New Challenge -last lesson before Christmas notes

Yet another hit and miss period of practice! Still - listening to songs under study must count for something mustn't it? Having finally bought the playback track of Va Savoir, I have been working on it. Thought I was getting on quite well too, when I suddenly realised that there was a short section I just could not sort out. Studying it with the 'dots' in front of me, then trying to hum it in my head to see if I had got it fixed, I realised there was a flaw in the score when hearing the song sung. Sandy was puzzled too. After several attempts together, she recognised the problem. Thankfully it was not me being stupid! So back to the keyboard this week to try and sort it out.
I have now been set a new challenge! Nothing like a new item to keep the interest alive. My task for the next three weeks is to study Bossa Nova rythm and learn the song Dindi by Carlos Jobim. It is wonderful, and whether I will be able to do it justice remains to be seen. Ella Fitzgerald's version is a dream.......
What about the guitar? Well slowly but surely my left hand is beginning to work better. I have 3 classical pieces that are coming on quite well, and my chord learning is progressing. All I need to do is to be able to shift from one barre chord to another easily  Hmmmmm Let's hope this coming week sees me a bit more disciplined about working at it! If only 5 minutes a day........

Useful Revision

This week has seen me focusing on understanding how chords are constructed. I now understand the triad - intervals 1, 3 & 5. I realised finally that A7 is the triad plus the 7th. Needless to say there are slight complications dependiing on whether one is playing A7, Am7 or A MAJ7!
I have also been typing in a score for Va Savoir - one of the French numbers in my repertoire. This has been a great exercise as I am learning how to use a new piece of software called Musescore. It is a free download, and seems to be as good as Finale Songwriter. In copying in the various elements of the score, I have been trying to interpret the chord names  - things like Am7 or Am6 or even E7b(9#) and writing the chord on the stave. So today's lesson helped me clarify these strange names:
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do are all intervals: Tonique, seconde, tierce, quarte, quinte, sixte, septieme, octave (french terms!) To interpret the 9 - all one has to do is to identify how many intervals it is from the seventh. It is two. Two intervals would make this note the Re in the next octave up. Well I think that's what I understood anyway. I will have to look back at my notes in the morning.
After this brain teaser, we then set out to revise some physical issues regarding singing and making a good sound at varying volumes. The key thing is to be at ease and listen to my body. If something is not working well, ask what is wrong, how is the body feeling? Is there tension somewhere, especially in the jaw. Tensing the jaw means the adam's apple is pushed into a poor position which does not allow the air to travel freely and thus it squeezes the sound. A simple exercise singing three notes to 'Ah' soon demonstrated this. So I need to get back to the facial massage, sticking out the tongue and other loosening strategies I learnt some years ago, and have got very lazy about doing' Not a pretty sight, so as Terry Wogan used to say, "Blindfold the budgie!"
The other really interesting example I was given was to think about the trampoline. One has to land properly in order to make the next jump. The same is true when singing - the correct placement of the previous note affects the quality of the next one. Very often when a note is out of tune, it is because the previous note was badly executed.
When working on a song, it is important to identify where the stresses are and understand why the problem exists. If it is insufficient breath, sort out the breathing etc. Perhaps the key is wrong - change the key.
I know the intervals, so they shouldn't pose a problem...... Finally I should enjoy trying to sing the song in different ways and seeing what sounds good or interesting -record the efforts and listen to them this helps develop ones own unique style.
Wow, lots of useful ideas today! Now I need to get on and put them into practice.....

October 8th 2010 - From disaster to new encouragement!

How often my good intentions evaporate! For all sorts of reasons I just did not get on with much serious, regular practice, and by the middle of this week my next lesson was looming! What on earth was I going to say?
Before I beat myself up totally, however, I  spent some time reflecting on what I had achieved, and found I could tick off most of what I had been asked to do! Phew!!!!
The advantage of writing this Blog is that I can check up on myself, review what I have set myself and identify achievements. When I did so this morning, the day of my lesson, I discovered I had actually spent quite a bit of time on theory!

• Degrees - re-visited
• Scale pattern - revisted and revised
• Order of sharps - revised
• Key intervals : tonique, Dominante, Sensible (l     V     Vll) fixed in my head
• Streets of London - key revised (good old Chordie.com)
• My Grandfathers' Clock - key revised ( like-wise thanks to Chordie.com)
• Lots of listening to Va Savoir, a wonderful French classic I want to add to my repertoire.
• A Scat exercise transposed into two different keys.

All in all I was greatly comforted. My lesson itself was really constructive too.

