Mark Deeks Music

#ThatPianoGuy

Sing United

Sing United is a community singing group of more than 150 singers based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
You might think we look like a community choir. We think we're a community. 

We sing music with meaning. But not only do we sing stories of people, communities, and messages,  our Sing United Supports initiative raises money for charities that are connected to the stories we tell. 

We have projects with local school children to encourage them to get involved with music, and wherever possible we perform in places that don't normally have live music and community spaces. We call them "non-venue venues"! 

THIS is community singing.

Owner and Musical Director

Mark Deeks

Working in a variety of styles, I am in two signed metal bands - my solo project Arð, and Winterfylleth. The Arð album “Take Up My Bones was critically and commercially acclaimed, including being awarded Doom Album of the Year for 2022 by RushOnRock.com. 

I have also released two solo piano albums including'lightburst' released in October 2016. One of MainlyPiano.com's Albums of the Year, it is equally relaxing yet haunting, evocative and emotional. "Truly outstanding". The album is available as CD and sheet music from http://markdeeks.co.uk as well as from all the usual digital outlets.

Composer

Private Piano Lessons

Piano Teacher

Music Newcastle Limited

* Wedding and Events Music
* Musical Arranging, Directing and Composition
* The Complete Bespoke Music Service
#YourMusicYourWay 

Piano Player Newcastle
“Thank you very much Mark for a fantastic evening. Everyone commented on what a great entertainer you were, and more so what a great guy you are too.” (Steve Harper, NUFC 1993-2013)

“A fantastic pianist. Thanks so much for playing my special event.” (David Miliband, President International Rescue Committee)

High quality and creative piano performance for your special event.

Acoustic Duo 
"Top class entertainment". (Virgin Trains) 
"Fantastic".  (Northumbrian Water)

The Marratones 
"The crowd loved you and you kept the dance floor full!" (Sara, wedding client)

Bespoke Bands
You choose the band line up and ALL the songs to match your taste. Something for everybody and every budget.

Arranging
Previous clients include the Sunday for Sammy Trust, BBC Newcastle, Euro Disney, Magic Radio, Metro Radio, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Opera North, Winterfylleth, Tony Kakko, Inspiration Choir, Echo pop choir, and many more. 

Personalised Compositions
A song or piece of music written just for you or your loved one, when you want a truly unique gift.

Direction and Teaching
Your group or project can call upon both professionalism and musical expertise, whatever the setting.

Owner and Director

Inspiration UK Choir

Accompanist, Assistant Arranger, Orchestrator and MD

Oulu Sinfonia

I was commissioned to arrange “Juliet” by Finnish heavy metal stars Sonata Arctica for a concert by their lead singer Tony Kakko and Oulu Sinfonia orchestra, called Sonata Sinfonica. 

Two concerts took place in April 2017, and due to their success, will be performed again in September and November 2018.

Arranger

Sunday for Sammy 2016

I was commissioned to write the brass parts for the 2016 Sunday for Sammy concerts at Newcastle City Hall, working with Ray Laidlaw and Billy Mitchell of Lindisfarne and the house band.

Brass and Choir Arranger

BBC Newcastle

Musical Director for BBC Newcastle's Anna Foster Christmas Choir.

Musical Director

Magic Radio Christmas Choir

Music Director

🎹 SPEAKER

I'm a professional speaker, educator and musician, that speaks passionately about fostering creativity and harnessing the power of music to improve attendance, engagement, performance and mental health.

I use everything from live piano to heavy metal. Often at the same time!

I'm in 2 signed metal bands, and over the last 25 years I have worked as a Musical Director with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, alongside Gareth Malone and for projects with Disneyland Paris and Faye Tozer of Steps. As an educator and online piano teaching specialist I have helped thousands of students harness their musicality, reduce their stress and improve their mental health.

I've drawn on the breadth of my experience to design and lead singing and piano workshops for BBC Radio and the NHS, and have performed for organisations as varied as Opera North and a range of heavy metal bands. In my TedX talk I spoke about my own experience of using heavy metal music to enhance my own mental health in what was “the stand out talk of the whole day.”

