Music Plus Ltd, 30 Union Street, Hereford. offers lessons in guitar, ukulele and singing with clarity that helps musicians develop

(Originally published 11 August 2019)

Music Plus Ltd, HR1 2BT. offers lessons in guitar, ukulele and singing

"Imagining your foot as a metronome is a first step on the road
to musicianship." — Music Plus Ltd, Hereford delivers lessons
in guitar, ukulele, banjo, bass, and mandolin

"It is imperative that you relax into feeling the beat with your foot," says my teacher at Music Plus Ltd, Hereford

Last Thursday, I delighted in another Ukulele and Singing lesson at Music Plus Ltd, Hereford. The above animated tapping foot image was based on more than one of the musicianship learning principles he has helped reinforce and imbue in me in each 30 minute contact session and follow-through homework.

First principles

"Music is noise organised by rhythm and pitch.
Rhythm is the more important."

My first Ukulele lesson at Music Plus Ltd was in May 2019, two years after leaving London where I had been studying acoustic and Classical Guitar since 2011 in 30 minute one-to-one lessons on weekday evenings about an hour's journey from my then home, with Ray Gallo in London, N8; the music helped me relax, but the getting there with guitar on packed public transport was a more stressful journey, while the lessons helped prepare me for greater things.

A really great thing about the Music Plus-based set up in Hereford is the waiting area, allowing me to arrive early on a weekday afternoon, arriving much more relaxed. Like Ray Gallo in London, N8, my teacher at Music Plus Ltd helps ensure that I receive water if I need it, adding to the build up of relaxation that he believes in as essential to learning processes and applied musicianship.

Before booking my first lesson at Music Plus Ltd ("The MP you can trust"), I got to speak with him at Music Plus face-to-face, ensuring that I could feel comfortable with him. I told him of my early to mid 1980s legacy of studying Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM, classical) Music Theory up to Grade Seven and my cognitive learning difficulty by which I have difficulties with the more practical side of music. He was very favourably impressed with my theory background as an achievement and keen to work with me in developing my musicianship.

He also mentioned that his training method accords with how LA [as Los Angeles, California, not 'Local Authority'] studio musicians are trained, and he prefers plucking the Uke with a flatpick aka plectrum over finger style.

I can't remember what I performed at my first lesson with him, but recall that in the nervousness of the first encounter situation my nervousness led to a few fumbling mistakes, based largely on the nerve-related pitfall of playing too fast. Yet he recognised that for what it was, and gave relevant self-disclosure account of how he had been nervous in his Bachelor of Music accreditation, playing in front of Elton John's drummer as assessor. I left that session much more relaxed to the point of elation. I walked through High Town, Hereford feeling like bursting into song.

In my first few lessons with my teacher, he commended my foot tapping and my intoning the notes I was picking as basic musicianship behaviours, yet observed that I was the first student to sing the notes of a stringed instrument scales exercise without receiving that instruction from him.

He also emphasises relaxation via building up from slower tempo (hence the very slow setting of the tapping foot tempo above), and the power of imaging and imagination in musical practice. "A guitar student of mine loves dancing, and so I encouraged him to think of his fretting fingers dancing over the guitar neck," he told me.

At one of those earliest sessions I had with him, he asked me for my definition of music before coming up with his definition:

Q: What is Music?

A: Organised noise.

Q: What are the two main ways of organising noise?

A: Rhythm and Pitch.
Rhythm is the most important.

Through our subsequent verbal dialogues, we've established that Phrasing is also vitally important in Music, and is related to scheduling of deep and rhythmic breathing and the concept of answering phrases that parallel the ideas of  'Questions and Answers'.

He also emphasises that modern music is more improvisation-oriented than my ABRSM Music Theory past, and also more rhythmically eclectic and syncopated for people to dance to.

The above gives an outline as to how my teacher works with me in his role as teacher. I've also observed in how he works with very young learners who are accompanied with their parents, that he alters his approach according to who he is teaching: allowing for the much younger learners' more limited attention span, he includes jokes and conjuring tricks to help them continue wanting to be there and build up rapport and learners' stamina.

Relaxation and awareness of the role of the snare drum that he has taught me also helps me 'get in the groove'. He has done that with the aid of his iPad and youtube access as a digital library that includes rhythm tracks that can be more helpful than a handheld metronome.

Acknowledgements

In closing this blog post, I shall give a few 'acknowledgements'.

"Don't belittle your accomplishment!" 

In honour of my teacher's response to my recent quick grasping of playing and singing a 'Circle of Fifths' on Ukulele after he had given me a handwritten 'fill in the gaps' sheet as homework the previous week, I give thanks for my courage and persistence plus other allies in getting to that point after previously having been told, "Shut up! You're tone deaf and have no sense of rhythm" before and after I bought my first guitar in September 1972.

He was "amazed!" at the flexibility and accuracy of my 'Circle of Fifths' performance on Ukulele and Voice. I said that I found it "easy" working from the principle that I could adapt what I'd learnt about 'position playing' on the first three strings of the instrument that Ray Gallo had taught me, and the understanding that to play a key a perfect fifth higher on a guitar-family instrument, I can go up seven frets or down five frets. Hence, he advised me to not belittle what I had made in just one week from his 'fill in the gaps' paper-based exercise.

Ray Gallo (left) and Alan (right) rise for the camerain London N8, March 2017
(Click here for more about Ray, especially if you are a potential 'pupil' of his.)

I put what I have learnt from a succession of teachers and disciplines into practice, and remember to breathe deeply and rhythmically and go with my instincts. Yet my acquired ability to sing in pitch has come from the inner teacher with whom I have become more acquainted through time and self-acceptance.

Digital graphics by Alan using Serif(R) Software

The digital graphics above were created with the use of Serif Draw Plus, Serif Page Plus and Serif Photo Plus software on a Microsoft Windows 7 PC. I have used these tools since about the time I first got a Windows PC at the end of the last millennium, and refined my skills on them by creating customised greetings cards for friendly contacts, own website content, and teaching aids. My mother's purchase of my first Windows PC, and my dedicated practice using training manuals, own project design and self-directed learning really helped establish me as a Windows PC user.

Solovair shoes

At the risk of 'infringing copyright' accusations, the shoe image used in the animated 'foot tapping' graphic above was copied from the website of Solovair shoes. I wear British-handcrafted Solovair shoes myself, and this acknowledgement can be regarded as a means of directing potential customers to the Solovair shoes website, rather than 'infringing intellectual property rights'.