John's Quavering Pencil

I can’t tell you  how many hours I have spent on trying to tidy up old stuff. It was mainly 4-ring binders, lever-arch and box files. I never actually counted the number of A4 sheets of paper I took down for recycling but the pile, when neatly stacked, measured 8″ high. Now, for my continental friends, 8″ stands for eight inches in England which is ‘old money’ for about 200 mm, I think. When are they going to bring back L.s.d. (and that is not a drug reference, btw)?

I had been wanting to write a few blogs just recently but I forgot my password to get in to do it. Then they sent it to an email that I haven’t used for about a decade and I had forgotten my password to get into that email. Passwords are driving me nuts, at the moment.

Anyway, I am getting into playing my friend’s Fender Telecaster through a Behringer virtual amp and it is sounding very good. I feel a purchase coming on… Talk to you later, my dear blogophiles.

Hello!
Well, I have now played 1556 shows in Second Life since 3rd January, 2008. Today I played (as my avatar, Fyrm Fouroux) at my little virtual venue, Terra Fyrmusica.

A friend of mine in MeatSpace said that one of his mates who played in an amateur rock band was used to having small audiences for pub gigs. He used the term ‘audient’ for the situation where you play to just one solitary person. Today, I played to an audient at my gig (my good SL friend, Ferdy). Actually, between songs we chatted about the concept of fun and explored its relation to knowledge and skill. Some people have expressed the view to me that I should only do my music if I am enjoying it or having fun. I think it is much more complicated than that, when it comes to the creative endeavours relating to playing an instrument or, in art, sketching and painting.

Of course, it is possible to have fun with minimal skills and knowledge. In terms of song-writing with a guitar, that kind of fun is summed up in the somewhat dismissive analysis of a song as being little more than a three-chord trick.

With music, the fun of playing the instrument might be experienced at different levels, depending on one’s skill and knowledge of the musical genre. My point is that to get from one level to a higher plane, sometimes takes a lot of concentration, hard work and loads of practice; this is not always fun and it often requires discipline and strength of mind.

Anyway, let’s get back to fun. It might be possible to experience fun at all levels, but the nature of the fun could become more sophisticated as one moves up the levels of skill (with musical instruments, this would be rather like the English grade system which goes from 1 to 8). If one remains at a low level of skill for too long one might simply become bored, and boredom devours fun with a voracious appetite.

I enjoyed talking about this with Ferdy. I doubt very much whether I could have had that kind of conversation were the gig to have had a larger audience. I learned something today: playing to a single ‘audient’ can be as enjoyable as playing to a small crowd (I never play to large crowds, they just don’t like me).
Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

Hello!

This is a quick note to let you know that I have placed a link on my Website Homepage that will let you play the audio from my Internet show in the Second Life virtual community – this is the address –  http://www.lewismusic.co.uk/

I played the gig on Saturday 13th May (2017). There is no visual element, but it should play in whatever app you use to play music on your computer/tablet/phone/washing machine/ whatever.

I also need to apologise for lack of blogs this past year. I did eventually finish my book of illustrations for lyric fragments taken from my original songs. I am currently working on a new book of sketches, but it might take me a year or more to finish. So far I have completed about half-a-dozen sketches that I think will work.

It is 04.30 a.m. in England and I got up to do a bit of piano practice. I had better get on with that. Then I shall probably roll back to bed for a bit before breakfast. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles!

Hello!

This is a brief note to say that I have recently made a Donald Trump cartoon which you can find on my website:

Trump cartoon

I hope that this link works for you and that you enjoy the cartoon.

Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

Hello!
Well, I wasted some time this afternoon on what can only be described as a displacement activity (instead of getting on with some graphics for my forthcoming illustrated book about my songs).

I get fed up having to drive past Gormley’s sculpture ‘The Angel of the North’ every time I go up the A1 from Sunderland. so I decided to make my own fantasy sculpture, which I hereby call ‘The Bagel of the North’

Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles 🙂

Hello!
It has been a while since I have posted here. I seem to have been very busy refurbishing my little music studio. Anyway, be that as it may, I have heard that BBC TV Channel Four is going to do a programme about chemical warfare and the UK establishment known as ‘Porton Down’. This is due to be scheduled on Tuesday 28th June 2016 at 2100 GMT. Well, it occurred to me that I wrote a song about chemical warfare back in the early 1980s. I released it in 1983 (the copyright # is ISRC GBGHU0300005).

A version of this song is up on my Bandcamp site:
http://fyrmusica.bandcamp.com/track/chemical-warfare

The fyrmusica site is so named after my Second Life avatar (Fyrm Fouroux) but you don’t really need to know that.

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about this. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles!

Hello! This is to let you know that I have now placed a digitally orchestrated version of my song ‘Trip to the tip’ on Bandcamp

Hello! I have now put a version of Hawk’s Dinner up on Bandcamp:
A hawk’s dinner
Hoping to get more up in due course.

Hello! Yet another song up on bandcamp now…
Fried eggs for breakfast

There might be a pause before I get any more songs up, for a while. I think I am more or less up-to-date with what I have on file. There is more to come, but that will require work in the home-recording studio. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.