This week I was interviewed by Clive Whitaker for BCB Radio. The broadcast went out live on Wednesday 18th June (yesterday) at 14:15, across the district on 106.6 FM, and worldwide through the internet. You can listen to it on BCB’s website by clicking HERE, and selecting the broadcast date on their ‘Listen Again’ portal. Or, just click the play button below:
Clive is one of my adult students who visits me during the weekday daytimes to have instruction on playing his dulcimer, and to gain some support with the singing that he does in Skipton Choral Society. Although I don’t ‘play’ the dulcimer myself as such, the instrument is very similar in many respects to guitar and other fretted strings such as mandolin. So, it’s been really interesting working with Clive to help he understand how to play chords and melodies on his dulcimer, and become fluent at reading musical notation. The instruction book that he has is laid out in a similar way to books on guitar in that the music is written in three ways:
- In traditional, ‘classical’ stave notation, with a treble clef, time signature, key signature, and then note heads on and in-between the five stave lines.
- Using a form of TAB where three lines represent the strings on the dulcimer. (Actually, one of the lines represents a double string, as guitar TAB would be a 12-string guitar)
- With chord symbols (and little blocks of numbers showing the fret positions on all three strings).
Working with Clive on his dulcimer rather demonstrates on related all the various musical instruments are. They effectively all do the same thing, but simply vary in the manner with which their sounds are produced. Given enough experience on one instrument, a musician can apply the same logic to any number of other instruments.
During our lessons over the past year or so, Clive and I have got into conversation about all manner of subjects. One area that has come up on multiple occasions is about the city of Bradford, where I was born and raised. Because Clive does a show about culture in Bradford for BCB Radio, he asked me a few weeks ago if I wouldn’t mind being interview for it. Of course, I agreed and he came over to my place to record it. During the interview Clive asks me about the areas of Bradford where I lived, and how I got into music. I tell him about playing in the recorder groups at school in Undercliffe, and later in Baildon. My first forays into keyboard playing were at Yamaha Music School on Manningham Lane, and I tell Clive about how this led to me going to Hull University to study music, and ultimately becoming a teacher of music. He then goes on to ask me about some aspects of wider musical culture and the diverse range of music that can be heard in the Bradford district. I also choose three songs that are pertinent to my musical journey.
I suppose it seems a little self-indulgent to post it here, but if you would like to listen to the interview then please feel free to do so.
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