the right notes, necessarily in the right order

  • New Year Resolutions?

    New Year Resolutions?

    I’m 10% into the “new” year, and not yet set on anything I want to change so badly I’ll make it a special focus. I guess I need to make more good music, lead more sung worship in the churches that ask me to, work harder with some of my friends on our collaborative efforts,…

  • Merry Christmas!

    Merry Christmas!

    We made it. Only a week to the end of the calendar year, and no more Sundays before 2023. Happy New Year to you all too. And if you enjoy that kind of thing, here’s my Christmas song for this year:

  • Deck the Mall

    Deck the Mall

    The Saddlers Centre is our local shopping destination. They have a public piano. Last month I was honoured to be asked to play the public piano at its post-lockdown re-launch, and when Becki the lovely person who manages the centre asked me if I did any Christmas music. Evidently, the answer is “yes”… and so…

  • Hold very tight please

    Hold very tight please

    Brass bands clearly have something in common with brass monkeys – an aversion to low temperatures. So it was last Sunday we found ourselves stomping our feet to keep warm and wearing more than the usual number of layers at Aldridge Transport Museum in Aldridge. Great Barr Brass performed two sets of traditional carols, Christmas…

  • Civic Carolling

    Civic Carolling

    Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed the Civic Carols last Sunday at St Matthew’s Church. The Christmas Choir were stunning, and it was a privilege to lead them from the organ, wearing what can only be described as my new favourite jacket. Thanks to everybody in the choir. You are all…

  • While Shepherds WHAT?

    While Shepherds WHAT?

    Annually, we have been going into pubs and singing carols. Between 2012 and 2022 there was a whole separate project and we printed up special carol sheets once we realised that everybody could then join in! With a regular (annual) event comes the traditions. Singing the wrong words (washing socks, Frank was incensed, Let us…

  • Inheritance

    Inheritance

    Whose shoulders do you stand on? When I was five, my Grandad’s piano was a thing of continuing fascination. I’d been smacking the keys randomly since I could reach it, and they lived only a three minute walk from my own home. But I was beginning to experiment with pressing notes in sequence and trying…

  • Community Choir

    Community Choir

    As part of my work for St Matthew’s Church, I run a community choir on Wednesday evenings at 19:30. We meet in the church centre (St Matthew’s Close, on the right as you enter the close) in the Main Hall and we share a hot drink and chocolate biscuits before spending a happy hour singing…

  • DO NOT BE AFRAID

    DO NOT BE AFRAID

    Much of the work we undertook in lockdown seems to have passed into history so quickly. Communal art, recordings, projects and initiatives to keep communities together even when we couldn’t meet in person. One such idea was DO NOT BE AFRAID, the installation of six angels in the ceiling space of St James’ Church, Hill…

  • Following the Star

    Following the Star

    Well, we’ve reached Advent, and I for one am exhausted. Post-lockdown, we always knew this year would be hard but I didn’t expect so much change. If you’d like to get involved in anything going on between now and Christmas, this is a rough list of what I’m up to and where you can catch…

let’s talk. I’ll buy the coffees.