Stay Connected Musical Connections News!

N.B. - So that we don't have too much interrup-

tion of the creative flow, it would be appreci-

ated if people could do their best to arrive on

time for the group sessions. Thanks!

Wed 28 Oct 1.30—4pm Know the difference between your minims and your minor 7ths? Want to know why some chords sound right and others sound wrong underneath a melody? In-terested in having an introduction to basic music reading? Then this is the session for you! There will be the opportunity to ask anything you want to know about music theory and handouts will be available covering key signatures, note values and the notes of treble and bass clef.

If you’re interested in helping shape the future of Musical

Connections then come along to the Members’ Advisory

Group meeting at 12pm before each Group session. The next

one will be 4 November. We make decisions like what Special-

ist sessions to offer members, what activities to include at the

Residency and other events members might be interested in….

One simple and yet important reason to create a piece of visual art to ac-company your latest musical creation could be to devise a way to incorpo-rate how your musical creation would look when presented to your audi-ence, as an optical visual concept. A way in which the message of your

music transcends as a piece of visual communication could be highly regarded by your audience and potential listeners, when an artist creates an art form of sentimental

value to the viewer , in that the art beholds some sort of sentiment for a multitude of reasons.

Your audience could also have dreamt of the same sorts of people, situations and design - whether they are from the past, present or future. For them to be able to recommend and forward their opinions about your music to their family and friends. This would be highly commendable for the future of your own music, as everything bases itself around this basic foundation, similar to “Chinese whispers,” where in the bigger the impact, the longer the art lasts within the music industry.

This basic principle could quite well vouch or even confirm your position in the music industry and at the very least establish to others that you are qualified. As you may have to travel far and wide to accumulate all you need to create such art, that in fact expresses to the world what you represent all compressed into one 3-7 mi-nute music video.

This may sound impossible to achieve as your current budget does not cover, £50,000 directors‖ fees amongst all the other chargeable elements which make up the music industry to create a reliable and professional music video to present to your audience or potential audience via visual media Cont’d on back page

Members’

Corner

Jazzlines Free Gigs, every Fri, 5-6:30pm, Symphony Hall Café Bar, Broad Street, B1 2EA The Strangest Feeling + Sharon Lewis (of Pooka), Mon 26 Oct, 7:30pm, The Kitchen Garden Café, York Road, Kings

Heath B14 7SA, £8 or £5 advance tickets available from Paul, Pete or Steve ; D MC Specialist Session: Music Theory, Wed 28 Oct 1:30—4pm, ACMC MC Group Session, Wed 4 Nov 1:30—4pm, ACMC Jazzlines Free Gigs: Sanpdragon, Thu 5 Nov 5pm, Bramall Music Building Auditorium, University of Birmingham, Steve’s MC Songwriting Session, Tue 17 Nov 1:30—3:30pm, ACMC Edgbaston, B15 2TT Brainstorm Open Mic, Wed 18 Nov, 8pm, Spotted Dog, 104 Warwick St, Digbeth, B12 0NH, free

I‖m Jameela. I have been a volunteer since December 2015. My instrument is my voice and I sing Pop, Gospel, Carols and inspirational songs in Birmingham City Council Choir. The thing I like most about Musi-cal Connections is creating songs and music and performing and working together with such talented people.

I‖m Katie. I have been a volunteer for about 5 years now. It has gone so fast! I play the clarinet and am trying to learn the flute and a traditional Bulgarian instrument called the 'kaval' in my spare time. I like to play all sorts of different music - at the moment I am particularly keen on playing Bulgarian folk on my clarinet, Brazilian 'choro' and am also learning some Bach for fun. (Hey - those all begin with B!) The rea-son why Musical Connections is so special to me is because there are no musical limitations to what we can do. I am always amazed at how such incredible songs can flow in a very small time. The music is so free and it in turn allows me to be free too. With friends and an open mind anything can happen! I‖m Michelle. I've been a volunteer for 5 years...gosh, that's a long time! I started back in September 2010 when we used to be a Sound It Out project. I am a recorder player but also love to have a good sing. At MC, I also often play my flute because otherwise I get few chances to play it. My background is in classical music and musical theatre and I love (recorder!) music from before the 1700s. I also love rau-cous folk music, and play in a band called the Bonfire Radicals with fellow MC volunteer Katie. My fa-vourite thing about Musical Connections is coming together with so many inspirational people to share in a creative music making process. Everyone is equal and I am continually amazed by the high quality of songs produced in such a short time. I feel like I learn so much from everyone else in my group. I‖m Shanna. I have been a volunteer for around 10 months. As much as I tried I could never convince myself to learn an instrument. However I am quite a ―Musical‖ person and find that learning little bits and bobs on the piano comes quite easily to me. I also recently found that the harmonica comes quite nat-urally to me too! Mainly I prefer to sing though. I enjoy a pretty wide spectrum of musical genres, any-thing I can have a little sing and dance to! The thing I like most about Musical Connections is the at-mosphere created by the members. They create a completely judgement-free zone where everyone can relax and be themselves. I‖m Steve. I have been a volunteer about 7 or 8 years. I mainly play bass and guitar but I also use key-board a lot when making music on the computer. I like all kinds of music—Indie, Blues, Disco—anything really. I can‖t work out if my favourite thing about Musical Connections is "The music and the people" or "The people and the music!" I‖m Wayne. I‖ve been volunteering for a bout 3 months now, since the start of ADHD. I play guitar, bass. lead guitar and simple keyboard/synth—and obviously drums. I'm mainly into Rock 'n' Blues from the 70s/80s but I do listen to Indie and sitar music too—lots of fusion music. I like to mix sitar with rock music. I like the fact we all like the same thing at Musical Connections, which is music and that we've all got a very strong passion for it. I also like that we break things down and there are lots of different people with different talents. I've been looking for that kind of energy for years. There's no discrimination on what you can play and each person is accepted for their own ability.