Signature Topics:

- Music
- Wellbeing and Mental Health
- Creativity
- Community
- Teamwork

"It was beyond outstanding. There was barely a dry eye in the audience, and it was the best talk of the day for me." 
CHRIS COOK
Double Olympian, two times Commonwealth Gold Medallist, Motivational Speaker and Coach

🎹 TEACHER

After years of thinking you'll never play piano, imagine not only being able to start quickly but doing it in a way designed to reduce stress.

❗Do you say things like “I’m too old” or “I don’t have time”?
❗What about "I wish I could just sit down and play"
❗Perhaps you tried to play as a child, then life got in the way and you’ve spent years thinking it will never happen for you? 

I specialise in helping people like you to unwind by playing songs you love, easier than you ever imagined.

I'm on a mission to help one million people feel better - and piano is my weapon of choice!
I've even had clients say they SLEEP better after just a week of working with me.

Options include one to one or group learning with support.
Or alternatively learn to write your own music. 

However you want to use music to bring you some joy, let's chat.

📩 hello@markdeeksmusic.com

✳️ ”I struggled to know where to start - then I discovered Mark and everything changed!" (Stephanie)
✳️ ”The best course I’ve ever signed up for”. (Kevin)

It’s one of the most moving and powerful stories I’ve ever heard. When I read Mark Deeks post about how he and his wife lost their child, Laurie Deeks and the journey that followed for them and how MUSIC played such a pivotal role in their healing process, I had to reach out to him.
 
You see Mark is an amazing musician, piano player & teacher with a PhD in Heavy Metal and still plays in a Metal band to this day!
 
And the song they danced to at their wedding was none other than Starship – Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now. (The theme from the movie Mannequin!) 
 
So what are the odds that the same song that signified such joy for them, was playing in the room when the Doctor gave them the horrible news about their daughter and the TMFR decision to terminate the pregnancy they were forced to make.
 
It was crushing, and as Mark shared with me, they both had to fight to reclaim that song and the joy that went along with it over the coming years.
 
A defining moment in the grieving process was when his brother-in-law named a star after Laurie and Mark wondered what those star coordinates would sound like if put to music in what Mark now called Laurie’s Theme. (It’s tattooed on Mark’s arm so it’s visible when he plays)
 
It’s a story about unspeakable grief but also unimaginable strength and the POWER of MUSIC to help us overcome tragedy.

From that grief Mark and his wife discovered how MUSIC can play a role in bringing ALL OF US out of despair. 

He began sharing that discovery with others in the hopes to help them feel the peace it brought him and now he has a HUGE GOAL to give a Keynote Speech on the role MUSIC can play in mental health in the USA by 4/3/2025, the 5th year anniversary of losing Laurie.
 
This was such an amazing story that I reached out to my dear friend and Parody Genius Ryan Anderson and asked him if he would join myself and Mark to get the word out in hopes that the message reaches the right person in the USA that can make this dream a reality.  We figured what better way than #MusicalMonday to share the message!
 
#MayIsMentalHealthAwarenessMonth
#SoLetsMakeThisHappenByAprilThird2025
#TheFifthAnniversaryOfHerPassing
#IfYouHaventSeenHisTedxTalkPleaseDoGoCheckItOut

You see, you thought it was “just noise”….

Let me tell you a quick story…

A little over 20 years ago I was a young music college lecturer taking over a department where there’d been some unrest the previous year, and the students felt under supported, not listened to, and in short… let down. 

As a young lecturer I was only  a few years older than the students, and as such it could go one of two ways: 

🔳 They’d either listen to me because I was a lot like a lot of them just a few years further down the road. 

🔲 Or they’d walk all over me and not take me seriously. 

In one of the first music theory lessons I took I was explaining the difference between beat and rhythm and the method I always use to work out how to write rhythms down, no matter how complex. 

One student wasn’t having it. And he was becoming disruptive. And as he was a loud voice, there was a sense in the air that I needed to nip it in the bud and show the class I was in charge and knew what I was talking about. 

So I chose a well known, complex heavy metal riff by the Swedish band Meshuggah, and showed on the whiteboard how my method could work with even that. 

Cue acceptance from the class. 
And I was back in charge. 😎

This 👇🏻

This is Tomas from Meshuggah who wrote that rhythm!!! 

I bumped into him in Norway this week whilst playing with my band and got to share my little Meshuggah story with him and most importantly thank him for all the great music. 

