Called Khoros, the device is made up of a series of coloured pads that emit sound and light when touched. It can also play back voice recordings too.

The instrument’s creator, Paul Rogerson, has now begun selling it to schools, hospices and children’s wards.

Speaking to local paper The Sentinel, he explained how he identified the need for disabled children to interact more with music, which can be a powerful tool to aid development and engagement with others.

“To me music is the most important thing in my life, it’s a cliche but it is a universal language,” he said.

“With the Khoros I often get members of staff saying it has had an effect on pupils who have never really engaged before, and it’s great to see these mini miracles.”

Paul got the idea for the device while running workshops for vulnerable groups of children. Following the sessions, he set to designing something that kids could engage with for therapeutic use.

An earlier prototype of the Khoros used a giant dance mat to generate sounds as users jumped up and down on it. The finished product is more sophisticated however and can be assembled in a variety of different shapes and patterns for use on floors and tabletops.

“The Khoros is almost like an oversized, colourful keyboard – you can walk on it, run wheelchairs across it, or put it on a table and use your hands,” Paul added.

Early success has led Paul to set up his own one-man business, Touching Sounds, which he hopes to expand over the next year. His plan is to increase and widen distribution of the Khoros to multi-sensory firms who will then sell the device on his behalf.

What do you think of the Khoros? Do you have any experiences of utilising music for therapeutic purposes?

The event is the annual conference of MMA members, and Rhinegold Education will be exhibiting throughout the conference on the Music Sales stand.

Delegates are invited to visit the stand to find out more about Rhinegold’s wide range of classroom resources for the Edexcel, AQA and OCR GCSE and A Level specifications, as well as our general music education resources, and to learn about some exciting new resources being published later this year.

Euan Philipps, Rhinegold’s Education Marketing Manager spoke to the Musicroom blog about the importance of the MMA conference.

“This event will be a great opportunity for us to meet our customers and get a really good sense of the key issues affecting music teachers and music education today.”

“We are passionate about music education, and we want to make sure that we continue to publish the classroom resources that our customers really need”

Euan will be available on the stand throughout the conference.

For more information on Rhinegold Education, contact euan.philipps@musicsales.co.uk or visit their page at musicroom.com.

Also, don’t forget to follow Rhinegold on Twitter: @RhinegoldBooks

He was a figure infamous throughout the industry for challenging shady promoters and protecting the interests of his band no matter what, often needing to get himself and his charges out of tight spots and hairy situations when things turned sour.

His old school tactics partly inspired the character of Ian Faith, the manager in This Is Spinal Tap, but Grant probably wouldn’t be the first name that springs to mind to act as role model for an academic music management course.

The Bristol Institute of Modern Music beg to differ however, and have launched a new scholarship in honour of the legendary manager.

The college firmly believes that Grant’s dedication and nonsense approach sets the perfect example for future music managers, with The Peter Grant Memorial Scholarship set to provide £16,000 towards the college’s three-year BA(Hons) in Music Industry Management.

The course teaches undergraduates how to manage music acts, with modules on managing live events, working with musicians, promoting acts and how to handle difficult record companies.

“My father would have been both touched and honoured that this scholarship has been created in his name,” said Grant’s daughter Helen.

“He was a great inspiration to many people in the business, not only on the management front, but in the way he looked after his artists in his own, infamous way! A charismatic personality coupled with great humour, means he is never far away. This is a long overdue accolade. Never forgotten!”

Grant died in 1995 at the age of 60. During his years with Led Zeppelin, he built up a fearsome reputation for supporting his acts through thick and thin, over going far beyond the limits of polite conversation to do so.

He secured the band what was at the time the biggest record deal ever signed for a group with Atlantic Records whilst also demanding 90 per cent of concert ticket receipts for Robert Plant and Co.

He was also a pivotal figure for The Yardbirds, who managed to actually make money from their tours for the first time when under his management.

Grant was famous for a number of incidents that have become the stuff of rock’n’roll myth and legend, including beating up gang-related promoters, smashing up the tape recorders of bootleggers and insisting that Led Zep never release a single or make publicity appearances.

As more and more modern artists take a hands-on, DIY approach to their own management, are the hard methods of Peter Grant a lesson that should be heeded?

Check out Play Guitar With… The Best Of Led Zeppelin Volume I  and Volume II at musicroom.com.

Kicking off Music is GREAT week, part of the Music is GREAT Brtiain campaign, David Cameron said: “British music is loved all over the globe, and as a country we can be proud of the tremendous success of our music industry, which is a world leader.”

The PM added that British creative businesses create jobs for millions of people in the UK and give opportunities to young people.

Last year, at the very top of the industry, British artists took 12.6 per cent of global music sales, accounting for one in eight of all artist albums sold. This is up from 11.8 per cent in 2010.

Figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) show that global sales of UK music reached £1.9 billion over the year, a figure swelled by the sales of Adele‘s album 21, which astonishingly accounted for around 1.6 per cent of all albums sold worldwide.

The album’s incredible success bagged Adele the gong for global best-selling album title last year, the fourth Britain in five years to claim the prize. The other British artists to grab the award in recent years were Amy Winehouse, Coldplay and Susan Boyle.

Although perhaps more symbolic than sales figures, the title still adds to the pleasant picture of global success for British artists and their music.

Adele’s one-woman contribution to the cause may yet continue too as people are still buying 21 and in impressive numbers – the album has camped out in the UK top five for 68 weeks now – even after 18 million copies were purchased last year.

The question has to be asked: who are these people who are only just finding out about Adele and 21?

Tinie Tempah, Florence + the Machine, Hugh Laurie and Mumford & Sons also helped to contribute to the UK’s impact on the global music industry.

Brits are also keen to listen to home-grown talent. UK acts gained their biggest share of the market since 1997, with over half of all albums sold in the UK.

What do you think of the prime minister’s comments?

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For more information, please contact the store direct at stratford@musicroom.com or on 01789 268515

The idea of a musical to chart the life of a mostly silent star may seem strange to some, but Christopher Curtis has given his stage bound tale of Chaplin a voice by composing the music and lyrics for the show, which will debut on August 21 at the Barrymore Theater, New York.

Chaplin will be directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, who was praised for his work on Hugh Jackman’s Back on Broadway.

Before it was picked up as a potential Broadway hit, the musical’s original production debuted at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2010 under the title Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin. As the show was developed for Broadway however so too was its name, first to Becoming Chaplin before later being retracted down simply to the name of the man himself.

Although bound for the famous stages of New York, theatregoers in the UK have the opportunity to see another new production of Chaplin, before the Broadway version launches over the pond.

This separate production has been produced by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and is set to premiere at London’s Barbican Centre on June 26 with a 25-piece orchestra. The show features choreography by Top Hat’s Bill Deamer, new musical arrangements by Steve Edis and is directed by Martin Connor.

Whilst predominantly known for his silent slapstick, some of Chaplin’s later work, in which he spoke in what were known then as talkies, have become popular online thanks to uploaded clips on YouTube.

