Prelude #21

 

The 21st of my preludes for guitar. This one's in E minor.

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 21 in E minor

All the Preludes so far: 

michaelpeverett · Preludes

Prelude #20

 

My twentieth prelude, in A flat. Four more to go!

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 20 in Ab

Listen to all the preludes so far:

michaelpeverett · Preludes

Another prelude

 

This is my latest Prelude (No 19 in Eb):

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 19 in Eb

All the preludes so far:

michaelpeverett · Preludes

Fortuitous album

 

As a result of busking I've built up a ton of songs that I've never recorded, so I quickly did a tranche without fussing about perfection, and it makes a kind of album. 

You can play the whole thing here:

https://whyp.it/collections/5555/september-2025

Individual tracks, if you'd rather pick and choose: 

1. The Weight 

Composer: Robbie Robertson, 1968. My key: D. Capo: 5th fret.

2. The Mayor of Simpleton 

Composer: Andy Partridge, 1989. My key: C. Capo: 5th fret.

3. La Mer

Composer: Charles Trenet, 1943. My key: Eb. Capo: 3rd fret.

4. Little Deuce Coupe

Composers: Brian Wilson and Roger Christian, 1963. My key: C. Capo: 5th fret.

5. You're Still On My Mind

Composer: George Jones, 1962. My key: G. Capo: 3rd fret.

6. Sha La La (Make Me Happy)

Composer: Al Green, 1974. My key: C. Capo: None.

7. Joanne

Composer: Michael Nesmith, 1970. My key: G. Capo: None.

8. Streets of Forbes

Composer: Anonymous (John McGuire, 1865?). My key: Cm. Capo: 3rd fret.

9. No Man's Land

Composer: Eric Bogle, 1976. My key: F. Capo: 3rd fret.

10. A Matter of Time

Composers: David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez, 1984. My key: Eb. Capo: 3rd fret. 

11. Sweet Sixteen

Composer: James Thornton, 1898. My key: Bb. Capo: 3rd fret.

12. Homeward Bound

Composer: Paul Simon, 1965. My key: Ab. Capo: 1st fret.

A bit more about the songs here:

https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2024/04/what-shall-i-play-next.html

One more Prelude

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 18 In A Minor

Prelude No 18, in A minor. It was very difficult to avoid some of the familiar turns of this very familiar guitar key -- too difficult for me, anyway. I at least contrived to avoid the usual dominant of E7 (using Bb7 instead), and I enjoyed using the bottom E fifth in the melody line. I finished this one during a morning in the van in the Largo do Espírito Santo, Idanha-a-Velha.

All the Preludes so far: 

michaelpeverett · Preludes

What shall I play next?

Favourite pitches #1: halfway across this footbridge leading from the carpark to the shops and cafés. Lots of passers-by, not much road noise. Also used by other musicians, homeless beggars, Big Issue sellers, so I usually only play here at quiet times. If it's a market day, recorded music from a nearby stall can make it unfeasible. 

It's beautifully simple, but there's a process. Before leaving the van, I tune the guitar with my electronic tuner. Later adjustments I can do by ear, but I do like to start off knowing that my E really is an E. It stops me imagining that the songs all seem too low today, or too high. 

A classical guitar with two unclassical aspects: a strap and a capo. (The wide-neck capo, which cost £40, is my pride and joy.) I'm highly dependent on the capo, my vocal range being so limited; often a song is only singable in one key.

And of course a hat (ground-baited with a few coins), and a bottle of water. 

That's it. No amplification and no means of taking electronic payment (these are matters of principle). 

The audiences are lovely. They're local. Elderly people, young people, children who beg a coin from mum or dad so they can put it in the hat. Sometimes people are too generous (in my view), and I've had to learn not to reject this generosity. The whole thing's about respectful human relationships, outside the withering frameworks of commerce and institution. Often, of course, I earn next to nothing, and that feels fine too. I'm singing because I enjoy it. 

I'm always learning a new song, and others have gone rusty through not being played, but here's a list of what I think I could play today without needing to rehearse; a longer list than I expected! 

I'll take a glass

Sweet sixteen

Two songs Laura found on YouTube,  performed by Finbar Furey. The latter one dates back to the 1890s. Both of them strong and nostalgic, making an instant emotional connection.

La mer

The great song by Charles Trenet that he wrote on a demob train at the end of WW2, celebrating the unglamorous Mediterranean coast near his birthplace of Narbonne; and for his nation the half-forgotten possibility, at last, of something called leisure. For some reason I decided at an early stage to switch the rhythm to triple time. (My French accent is atrocious, but it doesn't matter.)

Singing in the rain

For obvious reasons, a handy song to have in a busker's repertoire. Just four chords, and loads of fun to play.

