How to start a band

 How to start a band

 I thought about calling this How to lose friends and alienate people, in other words how to become a musician and start a band.

The world of the musician in the artist has just become a darn sight harder to exist in, and we now need to be able to think differently about what we do. I don’t think this is just in the world of music and the arts, I think probably it brings into focus what crazy things are going on a what government values, many other sectors are affected here which deals with close interaction. However the world of the arts often flourishes when there is a problem because the creatives find new ways of doing things, so it may be a good time to start a band, that said let us get stuck in.

I come from the UK and north Kent in particular and back in the day punk had just happened and although I was more into the blend of reggae music and rock there were lots of opportunities for bands however good to get up and play because of that make it up quality that punk had created.

Music has a habit of getting complicated only to be knocked back to the basics and now is a time for this to happen again. All you need is a couple of chords and passion to play and then get into time!

So the band classically needs bass, drums, guitar and or keyboards and vocals, in other words a rhythm section, a harmony and melody section. So where are they?

Firstly your friends; if you do not get on with the others in the band it will not last, so friends and then friends of friends is the first port of call. You should be able to get at least the back bone of the band this way before advertising for the other person.

Often the drummer is the hardest to find, if you cannot find one I would suggest that the band forms the set without one, draft someone in later even if you have to pay him and in that way you can get a good player because a good drummer is THE thing that drives the band.

The next thing is you need a gig even if the band has just formed; organise a gig at a party or local village hall to act as a catalyst, if you are still at school all the better because not only do you have a venue you have also got an audience! It always amazes me how all the time that kids are at school they miss this opportunity and then start talking about forming a band at University, no START NOW! Make your band THE school band

For those of you starting late you will need to network and then network and then network, not only for the band members but places to play and other bands to support.

Rehearsals

You will need to find somewhere to work on your material and build the team; this is easier now than when I started off. Make sure that you practice your stuff at home so when you get there it is all about putting it together. You will be amazed how many times the vocalist does not know the song or the guitarist does not know the chords etc. and that can be a waste of time

Songs to choose

Keep them simple! Not a list of your favourite songs, make a list of numbers that an audience will like. Here are some ideas, old rock and roll, Kinks numbers, Punk, Grunge, old soul, Reggae, Bluebeat songs or anything that will get a crowd dancing and moving and simple to play so you can hone your skills as a unit or write your own. I can help you with this it you contact vichyland@msn.com as I run song writing groups which is by donation to a charity

Gear

This is not so much of a problem now as it is easier and cheaper to buy equipment than when I started. However the gear that is shared like the PA can be a problem. If you have bought equipment amongst the group have clear guidelines to what happens if someone leaves or the group breaks up. Having a clear plan avoids a lot of problems later because it doesn’t matter how much you believe that this band is gonna make it, the personnel will change many times before you get the magical ingredients.

So that’s it very basically just get playing and enjoy yourself is if you make your music fun and audience will pick up on that and will enjoy watching you play.

For further details visit www.vichyland.com

 

 

 

 

Ripples in a pool

 

Ripples in a pool

 

I took a small stone and turned to one of the children and said ‘I’m going to show you something of how the universe works, in fact it is most definitely how nature works’. I threw the stone into the water and we watched the ripples radiate out. ‘You see the ripples are caused by something that is not the same as the ripples,  the action itself is not the same as the effect of that action, that is something important  to notice and if you look carefully you can see it everywhere. The bee when it is feeding doesn’t know that it’s pollinating a plant, in fact the benefit that it brings to all life is not his actual intention and this is true of most things. The skill is to be able to work out what effect you can have in the world by doing something completely different. That my dear is Magic’.

I have been fascinated for some time in the unexpected consequence and situations where something is happening but it is difficult to work out the causative effect of it.

Why is it for instance that some people with the same amount of practice could learn much quicker than others, and then slow down?

How is it that  other people learn slowly and then for no apparent reason suddenly become very good almost overnight?  I have seen this over and over again,

I have had a number of experiences where somebody who could not sing, who is struggling to pitch a note and who was make slow progress, could one day turn up to a lesson; sit down and this amazing voice came out.

 In a previous post I said that progress is not linear, I had spoken more of the framework of revelation and some sort of tipping point event but this time I want to look at what we could do to create change in an indirect lateral fashion.

 I was always interested in the work of Edward De Bono who coined the phrase lateral thinking, in his numerous books on the subject there are lots of examples of stimulating thought by coming in laterally. He uses various examples one of them was an American museum looking for extra funding and using a dictionary as the reference source. At random they chose words from the dictionary and then brainstormed what it made them think. One word was mattress and that led to the idea of sleepovers in the museum, children’s parties then business conferences etc. This apparently led to an increase in the funds for the museum leading to their financial survival and course a couple of Hollywood films such as Night in the Museum, I’m joking as I don’t know whether that’s true or not!