Iconic scenes such as his emotive, closing speech from the political satire, The Great Dictator, have been shared across blogs, Facebook profiles and beyond, spreading not just Chaplin’s work but also opening people’s eyes to his acting abilities beyond comedy

A Chaplin biopic is not the only new musical based on a famous public figure to come to Broadway this year either, with a musical about country singer Loretta Lynn announced only last week.

Based on the 1980 film biopic of her life, Coal Miner’s Daughter will place actress and singer Zooey Deschanel in the lead role.

Lynn revealed the news during a Grand Ole Opry show, calling Zooey up on stage for a rendition of the title number from the movie.

Back in 1979, Lynn unveiled Sissy Spacek in the same way as the woman to play her in the movie of her life. Spacek went on to win an Oscar for her portrayal.

Deschanel is no stranger to taking the lead on vocals. As well as frequently singing in her TV and film roles and on soundtracks, she has released three albums as part of folk-rock band She & Him.

Following a recent string of movie to stage adaptations, a trend that arguably reached its peak with the troubled Broadway production of Spiderman, it is thought that musical biographies could be the next big thing for writers seeking fresh inspiration for a new show.

Whose life or career would you like to see captured in the top budget musical? What do you think of the forthcoming Chaplin and Loretta Lynn productions?

A theatrical adaption of Irving Berlin’s 1935 RKO film musical classic starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, Top Hat is surprisingly, the first musical featuring Berlin’s music to make the transition to the stage.

The show features songs from the original film’s soundtrack, such as Cheek to Cheek and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails, and specially selected numbers taken from the composer’s prolific output, including Let’s Face the Music and Dance and Puttin’ On the Ritz.

A matching songbook has also been released to accompany the West End show’s launch featuring the music of Top Hat arranged for piano, voice and guitar, along with a full-colour eight page photo section of exclusive stills from the show.

Berlin’s daughters attended the Top Hat’s debut at the Aldwych Theatre, London. They had given their permission for their father’s music to be used in the production.

Ava Astaire McKenzie, daughter of Fred Astaire, was also in attendance, casting her eye over Tom Chambers, who reprises the role made famous by her father.

Chambers, the 2008 champion of Strictly Come Dancing, plays Jerry Travers in the show—a famed American dancer brought to the UK stage by a wealthy businessman. Ms Astaire McKenzie described the Strictly Winner’s performance as “wonderful. There will always be comparisons, but what this show has done is bring a version to the world to see for the future.”

Chambers told the BBC he felt “honoured” that the daughter of Fred Astaire was in attendance for his West End debut as Travers. He added that it was only “one degree of separation from the man himself. It’s the biggest honour you could give to someone.”

“I was able to touch the very ring that he wore in the 1935 film that she now wears – so I hope if he’s watching down from somewhere he’s not cursing – he’s saying ‘you did good, you’re entertaining people’.”

“You don’t mess with Fred Astaire. You know it’s going to be impossible to emulate him. I hope the audience think I’m not miles off the mark.”

The opening night didn’t quite go off without a hitch, although Chambers laughed off the moment he dropped his cane during the big dance number Top Hat, White Tie and Tails.

“It’s typical that on your debut West End show something is bound to go wrong, especially when you are doing tricks with canes.”

“Luckily, it looked like I’d thrown it into the pit on purpose, though it did hit Bryony the cellist.”

Summer Strallen stars as Dale Tremont, the female lead originally portrayed by Ginger Rodgers. On taking on such a famous role, she said: “I wouldn’t dream of saying I was a patch on Ginger Rogers. I would love to be. That’s what I aspire to do, and if I even come close I’d be happy.”

Top Hat runs at the Aldwych Theatre until January 26 2013.

According to May, Mercury, who passed away in 1991, will somehow feature on stage during a special performance of the show thanks to an “effect… an optical illusion of sorts.”

“People will come out saying, ‘did we actually see Freddie?’” he added.

Efforts to bring the iconic frontman back onto the stage have apparently been underway for some time, yet the concept feels incredibly current following the holographic Tupac Shakur performance at last month’s Coachella festival and reports that a digital Michael Jackson could soon be back, touring the globe.

May, aware of these recent developments, stated that Freddie’s appearance in the show would be all together different.

“It’s a little unfortunate they did that thing with Tupac as we’ve been trying to make Freddie appear on the stage for quite a while,” he said.

“[That technique] is something we’ve looked at ourselves but I think probably for a show that runs eight shows a week it’s not really quite practical.”

The special performance will take place on May 14 to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of We Will Rock You’s run at the Dominion Theatre, London.

The show features all of the band’s greatest hits, including Bohemian Rhapsody, A Kind Of Magic and Don’t Stop Me, and is a firm favourite with Queen fans and musical theatre aficionados alike.

The Little Black Songbook of Queen has recently been released featuring over 80 of the band’s best tracks, with full lyrics and guitar chord boxes and symbols. The official We Will Rock You songbook to accompany the West End show is also available for piano, vocals and guitar.

Both of these titles are available now from musicroom.com!

With this in mind, we thought we’d turn our attentions this week to cover versions that take a totally different approach to their source material. Check out our list, compiled in no particular order, and tell us what you think in the comment box below.

1. You Got The Love (originally by Candi Staton covered by Florence And The Machine)

You Got The Love was the 2009 smash hit breakthrough single for Florence And The Machine but the track had originally been a hit for The Source and Candi Staton in 1986.

The song has also been covered by Joss Stone and remixed by Now Voyager, the version which currently appears on Sky Sports live football coverage.

2. Running Up That Hill (originally by Kate Bush, covered by Placebo)

Brian Molko and co’s version features a dark, sinister atmosphere that subverts the floaty yet dramatic synth vibes of this Kate Bush classic.

Another Kate Bush, Hounds Of Love, was reworked and released by The Futureheads in 2005.

3. Heartbeats (originally by The Knife, covered by Jose Gonzalez)

Jose Gonzalez’s gentle and restrained take on The Knife’s fuzzed up, punchy original entered the public consciousness after being featured on a memorable Sony Bravia advert in 2005.

This lead many people to believe the song was actually one of Jose’s pieces, although he certainly made his famous acoustic version his own. Perhaps it’s for this reason that his cover continues to be a favourite of radio stations, wedding receptions and mix tapes to this day.

4. Smooth Criminal (originally by Michael Jackson, covered by Alien Ant Farm)

At the height of the nu-metal craze in 2001, Alien Ant Farm unleashed their juddering cover of Michael Jackson’s pop classic from Bad.

Replacing the boxy eighties synth sounds with chugging, jagged guitars, the cover captured the sound of its day perfectly, whilst maintaining just the right about of wit to pull in fans from across the musical spectrum.

For more nu-metal pop crossover madness, be sure to check out Limp Bizkit’s smirking reconfiguring of George Michael’s Faith.

5. Valerie (originally by The Zutons, covered by Amy Winehouse)

It would be fair to say that The Zutons have been somewhat overshadowed by their own song following the release of Mark Ronson’s version, featuring vocals by Amy Winehouse.

Valerie became one of the singer’s signature tracks, pulling in new listeners to her music. Critical and popular success followed and soon Amy was a global music superstar.

