In another thread (the Recording Charlie Wilson one to be precise), there was an idea put forward about meeting up at a studio to perform and record compositions by other forum members. As the level of interest seemed to be a little luke-warmish, we decided to start another thread to alert some of you members who may not have read the other thread. Here is the general gist of what Katyjay has suggested, it would be great to get as many as possible:

"Would people be interested in taking part in a recording session (as if we were real session artists) with a sound engineer to make a proper CD of Charlie Wilson Blues and any other stuff we might do along with it?

Do any of our brilliant forums composers have anything they might be interested in having a Forums Ensemble record?

I have a sound engineer who's interested in the project, and obviously there would be a cost from each participant to cover his fees and premises hire, but hopefully if enough people are interested that shouldn't be too steep. And then there'd be a small additional cost for copies of the CD, which of course you could send to your best friends, your Auntie Mabel, your Mum..........Our preference is going to be music that can (either directly or with a bit of tweaking) be played by all the people we have present, rather than having people "sitting out" for some of the tracks, so that everyone involved gets value for money from their day.

We also thought that if we have enough people with conducting experience, we can take it in turns to conduct, so everyone gets to play for at least some of the time.

I can't give you cost figures yet, it will depend on how many people take part, and how many works we want to record.
But just to give you a guideline, the engineer charges by the hour, and so will whatever premises we work in. The engineer will spend some time mic'ing and sound-checking before we start to record, and will spend some time editing and mixing afterwards. I would be surprised if this comes to less than ?200 altogether.

And, as I mentioned before, there will be a charge for each CD he supplies at the end of the process.

Because the engineer's time is expensive, we do need to be ready to record on the day. So I think it might be a good idea to have a practice day beforehand. And when we've sorted the music, I'll distribute parts beforehand for home practice too.

So far, I've had expressions of interest (which don't yet commit people) from

PERFORMERS AND THEIR INSTRUMENTS
Barry-Clari - Clarinet/Flute/Sax/Conductor
Katyjay - Voice/Recorder/Violin/Conductor
Nicki-Flute - Flute
Amber - Voice
Meerkat - Voice/Guitar/Cello/Trombone
Sbhoa - Piano/Clarinet
Jo.Clarinet - Clarinet
Sarah-Flute - Flute/Violin/Viola
Janexxx - Violin
Suepea - Piano/Cello
The Light Beat - Drumkit
HillyB - Sax/Flute
Rhu - Bassoon
Oboebunny - Oboe/Violin
Sneekymum - Flute

COMPOSERS
Barry-Clari & Amber (Charlie Wilson Blues)
Boo Radley
Petrat

Anyone else interested?"

I can cover someone's place on clarinet or flute if necessary - not a prob to travel anywhere in the South of England and Wales really

Definitely interested yes - if I can free up the appropriate day.

Piano / recorder / voice

I would love to, but my parents won't let me

let me know if you need a jobbing pianist

As long as the date avoids anything else I have scheduled, I'll be there.

Anywhere South/SE England/Midlands/East Anglia would be OK for me to get to.

It sounds like tremendous fun and I'd love to come along - but I'll quite understand if you think a Grade 2 clarinet isn't quite up to recording standard yet and maybe I'll be of a more proficient standard by the time of the next one ...

(Although I HAVE played with members of the Halle Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall so maybe I qualify after all? )

Reiterating my interest, subject to health and wealth!

Fen we very much need a competent pianist as I have several piano quintet and piano trio movements possibly on the schudule.

Thanks so much to Barry and Boo for keeping the idea alive.

Jazzfan, my initial idea, which I hope won't be diluted, is for anyone who wants to participate to do so. So grade 2 clarinet would certainly be welcome.


I'm going to ask the moderators if they can make this a sticky topic for the General board, and if we can post links to it from the other forums, so that we get as many people as possible.

Hi all
I would also be happy to offer services as a piano accompanist is needed.

