The King Is Dead

(Yes, I did promise a guide to passing Rockschool Grade 6-8 exams... but then this happened. Back to normal next month)

 On May 15^th the music world lost one of its true icons. The tuxedoed titan of the blues, Lucille's longtime and ever-faithful lover, the man whose elegance and humour was mirrored in his exquisite guitar playing – the one and only BB King is dead.

I'm not a particularly sentimental person, and I can't claim to suffer the grief that BB's family and friends must be suffering. But I must admit to shedding a tear for a truly great musician, and a truly inspirational man. So I think it's an appropriate tribute to examine BB's contributions and the musical legacy he left us with.

Born Riley B. King on September 16^th, 1925 in Mississipi, BB was largely raised by his maternal grandmother after his mother left his father for another man when he was just four years old. His first exposure to music seems to have come singing in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael, and at age 12 he acquired his first guitar (accounts vary as to whether he purchased it himself or was given it by blues guitarist Bukka White – White's mother and King's grandmother who was raising him were cousins). There are also stories of a very young Riley King nailing a string to the wall of his shack, nailing the other end into the ground to create tension and playing the string with a bottle as a slide.

In 1941, while working on a plantation aged 16, young Riley heard the new “King Biscuit Show” on local radio – a show dedictated to blues guitarists, and it was at that moment that his ambition crystallised. He took his next step in 1943, leaving the town of Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver, and got his first break playing with the Famous St Johns Quartet on local radio station WGRM in Greenwood, Mississipi. During this time, BB travelled and played locally in many towns around the area, before taking his next big step in 1947 – hitchiking to the capital of Southern music Memphis, Tennessee to join his cousin Bukka White.

This would lead in time to a 1948 performance on blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson's radio show on KWEM, and eventually blossomed into King's own show on WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, gaining the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy" – soon enough “Blues Boy” became BB and the legend that we know was born!

It was during his time at WDIA that BB met T-bone Walker, one of the very first electric blues players and fell in love with the electric guitar, declaring “I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. 'Had' to have one, short of stealing!"

BB was able to build on his success in radio to become a professional blues guitarist in 1949, working under contract to RPM records with his band, the BB King Review. Many of these early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who would go on to found Sun Records where many of the early recordings of rock & roll legends Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and many more.

RPM backed several tours across the USA in the early 1950's, and it was on one of these tours that the legend of Lucille was born.

Lucille

Lucille has had many forms throughout her life – most recently in the shape of the drop-dead gorgeous Gibson 335- derived signature model introduced in 1982. But her origins are a good deal more humble.

During his touring days, BB and his band would play many bars and juke joints across the southern USA. During one show at Twist, Arkansas, a fight broke out and started a fire which quickly spread throughout the building. BB, his band and most of the crowd escaped, only for BB to realise that his beloved $30 acoustic guitar was still inside! So he did what any self-respecting guitar player would do – he dove straight back in to the blazing building to retrieve it.

Later he would find out that the two men who started the fight had been brawling over a woman named Lucille – and both had died in the fire. King named his guitar Lucille to remind himself never to do anything as crazy again as fight over a woman or run into a blazing building.

For anything other than his guitar, that is.

In 1980 Gibson launched the BB King Lucille model based on the Gibson ES-355 hollow body guitar, the main difference being the lack of f-holes, and in 1999 was briefly joined by a Little Lucille model based on their now discontinued Blueshawk model (this model has largely been airbrushed from history by Gibson).

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King continued to record and perform during the 1950s. In 1956 his schedule including a record-breaking 342 shows, and still found time to form his own record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, based out of Beale Street, Memphis.

With the British Invasion of the 1960s, white blues artists such as Eric Clapton and Paul Butterfield brought blues to a new audience, crossing the racial divide, and many of these players were quick to give credit to their influences. The “Three Kings” (B.B., Freddie and Albert – none related) were given a massive boost by this new exposure, and B.B was booked as the opening act for the Rolling Stones tour in 1969, and in 1970 won a Grammy award for what would become one of his signature songs, “The Thrill Is Gone”.