6. What I See (originally by Black Flag, covered by Dirty Projectors)

Perhaps something of an obscure choice, but one that is definitely worthy of our list. Compared to the brooding, flattened out tension of the 1981 original, the Dirty Projector’s What I See is a near whimsical, airy vision of jangly guitars and arrogantly cool vocal decoration.

What I See features on Rise Above, Dirty Projector’s album-sized reimagining of Black Flag‘s Damaged.

7. Wonderwall (originally by Oasis, covered by Mike Flowers)

Gallagher fans lacking a sense of humour, look away now.

Mike Flowers’ take on Wonderwall is retro, camp, fun and tooth achingly sweet.

8. Raining Blood (originally by Slayer, covered by Tori Amos)

Tori Amos’ haunting reworking of Raining Blood, the song that arguably set Slayer on the path to becoming the thrash metal goliath that they are today, is a deeply threatening take on the band’s brutal calling card without feeling over physical or harsh.

Rather that charging down the listener into a brutalised sonic melee, Amos draws the song out in order to reach its full rumbling, foreboding potential.

9. We Can Work It Out (originally by The Beatles, covered by Stevie Wonder)

Who doesn’t enjoy hearing household names reworking each other’s material?

10. Rolling In The Deep (originally by Adele, covered by Dirty Loops)

Dirty Loops are a YouTube bebop cover version sensation. Hailing from Sweden, their exceptional musicianship and ridiculous re-arrangements of modern hits has raked in the hits and the fans.

With a debut album of original material in the works, hopefully we’ll soon be hearing the creativity of the trio fully unleashed.

Check out their other covers of Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Justin Bieber.

Did we miss any covers that you think should be on our list? What do you think of our choices? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Fortunately for the residents of the Shetland Isles, the arrival of Buzzbeak, their own Transformer-esque visitor, will not be a sign of impending doom brought about by an inter-galactic insurgency.

The bird-like robot heading to their shores is a peaceful music lover rather than the crass, violent warrior types depicted on the big screen.

In the words of Scottish arts charity, UZ Arts, Buzzbeak will creep through the streets of the Shetland Isles through August, recording “gifts” of music and sound.

This imaginative tour of the islands forms part of the charity’s ambitious new street arts programme, Roofless, which aims to engage with local and regional communities across Scotland.

The Shetlands will be Buzzbeak’s first destination as the islands will be where a giant, futuristic robot is least expected.

Part bird, part robot and part music box, the Transformers inspired goliath has been laboriously built out of an old Land Rover with its jagged metal body set off by a set of glowing red eyes.

During the course of the project, the robot will record live sounds and mp3/vinyl music for a remix that will become a grand finale concert.

Check out the week four progress video of Buzzbeak below:

Explaining the thought behind the Roofless programme, head of Creative Scotland Andrew Dixon told the website: “The Year of Creative Scotland will raise the roof with this visionary programme of outdoor events across Scotland.

“UZ Events has an international reputation for iconic street arts projects that engage with local participants and reach new audiences.”

Buzzbeak is not the only special event the charity has planned. In total, it will create five large-scale public participation events throughout Scotland, with the aim of forging links between artists and the public.

They include a Robert Burns-inspired flash mob and sound installations in Ayrshire and a mythic dance cycle in Dumfries and Galloway.

A raft of music, dance and visual arts projects are being planned in the country as it celebrates the Year of Creative Scotland, including innovative public space projects like Roofless and events like the Aberdeen Jazz Festival.

The British Cheese Board (BCB) is inviting members the public to create a national anthem for Cheddar, the UK’s most popular cheese, based on one of three traditional songs; God Save the Queen, Land of Hope and Glory or Jerusalem.

The best entries will be placed onto a shortlist, with the winner chosen through a public vote on the board’s website.

Nigel White, secretary to the BCB, said the trade body was seeking a “fitting anthem to this national treasure”, and that he hoped people from across the UK took part in the musical competition.

The search for a fitting chorus and verse was launched on Wednesday with a YouTube clip featuring the Vivace choir from Sussex performing their ode to the Cheddar, set to the tune of Jerusalem.
Watch the video of their effort below:

Award-winning celebrity cheese maker and former Blur bassist, Alex James lent his support to the campaign too, saying: “It’s important to be buying British right now, and Cheddar truly represents the best of British cheese as it was invented right here in the UK.

“This is a fun way to support British Cheddar and combine two of the best things in life – music and cheese”.

The closing date for entries is June 15 and details on how to enter can be found on the BCB website.

After the deadline, a shortlist of five entries will be put to the public vote to pick an overall winner which will run until 20 July.

The writer of the successful Cheddar serenade will win a year’s supply of British Cheddars as well as two weekend passes to Alex James’s food and music festival set to take place in September.

The Musicroom blog team recommend holding off from any pasturised bursts of inspiration too close to bedtime to prevent dairy fuelled nightmares.

Will you entering the BCB’s musical competition?

“How is this remotely relevant to musicians?” you may rightly ask. Well, – not discounting the fact that musicians may also be interested in lawn care and quantum physics – the ever expanding “For Dummies” range now includes a selection of books tailored to those who would really like a better understanding of, say, music theory or Piano technique, without being made to feel stupid within the space of a few sentences.

Two such books are newly available at musicroom, online and in-store.

Birthed from the increasing popularity of the Ukulele as a handy, cheap and fun instrument, Ukulele For Dummies and Ukulele Songs For Dummies take you from looking at a fret-board and scratching your head, to playing a range of tunes, comfortably using chord shapes that your previous head-scratching self would never have dreamed of.

Ukulele For Dummies takes you through how to choose, maintain, string and tune a Uke. It will teach you how to hold, strum, pick and generally make sweet music with it, all in an approachable style, illustrated with detailed photos and demonstrated on the included CD.

Ukulele Songs For Dummies is for those who’ve covered the basics and would like to get down to playing some songs. A feast of tasty tunes is on offer, covering a range of styles all the way from swaying Hawaiian numbers to jazz, pop and even rock ‘n’ roll. All the songs are presented in simple, easy-to-read melody line, lyrics and chords notation, while each song comes with in-depth historical and performance notes written in the approachable “For Dummies” style.

With one of the most approachable instruments now complemented by probably the most approachable learning method, there’s really no excuse not to pick it up and start playing!

Ukulele For Dummies and Ukulele Songs For Dummies are now available in-store and at musicroom.com. Also check out our range of Ukes.

This year’s line-up features some of the finest ukulele players around, including Gerald Ross (right), Nico’o and Manitoba Hal, and groups such as The Re-Entrants, Winin Boys, Ukulollo and Scottish YouTube sensations Gus & Fin.

Uke enthusiasts from across the country are expected to descend upon the event which will also include a programme of inspiring workshops and seminars lead by the artists and players themselves.

Festival goers will also be able to take in a wide array of stalls and stands offering everything a ukulele player could want and more.

Musicroom will be at the festival, showcasing a number of exquisite, high-end ukuleles from our online and in-store range, including models from top manufacturers, Lanikai and Kala.

