Day 234 - Shoulders of Giants

work less, climb more

One of the most significant and valuable life lessons I ever learned was the incredible power of active learning. 

I had an epiphany one day in the early 1990's, that has had a profound and ongoing impact on my life ever since.

As a child, I'd always been musical, able to coax a tune out of any instrument without really trying...I could have made a career in music, if ever I'd bothered to apply myself.  But my youthful arrogance told me that I ought to be able to play anything easily - and therefore, I shouldn't need to practise. 

The ultimate impact of this little psychological, illogical thought pattern was that I never learned to play any instrument properly.

I had clarinet lessons and piano lessons, classical guitar lessons, French horn lessons and percussion lessons...in each case, I started reasonably well, as I could pick things up easily...but as I didn't practise, I made no progress and quickly fell behind what was reasonably expected, and so would drop the instrument and move on to another one. 

This carried on until I was in my late 20's, when for the first time in my life, I bought an electric guitar, which I'd never played before (I'd dabbled on the acoustic guitar over the years, and knew a few party pieces, but I was never all that enamoured with it, and of course I didn't practise!).

In my head, I placed huge value on playing by feel, and (again, illogically) equated this with not learning or honing technique, and neither learning nor applying theory and knowledge of music. 

Somehow (in my head), it was a good thing to not know what I was doing. 

As I later realised, not knowing what I was doing actually meant that I was unable to express myself fluently - I just didn't have the musical vocabulary, nor the knowledge required to build one. 

Then at some point as I was dabbling in the electric guitar, I came across two articles that piqued my interest.

The first was about George Benson, the jazz guitarist.  In an interview he was asked how he learned to play jazz, and he said something like,

"Well, first I had lessons, and practised my scales day in and day out.  Then I learned theory, scales, modes, harmonic theory...but mostly, I played jazz all day, every day, for ten years...".

Another article, this time on Jimi Hendrix, who epitomised all I admired in his style of musicianship, talked about how hard he had studied and practised, learning scales and chords and paying his dues, musically...

My epiphany came when I realised how ridiculously arrogant I'd been in deciding that I shouldn't need to practise...

...if jazz legend George Benson, and even the late, great Jimi Hendrix had to study and practise in order to fully express themselves in their own unique ways, who on earth did I think I was to not need to do that?!

I immediately started to study and learn...and within 3 years I reached a professional standard of playing, developing my own, bluesy voice on the electric guitar along the way, and I was teaching and gigging much of the time through the mid 90's.

It was truly revelatory, and made me realise how much value there is in standing on the shoulders of giants.  

There is absolutely no point in reinventing the wheel - when you want to achieve something, simply go and find the latest, best information source, and learn how to do it properly from the beginning.  Actively research, learn from the collective wisdom of all who have gone before, and you can get to a lowly, yet functional level of competency in a new skill area in a remarkably short space of time.

In this way I've learned to play drums, to take better photographs, to build PC's, servers and networks...I'm learning to slackline, to skateboard, and to do Tai Chi...

And of course I've learned to climb...

read more

Being older than those around me when we started to learn to climb, I knew I couldn't keep up physically...but I realised that whilst I couldn't climb harder, I could climb smarter.

So I read voraciously on technique and theory, and tried hard to practise what I learned. 

When we started to venture outside, I devoured books on rope techniques and climbing hardware.   This meant that we could more or less venture out on our own straight away, and the lack of an experienced guide just added to the adventure. 

I feel sure that my tactic of actively learning about my current interest brings so much more value to the whole affair, that I can't imagine why you wouldn't do it.

It's enabled me to be confident and capable, and unafraid to turn my hand to new things...this year in particular, I'm reaping the rewards of this general philosophy, and I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity to learn such a valuable lesson.  

So this evening, I noticed that our collection of climbing books has grown rapidly.  We have guidebooks that map out the climbing in various locations...biographies, story books of one kind or another, on the adventurous climbing lifestyle...and importantly, reference and educational books.  