Ah wonderful, I'll send the hard ones to Fen and the fiendishly hard ones to you Margaret. Thanks very much, Katyjay is sorting out the logistics at the moment but the more the merrier definitely.

Oooo lovely - another thing to get excited about! And I've just read the original thread which says it might be a year away, so I ought to be Grade 3/going on 4 by then

(If it's the last week in August though as the other thread suggests as an option, it will clash with a jazz festival I normally go to. You know what it's like, you want to do it all ...)

If I'm not otherwise booked, I'd love to do it. I'm a singer by the way.

Claire
xx

Pushing towards 20 'potentials'. Yay!

Do you, out of interest Claire, play a musical instrument to any standard, apart from singing?

Depending on when and where the Girls wouls love to be involved, if age doesn't prevent them.

Provided (1) you're with them to keep an eye on them and (2) we have your permission to include them in the recording, it should be OK.

Cheers

Katyjay

As long as it doesn't clash with school/JD, then I'm all for it.. also as long as it's within a reasonable travelling distance.

I mentioned it on the other thread, but I'll mention it again here. Is there anyone else who has any compositions, or who wants to write something to go onto any potential CD?

I'd love to. Do you have to be there to do one though?

You don't necessarily have to be around to hear us record your work, although obviously if you want to be part of the actual recording you'd need to be with us.

Does that help?

Cheers

Katyjay

Yes it does - My parents would never let me do anything like that sadly. But at least I can contribute some music to it, even if I can't be there!

Yes I'd be with them, but there quite good in adult company anyway. By then they will be 15 and 12 so there not little kids.

That's a shame Rosemary, but I can understand that your parents would be (quite rightly) concerned about you meeting with a bunch of (mad ?) people you had only so far met via the internet.

Maybe you could persuade them (or one of them) to bring you a forum concert at some time, and then they would (hopefully) feel more comfortable. Or maybe you just have to wait ( I know it seems a long time!) until you are a bit older and can make your own decisions.

Hopefully you will be able to join in the extra-curricular activities at some point in the future and we'll all look forward to meeting you then!

That's fine. It's just that anyone under 18 we would ask for parental permission and a chaperone, so that we don't fall foul of all the Child Protection rules.

Just to say I'm still interested

I'd still like to take part if you need a bassoonist.

The simple answer at the moment is no... though in the past I've played recorder and clarinet to about grade 4, and piano to grade 5. I'm just restarting piano lessons, on Wednesday, eep! I took a total break from music- for 4 whole years, for various reasons. Didn't do anything musical at all really. Getting back into it now, and I'm glad I took time off, but I'm more glad to be restarting it!

Claire
xx

Yes it is a pity you can't come, and if it IS because your parents are cautious about "internet friends", would it help to show them the pictures of everybody at Woodford Green? Then they could see that forumites are really quite normal people after all. Just a thought.

My parents are a bit concerned about me being obsessed with music at the moment anyway. They want me to go into engineering. I'm afraid it'll have to wait until I move out.

Do you want to go into engineering? Ok its possibly a better prospect than a career in music, but being happy is very important too. As indeed is having a good relationship with your parents...I can see you may have to be patient. Best of luck anyway.

I don't really want to do engineering. I'd much rather do music, with engineering as a back up.

I don't really want my youngest to go into Music, but whilst she's so keen I'll do everything I can to support her.

Katyjay the advantage of my being on the forum is that I don't really worry about the girls meeting the people form the Internet. Perhaps because those we have met up to now have been very nice people, like Moomalade and Jazzfan. Besides they might meet a few more people at the Chester get together. I would under other cicrumstances be very worried.

