My performance was yesterday and I'm generally very happy with how it went. There were some small errors in some of the tracks but nothing major, and given the overall circumstances it went just about as well as I could have hoped.

The biggest worry on the day came when I woke in the morning in a lot of pain and struggling to move. I later learned an infection had developed in my tailbone, and this made it very uncomfortable to sit down which obviously was an issue given I was playing drums. At first I thought I would be unable to play but the pain eased up over the course of the day and didn't hamper me too much come my actual performance. However it had shaken me earlier in the day, and meant I was unable to hold a last minute rehearsal which I'd been hoping to do, and this could have ironed out some of the mistakes I made and settled my nerves a bit.

Overall I feel the biggest disappointment in my set was using backing tracks for 4 out of the 6 tracks. Although I was still able to showcase my ability on those tracks, I know it would have made for a more entertaining performance had I had a full band for them, and from the feedback I got from the audience and watching back over the tracks themselves I think it's clear the songs I performed with my band were the best in the set.

However, using backing tracks was necessitated by time, financial and geographical constraints. I found it hard this year balancing out work from all my units with work and other commitments outside of my course, and it made it hard to give as much time to putting together the performance as I would have liked. Given where I stay there was also a large cost in travel to and from the college where we practiced, and that made me keen to avoid having to make trips unless I absolutely had to. It also meant it would have been hard for me to free up money to hire professional musicians to fill slots had I opted to do that. On the matter of finding musicians I again found it hard not being native to Edinburgh or the surrounding areas to find people who played the instruments I would have required for some of the tracks. Most of my contacts were based more in the Glasgow direction, and once I had David White and Dechlan Nicholson, both from Edinburgh, committed to doing bass and guitar, I was keen to avoid having musicians from the other side of the country as arranging rehearsals would have been difficult.

In hindsight I'm aware that I would have benefited from acting quicker in putting my programme together. A few of my tracks were decided later than I would have liked, although this was often due to me being forced to make changes. If I had been settled on a programme earlier I might have been able to commit to finding the required musicians and making it all work. However, I must also acknowledge that I'd had no experience in putting together a programme in this manner, so it took me time to understand exactly what was expected of me and the music I chose. My previous education in drumming had taught me to consider my instrument simply a platform for the more prominent elements of music, so I also had to move away from this perception to fulfill the aim of showcasing my abilities.

Nevertheless I'm proud of the work I did personally in playing the tracks I chose. It involved developing a lot of skills and knowledge I hadn't had before such as using a double bass drum pedal, playing in a myriad of odd time signatures which often involved me transcribing parts to understand them better, and researching cymbals and drum set-ups to replicate the sounds made on some of the tracks I chose. A lot of work into it and although in some respects it could have been a more dynamic performance, there a lot of positives I will take from it.

My performance is tomorrow and I'm feeling quite good about it. Naturally I'm nervous, but I've rehearsed well, so it's just a matter of ensuring everything goes right at the time. I'm most worried about getting everything set up right - ensuring my backing tracks play fine and at a good level, and that I'll have enough time to get all my stuff set up. My kit layout is to be quite elaborate so I must be sure to use my soundcheck time to ensure I know exactly how I'm going to set up come my performance.

Once I get to the point of performing with everything in place I feel everything should be okay. I've written up programme notes for the audience to read as I'm eager for them to understand where I'm coming from with my choice of songs. I've titled my set 'Not So Odd Time Signatures', referencing the fact that I find the songs to be very accessible in spite of their use of odd times. I'm not totally decided on whether I will keep this title, but I'd like to make it something along those lines.

My only other concern is a minor injury I seemed to have sustained. My tailbone has been hurting me for a couple of days, and I am unsure of the cause. It hasn't affected my playing so far so I am hopeful that it won't tomorrow either, but I'll be aiming not to do anything that may exacerbate the symptoms lest it affect my playing.

Following the news that my bass player is unable to play one of the tracks I had planned for my set, I've once again had to find a replacement with a backing track I can perform to, which I'm a little disappointed by as I was happy having half the set to backing tracks and half live, but sadly time constraints left me no choice. The track I've chosen is another Rush song, 'Limelight'. It suits me more in a lot of ways, as it fits in with what I want from my set - songs that demonstrate odd time signatures and time changes in what I perceive to be a particularly melodic way. On the downside it brings the technical difficulty of the set down a little, but with such short notice I couldn't commit to doing any songs that were more challenging as I've other work on my plate ahead of end of year deadlines. The final set stands:

Dance of Eternity (Dream Theater)
Limelight (Rush)
Subdivisions (Rush)
Island Magic (Dave Weckl)
Sound of Muzak (Porcupine Tree)
Schism (Tool)