Main discussion

• Noted the order of flats and how to work out which key apiece of music is in
• Revised work on Relative Minor keys, and how to identify whether a piece of music is in its relative minor or principal key. This was prompted by a piece of music I had bought and transposed via 'Scorch' before printing. It was in CMajor, but had so many incidentals in the score I wondered whether it was in fact in the relative minor of Aflat. We decided that it was in C, and couldn't understand the strange transposition! The main thing, however ws that the notes worked, and it suits my voice perfectly.
• Started talking about Blues, the' blues note' and the Pentatonic minor

My tasks for the coming fortnight

• Experiment with the Blues material on the keyboard - use an F chord in the left hand, and play about with different sequences of the degrees :      l      iii    lV  V   Vll
• Make sure I can play the new chords in Streets of London and sing the song well
• Make sure I've addressed the best breathing points for me in Grandfathers' Clock
• Write out the key signatures of the different keys, noting  the tonique, dominant and Sensible notes ( l  V  Vll)

Monday October 17th

I've not done a great deal, as usual! The days go by so quickly and other activities crowd in. It's not that I am un-motivated, just ill-disciplined! 

• Shortly after my lesson, I sat at the keyboard to work on the relative minors. That was fun, especially once I realised how to play a scale using the relative minor with the original key! What a revelation.
• I have  found a brilliant piece of software for writing music. It's called Musescore and it is a free download. So I have had some fun learning how to use this. 
• Yesterday was a great session. I spent time working on the revised chords for Streets of London. Transposing it into Bflat minor means I have to learn the Bflat and Eflat chords. These are barre chords in the A shape. It is a question of learning the shape and then getting the fingers to obey - they don't want to. Still it is coming and I am gradually starting to change the chords and hum the tune provided I do it SLOWLY! I don't think I'll be able to sing it and play it all by the next lesson, but at least I have made some progress. It is a much better key for my voice, so once I have mastered these chords I shall have some excellent new resources to use.
•  Grandfathers' clock is coming along well and I'm beginning to experiment with the finger picking style too.  Yesterday I found a great way of making the strings sound like a ticking clock.

I hope today I'll play around with the blues chords....... we'll see!

Music Lessons - New Term

Friday September 17th 2010
I´m pleased to note that today my music lessons have started again after a long summer break. It was wonderful to be able to share how much I had been able to do this summer - it is usually a fallow period with little motivation. Having created this blog has been one of the reasons I have achieved more! My dear friend who follows my progress is quick to remind me that I haven´t posted a new entry!!!
I now have some more precise targets for the next two weeks:
The main themes are to do with breathing and transposition skills.
Breathing  We began be reviewing posture when playing the guitar. An interesting observation was that when breathing as a singer or instrumentalist, the instrument breathes too. I don´t need to be too worried therefore. Although I have been brought up to believe that whole lines and phrases should be sung in one breath, this sometimes results in tension and discomfort as one struggles to sing the last notes. In the genre of music that I am studying, the most important factor is to be comfortable. An audience can quickly tell if the performer is tense or in discomfort.

•  I need to identify those moments in a song which are habitually difficult because of lack of breath.
•  Then I need to look for useful places where a smaller breath can be taken to support the voice.

Transposition When trying to learn new songs with the guitar, I habitually choose the Cmajor key because these are the chords I am most familiar with. This is not always the best key for my voice as the pitch can sometimes fall between two voice placement areas. Both songs I sang today revealed this tendency. This discovery  has opened up a new opportunity to revise earlier work on transposition and to apply it to guitar chords.

•  I need to remember that when raising or lowering a key by any given interval, there may be consequences on the key signature, so caution! 
• Another important knock on effect as far as the guitar is concerned, is that I will need to increase my chord repertoire! 

Degrees Whilst discussing the above, we returned to the topic of ´Degrees´.

•  I need to revise and be very sure on the tone/half tone patterns so that new keys can be discussed and identified quickly. 

So after a great lesson, with much laughter and encouragement, I have lots to do in the next two weeks......

September 4th 2010

Having had a fraught week, little has been done since I last wrote. Today, however was productive., and fingers are sore once more!!!!

• I am beginning to understand the way barre chords work, and can now name the chords using the E shape.
• I can name the notes on all the frets on the low E and B strings - in English and using the French Solfège - still not quite sure about reading them on the music stave, but I guess that will come.
• Am beginning to discover different tonal qualities on the guitar depending where I actually play - so I have begun trying to interpret a classical piece in a more musical way.
• Managed to re-chord 'My Grandfathers' Clock' in a better key for my voice. Wow!!!!

