Red Dog Music in Edinburgh are offering a series of in-store workshops on music technology, live music demos and Q&A sessions with professional musicians over the coming weeks, all FREE and open to anyone wishing to get involved. The upcoming programme of music workshop events will run as follows:

Mixing & Production in Reason 7 Masterclass
Wednesday 19 June @ 7pm
Acclaimed mix engineer Gary Bromham (Tina Turner, Bjork, Sheryl Crow) and Reason co-creator Mattias Häggström Gerdt are in-store showing all the amazing things you can do with Reason 7. Free entry.

An evening with Gareth Bowen – Synth player to the stars
Thursday 27 June @ 7pm
He’s sessioned with Alanis Morissette, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Brian May, Tricky and PJ Harvey, and he’s holding a seminar at Red Dog Music to demo some of the equipment he uses live. Free entry.

“Free Your Mix” Swanfield Studios home recording Q&A session
Thursday 4 July @ 7pm
The audience are encouraged to bring their own stems / unmastered mixes along to the session and have the rest of the group – as well as the Swanfield engineers and Red Dog Music production team – offer friendly mix advice. Free entry.

To register for this first free event taking place Wednesday 19 June 2013, visit – www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/reason7reddog

This Saturday 1 June sees the first date of the ElJam Summer Tour 2013 which this year is bigger than ever, comprising of 14 exciting events.

New additions for the 2013 tour are slots at the Meadows Festival in Edinburgh, Haddington’s Trad on the Tyne Festival and a showcase an Brunton Venue 1 in conjunction with Feast Records – Edinburgh College’s student-run record label.

To find out more, visit our Issuu profile – www.issuu.com/ymfs/eljamsummertour

Lamp House Music have just announced their new music classes for children beginning this May 2013, ‘ReMake Music’.

The organisation have two classes available in the ReMake Music programme, one for Pre-School (ages 2—5 years) and one for Primary (ages 5—12 years). The classes offer children a wide variety of musical and creative fun activities, as an introduction into learning instruments from an early age.

The sessions will bring craft and music together, designed to start children on their musical journey, encouraging them to open their ears and engage with sounds and music from a young age. The ReMake Music course is also structured to help nurture good self-esteem, language skills and confidence within the children, through various activities using rhythm, pulse, composition and more.

The course runs for 6 weeks at Lamp House Music from Thursday 23 May on the following days:

Primary age (5—12 years) – Thursdays 4—5pm

Pre-School (2—5 years) – Fridays 10.30-11.30am

To find out more you should visit – www.lamphousemusic.co.uk/remake-music-classes

To book your place on the course, you can email – info@lamphousemusic.co.uk or telephone – 01620 825630 (booking is essential)

Join the Carnival… And make some music!

The Edinburgh Festival Carnival is launching its own band to play a mix of sounds inspired by samba, soca, calypso, steel pan, taking influences from the world of New Orleans Mardi Gras through to Rio Carnival and beyond!

Led by Marcus Britton of Orkestra Del Sol, and Sarah Seilman of Pulse of the Place, the band will perform at the Carnival in Edinburgh on Sunday 21 July, 2013.

The organisation are looking for up to 30 keen musicians (aged 16+) to take part in a series of FREE weekly workshops that will run on Wednesdays from May 15 right up until the day of the Carnival.

If you play brass or woodwind, or are an enthusiastic drummer/percussionist at any level (we provide drums), then the EFC would love to hear from you… If you are a younger player and might like to learn carnival music in the future, please let them know too.

For further information, please contact chris@adjazz.co.uk, or call 0131 467 5200

Join the Tinderbox Orchestra for their open workshop on Sunday 19 May 2013, running between 10.30am – 5pm.

The event welcomes all instruments and young musicians aged between 13 – 25 and will be followed up with a showcase performance taking place at 5pm.

The day of music will feature live orchestral improvisation with The Mike Kearney Ka-Tet, alongside live visuals from the Monkey Pirates, all taking place at Summerhall in Edinburgh.

To book a place, you can email – admin@tinderboxproject.co.uk

Following a highly successful, introductory InterPlay session offered by Edinburgh Youth Music Forum in March, ELjam is offering to fund a limited number of places at two subsequent InterPlay events scheduled for August. Both will take place in Edinburgh and will be led by Interplay co-founders Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter.