Throughout the 1980s King maintained a vigorous touring and recording schedule, playing 300 dates a year, and in 1988 his profile was raised yet again when he collaborated with stadium giants U2 on the track “When Loves Come To Town” from the Rattle & Hum album. U2 Singer Bono described this as a humbling experience - “I gave it my all with that opening howl, but when BB took over I just felt like a little girl..”, and in 2000 he and Eric Clapton recorded “Riding with the King” which would garner another Grammy as “Best Traditional Blues Album”

Despite age and health problems, B.B kept up his schedule into the new century, rounding off his long career of international touring with a performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2011 and an emotional concert filmed at the Albert Hall featuring Ronnie Wood and Slash, among others. I caught this on Sky Arts in 2013 and the reverence, affection and respect for the now 86 year old B.B was palpable, and I strongly recommend any fan of guitar playing to check it out.

B.B continued to perform regularly, mostly in the domestic USA, until October 2014 at the House Of Blues in Chicago when he was forced to pull the gig due to health issues. Sadly, this would be his last performance as his diabetes forced his health into terminal decline. He would go into hospice care in May 2015, and on May 15^th, a series of small strokes caused by his diabetes took his life while he slept – and the world lost an icon. A man who took the blues from smoky, dirty deep South juke joints to playing in front of presidents and royalty, a true giant of a musician. The world is less for his passing.

BB's Style

BB King was the undisputed master of the right note in the right place. The late great Stevie Ray Vaughan once commented on a jam session - “..and he got up and played one note, and I died”. He was particularly noted for his instantly recognisable “butterfly” vibrato, achieved by pivoting his fingertip on the string while resting the knuckle joint against the neck of the guitar (for more discussion of vibrato techniques, see Zero Point Guitar).

He was also a master of elegantly blending minor and major pentatonics to great effect in “jump” blues tracks like “How Blue Can You Get?” - this effect is in large part due to his use of the “BB Box” pentatonic fingering. Those of you familiar with Progressive Guitar Training Vol. 1 will recognise this as the Trapezoid fingering – for example, in the key of A minor, this fingering places the root (A) under the first finger at the 10^th fret B string, the b3 ( C ) under the third or little finger at the 13th fret. The 4th ( D ) and 5^th (E) are easily accessible at the 10^th and 12^th frets on the top E string, and the b7 (G) sits within easy reach at the 12^th fret G. A high root note (in this key, the A on the 17^th fret top E string) is another B.B hallmark.

This fingering allows an easy switch to major pentatonic, as the 2^nd (B) is easily accessed at the 12^th fret under the third finger, allowing for a bend up to the major 3^rd (C#), and the 5^th can be bent up a tone to reach the 6^th (F#). B. B was adept at blending the “colours” of these intervals to effortlessly achieve sophisticated, jazzy sounds while keeping his phrasing natural and unforced.

B.B also possessed a stunning command of dynamics – listening to his recordings, you hear his band go from a whisper to a roar and back, following the nuances of his voice, and this is mirrored in the guitar playing. Check out the intro to “The Thrill Is Gone” - the opening B note leaps out of the mix at you, while the pentatonic phrase that follows is played with the utmost delicacy. The intro to “Outside Help” is a masterclass in dynamics, the band swelling behind Lucille as the phrases build in intensity before falling back to almost nothing as the vocals enter.

Interestingly, minimal though it is, B.B's phrasing can be hard to pin down and duplicate. Certainly, “The Thrill Is Gone” many phrases are on the opposite side of the beat to what you would expect – most player will drop in a couple of pick-up notes on the off beat, leading in to the “big” note on the downbeat. B.B doesn't bother with that, coming straight in on the downbeat and playing less than you think... but somehow manages to make it work without ever sounding amateurish.

This partly stems from his background as a vocalist – indeed, to the non-guitar fraternity, B.B was a singer who played guitar. By his own admission, he never got a grip on playing chords, so would use single note lines as a counterpoint to his vocals. This meant he was more influenced by the phrasing used by singers more than by other guitar players (aside from anything else, in the 1940s and early 1950s, there was far less guitar music around to learn from – B.B and his contemporaries set the template that the subsequent generations would follow and build on). Indeed, B.B described his own style as being heavily vocal-influenced: “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.”

B.B's Legacy

When the world lost BB King, we lost one of the music world's few remaining connections to the birth of electric blues. And it's safe to say, without the blues there would have been no rock & roll, no Rolling Stones, Hendrix or Cream... rock and pop music would sound very different today.

