Writing a blog is a great way of sharing your ideas and experiences with other members and getting feedback from them.
What's been happening to you recently?
What's been happening to you recently?
Blogged
on : 10 Mar, 2009
We hold a weekly session, every Sunday evening, in the upstairs function room of a pub ( our pub now, but not when we started!). The main organiser of this is a guy called Geoff Bibby, well-known in the folk world as he has run various folk clubs since the early 1960's - including the famous Paul Simon tour!
The problem we have is that this is an accoustic night, pure and simple. Yet people continually say to me, "Oh no, I couldn't come up there, I don't know any traditional folk music."
We have advertised in most of the usual ways, local press, posters, word of mouth, etc. but still have this sort of mental block.
We firmly believe that if people are playing/singing music, then it is folk music - be it bloody Greensleeves or Green Day!
At least half of the people who come to us, do so to try out songs they have written, without the pressures of a paying audience. This was the whole purpose of starting the sessions - to give any musicians a chance to try things out with a laugh if they go wrong and helpful suggestions from those who have already been there.
After all that, my actual question is, "How do we, as musicians, stop everybody from putting us into set categories when we are doing it to ourselves?" (read more)
The problem we have is that this is an accoustic night, pure and simple. Yet people continually say to me, "Oh no, I couldn't come up there, I don't know any traditional folk music."
We have advertised in most of the usual ways, local press, posters, word of mouth, etc. but still have this sort of mental block.
We firmly believe that if people are playing/singing music, then it is folk music - be it bloody Greensleeves or Green Day!
At least half of the people who come to us, do so to try out songs they have written, without the pressures of a paying audience. This was the whole purpose of starting the sessions - to give any musicians a chance to try things out with a laugh if they go wrong and helpful suggestions from those who have already been there.
After all that, my actual question is, "How do we, as musicians, stop everybody from putting us into set categories when we are doing it to ourselves?" (read more)
Blogged
on : 23 Dec, 2008
Hi all.
I have a poser for all you classical musicians and music lovers out there...
What do you think would be the best and simplest way of classifying classical music?
There seem to be so many theories and ideas and no real standard way of classifying the large world of classical music. I have, for now, opted with classification by period eg, romantic, baroque etc. but am aware that this won't suit all needs. Many people, and I'm talking musicians and audiences alike here, won't necessarily know which composers fit into which periods and, of course, most decent bands and orchestras will play music from many of those periods.
I'm always open to sensible suggestions so feel free to comment to this blog or email me at paul@musiconnections.co.uk.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Paul (read more)
I have a poser for all you classical musicians and music lovers out there...
What do you think would be the best and simplest way of classifying classical music?
There seem to be so many theories and ideas and no real standard way of classifying the large world of classical music. I have, for now, opted with classification by period eg, romantic, baroque etc. but am aware that this won't suit all needs. Many people, and I'm talking musicians and audiences alike here, won't necessarily know which composers fit into which periods and, of course, most decent bands and orchestras will play music from many of those periods.
I'm always open to sensible suggestions so feel free to comment to this blog or email me at paul@musiconnections.co.uk.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Paul (read more)
Blogged
on : 16 Dec, 2008
Have you considred tapping into the talent available in the states? (read more)
Blogged
on : 06 Dec, 2008
Has anyone else had any problems with payment from Smugglers Music / Music Minx Radio?
Graham (read more)
Graham (read more)
Blogged
on : 17 Dec, 2008
Now that we have a few hundred members I am starting to get an idea of the kind of support issues that are causing problems.
Activation emails seems the biggest one and occasional email ids not being recognised is another. We are aware of these and working to get them sorted so you can continue to enjoy the site and we can attract new members thus making it more dynamic and valuable to you existing members.
Don't forget to let us know if you have any suggestions as to how it could be improved. I want to make this your site, one you will be proud to belong to and be of the most use to you.
To that end don't forget to keep your profiles up to date and enter as much information as you think others may need to see about you. There are also the blogs, forums, news items and gig guides that you are free to use as enhanced or premium members.
We are here to connect musicians of all types so have fun and if you enjoy the site tell others, if you don't then tell us why.
Paul (read more)
Activation emails seems the biggest one and occasional email ids not being recognised is another. We are aware of these and working to get them sorted so you can continue to enjoy the site and we can attract new members thus making it more dynamic and valuable to you existing members.
Don't forget to let us know if you have any suggestions as to how it could be improved. I want to make this your site, one you will be proud to belong to and be of the most use to you.
To that end don't forget to keep your profiles up to date and enter as much information as you think others may need to see about you. There are also the blogs, forums, news items and gig guides that you are free to use as enhanced or premium members.
We are here to connect musicians of all types so have fun and if you enjoy the site tell others, if you don't then tell us why.
