Concept Sessions
Inspirational songwriting and composition sessions delivered by a diverse range of successful & established musicians involved across many musical genres.
These concept sessions are geared towards young composers / music students from Scottish high schools aiming to equip them with unique songwriting ideas, creative compositional skills and the exciting opportunity to be around professional musicians who can talk freely about their craft.
Past sessions include:
Oliver Searle and Symposia - Composer and lecturer, Oliver demonstrates a range of techniques that can be used to begin composing, with reference to a wide variety of acoustic music. Live demonstrations of many of these musical techniques and concepts will be given by a small ensemble of musicians, who will provide the opportunity to create and perform a short work, using some of the ideas discussed in the session.
Boo Hewerdine - With over 400 songs recorded by such artists as Eddi Reader, kd Lang, Chris Difford, Kris Drever, Heidi Talbot and many more, Boo talks about understanding song structure and how it can help you concentrate on inspiration rather than the mechanics of writing. 
Kim Edgar - Edinburgh-based pianist and songwriter Kim Edgar took a group of young Scottish high school students through her process of songwriting and arranging in this informal session. Throughout the session there was opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the creative process behind the finished songs. Kim spent the session looking into generating ideas, staying organised with your lyrics, chord structures, collaborations & the importance of being critical of your own work and being able to improve it.
Alex Smoke - Composer, DJ and Producer, Alex Smoke led an interactive music workshop combining electronic music production and orchestral composition. This session looked into using sampling, MIDI programming and using found sounds to create something entirely new and interesting.
Peter Gregson - Cellist and Composer working at the forefront of the new music scene. Peter demonstrated using small sections of pop music as an inspiration for writing compositions. This session looked at trends in music production and using music technology to achieve effects and interesting sounds.
James Grant - Commonly regarded as one of the best songwriters around, as the frontman in the band LOVE AND MONEY he's toured the world and sold half a million records. In his session James spoke about the craft of songwriting, how he came to do it, some of the tools of the trade...and some tricks to get started.
Carol Laula - With a wealth of experience in the music business, coupled with a great experience of working with people, young and old and with varying abilities and skills, Carol Laula took young composers / songwriters through a basic process of how to write a song from beginning ideas through lyrics and song structure. This session also resulted in one of the participants having the opportunity to perform during Carol's tour of the highlands.
Findlay Napier - This creative workshop from one of Scotlands' great musicians and songwriters covered interesting and fun ways to work on chord structure and lyric writing through various techniques using rhyme, cliches and descriptive writing.
A Band Called Quinn - Singer/ songwriter Louise Quinn & producer Bal Cooke from Glasgow indie pop group deconstruct their forthcoming single Wolf Cries Boy & remix it. Bal & Louise demonstrated how the track was produced & participants were invited to record new parts with the resulting remix being released on Tromolo Records.
![Edward McGuire: Prelude [03] 3: for Flute](http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/db/CART/images/thumbnails/score.jpg)
