A lot of long-term lifers may not know that one of my other passions apart from motorcycling and speedway is music. My father wasn’t musical – he always said that he had a voice like a lawn mower, but my mum has a wonderful voice and I guess I inherited my musical bent from her. I sang both in public and at home throughout most of my childhood and was actively involved in school choirs right throughout my school career.
At Teachers College I did music as an elective though three years of singing and even playing a lead role in the college operetta in 1971 still didn’t leave me with the ability to read music. The music I did, and there was a lot of it, was all achieved because I found very early in life that I have a very sensitive “ear” for it. Where others would have to learn a song from the music, I could hear it once and be able to sing it. In the choir at high school my music teacher said that I learned new material faster then any other student he’d ever seen even though I couldn’t read music.
In my first year at college they informed us that all students training to be primary teachers would have to learn the recorder. I know, it is bizarre, isn’t it? (Spare a thought for the students training to be infants teachers, though. They had to learn to play the piano). At the very outset I determined that the recorder was the most unsuitable of instruments for the classroom teaching of music. Firstly, while it is a delightful instrument, unless it is played perfectly (and very few people can achieve that) it sounds excruciatingly bad. Secondly, it can only play the melody line of a song. Thirdly, the player cannot sing while playing it and, fourthly, the player cannot conduct singing while playing it as their hands are occupied with the instrument. And, since Keith Baxter, my music lecturer, insisted over and over again that the very best example of performance music that a teacher can show a class is their own singing, I decided that I would learn the recorder to satisfy requirements but would never use it in the classroom and today, over 40 years later, I am pleased to say that I have kept to that determination.
I must say here that I passed all my musical exams and assessments in my three years of college training without once actually learning to read music. Recorder assessments took place regularly in one of the music practice rooms and I would go in, as you did, prop the music book up on the music stand and play the set pieces as well as I could. Little did my lecturers know that, before entering the room, I had listened carefully while a friend played the piece over to me two of three times and that what they were hearing was me playing the piece by rote!
Right from the start it seemed to me that the obvious instrument for a teacher to have in the classroom is the guitar. It has huge advantages a a teaching aid. It is portable, children identify with it, it enables the player to determine and keep the rhythm of a song and, most importantly, it enables the player to sing whilst playing. So I decided that I would learn guitar. And here is where my very sensitive musical “ear” again came to my rescue. In the day, formal learning of the guitar began with formal musical training, learning the music basics, playing single notes and only later did it progress to chords and the use of the instrument to accompany songs. Since that seemed totally unnecessary to me and since, as an impecunious college student, I couldn’t afford lessons anyway, I decided to cut to the chase and just learn the part that I needed to, chords and how to accompany singing.
So I bought a guitar and a book called “500 Chord Shapes” and I set about teaching myself guitar! Unsurprisingly, my good ear for music came to the fore again and it was merely a moment before I found that most songs have three or four chords at most and that I could accompany a vast number of songs after learning the chord shapes for just a few major keys. It was full steam ahead and I proceeded to practice ad nauseum, toughening up my finger tips with regular rubbing of methylated spirits and driving my poor grandparents to distraction with my efforts at playing in the process. (I was boarding with my grandparents in Port Kembla for my first year at college). Suddenly the sky was the limit. I experimented with and learned all the songs that I could think of, then moved on to songs that I knew of but with which I hadn’t become familiar. When I encountered a phrase that I couldn’t quite get I worked on it over and over until I found the right chord to fit. I listened to records and tapes of songs and found that I could pick up most of them and play them almost immediately, my sensitive ear for music enabling me to fit the appropriate chords to the song. When there was a new chord required because all the ones I knew didn’t sound right, I would go back to the book, and experiment until I found the right one and build it into the song and into my growing database of chords that I could play.
I am sure that many musical purists reading this will be horrified, but needs must, as they say, and this was my attempt to give me personal enjoyment and fit me better for the classroom. In March 1970, less than a year after I first started playing, I bought my first “proper” guitar, a Maton CW80/6. Brand new, this Australian built instrument cost me $150. My mother was horrified and angry that I had spent SO much on a musical instrument. I still have that guitar, it’s now nearly 44 years old, it sounds wonderful and if I wanted to buy one now it would cost me thousands.
Thus began my love affair with the guitar and with using it to accompany my classroom singing and singing outside of it was well. I have bought and sold quite a few instruments over the years, including buying a Washburn 12 string, selling it some years later then buying it back again some years after that!
And my playing has nearly all been either in the classroom or for my own private enjoyment. Until I hooked up with another guitar player locally just last year. This man is a music teacher and he also gets together with a group of friends doing free concerts in the nursing and old peoples homes around Wollongong. Through a curious circumstance I was invited to join them and did several concerts with them, rediscovering the joys of public performance. This has led to me seeking out other opportunities to use my voice and my guitar outside of the classroom and the lounge room. And it has led me to Vaflers, a coffee shop in Dapto that makes great coffee, Norwegian waffles and who have some live music, al fresco, every Saturday night.
Last night was my second gig there and, despite still being perplexed at making some fundamental blunders while playing, I felt much more comfortable and had much more fun that the first time I played. My old army buddy, Dave Thompson, came along and offered moral support (as well as the appropriate amount of heckling) and it was he who took the photo at the top of the article.
I must say that I find the challenge of playing in public (as distinct from the classroom) invigorating and the three and a half hours seems to go by so fast. I hope I get invited back because it really is fun.
Singing for my supper? Well, it’s not a paid gig, but the free coffee is wonderful and I’m just a natural born show-off so I’d do it anyway, even without the coffee.
jeffb says
Keith Baxter told Bernadette that if everyone worked as hard as her in music class they’d get a distinction- but ‘don’t worry, you’ll get a pass’ ! That showed her musical ability. She also said to tell you that in her era he was into Kodaly which she had no hope of mastering! Still, it was quieter than recorder.
Also, wish to tell you that we have great coffee here and al fresco dining. Bring your guitar on next visit (and Helena of course) We can also provide the heckling!
Phil Hall says
Kodaly??? Shudder!!! As for a visit, yes, we must. I’m off to PI tomorrow for the historics. Must make a booking, eh? Sounds good.