Vocal work hasn't had much of a look in for a while, but I will try and remedy that during the coming week. Let's hope I achieve a more regular and consistent  for work-out!

New Week, New Goals -16th August

Great joy! Had time with a friend on Skype this weekend encouraging her to finally get her guitar out of its case! We shared some chords and some songs. I hope we can encourage each other on a regular basis! I look forward to meeting up again and actually playing together.
So here are three goals for this coming week:

• I am working on several lovely classical pieces, which should I ever have the Lute restored, will be perfect for it! Will try and master one by heart.
• Having started to learn the notes on the fretboard, using the barre chord and the A shape I need to consolidate this and develop the ability to find the chords easily.
• On the classical front, I need to develop my knowledge of the notes in the second position so that I can improve my sight-reading.

August 25th

• I have nearly learned by heart a simple 'Moderato' by Mauro Giuliani b. Haven't done much else though! 
• Found the chapter on the second position in the text book I am using. So I will have a go at some of the exercises here later on. Will also have another look at the Fretboard DVD from Guitar Alliance.
• Done some more vocal work - started to study Summertime. Listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong performing this on Youtubes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDOEsQL7lAWhat a stunning rendition! I also found some guitar versions which could be interesting to play around with....

August 28th 

• Just had a really good work out! Sung out and fingers played out! Had a go at one of the simplified chord arrangements of Summertime. This has possibilities - can't wait to work it through when my lessons start again! 
• Came across an interesting E7 chord variation which threw me. Spent some time on GA browsing the chord section, and sure enough there are a whole range of ways of playing E7, each with theri own particular colour.
• One thing led to another, and I found myself working on the Barre C chord pattern.....  no wonder fingers are a little sore!
• Visited Youtube again and found some other versions of Summertime by Ella. From her Berlin concert 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j6avX7ebkMThis one is so slow and passionate - accompaniement exceedingly simple, which made me think the guitar version has real possibilities. Either way it is really yummy!

Week's Goals Friday 30th July - Friday August 6th 2010

Now I've created the background notes for posterity, it's time to start setting short, achievable (I hope) goals. So for this week here's what I want to do:
1. Learn how to make a basic recording using the new Audicity software I have just down-loaded.
2. Learn to play the Barre F chord easily, and then the full set of chords for Streets of London ( a song I used to be able to play well!
3. Tick off one learned item on my repertoire.
4. Improve one classical piece on my guitar (I've got three in preparation).

To achieve this I need to work at my strength building exercises on the guitar. Some breathing exercise revision would not be a bad idea either!


So how did I do?
Friday 30th July

• I had a really good session today! At least my sore fingers would indicate so.... I was able to play Streets of London, but I think I need to explore the use of the pick to make this a better accompaniment.
• Experimented with 'Audacity' and managed to record my song. I am not happy with the sound levels though, and can't yet find out how to improve them. A friend I met today (Saturday) reckons Audacity is not terribly good. Still I was relying on the built in microphone on the computer. Maybe I need a separate mike. Will post a query on the forum for some advice.
• Classical pieces went better, and sound was cleaner. 
• One song in my repertoire is as good as I can get it short of having a live band to work with! St Louis Blues is ready to perform.

Saturday1st August - Tuesday 3rd August

• Not a great deal to report so far, except that I have finally put all my repertoire texts into one folder so I can access them easily!
• Had quite a profitable sing through some items to keep them fresh, but CD kept jumping which made practice very frustrating! I guess I need to clean the laser and the discs.
• Barre chords coming along : I can now find F, G, A & C using the fretboard inlays. Need to work on changing chord more fluently.
• Added some old favourite folk number to my guitar repertoire and started working on those.

On reflection not too bad - I seem to have achieved more than I thought I had! Just shows the value of noting it all down!

Friday 13th August


It's been such a busy week with many different things going on that I have not had a chance to return to my practice on a regular basis until yesterday evening.

• I was really pleased to find I could play a short classical piece without too many mistakes! The finger exercises on the fretboard are paying off slowly but surely.
• Three songs are now being worked on - I've got the initial chords sorted, but I have got to work on placing my voice properly! I may have to look at transposing the keys - they feel a bit 'squeaky', but this could also be due to bad breathing again! So I think one target for this next week is going to have to be a return to some basic breathing exercises.

The songs: Streets of London, My Grandfathers' Clock, The Marvellous Toy.

Progress over the years - a few photos!

2006 - singing at a wedding party

Posting these pictures is not about creating an ego trip! I find it really helpful comparing my performances as there is always so much one can learn. Looking at my photographs, I can see how much progress I have made with posture!

