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Guitar Composition and Songwriting Group

Each academic year, visiting guitar tutor Will McNicol runs a 10-week course with Bryanston's guitarists and songwriters looking to develop their composition and songwriting skills. The latest compositions are now available to hear online.

The course aims to give pupils freedom to compose in any style of their choosing, whilst also showing them how the guitar has been used by other composers and players across genres as an invaluable compositional tool. 

Over the 10 weeks pupils have gradually developed their ideas from an initial chord sequence or melodic motif to a fully structured composition or song, whilst learning about new techniques along the way. The final piece was then recorded in-house to give pupils a taste of how recording guitars is an art in itself. 

All ability levels were included and whether the end product was a simple four chord pop song or a complicated set of theme and variations, the aim was to get pupils to be creative with their guitar playing. Hopefully this will light a spark of inspiration which will see them continue to develop their compositions and songwriting throughout their time at Bryanston. 

You can listen to the latest tracks pupils have created here.