Alan Coady’s Musical Blog

Porteño internet chess amigo and fellow guitarist, Horacio Villa sent me a link with the recommendation that I watch a couple of videos of the charango player Oscar Miranda. There is some very elegant playing here by a big man on a small instrument – particularly in the final minute of the first video. At one point the cliché “his hands are moving too fast to see” is literally true.

Also of interest to me is the posture of Horacio Castillo in the very first video of this sizeable collection. I have found myself intuitively using this posture – which contravenes classical orthodoxy - over the last few years. However, I do not pass it on as standard to pupils for the simple reason that I’d already been playing for more than 30 years before falling into it and I remain unconvinced that it would offer enough stability to allow a beginner truly to relax the shoulders, arms and hands. Is this simply an untenable case of do as I say, not as I do?

Right at the bottom of the page you can hear a cheerful audio file of the puzzingly entitled milonga, Y no entendieron nada (And they didn’t understand anything) by Eduardo “Toto” Mendez (interestingly put together, trilingual website). If you’ve ever wondered what a Uruguayan accent sounds like, there is a short video of him enthusing about the first ever Festival de Cuerdas de América. I’d never come across Eduardo Mendez before and a little research on YouTube threw up this short, comical video of a recording session with some pals. I tried embedding the video twice and while it had all the appearances of success, pressing Play elicited the message “Sorry, this video is no longer available.”

The differences between Physics and the world as actually experienced, and between wisdom and usefulness could surely be brought to light no more abruptly than by submitting this single Einsteinian sentence as the sole content of your school development plan. Then it would be time to turn your attention to measuring the mass, velocity and momentum of matter hitting the fan.

I conducted a short experiment over the last couple of days, concerning who gets what part in the first of our East Lothian Guitar Ensemble arrangements. The piece is in three parts – top, middle and bass. I’ve also created four heterophonic parts so you could say the structure of parts is:

1, 1a, 2, 2a, 3, 3a, 3b

Using Sibelius, I played the score to the pupils at performance speed – which is pretty brisk . In addition to the speed there are two other unusual factors:

• there are 7 beats per bar – grouped as follows 12 12 123

• it is based on a very unusual scale (E Lydian Dominant) – resulting in unusual harmonies - one effect of which can be to make the less confident pupil occasionally doubt that they have landed on the correct note

Before the music began pupils were asked to identify which parts would meet the following criteria for them:

• the part would (eventually*) be manageable

• it would provide some element of challenge and interest

• it might appeal to their natural strengths e.g. by being essentially melodic, harmonic or rhythmic in nature

• it would avoid any feeling of distress

Somewhat to my surprise, every group and individual chose as I would have predicted. This could mean one (or possibly more) of three things:

• that pupils are aware of their current levels

• that they are aware of the likely speed of progress over the remaining months (even although some have not yet played in the East Lothian group)

• that I am unconscious of Derren Brown-style levels of manipulation

Over the holiday, I hope to upload not only play-along midi files but parts of the piece so, if you play the guitar, you could simulate the experiment. For this particular piece, Hungarian Wedding Dance, most of the parts will be in TAB as opposed to traditional notation. This is due to the fact that many of the notes have been relocated onto strings other than the one where they would normally be found. This is done for two reasons:

• increased resonance e.g. using 2^nd string E at fret 5 instead of open E on string 1 – the sound of which is a little thinner

• the note is more easily reached from the previous note than it would be in its normal location

* eventually, in this case, is the Showcase Concert on Friday 27 March at 7:30 in Musselburgh Grammar School

If, as indicated by Dave Gray, the ears are equal-2nd-bottom of the senses in bits of information per second, then why do so many concur with Walter Pater’s notion that “all arts aspire to the condition of music?”

 If you’re interested in the history of the guitar, and missed episode 1/3 of Alan Yentob’s Imagine: The Story of the Guitar: In The Beginning – then it’s not to late to watch or download.

In a previous post I mentioned how a necessary part of being an instructor, who truly wants to be part of school life (as opposed merely to using the buildings) is to absorb whole-school ideas and consider how they relate to the very specific nature of our work. Our five annual In Service days are slightly different in that, without feeling divorced from our institutions, we are more at liberty to discuss the specifics of our practice without alienating the remaining 99% of the staff. 

There are currently 21 people in the East Lothian’s Instrumental Service so you can imagine the relative intensification of taking part in a one-day conference of Scotland’s 900 instrumental staff. The conference was the fruit of a partnership between Heads of Instrumental Teaching Scotland (HITS) and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (RSAMD) – with the generous support of The Scottish Arts Council. The venue was Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall with some of the activities spilling over into the nearby RSAMD and National Piping Centre. 

Fittingly, the day opened not with words, but with music and dance – specifically samba drumming, dance and capoeira performed by Rhythm Wave - a mixture of students and staff of Perth College, led by founder, Ronnie Goodman, a lecturer at the college. It would be difficult to imagine a more rousing beginning to the day. 

