Helen Begley: You can't stop the Music Lover's Night

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The woman who organised the Music Lover's Night is Helen Begley. And there she is, sitting with her students in a gutter pow-wow, arms flumped over knees. For the last three months these five students have been meeting with their teacher, Helen, every Wednesday at Brunswick Community House for a songwriting course, the third such course she has run. And just when things start to become routine... As I approach, the natter of the matter of what went on here tonight is full of a stabbing, of a close call, and of ambulances. But in the midst of this second-hand information, there's the matter of finding a replacement venue.
Helen's band mate, Emily, from girl outfit Milk, pulls up, finding the situation hilarious. Someone suggests setting up al fresco in the park beneath the high rise.
I look across to a vision of Le Corbusier design gone crashingly wrong. Bleak and threatening rather than modern and open meets my eyes. A matchstick playground seems to be crushed by the high rise violating the view of rooftop suburbia.
Suddenly, the blue and white tape breaks off, rivuletting in the breeze, raising hopes and corners of mouths amongst the group. People confabulate, confer, hesitantly reach for bags, but movement is stuttered and any last hopes of getting into the hall are abandoned as the bemused coppers reel out fresh tape after a few failed attempts to reknot it.
Helen, throughout all this, seems to sway from ruefulness to never-say-die optimism. Now that Harmsworth Hall is very definitely out of bounds for this evening, she picks herself up and makes for the Barley Corn which is just down the road, determined to strike a deal with the publican. A few go along with their teacher for moral support or just something to do.
I spoke to Helen later about what inspired her to start up the songwriter's course.
"I'd been running songwriting workshops as part of my drug and alcohol work. It was really exciting to watch participants develop self-confidence and learn how to express themselves in meaningful ways and open up to different possibilities for themselves as a result. It was also just really good fun. I wanted to develop the idea further and reach a broader group of people so it seemed a natural progression to start running private workshops."
Helen has been running the course now since term 2 of 2005, bringing her years of experience as a musician to the students. She first studied music at Blackburn High School, which had a "special music program," and went on to study music composition and analysis at the now-defunct LaTrobe University music department. She has performed in concert bands, orchestras, rock bands, choirs, as a solo artist and in duos. With the experience gained in her drug and alcohol workshops, Begley's focus is to create a "safe creative environment" for song-writers.
"Unsolicited advice can be soul-destoying to a fledgling songwriter so one of the things students agree to is that advice can only be given when asked for... This way of working allows the students to explore their own style without worrying about being criticised or receiving unwanted advice or information. It seems to work well."
Begley is also a key song-writer, singer, guitarist and accordionist in the band Milk, along with 3CR's Girlie Is Good radio host Emily Hayes, who she warmly praises as "fantastically gifted." It's a busy year for Milk with a Tasmanian tour already behind them and a tour way out on the west end of the big island from Feb-March. She says,
"I've been writing songs since I was a kid so they come as second nature now."
Helen returns, flanked by the support team, giving us the thumbs up. Everyone ups and heads down to the Barley Corn on Johnston St. The show finally kicks into gear, though somewhat behind schedule, before a dedicated gathering of friends and relatives in the side bar. An easel featuring black marker titles written on butcher's paper announces each chapter of the proceedings. Our introduction to the "music lovers" is them starting in a circle and encouraging audience participation. Already? Well, some make an effort.
While we were waiting I spoke to some of the students about the course. Though the course was at times challenging for the unassuming and shy Guillaume DeGraeve, he found it to be rewarding. A member of the M.B.A.S. (Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society), he'd just been playing the bedroom blues and enrolled to "meet some new people," describing it as "a personal growth thing." As with many shy and modest musicians, when he performs he overcomes his nerves with a hearty rendition of a song he has written, throwing his head back for the big notes and strumming the acoustic with gusto.
The evening's line-up alternates solo songs with group activities. Helen flips the butcher's paper on the easel over to "Party Sounds." A coffee table is laden with party poppers, whistles, balloons, streamers and whatever else you might see in the party requirements aisle at the supermarket. A cacophony of whooping, squealing and popping noise ensues permeated by Happy Birthday and other party traditionals. And then as quickly as it started it is over.
Alex Heydon, a wayward young song-writer, inspired by the folkier twanging of early Bob Dylan and that ilk performs a bleak but poignant number about his troubled relationship with the world. He sings:

Long way from perfect this world
Like a man with an illness no help cure or guide
Bleeding with a blood that doesn't stain but paints
But flows through rivers this world
But nothin new this world

You cry at sad movies
You live without love's labour
You see the hurt but don't feel the pain.

Why don't I believe in this world
Because where the hills are lapped by water
And the trees are loved by dirt
That is my world
That is my world