I could waffle about that for a bit, I thought, being short of inspiration for a post tonight...  

And as a nice little bonus, I got to (adventurously) take these photo's without moving from my chair!

I'm going to call it supreme efficiency...

;-)

Day 164 - Hit It!

this came in a box

My quest to corner the world's cardboard supplies via a cunning strategy of buying everything on the internet continues unabated today.

Here for your delectation and delight is my latest new toy...no, scratch that - at this point I'm going to claim that this is not a toy, it's a real musical instrument...it's a Cajon, to be precise.

The Cajon is an ingenious device.  I will try to explain how it works, although it's complicated, so please bear with me - I'll try not to use too much technical jargon, ok?

Ok, in order to play the Cajon, you have to carefully adhere to the following two stage process...(note that bypassing either stage will lead to the process failing in its entirety):

Step 1 - get a box.
Step 2 - hit the box.

Did you follow that?  I know, it's confusing, let me tell you another way...oh no, there isn't another way - just get a box, and hit it.

I looked up the word cajon, as I was concerned with its similarity to the word cojones...

Turns out cajon means box...should've probably guessed that! 

Anyway, the Cajon can provide rhythmic accompaniment to any musical endeavour, used tastefully...a common approach is to simulate a drum kit, with a kick drum sound, a snare sound, and a high slap or crack for embellishment.

Here's a brief sample from my first attempts to do something musical with it this evening, to give you an idea... 

(Note that if you listen to it on a smartphone or iPad type device, it will sound tinny and rubbish, and you probably won't be able to discern the different sounds clearly...that's my excuse anyway!)




Did you spot Jazz voting with his feet?

Hmph...after he woke me up a couple of times in the night too! Lil' bugger...

I plan to use this with my looper to provide rhythmic, drum kit style backing to live loops, in my studio as a percussion instrument on other recordings, and as a mainstay of the cooperative musical evenings I'm still planning on arranging(!)

Also, I shall play it just for fun, because, you know...it's fun!

B-)

Day 163 - Drizerable Day

rock gear

Typical glorious English Summer Bank Holiday weather today!

(Please note the epic amount of sarcasm dripping from the word glorious...)

It started off dry and mild, so my plan was to take the clippers to my hair, pop to the garage to get petrol and 2-stroke oil for the strimmer (and milk for the coffee), then mow the lawns and strim around the garden a bit more. 

If the sun came out to any degree, I would nip down the lane and have another look at that tree I'm going to climb...

All went well until I went to the garage - by which time it was starting to rain lightly.  Although it had all the characteristics of a brief summer shower, it demonstrated once again how much I know about anything at all, and settled in for the day. 

It's late afternoon now, still raining, and very wet out there...although the rain has been fairly light, in the main, it has now been persisting for several hours.

It's very much the definitive drizerable day.

Drizerable is a word combining drizzling and miserable, and very much describes a day like today.  Don't bother looking the word up, I made it up...having said that, I just looked it up (yeah, yeah, sue me, whatevs...) and it seems Lil Nicki is also claiming authorship...

Shame Nicki can't spell...the word is mine!

Mwahahahahaha

Anyway, nefarious plagiarism aside, fortunately, I had a backup plan (and a preferable one at that, yay rain!)...

Another entry on my list of challenges for the year is to build home music studio, and I realised today was a good opportunity to make some progress.

So I rearranged our spare bedroom (the Rock Room), and spent some time tidying and organising gear, and setting up the basics of my music studio.

In the photo above, you can see:

• Headphones
• Stereo Amplifier
• Vocal Processor
• 10:2 Mixing Desk
• DI Box
• Microphones x 2
• Guitar Processor
• Loop Station
• Bass Guitar
• Electric Guitar
• Electronic Drum Kit
• Digital Audio Workstation (PC!)
• Virtual Sequencer
• Virtual Mixer

Now all I need is a Sound Engineer (who would understand how all these work), a competent Musician (who could play all these instruments convincingly), and a Producer (who could bring creative genius and musical ideas), and I'll be good to go!

rock gear

This photo is taken from the opposite diagonal of the Rock Room...now you can see how well named it is!