For wood junkies, Lanikai’s exotic zebrawood and monkey pod concert and tenor ukuleles will be available at our stand to try out and buy.

Both of these ukes look and sound fantastic, with distinctive and fresh tones beautifully coloured by the unique resonance capabilities of their woods.

The Kala Golden Acacia Ukulele is another sumptuous instrument that will be on display and available to purchase at the Musicroom festival store.

This stylish uke looks great with its natural wood patterning and sounds even better thanks to the rich tonal characteristics of its solid acacia top, back and sides, a tropical cousin of the traditional Hawaiian koa.

We will also be offering discounts and special offers on our huge range, including exciting new releases such as the Epiphone Les Paul ukulele.

For more information and to purchase your ticket visit the festival website – www.ukulelefestival.co.uk

Don’t forget to attend the festival’s Facebook event too!

From how he learnt to play through studying jazz to the facts surrounding his signature guitar, the identity of which is hotly disputed amongst fans online.

The interview is available to read now on the Rockschool website, where you can also enter their new competition to win a Fender Telecaster, Fender Jazz bass and Mapex Saturn snare.

Also make sure you check out the new Rockschool 2012 Syllabus online at musicroom.com. Take a look at the behind the scenes trailer video below:

Featuring music and art from around the globe, the Cultural Olympiad is a fantastic opportunity for students and teachers to discover world music.

With foreign sounds and traditions firmly on the agenda, Mike Simpson, author of the new Teach And Play series of world music teacher packs, has published a guest blog on music education site, Teaching Music.

Mike is a professional percussionist, composer, conductor and the musical director of world music workshop company, Inspire-works. His knowledge and understanding of world music education comes from a wealth of experience in bringing styles such African drumming, Balinese gamelan, samba and steel pan to students in the classroom.

You can read Mike’s piece, The Value of Teaching World Music, now at Teaching Music, and check out the range of Teach And Play titles at musicroom.com.

Check out the Teach And Play demonstration videos below to get a taste of this exciting new educational series for yourself:

Ever been told to turn your music down and save your ears? You should have listened, according to Plan B.

The rapper has revealed that despite being only 29, he suffers from tinnitus after listening to music too loud. His condition is so debilitating that he has even backed a new campaign to get people turning their music down.

Describing the time when he developed tinnitus, Plan B, real name Ben Drew, said he thought the sound was just the trains running past his house.

“It was really loud and an extremely high pitched ringing in my ears,” he said.

“I now have to wear special earplugs when I go to bed to help stop my ears from ringing. There’s no doubt it’s been caused by years of being on stage and subjected to very loud decibels of music.

“So if you’re listening to music a lot, producing music or performing live, then always wear earplugs.”

Plan B is not the only musician to suffer from tinnitus. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has revealed he has had a persistent ringing in his ears for the past ten years from performing in loud clubs and arenas.

He said the condition hasn’t got worse since wearing plugs or in-ear monitors, but wished he had thought about it earlier.

Not wanting to repeat the mistake he made, Chris insists that his kids wear large ear defenders when they go to his gigs.

Gary Numan and Judge Jules have also backed the Loud Music campaign by charity Action on Hearing Loss, as they also have hearing problems. The campaign aims to encourage young people to listen to music safely at loud gigs, festivals and on their iPod.

At the weekend, billboards carrying the campaign’s message were posted throughout north London to coincide with the Camden Crawl, with 6,000 free earplugs handed out on the streets during the festival.

Depending on how much you enjoy the post below, Berlin based DJ and producer, Adam Port, either has too much time on his hands or spent his Monday in one of the most strangely productive manners possible.

He managed to hack Google Translate into beatboxing, a fun little trick that you too can replicate in about five minutes.

All you need to do is head over to Google Translate and copy the text below into the first field, setting the language to translate from as German.

pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk

Then press the listen button, sit back and enjoy!

A group of students in Burton has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of people singing a song simultaneously.

In a concerted effort to break the previous record, the Sign Language Choir from de Ferrers Academy joined forces with a number of other choirs from elsewhere in the UK.

The original record, which featured 94,000 people, was overtaken at an event staged at Bladon House School in Newton Solney, with more than 130,000 contributing to the new landmark.

Millissa Hicklin, a member of the choir, explained her pride to the Burton Mail, saying: “There were more than 130,000 people signing to the song Sign to Sing, so not only did we break the world record, we smashed it.”

Echoing this view is Hamza Mahmood, a 16-year-old sign language choir member, who said that it was a “great experience and a day I’ll never forget”.

Every week, the de Ferrers Academy stages sign language clubs for staff and students. And in addition to this, there is an annual concert staged every year, known as Celebrate in Sign, which is an entire evening dedicated to signed performances.

One of the driving forces behind the project is Steve Tucker, who works as a sign language interpreter and communication support worker at the de Ferrers Academy.

“The academy does lots of positive activities and events to support deaf students and the sign language choir so we feel this is an issue very close to our hearts,” he told the news provider.

“We are over the moon that we’ve helped Sign2Sing set a new world record and hope this helps to raise awareness for two very worthy charities.”

Sign2Sing and Sign Health, a charity that supports deaf children and adults throughout the UK, were the two bodies responsible for organising the event.

Check out more extrordinary singing feats in musicroom’s top 10 extreme vocal performances!

Although still only 19, Charley has supported the likes of Will Young, Anastacia and Escala live, and earned herself a slot on the bill for Bestival 2012 in the summer.

Charley’s Live At 5ive set drew a great reception from the crowds on Denmark Street, who headed into the shop to check out the free live music on offer in the front window.

Alongside her fantastically tight, four-piece band, Charley’s smooth, soulful delivery and poppy vocal hooks got heads bobbing and feet tapping as the audience grew in size and appreciation.

Copies of her debut EP were available to buy after her set, which can also be purchased online for those who missed out during the evening.

Check out our gallery of pictures from the event below, and listen to Charley’s music for yourself on her soundcloud profile.

Charley Macaulay’s five piece band feautures Tom James on rhythm guitar, Chris Smith on lead guitar, Dave Rice on bass and David Orton on drums.

Keep in touch with Charley on MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation and Twitter.

The song has been one of the most successful singles of 2012 so far, and continues to ride high in the charts and radio playlists in territories around the world, including the UK, USA, and of course, Gotye’s native Australia.

Below are a selection of some of our favourite cover versions by inspired fans, YouTube music stars, wry comedians and other artists. Enjoy!

Pentatonix scored over three million hits with their impressive a capella cover

This dramatic choral version by a Dutch choir takes the vocal focus in a different direction

An instrumental take from French band La Boutique Fantasque

Tanya Phillips recorded her cover on the harp

Black Kettle brought out the ukuleles for their Gotye duet

The famous Walk Off The Earth one guitar wonder

The satire of the cover by The Key Of Awesome

…and the chaotic comedy cover of the cover, playfully entitled “The official cover of the WOTE Gotye cover”

Eskimo Joe relied on a retro computer to help them cover Kimbra’s vocal parts for their live radio session cover

Barry Harrell strips things down for his solo rendition

The official sheet music for Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know is available now from musicroom.com for piano, vocal and guitar!

