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Music Blog Posts- Page 4 of 9 - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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What is your tutor up to: Chapter 12: Carla Rees thumb

What is your tutor up to: Chapter 12: Carla Rees

OCA’s Programme Leader for Music – Carla Rees has been busy…

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Musical Collaboration: The Next meeting of the OCA’s New Music Collective thumb

Musical Collaboration: The Next meeting of the OCA’s New Music Collective

The New Music Collective will meet again on 17 March 2018 at Iklectik Art Lab, in London. Following on from our work on group composition, individual performance and improvisation, the theme of this meeting is collaboration

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Introducing Dorico – the Future of Music Notation Software? thumb

Introducing Dorico – the Future of Music Notation Software?

OCA music students are required to submit digital versions of their scores for assessment, and a proportion of the marks are given for the quality of typesetting and presentation of notation. It is important that the assessors are experienced in the choice of software used, allowing them to judge the student’s original work and to recognise how much of the presentation is automatically generated within the program.

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In conversation with: Martin Evans thumb

In conversation with: Martin Evans

It has given me the confidence to believe in my work and my ability as a composer, justifying the efforts I made in the writing, developing and refining this score. Also, as mentioned above, it fulfilled my dream of hearing one of my compositions performed live, by other musicians.

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Getting the most from Sibelius: Part 4 thumb

Getting the most from Sibelius: Part 4

The first three posts covered the basics of the programme through to working with large, complicated scores. I’m going to continue the series with several posts dealing with advanced techniques and non-standard notation. This post deals with issues of spacing in complex scores.

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Getting the most from Sibelius: part 3 thumb

Getting the most from Sibelius: part 3

In this third post I’ll be moving on to music for large ensembles and orchestras, and using Sibelius to extract parts for players. I’ll be covering some advanced techniques and Sibelius-specific workarounds.

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Ensemble in focus – Platform 4 thumb

Ensemble in focus – Platform 4

Hearing one’s music is a very important part of learning how to compose. It can be difficult for fledgling composers to secure performances, but it is worth exploring whether there are any local ensembles willing to look at your music.

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Study visit review: OCA music composition workshop thumb

Study visit review: OCA music composition workshop

In late July, OCA music students from across the UK and Europe met up at the MAC Birmingham for a day of music making and discussion with music tutor Chris Lawry and saxophonist and publisher Keri Degg. The day was focussed on writing for saxophone with a particular emphasis on composing music for educational and examination purposes. Students got to hear their compositions workshopped and received feedback and advice from tutor and performers, as well as bound scores and recordings to take away for further study.

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What is your tutor up to? Chapter 1: Carla Rees thumb

What is your tutor up to? Chapter 1: Carla Rees

OCA’s Carla Rees, Programme Leader for Music has had a busy summer…

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