Lyrics & Vocals

  • 19.09.16 - 28.11.16

Lyrics & Vocals is a brand new vocal and songwriting group from Brighter Sound at Band on the Wall. 

New for Autumn 2016, this ten week group course is for anyone interested in:

•‘finding a voice’ and improving vocal skills

•learning and improving their songwriting craft

•harmonising and arranging covers of well known songs

•collaborating on new songs

•finding ways to get your songs heard, picked up and published

The course is led by experienced tutor, inspirational choral workshop leader, multi-instrumentalist and published writer John Blaylock. Fresh back in the UK after spending a successful year in Los Angeles working as a songwriter and session musician on TV and film projects, John is keen to pass his knowledge and expertise on to help aspiring writers and performers achieve greatness (in whatever definition you like). The group is supported by violinist and music teacher Jote Oshan, who as a session musician has toured with the likes of Elbow, The Maccabees, Nick Cave, Sia, Roots Manuva, Gorillaz, The Cinematic Orchestra and Duran Duran.

This group is open to singer-songwriters and vocalists with any level of experience and ability. Lyrics & Vocals is all about building confidence, nurturing talent, learning and perfecting new skills, building networks and collaboration. There will also be opportunities to perform in friendly and intimate surroundings at Band on the Wall.

“First and foremost this is going to be a really fun group. We’ll start with a laid back approach, no-one will be put on the spot early on but as the barriers come down and the confidence grows everyone will play a starring role,” says John. “The emphasis is on singing and songwriting – learning key techniques to improve the tone of your voice, make it more powerful and increase vocal stamina so you can safely sing for longer periods of time. We will start by applying these techniques to cover songs that we all know and (hopefully!) love. We will also work in vocal harmonies to build up great sounding arrangements for performance at some point down the road.

“We’ll start to break these songs down to understand good song structure and dynamics, then try and replicate or intentionally deviate from these so as to come up with our own songs. Everyone has it in them to write and as you will discover, collaborating with other writers is one of the best ways to develop your own songs and your own writing skills.”

All levels of experience welcome.

N.B. All under 16’s must be accompanied by a responsible adult