Deembe Music

Category: Music

  • open Learn Music Theory

    open Learn Music Theory

    In 2017 I completed the Open Learn course ‘An Introduction to Music Theory’. This course covered core concepts as found in ABRSM grades 1 to 3. I found this really helpful when reading sheet music with the CSI:Halifax Community Choir.

    Recently I decided to check back for further bite size learning opportunities and discovered more short courses were available so I enrolled for the Discovering Music: The Blues course.

    I can readily recommend these interesting short courses. I understand that they draw materials from the Open University’s regular modules that underpin certificate / diploma and degree courses of study.

    I shall certainly be enrolling for some of the others too!

  • Marsden Cuckoo Festival

    Marsden Cuckoo Festival

    Looking forward to my third gig with the Soul Choir on Saturday 26th April when we will perform a ten or more song set at St Bartholomew’s Church as part of the Marsden Cuckoo Festival.

    It’s going to be huge with over 70 singers delivering soul / reggae classics from artists like Tina Turner, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Otis Reading and Aretha Franklin.

    A personal and Soul Choir Northern Soul favourite, ‘The Night’ (Original by Franki Valli & The Four Seasons), gets a surprise inclusion in the programme as we welcome our new Soul Sisters and Brothers from Wakefield Soul Choir. This was one of the two songs that I performed solo at The Blind Pig back in December at a Sing Pop student showcase event.

  • Guitar Tone

    Guitar Tone

    PRS SE 245
    Blackstar Core ID10
    Blackstar Patch
    Zoom G3Xn Effects Pedal

    Over the Easter Weekend I have been experimenting with guitar tone, inspired by learning The Monkees (Neil Diamond) song ‘I’m a Believer’.

    I was looking for early British clean sounds for use in practice and future recording. I tried three approaches:

    • Using stock / community patches for my Blackstar ID Core 10 amplifier
    • Using my Zoom G3Xn multi-effects pedal with a bespoke effect.
    • Using Cockos Reaper DAW with Toontrack EZMix3 Guitar Presets


    As I had not used patches for quite some time I first took the opportunity to apply updates to the Blackstar Architect software (the amps firmware was up-to-date) and the Zoom G3Xn firmware.


    That done I tested several Blackstar patches and then settled on a community patch that modeled a Britsh Amp with tape delay and spring reverb.

    I then moved on to creating a bespoke patch for the Zoom G3Xn effects pedal. As I had only previously created one patch from new I used that as a template and again created a patch that modeled a VOX AC30 with EL84 tubes like amp coupled with 2 * 12 Cabinet, Tape Delay and Spring Reverb. I tested this via the Blackstar Amp with its effects switched off and also via direct input to the PC and out to my studio monitors.

    I then moved on to explore the Toontrack EZMix3 plugin in the Cockos Reaper DAW. Here it was a case of choosing effects / stacking effects and adjusting parameters.

    The EZMix sound that I liked the best was ‘Thin Twin Amp Ambience’ but there was a rich set of tones that could easily have fulfilled the role.

    In conclusion I chose the Zoom G3Xn patch as my favourite and will use this to practice the song and if I do record a cover version with Guitar then I will use this.

  • Music on the Go!

    When we visit our static caravan I sometimes make use of the poorer days to squeeze in some practice, either learning piano or practicing songs.

    We have a small portable Roland Go Piano in the spare bedroom for our practice and fun.

    For Piano learning I’m using John Thompsons’s Adult Beginners Course but progress is very slow as I’m prioritising other activities, especially Guitar & Vocals.

    This week though I was just playing the chords for The Monkees – ‘I’m a Believer’, in my revised key of F (Mixylodian), to help memorise the song.

    I rarely sing at the caravan, to spare the neighbours, except when we are alone.

  • Swollen Ranks, big Sound!

    Swollen Ranks, big Sound!

    This weeks session attracted members over from the Slaithwaite group, as Dan couldn’t run that scheduled session as he was swanning off to London, being a rock star in a recording studio.🤘😁

    The full hall produced a glorious sound as we progressed through the set-list for the forthcoming concert.

    As usual, lots of good songs, good humour and good company. It really is a worthy social event in itself.

