Other Services and Interests
Beside my family, friends and self-preservation :) my interests are wide ranging from Multimedia to Languages, to Technology and Martial Arts. If you would like to know more about what I am in to please read on.
Also, my friends have often suggested I put my skills to use so here are a few things that I can do. If you have a problem and no one else can help you and if you know how to find me, maybe you can hire Dave Holmes! =) (*and if I can't do it all by myself I may know someone more specialist to work with me, to work things out for you).
Also, my friends have often suggested I put my skills to use so here are a few things that I can do. If you have a problem and no one else can help you and if you know how to find me, maybe you can hire Dave Holmes! =) (*and if I can't do it all by myself I may know someone more specialist to work with me, to work things out for you).
Audio Services
Performing and teaching music are my main musical focus now. However, I am always up for challenges, so things I have undertaken in the past and would consider include:
Audio editing and trimming of recorded Wav files, Music Creation (3 complete pieces and soundtrack in 2 days), Sound design, Editing/Mastering of a single using a pro DAW, Music MIDI and Sampler programming for an EMI release, Studio Device Setup and Technical design, sample creation, Live depping musician work; bassist & guitarist, guitar tuition, personalised audio greetings, ringtones, backing tracks, mobile and in house recording sessions, music album direction, Music Technology course guide creation and teaching (Especially Ableton Live or Propellerhead Reason Software.
Audio editing and trimming of recorded Wav files, Music Creation (3 complete pieces and soundtrack in 2 days), Sound design, Editing/Mastering of a single using a pro DAW, Music MIDI and Sampler programming for an EMI release, Studio Device Setup and Technical design, sample creation, Live depping musician work; bassist & guitarist, guitar tuition, personalised audio greetings, ringtones, backing tracks, mobile and in house recording sessions, music album direction, Music Technology course guide creation and teaching (Especially Ableton Live or Propellerhead Reason Software.
IT / Multimedia / Language Services
Graphics and Web
Showing that being a colour blind musician won't set me back! I have a growing portfolio of original designs based around simple doodles that I call Fruitional (a development of one of my older music projects of the same name that used one of these designs)
I am also pretty good now with Photoshop, so I can put together simple but effective Flyers and touch up or mash up photographs pretty well. I can help create promotional images for Social media and, if all you need is a site to the quality of this one, then I can help with that too. From choosing your name, buying the URL, signposting it to free hosting services like this one, building a simple but modern site, setting up social media online and on your handheld devices, to working on logos and content and even music and simple video editing. I can do it all (simply, humbly and not amazing but not too bad either...but importantly cheap and cheerful!).
PC and Technology
IT background
I have a City and Guild Technician's Certificate and through work with Music setups over the years, a lot of experience building PCs, mostly old style Desktops, but I have stayed up to date with a lot of the latest stuff as much as possible, for someone not regularly building systems. With a week or so intense research I could design and build a top quality modern system.
I am excellent with applications due to Music DAWs and Audio engineering studies and in the past have helped friends out with backups and virus removal solutions.
I can help you with methods to organise your life; passwords and email management, creating of online todo lists, photo organisation, managing bills and utilities accounts simply using spreadsheets; all learnt first hand while getting to grips with my own problems in life.
Basically it's all about using a computer as an extension of your body and mind, in order to aggregate your own memory and ideas and sort all that information into a state that will enable you move along in life, with whatever you need to do.
As music didn't become my main career, I ended up working in IT within Operations in and around London , I now have 13 years experience of Datacentres, including media handling, backups, scheduling, printing and more at JPMorgan Fleming and Schroders Investment Management for CSC, followed by a couple of years or so Hardware Planning experience within a top class Datacentre of Tier III quality and other Datacentres around the country, for my current employer.