So much of the music we take for granted now has its roots in the sharecropper's huts where musicians like B.B, Freddie and Albert King, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker and more grew up. The electric guitar is a comparatively young instrument, but it's effect on music has been out of all proportion to it's lifespan – and the musician's of B.B's generation are the last ones who were in at the beginning and defined its sounds and expressive qualities. As guitar players, we should realise that these musicians are our roots, and created so much of what we have now. Moments like this are times to reflect on what these men gave us, go back and revisit their old recordings from when music was new and changing and no-one knew what this incredible brand-new instrument could or couldn't do, and to learn from them. Sit down with your iPod and modelling amp and pick out a few of the King's greatest licks from his earliest recordings when it was all new. There is no better way to honour him.

How to Pass Your Rockschool Exam - Grades 1-5

As spring becomes summer, we pass into the most popular time of the year for students to sit their grade exams. The two major accredited exam bodies in the UK are the Registry of Guitar Tutors and Rockschool (a subsidiary of the long established and highly reputable Trinity Music), and each have a slightly different approach and format for their exams. Over the next few months, I'm going to give you a guide to how to ensure the best results possible as someone who's been on both sides of the examiner's desk.

We'll start with Rockschool. From Grades 1 – 5, their exams funtion in a pretty similar way:

Technical exercises – these feature scales, arpeggios and so on.

Pieces – three chosen from a possible six in the grade book.

Aural (ear training) – this is divided into “Melodic Recall” and “Rhythmic Recall” sections, essentially hearing and reproducing a melody and a rhythm. At higher grades, the rhythmic recall also includes a harmonic element, ie recognising and reproducing chord sequences.

Sight reading / Improvisation and Interpretation – you have the option of choosing either one. Sight reading involves sight reading a passage of tab after 90 seconds of study, Improvisation and Interpretation means coming up with a rhythm and/or lead part based on a chord sheet after 30 seconds of study.

General Musicianship Questions – questions about music theory and instrumental knowledge.

Firstly, some general pointers:

Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail:

Before the exam:

Often, the logistical element is the hardest – simply finding your exam centre and getting there can be the most stressful part (this also goes for the examiners, by the way!). Prepare ahead of time – Google the venue, get a postcode, Googlemap a route (even if you have satnav, it's duty bound to seize up on you at an inopportune moment, or failing that it simply won't recognise the address.. I speak from bitter experience!). Driving? Check parking. It may be simpler and less stressful to get a train or bus. For example, one of the Leicester exam centres is located at Sheehans music shop, a short walk from Leicester train station but in the middle of town with VERY limited parking.

Aim to arrive 15-20 minutes beforehand. This will give you plenty of time to get lost, parked, whatever and still be on time, and time to sit, warm up and focus on slowing your breathing and metabolism after a possibly stressful journey. Clear your mind and limber up your fingers. To play your best, just be in the moment. All you're doing is playing three songs and some scales.

In the exam:

The examiner will ask you what order you would like to do things – pieces or technical exercises first. I recommend doing your technical exercises first.

Something I have seen all too often is students not knowing their technical stuff at all and just flubbing their way through it. I get it – scales and arpeggios are boring and unglamorous.

Tough. You want the grade? You learn the technicals.

To aid this part of the exam, I advise being imaginative in your practicing. Don't just plod up and down the scales. Sequence them. Play them in thirds, fourths, octaves. Use them to improvise. If you're putting in the time to learn these things, learn them – they'll stay with you far after you've done your exam.

Do this part right, and it's fifteen easy marks, setting yourself up nice and confidently for an excellent performance of the pieces. Bluff your way through it, and bang goes any chance of a distinction, you'll be fighting for a pass and your confidence will be in the dirt. Is that really what you put in all this effort for?

Moving onto the pieces themselves, these should be prepared to the point where you don't need to be reading them. No one ever gave their best performance while they were glued to the page. Listen to your pieces in the car, on the bus, while hoovering – really internalise them. There's a big difference between hearing a candidate play the music and one who is just playing the notes.

