My Early Love Of Music

It is not a very exiting subject but the story has to start somewhere. My father had a love of music and could play almost any instrument which he tried. Mostly piano, accordian and spoons and a saw. Not forgetting an harmonica.

Playing a musical saw. and musical spoons

Have you ever seen anyone play a saw by bending it to produce musical notes? I must have gotten a taste for music from him. Something for which I am eternally grateful. My first instruments were using the family piano (badly, but I could pick out a tune or two), a plastic trumpet upon which I learnt a few military calls, such as, "Come To The Cookhouse Door" and "The Last Post". No I never considered a military career but the notes for the calls were included with the instructions for the trumpet. I can also recall a mouth organ and a penny whistle, neither of which I seemed to be able to master at the time.

Around about, and probably before I was ten (I know -  it's not that young really nowadays ) I was bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder; That really got me going. I used it to record music from a small B&W TV which sat in our living room, taking pride of place. I still remember some of those songs and a favourite still today was Buffy St Marie singing Universal Soldier. Yes I know Donavan recorded it in the sixties but it was a poor cover of the original.

Buffy St Marie, A Canadian Cree Indian

I also used the tape recorder for recording myself, and sometimes my sister, singing. My mother often said that she could not understand how we managed to learn so many songs. It may be relevant to mention that I was chosen for the school choir at 7 or 8 years old, but on reflection it may be because of the power of my voice rather than the "pure tones" which I produced. the choir was entered for many school festivals but I do not recall ever winning anything. As an aside, I would sing all the time at home and to demonstrate how far my voice travelled mom used to get comments from neighbours who lived further away than I could have ever expected.

Mentioning my mother also reminds me that we used to have a radio on in the house most of the time. TV was only one channel and only on a few hours a day to start with. I guess I am remembering when I was 5 or six years old. A song I still remember from this time is Vera Lynn singing "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot". The first time I heard it I was in inconsolable tears because I thought that the little boy was me. I still sing this song at Christmas, and may even have a video on my PC, which I may look up and post on the blog.

Before I finish this instalment I would like to mention two other memories; the first was that used to collect lyrics. Sometimes I copied them from my tape recorder  and sometimes cutting them out of magazines, such as "The Record Song Book" published in the 60's and 70's.

One last memory concerns a home made set of drums. Using a bass drum from a toy drum set as a snare drum (without the snare) various boxes and tins and I remember a circular biscuit tin lid into which I punched about two dozen nails. Hitting that "cymbal" gave a wonderful swishing sound. I mostly used pieces of thin dowel (sanded to round the ends) as drumsticks but Dad was able to get me a pair of steel brushes from a work mate who actually played the drums.

I did actually begin my song writing at this time. I could not yet play an instrument to play along with the songs (I could play a melody on the piano but not well enough to play along as a backing) so I knocked out a rythm on my drum kit. Songs were very simple and quite limpid as you might expect from a 10 year old. At least that is the best guess of my age at the time. Unfortunately I can no longer remember any of them or even their titles, must say something about them.

Apart from Buffy, other early inspiration came from Elvis, Buddy Holly, Billy Fury and so many others that I am not going to name them here. Most of them are not well remembered anyway.

OK, this post is rather longer than I expected but despite everything As I actually typed it in, I kept remembering odd bits of my musical experiences. And I haven't even mentioned the Zither. Maybe another time?

A New Song - After all This Time!

One of the original objectives of this blog was to talk about and possibly pass on to my readers some thoughts about song writing. When I look back, it was clear that I did not have a lot to write about on this subject. Disappointing, but it was started at a time when I was in a bit of a trough as regards my output of new songs.

I did include some videos and share some advice from around the web including a couple of articles now on Hubpages:-

A review of useful websites on song writing
How to write a memorable song

That "trough" lasted a long time. I guess to write effectively one of the best practices is to write lots often and be prepared to crop out the dross. It was always said that the old tin-pan alley writers used to write several songs each day whilst in the "office", but most were thrown away the next day.

My song writing activity virtually stopped quite some time ago, although I still sing my own material for my own enjoyment. Most of those songs now sound dated, but then I think my musical taste stopped developing in the sixties. A couple of years ago, someone asked me, how do I write a song, what goes into a good song?"

