Musicalmidget’s Blog

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since my last posting here. Where has the last month gone? It’s largely because I’ve just started my third and final year at university. The first few weeks are always a bit hectic, but I’m expecting things to calm down in a couple of weeks and I should be appearing online again more regularly by then.

Over the summer months I blogged about a number of new items I’d bought, including my new sax, piano and iMac. Although they’re all great fun to use, there were some serious reasons behind buying them. I believed they would make my final year at university and indeed my life beyond that, a lot easier. Now that I’m a month into the new academic year, I’m already certain that is the case.

My new sax is wonderful to play and the included mouthpiece is also of better quality than the old one I was using. I’m already noticing a significant improvement in my tone and with more work on that over this final year, I hope to develop it further. Additionally, because it’s so much fun to play, I’ve been playing it more often. Because of that, I’m also making progress with improvisation, and again, I’m still a long way from perfect but I’m really having a great time working on it. The sax was definitely a good buy in my humble opinion.

The piano is also fun to play, but as I mentioned when I first posted about it, I’m not a serious piano player. In fact, I can play very little. The main reasons I bought it were to aid in my work and also to connect to a computer to interact with Sibelius and other music applications. Already, it has fulfilled these purposes. My arranging assignments require a lot of trial and error when it comes to working out which chords to use. With a full range keyboard at my side it’s proved very handy to quickly try a number of possible options on the piano before committing them to paper.

Similarly, the iMac has proved invaluable so far when it comes to university work. Sibelius works perfectly on the iMac, with the piano connected of course. iWork applications such as Pages and Numbers have already proved useful when writing assignments, and the general reliability and ease of use of the iMac on the whole have really impressed me. When my windows PC was struck by a strange virus last week (that Norton decided it could detect sometimes but do nothing about), my important university work was unharmed on my iMac and my assignments were submitted on time and without problem. Again, well worth the money I feel.

With that in mind, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” this Friday. Unfortunately, I’ll be away over the weekend but hope to get my copy sometime early next week. Watch this space, I intend to show it off.

It’s been a while since my last posting. Usual reasons, university work, tiredness, etc.

Anyhow, the weather has started taking a turn for the better, but don’t worry, I’m not about to turn this into an “isn’t the weather lovely” post. I’ve been doing a lot of work this past week or so on my next musical compositions which are due in a few weeks, and on the subject of composition this recent change in the weather reminded me of a wind band piece I composed over numerous hot summer days a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, the piece was put to the side for a while and never did see the light of day.

A couple of days ago however, when I remembered about the piece, I decided to make a few finishing touches and publish it as my second score on Sibelius Music. The aptly named Summer Overture was validated earlier and is now available for all to view and listen to.

Summer Overture: http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=105036

I’m very excited about my latest composition for my degree. Racing Rhythms is a piece for saxophone quartet that is almost complete. Once I’ve submitted the piece for marking, it’ll join my other scores on Sibelius Music and of course I’ll post about it here!

According to my calendar, I don’t appear to have any kind of university exams or deadlines after 31st May. Until then, it’s back to work for now.

I’ve hit the big 20. I’m no longer a teenager. Now that is a strange thought indeed.

This year is the first birthday I’ve spent away from home, and that’s also quite strange. I will be home tomorrow however, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to collect any cards and other such goodies which may be waiting. There’s still the possibility of a celebration meal or something with the family tomorrow too, although no plans yet.

Tonight however is set to be a blast. My birthday this year falls on “Tower”, one of the weekly nights at Asylum, our delightful student nightclub. It’s not only the first time I’ve been able to go out on my birthday rather than a day or two before/after, but I’ve also been told I can have free entry to the club and a bottle of champagne. How is that?

It’s certainly been a “different” birthday experience, but great so far.

Hello there! Remember me?

Hasn’t it been a while? One moment I’m sat here typing about Christmas, and the next thing I know it’s February!

