So I finally think I have the hang of Berklee. I think I'm planning my days well with classes, practice, working out and sleeping enough. There's still the sporadic jams, Brit club meetings, Grooversity rehearsals and gigs and concerts around Boston, but I think I can organize myself accordingly. Also, now that all the drum covers are done and ready to be put on YouTube (which I'm posting every Thursday so keep an eye out on my Facebook), I have a bit more spare time to do whatever takes my fancy, like, I just got my roommate into watching Misfits, so naturally I sit and watch whenever he's in and watching it.
But anyway, I'm guessing you want me to explain the extra stuff I've been doing, so come here and find out! Well, as much as I would love a visit from any one you, but I guess it would be rather unlikely for that to happen so we'll have to settle with my explanation. I guess I'll start with the Brit club meetings.
Yeah! There is a British club! It's pretty funny. It's a part of the college and they give the club money for food anything required for the meetings. They meet about every two weeks and I went to the Guy Fawkes night meeting. That was fun. Loved having the accents around again, some of them were into rugby and it was just after the Australia game and the upcoming Ashes series. Also, funny story, there were 3 guys who lived like less than 20 minutes from each other back in London, but they didn't even know the others existed until these Brit club meetings at Berklee! Small world right?! But yeah, it was really nice and felt homey because they weren't just British, they thought the same as me about their reasons for leaving Britain and trying to make it in the US. I should mention that I'm saying Britain because there was a Scottish guy there. They also found it weird and like a blast from the past when I mentioned A-levels (very few of them are 1st semesters), but they were also helpful in telling me what I could do with my A-level credentials, like test-out of some subjects and get transfer credits and some things like that. All in all it was a very nice, homey experience and they were all lovely people, obviously.
After that I should probably give you an insight to my living situation. See if you think it's an appropriate living standard for me. I'm in a triple room, so with two roommates, which I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned, but if not, there's Ryan Meier (also known as Painted Chameleon on SoundCloud). Do check him out. He's from New Jersey and I've recorded a few drum parts for his new EP and there's some good songs in there. There's also Sam Matheson. He's from Maryland. He's Jewish (always important to add) and he also helps out Ryan with general gigging and recording. And I think it's a pretty nice set up. I have a bunk bed over my desk and dresser so I have my little hutch to live in. They have a bunk bed with desks and dressers spread around. Their desks are both facing out the windows. We have a pretty big closet for the 3 of us, but I'm the only one with any clothes in there and about 40 spare hangers. We have a little en suite bathroom with the standard sink, toilet and shower. It's pretty small in there and Sam takes rather long showers (50 minutes), but I think it works pretty nicely. I live in the main building, 150 Massachusetts Avenue. The cafeteria, most of my classes, ensemble rooms and most of everything that is happening is in this building. The drum practice rooms, however are across the road in 171 Mass Ave. There are 18 drum kits (Pearl 4 piece with hi-hat, ride and crash) and a tuned percussion room and a hand percussion room. If there's a line, I always warm up with the hand percussion stuff, I think it's a lot of fun.
Just down the road, past Symphony Hall (where the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform, is where I go to the gym with my friends, Kirsten (Alaskan), Dhruv (Indian living in Dubai), Nick (Hawaiian) and Inca (Icelandic). It's the first ever YMCA! By the way, I'm not if you know this already or not (I definitely didn't) YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association. It's really big and really nice with everything I need to get swole! All in all, I think it's really useful, convenient and you never miss a thing, unless they call a jam at Fordham. Fordham is another building further away for more ensemble rooms and stuff (full of only DW kits!!!). That is where I have my Grooversity rehearsals!