The weight

Robbie Robertson's 1960s classic of mundane hanging around and getting tangled up in complications, that somehow takes on a biblical resonance and encapsulates a new youth culture.  Lots of opportunity for neat little guitar fills. You'd think the chorus wouldn't work with just a single voice, but I enjoy trying.

A matter of time

Evangeline

Two songs I've lived with for forty years, since Los Lobos released their first album. Both in different ways songs about leaving home, the experience of Mexicans seeking a better life in the USA. I feel I do pretty well emulating the band's arrangement of Matter of Time, but the awesome guitar introduction to Evangeline still eludes me. 

Joanne

The Michael Nesmith classic, from Magnetic South; challenging falsetto bits, a bouncy rhythm and irresistible melody.

Grandpa (tell me 'bout the good old days)

Another song Laura put me on to, bringing back distant memories of the Judds. A song whose sweetness contains irony, doubt and anger.

Our last summer

The Abba song about a Paris romance in flower power days. I always (mentally) take a deep breath before starting it; it's all action, with no pauses for thought. Of course it's not unusual for me to make a mistake, in this and all the other songs, but that doesn't matter much when you're busking, when people are mostly just hearing snatches. The emphasis is on keeping going and communicating a feeling, and playing as loud as you can without it falling apart. It's a completely different skillset from the expressive dynamics and subtleties of playing in a quiet room.

michaelpeverett · Our Last Summer

Thanks for the memory

I discovered this on a CD by one of my heroes, Mildred Bailey. Fantastic swing era number; it's a lot of fun trying to emulate a swing band on an acoustic guitar. 

Georgia on my mind

This was on the Mildred Bailey CD too; it's from her I learnt the introductory verse, which Ray Charles and The Band didn't use. I rarely have the feeling that my British passers-by recognize this song or feel strongly about it, but I do.

Get set for the blues

Another jazzy song that steps from seventh to seventh. I heard it many years ago on Julie London's album About the Blues, and I've loved it ever since.

michaelpeverett · Get Set For The Blues

Baby I'm feeling it now

Cloud

Lay all your cards on the table

Waltz 1

Waltz 2

Three songs composed by me, and two guitar pieces that have no titles. Waltz 1 really needs Laura's harmonica. 

michaelpeverett · Baby, I'm Feeling It Now

michaelpeverett · Cloud

michaelpeverett · Lay All Your Cards On The Table

Please help me I'm falling

I've been playing this song so long that I can't really remember how it came about. I knew Don Gibson's version, but that was in prehistory. I think I must have been reminded of it in more recent years by hearing it on a cheap country compilation during dull commutes. 

michaelpeverett · Please Help Me I'm Falling

Den första gång jag såg dig

Så länge skutan kan gå

Dansen på Sunnanö

Sjösala vals

Sol vind och vatten

Fryksdalsdans nr 2

Five Swedish songs of various ages, plus a schottische to get the fingers working. (On cold days I know it's time to stop playing when I can no longer manage the chord shape of C.) No-one in England has ever shown any recognition of these songs, but in Stockholm they did.

michaelpeverett · Den Första Gång Jag Såg Dig

michaelpeverett · Så länge skutan kan gå

michaelpeverett · Dansen på Sunnanö

michaelpeverett · Sjösala Vals

michaelpeverett · Sol, vind och vatten

michaelpeverett · Fryksdalsdans Nr 2

Calle Schewen's Waltz

Another Swedish song (by Evert Taube, like three of the previous) -- for some reason I tend to sing this one in my own English translation.

michaelpeverett · Calle Schewen's Waltz

Who knows where the time goes

Sandy Denny's song, with a lovely easy progression based on the E shape, and added guitar twiddles that vainly seek to replicate Richard Thompson. As you've already seen, I often seem to be attracted to songs associated with women singers. I think detaching the singer from the song and its protagonist, as folk singers have always done, opens up many creative possibilities. There's something appealing, too, about applying my very limited vocal skills to songs sung by amazing vocal stylists like Sandy. 

Sha La La (Make Me Happy)

.... Or Al Green!

I want to see the bright lights tonight

This is another one with a woman protagonist: a Richard Thompson song originally sung by Linda. 

Streets of Forbes

Traditional Australian ballad. It seemed appropriate to have a bare bones accompaniment using only the middle four strings, the right hand never shifting position. 

No Man's Land 

No Man's Land is one of Scottish/Australian folk singer Eric Bogle's laments for the insanity of war. 

Hickory wind

You're still on my mind

You don't miss your water

Three songs I discovered half a century ago on the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The lovely melody of Gram Parsons' Hickory Wind, his song about growing up too fast, is astonishingly founded on  the most basic of three-chord tricks. You're still on my mind is a George Jones swing country blues about trying to treat heartache with alcohol. You don't miss your water is William Bell's song, originally from 1961. 

