Introducing a new Hip Hop and Rap pathway for our HND in Music
We’re adding a hip-hop and rap specific pathway to our popular HND course in Scotland, with acclaimed rapper Steg G joining the team to lead on the module.
We’re so excited to announce a brand-new instrument specific specialism to our widely-popular HND Music course. Hip-hop and Rap will launch for the upcoming academic year for 2020/21, and will be led by industry professionals.
The course will involve the same care and attention we apply to our contemporary instrument specific classes in songwriting, drums, guitar and more. Uniquely, it will also offer students weekly classes covering songwriting techniques, style analysis and live performance workshops to improve technical aptitude and theoretical understanding.
Our Scotland team have been working diligently with leading industry professionals over the past year to finally provide this course in an area typically overlooked in music education and we hope that we can continue to not only help prospective students reach their own goals but also provide expert industry experience and advice to prepare them for work as a full-time musician and artist.
Joining the AMS team in the near year to help deliver the module is Steven Gilfoyle (otherwise known as Steg G). Steg needs little introduction; he has performed with such acts such as 50 Cent and Kayne West over the years and is widely known in Scotland, having won the SAMA award for best hip-hop artist in 2019.
Steven also works alongside Sunny Govan, a community based radio station based in Glasgow, and has a strong background in community development and education. AMS are so excited for him to be part of the team and look forward to developing and expanding the course alongside him in the years to come.
The Hip-hop and Rap pathway promises:
- Develop and refine your lyric and writing skills
- Improve your live performance and production skills
- Gain experience as a hip-hop artist
Find out more about the HND in Music on the AMS course page.
Why hip hop and rap?
Hip-hop is an under taught and under-acknowledged topic in music education, and indeed other kinds of education. No other mainstream music college or further education centre has a course or pathway dedicated to it specifically, and it’s a gap we really want to fill.
Hip-hop originated in the Bronx in New York City in the 70’s and 80’s in marginalised communities of African Americans and Latinto’s predominantly. The culture has since grown into a global phenomenon and arguably the most commercially successful music genre currently. It has influences in street culture, various other music genres, clothes and fashion, dance, and even hairstyles – this all stems from its cultural origins. Critically, while hip hop must be understood first and foremost as an Afircan American/black genre and culture, the music has taken various forms across the world.
It began as a way for the marginalised to express their condition and experience, it later became more of a commodified global entity. However the power of the forms of hip hop, and rap specifically, as a means of expression is huge – rap involves powerful lyrical play, fascinating linguistic technique; parody, self-reflection,
Emerging recently have been academic fields focusing on hip hop itself, and specifically the role of a “hip hop pedagogy” (teaching). Hip hop pedagogy argues for the use of hip-hop and rap texts (songs, music video, lyrics) in the teaching of other traditional subjects such as literature or history. While this isn’t quite how we will teach it – focusing on more practical aspects of making your own hip-hop music – we hope this critical understanding of the subject will underpin the work we do.
We think it’s an under-valued topic all-round, and we hope we can shine some much needed attention on the benefits and cultural impact of this music form, and help students with other aspects of their music practice.
As we lead up to the start of the HND in September, we plan to bring you much more content surrounding the huge impact of hip hop and rap in the world. Stay tuned!
About the HND in Music
Our unique selling point has always been supporting students with their chosen pathway – the HND, available at AMS centres in Glasgow or Edinburgh, is a perfect example of this.
Accredited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), the HND is written in partnership with education professionals and industry experts, reflecting the current music industry and allows for further progression onto higher levels of study, expanding career opportunities and personal development.
All our tutors and staff are working in music, and our courses are both delivered by and written by musicians. With that comes a great community, common goals and an immediate industry focus that you won’t get at your run of the mill college.
- Pathway-specific tuition with professional musicians, now including Hip-Hop & Rap
- Gain a working, comprehensive knowledge of the music industry
- Perform and organise your own gig in collaboration with other musicians
- Compose, arrange and record your own music using industry standard software
- Exclusive access to our Higher Education enrichment programme
- HNC and HND Units
Find out more on the course page.
Our Women in Music online short course is happening next week! Get to know the hosts
Next weekend (20-21 June & 27-28 June) we’re hosting our latest Women In Music short course. This time, we’re online!
Women in Music: Empowerment and Employability is designed for anyone identifying as female who wants to enhance their knowledge, network and toolkit with the aim of being employed in the music industries in any capacity. The 4 day course (spread across two subsequent weekends) will be hosted by industry experts and AMS friends Melisa Kelly and Karlyn King, and is available for anyone living in Scotland over 14 years of age.
