Honestly … today has had too many highlights. It’s hard to contain my excitement.
After the obligatory team building based warm ups, we headed over to the main music room for a continuation on our song writing fundamentals. As a collective group, we all gave our best choice of song title for Roger (Corbett) to put on the board. From this, we discussed the titles which would give us the most opportunity for various contexts. We trialled this out with a song title called “All I Want”, by being given approximately 5 minutes to generate what we could from it. Everyone came up with their own unique idea, with song going as far as to write sets of lyrics and vocal hooks. I decided to fatten out the concept by describing the story within a song, and found very quickly that I was reflecting the story of the very recent tragic death of Jack Martin, a student of mine for the past year. I shared what I had, and choked up a bit. I’m sure I have a good grounding for a tribute song for the family by the time I get back to New Zealand.
The Music Theory was covered in a basic and intermediate level split of students, with students making the decision as to where they were going to go. I popped into the intermediate class with Simon Johnson, and was lucky enough to race through the basics work with my prior knowledge. I was really useful how Simon described useful apps that he uses with his iPad, including “Goodnotes4 – Notes & PDF” for charting songs, and “UnrealBook” for reading.
We have been split into groups for a performance happening at the pub this Friday night, and we were lucky enough to be partnered with the wise Kevin Bennett. During our first session together we grabbed one of our titles from before and co-wrote the song at a team. I was excited to have my title “One Year” selected. All of our group are excited with the result, all recording the final product, and noting down the lyrics. I look forward to having a good play through the track back in New Zealand, as the song has universal appeal.
After dinner, the day ended with a mash-up of amazing. Being put through effectively a vocalists bible with the course director Lyn Bowtell, opened my eyes to the potential disasters which may occur if you don’t treasure the tools you have. I have a couple of ideas to take home already, and we haven’t even got to the nitty-gitty yet.
This was followed by an Advanced Guitar class with Rod Motbey. I am the first to admit that I am a rhythm guitarist, who pretties up his turns with minimal fancy stuff, but I have put into pressure points to play full G pentatonic scales via different box positions on the fretboard. I still have a ways to go, but I feel I have finally seen the light when it comes to playing solos. Mike Rangihika, I may steal some of these back in Idol Frets gigs from time to time now.
The final workshop was with Lawrie Minson, who has played slide guitar and many other instruments with what seemed like hundreds of named professionals. The full student body was on the edge of their seat throughout, and then got to try the instruments out for themselves … after the nerves eased.
So much awesome, I almost can’t contain myself. If today is anything to go by, I am going to be so musically enriched and exhausted by the end of these two week. A perfect set up for the Tamworth Music Festival.
After the obligatory team building based warm ups, we headed over to the main music room for a continuation on our song writing fundamentals. As a collective group, we all gave our best choice of song title for Roger (Corbett) to put on the board. From this, we discussed the titles which would give us the most opportunity for various contexts. We trialled this out with a song title called “All I Want”, by being given approximately 5 minutes to generate what we could from it. Everyone came up with their own unique idea, with song going as far as to write sets of lyrics and vocal hooks. I decided to fatten out the concept by describing the story within a song, and found very quickly that I was reflecting the story of the very recent tragic death of Jack Martin, a student of mine for the past year. I shared what I had, and choked up a bit. I’m sure I have a good grounding for a tribute song for the family by the time I get back to New Zealand.
The Music Theory was covered in a basic and intermediate level split of students, with students making the decision as to where they were going to go. I popped into the intermediate class with Simon Johnson, and was lucky enough to race through the basics work with my prior knowledge. I was really useful how Simon described useful apps that he uses with his iPad, including “Goodnotes4 – Notes & PDF” for charting songs, and “UnrealBook” for reading.
We have been split into groups for a performance happening at the pub this Friday night, and we were lucky enough to be partnered with the wise Kevin Bennett. During our first session together we grabbed one of our titles from before and co-wrote the song at a team. I was excited to have my title “One Year” selected. All of our group are excited with the result, all recording the final product, and noting down the lyrics. I look forward to having a good play through the track back in New Zealand, as the song has universal appeal.
After dinner, the day ended with a mash-up of amazing. Being put through effectively a vocalists bible with the course director Lyn Bowtell, opened my eyes to the potential disasters which may occur if you don’t treasure the tools you have. I have a couple of ideas to take home already, and we haven’t even got to the nitty-gitty yet.
This was followed by an Advanced Guitar class with Rod Motbey. I am the first to admit that I am a rhythm guitarist, who pretties up his turns with minimal fancy stuff, but I have put into pressure points to play full G pentatonic scales via different box positions on the fretboard. I still have a ways to go, but I feel I have finally seen the light when it comes to playing solos. Mike Rangihika, I may steal some of these back in Idol Frets gigs from time to time now.
The final workshop was with Lawrie Minson, who has played slide guitar and many other instruments with what seemed like hundreds of named professionals. The full student body was on the edge of their seat throughout, and then got to try the instruments out for themselves … after the nerves eased.
So much awesome, I almost can’t contain myself. If today is anything to go by, I am going to be so musically enriched and exhausted by the end of these two week. A perfect set up for the Tamworth Music Festival.
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