This was the last column I sent off to Folk on Tap. I had previously written it for Issue 108: Jul-Sep 2006, but heard very little from the editor until early 2008 when he let me know there would be another issue coming out, so I rewrote it and sent it off for Issue 108: Spring 2008. I don't know if it ever got published...
I feel I should have lots of news about how things in my hi-tech world have changed dramatically in the 18 months that FoT has been taking a sabbatical, but I’m not so sure they have. The PlayStation 3 is now vying for supremacy over the Nintendo Wii, rather than the PS2 over the DS; Blu-Ray has kicked HD DVD into touch in much the same way as VHS did with Betamax; and my FeedReader is full of stories about Brown letting us down rather than Blair. So it’s all a bit same old, same old. The music industry is still under threat from people sharing their mp3s. Digital rights management is a bit of a hot potato at the moment, especially with video files. If you use the BBC’s iPlayer to download a few performances from the Cambridge Folk Festival - which of course you have paid for with your licence fee - you must watch it within four weeks or it will spontaneously combust. There is a flicker of sanity on the horizon, with a public consultation under way at the time of writing into allowing music to be copied for personal use. We have of course been breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 each time we copy CDs to our PC or mp3 player or make an extra copy to play in the car, let alone share with a friend. The idea is that copying will no longer be illegal as long as it’s for private use. Minister for intellectual property Lord Triesman said the proposed changes would explore “where the boundaries lie between strong protection for right holders and appropriate levels of access for users”. So apparently owners will not be allowed to sell or give away their original discs once they have made a copy. How exactly are they going to police that one? It seems CD burning is killing music where home taping clearly failed. Ecclesiastes 1:9 - “There is no new thing under the sun.” Here endeth the ranting. On with the surfing.
A few folk-orientated sites have been going from strength to strength while we’ve been away. I am pleased to be able to report that although it has a new name, Radio Britfolk is still up and running. Now known as The Music Well, “The site continues to provide the best in traditional and contemporary folk music from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England and we welcome visitors old and new to share the enjoyment in our cultural heritage.” The best news is that it has moved from being a subscription site to being free - although donations are welcomed. There is an impressive archive of old programmes on subjects ranging from John Connolly, Harry Boardman and Fred Jordan to June Tabor, Nick Drake and Steve Tilston. In fact I defy you to click on the site’s archive and read down the list of programmes without salivating. Much of Tradmusic consists just of links to external sites, such as the BBC Radio 2 Folk and Acoustic news page and online newspaper articles such as a Scotland on Sunday interview with Bert Jansch, but there are also original articles about artists such as our own (ie they are from the Southern Counties) Band of Two. Pete Fyfe seems to be the resident CD reviewer as well. It also has a gig guide, a large database of musicians and a discussion forum. Musical Traditions is the online version of the paper magazine of the same name begun by Keith Summers in 1983 and carried on by Rod Stradling. With an archive of more than 200 articles available as well as regularly updated news and reviews, it is quite comprehensive and well worth the occasional dip. You never know what you might find. There are articles on subjects as esoteric as Ted “Darkie” Duckett, the New Forest bones player and step dancer, or as mainstream - in a folk music sort of way - as Joe Heaney interviewed by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. As well as an obituary for Gordon Hall, the fine Sussex singer who died in 2000, there is the transcript of an interview with him that Vic Smith did for BBC Radio Sussex in 1991. It is interesting to read that when he lived in Horsham he lived “under the same roof” as Henry Burstow. “Recollections of Henry Burstow” has been digitised and is available on the South Ridings Folk Arts Network site, another website well worth a visit. The recollections are a fascinating glimpse into the life of this “celebrated bellringer and songsinger” and include a list of the “400 and odd songs he sang from memory”.
I must confess that I no longer know the words of the National Anthem unless I have a hymn book open, but I do remember “WPc Sadie Stick, hit me again with your big black stick, I’ll have a word with you when I find my dic - tionary,” words from a song which I probably heard only once, when I visited my ex-wife’s cousin in Salisbury in the early Seventies. Delighted to find we shared not only Christian names but also a taste for folk music, he slipped his prized shiny black copy of Mike Absalom’s LP “Henry and Other Peccadillos” on to the stereogram for me. Like it was only yesterday. Every now and then I have googled Mike’s name to no avail, but at last I have found a website dedicated to the legend that is Mike Absalom. After living in Canada for 20 years - which might have had something to do with his disappearance from the folk scene here - he has returned to the UK. You can find out what he has been up to, read the comics and listen to mp3s on his website.