This year’s chair of HITS, Mike McGeary, then welcomed us before introducing Adam Ingram, MSP, Minister for Children and Early Years. We were then invited to make our way to the first of our two chosen workshops. Across the day, the choice comprised: 

• ASL – Drake Music Scotland – Making Music Accessible – with Brian Cope

• Bagpipes – with Paul Warren

• Brass – with Steven Mead

• Conducting – with William Conway

• CPD: Online Support – with Sheila Smith

• Curriculum for Excellence – with Alan Armstrong & Aileen Monaghan

• Early Years: Focus on Instruments – with Andrew Cruickshank

• Early Years – with Naheed Cruickshank

• Expanding the Electric Guitar’s Creative Potential – with Jonathan Quinney

• Group Teaching – with Richard Crozier

• Guitar – with Martin Taylor

• IT – Music Notation Another Way? An Introduction to Finale – with Chris Swaffer

• Jazz – with Malcolm Edmonstone

• Kodály: The Relevance of Kodály Musicianship to the Training of Young Instrumentalists – with David Vinden

• Lower Strings – with Elizabeth Harre

• Percussion for All – how orchestral percussion can give access to a range of musical opporunities – with Elspeth Rose

• Piano For All – with Havilland Willshire

• Technology for the Rock & Pop Musician – with Craig Blundell

• Traditional Music – with Josh Dickson

• Upper Strings – with Géza Szilvay

• Voice – with Christopher Underwood

• Woodwind – with Pete Long

• World: Samba, Reggae Brazilian Rhythms – with Ronnie Goodman

• World: The Indonesian Gamelan – Cultural Connections In Scottish Education – with Gamelan Naga Mas

I’ll go into the particulars of the two workshops I chose in subsequent posts, but I’d like simply to sum up here some of the feeling of the day. Naturally I had come along prepared to learn but had not really figured on the inspirational and emotional content of the day. Much of the inspiration came from John Wallace’s keynote speech. Trumpet in hand, he reminded us how music, and the arts in general will allow our students lasting freedom and individuality of expression. In the hurly burly of lessons, rehearsals and concerts it’s all too easy to forget that! Possibly the inspirational nature was due to John being not only a distinguished educator (Prinicipal of RSAMD) but also a world class musician. The old Shavian maxim “he who can does, he who cannot, teaches” was never more resoundingly refuted. 

However, furthering musical youth being our raison d’être, the greater part of the afternoon session was given over to to young talent: Nicola Benedetti (violin); Karen Geoghegin (bassoon); Ian Watt (guitar) and Pure Brass. 

In addition to the expressive performances, there was the additional emotional content of meeting up with old college pals (some of whom I hadn’t seen since 1979) and former colleagues (some of whom I hadn’t seen since the Lothians went their separate ways in 1996).

Everyone has their own favourite YouTube moments but I’ve never seen a claim to having grouped together The 50 Greatest Arts Videos on YouTube. However, there are some crackers here – chosen for The Guardian by Ajesh Patalay.

This Friday sees the retirement of Ann Cruickshank after 33 years of service to Musselburgh Grammar School’s Music Department. As this coincides with the beginning of the October holiday, Ann decided to throw a retirement ceilidh/party last night in Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange. It was a fantastic occasion and Ann was clearly over the moon to be sharing the evening with so many friends and colleagues, past and present.

The ceilidh music was provided by Laurie Crump and friends. Laurie is the husband of MGS’s universally popular, and boundlessly talented Woodwind Instructor, Juliet Aspley. Between ceilidh sets, there were sessions of lovely solo jazz guitar by Robin Robertson.

Lifelong friend and guitar predecessor at MGS, Mike McGeary and I also performed a short, affectionate send-off to Ann. Between us, Mike and I represent 26 years of collegiality with Ann and it’s always nice when a send-off takes the form of the activity that brought us together.

Always one of the first in the building each morning and with barely a day’s absence since 1975, Ann will be a much missed member of staff.

Thanks for everything, Ann, and don’t be a stranger now.

Usually the last thing I do on a Friday is to thank the MGS Guitar Group for an excellent rehearsal, wish them a great weekend and look forward to something similar for myself. Two thirds of the way through that trilogy this week, and in my own street, I reversed-parked my still-new-to-me car with consummate buffoonery, removing a smidgen of paintwork from the rear bumper of an innocent, unattended car.

Determined to do the honourable thing, I rushed up to the flat, wrote an explanatory note (including insurance details), attached my card with personal details and left it under a windscreen wiper. Moments later, I spotted the owners, a young Polish couple, preparing to drive off. I raced down to speak to them. I stressed to Darek, the driver, that should he wish to pursue the formal course, that was obviously fine. I also suggested that, as it seemed like a small job it might be better for me simply to hand over cash than to risk my no claims protection. We parted on good terms and I awaited a decision at some point.

A few moments later Darek called to say that we should simply forget the whole thing. There was already a similar mark on the front bumper and, although he was hoping to sell the car, this new one was not going to make too much difference. He also thanked me for being honest about my part in the incident, pointing out that most people would simply vanish. I was touched by this and asked if there were any favour I could offer in return. He gratefully suggested that I could put the word out about the car being up for sale. So here goes:

Volvo C70 Coupé 2.4

95,000 miles

Taxed until 31 May 09

MOT until 25 June 09

£2,500 ono

Should you be interested, leave a comment and I’ll pass Darek’s details onto you via email (remember – your email, address which is never displayed – and which I will never pass on, is a necessary part of leaving a comment).

For some time now I have suspected that my piano colleagues have been been harbouring too narrow a view of what potential means in prospective pupils. All becomes clear here: