First of all I suppose I should start with school and exams:
Right, this is going to be very vague as I've already wiped my mind of the memories of school. Actually vague's an understatement, I can't really remember anything before the exams in June... I suppose I'll start there. If I remember rightly (which I doubt I do) I had 7 exams - 2 Music Tech, 2 Ffiseg, 2 Electroneg and a DT exam. Apart from the PH5 paper being a bit of a bitch (One question was something along the lines of "Estimate the length of a grain of sand and hence it's size in metres cube") I don't think I did too badly in the exams, I'm just hoping I get the grades that I need to get out of that pit and into Uni. I can't think of much else to say in this part and I can't be bothered to try so I'll move onto the next.
Two days after my last exam there was Prom (I actually remember more of Prom than I do of school since my first day in Primary). My mum and my sister didn't want me going to Prom with my trademark afro just because they don't like my hair in 'fro form, so most of the day was spent sat on the floor in the living room in front of my sister as she straightened my hair... Oh joyous of joys... it's a shame my sister spent so long straightening my hair as it was raining when we walked across the road to Oceana (Where some people couldn't get in as they weren't 18) so I had an afro of some sort by the time I reached Oceana, and people liked my hair in a 'fro... There's a surprise... It might've been because of my 'fro that that girl came up to me asking for a kiss... Who knows? Certainly not me as the music had damaged my hearing so I have no idea, but we still kissed so that sounds the most logical explanation. When Calum, Prosser and I finally left Oceana (I think they were closing as we were being shepherded out... I don't mean just us three, there were other people there too obviously) I think we were the last 3 from our school to leave as I couldn't see anyone else. Before we were shepherded out Calum pulled (Surprise surprise) and when we were standing outside she (The girl he pulled I'm not referring to him as a she) wanted to go to the Live Lounge around the corner and typically on our way in I was the only one out of us to get ID'd and Calum's not 18 until the 22nd of July and my 18th birthday was last November, I was (and still a bit) slightly annoyed by that. As soon as we walked in, they were playing AC/DC - Shook Me All Night Long and me and Prosser were just stood in the middle of the crowd of people while Calum made out with the girl he'd pulled (I can't remember her name, I think it was Laura or Lauren, not entirely sure though), I don't think it was long afterwards that a girl came up to talk to me and it was then I knew my hearing was gone, I couldn't understand a single thing she said, even when she shouted it in my ear as I leant down to try and understand I could hear a word, it was just noise. Prosser could understand her a bit but I can't really remember what he told me that she might've said. I remember saying that I couldn't hear anything after each of her attempts to tell me whatever it was she wanted to say and I think it was the 6th attempt or something like that when her friend came and took her away and I'm not surprised to be honest, to her friend me and Prosser must've looked a bit weird as we were wearing suits and very drunk and quite big compared to the girl talking to us (I should say 'attempting to talk to us'). It wasn't long after that that we left and waited for my Dad to take us home. I can't remember what time it was that my Dad picked us up, we lumped ourselves into the car and we proceeded on our way home. I don't remember much of the journey but I remember Prosser shaking hands with my dad, Calum then me and then he tried to tell me something stuttering as he was trying to make a sentence to which I managed to reply under my laughter "Pross, just go to bed", and he then got out of the car and wandered in the general direction of his front door. Then there's another hole in my memory, I can't really remember Calum getting out but I remember saying to him 'good luck tomorrow' as he was going to Scotland in the car with his family, that must've been fun with a hangover. And then I remember getting out of the car at my house at 3:48am, I was still a bit drunk and quite tired, so I just got changed and went to bed. The next day I had the smallest of hangovers, just had a bit of headache from dehydration, I'd only spent £5 during the night (and that wasn't even on drink) and in total I'd only spent £96 in total for that night, which is a small amount compared to some people there. So all in all, a great night.
Now then, onto the most important bit in my opinion. The following Sunday (after the Prom) I had my RGT Grade 8 Acoustic Guitar Exam... Strangely I didn't feel nervous until I started to shake (more than usual that is) as I was about to play the song in the exam. First song I played was Superstition - Pete Huttlinger which is an acoustic arrangement of the song Superstition by Stevie Wonder, I thought I'd played that OK-ish as I'd played it better. The second song I played was the piece from the book called Coast Road - Stuart Ryan, I didn't play it as good as I think I would've liked and at one point I actually had to stop and think as I'd forgotten the part I was supposed to play next and after that I felt really down-hearted as I couldn't believe I'd messed up at the beginning of the exam. The rest of the exam, I thought, just went down-hill (Apart from the scales 'cause they're piss-easy). I thought the accompaniment was especially bad on my behalf as I couldn't remember the right chord shapes so then I was even more down-hearted and at the end I believed I'd failed when I walked out of the room. And it wasn't until two days ago that I got a call from my guitar teacher to tell me how it went...
When he started to talk after saying Hello I thought I could hear it in his voice that he was going to tell me that I'd failed, but then he told me I got a merit (Distinction is 85%, Merit is 75% and a pass is 65%) and I'd scored 78%.
This is the score sheet that came with the certificate. (By the way the examiner I had was from the West-Country, so if you want to read this like someone from Somerset, feel free)
Fingerboard Knowledge: Apart from some slips in fluency, all presentations were correct (7.5/10).
Performance (Maximum 25 marks per piece): Piece 1 - 'Superstition' - A good rendition but with some slips in clarity (22.5/25). Piece 2 - 'The Coast Road' - Apart from a slip in fluency at the end this was an excellent performance (24/25).
Musical Knowledge: All were attempted but some responses were incorrect (7.5/10)
Accompaniment: A good attempt but this performance was affected by inaccuracies throughout (8/20).
Aural assessment: One response was incorrect, all others were correct (8.5/10)
Total = 78/100.
Also, as this was a Merit at Grade 8, it counts as 70 UCAS points, which should count towards Uni and therefore (If it does count, which it should as I'm hoping to do Popular Music) I now only need to get 62.5 points from DT, Music Tech, Electroneg and Ffiseg. But there isn't a grade that gives that exact amount of points. D is 60 points and if I got D's I wouldn't reach the target, so I'll need C's (80 points). If I get the same grades this year as I did last year and add the 70 points from the Grade 8 Merit I'll have 350 points in total and I need 320 points to get into Popular Music, so I'll hopefully just scrape in.
Just as a final note, I've started putting some of my songs up onto Sound Cloud (Thanks to GAJ for telling me about it) so if you wish to listen click here. And as a final-final note, I haven't put any songs on Sound Cloud for a while now and the songs there aren't the best (Besides Silver Linings, 'cause I love the way that song sounds and it only took me one afternoon to write it from scratch) and they aren't mixed very well, but I'm not that good at mixing, I'm better at playing the music, so I might put some proper recordings up soon... When I can be bothered... Which'll probably when I get a laptop... Which'll be a while yet... Anyway have a listen if you wish and feel free to comment.
Until next time.
Burt singing out...