Which version is your favourite? Did we miss one that deserves a place on the list? Do you think any of the covers are better than Gotye’s original?

Tweet, comment, share and post this article to Facebook and let us know what you think.

New to the Classic Design “100” series, and coming soon to Musicroom, are two new models with smaller body sizes designed to perfectly complement the larger CD-100 Dreadnought model.

The first of these is the CF-100 Folk. As its name implies, this model is ideal for the lighter finger-picking style favoured by folk players, although this doesn’t mean it shies away from  flat-picking or strumming; there’s enough volume and response on tap to fill a room with richly resonant sound. The smaller, less intimidating body size also lends this model well to new guitarists and those of smaller stature.

It’s also extremely good to see Fender creating a new parlour sized model. Reminiscent of ‘30s front-room sing-alongs, the CP-100 Parlor is the ideal “companion” guitar. With a body size even smaller than the Folk model and a shorter scale length, it provides an eminently easy and comfortable playing experience. This is a guitar to keep handy by the sofa, with its compact body also lending it well to travel. And who could resist that period sunburst finish?

All-in-all, we’re very pleased to see a new level of diversity in Fender’s range of acoustic instruments, and can’t wait to get them online at Musicroom.com and instore!

In less than six months, a group of school children have gone from being complete strangers to performing together at some of the country’s top venues.

Inner Voices, the name given to the newly-formed choir, is a collection of musically-gifted singers from inner-city London, all of whom have enjoyed remarkable success in the last few months.

The choir, which is made up of 43 teenagers from 11 inner-city schools, recently opened the Mayor of London’s St George’s Day Festival on Trafalgar Square.

To the surprise of some onlookers, perhaps, the group delivered an entertaining 20-minute set, which included an acapella version of Aloe Blacc’s I Need a Dollar.

What made the group’s performance even more impressive, though, is that they barely even knew each other six months earlier, but have quickly developed into a first-class choir.

The group were brought together by two teachers: Edward Watkins, the director of music at the new West London Free School, and Ralph Allwood, the director of music at Eton College.

“I’ve always wanted to create something for the children I teach that would be as good for them as the choir at Eton was for me,” Mr Watkins explained to the Independent.

“The choir was where I made my first meaningful friendships, found my social identity. I saw a possibility for Ralph to do in the state sector what he’d done for pupils at Eton. I see no reason why we shouldn’t have a choir that is as good as those at Eton.”

As one of the leading private schools in the country, Eton has a distinct advantage over state schools in forming musical groups and staging big events.

But the private sector has thrown its support behind Inner Voices, which has some members who had never even sung in front of an audience until the last few months.

The overarching ambition is to create an excellent choir under the tutelage of Mr Allwood, who is an honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

In turn, children from some of the most impoverished areas of the capital will be able to enjoy a life-changing experience.

The extensive record collection of John Peel, the former BBC Radio 1 DJ who died in 2004, has been made available to the public.

Peel, who spent more than four decades working in the music industry, amassed an impressive vinyl collection on his way to becoming one of the industry’s most respected voices.

And over the next few months, the impressive collection will be made available to the public over the internet, with details of 100 albums being added in alphabetical order each week.

Initially, it was speculated that Peel’s vinyl collection would go to the National Sound Archive, where the public would have access to it.

However, it has now been determined that it should instead be made available through a web-based project The Space, which has been launched by the BBC and Arts Council England.

Sheila Ravenscroft, widow of the former radio DJ, has spoken of her delight at the plans, saying that it is important fans have access to his storied collection.

“We’re very happy that we’ve finally found a way to make John’s amazing collection available to his fans, as he would have wanted,” she commented.

“This project is only the beginning of something very exciting.”

Beginning today (May 2nd), the first batch of albums features those artists whose names begin with the letter A.

Mike Absalom, who once described Peel as “the musical Maypole around which we all danced”, is the first artist on the list, which can be seen at thespace.org.

The creators of the site say that it will empower visitors to trawl through the records and the DJ’s index cards. Additionally, the site will allow fans to view personal notes.

Through the course of his career in the music industry, Peel amassed more than 25,000 vinyl albums. And every week until September, 100 of these albums will be added to the site.

Originally intended for use as a poster, designed and printed under the spectre of a potential invasion during world war two, this no nonsense phrase from a bygone era and its accompanying image seems strangely apt to many in modern Britain today.

Although around 70 years old, the typeset, graphics and wording all seem to resonate with the attitudes and imaginations of today, underpinned by a sense of reliability, stoicism and heroic resolve—the stereotypical elements of that popular, idealised sense of traditional Britishness that many people continue to identify with and honour.

So how did an unpublished morale boosting world war two poster become one of the iconic visual memes of the early 21^st century?

The short film below tells the story of the poster, from its rediscovery in a backroom at Barter Books in Northumberland to infectious pop-culture notability. Made In Chelsea anyone?

Music can be a great motivator and inspiration for when the going gets the tough. Who doesn’t enjoy sitting down and unwinding with their favourite instrument; bashing out some piano chords to relieve stress and tension, or escaping to the twinkling calm of John Lennon’s Imagine to regroup?

Keep Calm And Play On is a new songbook collection of popular favourites and classic mood changers, specially selected to give you the time and space you need to collect yourself and push on.

Keep Calm and Play On is available now from musicroom.com.

At the time, she described the attacks as “surely the most senseless and unwarranted air raids that ever took place”. Today, however, her Royal Highness will open the University of Exeter’s new £48m Forum development, an impressive redevelopment undertaken amid much more pleasant circumstances.

The Queen will begin her tour of the city at Priceesshay Square, and is scheduled to arrive at around 11:30am.

To celebrate this most regal of visits, musicroom Exeter are offering a special, on-the-day discount on their range of Ashton Union Jack Ukuleles to any customers who mentions this blog article in store.

There will also be many more fantastic deals and discounts on offer as part of musicroom’s Musical Nation campaign.

With a number of exciting events taking place in Britain over the next two to three months (the Cultural Olympiad, the Queen’s Jubilee and the summer Olympic games) musicroom want to celebrate the best of British music and British musicians!

That’s why we’re offering the Best of British 3 for 2 deal on songbooks across our 18 stores nationwide.

Choose from artists such as Adele, Muse, Iron Maiden, Mumford & Sons and many more, and inspire your playing with the best of British music.

Why not head down to a musicroom store near you and check out the best deals on offer today?

To be in with the chance of winning one of these beautiful instruments, all you have to do is head over to the Rockschool website and answer one simple question.

What are you waiting for? Head over to the Rockshchool competition page now to enter this amazing competition and check out the new 2012-2018 Rockschool Guitar, Bass and Drums Syllabus, available now to buy from musicroom.com!

Rockschool are the leading accredited provider of rock and pop exams worldwide. Their new 2012-2018 syllabus for guitar, bass and drums is the result of 21 years worth of experience and understanding of teaching, grading and educating rock and pop musicians.

