Hello everyone, once again it's St. David's Day here in Wales, and having spent most of the day in Cardiff, it's positively buzzing.
Given our recent success with rugby in the Six Nations, the celebrations this year seem re-energised, with a large parade going back and forth through the city streets. The dragons, daffodils and bake-stones are in abundance. In Frynwys this morning the fields were dotted with patches of daffodils, and it's been one of the sunniest days we've ever had in February. All in all, it seems that this year's St. David's Day has been one of the most colourful on record, but what's happening in the world of Tiger Verse I hear you ask?
Well, things are proceeding at breakneck speed on this blog. Not only have I got another preview from the upcoming Mametz Wood poem to share, but there will also be a few new original poems coming next week. Alongside that, I can also see NaPoWriMo on the horizon again, so it will be all fingers to the keyboard for that.
In the meantime, hope you all have had a happy St. David's Day, and I'll sign off this post with a link to my guitar rendition of the Welsh National Anthem. See you all again soon.
Showing posts with label guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guitar. Show all posts
Friday, 1 March 2019
Thursday, 21 February 2019
Narrowboat Hootenanny
Roving Otter knew where
to get a decent narrowboat.
He found one at a lock
by the local pub.
The pigeons did their job,
dive bombing punters
sitting at the outside table.
We took no time in boarding.
I assumed command,
Father Vole was the lookout,
Smoking Gose was our engineer,
and Otter drove the boat.
The badgers, foxes, ducks,
geese, moorhens, rabbits,
even Spencer Swan booked
a reservation on the prow.
But our favourite friend
was Manic Owl.
He brought the instruments,
drums, guitars, and saxophones.
The man arrived in time
to see us waving from the stern.
Turns out cruising's all
a narrowboat's good for.
We set up our instruments.
Otter had his bass,
Vole was on the drums,
and Goose had a piano.
Manic Owl had a saxophone,
faded gold and battered,
but it produced sweeter notes
than anything on the water.
I had my old guitar,
an archtop with a red finish.
It was the lead in a jam
with a most ear-raising tune.
Our party went on into the night,
rhythm after rhythm buzzing
off the boat and across the water
to disturb slumbering cows.
Ducks danced with rabbits,
badgers danced with geese.
Spencer Swan demonstrated
the arm-breaker swing
for a group of astonished teal,
while Owl blistered solos
on his saxophone, and we
kept the beat of our hootenanny.
to get a decent narrowboat.
He found one at a lock
by the local pub.
The pigeons did their job,
dive bombing punters
sitting at the outside table.
We took no time in boarding.
I assumed command,
Father Vole was the lookout,
Smoking Gose was our engineer,
and Otter drove the boat.
The badgers, foxes, ducks,
geese, moorhens, rabbits,
even Spencer Swan booked
a reservation on the prow.
But our favourite friend
was Manic Owl.
He brought the instruments,
drums, guitars, and saxophones.
The man arrived in time
to see us waving from the stern.
Turns out cruising's all
a narrowboat's good for.
We set up our instruments.
Otter had his bass,
Vole was on the drums,
and Goose had a piano.
Manic Owl had a saxophone,
faded gold and battered,
but it produced sweeter notes
than anything on the water.
I had my old guitar,
an archtop with a red finish.
It was the lead in a jam
with a most ear-raising tune.
Our party went on into the night,
rhythm after rhythm buzzing
off the boat and across the water
to disturb slumbering cows.
Ducks danced with rabbits,
badgers danced with geese.
Spencer Swan demonstrated
the arm-breaker swing
for a group of astonished teal,
while Owl blistered solos
on his saxophone, and we
kept the beat of our hootenanny.
Thursday, 9 February 2017
The Tiger Poet vs. Guitars
So recently I started trying to learn the guitar. Seems an odd choice of hobby for a poet who specialises in poetry about tigers. Still, having acquired a guitar from a relative last year, I'm giving it a go.
It didn't take me long to work out how to play single notes and how to pick said notes, but at the moment my repertoire is a bit limited. I'm having difficulty learning basic chords as my fingers aren't sticking together to form them, and somehow I'm failing at strumming as well. Still, I have learned a few select tunes, such as the opening riff from 'Pretty Woman', the Force theme from Star Wars, a couple of tunes from The Lion King, the main riffs played by the Doof Warrior in Mad Max Fury Road and the theme from the film Rango. They're not perfect by any means; the Doof Warrior's riffs in particular sound a bit weird when played on an acoustic, but it's a start.
Playing the guitar is an ideal hobby to have in a village as quiet as Frynwys. At the moment we're being constantly battered by wind and rain and there is a perpetual dimness in the day due to the thick cloud cover. At least I have plenty to distract myself from the dreary weather. If I somehow manage to play chords without string buzz (I'm assuming that's what it's called) I might be able to do something with it.
The guitar I'm learning on is an acoustic-electric (Tanglewood to be precise), and it's already broken one string (in fairness, it was my fault). It's not a bad guitar to learn on; after I finally managed to tune it to standard tuning I was able to play recognisable tunes. The top E string is the worst string for buzzing. If I play it particularly fast it buzzes like a wasp's nest, but it's alright when played slowly.
My early forays into playing the guitar have been quite improvised so far, hence the shortness of this post. However I received a guitar magazine for Christmas last year, and I'm using that to help me progress. Hopefully this time next month I'll be a bit better than a beginner.
It didn't take me long to work out how to play single notes and how to pick said notes, but at the moment my repertoire is a bit limited. I'm having difficulty learning basic chords as my fingers aren't sticking together to form them, and somehow I'm failing at strumming as well. Still, I have learned a few select tunes, such as the opening riff from 'Pretty Woman', the Force theme from Star Wars, a couple of tunes from The Lion King, the main riffs played by the Doof Warrior in Mad Max Fury Road and the theme from the film Rango. They're not perfect by any means; the Doof Warrior's riffs in particular sound a bit weird when played on an acoustic, but it's a start.
Playing the guitar is an ideal hobby to have in a village as quiet as Frynwys. At the moment we're being constantly battered by wind and rain and there is a perpetual dimness in the day due to the thick cloud cover. At least I have plenty to distract myself from the dreary weather. If I somehow manage to play chords without string buzz (I'm assuming that's what it's called) I might be able to do something with it.
The guitar I'm learning on is an acoustic-electric (Tanglewood to be precise), and it's already broken one string (in fairness, it was my fault). It's not a bad guitar to learn on; after I finally managed to tune it to standard tuning I was able to play recognisable tunes. The top E string is the worst string for buzzing. If I play it particularly fast it buzzes like a wasp's nest, but it's alright when played slowly.
My early forays into playing the guitar have been quite improvised so far, hence the shortness of this post. However I received a guitar magazine for Christmas last year, and I'm using that to help me progress. Hopefully this time next month I'll be a bit better than a beginner.
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