Monthly Archives: October 2018

#MondayMotivation

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This will be a blog on the move.

I practice music every morning, and did so this morning for a short period but we planner to head out to my parents and that means time to travel. Traveling makes me think because, well, most of the time you are stuck with that.

In some situations you can play music on ferries or busses, and I have, but to me writing works better. It’s like you are already doing something so anything you add is a bonus. And you’re stuck there for a while so don’t worry about being too keen.

What I want is to perform more, which was recently inspired by the story of Ed Sheeran. Now I have performed lots already, but I want to do more especially with my keyboard which is fast becoming my second primary instrument. I learned guitar as a early bass teacher told me I should learn a chord instrument and my mom’s nylon string was around so I started learning, accelerated when I told the church choir I had started and then the guitarist quit, putting me alone in front of a congregation (along with singers). They were a forgiving audience 😏 but it did help to get me ability to play and change chords fast happening.

Even with all that though, and being a bassist, I could never really get into crazy levels of playing, or taking it seriously. I wanted to because I knew I should but it was like a less comfortable bass to me so soloing and really fine playing has never really happened.

Playing keys really didn’t become a thing until almost a year ago now (I had one around for multitrack attempts, a la Depeche Mode) but never actually tried to play a song solo and sing. Naturally I knew C major. Not altogether hard to find, that one.

More recently I have fallen into a once a day pattern of putting something out there. I’m still on the bus as we speak and between parent’s and work I imagine this will be today’s.

Kind of fits with the sleepless one before. What would you like to try? Take some time when you are next stuck in traffic of any kind. Note apps are just amazing for this.

“You dream of something and it’s a thought. You write it down and take action on it and it’s real” Anthony Robbins

Today’s music will be this one I just rediscovered of Scott Walker of the Walker Brothers. I think last time was Scott as well but I thought I would add his hit.

Click here!

Cheers!

Tom

☺️

How to build your creative castle

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You can hear Potter’s Theme in the mist as we circle your castle rising above the morning’s fog, it’s spires set against perhaps some fading last star.

Ok, so where do you get started?

It’s about the 1%. No, not that one percent, this has nothing to do with money.

No obligation and no salesman will visit.

This means if you improve something just one percent a day, what is the difference after a year? It’s not just 365% because not only does it stack on top of the numbers but also you will have days that you lunge forward.

It’s a little like going to the gym. Just showing up is half the success. Anything above that is a bonus. Same here. This is why the castle idea. What is a castle really? I have a really pretty one featured there but take a boring one.

It’s a bunch of walls. What are walls made of? Stones. Lots of stones. Some are not that big. One stone after another stone after another stone. The workmen didn’t go…ugh, these stones are boring and it won’t work anyways. They just kept adding stones. Eventually everyone complimented them in their pretty castle.

Same here. People will see your creation and marvel at it, but only you will know the stone after stone that put it there. Plus, like a castle, there is something nice about the fact it took so long. You have built it up over years and it won’t fail you. It’s sturdy and even you are a little impressed by the whole thing.

So when you see your endeavor before you and it looks so impossible just think, today…I will put down what stone I can find. Tomorrow may be a bigger stone or smaller, but I’ll find one then too.

🏰

For today’s music, I just got into this guy and so I had to share some of it. This is Scott Walker who was apparently a huge inspiration to David Bowie.

For the first track from this album click here!

Enjoy!

Tom

🙂

Happy Indigenous People’s Day!

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I know today has other other holidays attached, such as Canadian Thanksgiving but you can learn about this one wherever you are, even if you can’t get your hands on a Tofurky.

🦃

The image above is from a great audiobook on the Hoopla Audio App which is free and attaches to your local library account (you can get a book for a month and a CD for about a week)

While at the library have a look for books on the subject of Native Americans, First Nations or American Indians (yeah they still use the latter, unfortunately. Some find it annoying, some have decided to roll with it. If you don’t know the tribe or band best to use Native. Or the person’s name. People like that… anyways, I digress)

There are so many books out there especially by First Nations authors that you can really get stuck in if you wish. Makuk, First Nations 101, Two Houses buried in Sand spring to mind from just the top of my head (and that’s just from here on Canada’s west coast.

In my own area there is so much to learn. On Vancouver Island’s southern tip are around 8 bands and 3 main languages. Then, similar to the Uk’s variation on accents regionally, there are subtleties between bands and clans in all aspects of life. To say you can just learn it all is a little like saying “I’m gonna learn the history of every family in Western Europe!”…it’s huge! But you can always dip your toe in with something today. After all you have studied some history I assume. Why not add the stuff they never taught you?

Even if it’s a YouTube video. Here’s a series with narrator Kevin Costner (post Dances with Wolves). I normally do a music clip but I’ll leave this up here as I want it to be leading. However, check out Native American musicians on Google if you want and discover way more that just Buffy. Though Buffy is great 😉

Anyway, get the popcorn and a drink, and when your all settled, click here

Cheers,

Tom