Thanks, I'm here all week!

;-)

Day 159 - Looperland

no man band

Well, it seems I have to put Roob out of his misery, and reveal what was in the box...

Apparently waiting a little while for some trivial detail of someone else's life was too much for him, and he had to vent his frustrations in the comments of yesterdays post...I bet he'll be disappointed when he eventually finds out.

It reminds me of Se7en...(yes I know, that 7 really doesn't work, does it?  Except you know what I'm talking about, don't you, so maybe it does!).

"What's in the box?"

"Don't look in the box..."

"WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!"

"DON'T LOOK IN THE BOX!!!!"

Fortunately, it's nothing so horrific...although perhaps it's not that interesting either.  I think I've built it up too much, over-hyped it, and now the weight of expectation bears heavy on me...

I might have to just leave it another day...that'd be ok, would it Roob?   ;-)

Oh, ok well I'll tell you then...it's one of the bits of kit in the photo...

Happy now?!

Oh, you want more detail?  Ok, it's a Loop Station...a loop machine, if you like...but I suppose you're still none the wiser...it's the left most one of the two big flat things on the floor, the one with a glowing red 3...now you see why I was surprised at the size of the box it came in!

What it does, simply, is enable you to record sounds or musical phrases from a variety of sources, and loop them...you can layer sounds on top of one another, and bring sounds in and out of the mix...and you can create huge pieces of music with just a guitar and voice (or either one on its own), or you can add any sounds you like...

You can use it offline to create full music productions for recording or practice, or if you're confident enough, you can use the Loop Station as a performance tool (known as Live Looping). 

In the photo, I have my guitar plugged into an effects pedal, then into the Loop Station.   I also have a microphone plugged into a vocal processor, and then into the Loop Station.

But rather than embarrass you all (and myself) by giving you one of my early forays into the world of looping, let's go straight to the professionals...here's a great demo from a guy called Rico Loop (seriously?!) working for the manufacturer at a music show...stick with it for a minute or two to see how versatile the thing can be...




I have to say a couple of things at this point - It's nowhere near as easy as this dude makes it look...and the dancing thing isn't compulsory...phew!

You can look forward to further ramblings (and perhaps some video or music) from Looperland, once I've found my way around...

It's a big place, and they speak a funny language!

In other news, Anna is off cavorting with the local wildlife (I hope that's not a euphemism!), so far including manatee, bald eagle and alligator...

And right about now, Anna should be swimming with Dolphins in the Keys...I can't wait to hear all about that!

B-)

Day 157 - Going Forwards?!

in bloom

Both the (mad) cow parsley and the hawthorne hedgerow that borders our garden are now in full, white bloom.

Our garden is by no means all neatly kempt, but it does have a magnificent wildness about it. 

At this time of year, everything is in the middle of the years major growth surge...I think we all take advantage of the increased light and warmth, and use our renewed optimism for new life and new beginnings to motivate ourselves onwards and upwards.

I was going to say motivate ourselves forwards, but there really is no other option, is there?

The phrase going forwards (implicitly, in time) really pokes my pedantry button (and you know how sensitive that can be...).  It's an entirely redundant clause - is there an alternative direction through time in which to travel?!  I think not... 

Anyway (back off topic), despite being off work, I've been super busy...I was up until 4am this morning configuring laptops, and then up at 9 hoovering, cleaning, mowing, washing and shopping...all of which were aimed at trying to free up some time to edit my 50@50 video.  

To be honest I've been avoiding it a bit, as I seem to be missing my muse...(must be Anna!)  

I can't quite get a creative flow going, and the ideas I do have are frustrated by my distinct lack of skill at video editing.   I'm using a software package I've not used before, and I'm only just beginning to get to grips with it, which doesn't help either. 

