My Life In Music
My Life In Music
This page is about my life in music. I am a trained musician and I have made my living as a guitar teacher for many years. I am also a singer, composer and arranger. I recorded my own CD last year. Actually I used very simple software too. I hope to devote more time to writing and recording later this year. I have recently upgraded to ProTools! The picture shows me singing along with a great busker playing steel drums in Victoria, BC. I couldn't resist the song and my friend couldn't resist the photo! I love to sing!
Music has always been my life from the day I played drums with The Shadows on my grandparents leather pouffee. I learned to talk quickly and nearly my first words were sung much to my parents' delight..At the age of two I would sing Little White Bull with my Uncle who played in a skiffle band! At age three or four I would spin round the room singing Que Sera Sera. Like many little girls, I wanted to be a pop star, but my dance career was limited - much to Mum's embarrassment - by my refusal to participate in dance class and general naughtiness! It was not the movement I loved, but the sound! Loving the Shadows as a toddler led me to want to play guitar of course and I indulged in the worst kind of pester power until at age ten I finally got my first guitar! And at age eleven I got my first much needed lessons.....
Intro photo of me is by Mabelmew, used with permission. Please do not copy.
Guitar How To Play Songs
Learn Guitar Songs
Here are some classic guitar songs you can learn, complete with beginner guitar chords.
Teaching The Guitar A Lifetime's Calling
How I became a guitar tutor
How do you become a guitar tutor? Well, I started teaching when I was sixteen years old. Although I am now much more versatile, I played almost exclusively classical guitar at that age and I was actually very good for my age. My teacher was oversubscribed and although I was still at school he persuaded me to take on some pupils to earn a little pocket money. I studied music and drama at College and went on to become a class music teacher at a time when full time jobs were hard to come by. Naturally I had some students for private lessons to help make ends meet. I enjoyed that and I also played in a variety of bands, none of whom seemed that keen to let me sing so I was content to stay in the background and played acoustic guitar, electric guitar and even bass. Playing live was nothing like the ordeal of classical recitals so I really enjoyed these gigs. Eventually I took a job with the local authority as a visiting guitar teacher which is pretty much where I am now. I have not taught privately for years, because my evenings are spent with composing and my weekends with recording and promoting music I have written and arranged. It was in the course of promotion that I found Squidoo and decided I could share some skills here with free guitar lessons and advice and promote some of the books I have written.
My First Very Easy Christmas Carol Book [Spiral-Bound]
Carols for beginners to play. Single note melodies with chord letters. Very easy large font notes with notename noteheads.
Traditional Christmas Carols For Guitar Solo [Paperback]
Easy and intermediate arrangements of well loved Christmas carols for fingerstyle guitar. Includes TAB as well as music.
Traditional Christmas Carols for Guitar Ensemble [Paperback]
Arrangements of well loved Carols for flexible sized guitar ensembles, these are full scores, not separate parts.
Songs of the Reef 8 Octopieces for Young Guitarists
Songs of the Reef was written as a fun way of getting children used to high and low versions of the same note! The pieces are from grade 1 to grade 3 level. In the later pieces, higher notes and harmonics are added and special effects and dynamics are explored. Songs of the Reef contains easy to read large notation with note name noteheads.
Songs of the Reef - TAB Edition
The TAB Edition of Songs of the Reef has a sea theme, led by the Octopus on the cover. Many thanks to Colin Mason, for the wonderful purple Octopus who even holds his guitar correctly! Octo-Pieces explore octaves in a child friendly way!
Traditional Tunes for Flute and Guitar
Favorite folk songs for flute and guitar: The Drunken Sailor The Water Is Wide The Keys of Canterbury Carrickfergus For Auld Lang Syne Romanza Fhear A Bhata Spanish Ladies MacPherson's Lament The Cutty Wren Song Volga Boat Song A Bunch of Thyme The Bluebells Of Scotland Now the Green Blade Rises Lisa Lan Hava Nagila The Mountains of Mourne
My Life In Music - Flying to Meet the Sunrise
My CD on Amazon
There are 14 tracks on my CD, these are all songs I have composed myself. You could listen to samples if you like to see if my bandmates were right! ;) I recorded my CD to showcase songs I hoped others might also ask to record, but I have had excellent feedback about the singing so I am happy. I enjoyed singing, orchestrating and playing the guitars on this album. Oliver always says he could not understand why the bands I played in did not want to record more of my singing, but I guess we all have an agenda and semi-pro bands more so than most. The singer DID tend to be the leaders girlfriend or a guy with a loud voice.
Julian Bream - My First Guitar Hero
Julian Bream's Part In My Life In Music
It is a little hard to remember now whether it was Julian Bream or Segovia I first heard playing the guitar. I was having classical guitar lessons back then as they were the only lessons available and my parents followed the Hank Marvin maxim "learn classical first, then you can do anything" The first LP record I bought (remember LP vinyls?) was Julian Bream plays Villa Lobos. The cover was unlike any classical record cover I had seen with its colourful hummingbird illustration and the music was out of this world. I spent so many hours learning those Villa Lobos Preludes and desperately trying to run up the scales accelerating as I did, just like Julian Bream. For a long while Julian Bream was like a God to me, he played so well and yet was so emotional in his playing. Others were mechanical in comparison. I did few guitar recitals though, as classical concerts made me unbelievably nervous. It was only many years later that I discovered my hero had the same problem.
Classical Guitar - Classical Guitars Suitable for Beginners and Experts Alike
Classical guitars are suitable for beginners or experts. They are gentle on soft fingers, generally cheaper and lighter to carry and do not require amplifiers. In the hands of a good player, they sing far more than a steel strung acoustic and have much more potential for a variety of styles. I love my classical guitar like a child, my electric guitar is great fun but is more like a best mate....
Do you want to play the guitar easily?
Learn to play the guitar fast with these pages.
If you want to learn the guitar fast you might want to visit these pages. They will help with guitar technique, choosing a beginner guitar and avoiding problems with guitar tuition or carpal tunnel and wrist injury.
Free Guitar Sheet Music and TABS
A free site that will help with guitar theory too
New Guitar Music for Fingerstyle Guitar
Putting the guitar into a school band - my project
Classical Music Pages you might like
Thank you for visiting. Please do call back because I have a lot more to share here!
My Life In Music - The Story Goes On.... - And there is much more to add....
How very talented you are, Lisa!
My adult kids are all very talented musicians and they didn't get it from me. They got it from my Dad. :)
I accidentally got to hear Julian Bream play (and lecture) when I was in college. Didn't know who he was then but noticed the sign for a small lecture/concert and went in. I was transfixed. Can still recall the sensation. Also heard in person Segovia (late in his life) and Romero Quartet (when Grandpa was still alive) - fabulous.
I love music but have no musical talent. I appreciate your talent and look forward to reading more.
It is great to know that you are an accomplished Musician, to learn an instrument is always a good hobby and the best pastime.
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