On the first day we’ll be covering why the course is necessary and start to reflect on what valuable skills and experience we already have and want to gain, with modern industry context. The second day will focused on creative CV and mock interview skills, while day 3 deals with situations and intro’s to music management. The final day will feature a masterclass with Melisa Kelly (who is a professional singer and songwriter and also teaching day 2).
Melisa Kelly
Melisa Kelly has been working in the music industry for over ten years and in that time she has been a performer, a writer, and a tutor. Her band ‘Melisa Kelly and the Smokin Crows’, have played up and down the country including festivals Eden, and Kelburn Garden Party. Their album ‘Devil’s Luck’ which was solely written by Melisa, featured players from Jools Holland’s R’n’B orchestra and was mastered at Abbey Road studios by Geoff Pesche. She graduated from the Academy of Music and Sound with a BA Hons in Performance Industries (First Class) and went on to tutor for AMS in Vocals, Songwriting, and Employability. Melisa is currently writing her next album and is in the final semester of her Masters from UWS in Songwriting and Music Composition.
Karlyn King
Karlyn King is a Popular Music academic, lecturer and researcher who teaches all over the UK. She leads on modules such as Artist Development and PR, Sound and Culture and Popular Music Debates with a special interest in rock n roll history, here at AMS and at colleges across the UK. She is currently working on a PhD at University of Birmingham exploring the enduring format of vinyl.
She is a regular panel speaker and conference presenter on all things vinyl, including a recent event with UK band IDLES. In her spare time, she has toured as a singer/songwriter/guitarist and works for a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Dates announced for Scotland online short courses!
We’ve updated our new free short-course schedule for summer!
Check out dates, times and more details on the courses below.
• 1st June – Sound Production
• 8th June – Sound Production
• 8th June – Hip-Hop and Rap with Steg G
• 20th June – Women in Music: Empowerment and Employability with Karlyn King and Melisa Kelly
Each class is open to anyone currently living in Scotland, and of course, is completely free.
You can apply via the link below or contact our Scotland teams:
[email protected]
The AMS April playlist is here!
We almost forgot about this one...
Don't worry, we're back on track! Our AMS Glasgow monthly playlist series returns, and this time, we've teamed up with a BA (Hons) alumni for a specially curated April edition of our Spotify instalment.
Craig – the head honcho of rock and metal promo crew, Goddamned Promotions – helped us curate our latest beefy playlist. It's a hard hitter, featuring the likes of The Massacre Cave, Black Peaks, Godeater, VEXED, and Dead By Monday.
Need some shredz? Shreds here. ????
Tuck in
Trivium shoutout AMS Glasgow for their Covid response
Shoutout from Trivium’s Matthew Heafy
At AMS Glasgow we took it as red that we would continue to deliver our music qualifications despite the current shutdown. As a provider in the sector we worked to get our entire delivery moved over to an online model as quickly as we could, to ensure that education could continue for our students, and work for our staff as smoothly as possible. We thankfully managed a swift transition within 4 days, and although things are still a little strange, we’re happy to be able to continue teaching and playing, in a more digital form.
Still, it came as a bit of a surprise to discover that guitarist, vocalist and founding member of metal band Trivium, Matt Heafy thought our efforts were worthy of a video shoutout! On further research we found out that some of our students had actually arranged the shoutout, and that made it all the sweeter.
“Thank you for keeping education going” the frontman said in the video. We’re absolutely chuffed by the praise, and at our students for reaching out to the band. Matty also chats about some of the great spots to eat and drink around Glasgow – making us miss the outside, but thankful we’ve got such a great city to look forward to enjoying again soon.
Thanks so much to our students for their efforts to keep things going whilst we’re all at home, and thanks to Matt Heafy for the kind words.
You can check out the full video in the player below.
Our Scotland online short courses are now live!
Our Sound Production and our Hip Hop and Rap Songwriting and Beat Making Workshops (with the legend that is Steg G) are now all online!
We recently announced that all our upcoming short courses (originally set to take place in Scotland in the coming months) had been validated to be delivered online. It's with great excitement we can reveal that the first few of these courses have been finalised for delivery online arrived, and are available to apply for now!
They are taught courses – you will learn through streamed group classes and 1-1 individual lessons with our experienced tutors - all music industry and education professionals.
And the best part - they are completely free for anyone living in Scotland.
If you have any questions please get in touch. You can get in touch with AMS Edinburgh or Glasgow on their pages on our website, or find us on Facebook here.
Apply now on our dedicated page.
Our Free Short Courses are now being developed for online delivery
A Good News Story!