A brief intermission - with no hint of nostalgia for at least 100 words. I was delighted to see the New Rope String Band when they came to Croydon FC. They were superb, as expected. I also bought their ORSB DVD. Though tinged with sadness (the late, great Joe Scurfield is on top form throughout) it is so hilarious that you feel privileged to watch it. The NRSB website has video clips that will remind you of (or introduce you to) just how incredibly inventive they still are.
Back to the nostalgia, and I hope you will forgive me finishing with even more self-indulgence than usual. I would have thought that I had written before about Peter, Paul and Mary, who probably did as much as anyone else during my teens to turn me on to folk music and guitar playing, though I have just done a quick check through past editions and can find nothing. It is good to see that Mary Travers is still campaigning, albeit now for bone marrow donation. Mary was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2005, and received a bone marrow transplant that autumn. PP&M continued their reunion tour late in 2005, and continue to tour now, although their recent “fall” tour was postponed while she had back surgery! These days she is as likely to be found campaigning for America’s National Marrow Donor Program as for peace or civil rights. Having lost my brother-in-law to the disease, I wish her luck, though I am including the web address of Britain’s Anthony Nolan Trust, and encourage you to visit it. Oh, and the PP&M website is cool.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Damien Barber and Mike Wilson @ The Music Institute, Guildford
Just got back from a superb gig at Guildford Folk Club thanks to Damien Barber and Mike Wilson. All the more astonishing as Damien had only got back from China a couple of days ago so was still considerably jet-lagged. And tomorrow he's playing at Boris's party celebrating all things English in Trafalgar Square along with the Demon Barbers! But it was Mike who had worried organisers reaching for the tranquilisers by getting himself delayed (it's not as if he had any choice) in Guildford's notorious one-way system.
Anywho - the songs, the music and the banter were all as I expected them to be. MacColl's Kilroy was Here and My Old Man; Bellamy's Nostradamus and On Board a 98; The Green Linnet and Westlin Winds from Dick Gaughan, and loads more besides, all sung and played beautifully by two friends who have the knack of breathing new life into songs even though they have sung them many times before - each time it's as if it's only recently come into their repertoire. And as for The Joy of Living, it was majestic. And all without the opportunity for so much as five minutes' practice!
A great evening in a nice little venue.
Anywho - the songs, the music and the banter were all as I expected them to be. MacColl's Kilroy was Here and My Old Man; Bellamy's Nostradamus and On Board a 98; The Green Linnet and Westlin Winds from Dick Gaughan, and loads more besides, all sung and played beautifully by two friends who have the knack of breathing new life into songs even though they have sung them many times before - each time it's as if it's only recently come into their repertoire. And as for The Joy of Living, it was majestic. And all without the opportunity for so much as five minutes' practice!
A great evening in a nice little venue.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
It's the wonder of YouTube...
I have realised that I am long overdue to publish something on here. I thought that the print version of FoT was about to be revived but nothing seems to have come through my letterbox. Anywho, I have no time at the moment, but here are some stunning but relevant video clips. (During the course of the post, I have worked out how to embed video clips - just click on the pictures to set them rolling - but I have left the links in here in case you want to go to YouTube itself and see related material - there's loads!)
Take a look at this. I believe the guy's name is Hannes Coetzee. Whoever he is he does wonderful things with a teaspoon and a guitar.
Or this. Peter, Paul and Mary sing Hangman. The boys look just the sinister side if squeaky clean - and you can see why I fell in love with Mary Travers all those years ago.
Here is an old clip of Paul Simon, who stole Anji from Davey Graham in much the same way as he stole Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme from Martin Carthy. Indiana, let it go. In the clip he is playing Anji, and on second guitar: his brother! (I didn't know he had one either.)
And just by way of proof that, in his prime, Davey Graham was the coolest dude on the planet, here is some film of him from a 1959 Ken Russell documentary on the rise in popularity of the guitar.