Christmas and new year were great. It was good to be home again catching up with people and just enjoying the festive period in general. January was a busy old month though. Exams and deadlines at university and so on. I’m certainly glad that’s over for the moment. There’s still assignments to do even though the exam period is over, but I have a considerable amount more time to get them done, for the most part anyway!

So, we’re in week three of semester two of the second year. That means the halfway mark is now behind us and my degree course is now in it’s second half. Another example of how time is flying by at the moment. It doesn’t seem that long ago I was typing my “Greetings from Hull” thread, announcing my arrival in this fair city.

Today I’m going to post something that I’ve said I would do from day one of this blog, but hadn’t up until this point. My About page has always said that one day I hoped to publish some of my musical compositions online. Well, one of the deadlines I had in the busy weeks of January was for a small scale composition, in my case written for a clarinet choir. I’m still awaiting the results from that one, I think they’re due next week. Nevertheless, the piece is now up on Sibelius Music for all to see. Public proof of me actually doing something!

Anyone that is interested can see the piece online at this page on Sibelius Music. The Sibelius Scorch browser plugin is required however. I’ll attach an MP3 file soon with a synthesised version of the piece created with Kontakt Player. I hope at some point, to get some of my own compositions finished (by that I mean, compositions that are composed freely by me rather than for a uni brief/deadline) and uploaded too. I generally tend to write for larger ensembles such as wind band when it’s a “free” composition. I’ll need time to finish writing them though first!

With the uni workload a little lighter for the moment, I’ve been able to spend a little bit more time online over the last few days. That’s partially how I came to think “wait…don’t I have a blog somewhere?”. That said, I’ll be using this brief gap to get a number of things done and I hope to be able to talk in more detail about them soon. Many of the things on the ever growing list of things to do relate to MyBB Mods. I mentioned previously that there were big things ahead for the site in 2007 and that is still the case. Admittedly, those developments have taken a backseat over the exam period, but they’re by no means forgotten.

Oh, and on a slightly different note, I have 14 days left as a teenager. No doubt you’ll hear more here soon about this strange birthday that is quickly approaching. I don’t feel ready to loose the teenage years. There seems to be some kind of belief that people who are 20 and above have some kind of maturity. Tell me it isn’t so?

Until next time!

Tonight is the night that I and many others have been waiting for. Tonight it’s the Freshers party at Asylum, officially starting off Freshers Week at the University of Hull. I and my housemates will be there religiously. Although we’re about to start our second year here (already!), we don’t officially become second years until registration next week, meaning we can still call ourselves Freshers for a few more days, despite going through all of this last year!

It doesn’t matter so much when all said and done. Anyone can go to the party, regardless of the year they’re in. We’re all looking forward to going out again and getting back into the university spirit, that is a week of insane partying followed by the reality of having to settle a week later and actually do some work. Yes, I did say the word…work. Scary, isn’t it? Personally, I haven’t been out myself much since the end of the first year, with the exception of a brief stint whilst in Edinburgh…and that was only to the club we were performing in earlier in the day, because they were nice enough to let us all in for free. Tonight it’ll be great to be out again enjoying Asylum to the max, with plenty of friends and some new faces too.

It really does seem strange thinking that in a few days time, I’ll officially be in my second year of university. It’s over a year since I arrived at uni for the first year, and it hardly seems like a few months when I look back. It certainly was a fantastic year. I enjoyed my first term in the halls with the Grant Hall C-Unit. I even enjoyed travelling to the uni from home every day (40 miles!) in the second year when I sadly had to leave the hall for personal reasons. I certainly hope the people joining us here this year have an equally special year.

I’ve been back from Edinburgh a few days now and I’m already looking forward to next year. The fringe was fantastic and I along with the rest of the band had a fantastic time. We played 10 performances in total at City Nightclub, plus another three short promotional shows out on The Royal Mile and a rather pointless session at Festival Square where a whole four people were around to watch us. Nevermind.

