Fiddlesticks. No, I’m not swearing.

Today was a day of Fiddle playing and Cajon drumming for our Jam Buddies Half Term Workshop. I arrived slightly late, so was introduced to everyone who had already started making their own beats on the Cajons. The beats were in the rhythm of their favourite foods! We had bacon and eggs, roast potatoes and lumpy onion gravy and burgers and chips amongst others. I introduced my chosen beat, ‘Karpatka’, which is a Polish cake. We all decided on our favourites, and then put them together to form a full drum beat. We played this together and recorded it, and it sounded AMAZING.

As soon as we have all of the recordings we will be sure to share them with you via SoundCloud and YouTube.

We then moved on to the artistic part of the day. We drew, painted and designed the artwork that will form the CD cover for the release of our Christmas CD, which will include songs written throughout the year. I won’t give away the designs, but they look very cool.

The final part of our day was with Becky, who came to teach us how to play the fiddle (or violin). This  part of the day was the bit a lot of us were very excited about! Becky started by showing us how to play the fiddle in the best way, and how to hold it. She taught us pizzicato, which is plucking the strings, how to use the bow, and also fiddlesticks, which is using things like pens to hit the strings to make a different sound. Once we had all played and practised, we put together a Halloween themed song which told a story of a boy walking through the woods, and something scary happening to him after meeting a werewolf.

We all decided how each part of the story would sound, and what technique we were going to use to make that sound. With Becky narrating, we played the story through, and once we felt it was ready, we recorded it. The story came to life in a scary and awesome way. We finished our day with some folk dancing and playing, combining the cajon with the fiddle. Dom and Kier were our expert dancers, and this finished off what was an awesome day!

Written by Ben Pidgeon, Published by Dominic Palfreman

So today was a very busy day for our Making Waves session and we got so much done! The new equipment is up and running (and it is awesome); we can start to get really creative and make some cool new movies!

Today we helped Bayley with a personal project of his. He has written some amazing Doctor Who scripts so he recorded our voices today. I cant wait to see what the final product will look like but the amount of work and effort that is going into them is insane! Look out Hollywood!

Gav also started to come up with a storyboard for a Star Wars animation. I asked Gav some things about the film and this is what he had to say…

“My part for the Star Wars film has been drawing and writing up storyboards. Bailey has already been given drawings for the film. We have some good ideas for the film but we need more people to be in it. We can learn how to make good Hollywood style films. We need to write a story board, cast it, write a production schedule, film it, edit it, then add the sound. Then finally we get to eat popcorn and watch it. I'm looking forward to film making and also being an actor. I'm going to play the most powerful Sith in the galaxy. I'm looking forward to being the character and to see myself acting on a big screen. Id like to be a hero and a villain in a superhero movie. I know a lot about superheroes so I can play the characters well”

As you can see we have a lot to do but we will do it and it will be amazing! On a final note I thought I would share what our chosen super powers would be.

Vicky: I would like to fly and to summon cake.
Michelle: I would like to be Harry Potter.
Gav: A metal skeleton claw, the angrier I get the stronger I get and I want to transform into animals.
Bailey: I would want to control and manipulate electricity.
Dom: I would want telepathy and speed. So much pace that if I wanted to I could take off.
Jake: Super strength.
Stu: Swim really quickly and play loads of instruments.
Abi: Telekinesis and to talk and be friends with animals.

Written Abi Innocent, Published Dominic Palfreman

The instruments are here! For our first Big Band session we all opened and unveiled our brand new instruments! It was like a musical Christmas. Everybody was excited and helping each other set up their instruments. This, of course, took a while so we didn't get around to playing a lot in our first practice but we all sat in our instrument groups and were assigned a principal player to help the rest of the section learn how to play their instruments!

So far we have Jane leading on the sax, two clarinet players, one flute player, four sax players, three trumpet players, two a drummers and a keyboard player. Of course the three trumpet players were misbehaving straight away! Is that a thing because it seemed to happen the second they started playing? As a band we make a lot of noise and considering it was our first proper practice with our instruments I think we sounded pretty damn good!

We started off with tuning into each other and then we played ‘In The Mood’ to work on our timing. Having practised our timing we played the song that we were commissioned to write which sounded great and will be unveiled at our Christmas concert on the 11th of December in Crediton’s Congregational Church. It is definitely something for us to work hard for and for you to come along to!

So watch this space, and if you fancy joining us then it's still not too late!

We meet on a Friday at Lords Meadow Leisure Centre. For any more information on our Christmas performance or taking part in our big band feel free to contact us.

Telephone: 01363 772512
Email: theturningtidesproject@hotmail.com
Website: www.theturningtidesproject.org.uk

Written by Abi Innocent, Published by Dom Palfreman

Today I went to my first Pub Jam at The Buccaneers Bar in Crediton and it certainly wont be my last, it was great! We played skittles (something I had never done before) and now I reckon we should all be in a league! We kicked some serious ass!