Last but not least. Bob Franke playing his own composition Hard Love, a beautiful song that I first came to love thanks to the wonderful Martin Simpson.
Funnily enough, despite the adulation that I have bestowed upon Martin Simpson all these years, I don't miss his fancy guitar stylings at all, not even when the geese start honking...
Take a look at this. I believe the guy's name is Hannes Coetzee. Whoever he is he does wonderful things with a teaspoon and a guitar.
Or this. Peter, Paul and Mary sing Hangman. The boys look just the sinister side if squeaky clean - and you can see why I fell in love with Mary Travers all those years ago.
Here is an old clip of Paul Simon, who stole Anji from Davey Graham in much the same way as he stole Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme from Martin Carthy. Indiana, let it go. In the clip he is playing Anji, and on second guitar: his brother! (I didn't know he had one either.)
And just by way of proof that, in his prime, Davey Graham was the coolest dude on the planet, here is some film of him from a 1959 Ken Russell documentary on the rise in popularity of the guitar.
Last but not least. Bob Franke playing his own composition Hard Love, a beautiful song that I first came to love thanks to the wonderful Martin Simpson.
Funnily enough, despite the adulation that I have bestowed upon Martin Simpson all these years, I don't miss his fancy guitar stylings at all, not even when the geese start honking...
Monday, 28 July 2008
Review: Various Artists: Top Cat, White Tie & Tails (Guide Cats for the Blind, vol 3) Songs and Poems of Les Barker
This, the third of Les Barker's albums produced for charity, is just as witty and thought provoking as its predecessors. Twenty-seven tracks, from 7 secs to 3:58 in length, guaranteed to raise both a smile and much-needed funds for the British Computer Association of the Blind.
On my first listen, it struck me that no-one can read Les Barker like Les Barker. Fortunately there is one track on the CD where Les reads his poem The Church Of The Wholly Undecided. Even more fortunately I had a second and a third listen. But not until after I had had a revelation. I went to the Mrs Ackroyd website and read the Shipping Forecast. In my head it was still absolutely hilarious. In fact at first I had to stop because I kept laughing out loud and I was at work. So I tried again when I got home. Hilarious. His poetry exists out there and does not depend on him. Perhaps it's just that his sense of timing gives it that certain something.
Anyway, these people gathered to read Les's poetry for charity so even when their timing is a bit suspect, like Dave Cash on a brilliant pastiche of Deck Of Cards, they remain charming.
Highlights are a poem made up entirely of puns on writers' names (The Author's Story), one about the problems inherent in calling your dogs Go, Stay and Fetch (Go, Stay And Fetch) and another about the problems of phoning BT to tell them your phone's not working (My Phone's Out Of Order). Bemusement appears to be Barker's mood de jour. There's Jenny Agutter - prepare to fall in love with her all over again when she reads Bungee Jumping For Lemmings or Garden Waste. You'll never use your composter again. And Prunella Scales is gorgeous (but in a different way to Ms Agutter) with a monologue that we've all heard while waiting to be served by a shop assistant too busy chatting with a friend (No May).
In short, hilarious.
(Published by Osmosys Records, OSMO CD 041)
On my first listen, it struck me that no-one can read Les Barker like Les Barker. Fortunately there is one track on the CD where Les reads his poem The Church Of The Wholly Undecided. Even more fortunately I had a second and a third listen. But not until after I had had a revelation. I went to the Mrs Ackroyd website and read the Shipping Forecast. In my head it was still absolutely hilarious. In fact at first I had to stop because I kept laughing out loud and I was at work. So I tried again when I got home. Hilarious. His poetry exists out there and does not depend on him. Perhaps it's just that his sense of timing gives it that certain something.
Anyway, these people gathered to read Les's poetry for charity so even when their timing is a bit suspect, like Dave Cash on a brilliant pastiche of Deck Of Cards, they remain charming.
Highlights are a poem made up entirely of puns on writers' names (The Author's Story), one about the problems inherent in calling your dogs Go, Stay and Fetch (Go, Stay And Fetch) and another about the problems of phoning BT to tell them your phone's not working (My Phone's Out Of Order). Bemusement appears to be Barker's mood de jour. There's Jenny Agutter - prepare to fall in love with her all over again when she reads Bungee Jumping For Lemmings or Garden Waste. You'll never use your composter again. And Prunella Scales is gorgeous (but in a different way to Ms Agutter) with a monologue that we've all heard while waiting to be served by a shop assistant too busy chatting with a friend (No May).