Audience numbers grew as the trip went on and we reached three figures on a number of ocassions, although we sadly only got 99 on a particular night. Doh! A fantastic 160 came to see us though at our final performance that was certainly one of the best of the trip not only because of the number of people in the venue but also the atmosphere during the night.

We had a reviewer from Three Weeks in the audience on one of the earlier shows. We’ve only just found the review. You can read it below.

Fancy a dance? First couple on the floor got £1.50 from the droll Yorkshire bandleader of this big band. Meanwhile, the meaty line-up delivered gutsy trumpet, saxes, trombones, wild-man drums, keyboards and bass. This was an hour of big band bliss with a trumpet section screaming with testosterone. No vocals, but they romped through everything from funk to bossa nova - including favourites ‘In the Mood’ and ‘Birdland’ - with such verve the ballads didn’t miss a singer. And there were funny moments too - like when one of the saxophonists raised her hand when the leader asked “Anyone here from Hull?” The club venue, with dance floor, tables and bar, set the scene perfectly for this dance band of delights. Other university music departments should be gnashing their teeth with envy.

I took along my new digital camera although to be honest I didn’t get many photographs. A small selection have been uploaded to the gallery however. No, I’m not on any of them in this selection. Yes, that’s intentional.

Is that hill supposed to be on fire?

Lot’s of people enjoying the heat in Princes Park. We were able to do the same on our last day!

Half the band performing at Festival Square. As you can see, it was such a busy place that the audience we’re fighting for seats!

The full band performing at City Nightclub. If you look closely, you can see my empty chair.

Bring on Edinburgh Fringe 2007!

Tomorrow I’ll be going away for ten days on a trip that’s been in the planning since early in the year. The big band from university will be heading off to Edinburgh to play at various venues around the festival time. There’s obviously lots of performing involved, but there’s also going to be plenty of time to enjoy the delights of Edinburgh too, a city I haven’t yet been to.

I’ll be equipped with my new toy, a shiny new Kodak digital camera, a set of brand new batteries and a 1GB SD card to get as many photo’s as I can whilst away. I’ll be posting some online on my return.

So, if it seems I’ve suddenly vanished into thin air, then I’m actually just away from home. I’m hoping I’ll be able to check my emails and so on from the hostel we’re staying in, although I can’t be sure of that yet.

It’s been a while since my last post so I thought it was about time for a new one. My last posting was about my last exam at uni, so I suppose that starting with something about that exam would be a good idea. :p The exams went well and I’m fairly confident I’ll be able to do the modules I’ve chosen for next year, including composition which I’m really looking forward to. I’ll also be conducting a wind ensemble at uni in September which will be a new experience for me but something I’m also looking forward. I’m hoping to get a chance at taking the wind band in the second semester. I’ve got my eye on a couple of pieces that the band could make an excellent job of and they’re not too difficult. I’ll know in a few months whether or not I’ll be able to have the opportunity any time soon to conduct those pieces with the band.

So with university out of the way for a year (already?!) I’ve finally got free time. Isn’t that unusual. I do have plans for the long break though, including a trip to Edinburgh with the Big Band from university. Andy and I will also be continuing our theme park tour of the UK. We’ve already conquered Flamingo Land, Pleasure Island and Drayton Manor. We’ve also renewed our Tussauds season passes and had numerous visits to Alton Towers. We’re still to get to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Thorpe Park however, the two biggest parks remaining on the list. We’re also wanting to try Pleasureland at Southport when we’re up in Blackpool.

Aside from the tripping around the country to various theme parks there are numerous internet related things I have planned. This very blog is due some changes soon. MyBB Mods is going to have a complete re-write with a few nifty new features. Additionally, I’m finally able to contribute more to the development of MyBB, which incidentally is looking very well at the moment. The release of MyBB 1.2 will be a major milestone for the team and we’re all looking forward to it.

