This short film, made in North Berwick High School, is a late contribution to Don Ledingham‘s series, Speak Up For Scottish Education:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/8EtykOnn5HE?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Tag Archives: The Deil’s Awa Wi’ The Exciseman
Robert Burns @ Head Teachers’ Conference
Towards the end of last term a small team of musicians from North Berwick High School were invited to play at East Lothian Council’s Head Teachers’ Conference. A little earlier in the day than they are used to performing, and 3/8 of the team down due to exams and university interviews, they nevertheless gave a great and very well received performance. Here are some excerpts:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nx85Nxtkfzs?rel=0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
NBHS Spring Concert 2010
Although the end of term finished, somewhat frustratingly, with the Knox Spring Concert having to be postponed* due to weather conditions, the NBHS Spring Concert was a great success.
The Guitar Ensemble opened their set with Choro: choro (right-click red link to download)
Then Zoe, who has worked with us extensively over the last two years, joined us for two songs by Robert Burns:
The Lea Rig (some mic noise interrupted Verse 1 and so this fades in at Verse 2): the-lea-rig1 (right-click red link to download)
The Deil’s Awa’: the-deils-awa (right-click red link to download)
Although public, in-school engagements are pretty much over for NBHS pupils this term, we are hoping to represent the school at the 18th Commonwealth Forestry Conference on 28 June. Performing music of the host country at this event would be a great honour for us in addition to being a great end to the school year.
* the Knox Spring Concert has been rescheduled and will take place at 19:00 on Tuesday 20 Apr – the day we return to school
NBHS PTA Burns Supper
On Friday 29 Jan a group of 7 North Berwick High School guitar pupils gave, along with Zoe (singer), a performance of two songs at the PTA Burns Supper. While the performances were very good, and very well received, the recordings were not great – it was a live event, after all. So today, we met in the cathedral-like acoustic of the Dance Studio to make studio recordings.
The final mix was luck – the placing of a Zoom H2 in the middle of the studio and distancing people by intuition more than science. I hope you’ll agree that the result and, more particularly, the performance of the pupils is a success. Thanks to the PE Dept. for their hospitality. It’s worth remembering that these recordings came at the end of a school day, which had already featured a lunchtime rehearsal (of other material) and that the pupils went straight to record without further run-through. It may be my imagination, but I sense a difference in feel between live and studio events for pupils: the former is all about energy, communication and the moment, while the latter is more about focus, attention to detail and posterity.
The Lea Rig: the-lea-rig-2010-02-09
The Deil’s Awa Wi’ The Exciseman:the-deils-awa-wi-the-exciseman