Review of Freddy's Silver Arts Award by Vicky

Review of Freddy’s Blog

By Vicky Roberts, Teacher.

Reading Freddy’s blog has been great fun. His relaxed style of writing makes you feel he is talking to you and explaining things as if you were there in front of him. The photos and use of sound bites enhanced the quality of the blog, really allowing the reader to gain a more rounded picture of what Freddy has achieved than words alone.

Freddy has included a high level of detail both about the technical aspects of what he has been learning in the studio and about how the songs he chose to perform took shape. These details could be useful to other students contemplating a similar project.

Freddy has also shown that he has completed a degree of research on the music of the different decades he has covered, which really pays dividends in the versions of the songs he has recorded as they have a very period authentic feel. My only criticism of this aspect of the project is that he has not included references of where he obtained his research. This is a huge research ‘no no’ as it amounts to plagiarism.
I found this format of reading a project slightly difficult in that I think some of the information Freddy has given would have been better placed in a different section of the blog. For instance, it was jarring for me to find the section on Gary Numan as a musical hero amongst Freddy’s 60s work. As a musical icon of the late 70s /early 80s I would have thought he would have been better placed in the blog after the Maggie May work. In the same vein I also found the gig review slightly odd in the middle of the 60s work as Motorhead are not a band of the 60s. I would also like to have seen Freddy’s project completed with his 80s song and a conclusion of what he feels he has achieved with this project.

Overall though I think Freddy has done a magnificent job with the blog and with enhancing his performance skills and studio skills. Knowing where he started from I am most impressed with how much he has achieved in a relatively short time frame and how he has matured during the process. His sense of enjoyment shines throughout the blog and I am so pleased that he has decided to continue his studies at Suffolk New College. He should be very proud of the work he has done with Noise Solution (and vice versa). Best of luck Freddy!