You'd be amazed at how the smallest things can get in the way for days...for example, I need to have text on the screen at various times - titles, credits, various on screen info...

I have to decide which font to use...and what size should it be?

Which colour works best, and how should it appear on the screen?

Should it fade in, or slide in from the side, or scroll down from the top?

Whereabouts on the screen should it be, and for how long?

These questions can rattle around for ages not getting resolved, and they absolutely impede the editing process...

Anyhow I eventually settled on a working example of font, style and whatnot, which probably isn't what I want, but is probably what I'll end up with...just need to manage those expectations...

;-)

I have mixed down one scene, comprised of the first 5 climbs...it's 10 minutes long and fairly dull!  I think I need to get ruthless with my editing...take a scalpel (nay, a machete) to that thing...

I also have the wrong music on it...I mean, it's some music that's available for use, it just doesn't quite fit the mood of the day.

And how on earth do you go about finding some available music that just exactly fits the highly nuanced atmosphere of a specific day?!

Well, I may think about writing some...with my ill-gotten gains from PC shenanigans, I've treated myself to a piece of musical technology that I've been itching to try for ages...I'm hoping it's going to open up a whole new world of music making possibilities for me...

Watch this space...

B-)

Day 137 - Not Too Loud Enough

no guitar amps

Before I start, I'd just like to remind you that this is Andy's fault.  

Seriously...blame him!

If you're not blaming him yet, I reckon you might be by the end...

Andy's question was (as I'm interpreting it) broadly about how you can get a decent guitar sound in the house, without annoying the neighbours. 

This probably sounds like a silly question - there's a volume knob, right?

(by the way, gecko poo...you know who I'm talking to...)

But it's not that simple... 

The guitar produces a very small, clean signal.  Guitar amps were originally valve amps, which use vacuum tubes to amplify this signal to a level sufficient to drive a speaker, producing a sound loud enough for us to hear.    

When driven through an amplifier at relatively low "gain", an electric guitar sounds smooth and clear - think Hank Marvin (and the Shadows).

However, if you increase the gain up to the point where the valve can no longer cope with it, the signal starts to break up.   In valve amps this signal degradation happens in a smooth, warm way, and if you continue to increase the gain, the signal becomes fuzzy...think Jimi Hendrix on Purple Haze or Voodoo Chile.

Keep applying more gain and you eventually get into Heavy Metal territory.

To keep things simple, I'll just say that gain is closely related to volume...you can only get this overdrive effect by turning the amp right up...and valve amps are loud!!

Many professional guitarists would use amps as large as 1-200 Watts.

I have a 30 Watt valve amp, and it's literally unusable in the house!

In order to drive the valves, you need to apply some power...the net effect of which is that the amp makes almost no noise until you turn it up to about 2, and then it's suddenly so loud it seems like the windows might break. 

So how can we get this tone without the volume, for use at home?   The short answer (you'll be relieved to know) is digitally!

There is an ongoing debate over the merits of digital versus analogue signal processing, but if you look at the quality of, say a video on your smartphone, it gives you an idea of how far digital media has advanced over recent years.  The same is true of sound processing, of course, and I think it's fair to say the quality of digital systems is very high now, and it takes an expert ear to detect a difference. 

What this means to me is that I can use a Guitar Effects Processor to fake this fuzzy, over-driven sound before I amplify it, then I can just use normal levels of gain and volume, and get very similar tone to what you'd get from a large'n'loud valve amp. 

From the top in the photo, there's a vocal processor, a power amp, a small mixing desk, a PC on the right, a guitar effects processor, and a pile of assorted cables. 

The trick is to assemble these in the correct order to create sound!

It should go something like;

1a)  Guitar into Guitar Effects Processor
1b)  Microphone into Vocal Processor
2a)  Guitar Effects Processor into Mixer
2b)  Vocal Processor into Mixer
3)    Mixer into PC
4)    PC into Power Amp
5)    Power amp to Hi-Fi speakers

As I was about to start setting this up, I realised that I've apparently lost the power supply for the Mixer, which as you can see, is right in the middle of this signal path!

