Haven’t we got enough guitars already?
Russ Callaghan Grooms thinks about caring for the planet, reflects on the new, the used, the recycled, the up-cycled, the make-do-and-mend in musical equipment and how music is everywhere on our beautiful planet.
‘Care: Planet’ is one of the ‘Six Ways to Wellbeing’ and we are delivering a programme using the Ways in Maidstone in Kent which is funded by Kent County Council, with investment from Artswork and the Royal Opera House Bridge.
The world is in crisis. Everyday, news coverage in the West reveals further imbalances with wealth and poverty and an overtaking consumerist culture that threatens to sell generations into debt and misery. We are told we must buy, buy, buy and that if we don’t, we will have failed in our role as a normal member of society. The pressure is crushing us whilst the landfill spills over.. But I digress;
This weeks blog is about The Planet. This glorious globe of beauty we all call home. Land and sea, plants and creatures, air and sun, steel and wood, skin, dust and rain. As Felix Baumgartner, the worlds highest skydiver said, ‘..sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you really are’
Thankfully, more so than ever before, I realise that I am treating the world as living thing rather than just somewhere to tread my boots. Having more awareness that I am a part of a micro-climate, a link in the evolutionary chain and a combination of cells makes me a better person. I don’t say this lightly; I was a terrible youngster with scant regard for anyone but myself, least of all the planet where I lived. The true realisation that my actions lead to consequences is in part to do with age, which brings with it the grace to be thankful for what I have and to not mourn what I do not, and in part to do with the shifting culture towards the logic in recycling, up-cycling and a modern throwback to a make-do-and-mend attitude that was born from a terrible war. All of that aside, I do, however have one question.
Haven’t we got enough guitars already?
I am a guitar nut, ask anyone who knows me. I am obsessed with the curves and lines, the smell of exotic tonewoods, pickups, magnets, strings and nitro-cellulose paint. I love them all and cherish my prized possessions. Five years working for a major US brand put me in touch with lots of other people who love guitars and exposed me to showrooms full of glistening new models. It was in fact (whilst writing a blog about the planet), out of this world and I am privileged to have played and held some of the most desirable guitars in the world held within the most revered collections.
In Brighton, where I live, we have 9 music shops. Most are stocked full of glittering new guitars in all shapes and sizes. The same shops are up and down the country and all over the world. Made in the USA, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Germany, UK - the guitar world is a global operation of veritable delights with the latest seasons colours to temp my itchy fingers. This year, I’ll be sporting a nifty little Cherry Red number with chrome P90’s and a 22 fret neck. How they’ll gasp as I stroll through the backstage area!
Like every evolutionary chain, we also have plenty of second-hand shops ready to suck up last seasons cast-offs. Below that are the junk stores where you might find a neck or a body, the tattered remnants of an unloved fashion statement. Failing that, if I don’t fancy wandering around then there is always eBay or Gumtree, the snoopers paradise of the online window-shopper. It is literally possible to find a guitar of some playable quality for less than £50 and even then, I can have the pick of the bunch. I recently did exactly that with an impulsive eBay purchase (£40) which turned out to be a great 70’s Telecaster copy of unknown origin. I’ve used it in a studio already and it sounds fine. Better than fine in fact. I couldn’t even buy half the parts to make this guitar for the price I paid (postage and packaging included!). Read that again. £40. Less than a pair of Levi 501’s. Less than a Take Away for 4 people. Less than the fuel it takes me to drive to the next county to see my Mum. Less than a night in the cheapest hotel in Nottingham.
“Where there are Goats and Trees, there will be music.”
This simple phrase, given to me by my wife as we wandered through the markets of Marrakech has resounded with me ever since. Wood for the drum and skin for the drum-head. Voila! It might seem old-fashioned, even barbaric to some but the point is, do we even need glittering guitars, grand piano’s, trumpets, timpani’s or iPads to make music? I don’t deny the benefit of having good equipment but like most people of my generation, I started out on a £5 guitar from the news-agents window, worked paper-rounds (did I mention that before?) and tended the Pick and Mix counter at Woolworths for my first real instrument. The passion came first though, the bite of rock and roll and the sound of music in my ears. Fond memories of miming to Iron Maiden in Mathew Kearsey’s basement come flooding back. Before I could even really play a note, I had the poses and knew which side of the ‘stage’ I wanted to be on. I didn’t dream that one day I would hold guitars valued at more than my house and it wasn’t why I started out on this quite frankly ludicrous journey into music. It hasn’t been an unpleasant experience, believe me but like all the best things, it has been an experience earned and given to me with grace from this glorious globe I call home.
When I look around, there is music in everything I can see, touch and of course hear. The sound of birds singing, the noise in the trees, the rattle of wheels on rails, the clatter of the bins being put out, footsteps on gravel, sellers in the market calling their wares, the slamming of doors in corridors, the sirens, the bells, the engines and the silence. Music doesn’t come with a hefty price tag and the temptation of riches. The planet gives us music freely in every single thing we do. It was here before mathematics, here before any spoken languages and here before any scientific understanding. If T.S Eliot stated that the world ends with a whimper and not a bang, then science now agrees that it did at least start with a bang. That bang made a sound, and the sound created a shockwave that is still resonating across the planet. So for the sake of an experiment, stop what you’re doing for 60 seconds and listen. This planet is your home and it has a lot to say.
MORE INFORMATION ON SIX WAYS TO WELLBEING
We are interested to hear what other organisations think about the Six Ways to Wellbeing and will be blogging over the coming weeks about our learning and experiences of the pilot programme.
The Six Ways to Wellbeing are:
- Connect: People
- Be active: Body
- Take notice: Place
- Keep learning: Mind
- Give: Spirit
- Care: Planet
You can find out more about Six Ways to Wellbeing
Website: www.sixwaystowellbeing.org.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/liveitwellkent
Twitter: https://twitter.com/liveitwelluk @liveitwelluk
#sixwaystowellbeing
PREVIOUS SIX WAYS BLOGS
1) Introduction: Ways to Wellbeing Through Music:
Here we introduce the ‘Ways’, look at how our tutors have adopted the ‘Six Ways to Wellbeing’ using music to engage the ethos behind the project and Russ Grooms (Project Manager) reflects on the programme as a whole. Article here
2) Connect with People Through Music: Six Ways to Wellbeing
Lucy Stone, our Strategic Director reflects on the minutiae of music making and how music making enables young people to connect with peers and their communities. Article here
3) Be Active Through Music: Six Ways to Wellbeing
Russ Callaghan Grooms, the project manager, reflects on his early days listening to his walkman and how music, movement and being active go hand in hand. Article here
4) Take Notice Through Music: Six Ways to Wellbeing
Here we are thinking about how music helps us stop and take notice and connects us to a place (in our memories, a sense of place or where we are now) and we reflect on music and memory, the everyday, our environment and lyrical content. Article here
5) Playing an instrument - the ‘Full-Body Workout’!
Here we are thinking about learning music and how it music affects the mind. We share an amazing TED-Ed talk called ‘How playing an instrument benefits your brain’ by Anita Collins which shows why music education is so important for the brain. Article here
6) Music is Giving: The giving relationship between young people and music leaders
Do we take time to acknowledge what music leaders get out of our work with young people? Until recently we hadn’t thought too much about it but then we asked. Here Lucy Stone, our Strategic Director, reflects on how much the young people we work with ‘Give’ to the music leaders that they work with. Article here