Category: Music

A new songwriting adventure arising from a challenge by one of my Guitar tutors to write a new song using Open G Guitar Tuning.

‘Charge Me Up’ is based upon my personal early experience of owning my first EV and the associated tools used for charging the car at home and on-the-road. Or is it?

I have approached writing this song using parallel activities reflecting the need to explore the Open G tuned guitar for chord choices and rhythms. Alongside that I have been writing lyrics and trying out various EZDrummer drum kits / grooves and mixes.

Lyric writing for vocals, vocal styles and guitar solos are also being explored.

I am capturing ideas in Guitar Pro 8 tab, text documents and audio recordings as I progress.

Because of these exciting new challenges this creation will take longer to complete than normal.

Following on from our first two concerts of 2026 ( Sing into Spring and Marsden Cuckoo Festival) we’ve continued work on the ‘Decade of Soul’ songs but added new items to the repertoire for our forthcoming gigs.

First up we’re singing outdoors at the impressive Nexus building, at Leeds University, on the 26th June in support of a Social Impact conference.

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The following day (27/06/26) the choir returns to Honley Show. I had planned to attend this event last year but it didn’t work out so this will be a first for me. It’s also my first time visiting Honley Show since it moved venue to Farnley Tyas.

Repertoire for these events to be finalised but we can be sure of some great songs!

As my familiarisation with Open G tuning continued I shared a few bars of a learning piece, Alter Bridge’s ‘Watch Over You’, to the Kirklees Guitar School’s Facebook page’s #FeedbackFriday feature. In amongst some encouraging comments James Kuhnel, the principal, laid down the gauntlet, challenging me to write an original song using the Open G tuning.

At first I considered reworking an existing song but I decided to write a new song. This new song is based upon my experience of owning my first EV car and the interaction with associated tools on the smartphone.

I’m writing lyrics first whilst exploring some chord progressions, chord fingerings and embellishments and guitar tones. Although using Open G tunings I’m actually writing in the Key of D Major as it provides a good fit for this tuning.

I expect this to be a pop rock song with influences drawn from Alter Bridge, The Rolling Stones and Emeli Sandé.

The Soul Choir’s second gig of 2026 sees a return to perform at St Bartholomew’s Church as part of the annual Marsden Cuckoo Festival

This year we have been working on songs from a decade of Soul – the 1960s.

Really looking forward to singing some true classics from the likes of Carole King, The Supremes, Otis Redding, Toot & The Mayals and Aretha Franklin.

The church has great acoustics too.

Another uplifting concert where we reunited with the youngsters from the True Talent choir and The Huddersfield Community Gospel Choir .

What a great audience too, a full house and they were really supportive and joining in.

Overall great singing and atmosphere to cheer us on a grey and wet day.

What a good do!

Last year I purchased a JET JS-400 Double Cut guitar. It has been such a pleasure to play and has really given my guitar learning a boost.

A while back I started learning some songs where the guitar was in Open G tuning. Colloquially known as ‘Keith Tuning’ because of widespread usage by Keith Richards on Rolling Stones songs.

Unsurprisingly then I started with ‘Start Me Up’, using my sons old Peavey Guitar permanently tuned to Open G. Sadly when that guitar broke my Open G learning paused.

This year I decided to purchase a JET JT350 Single Cut guitar and put it into Open G and restart my learning. This guitar also has a humbucker neck pickup as often used by Keith Richards rather than the single coil assocaited with many Teleasters. Naturally I am restarting learning with ‘Start Me Up’ and for variety adding ‘Watch Over You’ by Alter Bridge to my learning.

Serendipity brought together a Kirklees Guitar School Lesson with the well-loved Soul Choir set-list item Otis Redding’s ‘Sittin’ On The Dock of The Bay’. Too good to miss the opportunity to learn the song and try producing a cover. Today I worked on a Drum Track and then the Intro and Verse 1 Bass and Rhythm guitars.

Now paying attention to the rework of my original song, ‘The Back Catalogue’ with the addition of the Acoustic Guitar track in the bridge section.

Next up is finishing the drum track and the intro before adding vocals.

My goodbye

Last Sunday I participated for my final time in the Mrs Sunderland Adult Choral Workshop.