So, a quick bit of improvisation, ditch the microphone (I wasn't going to sing along anyway!), 
and this becomes the much simpler:

Guitar to Guitar Effects Processor to Power Amp to Speakers.

job's a good'un

Sorted!

So, Andy, I don't know why you felt it necessary to subject everyone to that.  I hope you're suitably ashamed of yourself!

;-p

Day 135 - Hole in the Hedgerow

spring edition

As I reverse into my usual parking spot here at home, if I look ahead (which, to be fair, I usually don't), I can see directly through this hole in the hedgerow.

I realised it must be about three months since I featured the Winter version of this shot, and as it was lovely and sunny, an update might be interesting.   Of course, by the time I got around to getting out there to take a snap, the sun went in (in? in where?) and big black clouds drifted in from the West. 

(This view is oriented more or less due South, for those now curious - I would be!)

So anyway, this then becomes part two of my four part seasonal series, Hole in the Hedgerow.

I'll try to remember to capture part three in mid July or so, then again in October.  Please remind me if I forget (if anyone's still reading this by then).

I wonder if I'll run out of things to say at some point?   It's such a variable thing, from day to day...because I completely improvise every blog post - I just start typing with no plan whatsoever for what I'm going to write - it's largely mood, energy and time driven.   

One day I can be tired and have nothing interesting to say whatsoever (I don't need to tell you that, right?!), and the next I find myself off the beaten path on some random tangent.  

I wonder which direction this post is heading?!  

Actually, the post is going slowly, because Anna is off newt or bat bothering (or some such, though I concede that "bothering" isn't the correct jargon), and that means I've got Queens of the Stone Age on very loud, which is distracting.  Curious that their Wikipedia page describes their genre as stoner rock.  I don't know what they mean...

For some reason, this evening I really want to get my guitar, crank up the dirt, and blast out some funk/rock riffs.  In fact, I will go and do that shortly, if I have time.  I've been too busy being a bit stressed, 50@50 Mission Planning with Jezz (not related to the stress!), trying to remember to keep turning the jacket potatoes, and writing this blog...

I think it's the stress that's making me want to go and groove on my guitar...music was always my outlet.   I found playing the piano to be a great stress release, but I don't have room for one here, so that's not an option.   

But a bit of dirty blues guitar should do the trick.

I was just going to go off on one about how complicated a setup it is to play my guitar at reasonable volume in the house, but honestly, it'll just bore you, even if you manage to follow...it's really of no interest to anyone.

I guess I've answered my question about which direction this post is heading...

Sorry 'bout that...

:-/

Day 58 - Bum Notes

rock the room

Today is the greatest day I've ever known.

That's a fairly bold statement to open with, isn't it?  To be fair, it's not my line, but the opening line of Today by The Smashing Pumpkins.

Anna was up to something in the lounge to which I'm not privy, so I took the opportunity to put my Rock Band Xbox back together upstairs, and have a bit of a play on the drums.  

The way it works is that you choose a song to play along with, and a difficulty level, and then play along with the song, following on-screen prompts.  I only play drums with this game, because it is very much like actually playing the drums.  

A scrolling display on the screen tells you which drums to hit, and when.   Mostly what it tells you to play is very simplified, to make the game accessible.    But you can choose Expert Pro Mode, in which case you have to play pretty much everything the original drummer did on the track in question. 

I only play Expert Pro Mode...  B-)

The drum kit and Xbox haven't been used for a couple of months, as it all needed wiring up after some reorganisation of the Rock Room...

Climbing gear, guitars and drum kits...do you see what we did there?!  ;-)

Having set the kit up and got all the various parts talking to each other, I decided to test it on Today, a song I know fairly well.  

First thing I've played in months....gold starred it!   To get a gold star you have to play it almost perfectly, hitting every note on every drum in perfect time with the track.  

