This summer, amateur and student musicians will be coming together to create a unique virtual performance of Terry Riley’s iconic minimalist composition ‘In C’. This is a piece made up of a series of very short fragments of music, played on any instrument. In our rendition of the work, the fragments will come in any order, and participants will record… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Music matters, and it really doesn’t matter at all
Like many aspects of our lives, music is difficult to define because any attempt to pin it down seems fraught with caveats and contradictions. Music is organised sound.. and so is speech. Music doesn’t require words but very often uses them. Music is often described as a universal language, but pieces from one place, time or culture can seem irrelevant… Read more »
Just a brief blog today to give you the list of slots available for the coming week. I’m taking annual leave for the first few days, but there’s slots available towards the end of the week: Thursday 3rd June 11:00 13:30 17:30 Friday 4th June 10:00 14:30 If you would like to book any of the above, drop me a… Read more »
Music is Mindfulness The Sunday supplements these days are full of articles about how to let go of stress, anxiety and depression; how to move forward and find your way to truly ‘live in the moment’ experiencing life as it happens rather than being physically in one place but mentally elsewhere. I know that I’ve struggled with this over the… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Update & Nostalgic School Assembly Songs
YouTube Recording Project Partly as a bit of fun (but also to help increase my web presence), I have recently started a little project recording songs that we used to sing at assembly at school. There are loads that people will be familiar with from the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. I’ve been playing them on piano and uploading to YouTube… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Update: Resumption of Music Exams
Many of my students have been confused and perplexed by the various and changing arrangements for graded instrumental exams over the past year or so. For clarity, I have trawled through the info for the three main boards that my students enter and provide a little info for each below: ABRSM Face to face exams resume in June. From the… Read more »
Over lockdown, I’ve found new uses for my YouTube channel: it’s an ideal place to post content for my students. Some videos are backing tracks for singers to perform along to, some are demonstration videos of techniques or sections of pieces that my students are learning, and others are full performances of my students’ study pieces to act as a… Read more »
Face-to-Face & Zoom Lessons Resume Whether you are desperate to get back to in-person lessons, or whether you would prefer to continue with music sessions over Zoom, I’d like to say a big welcome back and thank you for using my service. For those who are continuing with video lessons, little will change from before Easter, except that you might… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on One step closer to safer lessons
I had my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine today, and would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in making these inoculations happen. The faster we get everyone vaccinated, the sooner we’ll all be able to enjoy a return to normal life!
My service will be closed for the whole of the North Yorkshire Easter school holidays. This means that after today lessons will resume on Tuesday 13th April. By that point, students will be welcome either to have lessons face-to-face or by Zoom. There’ll be another post in the early part of April to give details of available lesson slots for… Read more »