Led again by Thom Meredith we spent the day learning famous songs from Stage and Screen and then sang them in concert in the evening.

Once again we are supported by the excellent Musica Youth Orchestra and Chris Pulleyn on Piano along with soloists.

My musical activities have now taken me in new directions this will be my last workshop. I started with the amazing ‘Armed Man’ performance in the inaugural 2016 adult workshop. I braved ‘Popular Opera’ in 2018 and the ‘Proms Favourites’ in 2020 just before the Covid19 pandemic. This year was my first opportunity to participate since I returned to singing.

Since Christmas my focus has changed back to the rework of my original songs. I started work on 2010 song, ‘Sign on Again’, looking at the song dynamics, guitar chord voicings and alternate rhythm.

However my focus shifted to my 2016 song ‘The Back Catalogue’ which I felt lent itself to a retro, 1960’s feel influenced by my encounters with that era at Soul Choir and indeed via ‘Sing Pop’ song choices like ‘The Night’.  After experimenting I was drawn towards  an offbeat rhythm over a 60’s drum pattern. So I sought feedback from my guitar tutor at Kirklees Guitar School and he suggested a more committed approach to that feel. So that’s what I’m now working on. He also felt that my bridge, a classic middle eight’ was too short or at least didn’t end well. I decided to move to a 12 bar bridge by adding a four bar solo derived from the relative minor’s pentatonic scales.

In parallel I continue to work on my guitar playing via a mix of scales and working on ‘Wonderful Land’ by The Shadows.

For the sake of diversity I also uncovered the Sax, cleaned it, found a new reed and gently started the task of getting back to where I left off two years ago. I managed to play the warm-up piece, ‘Senua Dedende’ from memory so I’m now back to gently working through an arrangement of Christina Perri’s ‘A Thousand Years’ and The Beatles ‘She’s Leaving Home’ to a backing tracks a few bars at a time.

In time I will hit a brick wall as the Sax is actually broken, with some keys unplayable. I will need to get it repaired at some point.

I think that a couple of sessions a week will not detract too much from progress on the guitar so I shall give that a try.

Meanwhile the new season with Soul Choir has seen us commence rehearsal of ‘A Decade of Soul – The 1960’s’ with a concert planned for the 29th March. We will again join up with Huddersfield Gospel Choir and the youngsters from True Talent Performing Arts School.

In the lead up to Christmas James Kuhel of Kirklees Guitar School has been running his  annual ‘Riffmas’ competition.  James provides a YouTube lesson and guitar tab PDF for a famous guitar riff.  Facebook group members then submit clips of themselves attempting to play the riff. Each video clip that we share to the group earns one entry into a draw, this year to win a carbon fibre travel guitar or one of two guitar pedals. As I’m trying to learn some lead guitar I decided to give it a go, even though the chosen riffs are outside my normal musical tastes, some massively so! None are from songs that I have ever played, sung or aspired toward.

However doing so created learning opportunities in both guitar technique and the use of my amp / effects pedal settings,  trying to achieve a sound at least  similar to the original. Some of my attempts have been more successful than others!

The riffs than I have attempted are:

Riff No.	Song & Artist
1	Do I Wanna Know – Artic Monkeys
2	Message In a Bottle – The Police
3	My Sharona – The Knack
4	Enter Sandman – Metallica
5	Roadhouse Blues – The Doors
6	Black Night – Deep Purple
7	La Grange – ZZTop
8	TNT – AC/DC

With a few non-musical activities behind me for a short while, its back to guitar practice but  this time with some accompanying vocals. 

Through November and December I have been paying attention to learning / rehearsing five songs, trying develop two guitar skills and also learning how-to-use two items of equipment.

The five songs that I have been working on are covers of:

1. Only You by Yazoo – my guitar arrangement with a Guitar Phaser effect. Completed;
2. Just One Look by Doris Troy / The Hollies. Completed;
3. Time of Your Life – Greenday – My relearning challenge;
4. Wonderful Land – The Shadows (Instrumental).
5. Demons – Imagine Dragons – A song that I sand with The Awesome Choir Of Rock.

