Year 7 Camp

Voila!

A recording studio!

Our year started with much enthusiasm!

The Big Band kicked things off with hours of early morning rehearsals and preparations to perform at the P&F Welcome Sundowner on Friday, 4 February. Recovering quickly from a sixweek break, the ensemble slotted back together and performed to an enthusiastic audience in the beautiful surrounds of the Quadrangle. Just as quickly as it began, it was over – restrictions the next week forced us to delay the start of ensemble rehearsals for groups larger than 10 players and we had to find new ways of making music together. The Year 12 boys threw themselves into creating a recording studio in what had always been known as the Strings Room. The room was cleared of furniture and a large number of violins, violas, cellos and double basses. With this, Mrs Speer and Mrs Collins embraced the opportunity to conduct lessons in one of the new music pods. Over the next few weeks, Charlie, Aaron, Jordan and Cooper scoured the department for equipment, put up acoustic panels on the walls and set up a drum kit, piano, keyboard, guitar and bass amps, microphones and an old analogue hard disk recorder to get the studio going. The IT Department helped by installing recording software on the iMacs and voila, a recording studio! The studio has already provided hours of entertainment and discovery for our senior music students and we are all looking forward to improving our performance and recording skills during the year. Band rehearsals remain on hold for the time being but rehearsals for small groups of musicians have been happening all Term. The strings, flute, clarinet, brass and jazz ensembles have been rehearsing regularly and are preparing repertoire ready for when we are allowed to perform publicly again. We are enjoying using the music pods for instrumental lessons and we have done lots of tidying up around the building. Our ‘Watermelon Man’ costume has been framed and now sits in a prominent place outside the Performing Arts office, reminding us of fun times on Music Tour last year!

Aaron Lanagan and Tom Simmonds :: Music Captains 2022