'Head over Heels' - Two Years Later

Today marks the two year anniversary of the release of 'Head Over Heels' - my two disc musical album that was initially an outlet for my burning desire to write something, only to develop into a project that showcased the best of local talent.

Original Cover Art, designed by Samantha Oates

Featuring no less than 22 singers from around the Macclesfield and Congleton area, I'd love to take this opportunity to share with you what it is, how it came to be and more!

The Story

There is no narrative throughout 'Head Over Heels' as an album, so to call it a concept album may be quite misleading. However, the story behind the album might be brought more into question:

Music was and always has been a passion for me, but back in the year of 2017 I wasn't particularly feeling it. The idea of writing something such as a variety album was always in the back of my mind but it would take too much commitment for me - then in full time employment - to want to do.

Over the years I had done a handful of shows with the local amateur musical society - Macclesfield Majestic Theatre Group - and in doing so I had come across a wealth of people who had voices that I just wanted to explore, but my time was taken up by either working or - if I did have time to devote to music - somebody else's project (such as musically directing pantomimes for MMTG).

Perhaps it was the eventual tiredness of music that led me to turn down their very kind offer for me to musically direct their 2018 pantomime, but I did and I felt immediate relief.

I did, however, go and support them by booking a ticket.

Ordinarily the excitement of a pantomime is the crowning glory of a lot of hard work, but because I hadn't done any hard work towards this one the excitement I felt actually became the push to do something! And what was that to be?

An album. Featuring some of them and plenty of other people I knew from the area who weren't involved in that particular production.

By now it was 2018 and what followed was a series of contacting friends and asking them to come down to the Majestic's rehearsal rooms - which they very kindly lent me keys for - to teach them a song and to record a basic piano and vocal demo. By the time I had started seeing people, all of the songs were written...

The Songs

I had opted to write lyrics that were to be publicly available for the first time in my life. I never considered myself a lyricist and approached the job from a much more tongue in cheek way than many others might have done.

'Head Over Heels' was the first brand new composition that I came up with music and lyrics for after seeing the pantomime, but many others followed and underwent several rewrites.

'A New Life' and 'The Midnight Hour' were ones I had already composed, so I just set lyrics to them.

'Dismissive' became an incredibly wordy piece as I just needed to keep adding to it to be able to resolve the narrative!

'The Man with No Identity' was written with so much abstractness that when I reread the words I had no clue what I had been writing about. And, despite this - or maybe because of it - I actually kept these lyrics!

But most of the songs were quite easy to divide between people who I already knew:

For the purpose of both original demo and final release, Eddie Melling sang 'A New Life', Sidney Smith sang 'Take a Walk', Rebecca Clulow sang 'Back to Reality', Pete Munro sang 'The Midnight Hour', Sarah Powell sang 'Head Over Heels', Nickie Simms sang 'Thank You for the Call', Alex Bingle sang 'Dreams', Luke Stevenson sang 'Notice Me', Fleur Evangeline sang 'It's True', Calum Hogan sang 'The Man with No Identity', and Tom Blackwell sang 'My Dying Day'.

Luckily, these people collectively knew lots of people, and I was pleased to be introduced to Simon Hoffman ('Rulebook'), Giles Hardwick ('One Wonder') and Emily Redwood ('I'll Be There') who demo'd and went on to record their songs on the final album.

And by being introduced to somebody completely new for whom I did not have a song - Simon Waring - his voice alone inspired a brand new song - 'Mister Illusion'.

With all of this and some provisional demos of 'More than a Word', 'Closer', 'Kids Play', 'Judgement Day' and 'Dismissive' - all performed brilliantly but by people who sadly couldn't commit to the final project - I was armed with my 20 songs!

Phase two...

The Tracks

In order to create the tracks, I used my then notation software - Myriad's 'Harmony Assistant' - to create the most basic scores to pass along to a drummer, bassist and guitarist. The drum parts consisted of mere hits and the word 'fill' when I wanted a fill. Occasionally I would notate a specific bassline (such as in 'Notice Me') or guitar part, but generally these parts were based around chord symbols and I gave free rein to the guitarists.

