Welcome to Mackays Memoirs online resources page!
Have a look at our in-person Glasgow workshops in the videos below:
Below you will find a range of videos recorded by our tutors that breakdown this exciting piece into small sections. These videos are made with Mackays Memoirs in mind, but will have lots of tips and ways of practicing that will be useful for any music you may be learning.
Listen to a recording of Mackays Memoirs here:
All videos are listed below with relevant scores linked in their section
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Physical Warm Up
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Creative Foundations
In this video Joanna introduces some key ideas that Mackays Memoirs is built on. Including the scale (the combination notes that make up the piece) and important rhythms. We’ll practice the scale and the rhythms together. This method of practicing the scales and the rhythms is useful for learning Mackays Memoirs and any music you may be working on at home.
Harmonics
This is a video for string players. We’ll start by exploring what a harmonic is and how to make it sound on string instruments. After this we look at the seagull “glissandos” that start the piece and the melody with harmonics that violins have later on.
Melody
This video gives string players some tips and techniques for playing the first big string melody in Mackays Memoirs. These techniques will be useful for any other music you may be learning.
Violin Parts
Below is a series of violin tutorials - mainly focusing on the violin 1 part for different sections of the piece. Lots of advice for the violin 1 part can be applied to violin 2 so we’ve linked the parts for that below as well!
Subdividing
In this video Isabella introduces the idea of “subdividing” rhythms - to help you play melodies in time. Practicing this will be useful for all instruments.
Brass Overview
In this video Isabella builds on subdividing the melody video and has a look at how we phrase and shape a melody. And has a play through an important rhythm the brass section has later on in the piece.
Double Bass
In this video Laurie will take you through the double bass part, focusing particularly on Section C - an upbeat section. And section G which contains some fun rhythmic parts for the bass.
Bass Guitar
In this video Laurie gives an overview of the whole piece from the bass guitar part. He’ll go over harmonics on the bass, and focus on the important rhythmic role the bass guitar has in the piece!
