Support Sound It Out

Sound It Out, the community music charity based in Birmingham (whom I do a great deal of work for), had it’s core funding cut by 100% in last weeks Arts Council budget announcement.

The total funding lost is only around 12% of SIO’s current income, it is core funding that pays for the core staff that help to raise funds for projects all over the West Midlands. Having worked for SIO over the past 3 years, I can wholeheartedly vouch for the life changing projects they facilitate. The difference made to adults and young people across the West Midlands is huge. Countless communities have benefitted from SIO’s vision to empower individuals with rich and diverse experiences. Generations, cultures, races and even rivalling gangs have been brought together through projects co-ordinated through SIO. The loss to communities and individuals will be immeasurable as the potential positive difference SIO makes is left reeling after the announced cuts.

Show your support for this amazing charity by signing a petition against the proposed cuts here.

There is also a “Sing for Sound It Out”, campaign. Details are available at Clare Edwards’ blog here.

Get on board everyone!!

 

“Every pop song only ever uses 4 chords”…

…Courtesy of some delightful Australians.

Now get practicing those [i-V-VI-iv] chords progressions!!

Musician? Music Lover? Enjoy the VAT increase…

…details here.

It makes for delightful reading

It’s a shame more of this doesn’t exist…

Howlin’ Wolf speaking in 1966.

I’ve heard the year is fairly topical at the moment…

Musician/teacher…

…It’s always best to define what you are before you start working.

As I’ve seen numerous times before, musicians don’t always always make the best teachers. I agree it can be difficult to separate 2 personalities but musicians seem to struggle more than most and at times, mentoring/workshop leading/teaching can suffer at the expensive of trying to create a high quality musical output.

Maybe this is just my viewpoint and given the sorts of young people I work with-I’m happy to get any musical outcome, let alone one that is of industry standard.

Just a thought…

Far from good news…

…to the tune of £19 million cut from Arts Council England’s funding. This, in addition to the £4 million already cut pre- 2010/2011 means that they have £23 million less to dish out this year.

As the statement says, there’s talks with the Treasury to allow ACE to take the hit by using their apparent reserve funds as a contingency but I’m not crossing any fingers, although a statement from ACE’s Chair Dame Liz Forgan seems positive.

I like most was more than aware that these cuts had to/were going to happen, it’s just disappointing to see the figures…

UK Garage you say….

…?

I miss these days (download here).

Massive love to Logan Sama for the link.

For anyone who hasn’t yet adopted the greatest thing to happen to the music industry in the last 5 years…

…then sort yourselves out yeah?

Firm favourite of mine, Spotify, has now been released in a variety of flavours-gone are the days of invite only music (limited play time), now everyone can see what the fuss is about. I personally am a massive advocate of this program and am more than happy to fork out the £9.99 p/mth for the privilege.

Give it a whirl if you’re yet to jump on board.

The most important drum beat ever recorded…

Amazing video detailing how ONE DRUM BEAT had such a profound effect on the genres we listen to today;

“This sample was used extensively in early hip hop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures.”

The video gets a little dry and Nate Harrision’s voice is a little monotonous but utter respect is due for his knowledge of the subject matter. It stands though that the Amen break has firmly earned it’s place in the history of music.

A Mandolin and a din later…

…I think I’ve cracked it.

The dream to be able to play every musical instrument ever made may have to be resigned to the “never to be achieved pile”, but playing mandolin just got a little bit easier with the discovery of this little cracker. If only it knew why my mandolin feels like it can’t be tuned to anything other than DGBA…

For anyone that’s not adept at music/harmonic theory, enjoy!