Have a browse through the slideshow to see some example scores that were sent to musicians:

Using an exported MIDI file from Harmony Assistant, I uploaded this into Logic Pro and was able to alter the click track to account for all rises and falls of tempo, on top of which I recorded a dummy piano part so that the instrumentalists had something to play along to that was more interesting than just the click! (I did keep bouncing updated tracks as new musicians came along).

'Head Over Heels' - final Logic Project (unmastered)

First to the table, Glenn Charles put down his drum tracks.

And then two bassists - Liv Baker-Mendoza and Chris Thompson.

Then a guitarist - Ryszard Kolendo - who put down both electric and acoustic guitar parts.

I did a little bit of orchestration and sent this off to Michael Kearley (who had provided bassoons towards the recording of 'Morella' and played flute in 'Spectroscopy') to lay down a few flute parts, and for the title track itself I scored out a very basic violin part which was recorded by Sarah Jackson. Colin Jones - another player on 'Morella' (trumpets) gave me some more trumpet tracks for a few songs on this project and even did some trombone (on the song 'Dismissive').

Whilst the orchestration was being done, I recorded piano and keyboard parts.

Recording

It was time to bring the original cast back together!

Well, most of them.

But it was OK - most of them came back and they all did a fabulous job!

Sarah Powell recording the title track - 'Head Over Heels'

But to finish the project I had to reach out again.

I was introduced to a few people - Becka Gill who would record 'Closer' alongside Kate Darlington, who I had met in 2020 (after I'd recorded initial demo), Alicia Whittaker and Danny Gilman who recorded 'Judgement Day' and Louise Colohan who recorded 'Dismissive'.

The only vocal that was recorded remotely belonged to an old schoolfriend - Joe Ryan - who recorded 'Kids Play' from Dubai!

Meanwhile, advertising had begun with little teaser snippets - such as this one featuring Alex Bingle:

Once everything was recorded, it took a while to be mixed and mastered but what followed was the release!

Showtime!

Showtime for the album was 22nd April 2022 - the official release date of 'Head Over Heels'. Initially released under West Kingston Productions - my company at the time - it proved a success.

But there had been a showtime prior to this!

On Saturday 9th April 2022, we showcased some of the songs from the show!

And what a show it was!

Whilst we did miss Sarah Powell for the title track (Louise Colohan stepped in expertly - below), the night was a resounding success and we managed to shift a few CDs prior to their official release - and give away some download codes (again prior to their official release!).

Louise Colohan sings 'Head Over Heels' in Sarah Powell's absence

Where To Get It

That's right - it's still available!

Whilst you won't find it anymore on the commercial MP3 download or streaming services, it is very much available to download from my website.

So give it a download and give it a listen - it's great fun and I know you'll love it!

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#macclesfield #congleton #headoverheels #Cheshire #music #musical #musicaltheatre #album #popmusic #rockmusic #soundtrack

Score vs. Memory - Learning and Performing

The key to a great performance on any instrument is to have utter conviction in what you are performing. Therefore, I will immediately conclude this blog post with my personal opinion as to whether or not it is better to perform with or without music:

It doesn't matter.

Unless there is a specific reason for you to not have music in front of you (an opera might be a slightly bizarre watch if all the players held a score in front of them), it is essential that you are comfortable playing and performing the music to the best of your ability whichever path you go down.

However, in this blog I would like to explore the advantages and disadvantages of using your powers of reading music against your powers of memorising music - not just in the long run for an eventual performance or recording - but for learning and practicing too.

Let's explore this in some more detail...

Using Music

Without having the score in front of you, you'd be relying on ear, instinct and prior knowledge of a piece of music alone. Therefore, you could consider a score like an actor's script. Not only does it tell you which notes to play (your words, following the metaphor), but it tells you how to play (stage directions etc.). Therefore, it stands to reason that we can use a score as an extremely strong starting point.

