Update, post-november

November Objectives:

• Improve ability to read music.
• Keep up bass practice.
• Begin work on Showreel.
• Conduct interviews with session musicians, industry professionals etc.
• Research other session musicians’ webpages.

I have improved on my ability to read music. I have done this by retrieving sheet music books (such as Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the Red Hot Chili Peppers).  I have retrieved my "Bass Method" music theory book aswell, which is giving some insight, however it doesn't have anything to do with Rockschool grades.

In January I will purchase the relevant book to bring me upto speed.

Regarding bass practice, I have been practicing moderately often but not as often as I would like, due to other work and projects. I have however started playing sessions for my housemate Dave Bilsborough on tracks for the band "Hit and Run".

I was given 2 hours to learn 2 songs and perform them, having only heard the rhythm sections. I was able to perform these to a satisfactory standard however he has since asked me to re-perform the songs as guitar had been laid down, as well as another song onto which I was to improvise. I was also asked to read from a chord chart and transpose the chords to fit the key of the song. I was quite comfortable with this, however the computer ran out of space and so recording will take place in the near future.

These will contribute to my showreel.

I have also started to build tracks to show my writing skills using Ableton. I am hoping to create some music for my website this way, which I will personally mix and master.

I have been unable to start interviewing industry professionals, although I still have plans to interview Derrick Johnson.

I started to research the websites of session musicians before the proposal. These have included:

http://www.andytill.com and http://www.seandaveybass.com/;  the latter I was rather impressed by. This will be closer to the website that I hope to build.