I so wanted to say "Nailed it!" in the style of Archer, but in truth I didn't nail it.   I did hit more than 99% of the notes, but in musical terms that basically means I also hit a bunch of bum notes...amateurish!

Today is moderate difficulty level, so not too challenging...but I was pleased to play reasonably well on my first track in a while. 

And I like the sentiment!

Today is a great day, because it's the only day.   Yesterday is long gone and Tomorrow will never arrive.  There is only Today...

Spend too much time dwelling on the past, or eagerly awaiting some imagined future, and you're missing Now, which is the only time it's possible to live.  

Now is literally your only option...  

Why are you still here, you should be off living your life...   

Today is the greatest day you'll ever know!

Day 45b - Feeling Groovy

This is that special bonus video edition I was telling you about...you were paying attention, weren't you?!

Anyway, if you have ten minutes of your life to spare (which you're never going to get back), I'm still not sure I'd advise you to click on the video above...

As mentioned in an earlier post, last night was our Inaugural Funkfest Jam Session, or IFJS.   That's so ridiculous I might actually consider it as a working name, at least...then again, no, no I won't.

So only 2 of the 3 planned attendee's showed up...hmm a two piece rock band...Black Keys...White Stripes...any other shades of two out there?   Nope, it never really works for me.

Fortunately, Jool's electronic drum kit brain has a whole load of backing tracks you can play along to.   The tracks have no drums, and consist of mainly bass and keyboards.  This enabled Jools to play drums and me to play guitar, and it was more or less a whole band...Rock On!! 

As we hadn't played together in over ten years, as far as we could remember, and I haven't even picked up my guitar since my birthday, it was going to be interesting to discover how out of shape we were, musically.

So we put this little groove on, which is just 1 chord, never changes, and played along for a while.   Playing along to a fixed rhythm and chord pattern is sometimes known as "vamping", and is great for developing your improvisational skills.    You can allow the piece time to evolve, try to get into the groove, and see how well your hands work and how much you can remember. 

What I found was that whilst my hands work pretty well (thanks to climbing), I can't remember many riffs or phrases.

A helpful analogy is that it's like I had been fluent in French a long time ago, but hadn't spoken it for some years...and on trying to speak again, I find I still have the perfect accent, but I can't remember many words.

So we grooved for ten minutes or so.  It took a while to get going, and got a bit repetitive at times, but at other times it was interesting, dynamic and fluid.  We have all the wrong gear, and we're short of players...conditions were all wrong - cold, bright, late on a Winter's eve...we're rusty as anything and had no idea where we were going...

But in spite of all that, it was great fun and I think it has some potential...though I can't tell you that a 10 minute groove with little structure and no harmonic variation is particularly entertaining for a listener (you have been warned!)...

We also played a few other grungy, groovy things without the backing tracks, and they were great, but for the lack of bass.

Apart from when I played bass...then we were short of guitars...and short of singers, as I discovered that playing bass and singing at the same time is hard!!

Also, singing when you can't hear yourself because your p.a. is somewhat Heath Robinson, that's not easy, either...

And when you have no idea of either the words or the tune (as when we played thickfreakness, a track I barely know and Jools didn't know at all, after watching only the first minute of it on youtube)...well you just have to make some shit up.  

Honestly, that track was so raw and dirty, it was great!   :-D

I'm sure there'll be more to come on this little project...

I won't force you to listen to it...

Probably... ;-)

Day 44 - Too Loud Enough

Suburban nightscape

I've had the craziest day...super busy at work all day, no break, no rest, no time to eat, and some challenging situations to deal with.  Pretty full on...

Straight from work, I went to see my friend who's in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.   My work challenges pale into insignificance beside the challenging symptoms he's having to suffer.   And despite being in there for 10 days now, we still seem to be no nearer a diagnosis, without which it's very difficult to see a way forward.

