Dylan Kay

New Dylan Kay blog!

dylankay — Sun, 29 May 2011 13:29:45 +0000

I’ve finally sorted out a new blog on my website.

Lots of new guitar/music/life-related stuff there… plus more info about my Skype guitar lessons.

Come and visit!

Web address change

dylankay — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:34:34 +0000

I’ve finally got a teaching website off the ground for Skype guitar lessons and other stuff at www.dylankay.co.uk. Come and visit me there!

This blog will revert to the old address: www.dylankay.wordpress.com.

CD launch party

dylankay — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:33:40 +0000

We’re very happy that the launch party for the new 1224 Project CD “What Happened to The Foot” will be at the Spice of Life in Soho on Friday, 1st April.

It’s a great venue, centrally located, and we’re looking forward to celebrating all the hard work that went into producing the album.

If you’d like an invite to the party, send us an email: info@1224project.co.uk.

Blues and Soul Magazine Review of CD

dylankay — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:08:55 +0000

Very nice review by Emrys Baird in Blues and Soul Magazine today.
Love his view that trying to pigeonhole 1224 Project is a bit similar to understanding dwarf-tossing!

The review’s below, and it’s on the Blues and Soul site here.
Thanks Emrys!

Jazz Breakfast review

dylankay — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:51:49 +0000

Peter Bacon kindly posted a review of “What Happened to The Foot” on his The Jazz Breakfast blog. You can find it here.

And Phil Levene just let me know that he’d played “FT” on his 23rd Dec show, which you can find here. Thanks Phil!

Ted Greene

dylankay — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:59:41 +0000

Many people know of Ted Greene through his book “Chord Chemistry”, or through his private students. His one album “Solo Guitar” is an intense and extraordinary insight into the depth of music this man could create. Yet this was someone who shunned publicity, and preferred to perform background music in restaurants and at weddings rather than stepping into the spotlight on the concert stage.

One of the great guitar teachers, thinkers and players, and by all accounts a thoroughly decent human being, Ted Greene sadly passed away in 2005. If you don’t know about it already, check out www.tedgreene.com. Past students and friends have compiled (and continue to compile) an absolutely wonderful resource of solo guitar arrangements, lessons (PDFs, audio and video). It is incredible…

Music Education – where did it all go wrong?

dylankay — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:38:27 +0000

Some of the best guitar lessons I’ve had went like this:

No written music allowed.
A tape recorder.
A guitar. An amp.
That’s it.

Richie Hart would play the song or solo, you’d try and copy it as best you could. You’d go home and listen to the tape, practise it.

It works!

So, why not leave it at that? No, instead we have to suffer more and more lunatic attempts to destroy music education by “improving” it (meaning of course that it gets worse), and dumbing it down so that anyone can “pass” a meaningless exam.

And for what it’s worth, if you mentioned the word “mode” in Richie’s lesson, God help you!

New 1224 Project Gigs

dylankay — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:07:09 +0000

Just posted out a couple of new gigs for early next year…
Will be great to get out there again and play the music from “The Foot”, plus some fun new material.
Check out the gigs page for more details.

How do you practise?

dylankay — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:20:44 +0000

I’ve been wondering recently how other people organise their practise?
Are they really disciplined? Maybe they time everything, doing exactly 15mins of this and 10mins of that. Or maybe it’s more relaxed, just playing what they want, when they want.

When I first started playing, it was very much the latter approach. I’d put on a record and play along with it for as long as I wanted. Maybe learn a few chords and scales each day too.

Once I started studying seriously, it became much more necessary to organise things. I had lists of things I wanted/needed to practise and tried to schedule things each week to work on (with timings!)

Mick Goodrick suggested what he called a Chinese Menu approach. Write down everything you’d like to practice, then divide into 2 lists and alternate day by day.

Hal Crook is incredibly disciplined in his approach. Tim Miller told me to practise things that you love rather than things you feel you ought to practise, on the grounds that you’d be more motivated that way. Alain Mallet told me to spend at least a month practising something if you want it to have any benefit.

These days I’ve got a monthly list on my phone of things I’d like to practise, and I try and do as much as I can each day. At the moment, amongst other things, I’m working on Wayne Krantz’s method and trying to solo just using specific intervals a la Tronzo. And working on my time…

I wonder what other people feel about this? Let me know…

New Album!

dylankay — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:30:36 +0000

1224 Project’s first CD “What Happened to The Foot” is finally here.

Recorded in June ’10, the CD features new material and live favourites including our version of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”.

The album is available NOW direct from the band through our website, and is also available from all online digital distributors (iTunes, Amazon, Napster etc).

Check out and buy the music here: http://www.1224project.co.uk/

This album has been a long time in the making, but we’re very proud of the result, and looking forward to bringing this music to as many people as we can.

Spread the word, and we look forward to seeing you on the promo tour!