Friday, April 29, 2011

Royal Wedding music




Still moved from watching the royal wedding it struck me how music created the atmosphere both in the beautiful meditative Hubert Parry and the rich and spiritual Paul Mealor . I thought the arrangement of Jerusalem was masterful , and nobody could fail to be stirred by the Walton "Crown Imperial" as the bride and groom left the Church.




Sadly the musicians were shown only briefly, and named simply as The London Chamber orchestra. Was this an orchestra especially fixed for today?. Who was the lucky fixer?




Again Music stirs the soul.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Royal wedding!



We are all very excited here at Shrimp Manor about THE wedding tomorrow. Chloe and I have put up bunting outside (nice surprise for Chris tonight!). I gave the girls a mug each and and Kate and Wills tea towel.... slightly worried that Martha is going to wear hers as a cape tomorrow (!).



I have finished "Ostinato songs" and taking a short bank holiday break before taking a run at the new pentatonic song book (20 NEW pentatonic songs). I have quite a few teachers workshops coming up soon, so trying to get ahead of the game for that too...... all very exciting.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Had to share these.





















The Streetlight trust team are back from the Philippines. Had to share these pictures from Chris and Simon.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Wind bags have arrived!



My two new Recorder ensemble collections are out now available from http://www.kevinmayhew.com/

Book one goes up to about grade two standard, and book two is grades two to four (ish!).

The ensembles which are in usual Wacky Watts style can be played with or without accompaninent, so will work in the middle of fields!!.

Really want to find some friends and play them with me ( any offers?). String bags are coming soon... watch this space.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Bongos on board!


The photo shows our friend Simon in the Philippines. Marshalls amplification kindly donated some bongos for Chris and Simon to take out there for "Kanalungans" work with street children.

I believe it was interesting taking two lots on the plane.

Monday, April 11, 2011

The next generation!


Chris was very thrilled yesterday to find that our God daughter is learning the harmonica at school!. She is part of a wider ops project, and is already playing tunes confidently. I am always surprised that more schools don't teach the harmonica. Its almost as cheap as a recorder, and the chromatic harmonica when played to a high standard is a beautiful instrument.

There was a big drive in the sixties by Hohner to teach harmonica in the classroom alongside the recorder. Such composers as Gordon Jacob were very much behind the project, and Hohner ran teachers courses where they could learn the instrument...... Lets do it again!!.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Thoughts at 3.am




Lying awake in bed last night I had a sudden urge to write a blog post (I didn't!).

I know that I have a song project in full creativity mode, because I can't sleep!!. I am working on two more books for the Red Hot song library (which I am actually very excited about).

I am writing a whole book of new fun pentatonic songs, and also an ostinato song book ( which is incredible exciting because its so flexible). All the songs in this book have short ostinatos which can be sung or played on instruments which can accompany the whole song. The exciting thing (I think) about this, is that its possible to achieve a multi part sung piece or a totally flexible instrumental piece with no music!! ... there are improvising notes too so the piece/song can be as flexible as you like. ( I am particularly pleased with a song called Ostinato Olympics). Both books will be out by September.

The trouble is!!!. Not only do I have the words and tunes of the songs whizzing round in my head at 3 am, I also have the words and tunes of the ostinatos!. AUGH!!!!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Intercountry musical relations.


We have just had a wonderful few days with friends Joy, Lorna and Jerker in Sweden. Can you believe ( I expect so!), that within hours of landing there Chris was playing the harmonica!.

It was an interesting medley, but I have to say that the Beatles and Abba did feature heavily!.