And helping my teaching career 😀

Heavy metal…. It’s not just noise 😎

#music
#teaching
#keynotespeaker

I don’t often share this, in fact I don’t think I ever have. 

But it’s part of my mental health journey and I want to be open about it to try and help others. 

For more than 25 years I’ve battled my weight. I think I always will. 

It’s intrinsically linked to my mental health and self image. Which right now is pretty bad. 

A little over 8 years ago I decided to do something about my weight once and for all in the run up to our wedding. 

I lost 32lbs in 3 months, felt amazing, and absolutely loved it. I was the lightest I’d been since I went to uni! 

I was pretty comfortable with the fact that that wasn’t maintainable for me - and the three 6am bootcamps a week that I HATED along with the strict diet certainly weren’t! 

But if I could keep maybe 2/3 of the weight off long term it would be a victory - and I did for a number of years. 

Sadly over the last couple of years it’s got easier and easier to let it slip. And then slip a bit more. And a bit more. When you’re tired it’s harder to make good decisions around food and drink. 

And so gradually we end up back today. Back to the joint heaviest I’ve ever been, all 32 of those pounds I bust a nut to lose 8 years ago, back on. 

I’m utterly gutted about it, and the internal conversation that comes with it is not polite! Men don’t talk about this stuff easily usually, and it’s hard to know what to do about it, and it’s definitely harder to successfully do something about it as you get older!

Consistency is as always with everything in my life the biggest challenge. 

Which is why I’m putting this out there for some accountability with a 6 week countdown to go to the Edinburgh half marathon with Angela. 

I NEED to be good and keep my eye on the prize. 

But there IS a positive to be had here….

When I started trying to lose weight 8 years ago, there’s absolutely no way I could have ran the 10k I just have! It might not be as fast as I could once do it, but I need to remind myself that I’m not starting from scratch again, no matter what the scales say!

Who can share their favourite alternative snack or drink that won’t pile on the pounds?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi I’m Mark. I’m a heavy metal musician who runs choirs and plays piano.  🤘🏻🎹

I speak about challenging you to use music to improve the wellbeing of you and your team, in ways that also improve the bottom line. 

Could your next conference or training day use a creative approach to wellbeing?

Comes with optional live piano. 
Which looks great on your photos. 
Just sayin’. 😎

#mentalhealth
#mensmentalhealth
#keynotespeaker

When I was 16 I’d never have believed this.
👇🏻
 
I’d have never believed 30 years later THIS would be the reality of my mid 40s. 

When I play these shows I literally DRINK it in. 

These moments go in the memory bank. 

I treat every single one like it might never happen again, and regularly find myself grinning. 

I want to make my wife and daughter proud. 

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to convey what this means to me. THIS is my wellbeing. 

Thank you INFERNO METAL FESTIVAL NORWAY

Another special memory.

#music
#memories 
#wellbeing 
#heavymetal

Ever dreamed of a career in the music industry?

This is how the pros do it👇🏻🤣
(Even up against a red flashing clock! 😱)

…. And a peek behind the curtains on how you can make sure you help others. 

You might not know, but commonly (especially at festivals) there’s a STRICT schedule, where overrunning your set time by even a minute or two can cause huge problems:

🔳 it can have a huge knock on effect for the crew and sound and lighting teams. 

🔲 if every band does it, eventually someone is going to have to play less songs than they want to.

🔳 your band can expect to not get asked back.

I always try and be mindful of this and be as conscious of time as we can, even in the highly fluid situation of a live environment when any number of things can change minute by minute. 

But even I was proud of this one last night at Ragnarok Festival Germany 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

And LOOK at the smiles on the faces of the crew as we just made their work days a little bit easier. 😇

We might be the musicians on the stage, but I promise you the crew are the ones that make or break every live event. 

🔵 How can you make someone else’s day easier today?

———————-

Hi I’m Mark:
I speak and deliver workshops that challenge you to think about music differently in the context of the wellbeing and mental health of you and your team. 

Could your event use a creative solution to wellbeing? 

Me, my heavy metal t shirts and piano would love to chat. 🤘🏻🎹

#wellbeing
#workplacewellbeing
#music
#musician
#keynotespeaker

Celebrating!

There’s nothing like great feedback from a client to let you know you’re on the right path.

