Music

Music for the Hard of Hearing

June 12, 2021 Leave a Comment

This is a bit of an experiment. One of the obstacles to creating music for me over the last few years has been the gradual, but fairly rapid loss of my hearing. Much of the high frequency has gone and the mid range is much reduced. I have hearing aids now that have improved my life enormously – I can hear conversations and bird song again, and the telly is mostly okay, BUT, making music is much harder.

When I am writing, for my comfort I don’t wear the aids – everything sounds muddy like at the bottom of a swimming pool but I’m pulling ideas together so that’s not so important. When I am starting to polish the production I need to wear the aids to hear all the instruments but it does sound like a jangly mess. I then have to compare my jangly mess to the jangly messes of established artists and see if the sound is similar in its jangliness. Then I ask Caerthan to listen to rough mixes and get him to pick the ‘best’ one.

That process seems to work and the songs are listenable. But NOT TO ME! And I actually do need to hear the songs I create. I have thought about packing it all in, but there’s something really wrong about that, so Music for the Hard of Hearing is the next step. It’s actually music for me, but I am interested to see if it works for others with hearing loss.

Basically, I am remixing the songs so that they sound good to my damaged ears WITHOUT hearing aids. That means seriously boosting the high frequencies, and cutting back on some of the bass. I have given the treatment to two songs so far Cherry Blossom and Hedgerow in Wales, and for me it has made a world of difference. I can actually enjoy my own songs again! Now … whether they will make any sense to anybody else with hearing loss is the big question. It may be that our individual ear problems are too different, but then again, maybe not. So I’m putting them out there. On the Music Posts for those two songs there is a ‘normal’ mix, and a ‘Hard of Hearing’ mix, which is meant to be listened to WITHOUT hearing aids.

I would be very interested in feedback from anyone about this – the songs specifically and also the concept in general. Maybe this has all been done before and someone can offer me pointers, or maybe this is a new thing – I just don’t know, but it costs me nothing to put my HH mixes on the web so theres no harm (that I can see) in asking.

I would struggle in my daily life without hearing aids now, but listening to music without them is definitely a more satisfying experience!

Do you still walk? (2012)

October 11, 2016 Leave a Comment

Bench made from wood from St Peter's Church bell tower in Wisbech

Written in the months after my mother’s death. I haven’t created much since we moved here, but sometimes things need to be written, so it was back to the computer and keyboard.

Download Do you still walk?

do_you_still_walk.mp3 (4 MB)

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Do you still walk? - Lyrics

Do you still walk?
And if you do do you think about us?
The way I think of you when I’m walking every day
Through the woods, me and Gwen
I think you’d like the way she’s turned out
A little wild and full of life, but oh, so gentle
Throw a stick, catch a glance
Sometimes she goes a bit too far
She could use your woman’s touch, and I could use your wisdom

Can you see her joy through my eyes?
Can you see her joy through my eyes?
Do you feel her love through my skin?
Do you feel her love through my skin?

I climb the bank
We climb the steep muddy bank through the leaves
Could be the three of us – I’d help you if you’d come
At the top on the bench
From the bell tower of St Peter’s Church
I’m glad you’ve made it up here
Glad you’ve seen what I see every day
Looking down over Talog
People getting ready for the day to come
Th sights and sounds of life on a hillside
The sun burns through the morning mist

Can you feel the light on my skin?
Can you feel the light on my skin?
Do you see the world through my eyes?
Do you see the world through my eyes?

Do you still laugh?
Do you still cry?
I only ever saw you cry once
But you could laugh
I still enjoy your laugh

Does a mother ever leave her child?
Does a mother ever leave her child?

Hedgerow in Wales

May 31, 2021 16 Comments

There’s a stretch of road between Talog and Meidrim where the verge and hedgerow is quite overwhelming in its richness and beauty. I don’t go that way too often but over the years this song – about Spring in Wales – has gradually emerged.

Special thanks to David Thomas for help with the welsh bit which was both daunting and exciting to do, and also to Caerthan for helping with the mix, which my deaf ears can’t quite manage on their own.

