I've always wanted to have a blog. I love writing, I have a wide range of interests and, even if I'm essentially writing a music blog here, music is a very wide ranging subject, and I'm planning to cast a wide net in what I write about. Plus, I'm a fairly opinionated sonofabitch, so that should lend itself well to blogging.
So, what's been stopping me all these years? I guess the idea of spending time writing about something when I could actually be composing something, or recording something, or learning a piece of music, or God! practicing, even!......well, it just seemed frivolous somehow.
But one thing I've learned from my years of teaching is that you learn a huge amount about something when you actually have to explain it successfully to someone else. There are so many variations and techniques that one uses in singing well, for instance, that being able to explain to a student how to best approach an upcoming top 'G' which sits in an awkward place in their voice in the piece they're working on, might require me to 3 or 4 different methods of explanation––a couple different visualisation techniques might turn the trick for one person. A more anatomical, physical approach might work better for others. I need to be able to see the ultimate goal and how to achieve it from several different angles in order to accommodate people who learn things in various and diverse ways. Will blogging help me expand my mind and my options? I hope so.
I'm hoping to cover everything––music teaching, composition, arranging, orchestrating, songwriting techniques, recording and studio issues, singing, playing an instrument––it's an open door. Because, why not? You've presumably seen the website. It may be a bit anarchic, but it certainly does show eclecticism. That's me! Loads of passions, only one of me, and only one life.
So, drop me a line. Tell me what you want to talk about, hear about, argue about. I'll try to be a very disciplined little writer, ideally doing at least a little bit every day. More soon.