No effort has been spared to give students and teachers the quality material they need to make the most out of their learning and talent, with the audio demonstration and backing tracks for the new syllabus recorded in one of the United Kingdom’s top studios.

Every track features live instrumentation and session performances from world-class, professional musicians, including Grammy award winner and legendary guitarist, Larry Carlton, top session drummer Jason Bowld (Pitchshifter, Bullet For My Valentine) and the prolific session percussionist Nir Z who has appeared on the for such renowned artists as Genesis, Chris Cornell and John Mayer.

“Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2″ was an instant hit in the UK, released on November 16, 1979, and selling 340,000 copies in five days. A week later, it was #1 in the UK, remaining there for five weeks, and by January 1980 had sold over a million copies.
It topped the US singles chart for four weeks from March 22, 1980, and was #1 in Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and West Germany, reaching the Top 5 in a further eight countries. It also hit #1 in South Africa, after which it was banned, on May 6, 1980, when black school children used it to condemn educational apartheid in Soweto.

Co-producer Bob Ezrin had suggested “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2″ as a single with a 4/4 beat, but since the song has just one repeated verse, engineer Nick Griffiths, at Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row Studios in London, was asked to find some children to add colour to the second verse. In a 2009 interview with Guitar World, Ezrin explained that, having produced “School’s Out” with Alice Cooper, he “had a thing about kids on record.”

Griffiths accordingly contacted Alun Renshaw, Head of Music at Islington Green School, who provided the schoolkids. According to Nick Mason, Griffiths was asked originally just to provide two or three kids singing in “a rather pathetic voice.” Griffiths was a fan of Todd Rundgren, who had, on his double album Todd, recorded a live audience singing one of his song’s choruses in New York, and then taken the tape and overdubbed another whole audience singing the harmony in San Francisco. The song was “Sons Of 1984,” which dovetails rather neatly into the Wall album’s themes. At any rate, Griffiths was allowed to record a much larger group of schoolkids, which he did, in the 40 minutes he was allotted by the school.

David Gilmour plays the solo on a vintage 1955 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar, originally played directly through the mixing desk, and the recording subsequently played back through an amplifier in the studio, to be re-recorded with more ambience. The solo is given extra weight and tension by the contrasting and changing chords of the keyboards underneath the guitar.

David Gilmour’s guitar solo, without any of his trademark tremolo or distortion, is a masterpiece of rhythmic precision, a fluid exposition of surefooted interlinked riffing, virtually a masterclass in how to play a solo – and it was the first take.

“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2″ is one of three Pink Floyd songs included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, curated by Jim Henke. The others are “See Emily Play” and “Money.”

Don’t you just love it when a song like this travels the world and affects peoples lives, makes people think about change, makes people realize they can do better, or try and improve their life for good? This had to be a good thing.

This month, Musicroom customers were treated to a special performance from piano and guitar duo, Phil & Veronica.

Setting up at the front of the store, their set filled the room with a great vibe that brightened up an otherwise miserable, rainy Friday evening.

Thanks to the shop’s external speakers, Phil & Veronica were able to play to customers both inside and out, and Phil also spoke about his instruments and musical gear.

Check out the gallery of pictures from the event below and stay tuned for more Live At 5ive news soon!

Next month: Charley Macauley (May 4)

We caught up with the band’s lead singer and principle songwriter, Tim Elsenburg a few weeks ago at the Music Sales songwriting week for a quick chat about the new album, his writing process and the challenges faced when working with new collaborators.

Hi Tim. Crown and Treaty is released on April 30. How is the new album coming along?

It’s been quite well received so far. We’re just at that kind of middle bit when you’ve made the record and you think you’ve done all the hard work, and it turns out that that’s the beginning of a really, really long road.

Is it all about just pushing it now?

Yeah, it’s all about content, content, content. Stuff for websites, stuff for our website, stuff for YouTube. It’s really good. It’s a really good way of getting loads and loads of stuff out there to people who are interested. They can find live performances, interviews; we’ve made a music video now which will be online soon enough. It’s an endless thing, you know? You make a video; you then have to film yourself making the video so that you can put that up as well.

It’s that fine line: sometimes I think “are we just giving too much a way?” Is there an argument to be made for a little bit of mystery still? Then I think, well, there’s nothing mysterious about us at all. We’re not Prince, Lana Del Rey or anyone like that. It’s just, people want to know stuff and they should be able to find it.

Would you say that side of things has almost become a part of the songwriting process, what with everything being so interlinked?

Yeah. Not consciously at the time. I mean, I try and put everything out of my head – expectations – anything, because after the Mercury, it was the first time I ever felt like that there would be people interested in what would come next. But you have to kind of cancel that out and concentrate on what it is you’re doing. And as it turned out, what I ended up doing was more, I’d hate to say commercial, but I think a bit easier to like on the first listen. But that was purely accidental really, it was just kind of what I was listening to and what I was interested in doing at the time.

It’s amazing just how much stuff’s out there if you’re prepared to look in terms of other bands, and the fact that you can do it so easily as well. You could make a video for no video. You can pretty much make an album for no money. When you consider 25 years ago, what I’m doing in my living room would have cost probably millions in terms of the equipment.

It would have probably cost as much as a house, never mind a living room!

Yeah, exactly! It’s ridiculous really. And its great that it democratizes everything, but at the same time it means if you’re looking for something good, there’s a lot more stuff to wade through to get to it.

As a songwriter do you think you’re able to take more risks and be more creative because there’s not so much pressure financially?

Yeah, I think so. Because there was no real record company breathing down my neck, and there was no real pressure, I mean, my manager phoned me up and said “come one, what’s happening?” as the months rolled by, but basically it was just a case of do what you do and see what happens. Once the album was put together and we looked at what we got, as subjectively as we could, that was when the plan started to come together.

We played it to a few people. EMI became part of the picture. But the first thing was: get the album done, see how that is, see the shape of it, what can we do with it, is it something we can market? Luckily the answer to all those questions was yes and that’s given this opportunity to get it out there.

How do you take that step back to evaluate what you’ve done?

Just a bit of time. Maybe even if its just a week – a week of no doing anything musical and then sitting down. I think probably what happened was that I mixed it all at home and then I took it to a bigger studio, just to reference and do a mix through expensive speakers.

That was the first time I listened to it hands off – well, as hands off as you ever do – try not and pick it apart to bits, and also hearing the album in the order we’d put the songs. It’s quite an old fashioned way of doing things considering the way music is consumed, but I still like the idea of an album being a journey – that the songs are ordered in a way that it drags you through with it. Even though if, in the end, people only download want they want, and listen to it on random, for people who like the whole journey of the album, we spent a lot of time trying lots of different sequences to see what worked.

When I got it into the big studio, I tried to work my way through it in the order that I wanted the songs and then it became clear if and how it worked, but I’m really pleased by the result.

The song order itself then, the journey, is that something that comes later or are you conscious of it when you’re writing the songs?

