Working at CME – Week 5

As well as the usual jobs, I did a few new things this week. On Tuesday I went to another Short Breaks workshop for children with disabilities. I joined in a lot more because I already knew how it worked.

Another task I was set was clearing out the old CME building. This involved taking things to pieces, moving lots of heavy objects and throwing things out.

On Thursday I went to a music taster drop in at Brundall Memorial Hall. The day started off with me teaching a bit of bass guitar which was good as I really enjoy teaching.  We wrote and recorded a song over the course of the day which everyone contributed to and then we burned it on to CD for participants to take home.

Different participants had different skills on the instruments so everyone got to do what they enjoyed. We also did a bit of word association as a group to help with ideas for lyrics. As the day went on, more people turned up and got to add their parts to the song and nearly all of them stayed for the whole day. I really enjoyed the day, the participants seemed to enjoy it as well, and I thought the song turned out really well.

Working at CME – Week 4

I have just finished my fourth week at CME and I am still enjoying it. As well as the usual tasks (updating the contacts database, maintaining instruments etc.) I went to two of ‘Short Breaks’ workshops for children with disabilities. 

We started off singing the ‘Hello’ song to make all the children feel welcome. After that we did some movement based activities to warm up like hopping on the spot, rolling on the floor, waving our hands in the air, etc. We then let the children choose what they wanted to do and have a go on some of the instruments.

After that we did some art. This involved making animal face masks out of card and felt, this was quite fun and I thought the tutors did a good job of helping the students out. During this time the participants also had the option of going and playing on the computer for a bit if they got frustrated, and then when they had calmed down they could come back.

After lunch we did a music based activity. We started off by sitting in a circle and passing a ball round. Then we did variations on this (pretending the ball was hot so having to pass it really quickly, using two balls at once etc.). We then all picked different instruments to use and took it in turns to play them and did other similar music games involving the instruments. The day ended in a similar fashion to how it began with a ‘goodbye song’. I also got a chance to play some relaxing music on guitar so the students could wind down. After the students left, I helped load the van and then we had a short meeting about how the day went.

At first, I was a bit nervous because I didn’t have much experience working with people with disabilities, but towards the end of the day I felt completely comfortable. I thought the tutors and the children were all really nice and I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one.

Working at CME - Week 3

I have just finished my third week working at CME and I am still enjoying it and learning new things. On Monday I learned how to use a program called Windows Movie Maker. The week before, Tom and I made a song on the recording program “Garage Band”. We had already made a jazz song with real instruments on it, so this time we decided to make a techno song using samples already on there. We used Windows Movie Maker to put images of us working on the song, and changed the pictures in time with the music. We also took about 80 pictures of us doing a “robot dance” and changed them in quick succession to give it a kind of stop motion effect. We thought this would suit the style of music well.

Using windows movie maker.

The day after we did some of the usual stuff, but we also learned how to use a new recording program – “Logic”. Logic is pretty much the same as Garage Band except you get a lot more options (and it is a little bit harder to use). One of the things I liked about Logic is the way you can program drums. You basically open it up and assign different drums, (snare, cymbals, etc.) to different notes of the keyboard. I would probably get Logic for my own use at home except you can only get it on Mac and I have a PC, so I have decided to get a similar program instead called Cubase.

Using the recording program Logic

Later on in the week we were assigned the task of making a children’s song. We wrote a song about a bumblebee that was really happy. It didn’t have many lyrics so the kids would be able to sing along easily, and the music was in 4/4 time signature, at medium tempo in C Major so it was easy to listen to.

Writing a children's song on keyboard

Billy's Future Job's Blog - Week 2

Working at Community Music East – Week 2

I have just completed my second week at CME and I am still enjoying it. I am also getting a better sense of everything that goes on. On the first day I had to copy some DVDs and put the labels on for promotional use. I also did some more of updating the contacts database. 

The day after I observed the learning foundation workshop in the first half of the day. I got more involved talking to everyone about what they were doing etc. Here are some of the pictures of the workshop taking place....

Later that day I went to a primary school to observe a workshop. In this workshop, the children were split into different groups and each had to come up with their own piece of music with the help of a tutor. At the end of the day they each performed their piece to the rest of the school. This was interesting to watch and you could tell all the kids really enjoyed it. The next day involved updating the contacts database, going into town to get equipment, and fixing a couple of guitars, which I really enjoyed as I like working with guitars.  We also made a new song on Garage Band which we made a video for. Here is the video...

On Friday I went to an event at the Arts Centre which was called “A crash course in the music industry”. I found this very interesting and helpful in understanding certain things. Although I had already learnt some of it at Access to Music when I attended there I also learnt a lot of new things and it was good to be reminded of some things. For example, one thing which I should have done a long time ago was to register with the PRS. If I had done this then I could have earned a lot more money with the gigs I have played.

The day started off with learning about copyrights and royalty collection companies and things like that, then it moved on to how to make money out of music, and then finally it went on promoting with social media with sites like Facebook and MySpace, talking to fans, and building up a fan base (which sites are best for different reasons and how to use them optimally).

Overall I have very much enjoyed my second week working at CME, especially attending the course on Friday, which I found very informative and helpful, and am looking forward to the next week.