The two guitar skills I’m focusing upon are:

1. Vibrato – by hand and with tremolo arm  – for ‘Only You’ and ‘Wonderful Land’;
2. Melody – lead guitar playing in general.

The two pieces of kit where  I’m wading towards the deep end are:

1. Zoom G3Xn Guitar pedal  – I started bytrying to get ‘The Shadows’ Sound for Wonderful Land. Now I have moved on to look at Delay, Chorus, Tremolo and Reverb effects coupled with ‘Tap Tempo’ timing. More aimed at thickening sound than the Shadows saturated use case;
   
   
2. TC Helicon Mic Mechanic vocal effects pedal – learning about this new to me piece of kit and trying to set tasteful delay and reverb levels along with the default tone settings for EQ / De-Ess/ Noise Gate.  So far this suggests that it is going to help with my vocals.

Another Soul Choir inspired song choice, ‘Just One Look’ was originally a hit for Doris Troy in 1963 with the UK hit cover by The Hollies arriving in 1964.

My cover comprises Guitar, Bass Guitar and Vocals over a drum track created using EZDrummer3.

“Northern Soul” header image by yesilikethat is used unmodified and licensed under CC BY 2.0 .

With that wonderful Evening of Northern Soul at Holmfirth Picturedrome  behind us, and only our Christmas sing-along at Holmfirth Civic Hall remaining this term, it was good to hear of the plan for next term.

We shall be rehearsing for a concert in March themed ‘A decade of Soul Music’ where we will learn and then perform a hit song drawn from each year of the 1960s. Think songs by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Stevie Wonder, The Shirelles, The Four Tops, Aretha Franklin and more. There are some absolute bangers in that list, some familiar to the choir and some new, there’s even a song that I have previously covered to a backing track. This is going to be another fun term and might include a return to the Picturedrome, although that remains to be confirmed.

Early on the morning of my wedding day in 1982 I had been to the barbers for a trim and then called into a music store and bought Yazoo’s ‘Only You’ hit single. The following year a brilliant acapella cover by The Flying Pickets was the 1983 Christmas number one. This song has stuck with me all those years and I have thought about doing a cover for some time.

My recent return to guitar learning led to me experimenting with different sound effects that I could use for a guitar and vocal cover. I liked the phaser effect of my Zoom G3Xn multi-effects pedal and decided to use it. There really isn’t a reference guitar version as the original by Vince Clarke is a synth pop classic and the Flying Pickets version is acapella.

Most of my guitar playing to date has been rhythm guitar. I have used a little melody in my originals but in general I have steered away from playing lead in covers. My lessons with Kirklees Guitar School, online and in-person, tempted me to create a guitar solo ‘bridge’ using Guitar Pro notation software. This was based upon the Flying Pickets’ version of the song. I also created an intro based upon Alison Moyet’s Burberry Fashion show arrangement.

James and George at Kirklees Guitar School have provided me with advice on strumming technique and tasteful use of the phaser effect and reverb for the guitar parts via their #FeedbackFriday feature. George also suggested adding more reverb to my vocals, leading to me buying a vocal effects pedal!  Meanwhile Andrew, my in person tutor, added advice on song structure, dynamics and lead guitar technique.

I wouldn’t have had the confidence to attempt singing this were it not for taking part in last year’s Laura Morrell’s ‘Sing Pop’ workshops. After doing very little solo singing between 2020 and 2024 I hadn’t even got around to finishing my original songs. The Sing Pop cover songs that I did with Laura gave me renewed determination. Especially so the Soul Choir regular Northern Soul classic ‘The Night’ that I performed a year ago at ‘The Blind Pig’.

As I  was coming towards the end of recording the song last week there one of life’s bizarre coincidences. Dan Price at last week’s Soul Choir rehearsal presented The Flying Pickets ‘Only You’ as one of his Christmas Number One Hits. We sang it through without any rehearsal. It was well received and Dan has now created an arrangement for the choir to sing!


I’ve really enjoyed revisiting and trying to create an arrangement of this memorable song.

Last night I attended the live recording of two November KGS Podcasts at Denby Dale Pie Hall.

It was a brilliant evening and great to see James and George recording live. The relaxed vibe that comes over on the videos is exactly like the reality.