Download ‘Hedgerow in Wales’

Hedgerow-in-Wales.mp3 (6 MB)

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Hedgerow in Wales - Lyrics

Slow down, I slow down, see the cow parsley blowing in the breeze
Little white flowers, snowy umbrellas, branching out like tiny trees

I slow down, I see the bluebells, It’s my last chance for another year
They’ll be gone soon, making way for June
But I can always hear the colour blue ringing in my ears

It’s a hedgerow in May, in Wales, in May

And the meadowsweet’s coming soon!
And the meadowsweet’s coming soon!
And the meadowsweet’s coming soon!
And the meadowsweet’s coming for the end of June!

I turn my face to the wind, I take in the scent of everything growing
Light reflects in the dew on a spiders web in the grass
Now is the vetch, now is the stitchwort
And I’m counting petals by the side of the road
There’s nothing as sublime as spring in Wales

And the pink red campion is ready to dance with the buzz of the bee
As the fresh-faced King of May is ready to dance with me
If I can slow it down and breathe the magic of the month of May
The air is clear on the road to Meidrim on a sunny sweet spring day

It’s a hedgerow in May, in Wales, in May

Yn ystod y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Blodau tlws a clawdd, yn mis Mai, yng Nghymru
Diwrnod mis Mai melys, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Blodau yn y lôn, yn mis Mai, yng Nghymru
Blodau yn y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Yn ystod y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Blodau yn y gwanwyn, yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru

Mae’r erwain yn dod yn fuan
Mae Mehefin yn dod yn fuan
Mae’r haf yn dod yn fuan
Yng Nghymru, yng Nghymru
Arafwch!

Music for the Hard of Hearing

Cherry Blossom

May 9, 2020 5 Comments

So I felt I needed to capture the moment. It was the end of March 2020, and the country had just gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic …
The tune is one I have used before (well why not?), but the lyrics are pretty much spur of the moment – the stuff that was going through my head at that time. Lockdown here has not been hard – we have a field and a bit of woodland to walk in. I’ve never taken them for granted, but right now they seem like sheer magic.
I had thought my singing(?) days were over – it’s just so hard trying to mix music when you’re half deaf, and vocal tracks really stretch me at the best of times, but hey ho, this song needed it, so I bite the bullet …

Download ‘Cherry Blossom’

Cherry-Blossom.mp3 (6 MB)

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Cherry Blossom - Lyrics

It’s hard to say the things I want to say, so I don’t say much at all
They say that silence is consent but I think it’s more than that
Time is running out before I stumble and I fall

Up in the field – Hey Blanco! I hope you’re on the mend
Talog is sleeping I look across the rooftops of my friends
And Helen – she takes photographs down by the sea, she’s good at capturing the light
And there’s cherry blossom in the wood and the sky is filled with stars at night

The wood is all done now – the sun and the wind will wear it well
And over the valley the boys are bottling up the gin and the hand gel
Simon – well he’ll be doing something, it would be good to hear his voice for a little while
And Gwen – she’ll bark at Mark the postman
And the cherry blossom in the wood – it makes me smile

The day is too quiet, the crows are circling in the sky
Caerthan is mixing colour and making scents to keep us all alive

And three sisters – they paint their world in pictures, the wisdom of the family
And standing in the wind, Mike and Suzy watch the tide, breathing in the sea
And far far away, Kate and Nell are playing safely with their mum and dad
And life goes on all around me, the bigger picture says it’s not so bad
And Rachel – she knows she has to lie low, I know she’ll stay okay
And the wind in the wood is picking up, lifts the cherry blossom off the tree
Up and away

Music for the Hard of Hearing

A View from a Hill

January 6, 2017 Leave a Comment

Originally written for ‘The Time Now Standing” a community theatre production in Exmouth, back in 1995. When I used to work for Exeter and Devon Arts Center. We were creating story snapshots from our own lives, one of which was of a women who used to walk her dogs on a hill near Exmouth, giving her time to reflect, re-energise and escape. The story was worked into the play, with an earlier version of this music.

Twenty years later I am living on my own hill and I find the music has returned as I walk my own dog, reflect and re-energise (not escaping though). The hill lies east of Talog, near Carmarthen in West Wales and we look north-west over the village and the Cywyn valley. The music is simpler despite being asked to stand on its own with no words, unlike the earlier version.

Download ‘A View from a Hill’

A-View-from-a-Hill.mp3 (3 MB)

Dedicated to Liz, her dogs, and hill-lovers everywhere.

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Music for the Hard of Hearing