Here is a list of my favorite top twenty-one singers of all time:-

21. Frank Sinatra - old blue eyes, a member of the rat pack.

20. Louis Armstrong - unique voice and great trumpet player.

19. Elvis Presley - The King. 18. Matt Monro - a former bus driver, the English Frank

Sinatra but better. 17. Stevie Wonder - a great singer and a great piano

player. 16. Phil Collins - a great singer and talented drummer. 15. Sting - lead singer of the Police and a solo singer. 14. Steve Ison - M.C. legend. I‖ve done a number of

songs with Steve over the years, nickname Ison the Bison. Great singer, great lyricist, great guitarist and genuine nice guy. This guy is as valuable as white gold!

13. Madonna - the only women in this list. The material girl, I‖m ―Mad on a‖.

12. Sir Paul McCartney - Beatles legend, still performing today and sounds just as good now as he did when he was in the Beatles.

11. Andy Abraham - former dustbin man turned X-Factor contestant, my favorite ever X-Factor con-testant.

10. John Lennon – ―Imagine‖ if Lennon was alive today! Took away from us far too soon. My favorite Beatle. Very very talented.

9. Sir Elton John - what can I say? This guy is still stand-ing after all these years.

8. Neil Tennant - Pet Shop Boys lead singer, love his voice and songs.

7. Sir Cliff Richard - my Mum‖s favor-ite ever singer, grew up with him. He‖s been going since the 1950‖s. He deserves a summer holiday and is still a bachelor boy.

6. Barry Manilow - wrote his own songs and has done some great cover songs. Great singer, great piano player.

5. Freddie Mercury - in my opinion the greatest ever front man of a band. If you have access to the in-ternet go on to YouTube and type in “Freddie Mer-cury versus the crowd” - you will be gob-smacked. Another legend who went before his time.

4. Dean Camps - writes his own songs, great voice, great entertainer, in a great band called ADHD. When I hear him sing I keep calm and carry on.

3. Graham Gouldman - 10cc legend, one of the greatest lyricists of all time in my opinion. Been lucky enough to meet him and get his autograph.

2. Rick Astley - he had a hit which was number 1 in about 40 countries around the world. The song was called Never Gonna Give You Up. I‖m never gonna give up on his songs.

1. Paul Heaton - lead singer of the Housemartins and the Beautiful South. I‖ve been fortunate to see him live and have a signed photo from him. His songs helped me to get through my Dad‖s death. Thank you, Paul.

If you feel inspired why don’t you write down your top twenty singers down of all time. All the best. Daniel Harris

Danny’s No. 1 Singer of All Time

Alien Light—photograph by Victoria

for completing the Great Bir-mingham Run on Sunday 18 October. She ran 13 miles in 2 hours and 18 minutes, raising

money for Birmingham‖s Choir With No Name! See next month‖s newsletter for full details.

Well done to Nicola!

Project managed by

T: 07812 260780 E: musicalconnectionsinfo@gmail.com

Coordinator: Paul Carroll

channels, who, given the choice, would limit your air play dependent on who you are, because the infrastructure of the music industry is so versatile. The aim is to target times when your music can be played when the population of media viewers are at their highest. Although you may so desire to have your

music played as many times as possible, static sales of previous artists have reflect-ed air play viewed by smaller and yet diverse audiences are of equal importance.

This may all sound unrealistic as an independent artist, however, to encourage the possibility of signing to a major label could quite well have made your dreams come true. However as an independent artist you

may have felt isolated from music industry as maybe from the start you did not know how to approach and apply your self creatively as you had al-ways imagined it to be an obstacle, when in fact to make a music video is an extension of your musical creativity.

Alternatively there is the internet, where you can simply upload your music and have your visual art displayed along with your music. For more inde-pendent artists this method has proven to be successful and reliable, as modern music artists currently present their music in similar ways, whether or not this is the right way. Although very ordinary it is a means to an end and a way to get your music out there cost effectively.

Until next time have a great month Victoria

Members’

Corner

There's a great performing opportunity for MC members happening on the last Friday of every month from 2pm till about 5.30pm at CREATIVE SUPPORT at 64 Water St, Birmingham B3 1HN (a short walk from Snow Hill Station). It‖s an open mic session run by the multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist Quinn and ably supported by new MC volunteer (and ADHD drummer) Wayne Hands and ace bassist Kieran. There's an electronic drum kit, bass amp, electric guitar and microphones all set up by them for whoever wants to play! Plus musicians like Quinn, Wayne, Kieran (plus myself and often MC members Gary and Jon) on hand for those who need support in their performances. Plenty of MC members have been along and performed their music since Musical Connections started getting in-volved 3 months ago and it‖s really developed into a great afternoon with a lot of camaraderie and a great com-munity spirit, similar to Brainstorm and MC. We've had performances from ADHD. rockin' pop from Gary and Cheryl, cool rock from Jon, great instant songs from Yvette, strong rapping from Jason, wonderful singing from Robert Morgan, Jose Wales from Robert Haliwell, beautiful improvised songs from Victoria, magical trumpet from new member Basil, passionate songs from new member Tom, original keyboard songs from Kieran Hall plus lots more. It‖s a wonderfully relaxed musical vibe so please come along if you think this is something you might enjoy. You'd be most welcome!

Saturn Narratives—photograph by Victoria