Aural – the most important thing here is play something. Playing nothing is going to get you zero marks, end of story. If you don't know, just have a guess. The scale and key of the notes are given, so hum the melody, hum the rhythm to yourself and just stick notes from the specified scale onto that rhythm. You're at least going to get points for following the shape and contour of the melody.

Sight reading – the enemy here is panic. 90 seconds, you say? Oh no!!

Relax. 90 seconds is a surprisingly long time. The panic is caused by information overload. We fight that by splitting the information down into three groups and prioritising them:

1. Rhythm. Tap the rhythms out in one or two bar groups before putting it all together.
2. Pitch. This is fairly straightforward as the notes are tabbed out for you. Having already figured out the rhythmic framework, it's easy to flesh out with the notes.
3. Dynamics. Loud (f) and soft (p). hese are the icing on the cake. Nice if you can get them, not something to worry about if you can't,

General Musicianship Questions – nothing too scary here. Generally examiners will ask you which piece is your favourite and focus on elements like key, time signature, individiual notes and rhythms. Be prepared to answer any questions on the theoretical aspects of what was in the technical section too. If your teacher is worth his/ her salt, they'll have already gone over these with you. The last couple of questions are usually general instrument knowledge, so it's worth Googling or Wiki-ing a few prominent guitar or bass makes and models – Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, Marshall and so on. This isn't usually too much of an issue for us guitar players, as we tend to be gearheads anyway...

...And that's it! Even at Grade 5, the whole thing is done and dusted in about half an hour. Don't overthink, don't obsess about things – check out the articles on dealing with nerves:

http://jmguitartuition.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/dealing-with-nerves-pt-1-breathing.html

http://jmguitartuition.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/dealing-with-nerves-pt-2-mental.html

http://jmguitartuition.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/dealing-with-nerves-pt-3-cognitive.html

Check back next month for tips on how to deal with the higher grade exams.

Lively Up Yourself

Spring has sprung (BOING! Sorry – had to be done..) and as the sun starts to peek shyly from behind the clouds, guitar players of all shapes and sizes are yawning, stretching and gradually shaking themselves awake from their winter hibernation.

It's around this time of year that my younglings who started back in the autumn are now starting to get on top of the fundamentals of strumming chords, songs and so on, and as such this is the time when we start to try and hone the rhythmic sensibilities. And there's no better way of doing this than breaking out the Bob Marley CD's and tackling a bit of reggae.

Why reggae? Fair question – it's not an obvious style of music to throw at beginner guitar players. Simply put, for guitar players reggae is all about the “and” - the up- or off- beat. Learning to feel the off beat is a crucial skill, something that many guitar players bypass, because.. well, because reggae may not have any obvious connection to the type of music they want to play. If you're into rock, or metal, or blues... what does reggae have to do with any of that?

Simple. EVERYTHING uses the off beat – look at any rock rhythm part. How often do you hear something that is just solely on the downbeat? Pretty much all music uses rhythms that mix up the down and up beats, so being able to use the up beat is critical to mastering rhythm. A perfect example is the Kings Of Leon mega-hit, “Sex On Fire” - the verse rhythm part is all on the off beat. Switch it around and play it on the downbeat – as so many young bands are wont to do – and it just doesn't work. All the life and the energy is gone. AC/DC are another fantastic example of this – songs like “Highway To Hell” or “You Shook Me All Night Long” have great catchy rhythm parts that involve heavy use of the off beat. If you're going to play this sort of stuff and play it properly, spending some time focusing on just the off beat is essential.

I first realised this a few years ago with a student who was struggling to play Megadeth's classic “Symphony Of Destruction” - for those of you unfamiliar with the track, it's a relatively sparse rhythm part, but makes heavy use of (you guessed it) the off beat. This student could play the powerchords and riff without a problem, but could not get the timing. So I uttered the immortal line “trust me, I'm a guitar teacher” and off we went to learn “No Woman No Cry”. By the following week he was nailing the Megadeth riff, all timing problems solved.

So regardless of the style you want to play, it benefits all guitar players to immerse themselves in reggae for at least a little while – let's be honest, being a guitarist means playing rhythm at least 75% of the time, so it pays to be able to do it well. And to be honest, once you get into it, reggae is enormous fun to play- being able to sit in that off beat groove and feel the whole band “bounce” along is really quite addictive. So try it – this month, pick yourself a bunch of reggae classics and go for it. There's a huge amount to be learnt in terms of rhythm, chord voicings – all material that you can transfer across into what ever style you play.

