Around 420 years ago, a guy you may have heard of called William Shakespeare opened his new play ‘Twelfth Night’ with the words ‘if music be the food of love, play on’. As is often the case with ‘The Bard’, the literal meaning of the words is not clear but the imagery really ‘strikes a …
A rough guide to music vocabulary and expressions Read More »
First of all, did you notice the ‘pun’, also known as a ‘play on words’, in the title? Hopefully, you did, as I attempt to offer some good advice about the initial class with a new student. Anyway, let’s proceed… I can hardly imagine how much time and energy I spent travelling between classes …
First-class tips for teachers (and students) doing online classes Read More »
To ‘travel light’- to travel with very little luggage (British English) or baggage (American English). The other useful words, phrases and expressions are in bold so as you read the story you can try to guess what they mean before ‘all is revealed’ (if you choose to then check the meanings) . A general …
Travelling Light (alt. version): A travel story with English idioms and expressions Read More »
‘ ‘If music be the food of love, play on’, wrote Shakespeare in his comedy play Twelfth Night. Like a lot of the Bard’s quotes, I tend not to take it too literally but rather revel in the words themselves and allow the poetry to work its magic on my imagination. This is also true …
This is not going to be an exhaustive look at Nick Drake but a general chronology of his short life, with some analysis of his music and lyrics and thoughts on what may have caused the dramatic downward spiral of 3-4 years that turned a relatively happy young man with enormous talent, good looks and …
I worked as a cashier and then manager for William Hill Bookmakers for two years in the early 2000s. Having had a fascination with numbers since childhood and a general liking of working with the public (mostly in small doses), it was a job I’d always wanted to try, and when it seemed clear that …
Being born in England in 1975, (don’t worry, you’re not getting the full life story!), it was impossible not to know who The Beatles were as I was growing up, even if my knowledge of them didn’t extend much past the song ‘Yellow Submarine’ at that point. Just before my world changed in around 1988, …
Introduction to ‘Glass Onion: Conversations On John Lennon’ (first draft) Read More »
Thought for the day- imagine a competitor in the Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon etc…being asked ‘So you must be very proud to be representing Team GB (pick country) at this prestigious event?’ and replying ‘Well actually I’m not particularly patriotic. I tend to see my country of origin more as a geographical accident than anything …
Big sporting event= presumed nationalism and pride Read More »
Life Coaching has been given many definitions but it is essentially an ongoing conversation between coach and client that seeks to be purposeful and inspire the client to create the life that they want. This is done by creating the right conditions for the right outcomes to happen, and crucially the client must be inspired …
‘War Is A Racket’ was written in 1935 by Major Smedley Darlington Butler. A racket is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as ‘an illegal or dishonest scheme for obtaining money’. The word is most commonly used when describing a protection racket, as run by the Mafia. Smedley Darlington Butler was born in Westchester, Pennsylvania …
In a remote mountain village, the head of the village died and leadership was passed onto his son. Now the people had lived for many years under the control of a huge monster who loomed like a huge shadow over the village. Whenever anyone tried to find freedom, this large shadow appeared with a loud …
What is the 4-letter word that rules the world?? (traditional story) Read More »
‘ …and out of the years of befuddlement, insufficient rest and worrisome thoughts came a moment of calm clarity. He’d always reasoned that God must have put the truth and the path to mental freedom far away so as to test him and make the discovery of it a long-drawn-out struggle, a life’s work. In …
(written in 2015) I’ve recently had the good fortune to become part of the musical community of Madrid and to encounter a group of fun, interesting and creative people. Like me, they appear to be curious, sensitive, restless and occasionally troubled souls, searching for the elusive and using performance as a way to simultaneously attempt …
Creativity, Communal Experience and Mental Health Read More »
First, the facts as they are known John Lennon was born in 1940 and died in 1980, 2 months after his 40th birthday. It’s fair to say that he packed a lot of living into his half-a-lifetime, and it’s also universally acknowledged that his death in New York on Monday December 8th 1980 came as …
The Rather Strange Last Day In The Life of John Lennon Read More »
Does this sound familiar to anyone? A- I’m going now. Are you coming? B- No, I don’t feel like it. I’ve got a lot of things to do A- Ok, no problem. Bye B- (pausing for thought) Well, I can come if you want A- No, that’s fine B- So you don’t want me …