My guitar lessons at Kirklees Guitar School have centred around refreshing previously learned and performed songs and then adding improved dynamics.

The theme of adding dynamic contrast as also applied to a cover of Yazoo’s ‘Only You’ that I’m working on. I have taken this 80’s Synthesizer driven song and created a guitar led arrangement with my first use of a phaser effect from my Zoom G3Xn pedal.

Besides the Original version my cover is being influenced by the Flying Pickets acapella version and the version that Alison Moyet performed at The Burberry Fashion show.

I shall complete this by December 2025.

On Wednesay 22nd October The Soul Choir held a final rehearsal on stage at Holmfirth Picturedrome with the band. That provided a tantalising taster for the ‘Keep the Faith’gig…and it did not dissappoint.

On Thursday the 23rd we were first treated to the fun of learning Northern Soul dance moves led by Sharon of Northern Soul Dance. Our ten song set then followed as we took to the stage with the band playing the Just Brother’s instrumental ‘Sliced Tomatoes’.

We then made a Northern Soul club sandwich of dance anthems between two Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons classics:

Song	Original Artist
Beggin’	Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
Turning My Heartbeat Up	MVP’s
The Drifter	Ray Pollard
This Old Heart	The Isley Brothers
Hold Back the Night	The Trammps
Do I Love You	Frank Wilson
I Gotta Find Me Somebody	The Vel-Vets
Ghost in my House	R Dean Taylor
Tainted Love	Gloria Jones (Soft Cell)
The Night	Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons

Our performance ended with a good number of audience members taking to the dance floor as we sang ‘The Night’. This was the best ‘choral’ event that I have participated in and it had some very strong contenders.

The rehearsals for this weeks ‘Keep The Faith’ Evening of Northern Soul event have been real foot-tapper events in themselves. We’ve added another 7 brilliant songs to our list and that includes some of the anthems that define this genre. Yes that includes ‘Do I love you’ and ‘The Night’!

On Wednesday we return to Holmfirth Picturedrome for a full rehearsal with the band in advance of Thursday’s gig.

A unique feature of this event is the opportunity to learn some basic Northern Soul dance moves led by tutors from Northern Soul Dance.

It also features DJ Stephen Holt Samuels of ‘Inspiral Carpets’ band playing more soul classics.

Northern Soul Music has become a significant part of my music activity this year. Currently the Soul Choir is preparing for the ‘Keep The Faith’ gig later this month at Holmfirth Picturedrome. That’s adding several more Northern Soul favourites to those already in our repertoire.

I had sung Frankie Valli’s ‘The Night’ to a backing track at the first Sing Pop gig last December because I had been captured by this infectious music at Soul Choir.

Since then I’ve been playing along to that backing track on Guitar along with exploring Ray Pollard’s ‘The Drifter’.

My recent lessons at Kirklees Guitar School have focused upon song dynamics and I’m using learning another Wigan Casino classic, Jimmy Radcliffe / Dusty Springfield’s ‘Long After Tonight Is All Over’ as an exercise in creating variety and interest in what is actually quite a simple song. Again I’m using a performance from the Northern Soul at The Proms concert as a reference. It seems that the Ultimate Guitar version of the Dusty Springfield version of the song is a little over simplified. There are some tasty chords in the original that I need to explore too!

Really enjoying the increased activity with my guitars, guitar lessons and revisiting songs, both originals and covers.

When I originally wrote ‘Out of Order’ in 2017 I used pencil and blank score paper to capture ideas and then transcribed them using Musescore. Although Musescore Studio has greatly improved support for Guitar scores it still feels clunky. So I’ve moved to using Guitar Pro to capture the re-arranged version of the song that I intend finishing this Autumn / Winter. I will likely then export / import to Musescore using MusicXML files to prepare the full arrangement for recording.

Reflecting further about my not having a ‘go to guitar song’ I started work on Greenday’s ‘Time of Your Life’. I shared a version on the Kirklees Guitar School ‘Feedback Friday’ and suggestions were provided as to how to improve it. This was also spotted by my tutor, Andrew, for whom this is a personal favourite. So I’m now working through his suggestions too.