Sometimes we see this in our own life where a situation which may have been unpleasant leads to an improvement in one’s life, a fulcrum point in the way that gave you leverage for change.

Instead of waiting for events we create the opportunity for them to happen,  him I’m thinking of the idea explored in the book the ‘The Dice Man’ where his decisions based on the throw a dice. I have already mentioned Bowie and Brian Eno use of cards in their case the oblique strategy cards that Eno had created. Brian Eno was also a collector of Tarot packs and therefore I would assume that the the oblique strategy cards that he created we’re just an extension to that idea. If  it worked for Brian Eno and David Bowie it might be worth considering it yourself.

So what about ritualistic behaviour?  Of course we do this all the time, cleaning our teeth, who goes to the bathroom first in the morning,  how we order our lives; these patterns are the same, day in, day out often, so let us create some that have an intention for change.

Remember that I have a creative experiment going on which is available through my Patreon site which is the Magical Song Writing, where we are creating lyrics and music that has some intention to change ourselves and our surroundings. Check that out by visiting www.Patreon.com/vichyland

 

also Bluescampuk music summer school www.bluescampuk.co.uk 

 

 

 

 

We do not learn in a straight line it is a crazy journey and a tipping point event.

 

We do not learn in a straight line it is a crazy journey and a tipping point event.

 

Over the years I have pondered how people learn. I have looked at my learning which resembles a wrestling match; sometimes I win sometimes I lose.

To me the way that people learn is not a gradual improvement which seems to be the model implied in most academic areas. In fact it is more consistent with the idea of the mediaeval revelation where at some point in time after much trial and tribulation it is revealed to you.

We see this idea more in Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey or any saga; a long journey with lots of tribulation, failures, and alliances, some form of cheating, double-dealing and then achieving the aim, sometimes not in the way that was anticipated; and then the journey back, with the treasure.

The reason I think this is so important is that it dissolves the illusion of how things happen, our intellectual reasoning mind wants things to be measured and mapped but I don’t think the world works like this and the more I interview people for the ‘Creative’ podcast the more I see it. In fact I haven’t actually met anyone who’s had a straightforward trajectory to what they have achieved.

I have spoken to people whose life has been rocked by bizarre events, near death experiences, strange meetings by chance, lucky breaks, disappointments that led to something else but whatever it is  never a gradual improvement on a level road taking us to our target.

It seems that the mind needs to get to that point where the pressure has built up so much that the dam bursts. For the guitarist the amount of practice becomes like a tsunami that enables the muscular aspects to change, for the singer they suddenly find their voice, for the novelist the plot with all its twists and turns comes into view, for the entrepreneur the idea suddenly presents itself out of nowhere.

Now that is not to say that we do not need strategies and tactics that enable us to create and open doorways, because sometimes the Muses aren’t waiting they have to be called maybe by having techniques that get us into that mind frame they hear us and we are prepared  to channel an idea.

You see everything is really like that, we don’t gradually learn to ride a bike, we suddenly learn to ride a bike after spending a lot of time falling off, it’s the same with surfing, walking, talking, in fact the most common graph that you could draw is a steep rise followed by a plateau, then another steep rise followed by another plateau and so on.

In one of the solo shows called Tough Love, I talk about really good pupil who just suddenly gave up when they were just on the cusp of making a great improvement, however in today’s way of thinking with all its ‘let’s have it now’ attitude many people stop achieving, and this is exacerbated by the parents who don’t want little Johnny or little Melissa to be bored or to have to contact with the uncomfortable feeling of struggle. However this attitude may be the very thing that is destroying the young mind when learning to deal with difficulty is what we would have termed in the past, ‘character building’.

So let us get away from this comfort zone and look at how we learn, let us embrace the frustration and the delay and the sore fingers and be prepared for the judgement day went suddenly we can do that thing.

You know it is worth it that is why not many people can play an instrument or do anything at a high level unless they can wrestle with their angels and demons.

 

Vic

 www.bluescampuk.co.uk

www.patreon.com/vichyland 

 

 

 

 

What happens when a song casts a spell?

 

What happens when a song casts a spell?

 

Ok, what if a song actually changes reality? I think that these songs actually exist, for instance ‘All You Need is Love’ by the Beatles may not been the cause of the ‘summer of love’ but probably increased its potency as it rode the crest of that wave in 1967.

Heroes by David Bowie was released in 1977, with its references to the Berlin Wall and its ultimate failure along with Bowie’s Berlin concert, leading  to the sudden taking down of the wall in 1989? Ripples in the pool caused by art? Who can really say? 

I am particularly interested in the songs written by people that hint at their ultimate demise. For instance ‘Son of a Gun’ by Kurt Cobain and ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ by John Lennon, are good examples of this but there are many others.

Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren’ foretells of the death of his son by drowning many years later and it gets much weirder than that, Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins recorded the song, she also recorded with Tim’s son Jeff Buckley, the two became lovers and Jeff became the character in the song who drowns in the Mississippi in a freak accident.