We were actually having a laugh in this photograph - I wanted to sing a particular song, but the group and I had never played together before - so we struggled trying to find the tune and the correct key! We did get there in the end!
Moral of the story - make time for a rehearsal with your musicians!!!!

Music in the garden 2006

This was another fairly early 'public' performance. It took place in our garden in July 2006. Lots of friends came, including my singing teacher and one of her musicians, a local drummer and a number of others. It was great fun as each person contributed something to the day and we raised money for our cancer support association. Here I spotted terribly hunched shoulders and my head was jutting forward pretty badly.

2007  Students Concert

One of the great things we have done  as students, is to put on concerts. This one in 2007 was part of the October Rose or International Breast Cancer Awareness month events. As we hosted the concert in our village, I had to open the show. I had chosen to sing a Gershwin number, which I had done before at an earlier concert and messed up! In lesson time and rehearsal time leading up to the show we had really got it sorted! So it  should have been ok.
 The guitarist accompanying me started off, but  could I  find the note? In a word NO!  My teacher came up to help...... Eventually we recognised that I had been given a different starting key! Well we muddled through, but it was not a good start. This is one song I will NOT bring out again!!!!Fortunately I had another couple of songs to perform. These went without a hitch!

Same show - different song and what a difference. Here I am confident, relaxed and clearly enjoying myself. Posture is good, and head is properly placed.

This was a French song by Barbara : "Une Petite Cantata." Since learning this song, my voice has changed and, much as I love it, I have not include it in my repertoire, as it doesn't really suit me any more.

This picture was taken in 2008. I was taking part in a summer concert organised by our Christian Community here in the Poitou Charente. I had been working on getting my guitar playing back together for some time and as well as singing with the aid of play-back tracks, I included a more folky song. I'm not actually performing her, but introducing the song which was 'Daddy's Taking us to the Zoo Tomorrow'

Christmas Eve 2009

For two successive Children's Christmas Eve services, I have helped provide the accompaniment for the songs. In 2008 I used our key-board, but for 2009 I decided to use my guitar. One of the songs was 'Il est né le divine enfant'. I had to sort out the chords, and develop the finger-picking style I wanted to use. It also meant I could try out using  the grid system I had been taught.

Cold fingers on a key-board in 2008 weren't very successful, (but then my key-board playing these days leaves much to be desired!) Playing the guitar with cold fingers was also was tricky, but everyone was very complementary, and enjoyed the speed with which I played this carol. It is very often sung incredibly slowly!

Here's to the next opportunity to make music and, hopefully, give others some pleasure.

Todays goal - update

Great excitement when I came home from the office as the DVD's from Guitar Alliance arrived today. I've now had a good browse, and although I am not a beginner ( the materials are definitely targetted at beginners), I have found some useful items. Mind you I did have an initial problem playing the DVD's as I don't have a DVD de-coder on my system, so the Quicktime/Windows media programme did not work. Fortunately I have another programme VLC media player which did work. It was a pity there were no instructions or guidelines in the package. Rest assured, I have emailed Kenny making this observation!
So where have I got to today?

•  I think I now understand how TAB works - I'll try the exercises on Fretboard Memory DVD tomorrow ( I still believe being able to read the notes in the traditional way is important, but then I did 'cut my teeth learning the piano first)!
• I  understand the purpose of the inlay markings on the fretboard  - and to think I thought it was just pretty decoration! Now  I wonder why my small guitar doesn't have an inlay at the third fret, or two markings at the twelfth?
•  I am feeling more confident with the Barre chord structure. I can find and just about play F, G, A & C using the barre chord at the inlay points. Doesn't half do my hand in at the moment...... and my large steel string guitar - well I haven't a hope! The strings are set too high off the fretboard. That not withstanding, all in all not a bad couple of days! 

Wish my fingernails didn't grow so quickly -  good job I have an emery board to hand on the keyboard!

Todays goal

I am going to make an effort to learn how to read TAB guitar notation. It's not something I have done before, as my music education has been based on reading music! So I have printed off the lesson notes "How to read guitar tablature in 2 minutes"; Will report back later on how I got on!!!!

Had a great session today! My fingers are beginning to loosen up and reach the notes on the fret-board again. Spent a while on stretching exercises and then worked on two classical pieces. These are by no means perfect, and the fingering still causes problems, but oh it is so much better than a couple of weeks ago.

I think I am beginning to understand the tab notation too. Each line represents a string and the numbers represent the frets. I need some simple examples to practise with!

I also did some listening work on Fever. I think I have nearly got this right. Now I need to make it mine - not Peggy Lee's or Elvis's, good as they are, but Linda's!

