Lesley Ellis of Comar Future Trust writes:

We advertised the lovely VIBE workshops run by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Two of our members attended it last weekend and here is what they had to say :

Jamie is a pianist and he has filmed his response. Thorfinn wrote :

I found out about SCO VIBE through Cromar Future group and I attended this last weekend. I play Tuba and Trombone and I have recently become hugely interested in composing my own music, playing keyboard and, sound engineering.

I was unsure what to go to VIBE with, but the Education Officer at SCO was really helpful and helped my nerves a little as well. As for setting up everything for VIBE, all the information I needed was sent through either email or video.

I was a little nervous to start with but the team at SCO made everyone very comfortable, and while doing so told us what VIBE was all about - exploring your own creativity musically and developing confidence (improvisation skills) and learning to listen and be a good team member. Afterwards, we were lead through some exercises in improvisation and recorded it all. We then sent the pieces off to a professional sound engineer, who put it all together. This happened every morning on the three-day course, with us improvising something different each time.

The afternoons usually had us split off into ‘breakout groups,’ where we worked on our own pieces, based on a set theme. In this particular instance, it was the theme of ‘AC/DC,’ but not the band. We looked at how the different types of current worked and tried to interpret that into a musical piece. This happened every afternoon, for about 45 minutes. We also had some other sessions, where we would split off into more breakout groups and learn a song. We would then do the same process we had done in the morning (send it to the sound engineer.)

In the evening, there was also an optional ‘mix club,’ where you worked with the aforementioned sound engineer. You would help construct the pieces we had sent earlier into an actual song, which helped me learn a lot about both mixing and mastering. What an opportunity for someone my age!

All in all, I loved the experience, and I learned a lot about how music works. I cannot thank Cromar Future Group enough for facilitating my attendance!

We would like to thank VIBE for this wonderful experience and to also thank our sponsors the David and June Gordon Memorial Trust who put us in touch with this project which they also sponsor.

The full video along with other videos from the Cromar Future Group can be seen here.