What Batman Taught Me About Playing Guitar

      Yes, I admit this does seem like the kind of title that suggests I'm writing this at 4am having downed three pints of coffee, but bear with me.
 

      So “The Dark Knight” was on over Christmas and after having “been meaning to watch that” since 2008, I finally saw it. I actually had the good fortune to visit Chicago in 2008 not long after they'd filmed the movie there, so it was extra fun picking out the bits of the city I recognised. Anyway, a bad habit of mine is IMDb'ing or Wikipedia-ing movies as I'm watching them, and I came across an interesting article on the martial arts training that Batman himself, played by Christian Bale, went through.
 

       Director Christopher Nolan specified that he wanted Batman to have a realistic and brutal fighting style, no showboating martial arts moves, so he settled on a technique called the Keysi Fighting Method. This is a simple but brutally effective method derived from streetfights amongst Spanish gypsys and has a great deal in common with the Israeli Krav Maga fighting method which is used by many special forces and law enforcement units. These methods eschew flourishes and showy martial arts sequences in favour of simple, quick, and brutal movements that come out of the body's natural reflexive movements. Bruce Lee took a similar approach, stating that it was better to have one or two moves that you could perfect and rely on than a whole host of techniques which clogged the mind and stop you reacting quickly.
 

        I think you can see where this is going.
 

      As a guitar teacher, I've had many students ask me to teach them complex techniques like multi finger tapping or sweep picking. My initial reaction always used to be no problem, let's get stuck into a raft of technical exercises – filling the fingers and mind with technical information. However, just learning technique like this, in a vacuum, is not effective in terms of making you a better guitar player.
 

      My reaction now is to ask the student why he or she wants to learn these techniques, what they are hoping to achieve musically with them. Many times, it's a better approach to look at the licks and phrases you already play naturally – following the body's natural reflexive moves – and look to see how you can develop these phrases, perhaps by adding new ideas like tapped or swept notes to pentatonic phrases that you already use instinctively rather than trying to shoehorn unwieldy arpeggio ideas into a playing style that doesn't suit it. This way, your style will grow organically to incorporate these ideas in a musical, rather than contrived way.

        It seemed to work for Bruce Wayne.

How To Survive Valentine's Day/ Tips On Writing A Love Song

February has dawned, and with it that most artificial and Hallmark of holidays – Valentine's Day. Now, rather than get into a rant about how this day has been co-opted by greetings cards firms and marketing departments and turned into a stress-filled, chocolate covered rose-tinted nightmare, I thought I'd try and provide something useful and interesting for my readers (Hello, Dave. Hello, Keith.)

If you're reading my blog, chances are you're a guitar player or at the very least a musician of some sort. And if you're a musician, chances are you're probably skint.

So, what to do when Valentine's Day comes a-calling and you can't afford fancy restaurants or jewellery? Well, you justify all that expensive equipment you blew all your money on by writing your significant other a love song, of course!

Now, in an earlier blog post I tok a brief look at some of the common elements that make Christmas songs sound the way they do (http://www.jmguitartuition.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/what-makes-christmas-song.html) – so let's see if we can't examine one or two classic love songs to learn a trick or two.

Firstly, let's look at some rhythmic elements. Most love songs/ ballads tend to be slow and mellow in tempo, to induce a relaxed feeling in the listener and put them in a more receptive frame of mind. In terms of time signatures, good old 4/4 is of course the favourite, but don't overlook compound time signatures like 12/8 or 6/8 (think REM's classic “Everybody Hurts” - not exactly a love song, but a classic ballad nonetheless). There does seem to be something about the gently rocking triplet feel of these time signatures that we find soothing at a very fundamental level – perhaps recalling the motion of being rocked to sleep in a cradle as a baby.