I don’t often post music related content here (unless of course it’s to do with my course at uni) but I’ve really had quite an interesting week as music goes. The new single from one of my favourite bands, Keane, was released on Monday and what a fantastic single it is for the band to return on. Their new album is due out shortly and I intend to buy it. The single went to number three on the UK charts this evening. I would very much like to see it to get to number one. Speaking of the number one slot, no more Gnarles Barkley, he’s been demoted from the top slot and about time too. I hated that song, it quite literally drove me crazy! I’ve also heard some tracks from the new Snow Patrol album last week and it sounds pretty good. My feelings towards Snow Patrol have so far being indifferent, but I’m wondering if my feelings will improve somewhat after hearing the latest album. Perhaps I should listen to it all and see…

I’ve also been trying out some new software and websites over the last week or so. I’ll be posting about these things shortly.

So, there’s a short update on my situation at the moment. Stay tuned for more soon.

Yesterday I was due to take my last two university exams of the academic year. There was a written exam in the morning and a practical exam in the afternoon, in which I was supposed to perform a short piece on my saxophone. The first exam was ok. I wouldn’t say it was a module I’m particularly strong at but I feel I’ve done alright. The second and last exam of the year…didn’t happen.

I’ve been suffering from quite a nasty throat infection for a couple of weeks now, and over the last few days it’s grown into something worse, a severe case of tonsillitus. Go me! It’s quite painful and hurts considerably when I try to eat, drink or even swallow. Talking has even been rather hard these last couple of days, so I haven’t been doing it much. There’s a first time for everything! Needless to say, I wasn’t in much of a condition yesterday to play the saxophone. I tried playing briefly to warm up a couple of hours before the exam, but brief is the significant word there. After just a few notes it was apparent that I just couldn’t play without causing even more pain. Thankfully, I was able to get the exam put back a week, so it now means I’ve still got one week until I’m totally free from all university commitments.

I’ve been able to see a doctor (finally!) this morning and have even more tablets to take now. The difference between the new tablets and the many others I was previously taking, is that these new ones actually work. The pain obviously hasn’t just vanished, but it has been significantly reduced already.

So, although a week later than planned, I should be back on the net in full swing in about a weeks time. There’s a lot for me to do when I get back into everything, but with a long summer break ahead, I should have plenty of time to get it done.

The end of year exams have finally started at university. Two of them were last week and they didn’t go too badly. As always I thought they could probably have gone better, but that’s a feeling I commonly get after exams, as do most of the people I’ve spoken too. I’ve now only got a couple more exams to finish preparing for and a few pieces of coursework to hand in, but in a couple of weeks everything should be done, and summer can start early!

As you can probably gather, preparing for these exams and deadlines has left me with very little time for development as far as MyBB, MyBB Mods and this site are concerned. However, a few days ago I found myself with a few hours spare and decided to try and complete something I started a couple of months before hand…a customised theme for WordPress. My creativity when it comes to web pages has never been spectacular, but it’s something I’m planning on improving. I did however manage to get the theme to look fairly nice. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s completely unique and can only improve. So, you’re probably wondering why it isn’t the default theme here? Two words can answer that question…Internet Explorer! Sorry, I’ll try not to use those words again.

Whilst working on the theme, I was viewing it through my default web browser, Mozilla Firefox. Before making it live, I thought I had better test it in a few other browsers first just to be sure, even though the XHTML and CSS all seemed to validate correctly. Only one browser threw out problems, you know the one. Unfortunately, the number of problems it had was quite large. The entire layout was screwed up and needs some major attention. It looks like some of the CSS tags I used are simply ignored by that particular browser and some major reworking in needed. Sadly, I’m unlikely to have enough time (and probably patience) to give the theme the attention it needs until my exams finish in a couple of weeks. However, I will get it finished eventualy, and then there will be some significant changes around here. Plus, there might also be a minor URL change, but I’ll know more about that soon.