Category: Music

Music that makes me happy

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music
Aaron Barrett of Reel Big Fish playing at Wayn...
Image via Wikipedia

Inspiration today from the Daily Post topic, which is When you’re feeling down, what music makes you happy?

There’s a whole heap of music that makes me happy, and I’m going to share some of my favourites with you and explain why.

First up is a bit of an odd choice, as I wouldn’t normally listen to this band. However, Fleetwood Mac‘s Tusk always gets me bopping. I think it’s a mix of the jungle-esque drum beat and the “UCLA Sucks” Guitar riff. I think it’s hard to feel down when listening to this.

Next up is a style of music that will get be happy all the time. Ska music is so happy and boppy, I love it and it gets me happy all the time. I’ve got two favourite bands, Reel Big Fish and Sounds Like Chicken. I’ve chosen Reel Big Fish’s cover of Take on Me, and Sounds like Chicken’s Take one down

However, if I’m in the mood for a classical pick me up, it’s got to be the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

What gets you up when you’re feeling down?

Postaday2011 links

 

What makes a worship song great?

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Life, Music
Amazing Grace, First version, in "Olney H...
Image via Wikipedia

I’ve recently been asked to lead the Youth Band at my church, and it’s got me thinking about songs. There are some songs that we sing in worship that absolutely touch the soul, while there are others that are neither here nor there.

For example, take a look at Amazing Grace. What an amazing song, a powerful testimony for everyone. Yet its composition is incredibly simple.

Where as the song “Yours Forever” by Hillsong is a rocking song musically – but do the lyrics move you?

As I choose songs for the Youth Band to learn, I’ll hopefully be able to choose a mixture of songs that are moving in both music and lyrics.

What is your favourite worship song, and why?

Postaday2011 links

Looking ahead in web design

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music

On Tuesday, while I was waiting for some printing at work, I got the chance to read this article on The Future of WordPress Themes in 2011. It contained thoughts and musings from many top WordPress theme designers, programmers and general nice guys (eg Matt Mullenweg). It really sparked some thoughts as to how I can improve web design at work, but also look to create some themes to submit to the theme repository. One of the disadvantages of being hosted on wordpress.com is that you’re limited to the themes that they have available. There’s some really nice themes there, don’t get me wrong (I’m mostly happy with my current theme), but there are a number of incredible WordPress themes available, and I’d like to put my hand up and contribute.

It made me think – how often do we spend the time to think about the up coming year in our field? For example, in Music, do we spend the time to look ahead to see what sort of music we’ll be playing this year? When I look at this list of Theme trends, I can look there to see what sort of things I should be looking to carry out to be at the forefront of my field. What sort of music should you be learning, what sort of techniques, what type of gigs should you be doing to be at the forefront of your field this year?

Pachelbel Canon in D for Solo Violin

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Arrangements, Music, Violin

I hadn’t realised that I had forgotten to upload this to my site. This is an arrangement I had made of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, arranged for Solo Violin. It is much adapted and abridged, and makes use of double stops to make the illusion of multiple voices in some parts, while reverting to single lines where necessary. Uses only the “interesting” parts.

This arrangement is © 2006 Ben Clapton, however I do give permission for this piece to be performed anywhere in the world, for whatever purpose (busking, weddings etc) on the sole condition that I be notified by e-mail to mail@benclapton.id.au or as a comment to this post as to the location (City, Country) that it will be performed in. Comments about the arrangement are always welcome, but please – constructive criticism or praise only.

This arrangement has been performed in places such as the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Download Ben Clapton’s arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon in D for solo violin.Download Pachelbel’s Canon for Solo Violin

This is a free arrangement. However, if you like the arrangement and would like to tip, please press one of the buttons below.

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The Lazy Musician

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Music

A little while ago, I wrote a few posts based on posts at Leo Babauta’s website, Zen Habits. His posts on simplicity and getting things done are often more directed to office workers (so it seems) and with good purpose – there’s quite a lot of them out there. Every now and then, I find a post that speaks to me, that says “Hey, musicians could really take something from this.” And when I find such a post, I tend to write about it, as I am doing now. Leo’s post “The Lazy Manifesto: Do Less. Then, Do Even Less.” has got me interested. Perhaps because I’m lazy.

Continue reading “The Lazy Musician” →

What Obama’s Win could mean for music

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music

Barack Obama is the President-Elect. This we know. But, what could this mean for music? This is what I look forward to seeing over the next little while. In this period of economic crisis, it was Obama that the musicians went to, not McCain. The Barack Obama Music Coalition includes artists such as David Crosby, Joanna Newsome, will.i.am, Morrisey, Wilco and The Greatful Dead as supporters of Obama. His policy towards music and the arts will come later. What I want to look at in this post is what musicians can get from Obama’s campaign so far. Continue reading “What Obama’s Win could mean for music” →

Letter in the Australian

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music

Yesterday, I sent letters to The Australian, the West Australian and the Age, and I know that it got published in The Australian (I don’t receive the West or The Age at home – if anyone can fill me in on whether it got published or not, I would be most appreciative.

