Unsung: A Song for Wiltshire 2021

Are you proud of your school? Do you love where you live and want to sing it from the rooftops? Do you think your school has what it takes to write A Song For Wiltshire?

Here at Wiltshire Rural Music we’re making it our mission to visit as many villages and towns as

possible, giving local musicians, singers, composers and songwriters a chance to perform and be heard in their communities and beyond.

Over the last few years we have brought musicians into schools, village halls, care homes and the countryside to showcase their talents to people who don’t normally get much access to live music.

What we want now is for you to bring music to us! So, if you’d like to win a free day of live music for your school, and would like to hear your song featured on our website and (hopefully) on local TV and radio, now’s the time to get started. Our favourite entries may also be invited to perform a special concert for us, in front of a live audience…but only if they want to!

You could start a school choir and write a song about your village, town or school. You could write something as a soloist, a duo or a quartet, about your school or your teachers. You could start a rock band and sing about how cool your local park is. There are no limits. As long as the piece of music is for and about your community somehow, we want to hear it.

Here are some tips:

1) Have fun, be creative and remember that no idea is a bad idea. If someone thinks it’s worth

putting a bagpipe solo after the chorus, give it a go!

2) What you write doesn’t have to be a ‘song’. If you want to write a piece of instrumental

music that sums up how you feel about your community, that’s fine too.

3) Working together to create ideas is often more fun than working alone. The more voices

involved in your song, the better.

4) Get help from the teachers – especially if they can play an instrument. They’re probably

frustrated rock stars anyway and will be more than happy to help!

5) Be specific: include as many little details as you can – street names, what colour your school

jumper is, the best sweets on sale in your local newsagents. The personal details about your

area will help your song stand out from the rest.

6) It helps to have a catchy chorus, something that will get stuck in our heads and we’ll hum for

weeks.

7) If you know people in school who play instruments, great! Get them involved! If not, find

some words that rhyme, start singing them and get recording!

If you would like us to come down when you’re writing/rehearsing/recording the song, please get in touch. We would love to meet you and see how you’re getting on. If we are allowed to take photos and film some of this for our website, that’d be great too.

We are thrilled that your school is keen to take part in this project. In terms of how the song is recorded, that’s entirely up to you. If you can send us any video/photos/audio files along the way, that all helps with the competition and will really add to your entry. Final audio files must be in MP3 format (or similar) and sent to creativedirector@wiltshireruralmusic.co.uk

Have fun and may the best school win!