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New Song – ‘charge Me Up’
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…
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Soul Choir Summer Concerts 2025
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…
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Open G – song Challenge
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,…
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Marsden Cuckoo Festival
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.…
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Sing Into Spring
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…
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Open G Guitar revisted
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…
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Sittin’ On The Dock of The Bay
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…
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The Back Catalogue
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.
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Mrs Sunderland Workshop 2026 stage and Screen
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…
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Guitar Vs Sax?
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…
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Guitar ‘Riffmas’
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…
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guitar & vocals
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…