This is the first time I’ve written an album with a theme in mind, mainly because I didn’t have to do a day job whilst I was doing it. So instead of trying to draw everything together after it’s done, and kind of make a story out of what I’ve got, the journey came together as I was doing it. I knew the theme I wanted to do, I knew what I wanted to talk about – it was a question of each song approaching the theme from a different view point. Whether it being a narrative song or whether it was some kind of massive epic based around an extended metaphor – whatever it was, with all the different techniques, it was all focused on the same thing, on the same thread. Everything was done with that in mind.

I didn’t think about how the pacing would work because you can’t really do that till its done, but certainly lyrically, there was a lot of on making sure everything fitted together, everything was relevant to what I was trying to say.

When do the lyrics come into your writing process?

Generally last. I spend a lot of time on the song and then as much time just sitting with it, trying to get the lyrics right. Then again, that’s something I can do on a bus, I can do when I’m walking, wherever I am, whatever it is.

In terms of other bands, even if I really, really love their music, if the lyrics aren’t good, I struggle with it. So it’s as important, if not more important, than the music in the end.

So giving them their own special attention at the end is quite important?

Yeah, and it was quite a nice way to do it, because once I had one song with which to refer to. And then, as I was writing the lyrics, in the back of my mind I could think “OK, I’ve already approach the subject from this way, now let’s try it from this standpoint”, and then I started to build up the ideas from lots of different perspectives and directions by the end.

Your music can be very textural and intricate. In the same way you give your vocals that special attention, do you find that you need that first part of the writing process to focus on the music and getting the sound how you want it?

Yeah, it’s pretty much a finished mix by the time I add vocals: as close as I can get it to that. I was trying very hard this time, because I do do very dense mixes with loads and loads of stuff going on, to give the voice some consideration in advance of that, because previously I think I’ve hidden behind a mix a little bit with my own voice. It suddenly dawned on me, and it sounds like the most obvious thing in the world, its all about singing. When you connect – when you do it live, when you do it on a record – its all about singing. When you listen to Stevie Wonder – I’m not comparing myself in anyway – but you listen to Guy Garvey, Thom Yorke, that’s what draws you in: that humanity.

So it was very much in my mind that I wanted to bring that out, so as dense as the mixes are, when there’s singing I try to keep it a little bit more open and to be slightly less apologetic about the voice in the mix. I think on the last record, the voice was almost another instrument, which is one way to work – there are lots of records I love are like that – but on this record, the melodies are strong and I did lots and lots of work on the singing to try and bring that out and make that the focus this time. It’s possibly a little less atmospheric – certainly less esoteric – but it brings it back to most basic thing in the world which is communicating to people, which you do with your voice.

In terms of atmospheric, on the second album, there were lots of very interesting and odd sounds. How much does the idea of texture and timbre feed into your songwriting? Is a big consideration on you whilst you’re writing and the ideas are coming through?

Yes massively. I don’t write on an instrument. I don’t write a song on a guitar and then take it into a studio and record. I usually have an idea, one idea, and it might be on a guitar, it might be on a piano, it might be on a xylophone – it might be banging a fire extinguisher – whatever it is, I start with that.

Then I basically write everything on the studio. So if for the next part of the song I hear “right, that should be a harmonium” then I’ll do that on a harmonium. What I end up with is a kind of badly woven together, disparate kind of thing that doesn’t quite fit together, but with lots of different bits at which point I work really hard to really get the melody line. Then, what tends to happen to me, once you’ve got the melody line it tends to bring all those elements together and then it’s just a question of the layers and making the joins kind of seamless, the dynamics of the song are also a huge thing.

I still like traditional instrumentation and I like how we’ve got real drums on this record, but I also like those sounds that you don’t know what they are. You know, it’s not a preset on something. I’ve spent a lot of time taking raw sounds. On this record there’s another dishwasher, there’s a squeaky oven door, which worked really well in a song – it happened to be in A flat which the song was, of all keys – and trying to make that musical, but musical in a way that’s not stubbornly weird. That can be a challenge. The biggest influence in terms of that was a lot of hip hop records. If you listen to Public Enemy, they take lots of un-musical noise – The Bomb Squad, when they were producing it – and they turned it into something either rhythmic or melodic. It’s a hook and it’s just millions of tiny, weeny little details working together.

Another guy, LP – he does it a much darker way. Listening to those guys, I’m like “wow, this is really musically un-musical” or the other way round. It’s taking really unlikely source material and making it beautiful, or ugly because that’s fine as well! But I think in terms of what we do, I try and make it as un-grating as possible, but it’s nice and also people like records with sounds they’ve never heard before on, hopefully.

When you go out and play it live, we reproduce a lot of those things by triggering samples, and we’ve managed to avoid the whole click track and on-stage laptop thing, because we wanted to keep it live – if you hear a sound you see someone do something to produce it, even if it’s just hitting a pad. I think that’s kind of what makes in magical, when you’re like “what is that?! That’s a brilliant noise!” I love records like that.

Check out the video to Joyful Reunion, the first single from Crown and Treaty, below:

How has that approach tied into the Music Sales songwriting week?

This has been quite a departure for me. I’ve always worked solitarily, on my own, so this is a major departure from how I usually work. In terms of once the song is down and the band are with me, and we’re working on the mix, or we’re talking about an arrangement thing, a bass part, whatever it is, generally, most of the work has been done and its in my head, what its going to sound like.

Coming here, it’s brilliant! I don’t have to worry about details, I don’t get lost in that, and we’re talking about the broadest brushstrokes in terms of getting a song together. It’s just about, “has it got a good melody? Are the chords working? Dynamically, are there possibilities?” because there’s probably no time to actually work that out because its only be a sort of piano part, or guitar part, plus the fact working with two or three people you’ve never met before.

What I try to do, because we get a big list of everyone who’s attending and all the music they’ve done, I kind of consciously don’t listen to what they do, not out of rudeness, because I’m really curious, but because I’m really suggestible and I’ll end up trying to please them. So I want to be a bit kind of vague about what they do and its kind of difficult when it’s a big name and you know they’re stuff, but it’s just a really interesting way of working and totally the opposite of how I’ve ever done before. But I really love it and would like to do more.

What would you say is the hardest part of being a songwriter?

It’s keeping the faith – those moments where nothing is happening and inspiration seems miles and miles and miles away from where you are, and just keeping the faith that something will happen. There were times writing the album, with certain songs that I almost gave up on. I read something the other day though, I think it was Henry Miller. He’d written a list of the things to bear in mind when you’re writing a novel, and a lot of it applied to writing music, number five especially: “when there’s no inspiration, there’s always the work”.

So on a day when its not happening, when its not coming together, you sit there and you tidy up the drum parts or you edit stuff that’s still got loads of noise to cut out. You just do all the technical stuff that you leave to the last minute. You just do it when the inspiration is not there. Then on a day when it strikes again, at least you’re in front of a computer and you’re ready to go.

Just bearing with it, I think that’s the hardest, hardest thing when its not happening.

Do you find comfort zones are ever an issue with your writing?