“Interplay is an art form that anybody can do and a way to build community through improvisation and play. It is a philosophy and practice that builds artistic skill, leadership ability and develops strong community. It’s an easy-to-learn, creative process that uses movement, storytelling, voice, and contact – but does so in ways that don’t require particular skill or even nerve. Typically a class begins with a warm-up and then moves into a series of “forms” – incremental activities, simple and easy structures, involving interactions with one or more participant – in an accepting, non-judgemental atmosphere. InterPlay balances experience with reflection and activity. Interplay is a worldwide community of artist-activists who believe in their ability to change the world through freedom of expression.”

The first weekend will take place between 16-18 August and is titled Untensive – a full exploration of the Interplay ‘forms’ that make up the system (usual cost £140).

The other course will run from Thursday evening, 22 August until Sunday afternoon on the 25 August. It’s called The Unbelievable Beauty of Being Human, or UBBH (usual cost £190). Attending both weekends is recommended for anyone keen to acquire the leading skills or the forms, for their own work.

Further details of the two courses on offer is available here – www.lismoremusicretreats.com/interplay-summer-2013

Further information on Interplay can be found at – www.interplay.org

Feedback from ELjam members that attended the introductory session was overwhelmingly positive.

If you are interested in attending either or both weekends, please contact Iain Bruce of ElJam on – ibruce@eastlothian.gov.uk

Social Enterprise in East Lothian are openly inviting people to attend their next network meeting on Friday 26 April 2013 in the Star room at the John Gray Centre, Haddington running between 10.00 am – 1.15 pm.

The day of discussions and networking will run from 10.30am (after tea/coffee and biscuits) with a talk by Louise Laing from Audio Soup Festival East Lothian. This will be followed by a talk by Jonny Kinross from My Adventure in Edinburgh, then another talk by Gordon Lee Enterprise Manager at Hermitage Scotland and a discussion on current funding for social enterprises.

Please note, there will be free parking in East Lothian Council car park, attendees are advised to put a note in your windscreen that you are attending a meeting at the John Gray Centre.

If you would like to attend the event, you should let Iain Bruce of ElJam know, by emailing – ibruce@eastlothian.gov.uk

The Red Note Ensemble, Scotland’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, are calling for submissions of original scores for their upcoming ‘Noisy Nights‘ events taking place in April 2013.

The first call for submissions comes ahead of the Noisy Night event taking place in the bar of City Halls, Glasgow on Monday 15 April. This will involve an ensemble of viola, alto flute and double bass (or any combination of the three). The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Monday 8 April and all scores should be emailed to – john@rednoteensemble.com

The second call for scores is for a Noisy Night event taking place at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, Monday 29 April. This will involve an ensemble of Electric Guitar, Bass Trombone and Drumkit (or any combination of the three). The deadline for submissions has been set for Monday 15 April, and all scores should be emailed to – john@rednoteensemble.com

For full details and conditions of submissions, you should visit – www.rednoteensemble.com/CallforScores

The Edinburgh Guitar and Music Festival takes place this year, running between Saturday 25 – Monday 27 May 2013. The programme comprises a number of seminars and performances from a host of world-class musicians as well as offering competitions with the chance for young people to win a variety of music prizes.

In support of its commitment to professional development, ELjam has a limited number of places at the event for members. There may also be scope for ELjam to cover entry costs for groups, including young people in schools and other organisations.

If you are interested in attending the event, please contact Iain Bruce at ElJam by Monday 18 March 2013 – outlining:

• Which performances/seminars you would like to attend
• How your attendance would benefit young people in East Lothian (aged 0-25)
• Details of any young people that might feature in the excursion
• Whether transport would be required for you/your group
• Any other relevant information…

You can contact Iain Bruce, by emailing – ibruce@eastlothian.gov.uk

Drake Music Scotland are running a Figurenotes Good Practice Day on Saturday 6 April 2013.

The workshops are suitable for those new to Figurenotes, as well as experienced users, and the day will enable attendees to use Figurenotes as a teaching tool. The sessions aim to give individuals new ideas and inspiration, sharing their ideas and thoughts along the way.

These sessions will include:

• Software Demonstration
• Early Years Music
• Instrument Set up
• Creative Group Work

For more information, see the poster below or visit – Flickr.com/YMFS

Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, the day costs £45, with a £10 discount for members of the Figurenotes Community. To join the community, visit the Drake Music Scotland online shop.

Get in touch to book your place on the course now.  To find out more about Figurenotes, you can visit – www.drakemusicscotland.org/figurenotes