John Kirkbride is a troubador. At least some people say so. Others call him a bluesman or a singer-songwriter or a blues poet. Some say blues entertainer.
Yet he is all of these things and more. He's had several books of poetry published, which met with a positive response, together with a large number of LP's and CD's containing his own compositions, many of which are critical or protest songs.
His long career, which took off at the beginning of the 1970's, initially led him around the world until he finally landed in Europe. In Germany to be precise, where he still lives. All through the years working on his guitar technique, until he was satisfied that his fingerpicking and ability with harmonies and slide guitar met with his own high standards.
He has performed at a wide variety of venues, from major festivals like the famous Montreux Jazz Festival, where B.B. King invited him to an all-Star session, to cosy little jazz clubs, and has performed with major musical figures such as Chuck Leavell, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Pete Seeger, Joan Armatrading and many more. He is probably the only solo musician who can claim to have performed AFTER Motörhead, keeping a couple of thousand bikers entertained until the early hours.
He maintains that protest songs are important and give a message to this quarrelsome and volatile world, and he has no intention of stopping now.
John on songwriting:
Songwriting is a bit like picking invisible pieces out of the air and joining them together in an audible whole, like a jigsaw puzzle. You need to have something to say, of course, using words, melody, harmony, rhythm and tempo to create a sort of picture that can be listened to. Unlike a picture however, which is static and unchanging, a song unfolds itself in a lyrical message which passes by and, ideally, leaves memorable images in your mind afterwards. To make a song memorable the parts have to fit perfectly together. To write a happy song in a minor key would be difficult to say the least, but to use a minor chord in a harmonic progression would be nice, especially if you have a properly worked out melody, an aspect which is all to often forgotten in modern popular music.
To achieve this, a good knowledge of chords and how they work together is pretty essential. Diminished and seventh chords should be mastered, as well as buying and listening to masterpieces by the great popular composers of an earlier era such as Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. The Beatles were masters of harmony and you gain a lot by listening to them, as well as many of the original blues musicians, from whose music rock and roll was born. Rhythm and tempo are equally important. Some lyrics lend themselves perfectly to a 3/4 or walz rhythm, and there have been compositions, especially in jazz, which have complex rhythms. For example Take Five by Dave Brubeck which is written in 5/4. Tempo is important. If you want people to dance to your happy lyrics and melody, make sure they can.
Important is to enjoy what you're doing. If it's obvious that you're not completely sincere, it will be noticed. So have fun.
That's about it for the basics. If anything else occurs to me, I'll tack it on at some point.
Happy songwriting!!
John on guitar:
The guitar can rightly be described as the most successful musical instrument of the twentieth century. This is obvious when you look at modern bands, four or five piece combos. More or less unthinkable without a guitar or two, and an electric bass. Until the 1950's jazz bands and orchestras may have had a guitarist but he played rhythm and very rarely, if ever, was a solo performed on guitar. This began to change with the advances made in pickups and amplification technology, and some of the old bluesmen, who had until then played acoustic instruments, adopted the electric version. Muddy Waters is a prime example. But the guitar in any form has distinct advantages over many other instruments. It is portable; you can carry it in a small car or slung over your back. You can play all the chords on it or you can finger-pick and you can use a bottleneck or slide to create the wailing sounds so often heard in blues and country music. The most interesting aspect of the guitar (in my opinion) is that is is polyphonic, meaning that you can play two or more notes at the same time. This enables you to play a melody and create an harmonic accompaniment. (Ferdl Eichner does this also on bluesharp, but that's a different story).
I first encountered this as a little kid when we got hold of an LP (remember them) by the great Chet Atkins. I was already playing guitar (mostly in my own tuning, not knowing that there was an official one) when we heard this, and I remember thinking that these people played really great together, until my dad passed the cover over and I saw that it was just one man. I was gobsmacked! Threw away my plectrum, finally obtained a book which contained the tuning, and gave it a go. I'm still giving it a go seventy years later and loving it. It certainly influenced my songwriting which goes in something of a ragtime direction.
So it's fun to try and you don't need an expensive instrument to play at home or with friends. So give it a go, and it would be nice to chat about it at a concert sometime. I look forward to it.
