Matthew

BA (Hons) Music Production - 1st Class Honours PGCE (FE & Skills Sector) - Distinction

During my teaching career, I have taught Music Production and Technology for both adults and teenagers alike in colleges across London and the South East of England. Where possible, I have also opted to provide independent enrichment classes in both film and game audio for learners in both game development and filmmaking courses. This also meant that I could foster the relationship between students in both of these areas and promote the opportunity for creative collaborative projects. Furthermore, I had to ensure the effective communication between colleagues in these departments to make sure that any work completed as part of this collaborative effort could meet the requirements of any summative assessments written by their tutors. As part of the music team, we would also organise numerous live student performances in local venues and would work together to audition students, communicate with venues, plan and set-up equipment and even practice and rehearse for a 'teacher band' live performance as part of the end of year gig and build on the pre-existing student-teacher rapport. It was from all of these experiences that I learnt the importance of being organised, from preparing lesson plans to classroom resources, and the impact of effective communication between learners, colleagues and wider stakeholders. Furthermore, I was responsible for ensuring that all necessary documentation was completed to a high-standard, frequently working to strict deadlines. I am confident that my teaching resources are both innovative and enable learners of all abilities to engage with lesson content and their peers. Whilst the concept of teaching music and sound is typically considered a digital affair, I will frequently create tangible resources that the learners can engage on a kinaesthetic level and thus provide an extra layer of engagement to support their preferred learning style. For example, when teaching the concept of music composition using a DAW, I have made laminated 'blocks' to simulate the construction of a song in the digital format. Learners would work together in groups or as a class, discussing their decisions and engaging in autonomous peer assessment. During the COVID pandemic, I continued to challenge my own perception of music and sound creation by using and teaching with online resources such as the browser-based DAW, BandLab, to ensure that those learners who did not have access to expensive software at home could also engage with online learning. I have also had the opportunity to nurture the talent of a number of students under my tuition. For example, one learner was successful in winning a student remix contest as part of Access Creative College's 2020 Experience. The song, Strange Encounter, was selected and judged by the original composer, Nu:Tone in conjunction with Traktion software. The results were streamed live on the college's official Twitch channel and posted on the B-Side Project Soundcloud page. Another learner under my tuition had their work chosen to be exhibited on the UAL website as part of the Origins Creatives 2022 gallery. Aside from my teaching career, I have had the opportunity to take on a number of roles and responsibilities within the audio industry as a freelance audio professional. My first introduction to working in game audio was in 2015 where I was the composer for a space-sandbox game entitled, Spacemen. Since then, I have taken on a number of experiences in freelance audio for media including working as a boom operator and dialogue editor on various short films as well as providing and editing voice over work for both game and film. These experiences have undoubtedly evidenced both my integrity and collaborative ability when working in the freelance industry. To date, I have numerous independent games to my name including Rocket Shipment (released on Steam in 2021) as well as participating in a diverse range of Game Jams and freelance projects via Fiverr and Upwork, providing my services as both a composer and sound designer. When working in Music and Sound Design, I am adept in both Ableton Live and Reaper, as well as having mastery over industry-standard plugins such as Waves, Izotope, Krotos, Soundtoys and sound libraries such as Soundly. As the music industry is constantly evolving both creatively and technologically, I am consistently driven to learn new methods and techniques that can influence my own creative endeavors but am also keen to share these techniques with those who wish to further their own development.