Category: News (Page 2 of 2)

Dear all,
Ta-da!

This is the video response to anyone who has ever asked me, ‘What instrument to you play?’
I’ve been working on this project for a few months and have recorded and filmed all of it in my room with just my laptop and a few mics, which means it is a little rough around the edges. This was an exercise in learning and understanding band instruments, rather than achieving technical perfection. I certainly appreciate now how hard it is to play the tuba and the percussion parts in general still baffle me a bit, but overall I think I got there in the end. Sort of.
I’d like to thank Darent Valley Youth Music and Mr Rupert Bond for the kind loan of some of the featured instruments. Large percussion like timps were recorded off-site (couldn’t get them up the stairs).
And yes, I have seen the disappearing clarinet at 03:52. I really have no idea why, so I’m just gonna let him do his thing.
My concert band (in the audio) features a few more instruments than I managed to squeeze into the video, so here is the full run-down:
2 Flutes
2 Flutes pretending to be Oboes
9 Clarinets
4 Alto Saxes
2 Tenor Saxes
2 Bari Saxes
6 Trumpets
4 Horns
6 Trombones
2 Tuba
1 String Bass
1 Ukulele
1 Snare Drum
1 Floor Tom
1 Cymbal
1 Triangle
3 Timps
1 Bass Drum
(Apologies for omitting the double reeds, they’re expensive)
It’s been a long couple of months, but now it is done. Hurrah!
Thanks for watching
James
🙂
Music by John Powell
Arranged by Sean O’Loughlin.
Performed by James Drake.

Hi all,
Just a note to say that I’ve put some serious work into my website over the summer, so that it’s even better and more user-friendly than before!
As well as my new online shop for ukulele music, I’ve updated the structure and content of my pages and even written some advice pages to help anyone looking to learn an instrument, buy an instrument, look after an instrument and I’ve even included some practice tips!
New pupils can now enrol by entering their information into an easy online form and all my tuition terms and conditions can now be viewed at any time online.
I also have listings for any instruments that I have for sale, a page of testimonials from clients past and present and a full online syllabus for my Ukurate scheme!
And there’s more to come! Keep an eye out for more ukulele music, more multi-track recordings and many more blog posts as I share some of my insights into all things musical.
Thanks for subscribing,
James
p.s. For those who haven’t seen it, I leave you with this…

Make ready the sail and keep a weather eye on the horizon!
I’ve been a busy bee this summer and have really got stuck in with some new multi-track recording projects. Like my How To Train Your Dragon video, I’ve recorded some famous film music on a fantastic array of wind, string and percussion instruments.
I won’t give away any more spoilers just yet, but I’ve spent quite a while re-jigging my home recording set-up for some vastly improved sound quality. The next ones are also more difficult (tee hee)! I plan to release the first at the beginning of September and the second just before Hallowe’en.
But to keep you going until I release the big ones, here is a little recording of one of my favourite songs by Sara Bareilles. I just love the sound of the (very close) harmonies all crunching together. Thanks for watching!

Dearest Subscribers,
I’ve been locked away in my room all summer and here is the result! Long live the Clones!

Earlier this year, I was lucky to get a place in the latest project by the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra. Now, first I should explain: These chaps are not like your regular, Saturday-morning orchestra however, the scale is breathtaking.
They are an online collaboration of fans across the world who submit self-recorded audio and video to the production team in the US (all fans!), who then edit all the tracks and videos together to form one giant patchwork masterpiece. Now whilst that is in itself, very impressive, I must bring you back to the scale.
Bearing in mind that most symphony orchestras number about 50, its then incredible to think that the DWFO numbers up to 500 in every project. As well as traditional orchestral instruments, they add a full range of percussion, guitar, bass, keys and even a choir to capture the epic scale of Murray Gold’s music for the show.
But perhaps most importantly, it’s clear that the love is really there: many performers dress up to record their video submissions and they seem to compete for the most creative costume! It’s wonderful to see community music making on such an international scale- long may it continue!
Their latest project, ‘Donna’s Suite’ celebrates the music written about the companion, Donna (immortalised by Catherine Tate) and includes a lot of Latin-American inspired tunes and rhythms, which is what makes it stand out from the rest of the score.
I was lucky enough to get to play Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Alto Sax on this recording. See if you can see me pop up anywhere! I’m most proud of my clarinet slide at 2:37. Enjoy!

Click here to learn more about the DWFO.

I recently went to a conference for music teachers and they featured this great little video to explain just exactly what goes on inside our brains when we play music. It turns out that we really do use almost every little bit of grey matter available when we process written music into sound through our instruments.
Not only that, but musicians have more grey matter in the corpus callosum (the bit that joins our two hemispheres) allowing greater connectivity between the linguistic left and logical right parts of the brain. No wonder that music is said to be excellent brain training and that musicians also tend to score higher in other academic subjects; you can even see how it might be beneficial in staving off dementia!
Aren’t we fab!