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Jonathan Daniel Youth Music Blog 2
Over the last couple of months I have had the opportunity to work on an
exciting project that has entailed recording an orchestra and choir to
produce a charity single.
Before the start of summer I was able to commence the first part of the
recording process for this project, recording many of the large
percussive instruments on location at one of the participating schools
within the project. Looking back at the first recording session I felt very
optimistic ahead of it and very positive about the progress that had been
made so far. The success of the first session was a result of the
knowledge I had gained through my university course and experience I
have been able to gain by putting that knowledge into practice with the
addition of the great level of maturity from the young musicians.
The preparation for these sessions differed completely in comparison to
most when preparing for music session delivery. In the early stages of
the project the preparation mainly relied on my technical knowledge
and understanding. This meant using the correct equipment and
procedures to ensure that all young musicians could enjoy the sessions
with no technical problems. Working with an older group of young
musicians meant they had a greater understanding of music; these
young musicians were also classically trained. This made the sessions
overall more enjoyable for me as an arts practitioner because I was able
to connect with them in a more mature manner.
The next part of the project entailed going into primary and secondary
schools and recording the choirs for the song. Going into schools and
recording young choirs was an all-new experience for me. As this was
the part of the project I had not done before I was most looking forward
to it and going into schools and working with different people. I already
had the technical knowledge and understanding that was required for
this part of the project, but I was able to expand on my skills by working
with different ranges of people at this stage of the project.
Overall this was a fun and exciting project to be involved in and to be
able to have worked on the project from the start of the recording
process to it’s near completion has been great. One of the key points I
took from the early part of the project was that for many musicians
recording is a fairly new experience and could come across as quite
daunting to many people no matter the level of proficiency on their
instrument. The most important attribute to have at this point in time is
patience and to really go the extra mile to assure them that everything
will be ok and ensure that they are relaxed in the environment that they
are in.