Music lessons are booming across the UK
Telephone 07866 650015 to book your guitar or ukulele lessons in your own North Devon Home or anywhere in the world by Skype, FaceTime, or Google Hangouts.
Paul Clews Enterprises Tel: 07866 650015 |
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Music lessons are booming across the UK Telephone 07866 650015 to book your guitar or ukulele lessons in your own North Devon Home or anywhere in the world by Skype, FaceTime, or Google Hangouts.
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On the 12th April I will be taking part in National Learn an Instrument Day's called Play it Today, hosted by Soundpad in Barnstaple. The idea is to inspire people to take up a musical instrument. I have been invited, as one of the leading local music teachers to be instore to talk to people, and to show them some basics on guitar and ukulele. Often, people do not know where to go for advice when learning an instrument. Play it Today is a great opportunity for people to try a new instrument and get all the advice they need to start playing. If you are interested in taking up music, even if it is not guitar or ukulele, pop along and say hello. Soundpad http://www.soundpad.co.uk/ Facebook event https://m.facebook.com/events/487665374671182 This post will be updated when more information is available, so please check back. Win a free half hour guitar or ukulele lesson by Skype, FaceTime or google hangouts. During #DevonHour on twitter, this week only (21/82013), 10 questions about me will appear under the hash tag #SoYouThinkYouKnowMe. Simply tweet the answers back to me. All the answers are in my twitter time line and blogs. The winner will be announced shortly after Saturday 6 pm (24/8/2013) when the competition closes, here and on Twitter. In the event of a tie, I will draw a winner from the most correct answers. Anyone is eligible to play, except me. Good luck! You must be able to get your hands on a guitar or ukulele. No cash alternatives. My decision is final. Standard Tuning
The notes of the open srings of a guitar in standard tuning are (starting with the thickest string) E, A, D, G, B and E. To remember this, Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears. The easiest way to tune your guitar is with an electronic tuner. They come in various types, but are really cheap these days, and well worth the investment. There are also internet tuners, mobile phone and ipod tuners these days. I use the Polytune app for iPhone/iPod. It is also vital to be able to tune by hear. so this is how it's done. Assuming the 6th string is in or at least nearly in tune, hold down the the note on the 5th fret. The note produced should be the same as the open 5th string. If it is not, turn the tuning peg on the 5th string until the notes produced are the same. Once this is completed hold down the 5th fret on the 5th string. This should produce the same note as the open 4th string. Again if this is not the case, then turn the tuning peg on the 4th string until it is the same. Hold down the 5th fret of the 4th string. This note should be the same as the open 3rd string. Again if it is not, turn the tuning peg until it is the same. This time hold down the 4th fret of the 3rd string. This fret should produce the same note as the 2nd string. If does not, then turn the tuning peg of the 2nd string until it does. Finally, hold down the 5th fret of the 2nd string, this should produce the same note as the open 1st string. If it is not, turn the 1st tuning peg until it is the same. This should have put the guitar in tune. It is not very easy to do and does take practice. For information on guitar lessons http://paulclews888.weebly.com/guitar--ukulele-lessons.html
I caught the bus a 8:45 and got picked up on the way to Paul's house by Paul. We had to go to his dads house so he could alter the bridge on his Kala arch top ukulele. Once that was done we got back to Paul's house to check the ukulele and found that Paul's Amp was broken. After that we went to Ilfracombe infants school for a couple of lessons. During which Paul mainly taught some new chords and then used songs to help them get learned. Then we went to Berrynarbor School and Paul taught someone Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. After that we had a lesson in Northam during which Paul was teaching scale modes and fancy chords using music theory that I had no clue about.
By Jake Cole
My first electric guitar was a Harmony Les Paul Junior copy. It's the guitar I started to learn seriously on. I bought it from a shop on the outskirts of Walsall. I can't remember the name of the shop, but I'd seen the guitar in the shop window every morning on my way to work. I saved up, then went back one Saturday, parted with £50 (about 2 weeks wages). This guitar took me from knowing next to nothing, to bar F. I bought it purely on the fact that it was the cheapest electric guitar in the shop. This of course is not the way to buy a guitar (See my blog on how to buy a guitar. I've put a link at the end of this blog). It turned out to be not too bad a guitar, I've certainly seen far far worse guitars since.It was at the bar F point, I realised I needed a better guitar. With a little advice decided on a Fender Stratocaster.