He will really struggle to look after himself if there's no improvement, let alone to work to support himself.  He doesn't have a wide support network, and I fear he will fall through the cracks of a broken system.

So I'm trying to support him as best I can, as are two or three of his other friends and colleagues - one of us is managing to visit him every day so far.

He is on a lovely ward, in a modern, clean hospital.   The view from his (single) room looks South West across Bourneville (home of Cadbury's, and a visually distinctive place).

During the several visits I've made there over the last 10 days, I've been blessed with a selection of fascinating and even beautiful vista's;

On a sunny Winter's day, the city looked very green, and very clean, and the hills in the distance faded in the soft, hazy light.

In an afternoon storm, lightning flashed across the murky gloom, as sleet and rain whipped horizontally from the West, and the wind howled eerily through the cracks around the unlatched windows.

Tonight's view was an oddly peaceful nightscape across the suburbs, with a little light left in the sky where there was a break in the dark clouds.   The city looked warm and not too crowded, and (as in all these cases) clashed with my internal conception of Birmingham...I might need to open my mind a little on this...

How disturbing!  Eek!

Anyway I got home just after 8pm, after which I needed to eat, write a handful of mails around a complicated system I'm trying to develop to make it easy to arrange lifts for my mum, and catch up with a few people checking up on our hospitalised friend.  

And of course, write this blog!

Now I have to go and dig out guitar cases, amps, cables etc, as I'm off for a jam session tomorrow night, for the first time in years...

It's going to be loud and it's going to be raw...and I'm hoping it's going to be at least a little musical.   

I'm also hoping we can rig up some sort of p.a. system for bass and vocals, else it's all going to be somewhat imbalanced...too many guitarists - you just know how that goes!

Anywho, I think it might be time to adopt a new motto/catchphrase;

"Am I too loud enough yet?!"




Oh, one last thing, every time I visit the hospital, I see this sign, and it makes me giggle like an idiot.   

Surely this can't be a coincidence?!   

:-D

Schindler's lift...

Day 41 - Strat Me Up

he, she or it?

Crazy day at work today...you wouldn't even believe me if I explained...so I won't bother, if you don't mind. 

It did leave me short of a photo though, and whilst pondering this, I realised that I haven't really talked much about music on my blog.   Given how significant music has been in my life, this seems a travesty, so I'm here to correct that.

It's fortunate that I'm a more competent musician than photographer.   Well, not for you, as you're looking at a picture of mine, not listening to my music...sorry 'bout that. 

But whilst I couldn't get a decent photo of this guitar, due to my bumbling amateurishness, this is, in fact, a fantastic work of art (I mean the instrument, not the image).

This is my #1 guitar.  It's a Fender Stratocaster Plus Deluxe, made in the US in around 1993.   I bought it new, just as I was getting serious about playing the guitar.   It cost around £750 and is probably worth around the same now...not that I'd ever sell it.

It's been my faithful companion ever since the day I got it, over 20 years ago.   And it's as good today as it was then, if not better for being well played in.

I keep saying it, and that feels a little wrong.  Traditionally, it would be a she (check out the curves)...that doesn't feel quite right either - but it's closer than it.   

She does feel organic to me, a living thing, not merely a dumb, lifeless object.   Maybe if you heard her sing, you would be convinced...

She hasn't been out for a good few years now, but I'm hoping to take her out next week and show her a good time.

I've got a jam session lined up with my brother and a friend from work.   We're going to have to take it in turns on bass, and we're hopefully just going to bash out some raw, noisy blues, with a hint of rock and funk thrown in.  

At least, that's my agenda!  We've not all played together before so we don't really have a plan...other than that both the other guitarist and I are into the blues, so that will underscore most of what we do.   

If we gel and it's fun then we may try to put something more organised together, but for the moment, it's just for a good time making some noise with other people. 

Making communal music is an amazing thing.  It's one of those whole is greater than the sum of the parts things...it can be absolutely magical, other-worldly.   And musicians feel flow in a similar way that athletes or sports-people do.