What about the song that takes us back in our memory or makes us cry or laugh? We all have examples of that I am sure. What is this mysterious power that music has?

In folk music there are lots of examples of songs that have some sort of magical intent. There are songs that seem to be intended as curses and others that contain the impossible task which was popular amongst the cunning folk as they went about their business. A song such as Scarborough Fair contains many impossible tasks asked of an ex-lover,such as making a shirt with no seem and no needlework, and then to wash it in a dry well. There is also a list of protective herbs such as sage rosemary and thyme which was to be believed to be particularly useful against witchcraft. So does this mean that the ex-lover was a witch? Also within the British folk music tradition were references to trees and birds and enchanted people who had met with the fairy folk, in some traditions they were gifted to learn a skill such as playing music, or as a warning that is might not go well dealing with the Realm of the Fay.

Within the blues there is a rich tradition of magical practice which is most evident in the songs of Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. In fact many of the Muddy Waters songs viewed through the lens of NLP or magical thinking, look like some form of hypnotic suggestion, such as ‘I’ve got my Mojo Working (but it sure don’t work on you). Take out the negative and there you have a magical love spell being cast on anyone who Muddy Waters fancies in the audience.

So I thought it was about time that we explored the possibilities of song-writing using phrases that intend an outcome. This can be done in many ways such as;

All you need is love,

All you need is love,

All you need is love, love,

Love is all you need.

I think this last line is particularly clever in that it is a reworking of the first phrase, and then of course the end of the song is a mantra; Love is All You Need.

 In the outro the song references other songs that include love, like She Loves You.

Make a song that changes your life…….

So if you’re interested in this project and want to go down that rabbit hole visit me at my Patreon site www.Patreon.com/vichyland  

where you will see details of how you could be part of this experiment.

Or send me an email to vichyland@msn.com

 

Vic Hyland

 

 

Interview with Australian Guitar Ace Geoff Achison

 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/creative/id1481493729?fbclid=IwAR3Sk-wLUuJ768oQmp3Uwy8IHAn2XJTJBkHbhwuWd851SxeHB0xkvEvircw

Interview with Australian Guitar Ace Geoff Achison 

When the sun shines it shines on everyone when it rains it rains on everyone, the question is, ‘What can you do to shelter people from the storm?’

When the sun shines it shines on everyone when it rains it rains on everyone, the question is, ‘What can you do to shelter people from the storm?’

What are the benefits and upside of the current situation? Putting it another way, maybe we should not let a crisis go to waste. I have watched as artists have the possibility and potentiality of their careers and income disappearing down a black hole. What is the way forward? What can you do if you ally yourself to others in a similar situation to you?

Could you trade your skills for another’s skills?

Over the years I have had a number of pupils who have traded my guitar lessons in return for their own specialised skills. These have included computer repairs, software and other programming, gardening work, roadies for gigs, yoga lessons and many other things.

It is interesting that this form of exchange which would have been an important part of the economy doesn’t seem to be in our mind-set very much. However this could be an important aspect of your business and although technically you could be taxed on this, in reality it is something that can slip under the net.

Within your circle of friends there will be other musicians and artists who will be in exactly the same boat as you. You may be able to up skill and help them to up skill in areas that all could benefit from.

What experiences have you that you can share?

Life often throws us a curved ball and every now and again it takes our bat and hits us around the head with it. Now such experiences of life and how you recover from the head trauma are worth sharing. Think about financial problems that you have dealt with or are dealing with could they be of use to others. What about health issues? Mental and physical all of these can be the beginning of someone’s journey to health, and can act as a catalyst for others.

If you have not experienced the above, do you know someone who has who you can get to help? Become a portal of information.  

 

Are there any areas of abundance in this situation?

I know that’s hard to find if we coming out of the same paradigm, but if we shift the view of what we are doing, what can we find?

In any crisis there is an opportunity, just as in a good time not everyone benefits, this may not be musical opportunity or artist one however, you may be able to make it into one later, but at the moment look broader and deeper into the situation. I have to wonder how much money people have made from facemasks, sanitisers and then of course the vaccination when it arrives! That will certainly be a good money-spinner. I am not suggesting this, just that some people spot this a long way off and we might need to model that type of thinking.  

Remember you also have a network of other people, they are called friends; this is one of the most important aspects of being an artist you have a long list of contacts that you can use and they are often your friends. It might be an idea to sit down and write them out, make it physical. There will be more than just your Facebook crowd but your email list and you address book; people that you really know and trust.

Now is a good time to discover who your true friends are. Make sure that you are friends to other people.

 

Vic 

www.bluescampuk.co.uk Play in a rock band, Write songs, play gigs in France 

www.patreon.com/vichyland  for Podcast news on 'Creative'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative podcast - Asking better questions