I answered, "A little bit of this and a little bit of that". Of course, I mentioned that anything could trigger off the process of writing a song. Even the answer I had just given to the question". And I actually did take that phrase (which of course wasn't in itself an original idea) and write a song. In fact the first I had written in years. I did of course (?) video my self, performing the song using my Fender Stratocaster as a backing.

Well, last Friday, I was walking to work and thinking about a song we had been rehearsing at the ukulele club, and for some reason my mind was wandering after the 20-30th run-through of the intro in my mind. We had been having some issue with the timing, when we played the number and it was to be the opening song in our next concert. Anyway to cut a long story short, the idea for a new song began to form in my head. I hadn't even though about writing a new song BUT I could not stop once it started to appear. I always keep a notebook in my pocket even now and wrote the lyrics down as fast as I could so as not to forget them.

Later that evening, I took out my uke and started to strum a few easy chords, and before long the melody was written as well. Then I had to record it so that it wasn't forgotten. So of course, here it is for you to hear, warts and all, as they say. There is a slow refrain (think George Formby and songs from that era) but it takes off after about 45 seconds. I may split the refrain up so that it doesn't take so long to get into the verses.



I am hoping that this is the start of an awakening of my song-writing and creative writing endeavours which has been becalmed for lack of inspiration lately.

PS. Why not follow this blog using the Google Friend Connect Gizmo on the RH margin, you know it makes sense.

A new companion site to this blog

I have for sometime been considering if a blog is the right way to proceed with what I had intended for this aspect of my on-line writing.

In the beginning, it was to be about my songwriting and songs, perhaps with a nod towards my other interests in music. As it turns out it has become more of a reminiscence of the groups I loved when I was growing up, especially The Shadows of course.

As it has become clear that I now think in terms of poetry and other forms of creative writing rather than lyric/songwriting, I think the time is right to think about a static web-site to cover the early part of my life and my musical interests. This will not I think change dramatically in the near future, so it seems more appropriate than a blog. I have today published such a website, which will allow me to develop this blog as a way of remembering the sixties music which I remember with more than a little fondness.

You can see the new web-site now. Although it will expand a little as I record more of my older material (and perhaps even new material) or change as I make better recordings than I have available at present, It will stay essentially as a record of where I am now.

As for the songwriting, there are two articles on Squidoo which contain the essential information that I have to offer. There are many more song-writing blogs which can be accessed which are kept up to date in a way which I now find difficult. The two articles are:-

• How to write a song - a review of useful websites
• How to write a memorable song lyric

I hope you will find these article useful sources of information.

Song Writing Week

A week of tips and ideas for song writers and potential songwriters on MUSIC RADAR , the usual tips relate to the craft of songhwriting and often the theory behind it all (see some of my earlier posts). I thought that this blog would be about song writing but, well, you see ..... things got in the way.

However I have just found this great idea from Music Radar(.)com and it is well worth reading for any potential songwriter. The basis of the ideas is that if you can play, you can write. Certainly the musical side. The lyrics can look after themselves apparently.

40 ideas to write better songs, get those guitars out and start writing. Just very practical notions to get you producing more and better crackers. Give it a whirl and make it happen.

A related link to Total Guitar (April 2013 issue 240) suggests 50 ways to write better songs but after trying to read the mag on-line, I am totally confused.  Maybe you have to download the mag to read the article. But I haven't tried to do that yet.

There are a number of videos (5) which take the writer/guitarist through using standard chord progressions to form the basis for a new song. Nothing really new there however -in fact a little old hat since we should, as songwriters, be looking for something new. Of course that doesn't mean that an old and well used chord progression can't produce really wonderful songs.

A Songwriting Resource I would recommend

This post I just want to mention a great resource for songwriting,

Success for your songs dot com by Anthony Cesari is a great mine of information. By signing up to the site for free you get a free e-book, "How To Write A Song" which has a number of unique tips to get you out of a rut and into writing songs that zing.

Additionally you will receive a bi-weekly newsletter featuring new articlecs on the site. The site itself has an archive which is full of useful advice on the skill and business of songwriting and even recording your songs. A plus is that Anthony Cesari will usually give examples by referring to material on You tube so that you can see his advice in action.

Well worth a look and signing up. It is completely free for access to a great resource for songwriters. One of the best which I have come across. try it and see if you.

Just in case you wonder, I have no link with this site and recieve no benefits for recommending it to you. It won't guarantee a great song but it sure does help.