Richard Hawley

Hi Richard, Do you read music, & do you consider this important in learning to play an instrument properly?

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The heartbeat doesn't change, only the faces surrounding it.

no and that should answer the second part too

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now,then!

Richard does that allow a certain freedom to play and write music in a loose way rather than following procedures set in stone chord sequences etc ? I say play first then write the dots after, I would assume someone must transcribe it at some stage if only for the sheet music.

i don't think about it really,i know a lot of classical musicians who are just simply amazing but ask em to just jam and make something up on the spot?They just freeze,without the sheet music they are totally without ideas.I have no strong opinion either way cos i do know dot readers who are extremely creative,Colin,Shez and John in my band for a start but it can hamper you,i am happy as i am but i still strive for new things all the time.

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now,then!

Thanks, could I presume you work in a group a bit like the Travelling Willburys, songs born from jamming sessions or just playing away on your own creating and evolving by feel and intense emotions ? Words first or music or a bit a both? Bernie and Elton had an unusual way of working but it worked, I guess there is no hard and fast rules in truth...
Take it a sequencer or drum machine would be a no no
A vocoder...!
Well you must admit modern keyboard "Synths" have a place not only in the studio but in live performance, strings, voices etc. Must say your "Tonight the streets are ours" at Holmfirth was superb...top marks to the "synth" player. Did you use the same sounds live as used on the record ?

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The heartbeat doesn't change, only the faces surrounding it.

I'll stick to just joining the dots, I'm getting pretty good at it now, I can sometimes guess what it's going to be Elephants and Lions are a piece a piss ! I struggle with musical instruments though

Well bloody well knuckle down and learn then - then you might get somewhere!

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Eat y'self fitter!

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now,then!

I know, just imagine...you could have made something of yourself if only you'd learned to play London's Burning on the recorder at school like I did!

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Revolution is just a t-shirt away.

on my birthday a couple of years ago we were all in Fagans and Rich was playing the guitar doing all this very flashy rockabilly stuff. My girlfriend was sat next to him watching and listening intently (I'd been trying to teach her a bit of guitar). He stops playing and grins, feeling as though he'd given a good demonstration of his prowess, only for my missus after a comedically brilliant pause and who's more than a bit inebriated, bless her, to go "Hmm, you're not bad... but you could do with playing on the dots more.." And then proceeded to show him how to play Smoke On The Water (on the dots obviously). I was very proud.

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new websites!
- http://www.chrismsaunders.com

- http://www.chrismsaunders.co.uk

You need to teach her Stairway To Heaven as an encore, Chris!

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Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine
http://www.myspace.com/thejanskys

she'd have to be to go out wi thi. yoink!

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www.davewoodcock.net

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Once played with a flute player who could be given the most complicated fast piece of music and sight read it from the dots , it was impressive to me who could very very slowly read very simple music, however I found if you took the security of the dots away you could hum to him a simple four of five note phrase and boy would he struggle to try and get it and be there about an hour later as he tried to come to grips with it.
Some people can do both which is great but some like the flute bloke can be totally reliant on the dots.