Porthcawl Rock Club Regular sessionsitle> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

PORTHCAWL ROCK CLUB REGULAR COURSE

We provide alternative music workshops for budding musicians who would like the opportunity to express themselves through playing music, learn an instrument, make new friends, improve confidence, and overall, to experience understand the different aspects of playing in a band.

Porthcawl Rock Club regular sessions programme integrates many aspects of playing music, including learning an instrument, learning to practice, playing with others, improvising, composing and recording, as well as rehearsal techniques and performing in front of an audience.

Groups meet every Saturday from 9.00 am for regular sessions, and also they attend various training and rehearsal sessions, some days during the week, after school time. (Sunday sessions for newcomers will be starting soon..)

Mutually Inspiring

Like in real life, we don't always work with others who are at our level. We get the best of each other in order to achieve a common goal.

Porthcawl Rock Club aims:

to create a friendly environment that encourages students to learn music.

to support children's learning by providing them with enjoyable learning experiences

to give children the opportunity to extend and develop their creative, communication and social skills within an inclusive enjoyable and supportive environment.

Saturday Sessions

The groups are primarily formed by gender, age, and level of ability, although availability and students preferences are also considered when we put a group together.

Week Sessions

Guitar & Bass Circle

Every guitar and bass player from the different groups meet once a fortnight. During these sessions, the students learn instrument techniques and exercises that they play together. By doing this, they have the opportunity to monitor their own progress as well as being able to watch and observe the other students doing the same exercise in order to learn from each other. For these sessions, we generally invite one of our drummers to play along with the trainees.

Rehearsal Sessions

These sessions are very punctual and strictly focussed on a specific performance showcase and set of songs. Here is where we make desicions, look for solutions and work on the finishing of our next gig. Students are always asked to listen to the original song, revising their notes and practice at home, in order to understand what they are doing and be able to understand any changes or new musical arrangements added to the final song.

Performing in Front of an Audience (Busy, exciting and fully rewarding.)

Comming soon...

What we do

We play guitars, bass, keyboard, drums and vocals, and we also encourage our students to bring any other instrument they might want to play

All our activities are orientated towards performing in an ensemble, understanding tempo, key, and playing in sync. We work on rhythm; melody; harmony, and dynamics.

Band Matters

Once the students demonstrate they can fluently follow a rhythm/repeat a sequence of notes or chords, they are assigned a band to play with.

The groups are organised for ages and/or ability and we always make sure the kids feel comfortable and happy within their group.

Each band work on a particular song /repertoire as well as stage presence for the performing bit. Bands choose their own name and also work on basic image, then they are offered the challenge to perform in front of an audience.

Drummers Sessions

The purpose of these sessions is similar to the one for guitar/bass circle, although the number of students in each group, is reduced. The activities are focused on rhythm, techniques and the understanding of bass & drums function -and functionality- within a piece of music. For these sessions, we generally invite one of our bass players to play along with the trainees.

Singing Together

These sessions are dedicated to our singers and all those who would like to sing. During the sessions, we play games involving singing and use of the voice. Each session we choose a tune/song and the participants sing individualy and as a group. We also try new songs, exchange ideas and discuss on possible songs to be performed with the bands. The singing together sessions are very encouraging and a lot of fun!

Recording

During the last term we've been working on composing and recording with one of our bands. With the help of some of our 10-12 years old students, we've produced an original track that will be included in our first CD released, later this year. The complete experience was very enriching as the students were given the opportunity to explore on something they hadn't done before. This included working on lyrics as well as fitting the words into a melody. They also worked on song structure, basic musical arrangements, ensemble as they after recorded their instruments and vocals individually. We're now planning to record a short video to go on youtube, together with the song!