So far:

PERFORMERS AND THEIR INSTRUMENTS
Barry-Clari - Clarinet/Flute/Sax/Conductor
Katyjay - Voice/Recorder/Violin/Conductor
Nicki-Flute - Flute
Amber - Voice
Meerkat - Voice/Guitar/Cello/Trombone
Sbhoa - Piano/Clarinet
Jo.Clarinet - Clarinet
Sarah-Flute - Flute/Violin/Viola
Janexxx - Violin
Suepea - Piano/Cello
The Light Beat - Drumkit
HillyB - Sax/Flute
Rhu - Bassoon
Oboebunny - Oboe/Violin
Sneekymum - Flute
Maggiemay - Piano/Recorder/Voice
Fen - Piano
Margaret - Piano
Oddball - Flute/Clarinet
Claire - Voice
Isabel - Viola ()
Jazzfan - Clarinet


COMPOSERS
Barry-Clari & Amber (Charlie Wilson Blues)
Boo Radley
Petrat
Rosemary14
Sarah-Flute

Notmusicmum, what do your girls play?

You're still very young, and there's plenty of time. And it is possible to have 2 careers...(Katyjay started as an accountant!)

Music is a very difficult area in which to earn a living, and engineers are always in big demand, so I can see that your parents have your best interests at heart. However if it doesn't float your boat and your heart's not in it then you won't be giving it your best shot. It's a difficult time as you will soon have to make a decision regarding A levels and it will most likely force you down one road or the other. However remember that you can change later if you want to, even if its much, much later. Engineering could serve as the funder for future musical activities and studies.

On the other hand if your parents realise how much you really want to do it then they might be convinced. See if you can do a bit of research in musical careers that will be more stable and therefore acceptable. There may well be things in production, marketing of events etc that they may find more acceptable as a career for you.

Anyone else any ideas?

Janexxx and jazzfan, I think notmusicmum's got a point.

She has an idea of what she's letting her girls in for in meeting us because she's been involved in the forum.

I don't think I'd be comfortable if I were a mum or dad whose child wanted to meet people from the internet, unless I had some means of "vetting" them first.

It's not the first time this issue's cropped up, and I think we have to accept the position gracefully. It's not fair on the kids involved to put any further pressure on them about it. So let's leave Rosemary in peace in the topic.

I've done a nice little Excel spreadsheet with a grid of participating members and what they can play (not including notmusicmum's girls as I don't yet know what they play).

I have taken liberties of choosing one instrument for each member to suit the balance best and we currently have: 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 3 flutes, 2 saxes, 3 clarinets, 1 recorder, 1 bassoon, 1 oboe, 2 voices and a drum kit.

We badly need more strings. Oboebunny could play violin if needs be and Sarah could play violin instead of the listed viola but really we don't want to cut the violas or oboes so we just need more strings full stop.

Just a thought, as this is a recording is there an opportunity to double track some parts if we are desperately short. Eg Oboebunny could play BOTH oboe and violin

Aha great plan! And Sarah could play violin and viola. Good idea, if the sound engineer could achieve it ok.

I'm not sure we'll have time to do double tracking. And I think we'll have ensemble mikes rather than individual, so I'm not certain that it would work.

We need more people full stop.

Well this thread has only been in operation for less than 36 hours and the response has already improved drastically so hopefully over the working week we'll get a few more recruits.

True, thanks to your tenacity and determination

Can add another composer to the list - Sarah-Flute

Ooh nonsense, I only started another thread. The idea was your's and Barry's.

I might be able to come, depending on dates etc. That is, if another flute/recorder won't over-balance the whole thing.

I think that we will adjust whatever music we have to fit the forces available, rather than excluding people on the basis of balance. If we end up inundated with flutes, so be it.

Unless you fancy learning viola before then Andante?

But then I'd be the only forum member left not learning the viola .

Without wanting in any way to throw spanners into the works: while I am happy to play violin or viola, I'd really like to play flute in *something* - it's my main instrument, and I'm much happier playing (and a trillion times happier being recorded on) it than on strings. Same as most forum events really, I know string players are needed and I'm willing to help out, but when it's being recorded for posterity I'm a bit leary of playing an instrument that I really don't feel terribly proficient in.

I'm not learning the viola either. You're not alone.