Here’s the letter that I sent in:

Who can remember who held the world record for the 100m before Usain Bolt? What was their time?
Who was the guy that took 7 gold medals in the Olympics? Does it matter any more now that Phelps has 8?
Sports records tumble all the time, and we only remember who has the fastest time, the most medals. We don’t remember who came second. We don’t care. Yet despite the temporary nature of sporting success, Australia is willing to pour $168 million dollars into the AIS, where as the longer term investments in our nations culture, that of music, is cut from a paltry $2.5 million to 0.
Music and the Arts is what makes up Australia’s culture. Even in sports! Imagine if there was no music. We wouldn’t be able to proudly sing “Girt by sea” – even if we could remember the rest of the words. We wouldn’t be proudly singing our footy team’s club song. We wouldn’t have Kylie, or Barnsey. Without music, I’m sure Peter Garrett wouldn’t have had an opportunity to get into Parliament. Peter, please reconsider your decision, and prove to us that you don’t hate the Arts.

And the Aus’ edited version:

Who can remember who held the world record for the 100m before Usain Bold? What was his time?
Who was the guy that took seven gold medals in the Olympics? Does it matter any more now that Michael Phelps has eight?
Despite the temporary nature of sporting success, Australia is willing to pour $168 million into the Australian Institute of Sport, where as the longer term investement in our nation’s culture, through funding for music education is cut from $2.6 million to zero.
Music and the arts is what makes up Australia’s culture, even in sports.
Imagine if there was no music. We wouldn’t be able to proudly sing “Girt by sea” – even if we could remember the rest of the words.
Without music, I’m sure Peter Garrett wouldn’t have had an opportunity to get into parliament.
Peter please reconsider your decision, and prove to us that you don’t hate the arts.

I Also got a cartoon, with an athlete holding his olympic gold medal, and an orchestral violinist holding a symphony orchestra cd, the violinist saying “Mine’s bigger than yours.” Did very well to pick up that I’m a violinist. Perhaps he googled me and found my website?

Remember to sign the petition, and write to Peter Garrett, and keep the letters coming into the Aus, and other newspapers. We need this to not disappear from the public eye. Let’s make Peter Garrett come out and say something, as opposed to hiding in his office.

On This Day… Save ANAM

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music, On This Day

I’m taking a slightly different tack for this post. I’m calling everyone to help spread the word. The “Honorable” Peter Garrett, AM, MP, former lead singer of Midnight Oil and now Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, as announced that the Federal Government will cut all funding to the Australian National Academy of Music. ANAM is Australia’s Premiere training institution for classical musicians. It is to classical musicians what the Australian Institute of Sport (which has produced many of Australia’s greatest athletes) is to sport. After being established in 1994 under Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating, over the years the federal government has given unchanged financial support to the effect of $2.5 million over a number of years. For the year ending 31 December, 2005, ANAM received a total income of $2.9 million. For the financial year 2005-2006, the Australian Institute of Sport received $168.6 million from the Federal Government alone, with a total operating income of $190.5 million.

It makes me sick. The AIS operating income for 2005-2006 could run ANAM for 65 years, on its 2005 income. From just 1 year!

ANAM feeds its musicians into Australia’s orchestras. Of the 7 major Symphony orchestras in Australia, ANAM Woodwind players hold 7 principal positions. Without this training institution, Australia’s musicians will look elsewhere for their training, elsewhere being overseas, where they are more likely to remain. If there is no training institutions in Australia, the quality of Australian orchestral playing will also drop.

What can we do?

We need to let Peter Garrett know that this decision is a disasterous one, and is not a decision the Australian people will stand for. I have already written to Peter Garrett, voicing my opposition and asking him to reconsider, and I encourage you to do so as well at his Parliament House page. You can also E-mail the Shadow Minister for the Arts, Steven Ciobo. You can also sign the online petition started by ANAM. If you Have Facebook, you can join the groups “I Support the Australian National Academy of Music” or “Save ANAM” Getting the word out there is also important. I encourage anyone who has a blog to write about this. If you’ve got Twitter, or facebook, write about it. Link back here – I will add a link to the post below. Get as many people as we can knowledgeable about this.

For the next week, the first paragraph of every “On This Day…” post will be linking back to this one, encouraging everyone to read about this issue, and to take action.

For a couple of videos, we have a documentary about ANAM, so you can understand a bit more about this fantastic institution, and also a video blog about this topic by Perth Musician Alex Millier.

Links

Alex Millier has written two posts about this issue, and I’m sure will write more. He’s also the one that created the video above.