In short, hilarious.
(Published by Osmosys Records, OSMO CD 041)
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
18th Annual Ruskin House Folk & Blues Festival
This Saturday, July 5, Ruskin House's Sunday evening Acoustic Club is hosting its Annual Folk & Blues Festival in the gardens of the house in Coombe Road, Croydon, Surrey. The house is much more quaint than that address would lead you to believe.
The festival will feature many of the regular musicians who play at the club, along with a team of dancers from the McPartland School of Irish Dancing, a Scottish pipe band, bouncy castle, barbecue and real ales. Noon to 11pm. Admission £3, accompanied children (up to age 16) free.
See here for a map. Or here for more details of the club. A donation will be made to St Christopher's Hospice.
The festival will feature many of the regular musicians who play at the club, along with a team of dancers from the McPartland School of Irish Dancing, a Scottish pipe band, bouncy castle, barbecue and real ales. Noon to 11pm. Admission £3, accompanied children (up to age 16) free.
See here for a map. Or here for more details of the club. A donation will be made to St Christopher's Hospice.
Friday, 25 April 2008
Podcasts, the Folk Revival and the New Rope String Band
Originally published in FoT Issue 107: Apr-Jun 2006
Now here’s a sentence I never thought I’d begin a column with. Not that, this: I have a podcast to recommend. A few issues ago, it would have been meaningless, but now, with the increasingly rapid advance of civilization (smiles ironically) it means we can acquire infotainment while on the move and looking hip (removes tongue from cheek). First, a word or two hundred of explanation. If you know all about podcasting, and don’t know how you managed to survive without it until last Christmas, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. Even if you haven’t, you will I am sure have realised how important podcasts are because the state broadcaster and the national press have all jumped on the bandwagon and told you so. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. Podcasts are essentially rather old-fashioned, because they are little more than a radio programme. An “on demand” radio programme admittedly, but for “downloading a podcast” read “taping off the radio”. Back in the last century I used to use an old reel-to-reel tape recorder to record programmes to listen to later. Then I progressed to cassettes. Only the technology has been changed, to protect the self-image of the upwardly mobile society. You don’t need an iPod or even an mp3 player. You do need a computer with a soundcard and speakers. You don’t need any fancy software. You would be better off with broadband, just because the size of some podcast files are on the large side. And listening to anything at a time that’s convenient to you seems admirably well organised, especially if it’s enjoyable and informative.
Which brings me back to FolkCast, which claims to be the first folk podcast, and I certainly wasn’t aware of any others. And really it’s just a very good radio show. Presented by Phil “Widds” Widdows and Ken Nicol, who promise “the best new music, interviews with artists, behind the scenes soundseeing tours at festivals and fun and frolics from the broad world of folk”. Ken is a musician, Widds a journalist. There is a new edition on the first Saturday of each month, produced in Ken’s studio in Preston, with songs, interviews (Ken in edition 001, Simon Nicol (no relation) in 002) and articles. Bits of it are great. Bits of it are not. Bits of it were not my cup of tea but may be yours. But if you like folk-rock, FolkCast is for you. And they certainly introduced me to people who I will be looking out for. And it’s free! In 001, I found a really interesting arrangement by London trio 3 Blind Mice. There was also an overlong interview with Ken Nicol, but as it’s his studio, I suppose that’s allowed. He is currently with Steeleye Span, so I guess he does come under the umbrella of folk music. I say that because a lot of the show is geared towards the singer-songwriter and folk-rock genres, rather than traditional songs or tunes. Issue 002 actually gets into traditional mode quite early on, with an effective Jock o’Hazeldean from left-handed Scottish guitarist Dave Gibb, but that’s almost it. Also the programmes do have a tendency towards American acts, but that’s because there is oodles of US stuff available. As more British acts realise they can put their music online, more of it will come onstream. And people are invited to send songs, comments and information in to them, so as FolkCast becomes more well known, there should be more British material available.