The Pros

• Using sheet music is the most logical way to learn a new piece of music. At your disposal, you have everything you need. Dynamics, rhythm, tempo markings, fingering, articulation etc. - fairly obvious introductory point to the pros, but one that can be overlooked by those who would rather learn by ear alone (often resulting in awkward and uncomfortable fingering, lack of expression etc.)
  

• As you begin to get more and more familiar with a piece of music, your association against what is printed improves, therefore your understanding of notation improves. This can lead to associations of rhythmic motifs, recognition of intervals you may not have commonly used previously, a stronger understanding of what note lies on what ledger line etc. - in other words, following the music is beneficial for your sight reading.
  

• In addition to improving overall sight reading, you will recognise visual cues from following the score, which allows you to continue playing even if you forget otherwise how the music goes, what you have to do etc. - it can make it easier to pick up.
  

• Your visualisation of the keyboard will improve greatly from looking ahead and only glancing down to reference hand position at times when you need to employ more drastic changes. Overall we have good understanding of the layout of a keyboard, but the more we consciously look at it when we play, the more we depend on vision to find our way around it. For many pieces, this is incidental, but for many other pieces it is crucial to have a good, deep-seated understanding so that large jumps between fingers / hands or large distance between the hands can be played with minimal effort.

The Cons

• Playing with score can often lead to a dissociation with how well you actually do know the piece of music. Is your association purely from the score? If you never plan on playing the music without it then it might seem a moot point, but even so you may find that you struggle to get through the piece fluidly with the music because there are gaps in other sensory clues (unfamiliarity with the tune, no muscle memory etc.).
  

• Performing under pressure is always difficult, and scores can be a hinderance during any kind of recital or recording. Glancing down and glancing back up to the wrong bar can create a bad association which translates during high pressure performance that may not necessarily exist otherwise. Further to this, little things like angle of the head is a contributory factor. Bear in mind that - unlike many other instrumentalists - pianists often have to play on all manner of different pianos. If I use a score and I've been practising on an upright, the sudden angle difference to performing on a grand piano (the music stands are higher) is off-putting as it skews my vision of the keyboard that little bit more. Further to this, it is worth bearing in mind that you must always practice with the score you intend to use. If you plan on using an iPad for your performance, practice always with the iPad. If you plan on sticking sheets of paper together to minimise page turns in an exam, get those copied as soon as possible and practice with the full spread.

Using Memory

It always strikes us as very impressive when we see somebody perform without a score, but could this be the more logical method of performance? It certainly takes more work to instil music into the memory to achieve the best performance, but what of the pros and cons of working this way?

The Pros

• Memory is immediately transferrable. The more engrained into your mind a piece of music is, the more adaptable it is between instruments. Moving from one piano to another (as many performing professionals do!) comes with many issues - different dynamic, different pressure on the keys, different sound, higher or lower pedals etc. - so add that extra lack of familiarity to the need to reference you score and it can be burdensome. That's not to say it's the wrong approach, mind, but consider how confident you are as a pianist that you can read and translate to a new instrument simultaneously and under pressure before choosing that road.
  

• Memory connects pathways that we don't necessarily join together when reading from music. When reading from music, we can often find ourselves still interpreting and relying on the music to the point that we hit the correct notes but fail to give them meaning. Yet we don't even realise that, necessarily, because a tunnel vision approach when reading is often more focused on playing the notes that are written rather than how you are playing them, therefore we focus on their pitch or the overall tune and go no further. When we take away the visual aid and rely solely on memory, we do actually realise the full potential of a piece of music, hearing for the first time moments where we could hold back or push forward, maybe a touch of pedal to colour a certain passage, or take the dynamic down to create a more pleasing performance (sometimes even in complete contradiction to what the score notes!). Our senses begin working together and our muscle memory and strong ear for the music are now both much more attuned to what is technically right, that our emotional side can finally be brought forward.