In the light of recent developments there have been a lot of cancellations, the most recent being the annual Glastonbury Festival, and a lot of changes makes for some very negative reading. So here's a good news story! Our short courses that are delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow have been approved for online delivery.
Short Courses from the comfort of your home...
Currently we run short courses in Sound Production, Synthesis, Rap & hip hop, Working in Live Music and Women's Employability in Music. Read more about all the courses that will be available here.
All online courses will be free of charge - and will hopefully give students and the wider public the change to learn something new and channel some positive energies during all this self-isolation.
As soon as the model for online delivery has been devised details will be available, so keep an eye on these pages for updates.
Hip Hop and Rap short course added to Glasgow programme! Full details of Short Courses 2020
A range of new short courses has been added to AMS Scotland's 2020 programme.
The new short courses will take place in our Glasgow & Edinburgh centres and includes a Hip Hop and Rap workshop, Women's Empowerment and Employability in the music industry talks, and a Digital Synthesis and Sampling course.
Joining the short course team is Steg G, who will be delivering our very first Rap and Hip Hop Workshop covering; lyric writing, beat making, performing and production techniques.
We're very excited about this new addition – and look forward to welcoming Steg to our team. Hip Hop and Rap is a huge part of music culture, and we are looking forward to including it in our short course provision. The course is designed to help you with your lyric writing, song structure, production skills, music theory basics and music production techniques with access to industry-standard music production equipment and software.
Other new courses include the follow up to January's Women Employment in the Music Industry workshop; the second instalment of this series will take place in April.
See the full short course programme, includes dates and locations, below.
SOUND PRODUCTION 1 BEGINNERS
Our free Sound Production short course offers a comprehensive introduction to everything you need to know about recording techniques. This includes recording live instruments, MIDI recording, layering, mixing, mastering and more. With access to industry-standard audio equipment and software, as well as expert tutors to get you up to speed, the course is a perfect introduction to the modern recording industry.
- Glasgow dates (2020)
Monday 30th March to Friday 3rd April – full-day classes (Mon- Fri, 10AM – 5PM)
One week intensive and concluding on Friday 3rd April. - Edinburgh dates (2020)
Sunday 5th of April – full-day classes (every Sun 10AM – 5PM)
For 6 weeks concluding on Sunday 9th May 2020.Apply HERE
SOUND PRODUCTION 2 ADVANCED
Building on the skills and knowledge from our first Sound Production course, this new programme will explore the fundamentals of recording theory and best practice. These classes are focused on exploring the dynamic range of recorded material and equalisation techniques applied to various genres and styles. Towards the end of the course, we will also be exploring employability within the creative industries and various opportunities while working towards a professional portfolio.
It is highly recommended that you have completed Sound Production 1 before applying for the follow-up course
- Glasgow (2020)
DATES TBC - Edinburgh dates (2020)
From Saturday 4th of April – full-day classes (every Sat for 6 weeks, 10AM – 5PM)
For 6 weeks concluding on Saturday 9th May 2020.Apply HERE
WORKING IN THE LIVE MUSIC SECTOR SONGWRITING WORKSHOP
These creative classes will focus on improving your songwriting techniques, lyrical writing techniques and also help with improving melodies and chord progressions. As part of the course, you will have to perform your original material in front of other peers which leads up to a final performance towards the end of the course.
- Glasgow Dates (2020)
DATES TBCApply HERE
RAP AND HIP HOP SONGWRITING / BEAT MAKING WORKSHOP
Newly added: Our Hip Hop, Rap, & Grime workshop will include making your very own songs, lyrics and exploring various production methods around beat making. This free short-course will provide an introduction to the essentials delivered and curated by award-winning Hip Hop artist, Steg G. By the end of this course, you should feel more confident with your lyric writing, song structure, production skills, music theory basics and music production techniques with access to industry-standard music production equipment and software.
- Glasgow Dates (2020)
Monday 6th of April - Friday 10th April – full-day classes (Mon to Fri, 10AM – 5PM)
Concluding on Friday 10th of April.Apply HERE
WOMEN IN MUSIC EMPOWERMENT AND EMPLOYABILITY
Our Women in Music: Empowerment and Employability Course are designed to give you the knowledge, practical awareness and confidence to create your own opportunity’s in life and within the music industry. We want to help you feel confident and use your voice where “Girls should be seen not heard” is still a dominant mentality. Join us and meet like-minded women, tailor your CV and gain priceless interview skills.