Our top skittle tips:
Rosina: “I put my left leg back when I am bowling”
Dominic: “I make sure not to bounce the ball. Make it as smooth as possible”
Martin: “Left handed bowling. I throw it and knock them over”

Pub Jam isn't all about skittles though, we all decide what we want to happen and try to think of great things to do.

To Rosina Pub Jam is all about “Seeing different people and the same people. We have made a film about our music group that we used to do on a Monday. I have been coming for ages and I think its nice to get out for a little while”.

Stuart likes Pub Jam because “I get to see my girlfriend and I like to play pool. Its fun! I also get to play darts, I'm good at darts and I reckon Dominic is to. Pub Jam is one of my favourite things to come to”.

Dominic likes it because “I like chilling, it’s social and its genuine. I enjoy pub twister which is just twister but in a pub”

So its not all skittles. It really is just a group of people that do super awesome stuff and the best thing is that anyone can get involved and I mean why wouldn't you want to?

Why don't you come down and join us?

Pub Jam Session, Okehampton, The Kings Arms, St James Street, EX20 1DW
The Last Tuesday of Every Month 6:00pm - 8:00pm
An open FREE session for making music, socialising and meeting friends. A great way to get involved and see what we're up to.

Pub Jam Session, Crediton, Buccaneers Bar, East Street, EX17 3AZ
Second Tuesday of Each Month 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Written by Abi Innocent, Published by Dom Palfreman

The Turning Tides newest instalment of the Radio Vibe is now live on MixCloud.
 
Featuring:
Guess the song – it’s not an easy this time! Good luck to you!
Official Turning Tides Top 5 Countdown
A large requests section
Live and loud section – This is all about live music that is loud!
 
This time there are 4 main presenters and special appearance from a new presenter from Okehampton College called Jazz.
 
As we become an increasingly #Inclusive Podcast, everyone who takes part will be learning new skills. Like how to use Audacity (music editing software) and manage sound levels.
 
We really want everyone to hear the show; we broadcast everywhere that we can. Usually this means we’re also on MoorFM, however, this month we are not! MoorFM are having some technical issues. But you can still catch our show on our website and on MixCloud
 
Want to be part of the show or put song request in? Then get in contact! Fill in the contact form, or email Jake on jake.tttp@outlook.com.

Written and Published by Dom Palfreman

We are now a big band and it is awesome!

The Turning Tides Project is starting a big band. Its still early days so come along and choose anything that you would like to try and play and we will do our best to find it for you!

Now, when we say big band we mean BIG. We want as many people as we can get playing as many big instruments that we can get our hands on. This could be anything from a saxophone to a trombone or anything else you can think of! In the band there is a huge range of ability. From people that have never picked up an instrument before to people that have been playing for years and can transfer their skills over to you.

We recently hosted a successful garden party that we raffled off a selection of prizes. One of these prizes was a commission to write a song. We were asked to create a piece of music following the footsteps of Glenn Miller. In our first rehearsal session we all tried out different woodwind instruments. It went so well and the sound was great, not to mention loud! So we thought why not create our very own big band!

The Turning Tides project is now accepting commissions to write songs for special occasions or even jingles for radio shows. We will be doing our first live performance in Crediton Christmas concert in December. The details for this are still to be announced so keep an eye out for any posters!

We meet on a Friday at Lords Meadow Leisure Centre. For any more information on our Christmas performance or taking part in our big band feel free to contact us.

Telephone: 01363 772512
Email: theturningtidesproject@hotmail.com
Website: www.theturningtidesproject.org.uk

Written by Abi Innocent, published by Dom Palfreman

Making waves: Crediton. It is a funky new group at the Buccaneers Bar every Tuesday from 11:00am until 3:30pm. A place to meet friends in a relaxed environment. The Buccaneers Bar is a friendly, welcoming space for everybody; it has wheelchair access and its pretty good, it's fun and stops me being bored at home on my own and gives me time to play pool and chat. It’s also nice and easy to get to.

We are going to write stories, film them, edit them and then add our own music and sound effects. These are skills that we are all going to learn and develop. So that the work we produce is 100% inclusive. On top of this we have some really great equipment coming in, including the world’s smallest projector. Thanks to Nick Way, our local Councillor for supporting the development of this session with grants from “Investing in Devon” and “Locality Fund”. A chance to learn new skills including writing newspaper articles, blogging and using social media.

I am most looking forward to trying a bit of everything so that I can take part in all of it. I want to have fun and be a part of something new and exciting.

You can take part in whatever you want to do and have fun whilst you are doing it. It’s good because it's in a place that everyone gets along and where they do cool stuff.

Written by Stuart Raymont and Abi Innocent