By Christmas 1983 I'd saved enough. I sold my Sherpa mini bus to a karate club to raise the remainder, to much dismay from my parents. 'How are you going to get to work with no transport'? 'But you can't even play'! Were just a couple of their kinder comments they suggested to me. I had a dream, or an ambition, and they were dream stealers. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to get the best deal that side of Christmas, so I waited until the January sales. By the time I was ready to buy my second electric guitar, I knew all the guitar shops in the area, I took my friend with me and went guitar shopping. I was looking at all the Strats in all the shops. I ended up in a shop in Walsall on the ring road. Again, it's name escapes me, but not the same shop I'd bought the Les Paul Junior copy from. I asked the guy who worked there if I could try a Fender Strat that had caught my eye. In other words, the cheapest I could find. It was about £300, and I was having it. 'Before you buy that, try this' suggested the guitar shop assistant. He handed me a Tokai Strat. It's a copy I thought to myself, I don't want a copy, I want the real thing. I tried it. It looked, felt, and played just like the fender, but was only £210. 'Before you make your mind up try this'. This time he handed me a Gordon Smith. It was £250. I liked it, but not as much as the Strats. Insistently, I do own a Gordon Smith now, I've had it about 20 years. I ended up purchasing the Tokai on that occasion. I have used it almost every day since, and I am still using it today. If you see a picture of me with a red Strat, that's the guitar. Buying that guitar turned out to be the best investment I could have done. It propelled my learning. The guitar was easier to play, sounded far nicer, and made me feel amazing. Without a decent instrument, it is really difficult to develop as a musician. Without taking that risk of selling my transport to work, parting with what seemed an unjust amount of money for me at that time, would I have managed to learn the guitar to the level I did? I suspect not, therefore what career would I now have? Who knows? But I love that guitar and the business it has given me! It has paid for itself countless times. How to buy a guitar blog http://paulclews888.weebly.com/1/post/2013/02/how-to-buy-a-guitar.html
Information on my guitar lessons http://paulclews888.weebly.com/guitar--ukulele-lessons.html Tokai Guitars http://www.tokaijapan.com/ Fender Guitars http://www.fender.com/en-GB/#/american-standard-stratLH Click on this link if you would like to become sexier. http://paulclews888.weebly.com/guitar--ukulele-lessons.html
When to practice your musical instrument. For guitar or ukulele lessons, face to face in North Devon, or anywhere else in the world by Skype click here http://paulclews888.weebly.com/guitar--ukulele-lessons.html
I was talking to a couple of boys from Ilfracombe Infant School about the names of the parts of the guitar. 'It has a head, it has a neck and it has a body' I explained to them. "Why doesn't it have any arms and legs"? Enquired the youngest of the two. "If it had legs, it would run away" replied the eldest boy. Find out more about my guitar & ukulele lessons http://paulclews888.weebly.com/guitar--ukulele-lessons.html
I have been meaning to write this blog for a long time. A couple of years in fact. I keep putting it off because I know it's a little controversial and I want to get it right. In other words, I've done my research. Many of you may disagree (I have had many debates on Twitter and Facebook about it). It makes my blood boil. Now just to be clear, when I say 'why you should not play them', I also mean, you should not watch them, or eat or drink in the venues that promote them. The pub landlords that promote such events will tell you, they put them on 'to give new talent an opportunity to play in front of an audience', as if they are doing the 'new talent' a favour. Well let me tell you, this is a big fat lie, they put them on for profit. Now profit is not a rude word, but everyone contributing deserves a slice of it. They are using the musicians skills and talent to line their own pockets, and not share any of it with the musician. Okay, they often give you a 'free pint'. Let me tell you about that 'free pint', it's not free, you worked for it. I wonder if the landlord pays his plumber and staff in pints. Pints do not pay your mortgage, kids shoes, or even a packet of guitar strings. They should also be declared to the VAT man by the landlords because, as an accountant informs me, they are in effect making a taxable supply to the musician in exchange for services, so the VAT on the full value of the pint should be paid over. I hope you landlords are declaring them. Equally, musicians should be declaring them to the tax man. You are accepting beer as income. I suspect the whole thing is a hot bed of petty tax evasion. I suggest musicians should try going down to Soundpad in Barnstaple and offer them a couple of flat pints of beer for a packet of Ernie Balls. I can ensure you they will laugh you out the building. Musicians are consequently 'paying to play' as the old musicians slogan used to say. Another trick that the landlords and agents use to pull you in is, 'come play the open mic night, and we'll see how good you are. If you are good enough I will book you'. This is another lie. They rarely give gigs this way, although they will deny this. I know many venues that book a whole year or seasons entertainment on this basis, abusing the good will of hopeful entertainers. Entertainers need to stand together, say no to this rip off, and put an end to this awful practice, that is in all but name slavery. People have argued 'but they're fun'. I don't think putting musicians out of work and treating them as slaves is fun. I take no pleasure in it. Where are your principles? It's a nobel art.On occasions, I've had other musicians tell me, 'I only play for fun, I work in the week, I don't need the money'. Again, I don't see how putting other musicians out of work is fun. How would you like it if I go to your boss and say to him I'll do your job for free, because I work as a musician, therefore I don't need the money? There is a minimum wage law, some how musicians fall through the net. Has this musician got public liability insurance? I have never met one that has. Therefore any accident, such as taking someone's eye out with a guitar neck, or burning the pub down with your untested (PAT) electrical equipment, is not usually covered by the landlords insurance policy. You're taking a hell of a risk. When it comes to these practices, I want venue owners to give up, and pay up! I'm off for a walk to calm down. Thanks to
Rob Tickell of Large Chartered Accountants http://www.lca-avn.co.uk/ The lads from Coversure Ilfracombe http://www.coversure.co.uk/da/ilfracombe/ |
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