And by the way, despite having been listening to the Watersons’ “for pence and spicy ale” while rewriting most of the above, I just had a screen break and put on ‘Ducks on a Pond’ by the Incredible String Band and John Martyn’s ‘Outside In’ and ‘Solid Air’, so I agree, I have no right to champion traditional song over contemporary.
It will probably not have escaped your notice that early in the year BBC4 honoured the British Folk Movement with some cracking programmes which will hopefully be repeated on a regular basis, including showings on the more widely available BBC2. It’s surprising what early footage can be dredged up when people make the effort. There were quite a few goosebumps of nostalgia round my place, I don’t mind confessing. But for the purposes of this column, the series also threw up shed-loads of information on the BBC website as well as links to a lot more, and lots of attention in the press. But to keep it all in context, my cynical half must share this “nail on the head” summary with you, from uk.music.folk contributor William Black:
“The current 'folk revival' is being powered by the people who fell in love with the late Nick Drake last year and then suddenly realised that he wasn’t a ‘lone genius’ but part of something else. It’s not folk music, it’s more like the singer/songwriter thing that was popular thirty-five years ago.
“Apart from a sort of reflex genuflection to the Seegers and Cecil Sharpe they’ll ignore the folk scene, probably because there’s obviously no money in it, and concentrate on manufacturing a new generation of ‘singer/songwriters’ (anyone noticed how Donovan is currently being rehabilitated?) who’ll be high profile and exploitable, and disposable...
“It’ll run for a year or so, the usual suspects will put on a few big concerts with manufactured ‘stars’, and the folk festivals will get a few more customers who’ll wander about wearing fashionable clothes, looking slightly puzzled and drinking bottled lager.
“Next year it’ll be something else and we’ll be left alone with our beards, beer that tastes of something and even less money because the predatory manipulators of the media and music industry have taken a proportion of it. If we’re lucky none of the big festivals will go broke thinking that the increased ticket sales will happen again next year and so overspend...
“Oh yes, and folk will be uncool again...”
Now let’s finish on a more uplifting note. I was delighted to see that the Old Rope String Band have put their annus horribilis behind them and undergone a sort of reformation, with Tim Dalling and Pete Challoner joining forces with Jock Tyldesley and Vera van Heeringen as the New Rope String Band. Their new website is in its formative stages but includes forthcoming gigs and festivals. Do visit it, and if you can, stop surfing and go and see them.
Now here’s a sentence I never thought I’d begin a column with. Not that, this: I have a podcast to recommend. A few issues ago, it would have been meaningless, but now, with the increasingly rapid advance of civilization (smiles ironically) it means we can acquire infotainment while on the move and looking hip (removes tongue from cheek). First, a word or two hundred of explanation. If you know all about podcasting, and don’t know how you managed to survive without it until last Christmas, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. Even if you haven’t, you will I am sure have realised how important podcasts are because the state broadcaster and the national press have all jumped on the bandwagon and told you so. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. Podcasts are essentially rather old-fashioned, because they are little more than a radio programme. An “on demand” radio programme admittedly, but for “downloading a podcast” read “taping off the radio”. Back in the last century I used to use an old reel-to-reel tape recorder to record programmes to listen to later. Then I progressed to cassettes. Only the technology has been changed, to protect the self-image of the upwardly mobile society. You don’t need an iPod or even an mp3 player. You do need a computer with a soundcard and speakers. You don’t need any fancy software. You would be better off with broadband, just because the size of some podcast files are on the large side. And listening to anything at a time that’s convenient to you seems admirably well organised, especially if it’s enjoyable and informative.