Grooversity is a charitable organization which is generally about getting less fortunate children playing music and it is all through the medium of SAMBA! I am in the samba band 'Bloco Afro Brazil' which is run by the Grooversity leader and they play gigs at all sorts of functions around Boston. They played at the Berklee welcome barbecue, which is where I found out about them, but also I remembered them saying that 5 of them went to play at the Montreal Drum Festival which is pretty huge! The leader is called 'Marcus Santos'. He's made a few DVDs with LP or Hudson Music or something (which is a pretty big deal) teaching Pandiero and Samba with students from Bloco Afro Brazil. He's very entertaining as a person and I think the music is a lot of fun so you should definitely check that out. I've gone to a few rehearsals and played in one concert. The rehearsals are super fast and quite hard because most of them are from a Latin music background and understand this sort of stuff and I decided to pick the hardest instrument as well, Timbau, not smart. It could take me a while to be properly ready for a concert, but I have had one chance already. It was the Grooversity Festival. That was amazing! Bloco Afro Brazil closed the festival and I was supposed to play Timbau, but luckily they didn't bring enough instruments so I played shakers which was a much safer option. The festival was awesome! There was some world class performers, teachers at Berklee and clinicians giving lessons and performances there like Ernesto Diaz, Sergio Bellotti, Marcus himself and 12 time Grammy winner, Mark Walker. They were all incredible! The performance was streamed live to the world, but I don't think they've compiled the final video together yet, but I'll be sure to post it on my Facebook when it does.
Speaking of gigs and concerts... I've seen more gigs of any kind already this semester than ever before! There is so much going on here, in Berklee itself, the BSO, random music festivals and concerts when awesome bands come town. In Berklee there are always concerts in the Berklee Performance Center or caf shows in the cafeteria or clinics around the place. In the BPC I've seen Snarky Puppy, an Art Blakey tribute concert and Gary Burton to name a few. The caf shows are for current or recent students to play a set for the student body. Zach a Mullings played last week! That was incredible. Also, students are allowed to put together shows whenever they want. I had a friend, Felipe, put together a versatile, but Latin based concert which was amazing. Concerts around Boston I've seen are You Me at Six with 3 other awesome warm up bands, Hiatus Kaiyote with Emily King opening up. Those concerts felt great! Such an atmosphere created in completely different styles, but both so incredible! Then there's the BSO concerts. Berklee offers a student card for $2 and then you get free tickets for the year, it's unreal! I've seen them perform Brahms 2 and Mahler 2, which were epic!
It's been so exciting recently and it's only getting better! My Dad is coming to visit this weekend and he's taking me to a Celtics basketball game. The week after I'm going to visit my sister, Michelle, for Thanksgiving in Virginia and she's taking me to the UVA vs Virginia Tech football game. It's going to be lovely seeing some family members again!
I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you find anywhere near as exciting as I do. I just want you to see how amazingly contrasting and interesting this world can be.
Please stay tuned for the next installments and I will try to get them out more frequently, but I'm trying to make sure I get enough content in and I spend enough time to thoroughly write this.
Hope your life is well :)
But anyway, I'm guessing you want me to explain the extra stuff I've been doing, so come here and find out! Well, as much as I would love a visit from any one you, but I guess it would be rather unlikely for that to happen so we'll have to settle with my explanation. I guess I'll start with the Brit club meetings.
Yeah! There is a British club! It's pretty funny. It's a part of the college and they give the club money for food anything required for the meetings. They meet about every two weeks and I went to the Guy Fawkes night meeting. That was fun. Loved having the accents around again, some of them were into rugby and it was just after the Australia game and the upcoming Ashes series. Also, funny story, there were 3 guys who lived like less than 20 minutes from each other back in London, but they didn't even know the others existed until these Brit club meetings at Berklee! Small world right?! But yeah, it was really nice and felt homey because they weren't just British, they thought the same as me about their reasons for leaving Britain and trying to make it in the US. I should mention that I'm saying Britain because there was a Scottish guy there. They also found it weird and like a blast from the past when I mentioned A-levels (very few of them are 1st semesters), but they were also helpful in telling me what I could do with my A-level credentials, like test-out of some subjects and get transfer credits and some things like that. All in all it was a very nice, homey experience and they were all lovely people, obviously.
After that I should probably give you an insight to my living situation. See if you think it's an appropriate living standard for me. I'm in a triple room, so with two roommates, which I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned, but if not, there's Ryan Meier (also known as Painted Chameleon on SoundCloud). Do check him out. He's from New Jersey and I've recorded a few drum parts for his new EP and there's some good songs in there. There's also Sam Matheson. He's from Maryland. He's Jewish (always important to add) and he also helps out Ryan with general gigging and recording. And I think it's a pretty nice set up. I have a bunk bed over my desk and dresser so I have my little hutch to live in. They have a bunk bed with desks and dressers spread around. Their desks are both facing out the windows. We have a pretty big closet for the 3 of us, but I'm the only one with any clothes in there and about 40 spare hangers. We have a little en suite bathroom with the standard sink, toilet and shower. It's pretty small in there and Sam takes rather long showers (50 minutes), but I think it works pretty nicely. I live in the main building, 150 Massachusetts Avenue. The cafeteria, most of my classes, ensemble rooms and most of everything that is happening is in this building. The drum practice rooms, however are across the road in 171 Mass Ave. There are 18 drum kits (Pearl 4 piece with hi-hat, ride and crash) and a tuned percussion room and a hand percussion room. If there's a line, I always warm up with the hand percussion stuff, I think it's a lot of fun.
