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We were delighted to return to this lovely venue for a second year on what turned out to be the hottest June day on record. Laxfield has a long history of live music making which continues to this day. In the 1960’s, through the work and recordings of Peter Bellamy, it became especially linked to East Anglia folk music, so it was particularly nice to include John Duarte’s English Suite in which he uses 16^th Century folk song and dance tunes.

Our thanks to Chris Cliffe and Jackie for inviting us back and we look forward to returning in the future.

We were delighted to be asked to perform at Bressingham Church to help raise funds for the church.  Our concert programme for this year includes the English Suite by John Duatre which draws on 17th Century English dance and folk tunes. The Blag Nag (couples dance) proved especially popular.

Thanks to Diana Burroghs, Sue Barton and helpers for facilitating the event.

For our first concert of the year, we had the pleasure of returning to play for Edwin Peck and his many friends at Catton Court in Old Costessey, Norwich. Edwin is a retired luthier and two of his guitars were played during the event. Our Musical Director, Rod Faulkner who has been a friend of Edwin’s for many years, joined our line up and played a duet with Sarah Sweet (DGE).

Our thanks to Edwin and his friends at Catton Court for their warm welcome and hospitality.

Our third public performance of the year took us to the beautiful village of Brandeston, situated in deepest Suffolk. This was by far our longest performance consisting of two sessions of around 40 minutes, each sandwiched around an interval of refreshments (always helpful) which helped keep us going.

Our programme was well received by a welcoming audience and included our first public playing of three pieces by Roger Montgomery (musical director of the Chelmsford Guitar Orchestra) which we adopted following this years Guitar Federation day (see blog of 22/06/25). All three proved popular so we’ll continue to polish them up and record them for the web site before the end of the year.

Two of us had the good fortune to catch up with Norwich guitarist Peter Turrell (see earlier blog 17/05/2025) over afternoon tea at St Andrew’s Church in Trowse on the outskirts of Norwich. For over two hours Peter worked through pieces by Bach, Scarlatti, Carcassi, Tarrega, Barrios, Granados and many others including a number of his own compositions. An extraordinary feat as it was all from memory!

The informality of the event allowed us to invite Peter to our table where he joined us. The ensuing discussion was an unexpected bonus as we were able to talk to him at some length about his playing and exchange views and suggestions on repertoire. Unprompted he even gave us a demonstration of cross-string trills and an unusual tremolo technique he had used in one of his pieces. Truly an afternoon to remember.

We were delighted to be invited to be part of this year’s lineup of Lunchtime Concert Series held on the 4^th Friday of each month running from April to October. We were fortunate to be able to choose June for our turn which turned out to be the most glorious Midsummers day.

This concert series is well supported by the local residents and ours was no exception. Our varied programme was well received. The Spanish and Latin America pieces had a lot of people tapping out the rhythms and Canary Calypso from the Norwich Suite went down particularly well.

Our thanks to Chris Cliffe for the invitation and Liz and Jackie for help on the day and we look forward to coming back in the future.

The weather was so good and Laxfield is such a picturesque village we all stayed on for a post-concert lunch at the King’s Head. The pub is full of character and original features and has a very fine tap room but that’s a whole other story!

The Guitar Federation operates as an umbrella site for existing societies across the UK to offer mutual support in promoting the classical guitar and related instruments in addition to providing a source of help and advice to enthusiasts (The Federation of Guitar Societies –). A major function of the Federation is to facilitate an annual event where interested groups can meet up to play music in a scratch orchestra concert as well as showcasing the playing of attending societies.

This year’s event was held at the Galleywood Heritage Centre just outside Chelmsford and was hosted and organised by Roger Montgomery and members of the Chelmsford Guitar Orchestra (Chego) who put on an excellent and highly memorable day.

A few weeks before the event, Roger circulated part scores and recordings of five pieces for us to work on and get up to speed before playing all together on the day.

1. Les Savages (Jean-Phillippe Rameau arr. Roger Montgomery)
2. Anitra’s Dance (Edvard Grieg arr. Roger Montgomery)
3. Winter’s Brightening (Roger Montgomery)
4. The Swan LK243 (Catriona McKay arr. Roger Montgomery)
5. El Caballo (Roger Montgomery)

The day itself consisted of the morning full orchestra session working through the five pieces

There then followed a session of Ensemble Showcases where each attending group were given a 10 minutes to showcase some of their work. We chose to perform the Norwich Suite by John Gibbs with its contrasting movements and local history which was well received and generated a lot of interest.

 

The afternoon was rounded off with a final playthrough of the five pieces, photos and videos of which can be viewed at The Federation of Guitar Societies – FGS Meetings.

Our 2025 Concert Year got off to a great start in St Mary’s Church Halesworth with all contributions going to the Ukrainian Development Fund. The clear and warm acoustics of the main knave were about the best we’ve experienced. This contributed greatly in the Telemann’s Concerto in D major.

A big shout out to Rod Faulkner for organising the event and for the excellent hosting by Jason Busby (Church Warden and Organist).

If you’ve ever been wandering around the medieval lanes and public spaces of Norwich and heard echoing of the evocative sounds of the classical guitar, more than likely it’s Peter Turrell who’s busked around the City for many years. He’s become a regular at some of the city music venues such as Pinocchio’s and the Louis Marchesi as well as in London Street, Gentlemans Walk and the Royal Arcade outside the food hall ‘Yalm’. Here then is a shout out for a recent YouTube video of him (PETER TURRELL – ANGLIA SOUND SESSION) and an earlier one playing one of his hand crafted guitars on the steps of the Quadrant Pavillion Eaton Park, Norwich (CAVATINA – PETER TURRELL).  For more information on Peter visit his Facebook page at (Peter Turrell Guitarist and Luthier | Facebook).

Hands up anyone if you like to hear the sound of your own voice played back to you? If like me, you’re not recording and uploading onto Instagram or TikTok on a regular basis, hearing your voice as others hear us never seems quite right. In effect, this is because we hear ourselves differently from how others hear us. For those with hearing, sound travels to our brain via two sources. Firstly through our auditory canal and secondarily through bone conduction. It’s this combination that accounts for the difference.

Playing the guitar presents not dissimilar problems. When playing we are behind the instrument with the sound being projected outwards from the soundbox. In addition, your ears are receiving the reflected sound from any surfaces in front of you. The result is that what you hear will be different to what any audience will hear.

Just like hearing a playback of your voice, recordings of your playing may well sound different from what you heard or thought you were conveying. In the absence of a teacher or listener, recording yourself allows you to listen to your playing from an audience perspective. Did that phrasing, emphasis or intonation really come across as you thought it had? In addition, unconscious bias in our playing is hard to avoid but listening back to recordings can help pick them up. Think of it like standing back from a painting to get a different perspective. Is this why so many teachers and online sources tell us to make it part of your daily routine? Absolutely.

There are other benefits worth listing;

· Easier to spot when phrasing or intonation is not what you thought it was.

· Helps mark the progress you are making over time.

· Regularly recording yourself playing can help overcome recording and performance anxiety.

Recording can be simply done by using your smart phone requiring no additional financial costs. I’d recommend listening through earphones or ear buds which will give you a better audio frequency range a truer reflection of your playing.

Go on. Why not give it a try?