~TY Music Podcast Workshop~

 On Friday the 12th of November TY music students were lucky enough to experience a Music Podcast Workshop. The workshop was run by BIMM institute Dublin, Helen a podcast storyteller and John an editor and producer of podcasts came down to talk to us, and showed us the behind the scenes of creating a successful podcast. Past pupil and singer-songwriter Farah Elle also came down to talk to us. She studied with BIMM institute when she left school and she talked about her experience with the institute and her career in music that followed in a sample interview with Helen, that was recorded for our benefit.

Helen was the main facilitator of the workshop. Before the workshop, students were made to fill in a survey with simple questions such as “have you made podcasts before?” and “what podcasts do you listen to?” She found from the responses that the most popular podcast listened to was Emma Chamberlain’s ‘Anything Goes’ podcast. Helen began the workshop discussing this podcast, which made it really interesting as it was something students could relate to, seen as though many listen to her podcasts frequently. 

Following this, Farah Elle was kind enough to do an interview with Helen, in which John recorded so we could listen back. Farah talked about her childhood and growing up in Libya. Her experience with music when she was in school and what inspired her to begin writing and performing her own songs. What students found really interesting is that she became fluent in playing piano, without learning the correct sight reading methods and music theory. She found it too much of a nuisance to sight read and instead just listened to a song and figured out the melody that way.

Farah talked about her album, which has been slightly delayed due to the pandemic but she is still really looking forward to releasing it. She discussed how music for her is more of an escape. She doesn’t do it for fame but for joy and because it feels good. She wants to make people happy with her music and students found that aspect really interesting.

TY students then got to watch Farah perform live. She sang her song ‘Silk’, which she wrote when she was just 19 years old and performed it on piano. When she performed ‘Silk’ for the first time, that was what made her realize she wanted to have music as more than just a hobby, she wanted to make a career out of it. I personally loved her performance!

The rest of the workshop was really interesting as we got to try doing an interview podcast ourselves. Two pairs of students went up and were connected to microphones. There was one that they both spoke into and another that recorded the overall audio. We had an interviewer and a guest and both pairs did an excellent job. Then, John played the audio back and showed us how to edit it using free audio softwares like ‘Audacity’. He showed how you can have music fade in and out between questions in an interview and edit out unwanted parts. 

The main aspect Helen focused on during this workshop is just try it out and have some fun. Yes, we can use podcasts for music related material as we are in music class. But Helen insisted that we could do something we’re interested in, such as sports, storytelling, poetry etc. She even said we could do something like Emma Chamberlain, just a casual chat on a podcast.

Overall I really enjoyed this workshop and I think the other TY music students will agree. It was a very fun and enjoyable experience and I’m definitely inspired to mess around with the prospect of making a podcast! Maybe TY's only podcast is what we need next!