My just for fun, eclectic, musical adventures
Striving to be barely adequate
Exploring music
It was in the mid 1970’s that I first took up guitar along with a friend. A local Huddersfield music store was offering a package comprising an acoustic guitar and ten lessons bundled under the title of ‘Pay as you Play’. My friend Paul (RIP) and I continued learning after the lessons bundle, with a few months of private lessons.
We both bought electric guitars and amplifiers to support the rock and roll genre that we then favoured. That Parrot 50W combo amp did get to stand before an audience twice but only as an amplifier linked to a crude disco deck at a staff Christmas party!
Paul concentrated on melody, myself on rhythm. After a few months we took up a practice space in the attic space of the now long demolished ‘Fraternity Hall’ at the Huddersfield Town Centre Co-operative store. Then the reality check of recruiting a drummer and bass guitarist to join ‘The Rock Connection’ revealed that we had much to learn. Our timing was awful and we needed to work more on separation of the guitar parts.
Career promotions for us both soon brought that era to an end as we were then commuting from Huddersfield daily, Paul to Barnsley, myself to Pontefract.
Shortly after that I sold my electric guitar gear, to help fund a car purchase, and my musical journey came to a halt.
Life happens …
Three years later and in quick succession there followed career changes,culminating in a move from Retail Management to Information Systems development. I got married and we started our family 2 years later. In parallel I was building a detached garage and learning, new to me, computer programming languages. Life was really quite hectic but I occasionally picked up my original acoustic guitar.
In the 1990’s I decided to buy a Yamaha keyboard and I learnt a little right-hand melody with the left triggering auto-chords. My sons had started their own musical adventures with Kirklees Music School, so music learning had touched me again.
In 1994 I upgraded to a better Yamaha keyboard and then began to experiment with MIDI recording, using MSDOS Cakewalk software, but mainly I was still playing the keyboard using the auto-accompaniment functions and purely for relaxation.
Singing? Me? Really?
Musically so it remained until September 2009, when Gareth Malone appeared on TV in The Choir, encouraging men in South Oxley to sing. A bit of banter led to me challenging myself to give it a go too but with the safety net of exploring my voice first with a singing teacher.
I found Olivia Hyde Coaching by chance, in an online performing arts directory, and arranged that daunting first lesson. The aim was to prepare for an open rehearsal and a six-week trial with a local mixed voice choir, the Holme Valley Singers. A few lessons later found me feeling totally lost in the Baritone section, hardly daring to make a sound! This choir was friendly, welcoming and really good; far too good for this novice!
The trial ended but the lessons continued.
Along with those vocal lessons and workshops Olivia also enabled various performing challenges too leading to open mic appearances with fellow students and solo.
I was invited to attend the CSI:Halifax Christmas concert by a colleague who was already a member. This Halifax based community choir (now evolved to the Cartlon Community Choir), also inspired by Gareth Malone, had recently started under the direction of Lynn Meredith (nee Hudson). I readily joined this mixed voice choir in January 2010 and sang with them until July 2017, enjoying many landmark events during that time. I only moved on due to the frustrating and often challenging rush-hour commute back to Halifax after I retired and was no longer attending direct from the office.
Olivia had given me the confidence to sing, Lynn taught me how to sing in a choir.
My website is created with the hope of maintaining a scrapbook of my varied musical adventures, partly for my personal reference, hopefully to informing and encourage others adults to explore the rewarding world of participation in music. I came back to music in my mid 50’s but have since had lots of fun, risen to some daunting challenges and met lots of interesting people. A lovely distraction in a crazy world.