To crown the day, we enjoyed a fantastic BBC Prom's concert on TV!

Long-term Goals

Vocal Goals

On the vocal front I have at last put together a list of songs that will form my 'available' repertoire. It is a list of 21 numbers falling into three categories:

• Jazz - all English-language classics.
• Others - 3 French items and two English items
• German items - one song from my Grandmothers collection of music that I brought home after my Mum's death.

The full list is on a separate page. I aim to have several of these 'concert ready' before too long.

I work with play-back tapes, some that I have bought and others that I have been given by a friend. I would love to have a fellow musician to work with in real-time! One can get 'trapped' in the regularity of a play-back, and the transition from this to a live group of musicians is really difficult. Suddenly all the clues one has learned are of no use at all! Similarly it is very difficult to be creative with a tape that it is always the same - no opportunity to change tempo or experiment with changes of key....... On the plus side, the quality of playbacks these days is so good that 'Have play-back can do concert!!!'

When I am learning a new song I often go to You Tubes and listen to a variety of performances of the same song. This gives me ideas of what is possible. One thing I try not to do is to mimic an artist. I learned very early on the importance of letting any audience hear me and not an impersonation of someone else.

Guitar Goals

On the guitar front, my immediate goal is to get my fingers flexible again! So I do try to pick up my guitar once a day if only to do some stretching exercises on the fret-board. The left hand is certainly taking some work, but I am happy to note that the finger-tips are hard once again.

I've also been working hard at revising my ability to read music and find the notes on the fret-board.... so I am re- learning a couple of classical pieces I used to be able to play. It is slowly coming back!

My next goal is to try and learn a few more chords so that I can increase my Folk-Song repertoire.....

So far I have mastered C A G E D F D7 G7 Bm7 - and I am just beginning to hold a Barré chord......Not bad for an oldie I suppose!!!!!

A snap-shot of my musical adventure so far

This blog is a whole new adventure! I am starting it because I want to try and keep a record of what I am doing with my music and chart my progress.

First of all here is a summary of what I have done over the years. I started learning to play the piano as a young girl - far too long ago to remember. I had regular piano lessons and did quite well until I was encouraged to try a music exam! It was a fiasco - fingers turned to lead and pieces I could play I massacred - so quite understandably I failed! Never again ...... In spite of this I kept on trying to play as it was always a way to relax. As a young teacher, I even found myself trying to play the hymns in assembly! Now, many, many years later I hardly play as other things have evolved.

When I was about 14 my Grandmother gave me my first guitar. This was a real joy! Since she was a music teacher, she showed me the basics and I carried on teaching myself. I loved learning to play chords and sing songs as well a some classical stuff. I even got to sing in a few amateur concerts.

I always wanted to learn to sing, so when the opportunity arose when I was at college at the age of 18 I took it. The teacher was determined that I was a Mezzo Soprano .... we had a few disagreements about that, and I remember being made to lie flat on my back in order to try and reach a top A! This adventure came to a halt after attending a musical soirée she organised. All her students had to sing something in front of a group of other students. I was not confident at all, nerves took over and I dried up totally! So end of singing lessons at this stage! Meanwhile I continued to tinker about on my guitar, and joined choral societies as well as a church choir.

Many years later, now married, I discovered another singing teacher. This was a whole new ball game. We got on well, and I thoroughly enjoyed developing a fairly classical repertoire. Each year the students put on a concert, and although very nerve-racking I had a great time. I learned to sing solos and duets and of course accompanied myself a couple of times on the guitar. Occasional workshop weekends were also arranged. Fantastic!

A few tears later we moved to France. My husband noticed an advert from a singing teacher in the local pharmacy. Needless to say I was thrilled and followed this up. I remember trying to sing a German folk song. I didn't do it terribly well, but we both liked each other and I decided I wanted to continue. This time I was embarking on a totally new style of music - Jazz -Swing. That was five years ago! All lessons are in French,and I am discovering some wonderful new French songs. I have even had the opportunity of singing with live musicians in concert. This new adventure is providing tremendous challenges, but I feel I have made huge progress in technique - for the first time I was taught about breathing - which is pretty fundamental! I am also having a wonderful time learning about musical theory.

This year my Mum died and I inherited my Grandmothers' lute. Sadly it is in need of restoration,as you can see from the photograph, but I dream of having it done, and eventually playing it as a tribute to both my Grandmother and my Mum. This means that I need to really get back to playing my guitar more regularly! So I have invested in a guitar course which has prompted my to set up this blog! I am just waiting for the materials to arrive, and then - well who knows, one day I might be able to realise the dream....