    We ended with a pretty good rendition of Gloria Jones / Soft Cell’s Tainted Love from memory, although I did cheat and sneakily viewed the lyrics on the Smartphone.

    No Candi Staton, ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ at Soul Choir this week, (not on the set-list). Will be singing backing vocals for that with the Sing Pop group this summer. It really helps when rehearsing the same song for two performances ~ I like a two for one!

  • Practice recording

    Today I turned my attention to getting comfortable with the change of key of my backing track for a performance of ‘I’m a Believer’.


    Having determined that, as a Bass, I didn’t want to sing higher than D4 I lowered the pitch by 2 semitones to make the key F (Mixolydian).

    I did a warm up and then a few run throughs before making a rough test recording. That turned out better than it felt to sing to be honest. I was pretty much managing to reach the D with the occasional duff note even going to Eb.

    Listening to that rough recording left me with some performance notes referencing our Sing Pop learning, mainly around timbre and onsets.

    Transpired that I was not capturing the melody correctly, especially around the flattened 7th in the verse and the high notes in the chorus.

  • Backing Vocals with Actions

    Backing Vocals with Actions

    Singing and Movement?!

    Back to Halifax for another Sing Pop active learning lesson session on Backing Vocals. 

    We chose two of our tracks to work on and first identified the nature of the backing vocals and where they fit.

    Then we turned attention to performance and what movements to introduce to accompany the vocals.  This is of course well out of our comfort zone but it generated quite a few laughs.  We will not be a metaphoric Pips to Gladys Night but I can see how synchronized movement from us backing vocalists will add to the entertainment!

    Two of us sang our lead parts as the backing vocalists practiced and then we swapped roles, sang the backing and threw some shapes!

    Quite looking forward to trying backing vocals. I think that I have had a minor backing role once with Olivia’s students but cannot recall the detail.

  • Concert Rehearsals

    Concert Rehearsals

    The antidote to the madness in today’s world is getting together and singing some Soul classics with like minded folk.

    This week we turned attention to the set-list for our forthcoming concert at Marsden in April.

    First up though we acknowledged the birthday of of Soul legend, Aretha Franklin by singing ‘Do Right Woman, Do Right Man’ and ‘I Say a Little Prayer’.

    Another fun, music and laughter filled evening led by Dan Price, his guitar and Peter Kay like tales!

  • Backing Vocals

    Backing Vocals

    After our December Sing Pop student showcase performances, at The Blind Pig in Sowerby Bridge, we were set the challenge of picking two songs from a function band set-list. One to sing ourselves and suggestion(s) for our fellow singers. I chose the original version of ‘Valerie’ by the Zutons and accepted the challenge of ‘I’m a Believer’ by The Monkees.

    We have been using those songs to test various techniques that we have been learning in 2025.

    We have now moved on to learning about backing vocals and again using the chosen songs to explore the opportunities to add them.

  • Song practice

    Song practice

    When learning a song, even if I’m going to be singing it to a backing track as in this case, I like to explore the song on guitar and occasionally on keyboard. Besides adding interest, I find that approaching the song from different perspectives helps with memorising the structure, lyrics and helps to cement a chosen performance style.

    For The Monkees ‘I’m a Believer’ cover, that I working on for Sing Pop, I’m transposing from the key of G to F for my vocal so also practicing the accompaniment on guitar in F.

    I started learning the song using Justin Sandercoe’s video, one of my regular go to resources.

    This time though I am also using the excellent, local to me, Kirklees Guitar School‘s video / PDF which had recently been shared with somewhat spooky serendipity!

  • Deembe Music Website

    This WordPress website is now live having replaced the Google Sites version.

    This will now be used to record all new musical adventures from March 2025 onwards.

    This version is enabling a chronological news blog to sit alongside the less changeable scrapbook content.

    This is the fourth (and last!) incarnation of my musical adventures scrapbook. It started out when I maintained a parallel scrapbook on Pinterest for CSI:Halifax Choir. I then progressed to use Adobe Portfolio, as I had a Community Cloud subscription for photography. When I cancelled that I moved the scrapbook to Google Sites and from there on to here using WordPress.