AWC Guitar

With the last couple of years being an absolute horror show with much change, I think a quick update is in order.

Tuition

I have a new day job working for Surrey Arts managing instrumental tuition in schools in the Waverley and Mole Valley districts. This involves quite a lot of stuff during the week, so in the interests of work / life balance I am now only offering a limited number of lesson slots on Saturday mornings only. Visit the contact page to view availability.

Instruments offered

I am offering tuition on the following instruments. I always have done, but realise I haven’t made it as clear as I could have!

Online, In-person or Blended

I am very happy to teach in any way that suits you, whether that’s in-person or online. It’s worth thinking about the advantages of a blended structure, too. This means alternating between the two formats to get the best of both worlds: think of the online lessons as “input” where I show you a concept, share the resources and set the “work”. We then come together in-person to play in real time and workshop the songs or ideas you have worked on in a practical way. Get in touch if you’d like to explore this, it can work really well.

I work a lot with a very talented singer called Penny Fazackerley (click on her name to find out more about what she does) and we made this video of a song she wrote.  The story is kind of fun: almost a decade ago she posted on Twitter that she wanted to write a song but didn’t have a title.  I suggested Tambourine Love, for no reason at all.  So she wrote the song.  Skip forward to Lockdown 2020 and she performed it on her YouTube channel.  I then thought it would be fun to get a bunch of our friends together and do what every musician is currently doing – make an online collaborative video.  Good excuse to learn the basics of Final Cut Pro, too…  Below is the original, and then the final “produced” video.  It was really fun to do, so I hope you enjoy it!

Finshed Video – feat. Jon Wills (drums), Peter Falconer (piano and keyboards), Dan Gaylard (bass).

Original Demo

Seeing as I can’t leave the house, I thought I’d do something productive that might help other people who can’t leave the house.  In particular those with young kids who are stuck at home trying to find things to occupy them.  So…

I’ve set out and recorded 10 lessons for kids who might want to play Ukulele.  The idea is that with a little bit of parental help they’ll have something to practice, which might buy you a few minutes a day.  As well as the obvious musical benefits, of course.

There it is.  10 lessons to work through at your own pace, with full backing tracks and videos to play along with.  No prior knowledge or ability required!

Click here to head straight there and start learning!

In this excersise you’ll learn a sequence that takes you through every major and minor triad, starting on D major and only changing one note at a time.  Then, in the second video a study based on this concept.  Click here for a bit more detail, it’s under Neo Riemannian Theory.  First example TAB: AC03

Once you’ve done that you can try this next one, which is a more musical study based on the same idea of navigating through all 24 maj and min triads in sequence.  Second example TAB: AC04

I feel like I should be making more effort with this, here’s an update for the sake of it!

Was recently asked to be part of a production of Evita at The Prince’s Hall, Aldershot. Would have been very easy to turn it down with all the teaching and other stuff going on, but I decided not to. Really glad I did it, it was great fun and I really enjoyed blowing the cobwebs off my reading chops! Great cast and band, too.

Assorted photo evidence:

Other than that, I’m still keeping busy with FRiSK and Tzigauners and am hoping to record some more music this year, because it’s been far too long.

And, I’ve started learning Norwegian. No reason, just need something else for my brain to do…

FRiSK, performing (last night) at Lains Barn (Wantage). The song is called S.O.B but I can’t remember who it’s by:

Some photos from our recent outing at LeQucumbar, Battersea. It’s a great venue that specialises in Gypsy swing, so it was great to play there. Cool vibe!

The band featured, me (obvs); Tom Williams (gtr); Dan Gaylard (bass) and Phoebe Gorry (vox).

Hopefully we’ll get down there again soon!