Which brings me back to FolkCast, which claims to be the first folk podcast, and I certainly wasn’t aware of any others. And really it’s just a very good radio show. Presented by Phil “Widds” Widdows and Ken Nicol, who promise “the best new music, interviews with artists, behind the scenes soundseeing tours at festivals and fun and frolics from the broad world of folk”. Ken is a musician, Widds a journalist. There is a new edition on the first Saturday of each month, produced in Ken’s studio in Preston, with songs, interviews (Ken in edition 001, Simon Nicol (no relation) in 002) and articles. Bits of it are great. Bits of it are not. Bits of it were not my cup of tea but may be yours. But if you like folk-rock, FolkCast is for you. And they certainly introduced me to people who I will be looking out for. And it’s free! In 001, I found a really interesting arrangement by London trio 3 Blind Mice. There was also an overlong interview with Ken Nicol, but as it’s his studio, I suppose that’s allowed. He is currently with Steeleye Span, so I guess he does come under the umbrella of folk music. I say that because a lot of the show is geared towards the singer-songwriter and folk-rock genres, rather than traditional songs or tunes. Issue 002 actually gets into traditional mode quite early on, with an effective Jock o’Hazeldean from left-handed Scottish guitarist Dave Gibb, but that’s almost it. Also the programmes do have a tendency towards American acts, but that’s because there is oodles of US stuff available. As more British acts realise they can put their music online, more of it will come onstream. And people are invited to send songs, comments and information in to them, so as FolkCast becomes more well known, there should be more British material available.
And by the way, despite having been listening to the Watersons’ “for pence and spicy ale” while rewriting most of the above, I just had a screen break and put on ‘Ducks on a Pond’ by the Incredible String Band and John Martyn’s ‘Outside In’ and ‘Solid Air’, so I agree, I have no right to champion traditional song over contemporary.
It will probably not have escaped your notice that early in the year BBC4 honoured the British Folk Movement with some cracking programmes which will hopefully be repeated on a regular basis, including showings on the more widely available BBC2. It’s surprising what early footage can be dredged up when people make the effort. There were quite a few goosebumps of nostalgia round my place, I don’t mind confessing. But for the purposes of this column, the series also threw up shed-loads of information on the BBC website as well as links to a lot more, and lots of attention in the press. But to keep it all in context, my cynical half must share this “nail on the head” summary with you, from uk.music.folk contributor William Black:
“The current 'folk revival' is being powered by the people who fell in love with the late Nick Drake last year and then suddenly realised that he wasn’t a ‘lone genius’ but part of something else. It’s not folk music, it’s more like the singer/songwriter thing that was popular thirty-five years ago.
“Apart from a sort of reflex genuflection to the Seegers and Cecil Sharpe they’ll ignore the folk scene, probably because there’s obviously no money in it, and concentrate on manufacturing a new generation of ‘singer/songwriters’ (anyone noticed how Donovan is currently being rehabilitated?) who’ll be high profile and exploitable, and disposable...
“It’ll run for a year or so, the usual suspects will put on a few big concerts with manufactured ‘stars’, and the folk festivals will get a few more customers who’ll wander about wearing fashionable clothes, looking slightly puzzled and drinking bottled lager.
“Next year it’ll be something else and we’ll be left alone with our beards, beer that tastes of something and even less money because the predatory manipulators of the media and music industry have taken a proportion of it. If we’re lucky none of the big festivals will go broke thinking that the increased ticket sales will happen again next year and so overspend...
“Oh yes, and folk will be uncool again...”
Now let’s finish on a more uplifting note. I was delighted to see that the Old Rope String Band have put their annus horribilis behind them and undergone a sort of reformation, with Tim Dalling and Pete Challoner joining forces with Jock Tyldesley and Vera van Heeringen as the New Rope String Band. Their new website is in its formative stages but includes forthcoming gigs and festivals. Do visit it, and if you can, stop surfing and go and see them.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Teach yourself guitar and piano with tablature and KlavarScript
Originally published in FoT Issue 106: Jan-Mar 2006
Despite being an old dog, I am always ready, willing and able to learn new tricks. As if there wasn’t enough clutter round here already, I even bought a rather nifty electronic keyboard, so for this issue, just to get a bit of a theme going, I thought I would explore the world of online music lessons. My first instrument is the guitar, which I have been playing since I was seven, self-taught except for an enjoyable couple of terms at evening classes back in the Sixties and occasional workshops at festivals. And apart from the version of ‘Anji’ our evening school tutor Stephanie Syers taught us and which has stood me in good stead as a party piece ever since, I have never learned more than when sitting as close to the front as possible in small folk clubs, watching the hands of Davy Graham, Isaac Guillory, Martin Simpson, I could go on but you get the picture. Invariably I was also enjoying myself.
