The Royal Oak Blues Night

Blues/Jazz trio with Saxophone, Double Bass and Slide Guitar/Vocals at the Royal Oak Pub.

February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 | Hannah Sterry

On Wednesday 25th Jan, there was a brilliant session at the Royal Oak.

About a week before, my dad (Joe) and I had been asked we’d like to come and join in with some blues with Ben Carr and a few guest musicians. Neither of us knew exactly how it would work and we’d had no idea what we were going to play – just that it started at 8pm and that it’d probably be a lot of fun.

Ben Carr played his blues set first, with brother Tom Carr on double bass. Ben is an excellent guitarist and manages to organise things like this so quickly – I’m not sure that anyone else would be able to do it!

Next, Tez Locke played a set of completely original works and Ben asked if Doug “Big Toe” Smith and I would join in . Tez was the only one who’d played the songs before, but I joined in with improvised flute fills and harmonies and generally had a good time. People seemed to think we’d been playing together for ages, so it must have sounded fairly good, and we all really enjoyed it.

The last set was made up of three the musicians from Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band (Howard, Julian and Rosie) and my dad (Joe) joined them on saxophone with fills, harmonies and improvisations. They were amazing – Rosie has a stunning voice which suited the blues/swing style perfectly and meshed really well with the guitar and bass.

The evening ended with everyone joining in for the last blues and lots of chatting! The atmosphere was just so relaxed and appreciative that I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t want to play there again.

I’ll let you know when there’s another one!

H xxx

Music Cartoon: Musical Compliments

Musical Compliments: A music cartoon by Hannah Sterry of Sterry Cartoons.

January 27, 2012September 13, 2013 | Hannah Sterry

I got a tablet yesterday, so I’ve been trying to re-draw my old cartoons and had a few new ideas along the way. Anyway… here’s the new digital version of the Musical Compliments cartoon. Hope it makes a few of you music teachers and students chuckle! 😀

The cartoons reads:

“Liking the natural look!”

“Thanks! You’re looking pretty sharp yourself!”

Gift Ideas for Musicians:

Music Joke Mugs by Sterry Cartoons	Music Joke Bags by Sterry Cartoons	Musical Greeting Cards by Sterry Cartoons
Mens’ Music T-Shirts by Sterry Cartoons	Womens’ Music Tee by SterryCartoons	Music Joke Badges by Sterry Cartoons

Follow Sterry Cartoons on:

Facebook | Google+ | Twitter

M.A.D. Pantomime a massive success!

January 24, 2012May 22, 2012 | Hannah Sterry

Pantomime is over and I’m still trying to refrain from shouting things like “It’s behind you… Oh yes it is!” at confused strangers. My favourite part happened on the Saturday night, when one of the props broke and resulted in some rude (but very funny) improvised lines from the cast, involving flying baubles and rather squeaky voices.

Overall, it was a massive success – The tickets were almost completely sold out and I enjoyed the whole week, despite having seen the pantomime more than 8 times, which says a lot about the quality of the script and the community atmosphere. It was nice to see so many of the actors/chorus helping out with the costumes too and as a result, the costumes this year were stunning.

It’s a shame it’s all over, but I’m really looking forward to next year and hoping it’ll be even better!

On a completely unrelated note, if you’re interested in experimental music, this look like a great idea: Here’s a record player that has been modified to translate tree rings into music.

Free Classical Sheet Music from the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

January 13, 2012January 13, 2012 | Hannah Sterry

I’ve just found out about the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). They provide a brilliant website for finding free classical music scores and seem to just generally have a really good collaborative/community attitude. Here’s what they have to say on their website:

“We at the IMSLP believe that music should be something that is easily accessible for everyone. For this purpose we have created a music library to provide music scores free of charge to anyone with internet access, with several other projects in planning. IMSLP is also entirely collaborative, and all contributions are greatly welcome.”

I just thought it was a great project that you might like to know about. If you’re really keen you can even follow them on twitter (@imslp). Hope you find it helpful!

Beamed eighth and sixteenth notes on a score — Featured image by Horia Varlan (CC BY 2.0)

Live Music at The Cottage Hotel

December 29, 2011December 29, 2011 | Hannah Sterry

On the 1st January I’ll be in Hope Cove at The Cottage Hotel playing jazz flute with John (keyboard) and Joe (sax) as part of “The Sterry Family”.

If you’ve not been to The Cottage before, it’s a hotel with a stunning sea view, really good food and the people running it are lovely (they’re even nice to musicians!!!). I chose to go there for my birthday meal because the atmosphere and food is so good (the puddings are delicious too).

Another day, another instrument…

Yesterday I played harp at The Cottage and it went down really well! I got to speak to some wonderful people afterwards about and brought my dad and sister along to listen.

People tend to ask quite a few questions about the harp, because it’s a fairly modern design. This particular model is a Smartwood Harp and is much lighter than some of the more traditional designs, which makes it much more convenient for travelling with. Most importantly, I enjoy playing it and it sounds good (the low notes in particular have a wonderful warm rich sound). I’m tempted to add levers soon, as I am finding the standard modes a bit restrictive, but overall I’m very happy with it.

Dusk: New tune uploaded on bandcamp!

December 23, 2011May 22, 2012 | Hannah Sterry

I’ve had this tune sitting on my hard drive for a while now, but haven’t known what to do with it, so I thought I might as well post it and then anyone can have a listen if they feel like it.

I’m a bit of a cynical flautist, so I really really enjoyed improvising on this big dark tune. All of it is my work, it’s just that the flute part was the most fun to play. The photo above is mine too and is called “Hope at Sunset”.

Advertising and Promoting Music on a Budget (Free)

October 15, 2011December 2, 2011 | Hannah Sterry

Here are a few useful sites I’ve found whilst researching how to start advertising and and selling my music without having to pay anything. Hope it helps!

Bandcamp is probably the best website regarding ease and freedom of music sale. You just upload the tracks and album art and name your price. They take 15% commission, and PayPal take a little too, but if you read through their FAQs there’s plenty of information and advice to help you manage your music independently. UPDATE: Bandcamp now have a facebook app, so it’s possible to sell music via facebook pages. Here’s the info: http://bandcamp.com/facebook_app.
RouteNote are advertising that they can get your tunes on itunes, and you don’t have to pay anything up front as they take a percentage of the money from sales. If salesincrease you can pay a flat rate each month and keep all of the money from your sales.
RootMusic have quite a neat module for playing music on facebook pages. If you want to customise it, you have to pay,but the free version looks quite tidy and does the job. You can also use a facebook app by ReverbNation, but in my opinion it didn’t look so tidy.
Get British Businesses Online will give you 2 years worth of free domain name. The only catch that I can see (other than the fact that you have to be based in Britain) is that you have to use google sites to build a website.

If you’ve found any other useful sites like this, please don’t hesitate to comment!

Tips for Learning an Instrument

July 7, 2011December 2, 2011 | Hannah Sterry

Whenever music comes up in conversation, there seems to be an instant divide between people who do and don’t class themselves as musicians. Most of the time the people who don’t class themselves as musicians mumble something along the lines of “I wish I could play an instrument”.
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