Which is why I was really grateful to receive these kind words from Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust about my recent music and wellbeing session in delivered:

🔵 “An incredibly enlightening experience. Mark’s ability to captivate an audience with his knowledge and passion for music and its influence on wellbeing was truly impressive. 

Not only did Mark deliver valuable insights into music, but also engaged the audience in an interactive and fun manner.

Mark is undoubtedly a great speaker, and I highly recommend his talks to anyone seeking inspiration.”

Looking for some inspiration for your team?

▶️ My DMs are open. ▶️

#music 
#wellbeing 
#wellbeingatwork
#keynotespeaker
#workplacewellbeing

It’s all just freight logistics. 

“Being in a band” sounds glamorous. 

“Touring” sounds glamorous. 

“Making a living from music” sounds glamorous. 

Another weekend, another plane. 

And believe me I’m not here to complain - I absolutely LOVE getting to play our music in different places for our fans. 

It does more for my wellbeing than you’ll ever know. 

This weekend it’s Germany and Holland. 
Last weekend it was Norway. 

It IS great. 

And to get to share the memories with my best mates - priceless. 

But the things you don’t see?

ENDLESS hours trying to find the cheapest way to get the band to a gig because the fees don’t cover it. 

Hoping you sell enough shirts at a festival to help towards the cost of the £600 paperwork that came in for musicians after the Uk left the EU. 

Sharing rooms and sometimes beds with your mates to try and keep the costs down. 

The very early starts and very late finishes.

Working out our schedules to try and minimise the amount of time we’re away from our wives and children. 

All for the 40 minutes on stage playing the music we love. 

Love what you do. 

Cos it can’t always be about the dollar 💵 

#music
#wellbeing

“Why?”
When the BBC asks “why” you better have an answer. 😃

I was delighted to be asked to give an interview on BBC Newcastle yesterday with the fantastic Anna Foster.

As part of that Anna asked me to really answer WHY I believe music is an underutilised tool for wellbeing and mental health. 

This is my empassioned answer 👇🏻

Who’s with me?

Does this resonate with you?

Could your event use a speaker with a creative approach to wellbeing?

#wellbeing
#music 
#speaker
#keynotespeaker
#bbc

📣 𝐒𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 - Our own Rockstar and Keynote Speaker!
After more than 25 years working in the music industry, Mark Deeks has built up a really diverse client base. Mark’s biggest passion is helping people to actively use music as a way to reduce stress and improve mental health, because the ripple effect of making music part of your wellbeing toolkit can be huge for your life, for your business, for your team, for you.

Mark is going to talk about:
𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝
Be touched by #mentalHealth #Wellbeing #HeavyMetal

Get your tickets today - 30% off with our Early Bird offer: https://lnkd.in/dnWmnWQ5

#techheads2024 #ecommerce #ehealth #emergingTrends #techconference #tech #kalmar 

Organizer: Kalmar Science Park
Lead Partner: Nordic Nest Group, eHealth Arena, Kalmar Energi

Do you know what flag this is?

Do you know what the flag of your COUNTY is (not country)?

Has the flag or colour changed over the years?

Here’s an interest I don’t talk about often - but you might not have thought was relevant to heavy metal. 😎(and this is absolutely what I do for my own wellbeing!)

The modern flag of my home county of Northumbria is red and and yellow stripes, but it’s thought that they were originally purple and gold. 

In the early 7th century, Oswald of Northumbria united the two regions of Bernicia and Deira into the new kingdom of Northumbria by defeating Cadwallon in the Battle of Hefenfelth (Heavenfield). 

My solo doom metal project (don’t scroll away now, you’ve come so far!…) is called Arð, and all the lyrics are about Northumbrian history. 

But before “metal” puts you off, it’s slow, cinematic, has bucketloads of piano, cello and choral vocals, and I’ve heard masses of people who don’t like metal say they love it! 

The new album ‘Untouched By Fire’ is out in 2 weeks, and the latest promo single and video “Name Bestowed” was released yesterday. 

I’d love if it you could check it out and let me know what you think. 🤔 

Maybe metal isn’t “just noise”’after all? 😃

You can see the video here:
▶️ taplink.cc/ardnorthumbria 

#music
#history 
#northumbria
#wellbeing
#keynotespeaker

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