if i thought you were listening, i'd never say a word

It's cold, damp and grey. I feel utterly unmotivated to do anything. I have cut down on the You Tube scrolling (see last week's post...

   Qobuz suggested this earlier in the year. It took a couple of listens before I heard the lines "Cherries for breakfast / and pancake...

Hello little box, how are you? Do you want to go upstairs? Let's go into the Music Room. Here you are.  What's that inside? Oh ...

One day you will be standing in line for the Pearly Gates, and a junior angel will walk down the line, pick some random old guy from the lin...

Oh the summer of 1973! I would be going to university that autumn. I had a summer job - ask your grandfather - and there was a crowd of us, ...

I saw Bert Stern's movie when I was seventeen. It was playing at the Screen on Baker Street. It didn't turn me on to any more jazz t...

Good God, ZE Records! There's a name from the past. Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Was Not Was. Big at the time, known only to ageing afic...

I have been blogging since April 2009. Over sixteen years. I started it with the intention of writing about the things I was doing and the t...

What makes a "Timeless" album? When you play it, you enjoy it, it speaks to you, and there's no nostalgia involved. It seems i...

Playing classical music, the difference between me (or better, someone who can actually play with their right-hand fingers) and the latest c...

The classical guys are trained to play the notes other people wrote. That's how classical music works now - though in the past, the comp...

  I spent quite a bit of one trip in and out of town recently with a silly grin on my face because this track is a DOOZY!

At the end of August, I got a cold, followed by a cough that wracked my torso for a couple of days, and by about two weeks later, I felt phy...

A long while ago, I was experimenting with using the Zuiko lenses from my old OM10 on the X-E4, and this happened. I have since re-arranged ...

Yep, it’s tech time again. There are numerous explanations of these two features of an amplifier, and all those I have seen don’t explain it...

It’s been a long time since I got in the car and drove anywhere except the local supermarket or Richmond. I choose one of the hotter days of...

I had my first guitar lesson a few days ago. I have been looking at guitar tutors in my area. There are a couple of websites they all seem ...

I’m also spending some time learning to sight-read. Using the Allemande from the first Bach Cello suite. Since it’s for the cello, it’s in ...

There are a whole load of pedals out there, and some can cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds (Klons). All of them do one of these eigh...

I bought an HX Effects at the end of March, from those nice people at GuitarGuitar Camden, where you can buy any guitar you like as long as ...