The “Passion For Jazz” website is a bit dry and even a bit daunting when it comes to music theory, especially when you see a page full of chords written in real music notation, but fortunately it has several handy diagrams and charts about harmony, chords, the circle of fifths and so on. And it has very useful virtual guitar and virtual piano chord finders. With these you click on the chord name on the page and you get a graphical display of that chord for guitar or piano. Alternatively you can click on a few notes on the virtual piano keyboard or guitar fretboard and find out what that chord is called. Nice. The “Jazz Guitar” website is even better, because a bit more thorough and dare I say generous in the information it shares. There are highly informative essays about such things as jazz guitar chord theory, blues chord progressions and guitar warm-up techniques. And of course a virtual chord finder. You have to be online for these chord finders to work, but “Piano Chord Helper” is downloadable and free so you just run it on your PC and tell it which chord you want, for example F#min6/9 (!) and it shows you where to put your fingers. If you have a MIDI compatible sound card it even lets you hear what it should sound like.
There are plenty of guitar lessons for the picking (sorry!) at sites such as “Acoustic Guitar”, the online version of a US-based magazine. The lessons from the past year’s issues come in a variety of styles, such as clawhammer, jazz, and so on. I was particularly interested to find a lesson focusing on open tunings. David Hodge, the author of the article, writes “...exploring different chords and chord voicings can help you find new approaches to songwriting and arranging, and trying an alternate tuning, which will immediately make you search for new chords, is a good way to make you think and experiment. And that’s always a good thing.” I entirely agree. The lesson talks you through a very simple tuning, EADF#BE, which is one which I have not unreasonably spent most of my guitar-playing life ignoring, yet which surprisingly has quite a lot of potential. After half an hour with the lesson I was noodling along - teacher’s words, not mine - with ‘Handsome Molly’, trad arr Hodge, and a jolly good time was had by all.
Another good site is the ubiquitous “Mel Bay's Guitar Sessions”, which obviously wants you to buy as many of the zillion Mel Bay books as you can, yet is generous enough to give you a free online edition which again covers a variety of styles, jazz, resonator, classical and so on. Some of the lessons are mere tasters for the books, but more usefully there is a whole series of lessons on guitar scales, positions and shapes, or a complete guide to French polishing for the acoustic guitar, written by a luthier from St Louis, Karl Markl.
Mel Bay’s site has links to numerous other Mel Bay sites - Guitar People, Mel Bay Downloads etc - which are also worth exploration but one section that particularly caught my eye was “Tab Rehab”. This is dedicated to weaning guitarists such as myself off of tablature and on to “proper” music notation. Point of order! A noble sentiment I am sure but I’m afraid there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Now if you can give me something like tablature for the piano... Fortunately help is at hand. “Klavarskribo”, or Klavar Script, notation is a Dutch invention which is much easier to read than standard notation. Just like tablature it gives a graphical display of your instrument and the direction in which you are playing, so you don’t have to make that mental leap from what you see on the page to what you do with your fingers. All very decadent and symbolic of our short attention span age I am sure - except tabs have been going since the Renaissance and Klavarskribo was designed between the last two World Wars, so there is no need to apologise for using them. I have not yet found a free tab writer, although there are plenty of reasonably priced ones out there, but I have found an excellent free program which enables you to open any MIDI file and it appears in Klavar form which you can play on screen or print out. You can even edit it, or write your own pieces from scratch.
Finally, I must give a mention to the “Folk Map”. Jim Lawton, who edits “Filofolk”, a folk music club and event listing for West Yorkshire, has created a highly useful site - as long as everyone keeps it up to date. Basically it is a giant Google map, into which you can stick virtual pins to signify where there is a folk club. You can also add times and contact details. The afternoon I added the Ram Folk Club in there were already quite a few, and they are growing daily, so hopefully by the summer I’ll be able to see where the best clubs in Dorset and Cornwall are. You have to register but it is quite painless and of course free. Now, on with the practice.
Despite being an old dog, I am always ready, willing and able to learn new tricks. As if there wasn’t enough clutter round here already, I even bought a rather nifty electronic keyboard, so for this issue, just to get a bit of a theme going, I thought I would explore the world of online music lessons. My first instrument is the guitar, which I have been playing since I was seven, self-taught except for an enjoyable couple of terms at evening classes back in the Sixties and occasional workshops at festivals. And apart from the version of ‘Anji’ our evening school tutor Stephanie Syers taught us and which has stood me in good stead as a party piece ever since, I have never learned more than when sitting as close to the front as possible in small folk clubs, watching the hands of Davy Graham, Isaac Guillory, Martin Simpson, I could go on but you get the picture. Invariably I was also enjoying myself.