- Edinburgh dates (2020)
Four day course, running over two consecutive weekends the 18th, 19th, 25th and 16th of April 2020Apply HERE
DIGITAL SYNTHESIS AND SAMPLING
Our Digital Synthesis and Sampling Short Course offers you the chance to learn how to programme and use an Axoloti synthesiser. On completion of our free course you will even get to keep your synthesiser! Our programme has been developed in-house using the Working in the Live Music Sector framework.
- Glasgow dates (2020)
DATES TBCApply HERE
Get to know
Neon Seas band
This Glasgow electro-pop band are hotly tipped for success, and features our very own ex-student Samantha Kelly.
As well as Samantha on vocals, Neon Seas features Davey Purdie (guitar/synthesizer), Calum Brown (guitar/synthesizer) and Craig Harkness (drums). Dead Cells is the latest single from the group to be unleashed. Selected as a Single of the Week on BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show last month, the band describe it as their heaviest track yet. Check it out below.
The group spoke to Jim Gellatly recently for The Scottish Sun – they spoke about their early influences, the many elements and aspects to their sound, and their love of the Glasgow scene.
Here's some highlight quotes from the Neon Seas interview...
“From the start, we’ve been dancing between genres, dipping our toes in certain textures and ideas from various styles like shoegaze, synthpop and post-punk.
"As we’ve grown, the songs have got bigger sounding and we’ve been more willing to tap into certain ideas you wouldn’t normally hear in alternative pop music.” – Davey
: “We’re really excited to kick off what we hope to be our biggest year yet, by playing in one of our favourite venues. Our plan is to get out there as much as possible and make some new friends. And do what we love doing!” – Davey
“We were all fairly rusty performers at that time, having all been away from playing in bands for a while. It’s been great to grow together as musicians and as mates.” – Davey
"The soaring synths, coupled with infectious rhythms, create a captivating sound." – Jim Gellatly
Neon Seas were winners of Rebel Yell bourbon’s battle of the bands in 2018, they also graced the stage at the legendary Barrowland as part of the Music Matters, Happiness Matters, You Matter gig for mental-health awareness.
Read the full article here.
Listen to AMS Glasgow band Layaway play on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal!
AMS Scotland's very own Layaway band appeared on the BBC Radio nan Gaidheal - a Scottish/Gaelic radio show - just a few weeks ago (January 27th 2020).
The band appeared on broadcaster Rapal's BBC show to play some tunes and chat about the band and their music.
They show has also featured the like of both Quiche and Cloth recently - who both hit it up at our 25th birthday gig in Glasgow last November - plus The Sherlocks and False Friends. Rapal also hosted a Scottish Alternative Music Awards (SAMA) show last year.
Layaway, an alternative rock band hailing rom Glasgow, were also featured on a few Spotify Breakthrough playlists last month, and were featured in Discover Magazine. They said in a social media post sharing the article, "We've been waiting to work with press and the timing couldn't be better. Some very kind words and we're looking forward to pushing this forward."
Have a listen to the full show in the player below...
Listen here
AMS Scotland's Zoe Graham gets interviewed in M Magazine: Read online
"Even if there’s a thundering beat under the track,
somehow, somewhere, folk will still be in there."
AMS Scotland alumni Zoe Graham was interviewed for the popular music publication M Magazine recently; Zoe spoke about her early influences, the new direction her music is taking , what's been inspiring her lately, and of course, her experience taking home the prestigious SAMA award towards the end of 2019.
Read the full article below (originally published in M Magazine on 28 January 2020).
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While there is a distinct contrast between early singles like Hacket & Knackered and her latest offering Sleep Talking, the storytelling nature of her songwriting is persistent amid the sharp electronics.
Despite being at a relatively early stage in her career, it’s a trait that bagged Zoe the Best Acoustic gong at last year’s Scottish Alternative Music Awards (SAMAs).
Possessing songwriting prowess beyond her years, she has steadily forged an impressive reputation in Scotland’s rich music scene.
Following a move to Glasgow, Zoe gigged heavily in the city at venues like The Hug and Pint before securing support slots for acts like Rae Morris at The Art School and a spot on the line-up for the prestigious new music showcase Wide Days.
The shift towards the electronic pop of Sleep Talking is an exciting development in an already impressive young career.
We caught up with Zoe to get the skinny on her new direction, her biggest inspirations and what it felt like to take home the SAMA award…
How did you first get into making music?
Music has always been a big part of my life. For as long as I can remember this is what I wanted to do. My older brother is a conductor and composer and I grew up listening to him blast classical music from his room and learn the piano. It’s easy to see that my brother was the main inspiration for me to then pick up the violin, and then the guitar. With my mum and dad being an actress and artist – creativity was never something to shy away from.
