On thursday the 26th november I played a gig with Eat Dr Ape in London at the Bedford. The Bedord is a very highly respected venue in London so it was important that we all acted professionally, such as showing up on time with the gear that was required of us. This is important experience in my development to becoming a session musician as being punctual and well prepared is vital in sustaining a career in the competitive session musician career path. The event organisers also wanted to run the event like a live TV show where by the bands only play 2 songs then move off the stage as quickly as possible for the next band to come on and perform. This was beneficial for me as I may encounter a similar situation when sessioning, where i may be asked to do a TV performance for an artist and the same precision timing will be required. I also had to exercise my networking skills at the gig as there where some influential music industry people present, so it was key that I went up and spoke to them and promote the band by giving them contact details and a CD of our music. 

On thursday the 22nd of october my band eat dr. ape where interviewed on stirling student radio. It was a very interesting experience as it streched my people skills of communication and approachability. Also as part of the interview we where asked to perform three of our songs acoustically in the studio. This meant that i had to accompany the pieces with a djembe. I feel it was very beneficial to me to have to recreate and adapt the drum parts that I usually played on the kit to a djembe. It made me look at the songs from a new angle and I found it was a very musically challenging task. I think that this was a beneficial experience for my goal of becoming a session musician as it put me out of my comfort zone and put me under pressure to deliver a good performance with little time for preparation. I think that being a session musician will involve being given tasks that you may not consider yourself to be fully proficient with, but you just have to stay confident and focused on playing well and making the performance sound good. 

played a gig in glasgow at the venue Maggie Mays where we where required to bring in a minimum of 15 people. This meant we had to work hard on promoting ourselves. It was good experience in publicizing ourselves as well as contacting and communicating with people to ensure they knew where and when we where playing. In the end we manage to bring the 15 people required, which reflects well on our band as we will be remembered by the promoter as being reliable and doing what is required of us, therefore hopefully they will book us again for bigger and better gigs. 

Pete Honeyman gave us a talk on being a professional session musician. It was interesting to here from him how he first got into sessioning and how he built a career. He spent a lot of time talking about importance of musical ability and also character attributes needed to be successful in the sessioning industry. I am very interested in the career path of a session musician and found his points and experience very useful to hear. After hearing what he had to say, I feel like the most important things I need to make sure I develop is exceptional ability on my instrument as well as being a professionally minded and approachable character, who is easy to work with. 

had a talk from an ex school teacher who started her own performing arts school on thursday the 17 sept. It was interesting to here of the trials that had to be overcome in order to set up something that you want to do. i got quite a lot out of the talk and it was inspiring to here from someone who pursued something that they believed in and succeeded.