TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

hay Maart,
do you practice on your own at home? and how long do you practice for?
how many instruments do you play and what are they??
Olly,

Hai Olly

Happy New Year.

I tend to play along with the TV.  It's a good way of finding out how tunes are put together and how harmonies are put together.  It doesn't have to be a music programme, there's some great incidental music on TV dramas, e.g. the one starting on Wednesday - Distant Shores - which I am involved with.  As a side man, you have to be aware of music of every type and genre and where else is there to find music of such a broad spread as on the TV?  A good way of finding out what works is to play along with adverts as they have to get their message across in 29 seconds.  The one that is driving me crazy at the moment is the DFS advert - a song which was a hit for Katie Melua, the singer in Mike Batt's new band, 'Nearest Thing to Crazy'.  Whenever it comes on I put my hands over my ears and make strange noises to block it out.  Jan says it's like when you've left the phone off the hook for too long and you get that siren sound.

To answer your question, all you need is ten minutes every day with NO distractions and that should keep you trim.  Sometimes, however, if I am not working for a few weeks and I get into other things like staring at the beauty of the paradise where I live, I feel the need to do some serious woodshedding.  So, I turn to J S Bach or Robert Fripp (King Crimson) because that stuff really stretches your brain, your hands and your imagination.  I am contemplating putting an acoustic bouzouki version of 'Discipline' on my next album.  You can find  Robert Fripp's music online if you look.  Beware, you need to be able to read music.  If you don't read music, then I can thoroughly recommend Dave Stewart's excellent tome 'The Musician's Guide to Reading and Writing Music' published by Miller Freeman Books isbn 0-87930-570-3.

I play anything with strings on, not so much the violin, viola and cello.  I do play the double bass because I studied it at music college but it is the only bowed instrument that I do play.  I have played it on many albums and, most recently with Yusuf Islam who used to be Cat Stevens (before your time).  I feel that my main instrument is the fretless bass guitar and I've been playing the same one since 1978 (before your time!) which was made for me by Rob Armstrong from Coventry.  It's been described as my third arm and we are old friends.  I always say hello and goodnight when I get it out and put it back in its case.

I played lead guitar with Fairport for eleven years, having never done it in public before, but now I feel confident to list this as my second instrument.  I also play the mandolin family instruments and the four string banjo.  I can get a tune out of most things but I reckon that with anything with strings or frets, if you can play one you can play them all.  It's just like using a different guitar tuning.

I also had to learn keyboards once I was asked to join Jethro Tull.  I knew where C major was but I had never learned to play them.  I was thrown in at the deep end and, luckily for me, at the right time because at the end of the 80s I was able to move from being a guitar-head luddite to embracing technology.  As a result of this, I got loads of work on the keyboards and introduced the 'big sound' into Fairport Convention, e.g. The Wounded Whale.

Maart

Thanks
olly :)

That was a good description of your practice habits, Maart!

It brings up another question:  Do you feel there's a need to know how to read music to learn to play guitar properly?   

Practicing to Fripp?   That's heavy!  :D 

You don't have to learn to read music to play the guitar. Look at Jimi Hendrix for example. However I feel that there is so much great music out there in printed form that it's definitely in your interests. As I said, there's Dave Stewart's excellent book which is very funny. It worked for Chris Leslie! Chris said it was the only book that made him feel good about learning to read and write music. If you're looking for new jigs/reels/hornpipes etc then it's pretty much essential that you can read music. The same with researching folksongs. Also being able to write down your ideas anywhere beats even getting out the laptop for speed and convenience. Once you get the hang of it there's nothing to it. I've been able to read music now for a lot longer than I wasn't able. There's a very interesting letter on this topic in the new edition of Guitarist magazine, which incidentally is also essential reading if you're into the guitar. The reader realised that there was More Than This, so he learned to read music and is thrilled to bits with it. Recommended.

Maart

Thank you for the info, Maart!

By coincidence, I asked Martin Barre the same question and he said, "Look at Hendrix".  Great minds, eh?  ;)

I'm going to check out the Dave Stewart book, sounds absolutely inspirational!

Annette