March 2, 2010
 I'm
having some photos taken on location in Lancaster
this Saturday and hopefully I'll get a result as I'm
really in need of them, at the moment when I get
asked I just send 'live snaps'. I'll try and stay
away from the railway tracks which is a common look,
bloke with guitar standing on a railway line. Why?
Or standing in a pond with a guitar, I've seen that
a few times too.
With Lily Gonzarlez (brilliant
percussionist/vocalist with ABC), we played here in
San Diego last year while on the Regeneration tour
>>
I’m being brave making fun of other artists promo
photos BEFORE I have mine taken…mmm I could be
setting myself up for ridicule if I’m not careful.
It’s looking highly likely that this years U.K tour
with Bob Cheevers will start in Twickernam on
October 3rd followed by a few dates in Leicester and
a Swindon, I’m looking forward to it!
Bob Cheevers,
David Macneill, and me, summer 08, Charnock Richard,
Lancashire
I’m still teaching a limited number of private
students on a one-to-one basis (when I can
in-between touring, writing and recording) and
recently I’ve been helping some of them out with
song writing as well as playing bass and acoustic
guitar. I’m actually having a whole separate web
site built at the moment specifically aimed at the
tutoring I can offer, I mention this only to labour
the point of how difficult it is to help someone
when they need answers to questions such as ‘how do
I write a good song?’, or ‘what makes a good
musician?’.
I recently showed a student the circle of fifths and
the circle of fourths; I won’t go into it now!
Anyway, the student asked ‘what’s the point of it
though?’ which is a good question to ask. Why spend
time practicing something without knowing the point
of it? In short, as well as learning key signatures
and enhancing fret board knowledge the circle of
fourths and the circle of fifths are heard in many
songs, and when you get used to hearing them it
often makes playing and understanding chord
progressions easier.4
 A
good example of this is ‘I Walk the Line’ by Johnny
Cash. I have recently recorded a cover version of
this song and now often show my students its
interesting key progression…
<<
The wonderful Johnny Cash
at Sun Studios
The first verse is in ‘F’
It then goes up a fourth (as in the circle of
fourths) – Therefore, verse two is in ‘Bb’
It repeats this process once more – Therefore, verse
three is in ‘Eb’
For verse four we go up a fifth (as in the circle of
fifths) - this verse is in ‘Bb’
For the fifth and final verse we go up a fifth again
– therefore, the last verse is in ‘F’, the same as
the first verse. The song has taken a journey
through five keys, ending in the same key it started
in.
This is a good example of the circle of fourths and
the circle of fifths being put into practice, by
knowing this stuff you are no longer learning a song
with fifteen chords in it, you are a learning a
fairly simple chord progression but playing it in
five keys.
Within the song itself the verse starts on the
fifth, for example, when it is in the key of ‘F’ it
chugs away in it’s ‘freight train’ rhythm on the
root note ( the ‘1’) then when the vocal starts the
chord changes to ‘C’. This pattern repeats
throughout (the same chord progression on each
verse).
 On
the record you hear Johnny Cash hum every time the
song changes key (HMMMMM), this was so he could
pitch the new key each time.
Me at Sun Studios (snapped
while on tour with Cutting Crew)
>>
I’ll finish this impromptu ‘I Walk the Line’ article
with three points… Johnny Cash is easily one of my
top five favourite artists, any guitar players
reading this should transpose everything down a
semi-tone and use a capo (Play the first verse in
‘E’), and another fact about this record is; Johnny
put a $20 bill under his strings and strummed the
rhythm. Hence the muted, scratchy, ‘freight train
rhythm’.
I love to learn about songs and try as many
songwriting techniques as I can. No matter how busy
I am I write something every day.
As I’ve said before in my blogs, Bob Cheevers is a
good guy to learn from. He’s got some good Johnny
Cash stories too, he was personally asked by Johnny
to open up for him on what turned out to be his last
tour.
February 2, 2010
I’ve just negotiated another long winter U.K tour
as the support artist for the Emmy winning U.S
songwriter Bob Cheevers, It’s looking like we are
starting on October the 3rd in Twickenham and I’ll
be home on the 1st of December.
I’m looking forward to airing some of my new songs
before they make it to the next CD. Once again, we
will be
 playing
around 50 dates spread all over Britain, a good
opportunity to get out there.
Here is a snap of me playing solo at a concert
last year at the Cottismore church in Rutland…
>
Although being on the road is tiring, it is many
people’s opinion that for an artist to develop there
is no substitute for just getting out there and
doing it! When bands and solo artists sign to major
labels, often the first thing that happens is they
are whisked away from their ‘gigging circuit’ as the
quality of gigs they are playing are deemed ‘beneath
them’ through the eyes of their record company. This
all comes to mind when I remember a conversation I
had with Jim Diamond who has experienced this (like
most things in the music industry) first hand. His
advice is don’t listen, and in his own words, ‘every
day I don’t get out there and sing is a wasted day’.
 <
Photo: on bass for Jim Diamond…
I’ll be working on a couple of my new demos at
incentiv studios this month, and a part of the ‘pro
tools’ files I’m taking with me contain solos by a
lead guitar player called Chris Hunt. I’m sticking
with the ‘band’ idea for the next album even though
it could take a while to get it right.
I’m spending more time being attentive to the songs
I write and have found that the longer I ‘sit on’ my
ideas the better, if a melody stands the test of
time then it’s a good melody, same with lyrics, same
with everything.
I remember seeing an interview with one of my
favourite writers, Gilbert O’Sullivan. He was
talking about the ‘tin pan alley’ days and how
Irving Berlin had what he called ‘trunk songs’. He
would write a melody then toss the manuscript into a
trunk, and often, when he wrote lyrics he would use
a melody from the trunk which had been written
several years previously. Again, if it stands the
test of time then it must be well crafted. If the
aged melody had have been sub-standard, it would
have been scrapped. I believe Gilbert O’Sullivan
uses a similar technique with cassettes.
 And
like all great writers Gilbert’s records just get
better and better… This is my opinion anyway.
Incidentally, I was intrigued as to why it was
called ‘tin pan alley’. Many believe it was due to
the sounds heard when walking down the broadway
street in question.
Apparently, the sound of the many pianos playing
different tunes from the open windows was similar to
the sound of people banging on tin pans?
Weird photo taken by a Cutting Crew fan…
>
I’ll close this blog with a photo I found from a few
years back of Combination Head on tour, promoting
our album at the time, ‘Progress?’
Cheers then - D.F
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