Musical Interlude

Some of you may know that when Jenny and I moved to Wairarapa we found out that there wasn't a Folk Music club here. Since folk music is a real passion for Jenny and I love music of all sorts we started the Wairarapa Folk Club which has now been active for about 2 years.

In that time we have gotten a core of active playing members who come to most club meetings. From that core we have formed a gig band, tentatively called Vox Populi. During the summer months we play every Saturday morning at the Farmers Market in Masterton. Week by week our sound is improving and there are now quite a number of people who come to the market regularly to listen to us.

Some people like us so much that we have been asked if we have a CD out yet and we're also playing at a wedding on the 30th of January.

Last Saturday we learned that our bass player isn't able to make it to the wedding. So it has fallen to me to try and learn to play the bass in two weeks. My normal role in the band is that of "knob twiddler" which is controlling the sound desk so we sound good and occasionally playing harmonica.

I'm certainly no musical genius and while I can produce some sounds vaguely resembling music from most instruments I am not a master of any of them. In fact the only instrument I play reasonably well is the harmonica. And that is mostly because you pick the harmonica that is in the right key for the song you're playing. The great thing about that is that it is really difficult to play a wrong note.

So ... I am practising like mad at the moment trying to get this bass guitar playing up to a standard that is acceptable enough to play at the wedding. Which also means that I'm playing the bass at the Farmers Market ... in public ... for the first time this coming Saturday ... GULP!!!


Back to the practising now!