Moving to look at harmony, most love songs revolve around standard diatonic progressions, particularly favouring the I, IV, V and vi chords. Think “You're Beautiful” by James Blunt, or “No One” by Alicia Keys – both standard I-V-vi-IV sequences, with the “thoughtful” nature of these sequences accentuated by a relaxed tempo and the use of a 1^st inversion in the V chord to create a descending motion (C-G/B-Am). For a dramatic middle 8 or bridge, a common device is using a major III chord (think of the F# in the bridge of Everybody Hurts”) to create a sense of tension and often implying a key change. Many classic ballads (think “Parisienne Walkways” or “Still Got The Blues”) also use the cycle of fourths chord sequence.

In terms of melody, a great way to bring out the emotional centre of a chord is to target it's third with the melody. This accentuates the major or minor nature of the chord, and melodies that leap in thirds and fifths tend to be very pleasing to the ear. The old trick of jumping registers to really push the dramatic big chorus is very prevalent in this style of music - think of the huge note that starts the chorus of “I Will Always Love You”.

Dynamically, most love songs tend to follow the quiet verse/ big chorus template, but many continue to build throughout the song. It's also interesting to look at some of the textures and instruments that are favoured – guitar tones tend to be clean (Strat in between pickup positions, maybe a little chorus and delay) or often acoustic. Nylon strings are popular in this style, giving an air of sophistication (“I bring thees geetar all the way from Spain because I luff you so”).

Piano is a popular texture too, it's resonance and depth fitting this style perfectly – certainly balladeers such as Lionel Richie and modern day equivalents by musicians like Bruno Mars make much of the piano's full sound. Strings in pad form and as countermelodies, motifs and hooks are all hallmarks of the classic love songs too, building to an impassioned conclusion as the torured songwriter bares his/ her soul to the listener and leaving not a dry eye in the house.

So – out of cash this Valentine's? Boot up GarageBand and get cracking!

New Year's Resolutions 2015

Happy New Year everyone! 2015 is upon us – as everyone who grewup with the “Back To The Future” franchise knows, this is the year we were promised flying cars and a hoverboard in every home. Instead we just have this rubbishy thing called the Internet, where we can read articles composed entirely of light that whine about how we don't have hoverboards and flying cars yet. And smartphones which allow us to access basically all of the combined knowledge of two thousand-odd years of human history in the palm of our hand, as well as letting us share really cute pictures of cats...

Anyway, new year means a chance to regroup and refocus on your musical goals for the year. Most people stumble and slow their progress because they get distracted and try and move in too many different, disparate directions at once. Result – they get nowhere, and they get frustrated. And with the frustration comes a decrease in motivation, and then we're into the vicious cycle of decreasing returns leading to decreasing effort.

So, let's take the opportunity afforded us by the new year to define three musical goals – no more, no less - to have fulfilled by the end of this year. For some of you, that will be grades – Rockschool's excellent syllabus has pivotal points at grades 3, 5 and 8, and preparing for these exams will improve your core skills no end.

For some, it could be mastering a new technique – slide guitar, hybrid picking, or those faithful shred standbys tapping and sweep picking. Perhaps your interests may lie more in the theoretical or compositional fields – understanding “jazz” extended chords, learning to read music, learning to work in odd time signatures. Frankly, after the exceptional level of compositional talent that everyone involved with the Winterwonderland2014 (www.facebook.com/winterwonderlandcharityalbum) demonstrated, I'd like to see some of you writing your own solo albums this year!

One thing that I think everyone should include in this year's resolution list, though, is to simply sound better. To this end, try focusing in on the details of exactly how you play your regular chords, licks and phrases – fret and pick hand pressure, angles of grip (making sure you're not inadvertantly bending strings while playing chords, for example), muting from both hands to minimise string noise and of course focusing on an even, rhythmic and controlled vibrato. I've covered all of these aspects before in various blog posts, but these are the minutiae that often get overlooked in the quest for more speed, flashier licks and so on. Mastering these details – stripping your technique back to basics and really focusing on the fundamentals – can make you sound far smoother, cleaner and more fluid without having to spend anything at all!

To this end, let me give you an example of how I approach this in my own practice routine. Once a week I set an afternoon aside for band material, setting iTunes on Shuffle and seeing what comes up. I then make a point of playing the solo, or any “spotlight” guitar part, as slowly as possible. This challenges me to control each note for as long as possible, ekeing the maximum emotion and drama from each note and projecting it with as much passion as possible. It's a great way of getting back in touch with the musicality of the solo, rather than simply stringing together a bunch of licks and finger motions. Try it, you might surprise yourself!

