Making Music with Rich Cottell

On Friday 14 September, our Year 10 and 11 GCSE Music pupils were given the unique opportunity to spend a full day with singer-songwriter Rich Cottell, who has written for Oly Murs, Little Mix among other high profile artists in the Music industry.

The full day comprised of lyric workshops and song writing masterclasses, where the emphasis was on inspiring our musicians to be open-minded about the process, inquisitive about the elements of song writing and motivated to compose a song-in-a-day. The Year 11 pupils had some hidden motivation in that they are required to submit a song as part of their coursework, so Mr Curran is pleased to report that all of them did more than was asked of them and have some catchy pieces which will be released, and submitted, early next year.

When Mr Curran asked Year 10 Croyde how the day was going, he replied with one word: 'sick', which apparently means 'rad' which definitely means 'really, really cool'. Rich thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the boys' creative ideas and stated that 'the day was a great collaboration of creative minds who are well on their way to writing some cracking songs. I'd love to come back next year and hear the finished recordings'.

The boys left inspired and enjoyed what was ultimately a wonderful experience which we are planning to repeat next year. A big thank you must go to Rich Cottell for his time and inspiration, and to the Music Department for organising such a unique experience for our budding musicians.