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Music Blog Posts - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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Electronic Music 1 – Halim El-Dabh  thumb

Electronic Music 1 – Halim El-Dabh 

In 2023, I ran a Listening Group session with OCA students, focused on electronic music. There was quite a lot of enthusiasm for the ideas we discussed and, consequently, I have decided to write a series of blog posts exploring the history, techniques, and aesthetics of this beautiful and bewildering type of music. 

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Open Ears – new podcast from the Open College of the Arts thumb

Open Ears – new podcast from the Open College of the Arts

In Open Ears we investigate and celebrate the massive diversity of music making which exists in our world today by talking with musicians from a wide range of artistic traditions and practices about their musical lives, and how they’ve navigated through their careers.

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Writer’s Block (From the Perspective of a Composer) thumb

Writer’s Block (From the Perspective of a Composer)

The creative process and the editorial process are completely different things. When you are creating things, encourage the editorial part of your brain to take a nap, so you can work fearlessly, with no inhibitions. Then, when it is time to edit what you have done, make amendments, and focus on the detail, wake the editorial part of your brain back up. 

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OCA News: Student Fees from August 2022 thumb

OCA News: Student Fees from August 2022

We are announcing today, Tuesday 17th May 2022, the fees which will apply to the next academic year (from 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023).

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Augmented Reality – what place does this have in art? thumb

Augmented Reality – what place does this have in art?

The primary focus for Artivive, going by their website, appears to be its use in galleries, but I was beginning to see the potential beyond that context. What if artists could add an audio track for people with literacy difficulties? Or a video of themselves talking about the work? Or how about a video comprising photos showing how the finished piece came about? 

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LGBT+ History Month thumb

LGBT+ History Month

February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK, a month-long annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary history.

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Music: Sustaining Your Practice thumb

Music: Sustaining Your Practice

Have you ever wondered how to make the first step from being a music student to launching a career as a professional musician, or how to gain the skills that will help your creative practice to flourish after graduation? The final course in OCA’s music degree, launched in September, does exactly that. 

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Notes from home thumb

Notes from home

When I began my studies with the Open College of the Arts six years ago, I never could have imagined having my own music performed in a public concert. Yet, that is the situation I find myself in at the culmination of the final unit of my music degree.

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