The Fifth Course

My intention today is to explain things in a detailed manner without going too deep. The idea is to give first timers the confidence to try new stuff; confidence I lacked and which held me back for a long time.

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A lot of us have adopted an 8 string solid body electric mandolin (emando) for late night practice. It's quiet, it has 8 strings, and therefore serves as a good substitute for our more cherished instrument.

But expect, late at night while the rest ...

My last blog entry was... what? nine years ago?

Well as you might expect a lot has changed in nine years. My family and I left the UK in summer 2018 for a more salubrious political and economic climate in my wife's home country of France. I have been working hard to integrate into French life ever since.

Part of that integration has been adapting to French musical culture. American/English folk music doesn't get a lot of play here, so in the interest of having people ...

The first thing all my fellow Americans need to know is that Simon Mayor is a monster player. Tone and technique for days. He's not a Bluegrass guy, and that may be why he gets fairly little attention from mandolin communities dominated by the good people of the Americas. If you need a genre or category to wrap your mind around, then think of him as cut from the same mold (or mould as they spell it here) as Mike Marshall. He's an excellent all-rounder, plays fluidly through pretty much anything ...

You did not miss chapter 3, and neither is the title a typo. I decided writing about paperwork was a kind of a meta-hell in which only the most self absorbed self abusers are punished. Lacking an appetite for self-harm, I'm skipping on to chapter 4.

[If you're really interested in UK registration of recordings and albums drop me line and we can talk. It is an involved process.]

The mastering is complete! I got something called a PQ sheet from the mastering engineer ...

I do need to make an amendment to my last blog.

I used a different process to record instrumental than songs. The CD track, "St Anne's Reel/Whiskey Before Breakfast," was recorded without a scratch track. I simply sat down in front of the mic setup that we used to record the guitar rhythm tracks and banged out 72 bars, using my Santa Cruz Guitar Company dreadnought as the rhythm instrument. (32 for St. Anne's Reel, 32 for Whiskey Before Breakfast, and the B part to Whiskey ...

A couple of weeks ago I finished a 10 day recording session for my new CD which will carry the title More Than a Little Guitar. At the outset the goal was to make a folk/singer-songwriter album framed around the mandolin as primary rhythm and lead instrument.

To record a song, I would sit in the studio with mics on playing the song as though I was performing it. My producer, Brooks Williams, and my engineer, Chris Pepper, would find the tempo and create a drum track that suited ...

Seriously, I had no idea England had a Rochester too. But every time I come across an English city with the same name as an American one, like Boston, I think, "Well duh. They had to get the name somewhere,"

In any case Rochester is a lovely little town that holds a medieval castle and cathedral. They have a folk festival there every year called Rochester Sweeps Festival. I appeared on Sunday the 5th of May at the Busker's Corner. The stage was set up between the castle ...

Napping during the break.

Matt and I went to the Cambridge market square yesterday afternoon. Mandolin and guitar in tow, we walked through it twice scouting busking locations. One by one they were taken up by more experienced and decisive buskers. We finally settled upon the southwest corner, near a coffee shop and some likely looking kiosks.

I set out the mandolin case (my breast-cancer-awareness pink gig bag) and tuned up my Vessel F5. Matt tugged out the Rainsong and waited.

That space ...

A lot has happened since the last time I dropped a line here. I should update here more often! (I wonder if anyone is still reading this. Drop me a line or post a comment if you are!)

The following is a warning to all you unattached people out there. This could happen to you...

She is wonderful. She plays guitar and writes songs, she is intelligent, insightful, caring, patient, and fun to kiss. When we met she was on vacation from England, visiting the Bay Area ...