Good Luck

Helen also performs a song for the evening. I asked her what she hopes to achieve when writing a song,
"A number of things. Foremost are songs that clearly express what is in my head or what I've experienced... There's also some more albums to write and subjects that I haven't even begun to explore yet, so there's lots of work waiting for me."
Helen has an ambitious schedule with Milk, who not only have a new album to record but are also planning to visit most states this year to fulfill their Golden Ring tour. They'll also be running workshops along the way. On top of this, Helen is conducting another song-writing course - starting in Term 2 - and is also planning to do some private teaching (see below for contact details).
"These lessons will be tailored to students needs and would include songwriting, mentoring for performers, a bit of guitar instruction, as well as advice on booking gigs and tours."
I ask her about the challenges of being a musician and making it pay off both personally and fiscally.
"Musicians have to be resourceful and creative when it comes to supporting themselves financially with their music. It is difficult to make a living out of performing alone but not impossible and if you love what you do you'll find ways to make it work."
Diana Wolfe, who I also met earlier in the kerb of Harmsworth St, has two solo performances planned for the show. Her first is a nervous and faltering rendition of a song she's recently written. Though she is uncertain with the chords, the song is still charming and in this intimate circle a story is heard. Later her trash-bag alter-ego, "Candy Hole" comes out and shares her raging crush on John Cusack with us in lewd a capella verse. She performs in the band The Wolfe Gang who have not long released their second album What's Cooking (also the title track) and are currently gigging around Melbourne. Wolfe says,
"I did the course because I wanted expand into different genres and different songwriting approaches."
The Music Lover's Night closes with a free-form vocal jam where the group trade fours and take solos in turn and together, encouraging the audience to join in with percussion. People clap along and there's a lot of cigarette tray clanging and bottles clinking and eventually glass shattering.
With what may initially seem eccentric and oddball antics to some, this course actually takes the everyday and transfers it into the world of invention and imagination. A teapot becomes a musical instrument when you blow through the spout and use the lid as a pitch controller, a rolled up newspaper held to the ear focusses hearing like a stethoscope, the voice can produce all kinds of fantastic noises and take people places with a story. For Helen, it is important that every student has a valuable and supported experience of learning skills for crafting songs.
"Each person has a unique way of looking at the world and a unique voice. My goal is to support students to find and use that voice confidently and creatively and have lots of fun along the way."
After the performance, people from the course linger, sharing notes, laughs and ideas around a table over a few drinks. The atmosphere is of relief, achievement, fun and a little sadness.
Eventually, as each participant makes tracks, they say their whole-hearted farewells to each other with a touch of nostalgia forming in their eyes. It's the kind of rapport that forms with groups of strangers coming together for these kinds of courses, which can become like therapy sessions, as people share and conceal and reveal. Maybe a few personal breakthroughs are made and then each person has to unfasten the bond that has formed between them and go out into the world, applying their new-found knowledge alone, outside the support network. And this is the test of a song-writer, to be able to stand alone with his or her words with confidence.

For information about Helen Begley's courses contact her at:
helenbegley2@yahoo.com.au or phone (03) 9346 7545.

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How to get a paid gig (6)

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As with many things in music it is useful to make parallels with concrete examples. Factories have an output too; their product. It doesn't matter if it is cars, bath plugs or pies, these items are being produced and that is the function of the factory. Anyone running a factory has a clear understanding of how many units need to be produced in a given period and at what cost. They will also have a "quality control" mechanism of some sort that will ensure that the vast majority of products are of good, marketable quality. Without this, the factory runs the risk of not producing enough to satisfy demand, or producing items that costs too much to make or are too crappy to sell. Either of these will sink the business in short order!

Just as the factory manager has to ensure that products are produced at the right time for the right cost, so does a band rehearsing. Remember your product is properly prepared material ready to perform. If you can't produce enough of that you won't get any gigs. If it takes too long to produce, the whole project is likely to fall over from participants losing interest. If the costs associated with rehearsal are too high in comparison with the likely income (never be optimistic when estimating this!) then you will be broke before you start.

If you adopt this attitude to rehearsal it becomes obvious that there needs to be an "output budget". Before you even start rehearsal you should have a clear idea of how much material you need to do the kind of gig you are aiming for. You should also have some idea of how long you have until you expect to do your first gig (These issues were covered in part 4 of the series: go back and refresh your memory!). You should also have a clear idea of how many rehearsals per week are practical. Don't forget to allow for the preparation and communication time necessary before each rehearsal.

From these data it takes only simple arithmetic to work out a "budget". Take the number of tunes that you need to learn, divide it by the available rehearsals, and you'll know how many tunes you need to learn at each rehearsal. Be very clear in your mind; if you don't work up about that number of tunes per rehearsal then YOU WILL NOT HAVE THE REPERTOIRE READY IN TIME! You can't fight arithmetic! Of course there is always the possibility of adding more rehearsals or extending the rehearsal period but this really indicates that your planning is faulty.

Like any budget yours should include a fair amount of "slack" to accommodate unforseen delays. Something like one and a half times the expected output is probably what you should have in your budget. You also need to be able to respond to reality. If the band turns out to be slower learning the material than you expected then you will have amend your budget. Anything can happen, players can leave, equipment can get damaged, lost or stolen. family crises can arise…… A good budget should have enough slack to accommodate these but should never be ultimately inflexible. Revise it as you go along and find out how it plays out in the real world. You should, however, resist the temptation to revise to accommodate your band members' laziness, unreasonable lateness, lack of preparation or absenteeism (and I'm talking about you as well as the others!). If you do this the "encouragement" side of the budget process will be lost.

Keep comparing your output to the budget and use it as a measure of how you project is going. Always try to aim at efficiencies in the rehearsal process to "make budget" or exceed it. When deciding that the budget has been met we are talking about highly polished finished product. "We can nearly play this one now" is an unfinished product and does not constitute part of "making budget" (Try selling a half-baked pie!). Rewarding yourselves for achieving budget is a fine idea - have a pizza and watch The Wedding Singer, for example!

This may sound cold blooded and uncreative. It is not. It is simply a practical method for ensuring that the music actually happens.

One last point, we have been using the term budget to refer to tunes learnt. Don't forget its more traditional meaning. Keep an eye on financial costs incurred during the rehearsal process and change you ways before they get too high. ("Too high" should be extremely low in this case!)

More next time.

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