Paul (read more)
Blogged
on : 28 Mar, 2009
A decade which started with Rolf Harris at number one with "Two Little Boys" and finished with Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall" at number one, this was a decade of change, from "Glam Rock" to "Disco" to "Punk" this was a fast-moving ever-eventful ten years. Being a teenager in that decade brought many difficult choices; did you keep loyal to "Blue Peter" and John Noakes, Peter Purvis and the homely Valerie Singleton or desert to "Magpie" for the only reason of Jenny Hanley? Singles compilations also threw you into despair; did you spend your pocket money on the latest Ronco or K-Tel 33rpm? decisions, decisions. After reading your "Look-In" magazine, we watched 'Top of the Pops' (falling madly in love with Suzi Quatro, Debbie Harry and Agnetha of Abba) while eating our Cadbury Curly-whirly, which was soon to be relegated for the manly Yorkie Bar. During the 70's, bands seemed to enjoy themselves more, Slade, Mud and Wizzard always appeared to enjoy what they were doing, unlike today's seemingly miserable millionaire "Boy Bands". Had we lived in the PC-Age we live in now, then Chuck Berry's number one in 1972, "My-Ding-a-Ling" would no doubt have been banned, long before it had seen the light of the October day it was released. It was also a time when in the school playground we all wanted to be "The Leader of the gang, I am" sadly if we only knew then what we know now, then thousands of posters would have been ripped off the wall. Now we have downloads and iPods, in the seventies we had a choice of cassettes or cartridges, cartridges like Betamax videos quickly dieing a death. Saturday mornings always brought a trip to Leeds city centre and a visit to Debenhams, the reason, a look through their box of ex-chart 45's at 5p each or 5 for 20p, I bought such classics as Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" on a sunny April day and, possibly, now a rare "45", of Yorkshire show-jumper Harvey Smith singing "True Love". The record labels at the time included a picture of a sailing ship on the RAK (Suzi Quatro ) label, while other labels of the time were, Magnet (Alvin Stardust), Epic (ABBA), Bell (Gary Glitter), Chrysalis (Blondie), Vertigo (Thin Lizzy) and Harvest (Pink Floyd), The Radio One top forty gave us the chance to test the dexterity of our fingers as we compiled our own favourite chart compilation cassette, without having any inane comment from the host of the time. Were the seventies a happy, unique and innovative decade, or am I looking at the ten years through rose-tinted wire NHS spectacles? (read more)
Blogged
on : 15 Oct, 2008
It's been a tediously long journey but here we are at last, going live and looking forward to bringing musicians together.
I'm Paul Chapman, the owner of this website and for over a year this site has been in 'design and development' as they say. Hopefully it's now more or less in a usuable condition but please feel free to let me know if any parts of it aren't working or could be improved in any way.
Musiconnections exists to bring musicians together of all kinds and will act as a tool to help them find the things they need to make their kind of music. Whether it be an alto sax player for Saturday night or someone to repair that aged Hammond organ your rock band relys on.
Music in Britain is highly segmented, probably more so than in almost any other country andmost musicians tend to stick to their own preferred musical styles and genres although there's no real reason why a dance band trumpeter can't play in an RnB band or a jazz pianist can't play rock and roll. It's long been my belief that many musicians would welcome a chance to play outside their usual genres. However, in my experience most musicians fall into 2 camps - those who are good music readers and rely on the dots and those who prefer to play by ear and are excellent buskers. It would be very difficult indeed for a jazz clarinetist to play in an orchestra and vice versa. Having said all that one of the aims of this site is to bring together musicians from all backgrounds and styles in one place to swap ideas, find each other, learn more about their instruments and how best to play the kind of music that keeps them interested. Added to that we have forums and gig guides etc. and if there are any features you would like to see them please feel free to tell me. Without your input this site would be nothing more than a waste of server space. (read more)
I'm Paul Chapman, the owner of this website and for over a year this site has been in 'design and development' as they say. Hopefully it's now more or less in a usuable condition but please feel free to let me know if any parts of it aren't working or could be improved in any way.
Musiconnections exists to bring musicians together of all kinds and will act as a tool to help them find the things they need to make their kind of music. Whether it be an alto sax player for Saturday night or someone to repair that aged Hammond organ your rock band relys on.
Music in Britain is highly segmented, probably more so than in almost any other country andmost musicians tend to stick to their own preferred musical styles and genres although there's no real reason why a dance band trumpeter can't play in an RnB band or a jazz pianist can't play rock and roll. It's long been my belief that many musicians would welcome a chance to play outside their usual genres. However, in my experience most musicians fall into 2 camps - those who are good music readers and rely on the dots and those who prefer to play by ear and are excellent buskers. It would be very difficult indeed for a jazz clarinetist to play in an orchestra and vice versa. Having said all that one of the aims of this site is to bring together musicians from all backgrounds and styles in one place to swap ideas, find each other, learn more about their instruments and how best to play the kind of music that keeps them interested. Added to that we have forums and gig guides etc. and if there are any features you would like to see them please feel free to tell me. Without your input this site would be nothing more than a waste of server space. (read more)
More Blogs
Welcome to Musiconne..
It's been a tediously long journey but here we are at last, going live and looking forward to bringi..
15 Oct, 2008
Smugglers Music..
Has anyone else had any problems with payment from Smugglers Music / Music Minx Radio?
Graham..
Graham..
06 Dec, 2008
Techie Issues..
Now that we have a few hundred members I am starting to get an idea of the kind of support issues th..
17 Dec, 2008
Classifying classica..
Hi all.
I have a poser for all you classical musicians and music lovers out there...
What do you..
I have a poser for all you classical musicians and music lovers out there...
What do you..
23 Dec, 2008