I presented my current ideas at our next performance class on Monday but was told my premise was still too vague, and if I were to do a series of pieces from over time they would need to be linked by a common musical feature. There are a number of options here as there are several interesting musical features that have linked progressive music over the years. The themes I am strongly considering at the moment are concept albums and odd time signatures, both of which would offer a wide range of options in terms of pieces to play. I will forward these and other ideas for discussion with my tutors and hopefully have a final decision made soon so I can crack on with putting the pieces together.

Having spoken with various people, it's become clear to me that my programme ought to be one I personally am happy with, and the pieces I play should reflect me as a musician. I'm quite set on doing pieces which demonstrate the use of odd time signatures and time changes, as this is something that's always fascinated me as a drummer. Being a pop musician, and having grown up with pop music being my background, I've always found myself most at home with common time and popular melodies, but as I developed as a drummer I found myself branching out to learn about music. While enjoying investigating avant-garde tracks and pushing my technical abilities, my favourite tracks were always those that could demonstrate more advanced techniques whilst also appealing to a pop audience.

I want my set to reflect the enjoyment I get from music that is both intellectually and musically stimulating, and so I will aim to choose pieces that I feel demonstrate this best.

I have spent a lot of time doing some research over the past couple of weeks, using my love of Rush and Neil Peart's drumming as a starting point, looking at bands and drummers that influence them and who were influenced later. The genre of Progressive Rock is one that's always been a point of interest for me. From it's beginnings in the late 60s and early 70s it has continued to function and develop, with the influence of it's ideas and themes influencing both the most avant garde of groups as well as many more mainstream acts.

I am keen in my performance to demonstrate the development of progressive music through the years, and also to showcase both the more specialised side of the genre and more popular modern acts who have exhibited typical features of the genre. I have a number of pieces already that I would like to play and I will forward these and my general ideas to both my drum teacher and my course tutors for approval.