Good luck, and happy 2015 to each one of you :-)

Winter Wonderland 2014 - Review

Well, we did it. Eighteen tracks, spanning pretty much every genre of music from blues to orchestral to BanjoCore Operatic Metal ™ (yes, that is a real thing – well, it is now, anyway), topped off with a storming show at The Shed on Friday 12^th featuring a mightily impressive range of young talent.

First things first, I'd like to thank and congratulate everyone involved – the standard this year really has been phenomenal, and we've had contributions from some fantastic guest artists:

Dave The Rock Band (www.thedave.co.uk) – Because Of You (Matt Chubb/ James Martin)

Oisin George – Robot Love Story

Richard Clift & Matt Chubb – Get The Better Of You

The Bench That Rocked (www.facebook.com/TheBenchThatRocked) – Not For You (Billy

Chamberlain/ Luke “Harold” Billingham)

Ben Hooper & Wayne Cooper – Christmas For Everyone

Boo & Abi Littlewood – Christmas Song

Mr Meaner (www.facebook.com/mrmeaneruk) – All For You

Ghostshift featuring Blaze Bayley (https://www.facebook.com/Ghostshift) – Short Days Ago

Molly Lee & Charlotte Bond – Run Away With Me

A Short Dark Stranger (https://www.ashortdarkstranger.co.uk ) - I'm A Fool (For Fancying You)

Jonezy feat. Alexandru (https://www.facebook.com/jonezymusicuk) – Journey Together

Matt Humphries – Watch Me Burn

Ollie Blount & Leah Govier – Blue Christmas

Aled Horler – Guiding Star

Tracks & Field – Done

Ellie Marlow & Charlotte Bond – Straight From Your Heart

Tom Matthews – Flawless

Billy Edwards & Amanda Williams – Crazy Lies

Artwork donated by Annemarie Hughes – http://www.annmariehughes.net/


The album is now available to buy on Bandcamp: http://leicestershiremusiccollective.bandcamp.com/album/winter-wonderland-2014

On top of that, I'd also like to extend special thanks to Elisabeth Barker-Carley for organising the show and securing us a venue, and to the vocal legend (and tireless behind-the-scenes-promoter) that is Matt Chubb, without whom this would absolutely not have been possible.

Already we've managed to raise over £130 for UNICEF which is a terrific start for this project – so everyone who's been involved with this project should be feeling extremely proud of themselves.

As for the show itself, The Bench That Rocked dropped many a jaw in the audience – the boys have come a long, long way since the days of “Smoke On The Water” along one string and it was great to see them having matured into terrific musicians. Jonezy provided a typically energetic set, getting the crowd to their feet – it takes a hell of a lot of guts to do what he does. Matt Humphries was sensational and inspirational in equal doses – one voice, one guitar, one loop pedal and a huge dose of talent.

Dave The Rock Band then took our place as house band, and first up was Wayne Cooper singer “Christmas for Everyone” - the music for this was written at the end of last year, just missing the cut for 2013's “Songs For Syria” project, but Ben Hooper had knocked together a great song with some superb playing and Wayne provided excellent melody line, lyrics and vocal performance. Next up, Tom Matthews (12) who had written both music and lyrics for his song “Flawless” with Matt putting in a superb vocal. Ellie Marlow (14) followed with her sultry blues tune “Straight From Your Heart, well and truly conquering her nerves to pull off a gutsy and assured performance on keyboards. Finally, Billy Edwards (12) did a storming job with his rock number “Crazy Lies”, laying down his guitar solo like an absolute pro – fantastic!

All that remained was to see the evening out with Dave The Rock Band laying down the grooves to take us through til the end of a very successful evening.

So what can we take away from this? Well, I've already stated my goal – 1000 copies, £5000 for UNICEF. Maybe we'll hit it, maybe we won't – we've all done everything we can to produce something genuinely good and to promote it too. But what we can say without doubt is that the next generation of real, raw talent is not to be found on X-Factor or The Voice. It's right here, at the end of your street or playing in your local pub. Go out and find it, and get inspired.

Oh, and happy Christmas everyone – here's to 2015!