Yet he is all of these things and more. He's had several books of poetry published, which met with a positive response, together with a large number of LP's and CD's containing his own compositions, many of which are critical or protest songs.
His long career, which took off at the beginning of the 1970's, initially led him around the world until he finally landed in Europe. In Germany to be precise, where he still lives. All through the years working on his guitar technique, until he was satisfied that his fingerpicking and ability with harmonies and slide guitar met with his own high standards.
He has performed at a wide variety of venues, from major festivals like the famous Montreux Jazz Festival, where B.B. King invited him to an all-Star session, to cosy little jazz clubs, and has performed with major musical figures such as Chuck Leavell, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Pete Seeger, Joan Armatrading and many more. He is probably the only solo musician who can claim to have performed AFTER Motörhead, keeping a couple of thousand bikers entertained until the early hours.
He maintains that protest songs are important and give a message to this quarrelsome and volatile world, and he has no intention of stopping now.
John on songwriting:
Songwriting is a bit like picking invisible pieces out of the air and joining them together in an audible whole, like a jigsaw puzzle. You need to have something to say, of course, using words, melody, harmony, rhythm and tempo to create a sort of picture that can be listened to. Unlike a picture however, which is static and unchanging, a song unfolds itself in a lyrical message which passes by and, ideally, leaves memorable images in your mind afterwards. To make a song memorable the parts have to fit perfectly together. To write a happy song in a minor key would be difficult to say the least, but to use a minor chord in a harmonic progression would be nice, especially if you have a properly worked out melody, an aspect which is all to often forgotten in modern popular music.
To achieve this, a good knowledge of chords and how they work together is pretty essential. Diminished and seventh chords should be mastered, as well as buying and listening to masterpieces by the great popular composers of an earlier era such as Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. The Beatles were masters of harmony and you gain a lot by listening to them, as well as many of the original blues musicians, from whose music rock and roll was born. Rhythm and tempo are equally important. Some lyrics lend themselves perfectly to a 3/4 or walz rhythm, and there have been compositions, especially in jazz, which have complex rhythms. For example Take Five by Dave Brubeck which is written in 5/4. Tempo is important. If you want people to dance to your happy lyrics and melody, make sure they can.
Important is to enjoy what you're doing. If it's obvious that you're not completely sincere, it will be noticed. So have fun.
That's about it for the basics. If anything else occurs to me, I'll tack it on at some point.
Happy songwriting!!
John on guitar:
The guitar can rightly be described as the most successful musical instrument of the twentieth century. This is obvious when you look at modern bands, four or five piece combos. More or less unthinkable without a guitar or two, and an electric bass. Until the 1950's jazz bands and orchestras may have had a guitarist but he played rhythm and very rarely, if ever, was a solo performed on guitar. This began to change with the advances made in pickups and amplification technology, and some of the old bluesmen, who had until then played acoustic instruments, adopted the electric version. Muddy Waters is a prime example. But the guitar in any form has distinct advantages over many other instruments. It is portable; you can carry it in a small car or slung over your back. You can play all the chords on it or you can finger-pick and you can use a bottleneck or slide to create the wailing sounds so often heard in blues and country music. The most interesting aspect of the guitar (in my opinion) is that is is polyphonic, meaning that you can play two or more notes at the same time. This enables you to play a melody and create an harmonic accompaniment. (Ferdl Eichner does this also on bluesharp, but that's a different story).
I first encountered this as a little kid when we got hold of an LP (remember them) by the great Chet Atkins. I was already playing guitar (mostly in my own tuning, not knowing that there was an official one) when we heard this, and I remember thinking that these people played really great together, until my dad passed the cover over and I saw that it was just one man. I was gobsmacked! Threw away my plectrum, finally obtained a book which contained the tuning, and gave it a go. I'm still giving it a go seventy years later and loving it. It certainly influenced my songwriting which goes in something of a ragtime direction.
So it's fun to try and you don't need an expensive instrument to play at home or with friends. So give it a go, and it would be nice to chat about it at a concert sometime. I look forward to it.
