This week has been a bit of fun one for me. Early in the week I got a chance to view video's of the performances in the theatre ( from week before Fat Sam's) and it really gave us all a chance to look back and reflect on how we appear on stage as well as a bit of comparison to the Fat Sam's Gig. I personally found that some people had taken a huge leap forward when it came to the Fat Sam's gig which really was a huge boost for them. The video's also sparked a lot of simple ideas as to how a lot of people can take the next step to improving even more, things as simple as bands making use of the full stage rather than all being bunched up in the middle! All in all reflection is an important part in becoming a better performer.
One of my main focuses this week has been to really work on my reading of music (particularly bass clef). I managed to download some pieces from www.virtualsheetmusic.com that have really helped me. As most of the works on there are classical pieces I used my initiative and got some double bass parts and cello parts including '12 Easy Duets' by Mozart, for double bass. These pieces are short but very useful as they came with MIDI and Mp3 backing tracks which have two different tempos (slow and fast!) and a click track. Also as they are duets each part has a tune and an underlying bass part so it has been quite fun to play around with them! I have actually shocked myself in being able to pick up a number of them in such a short time so here's to carrying on with that. A lot of the parts are in different key signatures too so it has tied in nicely with what has been discussed in Music Theory class over the past few weeks. If anyone so wishes for a copy I'd be more than happy or if any bass player out there has the desire to go through them together then come on down! They are duets after all! Let's have some fun with them!
I'm very pleased to say too that this week has really had my creative juices going and I have spent a lot of time composing some new songs (on acoustic guitar), with lyrics. I didn't have to look far to find my inspiration...a few weeks ago a dear friend of mine that I used to work with in teaching unfortunately passed away. He was a great man that always made me laugh, his passion for music was second to none and he really did have a lot of influence on me as an aspiring instructor. I was pretty upset about the whole ordeal because I enjoyed working alongside him and the last I saw of him was in August before moving up to Perth, so I decided that I would, using John's influence, write a song in dedication to him. Now John was a big fan of folk music so it did make me laugh when you would hear him playing a 'modern' song but somehow always manage to make it sound like a folk song. I thought to myself, folk isn't really a genre I know much about and certainly haven't played but I just looked back in my mind and thought "How would John play it?". I began with a simple chord structure so I could try and get my fingers round a best attempt at a finger-picking style and when I was happy I grabbed a pen and the words just seemed to flow on to paper by themselves. Hopefully sometime soon I will pop into the studio and get it recorded as for someone that doesn't know about folk other than what he heard a great man once play, I was very pleased! Below I have added a copy of the lyrics to show others.
John was a very talkative man (just like me infact), he always had a story and I'm supposing that's why we became such good friends, as those of you that know me already have learned that I never shut up! Anyway that is all for this week. I hope you enjoy.
Life Goes On
Tell me a story,
One I've heard before,
But each time there seems to be just a little bit more,
When you were a young man,
Singing songs on the road,
Each song had a story just like the ones you told,
There'll be days go,
The days go by,
Well it's sad to see you gone but life goes on,
Tell me the story one more time,
Tell me the story with one more line,
Tell me the story of your life,
Tell me a story,
Like how you know Ralph McTell,
Or play me the 'Streets of London' 'cause you do it well,
Play me the guitar,
In a style true to you,
If you show me how maybe I could play it too,
Tell me the story one more time,
Tell me the story with one more line,
Tell me the story of your life,
Tell me the story one more time,
Tell me the story with one more line,
Tell me the story of your life,
Tell me the story one more time,
Tell me the story with one more line,
Tell me the story old friend of mine,
It is sad to see you gone but life goes on.
Perhaps some of you will get a chance to hear it some day, until then...
"it's sad to see you gone..."
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