If you can close off your conscious mind and succumb to the vibe, you can reach a state where you simply relax and allow the music to flow through you into the world.   Time slows and stops, your mind ceases to verbalise, and you are truly in the moment. 

I think that pursuit of this state is fundamentally what drives me, musically.  This is why I don't play the guitar at home on my own any more.   I need other people in order to flow...without them it's almost impossible, it seems pointless, and I lose all motivation.

I now can sometimes get a similar state when moving over rock outdoors (particularly when soloing)...hence my avid pursuit of climbing adventures, since my musical options dried up.

Making music as a group is a far richer experience than playing alone, much more engaging and satisfying.

I have some plans to try to bring a hint of this experience to those who wouldn't ordinarily get the chance (which is most everyone).   I'm developing this idea for group music sessions for non musicians, that take the form of a party where you have fun and make some music (and get drunk, if you like) under the direction of an experienced musician (me).

No, it's nothing like karaoke, before you ask...and nobody has to sing, and nobody has to do anything on their own.

However, if you are reading this, then you are hereby cordially invited to an early experiment of this idea, round at Chez Balogne and the spAnna's, sometime in the next couple of months.

You will, of course, have to let me know who you are, though...

Or just turn up...mi casa su casa...

S'all good.

Day 34 - Death On a Plate

Evil, or divine?

This evening, I drove down to Bishopstoke to spend the weekend with my main man Jezz, and our good friend Dave.  Apart from going for a climb tomorrow morning, we'll be playing computer games and over-indulging in ridiculously unhealthy food.   It's gonna be great!

Last time we did this, Dave's lovely wife Jan made this amazing killer snack, which, when you eat it, tastes as though it's approximately 50% peanuts, 80% Crunchie bar honeycomb, 150% sugar, and around 260% chocolate.   It's the most unbelievably amazing stuff.

My teeth are trying to fall out just thinking about it...and how Dave isn't the size of a house, I don't know!

Jezz sent me a photo just before I left, and I'm touched that Jan remembered how much I enjoyed it.  Suffice to say, I set off with my mouth watering at the prospect.

My mind wandered as I drove, and I really enjoyed the head space.  I used to do the drive down to the south coast and back weekly, and used the time to listen to music, learn songs, and cogitate.

Thus, this evening, it was with a sense of nostalgia that I spent the drive pondering, fairly productively, a range of topics...

I thought about recent developments at work...potential opportunities...battles to be fought...tactics to be deployed...ideas to promote....people to develop and encourage.

I pondered a colleague who is having a hard time lately, and how proud I am of the team for rallying around him (most of them, anyway).

Music played a significant role in my journey, as it always used to.   The auxiliary input on my car stereo is playing up, so it had to be radio.  I settled for Classic FM for the first half of the journey.   It was pleasant and conducive to introspection, and I enjoyed it.

The signal started to break up eventually, so I scanned for a while, and ended up listening to late 70's and early 80's disco music for the latter half of the journey, on Heart FM (for god's sake don't tell anyone, it'll destroy my street cred, if I've got any). An enjoyably high funk quotient made it bearable, in a vaguely painful kind of way.

I'm planning a jam session with a friend at work and my brother.  We'll just have bass, drums, guitar and vocals.  It'll be bluesy and raw, and we'll see if we gel.  I'm not sure who'll play what - we'll swap it about, I think.   Certainly the guitarist will also play bass.  I'll play guitar, bass or drums, and will probably have to sing too.  Should be fun - we're possibly having a first bash in the next week or so.

I'm also planning a new musical adventure, experimenting with more of a participative model of music making, that I hope to share with small groups, such as friends around our house for an evening.  I have lots of ideas for that...I think it's going to be great fun!

Watch this space for more news...

In the meantime, do enjoy your weekend...I'm certainly going to enjoy mine!

That chocolate/peanut/honeycomb thing...I might be dead by morning...

Wish me luck...I'm going in.