Plenty to research about into different styles of music from around the world, a business module for the book, and also the opportunity to do some composition and recording. Will speak to a lecturer about it soon and see if he thinks it would be a good project.
In the meantime I still need to actually put Cubase on this fancy new pc.

My work blog

Just making a post to see how blogger works... I've already made a couple of major project related posts on my tumblr blog, so I guess I should copy and paste them over at some point.

My idea at the moment is to write a book filled with drum tuition and various sample drum beats, and produce an accompanying CD for it. I need to book a slot with Gareth to get his opinion on it, but I think it covers enough of the modules; notably Computer Based Music (both what Brian has covered and the more theoretical side of it that Pete teaches), Studio Recording (as I plan to record the drums myself) and Business (as I will draw up a business model for the book as if it were to be published).

It also explores new areas, which I think is something that will be looked at positively? I like that it is a less generic idea than recording an album, I think the lecturers will like that too, and as a drummer it should keep me interested.