Presentations next week

Just a reminder of the presentation format for next week.  Individually you will conduct a presentation of two parts:

1) The first about your individual musical development (such as instrumental or vocal development) with reference to appropriate literature, relevant theories and artists of influence, and the inclusion of video or sound recordings from your blog (approx 10 mins);
2) The second is a discussion of the creation of your independent composition task including any research conducted, influencing artists, technical creation process, theme/genre/style etc followed by a live performance or recording of your work (5 mins).

If you want to send your presentation or composition to me prior to the assessment for some last minute feedback, please email me.

Assessments 9am Tuesday 13th January.

Free Notation Software

For those of you who are interested in notating your work but do not have access to expensive software such as Sibelius there are free versions available via the web that you might like to try out:

Finale notepad 

MuseScore

Noteflight

I know Finale is quite good and you can buy the full version fairly cheap, not sure about the other two but the reviews are rather good.

Helpful songwriting resource: Songwriting Magazine

Hi All,

There are some really useful articles on Songwriting Magazine's website that may help those of you who are planning to write your own songs.  There are also interviews with artists that may be of interest to you too.

Rachel Sermanni: singer-songwriter and other artists.

Hi All,

I was in York at the weekend shopping for a record player (everything sounds better on vinyl) and in the shop the guy got out a few records to demonstrate the sound quality (got to admit, it was mind blowing- I can explain why vinyl is better in class).   One of the artists he played was Rachel Sermanni, Scottish singer-songwriter.  I have never heard of her before until this weekend but I think within the first thirty seconds of this song I was an instant fan.  This particular song (below) is from her album "Under Mountains" (2012) is beautiful- simple, folk inspired, fabulous lyrics, crystal clear vocals and harmonies- I could go on and on!

Anyway, I wanted to share this with you since you are all on a song-writing journey.  I have some other artists that you may also have never heard of, but who are fabulous songwriters and performers in their own right.  Here is "Ever Since the Chocolate" (Onder Involed, 2013) by Rachel Sermanni:




(Onder Involed, 2013: Rachel Sermanni playing 'Ever Since The Chocolate'. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-e6c_W0-Ts ACCESSED: 24/11/2014)

Other artists that you may want to investigate are David J Roch- he has collaborated with Rachel Sermanni and has a similar sound (if a bit more masculine).

One you must listen to is a guy called David Ford, ultimate favorite of mine and absolutely fantastic live.  He experiments with junk instruments (an old wash board and a bin lid if I remember correctly), loop pedals, he plays every instrument going such as: guitar, ukulele, piano, drums, harmonica and one album he played the cello, violin, bass and a flute.  On top of all this he writes and produces ALL of his material by himself.  Here is a clip (p7ajo, 2011) from a gig I was at in 2011 (not great quality but...I have that exact hat because he gave it to me at the end!!):




(p7ajo, 2011: David Ford- Cheer Up (Your Miserable Fuck) - York - Fibbers 28/04/11. Available at :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKWeN_7RTzw ACCESSED:24/1//2014)

Let me know what you think!

Tutorial Times

Assignment Briefs

Week 7 PowerPoint