In 2010 I took an Open University course in Robotics. It is a great interest to me and I have a blog and site for this called Robotics Universe. I have started making my own robots at home from spare electronics components. So I would be hugely interested in any robotics projects or part time work placements. I am making Robotics my focus above music this year so I am keen to learn anything and everything as soon as possible,
Languages
Language is of great interest to me. I like word play and I love to find out the origins of words to discover how they link up and show connections across cultures, how words in use today carry encoded information about long gone people and their cultures that have shaped who we are and what we do.
I am quite good at writing in my mother tongue and proof reading (other people's! ) texts for spelling mistakes etc.
I would like to study a TEFL course soon, perhaps later this year, so that I can teach English as a Foreign Language professionally part-time, now, or any time that I should move abroad again.
My language experience is wide ranging - I have qualifications in English, French, German, (GCSEs) , Japanese (RSA Business Japanese level 1), European Portuguese (Goldsmiths University College PACE level 2) and Brazilian Portuguese (Brazilian Ministry of Education CELPE exam - Intermediate).
I am also learning to speak Lithuanian, I already understand a lot - one of my sons and my girlfriend are Lithuanian. Lithuanian will no doubt one day end up as my adopted mother tongue. At home we watch Lithuanian and Russian TV and Lithuanian is usually spoken if I am not around, so when I walk into a conversation I am listening, and observing and starting to interject, in Lithuanian!. It's my other son's first language and he is British, although both boys are fluent in both languages now.
When I learn a new language there always seems to be an initial brick wall, but then I start to pick things up at an accelerated rate and take more and more interest until I am immersed and relatively fluent.
I also feel the more languages you learn, the more languages you can learn! This is because you learn to handle the components of language and notice how they are all connected. Lithuanian is actually considered to be very close to Sanskrit of all things. To quote the fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, "The Lithuanian language is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages."...so there you go! who knows what direction that will take me language-wise!
So I am up for participating in any Language projects, this could be as simple as teaching Entry Level Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese, or teaching English as a foreign Language, proof reading english text for foreign made products or events and so on.
Martial Arts
I love all Martial Arts and have taken many different classes over the years. It is a study of the mechanisms of the human body and mind, it's good for confidence, health and I find it reduces the chances of being beaten up....again.
I studied Capoeira intensely for a couple of years or so, which I absolutely positively encourage people to try out. I wish I could do it every day (rather than barely ever right now! ). I did a few more months of it when I set up the first Capoeira club in my town Stevenage in Herts, UK. some time back, by inviting an instructor from Capoeira União. I initially learnt this Martial Art with Capoeira Palmares in London. I have recently kicked off a Facebook group to get local people back into this Fun but effective martial art, so I should be one of these people doing a lot of Capoeira in 2014!
Karate - One of the reasons I learnt Japanese was because of Karate. I used to train Shotokan with KUGB who were affiliated with JKA and I last trained and graded in KUGB under the late Sensei Enoeda, 9th Dan. I now train in a local club that I am very happy with and I am working back up the grades, even triple grading in my first grading, although from now on for the higher levels, the old memory is against me to remember the moves!
For more info and my day to day ramblings =) please check out my blog and social media pages.
bye for now!
=Dave
Showing that being a colour blind musician won't set me back! I have a growing portfolio of original designs based around simple doodles that I call Fruitional (a development of one of my older music projects of the same name that used one of these designs)
I am also pretty good now with Photoshop, so I can put together simple but effective Flyers and touch up or mash up photographs pretty well. I can help create promotional images for Social media and, if all you need is a site to the quality of this one, then I can help with that too. From choosing your name, buying the URL, signposting it to free hosting services like this one, building a simple but modern site, setting up social media online and on your handheld devices, to working on logos and content and even music and simple video editing. I can do it all (simply, humbly and not amazing but not too bad either...but importantly cheap and cheerful!).
PC and Technology
IT background
I have a City and Guild Technician's Certificate and through work with Music setups over the years, a lot of experience building PCs, mostly old style Desktops, but I have stayed up to date with a lot of the latest stuff as much as possible, for someone not regularly building systems. With a week or so intense research I could design and build a top quality modern system.
I am excellent with applications due to Music DAWs and Audio engineering studies and in the past have helped friends out with backups and virus removal solutions.
