Getting busy

Can't keep up with this news page just been far too busy! The teaching side of things is still going really well with new students starting out and old students showing great improvements. I'm also now into the last term of my degree and I'm looking forward to finishing my studies.
Since my last news update the gig with Shawn Harvey went really well and was challenging as always! Since then i have been asked to play for a band coming over from Denmark called Ford T with gigs confirmed in August which should be a lot of fun and they might also need me to go over there for some shows.
Desert Smile played a home town gig on the 23 April which went really well and had a great turn out. Really nice to let my hair down and have a good rock out! Before that i was asked to join a Nottingham based band called Mask Of Infamy which i was only too happy to do as the music is fantastic.
This meant a gig with them in Derby the day after the Desert Smile one and with only two rehearsals it went surprisingly well! I had to read charts i had prepared but managed to blunder my way through, there are now a lot more gigs and recording in the near future.
There is also one more project in the pipeline which i am really excited about but not aloud to say too much so watch this space! This coupled with a lot more shows with Shawn Harvey including a week when he's over in September is definitely going to keep me busy.
Think that's me up to date!

Update

The teaching business is now fully started with a few regular people having lessons and I'm really enjoying it. I've heard a lot of people say that just because you are a good player doesn't mean you will be a good teacher. I can totally see why this is true now you need a completely different mind set to teach but it's great to pass on the bit of knowledge I have and it has made me see a lot of areas in my own playing I need to improve on already!
I've got my own drums set up where I can practise now which is amazing and great to be back on my own equipment. Getting a good couple of hours in here and there.
Got the gig with Shawn Harvey tomorrow night so I'm going to work on my rearrangement for a few hours, write out some lessons and then go and scale my kit down and have a run through the set so I'm at least prepared enough to handle whatever Shawn throws at me and make sure I have as much fun as possible.

Few Gigs, settling back home

Just confirmed two gigs that i will be playing in the near future the first is on the 20th March with my good friend Shawn Harvey. He comes all the way from Germany and plays all over Europe with his great rock and roll. I will be on the edge of my seat as we won't have rehearsed again but it will be great fun.
The second gig is with Desert Smile on the 23rd April at the Crown and Mitre in Newark. We will be playing a small set along with three other bands in the first step to getting the local music scene happening again.

I've now fully moved back to the Midlands after spending the last few years in Guildford. I'm still doing my degree course at The Academy of Contemporary Music but lectures are only one day a week so I've decided to commute down South and set up the teaching practise and base myself back home.
This means i can get to gigs a lot easier so should be a lot busier in the upcoming months, especially when the course finishes in August.
In other news i was in the Newark Advertiser today after the lovely Dawn Bond wrote a nice article about me to help promote the drum lessons in Newark.

Website up!

I am really pleased to announce that my website,

www.johnjoegaskin.com

is now fully up and running! I would really like to thank the talented person that made it, Martin

www.martincreative.co.uk

Don't know how but we managed to make it all through email communication without meeting or talking once! If anyone needs someone to make a website i highly recommend him. He managed to make it better than i imagined even with me emailing him constantly and hindering his progress with silly ideas like "Can we get a twittery box thing on the home page!"
Hope you all like it as much as i do

Cheers JJ

Website up and lessons available

The website has finally been put up in the test stage and will be live shortly. Because my degree studies at the Academy of Contemporary Music are now slowing down to focus on dissertations and final projects I have a lot more time to devote to teaching and I am currently busy writing out lessons so that I can start straight away. This is also giving me something to do with this awful weather because I'm stuck in Guildford like many other people. The gig with Shawn Harvey tonight was also cancelled because of the weather which is a real shame because I was looking forward to seeing him and his wife/bassist Silke again and having fun playing some good old rock and roll! Hopefully this weather will clear up soon so that I can get back to Newark and start advertising for the lessons. Hopefully get back on Wednesday.

I'll post another blog when the website goes fully live and i start advertising.

Cheers JJ

testing

this is the first blog that i'm going to write in order to let everyone know what's happening. Just had my birthday and had my lovely girlfriend down for a week. Went to London and visited all the touristy bits as well as going to the winter wonderland in Hyde park which was absolutely amazing! this blog will let everyone know what i'm up to on the website so keep checking back!

Cheers

JJ