Trees and Hedgerows and their significance to artistic thinking

I have a friend who is involved with the Wildlife Trust in Kent and we were discussing the rationale behind taking out old hedgerows and the subsequent effect of topsoil erosion (as you do). The scientific logical argument behind doing this is that if a field is bigger you can use machinery and make the work more effective however in due course we discover the long-term effect is detrimental; a little bit like killing the goose that lays the golden egg, you may get short-term benefit by long-term disaster.

I grew up in Cornwall and I did actually meet some old farm labourers who had lived and worked on the land and had some of the old-time wisdom that often feature in West Country jokes. One of these is the guy turns up in a flash car asking directions from the old farmer ‘so what is the quickest way to get to Scotland from here’ the old farmer thinks for a while and then says’ best not to start from here’. That sums up the problem that we have currently, many things including the education system, health care and the environment are best fixed some place other than where we are.

There were written cases around the time of the enclosure acts where trees that had figured in the lives of generations of a family suddenly became the possession of a landowner where in the past it sat on common land. This was one of the biggest forms of theft that we experienced in this country and something that is rarely taught in any significant way in schools, that the people with money stole the land by changing the law and disenfranchised ordinary people like you and me.

Old style thinking that the tree lived on the land, and had done for centuries, and did not belong to anyone it belonged to the land. Now this argument works incredibly well when it comes to environmental thinking, because if that tree has a right to exist and has some form of ownership of the land it sits on then by keeping it the tree effectively safeguards all of the environmental infrastructure that it supports and is supported by. This is a simple way of expressing a complex idea just as listening to something in your head and expressing it musically is easier than explaining how the music and is created theoretically.

The problem with the intellectual approach is it is far too simplistic and seems to be inefficient when dealing with complex situations such as the environment and expression in music. So going back to the idea of the hedgerow and the incredible diversity created by borderlands (it is well known that diversity increases in areas that are bordering something else, such as a shoreline, forest edge or in this case the edge of a field) maybe this is a good way of looking at music that does not sit easily within a genre in that it might create more musical biodiversity, the Beatles and their use of Indian music as an example.

So there we have it music and hedgerows and we have not even got into the song of the blackbird and thrush which of course along with the Oak, Hawthorn and Apple would give us plenty of material for the English folk music tradition.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk  play in a band for three days learn the tricks of performance

Can you beat the system?

The story of the music business is full of tales of manipulation, malpractice and sexual misconduct, rather like Hollywood. Courtney Love in her book detailed the way that money is shared out from an advance showing that the bands are left with very little after payment to the manager, payment for videos, recordings et cetera. So can you beat the system or maybe better can you work in another system?

I pondered this over the years as most of my work involves education and I am interested in finding meaning in such a way that I can explain things from my experience and the experience of others.

 I had a very close-run thing on the success front in the early days with the band fronted by a singer who was the son of a well-known film star, there was so much gameplay going on but I was not old enough to spot how to deal with it. I preferred to believe the people in charge had my best interests at heart; problem was (and is) in a capitalist system no one has your best interests at heart there is only pursuit of profit.

 Unfortunately that is the reality, whether that is the production and research into medicines or whether that is selling your house, no one really has your interest at heart only the bottom line and as long as the incompetence is not bad enough for someone to be sued then they get away with it, ask anyone who is buying and selling a house. As long as we can see this then we can work around it or at least expect it, so for musicians why does someone what to book you, because they like you or they expect you to fill the venue?

So you can go along the lines of doing something that actually helps people to achieve something or realise something. The first could be teaching them so they reach a certain grade or get to Music College, the second point is to play for someone’s wedding or birthday or a company’s event putting over the corporate message. Now these have a defined measurable outcome (maybe more flexible in the second instance but if people are having fun then you both win) the point is it is measurable, so that is playing to the system of transactions. The point is that you are not turning up in the Blues Brothers style playing Blues in a Country and Western Club. You would be amazed how many young musicians do not think this through. 

Look at how you can cooperate with others may be from another system so from this perspective music can be used in some form of training, the people doing the training are from a different mind-set. You can bring to the mix a perspective developed from performing and skills from teaching. Lessons learnt from teaching adults can be very valid and insightful in business because one learns a lot about the inner thoughts and beliefs of ‘mature’ people and teaching teenagers may afford you an insight to how to deal with problem adults!

The American entrepreneur and business thinker Jay Abraham used this idea of cross business thinking for his work. A problem in one business may have been solved in another sector so go and look and see how other businesses work. In dealing with another system in order to beat your own could take you into corporate training and teaching an instrument as a metaphor for learning other skills or using performance abilities in something other than the standard concert situation.

Remember that systems are created by people and because the system, whether it is monetary or otherwise is in existence now, does not mean that it will be in existence in the future. Music historically has always been on the cutting edge of systems and the economy, going there first, so take your music somewhere different. The holy grail of the recording contract may not be of any importance any more at any level for a performer and the degree of no importance for the educator.

Once upon a time everybody believed in the divine right of kings…………..

Vic www.bluescampuk.co.uk play in a rock band learn the secrets .

Playing the guitar is a beautiful thing

Playing the guitar is beautiful but there are some people who teach it can make it boring or worse, a misery; that does take some doing.

I was contacted by an ex pupil of mine that had just received his music degree but in his words ‘Uni was good apart from my guitar lessons sadly. The man who “taught me” showed me how much a teacher can really affect your enjoyment of music! So If I didn’t seam grateful at the time... thank you! Because it probably got me through my performance module alone!’

I have always been aware of the teachers who have the unique gift of making the guitar boring I think a lot of reasons for this is the assumption that the guitar should be taught something like a classical instrument. No offense if you are learning classical guitar that is a different matter altogether but not if you are learning a contemporary form of guitar playing.

I see this type of thinking a lot among teachers that there is a correct way to do something and this may be the case if you’re learning a strict discipline of playing for a particular instrument but as soon as you get outside the confines and strictures of a way of thinking then there cannot be an ordained way of playing.

Remember that all of the great contemporary players had some form of idiosyncratic way of delivering music from a Hendrix playing with his teeth approach to the Jeff Healey ‘play the guitar on your lap’ or a Keith Richards ‘playing the different tuning’ to Eric Clapton ‘play so loud that your amp is about to blow up’ sort of thing. None of these follow the correct way of playing guitar with the thumb at the back of the neck and the hand correctly placed over the guitar strings.

So what is it that we need to do? I would suggest that a good teacher is an alchemist, one who finds which ingredients are available within the pupil and by mixing these with the ingredients that the teacher has, can create something transformational there is really no way that you can know what the pupil is capable of and a best guess it is something that is completely beyond what you believe is possible. That has often been my experience but it is only my experience if I allow them to push my ideas beyond my comfort zone.

Education sadly has become very little about opening the mind and very much about social management and ticking boxes, people asking questions about tempo and about technicality when in actual fact these things are taken in the stride of the pupil if they are excited about the prospect of discovering how brilliant they are about being creative.

Because education and higher education in particular is all about the dollar it has become an economic machine that needs to be fed creating much in its likeness; very different from opening the mind like a parachute to explore the creative landscape from a distance but still infused with the excitement of the jump.

So think about what makes music exciting for you, ditch all the stuff that you found boring and go for that. Technical material that is required in order to make stuff exciting should be put over in such a way that people are desperate to learn it.

Vic www.bluescampuk.co.uk