bobbie gardner

Week 6 & 7: 100 Hr Challenge

Bobbie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:20:27 +0000

Day 1: Fail, still in Brumtee, spoke to mi ma about secretly moving my piano from the old house to the new (behind Pa’s back), we’ll see, he doesn’t really do Internet btw.
Day 2: Fail still in Brum, social media workshop, helping these cherubs become digital journalists.
Day 3: Fail, still in Brum exhausted, chilling with my baby
Day 4: Mediasnackers training/CPD, still in Brum
Day 5: Back in Londungeon, practice for an hour
Day 6: Practice for a couple of hours, start with some Bach, Debussy and then chords, training myself to play chords as quickly as possible
Day 7: Didn’t manage to fit any in. Booo! But I contacted a jazz pianist for lessons

Week 7:
Monday: Practiced for a few hours, still getting my head round playing chords automatically.
Tuesday: Chris D came round and we jammed around compositional ideas.
Wednesday: Had a lesson with my new teacher and learnt loads!!
Thursday: Been practicing, properly
Friday – Sunday: Doubt I’ll get a chance back in Brum.

Someone asked me what is the 100 Hour Challenge? I quote Rachel Carter:
“Pick something about which you are passionate, which you have a deep desire to learn or to achieve yourself. It can be related to work or totally personal. Ideally it’s something you will share with the wider world. Practice, read up on, share your knowledge on your chosen challenge for at least one hour a day, every day, for 100 days.”

This week will take me to the 49th hour.

Clever

Bobbie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:20:09 +0000

Glass Music – The top video clips of the week are here

Inspired by Kelechi Amadi Obi

Bobbie — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:48:27 +0000

“We can’t keep whining about our situation, the art of whining just makes you a victim, and I’m saying, once you believe your a victim then you can’t fight back, but if you believe in victory then you can win!”

Preach it!

Kelechi Amadi Obi vs Keziah Jones from Joel Benson on Vimeo.

Found via @ Black Nerds Network

Heart Chamber Orchestra

Bobbie — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:54:58 +0000

Heart Chamber Orchestra – Pixelache from pure on Vimeo.

12 classical musicians’ heartbeats (via ECG (electrocardiogram) sensors ) control in real time a computer composition and visualization environment. Fascinating!!

Soulful Summer

Bobbie — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:13:39 +0000

Just completed a week of workshops for THSH and UFA, project was called Soulful summer.
I helped facilitate sessions based mainly on developing young people’s composition skills. I was blown away by the young people’s ideas and good vibes. Some of the feedback I got was great, and was nice to see some of the younger participants’ confidence really grow!

Here’s some audio: SafariLife
Safari Life: written in a day, based on a drum ostinato played in an improvised ostinato exercise I always use.
Summer Time
Our version of Summer Time, I led the rhythm section, or they led me lol! Huw lead horns, Shereece led the singers.

Thanks to Katy G and Jan P for their assistance and support!

………….Only a few more days to go before I get some time off to develop my own creativity, yay!

Week 5: 100 Hour Challenge

Bobbie — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:44:37 +0000

Day 1: Fail
Day 2: Fail
Day 3: Fail
Day 4: Fail
Day 5: Fail
Day 6: Fail
Day 7: Fail

Summer workshops all day last week. In Brum. I suck. Yes, I do. I’d come home and want to sleep, but had planning and preparation to do. When I’m near my keyboard nothing will stop me. Sing it!

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Bobbie — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:48:35 +0000

Love this video!

100 Hour Challenge: Week Four

Bobbie — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:06:30 +0000

Day 1: Practiced and wrote music with fellow workshoppers for half a day, spent the other half playing jazz standards for a few hours, really slowly, still practicing the same two, sounding better!
Day 2: Wrote music again with matees, one hour of practice.
Day 3: Practiced, learning chords and listening to what they sound like
Day 4: 1 hour in the bag.
Day 5: Back In Brum, fail. Was given a chord chart to play from (for a devising session) by a jazzer and panicked. I could identify most chords, but not as quickly as I would have liked, if the chords were notated, would have been fine. Felt crap and wanted to go home.
Day 6: Back in Brum, all day training and drinks after. Fail.
Day 7: Back in Brum, no piano, anxious to practice. Still hours in the day but suspect I shall fail.

So, rather than feel sorry for myself, going to spend the next hours finding a piano here. Time to make it happen. I saw this TED talk by Mr. Steve “Apple” Jobs, it inspired me to carpe diem, how to live before you die.

Paganel “Home Week” Testimonials

Bobbie — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:25:09 +0000

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100 Hour challenge: Third week

Bobbie — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:06:47 +0000

Hmmmm…

Day 1: Practiced for two hours
Day 2: Practiced for an hour
Day 3: Back in Birmingham, no practice
Day 4: Nada
Day 5: Nada
Day 6: Nada
Day 7: Nada

Hmmm think I failed there. I did read up on stuff but… few ebonies and ivories were tinkled last week! On the plus side, whenever I am home I practice. I asked a local Birmingham church whether I could practice there, thanks to Clare Edwards, but the times available clashed. Gonna do more Brum based piano hunting.

Paganel School “Home Week” Final Performance

Bobbie — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:18:10 +0000

It’s over and done with! The performances at the school were great, I was impressed with how well the classes did and the headteacher said the performances were fantastic! What really made our job easier was the support from the teachers, who had rehearsed the songs and staging during the week, how lovely!

We were able to add the finishing touches to the pieces, could offer year 4 a good hour and a half to refine their hard work, year 3 (in my opinion) were pretty much ready to go on stage before we arrived, they knew what we were doing and gave us advice!

Many thanks to teachers Mr. Harwood, Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Philp and the head! Also to the musicians for adding an extra dimension to the performances and of course to Chris for being ace and easy to work with.

100 Hour challenge: Second week

Bobbie — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:59:13 +0000

Day 9: Practiced for two hours, worked through 2-5-1s randomly. Tried to improvise over them, sounded pants!

Day 10: Went to Rachel’s after workshopping all day, got lost, took ages to get there so was tired and hungry, played through scales, and tried to improvise, felt a tad exposed and embarrassed playing knowing Ms. Carter was listening but got through it. Was rewarded with Rachel’s home grown cherries, yum!

Day 11: Nada, all day workshops, planning, emails, tired. Fail

Day 12: Nada. See above

Day 13: Fail. All day workshops.

Day 14: Fail. Read a bit about jazz theory but no playing.

I’m not worried, when I’m near a piano and not working, I’m practicing, as I’ve been working in Brum so much, there’ve been fewer chances to play.