The “Passion For Jazz” website is a bit dry and even a bit daunting when it comes to music theory, especially when you see a page full of chords written in real music notation, but fortunately it has several handy diagrams and charts about harmony, chords, the circle of fifths and so on. And it has very useful virtual guitar and virtual piano chord finders. With these you click on the chord name on the page and you get a graphical display of that chord for guitar or piano. Alternatively you can click on a few notes on the virtual piano keyboard or guitar fretboard and find out what that chord is called. Nice. The “Jazz Guitar” website is even better, because a bit more thorough and dare I say generous in the information it shares. There are highly informative essays about such things as jazz guitar chord theory, blues chord progressions and guitar warm-up techniques. And of course a virtual chord finder. You have to be online for these chord finders to work, but “Piano Chord Helper” is downloadable and free so you just run it on your PC and tell it which chord you want, for example F#min6/9 (!) and it shows you where to put your fingers. If you have a MIDI compatible sound card it even lets you hear what it should sound like.
There are plenty of guitar lessons for the picking (sorry!) at sites such as “Acoustic Guitar”, the online version of a US-based magazine. The lessons from the past year’s issues come in a variety of styles, such as clawhammer, jazz, and so on. I was particularly interested to find a lesson focusing on open tunings. David Hodge, the author of the article, writes “...exploring different chords and chord voicings can help you find new approaches to songwriting and arranging, and trying an alternate tuning, which will immediately make you search for new chords, is a good way to make you think and experiment. And that’s always a good thing.” I entirely agree. The lesson talks you through a very simple tuning, EADF#BE, which is one which I have not unreasonably spent most of my guitar-playing life ignoring, yet which surprisingly has quite a lot of potential. After half an hour with the lesson I was noodling along - teacher’s words, not mine - with ‘Handsome Molly’, trad arr Hodge, and a jolly good time was had by all.
Another good site is the ubiquitous “Mel Bay's Guitar Sessions”, which obviously wants you to buy as many of the zillion Mel Bay books as you can, yet is generous enough to give you a free online edition which again covers a variety of styles, jazz, resonator, classical and so on. Some of the lessons are mere tasters for the books, but more usefully there is a whole series of lessons on guitar scales, positions and shapes, or a complete guide to French polishing for the acoustic guitar, written by a luthier from St Louis, Karl Markl.
Mel Bay’s site has links to numerous other Mel Bay sites - Guitar People, Mel Bay Downloads etc - which are also worth exploration but one section that particularly caught my eye was “Tab Rehab”. This is dedicated to weaning guitarists such as myself off of tablature and on to “proper” music notation. Point of order! A noble sentiment I am sure but I’m afraid there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Now if you can give me something like tablature for the piano... Fortunately help is at hand. “Klavarskribo”, or Klavar Script, notation is a Dutch invention which is much easier to read than standard notation. Just like tablature it gives a graphical display of your instrument and the direction in which you are playing, so you don’t have to make that mental leap from what you see on the page to what you do with your fingers. All very decadent and symbolic of our short attention span age I am sure - except tabs have been going since the Renaissance and Klavarskribo was designed between the last two World Wars, so there is no need to apologise for using them. I have not yet found a free tab writer, although there are plenty of reasonably priced ones out there, but I have found an excellent free program which enables you to open any MIDI file and it appears in Klavar form which you can play on screen or print out. You can even edit it, or write your own pieces from scratch.
Finally, I must give a mention to the “Folk Map”. Jim Lawton, who edits “Filofolk”, a folk music club and event listing for West Yorkshire, has created a highly useful site - as long as everyone keeps it up to date. Basically it is a giant Google map, into which you can stick virtual pins to signify where there is a folk club. You can also add times and contact details. The afternoon I added the Ram Folk Club in there were already quite a few, and they are growing daily, so hopefully by the summer I’ll be able to see where the best clubs in Dorset and Cornwall are. You have to register but it is quite painless and of course free. Now, on with the practice.
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