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On Monday 12th December, singer-songwriter Frank Turner visited ACM Guildford for an exclusive masterclass ahead of his show at G Live that evening.
Running in a Q&A format throughout, the class covered Frank’s background in music, his experiences and included advice to our students looking to make music their full-time career.
During the session, students asked many questions, including how his soundchecks work, to which he replied that as their setup is very similar for each show, they tend to just run through a couple of tracks they are less familiar with in soundcheck, as he likes to mix it up for each performance.
Another student asked about his songwriting process and he advised that he often ends up with a pile of music and a pile of words, but believes it’s really magical when the two come together. When asked about how long it usually takes to write a song, Frank told students that he’s written a track that he was really pleased with in 35 minutes before and another has taken months and he’s still not completely happy with it.
The main message that Frank wanted to get across to the students was for them to try everything because they should never stop learning – he revealed that he’s currently undertaking bluegrass guitar lessons to add a new string to his bow. Other advice Frank shared was to find a way to get people to remember you at shows – he told the audience that when he first started, he got loads of ‘Frank Turner is my new best friend’ badges printed and this really helped people to find him online the next day. Frank also shared with students his belief that music is more ‘yoga, Facebook and rock ‘n’ roll’ these days.
The audience particularly enjoyed the intimate live performance at the end of the masterclass of Frank’s favourite song – Tom Morgan’s ‘The Outdoor Type’.
Throughout the inspiring class, our students remained completely engaged, and left having learnt a great deal about songwriting and the music industry. It was clear that Frank really enjoyed speaking to the group too. He said of his first visit to the college: “My first impressions of ACM are great. I love that these kinds of places exist and feel very flattered to have been welcomed here.”
We’d like to thank Frank Turner for taking time out of his busy schedule to join us at ACM Guildford for this amazing masterclass – it was one of our best sessions yet!
If you’d like to study music at ACM and learn from some of the world’s best musicians like Frank, please call our Admissions Team on 01483 500 841 or visit www.acm.ac.uk/open-days/ to book a place on an ACM Open Day today.
