Music Production and Songwriting

Fermynwoods Contemporary Art has been working with The Complementary Education Academy for ten years, bringing arts programming to students who have been excluded from mainstream education. Or, rather, we bring the students to the arts, using our site at Sudborough Green Lodge, deep in Fermyn Woods, for workshops.

This year’s programming will build towards a year-end festival of music and the arts we’re calling Fermynwoodstock. Our inaugural two weeks of workshops with DJ, producer and musician Daniel Johnson was near idyllic. The students were enthralled by their introduction to the professional mixing deck, music production software and sampler. Soon our portion of the forest was filled with thumping bass as everyone practiced fading in and out of tracks, adjusting the BPMs of individual songs to make a smooth transition.

Then it was on to their own track. Songs to sample were chosen from Daniel's collection, then rapping, production and mixing duties were divvied up amongst them. When the rapper of the group got stuck on lyrics, they all sat down with pen and paper. These workshops were marked by tremendous camaraderie and empathy. Everyone worked together well, took turns, made fair decisions (via democratic vote or a game of rock, paper, scissors), and helped each other.

The teamwork carried on into the following week, and the students all approached the workshop with a lot of confidence, happily accepting challenges from Daniel to do even more. The group finished a rehearsal of their song before lunch and then prepared for recording. They would have two chances to perform all the way through while being videoed and recorded. During the first recording, our student rapper got nervous and was being hard on himself for flubbing his words. It was nice to see the others rally around him and even hold his lyric sheet up for him on the second recording. Daniel and Fermynwoods staff were incredibly proud of them all, both as musicians and people. 

The songs recorded during these two weeks will be revealed at Fermynwoodstock at the end of the school year. Keeping in mind the limits and desires of each of our pupils, they will be given the choice of performing their tracks live or creatively screening the video of their performance from the workshops. We’re very much looking forward to it!

To learn more about our Alternative Provision programming: http://fermynwoods.org/alternative-provision/