The Cons

• Once again we look at high pressure performances (recitals, recordings, exams etc.). Our minds can become so inwardly focused if we are in any sort of nervous disposition that we can forget to look at a piece of music as a whole. Therefore, we can maybe begin playing correctly, but because we're not necessarily thinking ahead we forget which notes to play next - like stumbling over your lines in a stage play. Were the score there, the visual aid could be a great prompt, however one single memory lapse or error can break a live performance. More often than not, this is due to the familiarity of the piece and is not reflective of a pianist's actual ability. Performing from memory needs to be developed and can't just be achieved by deciding to ditch the score one day and expecting muscle memory to do the bulk of the work (read my very next point!). Unfortunately, there is very little way to put yourself under the right amount of pressure to replicate an actual recital where you can practice playing by memory under pressure. Facebook lives are good, or even recording a video (although this isn't the best as you can stop and go back - you want to play it through once well!), therefore our memory can dessert us at inopportune moments when faced with high pressure situations.
  

• Secondary to playing from memory is the actual memorisation process. Learning to play a piece of music from memory can take as long as learning to play it well with music prior to deciding on memorisation, and the reason for that is because we need to make sure the music is well rooted. This goes beyond muscle memory. What if your hands just stop mid way through a performance and you don't know how to get back on track? Learning pieces from memory takes time as it often involves breaking down a piece into individual, manageable sections (this can sometimes be as little as 2 or 3 bars!) and creating associations beyond the 'my fingers can do it' approach. Can you visualise what the music says. Can you hear how it goes? Do you know how the left hand sounds independently to the right hand? Full memorisation is a long and, frankly, laborious - if phenomenally rewarding - process.

Memory as a Learning Tool

Further to my last point in the cons of playing from memory, I would just add that if you do have the intention of playing without music, the best time to start learning from memory is at the very beginning. Use the score to set yourself a few bars and then work with them and memorise, rather than develop the music to performance standard with the score and then committing it. This will help to cement your own associations rather than any that are purely visual aids from the score.

On that note, it stands to reason that you can use memory at any stage, and in fact I encourage it as a learning tool for many of my pupils. I frequently snatch the music off the stand and try and get them to replicate it as best they can after a couple of play throughs (always whilst reminding that mistakes are not the enemy!).

Why does this help, though?

It actually goes back to development - or utilisation - of your musical ear. If you are learning piano at whatever level, you have a musical ear. End of. But sometimes we can nourish it and encourage it to create an even stronger musician.

Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' finds its way near the beginning of many, many piano learning workbooks thanks to its stepwise melody (a melody where each note is next to or the same as the one prior) and simple hand position (usually C position - right hand thumb on C, 2 on D, 3 on E etc.). Yet, despite its ease, every time I come to it with a pupil of any age I marvel at the fact that they focus rather intently on what's written in front of them to ensure that they play the notes exactly as written.

Cue - score is pulled off the stand after one (maybe two, if I'm feeling generous) attempt(s).

We have to learn to remember certain things cognitively - i.e. some things just have to be cemented in our minds as there is nothing to relate it to. The very starting position of a piece of music is often this, such as that 'Ode to Joy' starts on an E. So I will ask them to remember that, play the first note and then play, following the shape of the melody.

What inevitably happens?

Despite initial fear in some of my pupils at the prospect of now being 'unassisted' on the keyboard, they usually give a much more confident rendition that they do with the book. They all know how the tune goes. They know when it goes up and down and - again, cognitively - they know that, whilst not necessarily being able to recite out loud from memory the individual notes - all the notes will be the next one up or down from where they are. If they get stuck, I encourage them to sing through up to that point (singing is a fantastic way of engaging with pieces you are learning) and working it out from there, noting also where notes are the same as the one prior.

And these are beginners and the majority of people who come to me to begin learning piano are often convinced they have no musical ear. Yet this is proof that they do!