I can help you with methods to organise your life; passwords and email management, creating of online todo lists, photo organisation, managing bills and utilities accounts simply using spreadsheets; all learnt first hand while getting to grips with my own problems in life.
Basically it's all about using a computer as an extension of your body and mind, in order to aggregate your own memory and ideas and sort all that information into a state that will enable you move along in life, with whatever you need to do.
As music didn't become my main career, I ended up working in IT within Operations in and around London , I now have 13 years experience of Datacentres, including media handling, backups, scheduling, printing and more at JPMorgan Fleming and Schroders Investment Management for CSC, followed by a couple of years or so Hardware Planning experience within a top class Datacentre of Tier III quality and other Datacentres around the country, for my current employer.
In 2010 I took an Open University course in Robotics. It is a great interest to me and I have a blog and site for this called Robotics Universe. I have started making my own robots at home from spare electronics components. So I would be hugely interested in any robotics projects or part time work placements. I am making Robotics my focus above music this year so I am keen to learn anything and everything as soon as possible,
Languages
Language is of great interest to me. I like word play and I love to find out the origins of words to discover how they link up and show connections across cultures, how words in use today carry encoded information about long gone people and their cultures that have shaped who we are and what we do.
I am quite good at writing in my mother tongue and proof reading (other people's! ) texts for spelling mistakes etc.
I would like to study a TEFL course soon, perhaps later this year, so that I can teach English as a Foreign Language professionally part-time, now, or any time that I should move abroad again.
My language experience is wide ranging - I have qualifications in English, French, German, (GCSEs) , Japanese (RSA Business Japanese level 1), European Portuguese (Goldsmiths University College PACE level 2) and Brazilian Portuguese (Brazilian Ministry of Education CELPE exam - Intermediate).
I am also learning to speak Lithuanian, I already understand a lot - one of my sons and my girlfriend are Lithuanian. Lithuanian will no doubt one day end up as my adopted mother tongue. At home we watch Lithuanian and Russian TV and Lithuanian is usually spoken if I am not around, so when I walk into a conversation I am listening, and observing and starting to interject, in Lithuanian!. It's my other son's first language and he is British, although both boys are fluent in both languages now.
When I learn a new language there always seems to be an initial brick wall, but then I start to pick things up at an accelerated rate and take more and more interest until I am immersed and relatively fluent.
I also feel the more languages you learn, the more languages you can learn! This is because you learn to handle the components of language and notice how they are all connected. Lithuanian is actually considered to be very close to Sanskrit of all things. To quote the fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, "The Lithuanian language is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages."...so there you go! who knows what direction that will take me language-wise!
So I am up for participating in any Language projects, this could be as simple as teaching Entry Level Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese, or teaching English as a foreign Language, proof reading english text for foreign made products or events and so on.
Martial Arts
I love all Martial Arts and have taken many different classes over the years. It is a study of the mechanisms of the human body and mind, it's good for confidence, health and I find it reduces the chances of being beaten up....again.
I studied Capoeira intensely for a couple of years or so, which I absolutely positively encourage people to try out. I wish I could do it every day (rather than barely ever right now! ). I did a few more months of it when I set up the first Capoeira club in my town Stevenage in Herts, UK. some time back, by inviting an instructor from Capoeira União. I initially learnt this Martial Art with Capoeira Palmares in London. I have recently kicked off a Facebook group to get local people back into this Fun but effective martial art, so I should be one of these people doing a lot of Capoeira in 2014!
Karate - One of the reasons I learnt Japanese was because of Karate. I used to train Shotokan with KUGB who were affiliated with JKA and I last trained and graded in KUGB under the late Sensei Enoeda, 9th Dan. I now train in a local club that I am very happy with and I am working back up the grades, even triple grading in my first grading, although from now on for the higher levels, the old memory is against me to remember the moves!
For more info and my day to day ramblings =) please check out my blog and social media pages.
bye for now!
=Dave