Just down the road, past Symphony Hall (where the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform, is where I go to the gym with my friends, Kirsten (Alaskan), Dhruv (Indian living in Dubai), Nick (Hawaiian) and Inca (Icelandic). It's the first ever YMCA! By the way, I'm not if you know this already or not (I definitely didn't) YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association. It's really big and really nice with everything I need to get swole! All in all, I think it's really useful, convenient and you never miss a thing, unless they call a jam at Fordham. Fordham is another building further away for more ensemble rooms and stuff (full of only DW kits!!!). That is where I have my Grooversity rehearsals!
Grooversity is a charitable organization which is generally about getting less fortunate children playing music and it is all through the medium of SAMBA! I am in the samba band 'Bloco Afro Brazil' which is run by the Grooversity leader and they play gigs at all sorts of functions around Boston. They played at the Berklee welcome barbecue, which is where I found out about them, but also I remembered them saying that 5 of them went to play at the Montreal Drum Festival which is pretty huge! The leader is called 'Marcus Santos'. He's made a few DVDs with LP or Hudson Music or something (which is a pretty big deal) teaching Pandiero and Samba with students from Bloco Afro Brazil. He's very entertaining as a person and I think the music is a lot of fun so you should definitely check that out. I've gone to a few rehearsals and played in one concert. The rehearsals are super fast and quite hard because most of them are from a Latin music background and understand this sort of stuff and I decided to pick the hardest instrument as well, Timbau, not smart. It could take me a while to be properly ready for a concert, but I have had one chance already. It was the Grooversity Festival. That was amazing! Bloco Afro Brazil closed the festival and I was supposed to play Timbau, but luckily they didn't bring enough instruments so I played shakers which was a much safer option. The festival was awesome! There was some world class performers, teachers at Berklee and clinicians giving lessons and performances there like Ernesto Diaz, Sergio Bellotti, Marcus himself and 12 time Grammy winner, Mark Walker. They were all incredible! The performance was streamed live to the world, but I don't think they've compiled the final video together yet, but I'll be sure to post it on my Facebook when it does.
Speaking of gigs and concerts... I've seen more gigs of any kind already this semester than ever before! There is so much going on here, in Berklee itself, the BSO, random music festivals and concerts when awesome bands come town. In Berklee there are always concerts in the Berklee Performance Center or caf shows in the cafeteria or clinics around the place. In the BPC I've seen Snarky Puppy, an Art Blakey tribute concert and Gary Burton to name a few. The caf shows are for current or recent students to play a set for the student body. Zach a Mullings played last week! That was incredible. Also, students are allowed to put together shows whenever they want. I had a friend, Felipe, put together a versatile, but Latin based concert which was amazing. Concerts around Boston I've seen are You Me at Six with 3 other awesome warm up bands, Hiatus Kaiyote with Emily King opening up. Those concerts felt great! Such an atmosphere created in completely different styles, but both so incredible! Then there's the BSO concerts. Berklee offers a student card for $2 and then you get free tickets for the year, it's unreal! I've seen them perform Brahms 2 and Mahler 2, which were epic!
It's been so exciting recently and it's only getting better! My Dad is coming to visit this weekend and he's taking me to a Celtics basketball game. The week after I'm going to visit my sister, Michelle, for Thanksgiving in Virginia and she's taking me to the UVA vs Virginia Tech football game. It's going to be lovely seeing some family members again!
I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you find anywhere near as exciting as I do. I just want you to see how amazingly contrasting and interesting this world can be.
Please stay tuned for the next installments and I will try to get them out more frequently, but I'm trying to make sure I get enough content in and I spend enough time to thoroughly write this.
Hope your life is well :)