Does songwriting come naturally to you?
I’d say so yes! But that doesn’t make it easy for me. It’s definitely a part of me that I don’t think will ever leave me. But I labour over songs and find it very difficult to finish them. I get distracted and after writing the first verse I get very tired very quickly. That’s why I’ve really been enjoying co-writes. There’s a responsibility to get something finished and an expectation to come away with a finished and demoed song. Where if I’m writing myself, it will take me a couple of days to get around to it all.
How would you describe your music to the uninitiated?
That’s difficult, it’s changed so much throughout the years. My older stuff veers slightly more on the alt-folk side. But the new stuff is more electronic and pop based. However, I feel regardless of the instrumentation or genre I still have a foot firmly in folk music by the nature of my lyrics. They always tell a story and are quite developed. So even if there’s a thundering beat under the track somehow, somewhere folk will still be in there.
What inspirations outside of music impact your songwriting?
I’m a big art lover. My father being an artist, I’ve always been into making things my whole life. My initial plans were to actually go to art school. But instead I found The Academy of Music and Sound and decided to try that out as they had a songwriting course. I’m hugely inspired by the natural world, and I also sometimes like to pop religious themes in my lyrics too. Not in any Christian-rock or god loving kind of a way, I use that language as a leverage to make my statement hit a bit harder. For example, one of the lyrics in my new single Sleep Talking – ‘Judas you are not alone, I am with you.’ This lyric shows how bad I feel, how guilty I feel. But somehow it feels a bit worse when you add Judas into the mix.
What’s the thinking behind your latest track Sleep Talking?
I’m a really bad sleep talker, walker, and I see things in my sleep too. I used to wake up in the middle of the night with an ex-partner lying next to me thinking I had said something I didn’t mean, something horrible or untrue. And I used to really panic that they heard, or just confused if I had even said anything at all. This feeling was so awful that I knew I just had to write about it.
______
Can you tell us a little bit about the motivations behind the track’s accompanying video?
The video is a direct reference to the meaning of the song. I hallucinate in my sleep, I wake up seeing things; so Kieran Howe (director) and I ran with this. The three dancers in the video are my nightly hallucinations, each representing a stage of grief from a break up. Throughout the video we move from dark, to grey to light as I slowly start to accept these stages of grief. At the end I have totally accepted these emotions and they have become pillars to my progression in life, lessons learned. There are also a lot of religious themes in the video too. We used these as stylistic inspirations. For instance, the images of the hands are a nod to ‘The Creation of Adam’, and the final frame of the dancers and I is a reference to ‘The Descendant From The Cross’ by Paul Ruben. Baroque and Renascence art was the main jumping off point for Kieran and I.
How do you think your music has evolved since you first started out?
My confidence has greatly improved my songwriting. I was a very shy kid growing up. With this, I have progressed through quite a few genres. I used to write blues music, then folk music and slowly as my confidence has progressed I now have slid into the territory of more outspoken alt-pop music. Who knows where it could all go next!
How did it feel to win Best Acoustic at the 2019 Scottish Alternative Music Awards?
AMAZING! I’ve been playing gigs since I was 16 and, in that time, I’ve played hundreds of gigs (and that’s not an overstatement). Just like every musician I’ve done a lot of Bad (with a capital B) gigs in my time. Especially as a kid, you can end up getting conned quite a bit. Finally feeling like I had been recognised for my hard work and perseverance was such an amazing feeling. Winning the SAMA has now become a big driver for me to keep on going!!!
Do you have any plans for a full-length release?
…maybeeeee
What’s your take on the Scottish music scene at the moment?
It’s the place to be for new and exciting music. The music coming out of Scotland is genuine and has a real humanity to it. I’m close friends with most of the music scene in Glasgow and parts of the rest of Scotland too. It really feels like the most supportive family. Great music coming out of Scotland right now are Quiche, Russell Stewart, Kitti and VanIves, to name a few.
What’s next for you?
At the moment I’m writing, and trying to create as much music and art as possible. MORE OF THAT PLEASE! I’ll be showcasing my band a bit more this year and playing more shows across the border too.
Zoe Graham forthcoming live dates:
18 April The Poetry Club, Glasgow
This article first appeared on m-magazine.co.uk on 28 January 2020.
The Big Gig at St Lukes Glasgow
2019 Official Film
In November 2019 we completed our year of 25th birthday celebrations with an epic showcase at St Lukes in Glasgow. Wandern Media were on hand to capture the entire event, as well as providing some sick snaps, they caught the entire gig on film in this epic gig video. Check it out below.