Greyfriars Garden, 12/04/15

It's been a while since I've posted anything about my own music-making here. The Sunday afternoon before I left for Wisconsin, Tom H and I decided to finally go public with the project we've been working on for a while now. We'd chosen six pieces from the twenty or so we've been developing, focussed on those for a few rehearsals. We decided a low-key outdoor thing for an invited group of friends would be appropriate for this music and that the Greyfriars Garden next to Tom's house would be an appropriate setting (this is locally known as the "secret garden", including Binnewith Island in the River Stour, a wildflower meadow and the only surviving Franciscan building in the country, apparently).

It was a bright, sunny spring day, and although we were only expecting a handful to show up, we ended up with about 25 people, a very pleasant surprise. People brought picnics, and because of the rather noisy sound of wind in the trees we chose a sheltered spot between an old wall and the river.

     

It was a perfect setting. Acoustically favourable, cherry blossom overhead, ducks quacking, a little bit of background ambience from the wind and water, and a robin hopping around us while we played (I didn't notice at the time, lost in my fretboard, but Vicky managed to get a photo of it):

Local multi-instrumentalist Dan Sayer recorded this (he seems keen to get involved in the project, which could be great). Listening back I can hear that I was a bit nervous (so many talented musicians in the audience), my playing's a bit clumsy in places, but overall I'm quite happy with what happened, musically.

Listen Here

And socially, just a lovely occasion. Nice to get all those people together in such a beautiful spot, and see them all before I left. Many of us ended up at The Unicorn in St. Dunstans afterwards. I was left with a mental image of my life in Canterbury and what I've got to look forward to returning to when I'm back in mid-May.