Yeah I do, which is why I tend to use a lot of musical instruments that don’t work very well. You can’t get comfortable with them. I recorded a guitar part with my son’s plastic guitar on the last album, that only stayed in tune for about ten seconds at a time, and it was just hopeless, so I’d have to play a chord – right OK got that one – tune up again, play the next chord, and you know edit it all together, and I just find it, whenever I use unusual stuff, that tends to drag you away from chord shapes that, as a guitarist you fall into.

Or I write on the piano, which I can’t play, or a lot of programming, anything that takes you out of your comfort zone – a strange tuning on the guitar: “I understand this tuning, I know what’s going to happen if I pick it up, I’m gonna be stuck doing Blues with it.” Right, OK, we’ll change all that and then with all the tricks, even if you fall into them, something other happens.

And it is dangerous, comfort zones. You can find it with melody lines. If you listen to a Bjork record for instance, there’s a trick she does quite often that you hear throughout her music, and there are little things we all fall back into, but my attention to detail is such that I pick up on those things quite early on, and in an almost academic way, turn it around. Even if it’s something that no one else will pick up on in a million, million years, just for my own piece of mind, bearing in mind that this album is going to be around for as long as I’m around, I have to go in and tweak things to trick myself. It’s all about attention to detail.

Can your attention to detail ever get in the way? Can you ever get too self-critical? Can thinking too academically create obstacles in the writing process?

I do get lost in it. I do get carried away with detail, and part of the learning curve for me, is admitting to myself, that you’re just avoiding difficult things that’s hard by sitting there programming hi-hats, spending hours trying to get it right.

Sometimes I feel justified by it, especially if it’s something I’ve played quite badly, which often happens. I had to do drums on one of the songs – I recorded the snare and hi-hat because I don’t have a kick drum, because I live in a bungalow, so my landlord would have had kittens.

I did spend hours though. First of all, knocking it into time, and then shifting it minutely out of time so that it sounded like a drummer. So I had the hi-hat and the snare and I was doing all the editing there, and then I had to programme the kicks – I put them on the beat and made them absolutely perfect, but because my other playing wasn’t great, I then had to shift bass drums around to make it sound like it was being played by someone who probably wasn’t great at drums, although the feel was nice.

Almost like trying to break it correctly?

Yeah, exactly. It’s like you’re making things worse to make them better.

Is adding a bit of dirtiness or fault to your music important to how you write songs? Can it help to make things a bit weird and interesting?

Yeah, those imperfections – the thing is, the way I do them, I work out exactly where they’re going to go. It’s not a spontaneous, random thing. I guess if you’re painting a picture – it’s a rubbish metaphor – but you want to be sure that everything you want to put on the canvas is where you want it to be, you’re not going to leave a great deal to chance, unless you’re that kind of artist. Unless you’re Jackson Pollock, bashing paint round, because I would do that, do random stuff, but then I would spend a lot of time editing so that random stuff happens in places that I want it to and its controlled, which sounds like a contradiction, but I don’t want it to overwhelm the music, unless it works for a certain bit.

It takes a long time to find the right feel and space to put everything in its place.

Does having access to your own gear at home help you find the right placing and work those elements together?

Yeah, because there’s not some bloke there saying “what you doing?!” you can just sit there and go “oh alright, well that works, that doesn’t work” and see how things fit together.

Do you use many pedals or effects when comes to your guitar?

Not so much now actually, but I used to have loop pedals and all that stuff, and now I’ve cut all that stuff back to concentrate on my singing. We’ve got another guitarist now, who focuses more on that stuff, but there was a point where I had a harmonium in front of me, and a pretty massive pedal board and something off to the side, and it was a tap dance as well as a singing job as well as playing. Knowing where you were with everything was impossible so I slimmed it down. Now its really just distortion pedals and reverbs.

Carting it all around was joyless but we’re a six piece now, so there’s still wads of gear. For all the triggering we do, we still need laptops for the source sounds – loads and loads of cables – when we do support gigs, you can just see the sound guy muttering to himself “oh dear”.

Thanks for talking to us Tim!

Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s Crown and Treaty is out now. Purchase your copy online now and look out for the matching songbook to te album, coming soon to musicroom.com.

A few weeks ago, Music Sales Group hosted their own songwriting week in central London, the publisher’s third and largest such event to date.

The musicroom blog was on hand to chat to some of the participants and find out what exactly what goes on during these intensive, week-long creative hot-houses.

The process begins with the publisher’s own talent, their songwriters and recording artists, who are then supplemented by external collaborators and unattached freelancers. These contributors were sourced through Music Sales’ networks within the industry, bringing in artists from other publishing houses and record labels.

Whilst the order and structure of specific songwriting weeks may differ, the central focus is always the same: placing people into groups they wouldn’t normally work in to encourage fresh and original ideas and writing.

During the Music Sales week, artists were placed into two writing groups per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Groups were typically made up of three people, chosen by the publisher’s A&R team. These selections were based on the team’s thoughts on who would work well together and any requests that had been made by collaborators regarding who they would like to work with in particular.

When it comes to the writing sessions of the groups themselves, the course is very much dependent on the members themselves, their writing processes and how they work together. Some groups were given briefs from record labels seeking material for upcoming recording artists, such as X Factor winners Little Mix, whilst other people decided upon their own themes and directions to come up with something totally original.

Once an idea had taken shape, groups could enter the on-site studio to lay down a demo of their song to take away to work on at a later date, although thanks to Music Sales’ dedicated studio engineer, Jonas Persson, many of the week’s demos were of a high enough quality for commercial use.

There were no deadlines as such set during the week, with artists encouraged to quickly move on from groups and ideas to produce as many potential songs as possible. These sketches of ideas could then be developed and finished off at a later date long after the week had ended. Often, songs originally thought up during a songwriting week aren’t completed until months after the initial jam.

Songwriting weeks can also act as networking events for writers to meet other artists which they may not have otherwise come across. Collaborators often go on to form productive, working relationships outside and beyond the week itself, which can be even more productive for a publisher in the long run.

This year’s Music Sales songwriting week produced 25 recorded song ideas, a potential cut on a forthcoming record by a very high profile artist and some great new creative partnerships for the future. The week was also a great opportunity to gather new material for synch and licensing—music for use in adverts, TV, movies and other mediums.

The final line up for the week was as so:

Helen Boulding (Music Sales)

Marcy Levy (Music Sales)

Gavin Clark (Music Sales)

Shridhar Solanki (Music Sales)

Tim Elsenburg (Music Sales)

Ludovico Einaudi (Music Sales)

Joel Cadbury (Music Sales)

Hauschka (Music Sales)

DJ Scanner (BUG)

Belle Humble (BMG)

Cass Lowe (Sony ATV)

Juanita Stein (Cooking Vinyl)

Sam Duckworth (Cooking Vinyl)

John McClure (Cooking Vinyl)

Simon Wilcox (Peer Music Group)

Matthew Swinnerton (Faber)

Martin Rossiter (Bucks Music)

Joe McElderry (Unpublished)

Lexi Parks (Unpublished)

Louise Hull (Unpublished)

Ed Cousins (Cooking Vinyl)

Ted Barnes (Unpublished)

Look out for interviews with some of the artists from the Music Sales songwriting week over the next few weeks on the Musicroom blog.