Four years and a month after I bought my first jam block (like a wood block but made of plastic not wood (and not jam) ) to go with my first set of timbales, I met Adam, who mentioned on facebook that he was learning a bit of Afrocuban percussion. At the five-years-and-a-day mark, I [...]

Yesterday I wanted to get two more walls done. I ordered the plasterboard on Tue and they promised delivery Wed. But I forgot to try to get a time of day. The result? I was bumming around in the house unable to go out and buy stuff until 2 when it finally arrived. Got a [...]

or, “Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s good”
This isn’t to say that all circuit bending is crap, it’s just a roundup of some of my critical thoughts on it.
At the Maker Faire there were a lot of circuit-bending-inspired “musical” instruments. Circuit-bending is a trend in music where you get, e.g. an old casio keyboard, [...]

All my friends are grown up and didn’t want to come out last night. I was curious to see the band so I decided just to go there and be the old guy at a table nursing a drink and appreciating the music. As I headed out on the A64 the radio told me to [...]

For Christmas I bought myself a tambourine — the sort with a skin on — for about £12.  I figured it was about time I learned to play one.  I used to use one on recordings when I was in the band but didn’t really get on with any of the instruments that you shake.  [...]

After car trouble, I just scraped home by 6pm New Year’s Eve and Bro & H came up for a par-tay!
The PLAN was: go to Ackhorne, drink Real Ale like Old People, then go to the Minster and try to hear the bells over the heaving throng.
The REALITY was: nip into an Indian restaurant for [...]

Having started out as “really good for someone who can’t do it” then progressing to “rubbish for someone who can do it”, today I promoted myself to “OK for someone who can do it” which was a major breakthrough IMO.

This is me attempting it

This is it done really properly…

Some time ago I bought some timbales and I’ve spent lots of the last three years trying to get people to jam with me. I’ve been to some latin jam nights, but I wasn’t good enough to feel confident, and I got a group together a few times to try to get some rhythms going, [...]

Hmm, the saxophone may not be beyond reprieve after all! Quinteto Mambo Jambo played in Hull last night, and I went over to check ‘em out… partly because it’s interesting to see how Latin music can be played with fewer than six people, and partly just because. Mambo Jambo are essentially a duo of [...]

Yesterday we gave a rhythm & timing workshop at a salsa weekender in Garforth.  What a buzz!  Got the dusty timbales out and got to whack ‘em properly, had a play of the bongos and the various cowbells.  Gareth brought his formidable congas and we gave a one-hour class explaining the rudiments of salsa rhythms [...]