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Category: A Blog… of sorts
Songwriting – wherefrom the songs?
Sometimes I’m asked at gigs and catches me off guard. It’s always a difficult question to answer succinctly to a stranger, and causes me to stutter and stammer incoherently. “I’ve always done it”, is as lame a reason as it is true. But to me it’s all rather obvious since it’s an internal life that…
Recording Acoustic Guitar… and Hand Percussion!
In the early days of my project studio I had the whimsical idea that my songs would be enhanced by liberal application of hand percussion. So I went round music stores and bought all sorts of shakers and rattles and cowbells, triangles, a tambourine, a cabaasa, brushes, and several items whose names now escape me.…
The nakedness of ambition
Well it’s good to have aspirations and goals and seek to improve your lot. But I have to say I’m more than a little ambivalent about the world view held by the ambitious type.
Free will?
Of all the topics that philosophers ring their hands over, this is the one that interests me the most. That is to say, I’m fascinated by the question of the existence of “free will”. Don’t worry, I’m not about to expound the arguments for or against its existence – I would not presume the philosophical…
Performing – The “Zone”
A recent thread on an internet forum got me thinking. The original poster criticised guitar players who concentrated too much on technique and not enough about putting their heart into it. Good point. Perhaps it’s a lack of confidence in playing accurately that causes some players to become a bit mechanical in their execution of…
Tomorrow’s gig…
… is at The Rolling Hills Folk Club in Melrose in the Scottish borders. See ya there!
Books
Whatcha reading right now? I go through phases. I get pulled in opposite directions: I spend half my time feeling guilty because I’m not reading enough, and the other half of my time feeling guilty because my time would be better spent (for example) practicing guitar instead of wasting it reading. Tough old life. When…
Noodling with form
One of the effects of my listening to so much classical music (particularly symphonies) is that I appear to have developed an ear for forms such as rondo, sonata, minuets, etc. Out of curiosity, I’ve also read a little about the historical development of these forms. Even more curiously, I’ve been pondering how they might…
Tonight a session!
I’m going to pop along to Stonehaven Folk Club tonight to see some friends and play a few songs. Stonehaven is my favourite club hereabouts. Nice folks and some good singers and players. The only down side of sessions is that they are like song circles where everybody gets to play one song in turn.…
Podcasts – and YouTube?
These are areas of self-promotion that send a shiver up my spine – and not in a pleasant way. But I guess I should get (back) down to it. Independent musicians mostly need any tool they can lay their hands on. I have one experience of podcasting, though. I had signed up to an OMD…
