| HOME | Music
'Summer School'with
Dave J Ford |
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| Get to know your favourite music more intimately by a musical analysis. Get to play along with it & learn technically why it’s so special.
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Proficiency: You should be able to get a few reasonable notes out of your instrument. If that’s by ear or from a page doesn’t matter. Beginners are welcome but if you struggle just to get a note out, you will not get the most out of the workshop & may hold others back. If you can play a scale that's sufficient. If that's a chromatic scale that's even better, & ideally you should be able to play a wee tune - however wee that tune is.... It is hoped we’ll get 1 – 2 chordal instruments for the workshop - guitar or keyboard with the others being mono-tone instruments. |
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| Dave believes in speaking in terms that anyone would understand. Part of Dave's mission is to remove the mystery & elite-ness of musical understanding. The only thing stopping many people from playing music is lack of confidence instilled by a feeling that you have to be special to be able to play. |
| Bring in ~8 of your favourite pieces of music on CD, MP3, cassette - even vinyl! - (but let me know in this case so I can arrange a player) One should be well known and accessible. The other could be anything from another favourite to something very bazaar. |
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Day 1:
Listening
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I’ll demonstrate with each piece the sort of thing you can do to join in on what ever instrument you have brought in & you'll get a chance to try this out.
We'll also get you to play a wee recognisable tune, or a reasonably fluid scale on your instrument. You’ll no doubt get tips on what to practice this evening in preparation for day 2...
There'll be some time spent on your individual instrument & how to get the most out of it.
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Day 2: Putting into practice: This is your day for loosening up & playing along. We’ll take a vote on which tunes to work on first & we’ll listen to these again. You’ll learn lots from your mistakes so don’t be too inhibited. Everyone else will be learning from you too – the good bits of your playing as well as the bad. |
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There’ll be more identification & explanation of chords & structure, more ear exercises & tips & tricks on knowing what to play where. More time will be spent exploring your instrument & seeing how you are getting along with it. |
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By the end of day 2 we should all be playing together something inspired by some of the music brought in & without the help of the hi-fi. If you have never played with others, this is a great exercise & really what it's all about. |
Day 3:
Consolidation: Each day we’ll work on what we did the previous day to consolidate it before moving on. We’ll take a lead from any parts you’re having difficulty with. We'll tackle the pieces that didn't get voted top in the previous days, or the more difficult ones.
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We’ll start to divide you up into playing different aspects of the music together. Someone on the melody, someone on harmonies, someone doing the bass, someone filling in the chords – if we have a chordal instrument. |
| Day 4:
You should by now know what you want to work on & you’ll have more control over the direction of proceedings. You’ll have a better understanding of what is possible & what you need more help with. We’ll do yet more pieces & re-arrange the ones we’ve already done so that different instruments are playing different parts. |
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Day 5: This day is up to you. We’ll talk about what we’ve learned so far & what barriers still exist. We’ll decide between us what we want to work on. |
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We’ll play through everything we’ve done in the preceding 4 days & explore where you can go from here. |
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| Ear Exercises throughout the Summer School will help establish how your ear is developing & indeed how developed it already is. Understanding chords is key to the process & explanations will be given regularly siting audio examples.
To book a place, please contact Dave by email or telephone using details at the foot of the page. Do please leave a message if he’s too busy to answer. A £50 deposit is required to reserve your place. |
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