Then came THE
who really got my attention.Find out if your child has an interest in music and foster it. Don't risk her/his becoming a musical agnostic. Music could be his/her greatest pleasure in life.
who really got my attention.
 Photos - Xuemei Daisy Geng Come to my birthday party!
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I love good examples of all sorts of music from baroque to grunge, from
Michael Franti to Denyce Graves, from Richard Thompson to John Newlands, from
Thelonius Monk to Philip Glass, from
Rachmaninoff via the Cascades to Nirvana, and contemporary Christian music from Keith
Green to Delirious?.
And with every year that passes I love them all more. I suspect that Martin Smith of Delirious? may be the the most important songwriter since Lennon and Kurt Cobain (who died 5 Apr 1994). In my view Brian Wilson is one of the greatest American composers since the Gershwins. Dar Williams has an ability to write glorious tunes with hooks that I never tire of.
My
wife Laurie-Ann kindly co-mingled her large record collection
with mine, and I'm enjoying discovering new gems. Our tastes overlap
in many categories.
I play guitar and mandolin (electric and acoustic) and keyboard, and enjoy making music tremendously, having learned piano accordion which taught me harmony, and transfered that knowledge to the guitar and keyboards. I accompany Laurie-Ann (who sings like an angel) for Christian activities like the Alpha Course, and we played in a band called Kenosis. In 2003 I started feeling the urge to actually write songs, which had been a long time dream. The first effort became the theme for Laurie-Ann's radio show "Window of Opportunity". Download the mp3 here of a version produced at Christmas 2003 by James Copple, featuring L-A on vocals and me on guitars. I wrote several more tunes in 2003, many with words by inmates in Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, where I run an Alpha course. On 31 Oct 08 Laurie-Ann and I performed for an Arts Night in Ottawa: see Kenbits Part 1 | Part 2. This was our most ambitious performance to date. All the tunes were mine and therefore SOCAN! From 2007 - 2009 I provided music ministry at Kanata Lakes Fellowship, and in 2010 filled in at Blackburn Hamlet Community Church. Music has the power to sooth, to stimulate, to change one's state, to comfort, to make you cry, to make you laugh. It is surely something vital to us! For me, it is a part of my soul, and I owe a debt to musicians that I can never repay. As Michael Franti sings: "everyone deserves music". From my large collection I have learned that some artists and composers never disappoint me. I enjoy everything they ever did. I am not a good critic of these musicians; I love them too much. |
When Laurie-Ann or I need to buy music we may visit:
We both like to go to concerts, and fortunately live about a mile from the Corel Centre in Kanata where world-class artistes perform frequently. Many of my favourite groups and singers have excellent sites on the Web, and more and more radio stations have sites.
Stereo sound has always fascinated me as an engineer and greatly increased the pleasure of listening.
Notice: Do you have any pop 78 rpm discs but your player long since died? I have started a service to transcribe them to tape.
SOCAN - the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
SOCAN membership is free for music creators. If you start your own
publishing company, then you pay a one-time fee of $50 (and
perhaps more, if you have to do a Nuans name search for the company).
Consequently, any Canadian who creates music, should
be encouraged to join SOCAN. I registered with SOCAN in 2004, and by mid 2005 had earned royalties of $44.68 for my song "Window of Opportunity" played weekly on Laurie-Ann's radio show of that name. Visit Socan Central MySpace site.
Also see the Canadian Heritage music site, Music is my business
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Listen to CDs on the Web Jango - my on-line radio station CD Now - Wav and Real Audio
Jukeboxes
GOFolk - Hollis Morgan's Ottawa live folk shows guide The Oz Russian punk opera Che Lennon, etc, 2008 Song for Africa.com True North Records Constant Sound Studio - Constance Bay, near Ottawa Audio Lunchbox - Indie purchasing Our favourite music of the past 12 months The Sixties on CKCU-FM 93.1 every Sunday at 8 pm. (Ottawa) Ottawa music Ottawa school of Piano - includes musical intrument rental Writer's Bloc - Ottawa songwriters group Choice Voice Consulting - Thelma Farmer Wavemakers Indie site Skiffle links site The best of British rock The Mudcat Cafe - Blues and folk E-Zine, and Lyric Search McGuinn's Folk Den folk archive The Iceberg - cool music site My Music.com Billboard Charts Chris White - director of the Ottawa Folk Festival Folk festival "off" list - for year round information Garage Band.com - Song reviews Digibid music gear auction EMI - A Brief History The Millennium Lists 365 Top Songs of the 20th Century Sixties British pop culture Dennis Morgan - collaboration with Roy Young 2003 Voices of the Cenury - Top 10 Oldies.com On line guitar Association, OLGA Blue Skies Music Festival Rock Rebel.com - Christian rock e-magazine The story of the single Sunhawk - download sheet music Vinyl SIG and other delights (NCF SIG) Tim Aylsworth - wonderful debut CD "I Will" 2005. Folk genre. Eppiphane - good young Ottawa band Winston Brigby Pop Experiment (WBPE) - good young Ottawa band The Golden Dogs - new Canadian rock band The Unattended Children - Woodlawn band led by Chris Dyke Kenosis
Downloads
Mash-ups
Serious study, and the music business
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 Playing variations on #89 in the Green Book, Aug 1999, GCUC |