Furthermore, it reaffirms the belief that using memory is a very strong tool for learning.

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#piano #pianist #pianoteacher #pianotutor #pianolesson #pianopupil #pianopractice #sheetmusic #learnmusic #musiclesson #musicpupil

"Annie" 8th - 10th April 2024

Behold, an update of my fabulous musical life...

This past week, I was invited back by Kalini Kent of CYGNETS to...CYGNETS!...for their Springtime workshop. This year, it was a small production of 'Annie'.

I have been working towards CYGNETS' production of 'Beauty and the Beast' - to be put on at Kings School in Macclesfield later this year, and on the back of that I was invited back by Kalini to team up with her as director (and, basically, everything else) and the same choreographer - Hannah Davies - to pull together a small showcase as musical director.

CYGNETS is a not for profit group that stands for 'Cheshire Youth Group for New and Emerging Talent on Stage'. I suppose the rest will naturally fall into place: it focuses on performing arts (especially musical ones, in my experience!) for children between the ages of 7 - 18, (theoretically, though most anybody with the will to even just try is welcome!).

Throughout the year, they put on a number of workshops and full day courses, but having never done one prior I can only speak for what I now recognise to be their Springtime workshop. This is a three full day course (9 - 5), the third day of which extends later with two performances that last approximately one hour each - one at 5:00 and one at 7:00. For these performances, parents are invited to watch for a small ticket price (or free for under 5's!) and there is a bar set up with both soft and alcoholic drinks, as well as snacks.

Everything takes place at the group's rehearsal space in Macclesfield which has, over the past year, been painstakingly set up to accommodate such a thing as this; an electric piano and speaker has been invested in, a sound system had been moved in just in time for this show which I believe will now live there (though not necessarily set up) and there is both a floor level and raised performance area as well as permanent raked seating. One of the back rooms has an entrance on either end of the long space which even serves perfectly as a backstage area!

For those unfamiliar with 'Annie', you may be familiar with the titles of some or all of the following songs that were performed in some capacity:

• Maybe

• It's the Hard Knock Life

• Tomorrow

• Little Girls

• You Won't Be an Orphan for Long

• You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

• I Don't Need Anything But You

..and of course, it was my job to ensure that the children all knew their parts.

One thing that is very good about this - and I believe all of CYGNETS' - workshop(s) is the rotation of roles throughout. Very cleverly done to ensure that;

• nobody has too much to learn, given that it is a three day course, but more importantly;
  

• everybody gets an opportunity at doing something that they want to do.

Therefore, there were several Annies, and given that there were about four reprises of 'Maybe' and a couple of reprises of 'Tomorrow', it gave plenty of girls the opportunity to sing a solo. No other part was left to just one individual either!

Given that this was not only a three day workshop but also a youth production, there were heavy cuts throughout. Repetition was generally ignored in the songs - once through was fine for the likes of 'Tomorrow' and if any solo was taken in, for example, 'You're Never Fully Dressed...", then it was only for the sake of two short verses before the full chorus joined in to support for the rest of the song (which, again, would not be much).

Whilst the script had the intention of a few other scenes and a few songs that were cut, I also still honoured some instrumental transitional / underscoring of the songs 'I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here', 'N.Y.C', 'Easy Streets' and 'Annie'.

After three very long days (especially Wednesday 10th - the third day - the inevitable two runs and two performances day!), it proved a success. The parents were raving about it - many staying for both performances - and the young cast, who were already doing a great job, massively upped their game for both shows!

A huge well done to CYGNETS - in particular to Kalini Kent - for being able to pull a performance like this together in just three days.

If you are in the Macclesfield area and have or know of a child who you think might benefit from the organisation, do contact Kalini or CYGNETS via the website.

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#macclesfield #amateurdramatics #youthproduction #anniemusical #cygnetsmacclesfield #amateurtheatre #amateuryouthproduction