I won't let you down

An obscure song these days, written by the great Albert Lee; it appeared on the final album by Heads Hands and Feet in 1973. A sweet song about love and memory with an extended coda of joyous guitar at the end.

michaelpeverett · I Won't Let You Down

Wide open road

The W. Australian classic by the Triffids; basically the same chord progression throughout, but you can be very inventive with it.

Atlantic City

Bruce Springsteen's song about drifting into crime, again mostly over a constantly repeated chord progression. 

You wear it well

The Rod Stewart hit, a song that's strong enough to flourish even without his voice.

michaelpeverett · You Wear It Well

Warwick Avenue

One of many fantastic songs on Duffy's first album. Like a lot of others here, I learnt the chords from online sources. Some of the online chords don't seem to quite match the complex original arrangement, but it's close enough.

(Working out the chords was so much harder in pre Internet days. Nowadays you can at least start with what others have made of it.)

michaelpeverett · Warwick Avenue

Always on my mind

As sung by Elvis Presley and the Pet Shop Boys, but my version comes mostly via Willie Nelson.

Celluloid heroes

By Ray Davies: a wonderful hymn to Hollywood's golden age as seen from Muswell Hill, though it feels rather different from the songs of the Kinks' greatest years. 

The water

Johnny Flynn's song, originally a duet, about dying: the river of life debouching into the sea of eternity.

The mayor of Simpleton

By XTC; their warm-hearted hymn to being a dimbo; great fun to play on an acoustic guitar. My tribute to my Swindon years. We often used to take a walk over the fields to the big council estate where, I later learnt, Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding both grew up.

Little Deuce Coupe

Because I found myself singing it to one of Laura's grandsons while we played Hot Wheels. I thought it would be fun to actually learn all those hot-rod terms. And then Brian Wilson died, so it became a tribute. 

Homeward Bound

It got stuck in my head because Laura's brother sent a link while we were driving back through France.

Marie

The Randy Newman song.

Favourite pitches #2: beside what is now just a pollard stump, but last year was a fine clean-limbed lime tree. (The council were worried about the hollow at the base.) Plenty of people going past on this riverside walk. Well away from the noise of motor traffic. Sometimes I get drowned out by birdsong; not so much the constant low-register chatter of the rooks, as the piercing jubilations of the wrens. 

Who knows where the time goes?

Sandy Denny's remarkable song, said to be only the second one she ever wrote. 

Like Lee Harwood's "Question of Geography", a defining 1960s document, portrait of a new society. 

Time in the song comes before us in two aspects. First the passing of time, endless, flowing, mysterious: something we don't need to count or fear or try to dance to the tune of. The landscape of the song is austere and wintry, but there's a luxuriance in that copious time. Second is the instinct of knowing that "it's time", as manifested by the birds leaving the shore, and as also manifested, in the crucial third verse, by Sandy and her lover knowing when it's time for their love to end. 

The song rejects the promptings of society ("you'd better get a job, pull yourself together"), of parents ("when are you getting married"), friends ("you're so good together", or "s/he's bad for you"), the church, politicians, the media, everyone. It even rejects nature, or rather the surface nature of weather and seasonal changes, in favour of a conviction that springs from a deeper nature: When the time comes, I'll know...

Opinions differ on whether it's one of the most joyous songs ever written, or one of the most desperately sad. Probably both. Its portrait of a new way of living, a way of youth, is eternally inspiring but also, if you think how it all went wrong then, a lament and a judgment. (Sandy's alcohol-related death in 1978 colours how we hear it, too.)

No-one could sing it better than she did, and there'll never be a better version than the one on Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking (1969), with Richard Thompson's guitar weaving through the song's unhurried spaciousness.  

Nevertheless, it's a song lots of us want to try for ourselves.  Here's my sketchy first attempt, still reading the lyrics off my phone and before I even had the melody quite right, but I thought it came out OK.

[I'm using Whyp to host this, because I've run out of space on Soundcloud... bit of an experiment....]

Sjung med!

While staying at Kyli's for a couple of days, I managed to record a singalong album of well known Swedish songs. All except one are in the 1944 edition of Sjung Svenska Folk! They're a mixture, both seasonally and functionally: a carol, a lullaby, a sentimental love song, a folk song, dance songs, children's songs, walking songs... Most Swedes would still recognize most of these tunes.

Hopefully we'll have some fun with this at Christmas and beyond. Anyway you can listen to my handiwork here....

michaelpeverett · Sjung med!

1. I sommarens soliga dagar (In the sunny days of summer). Words: G. E. Johansson, to an old marching tune. (Sjung Svenska Folk  no. 104.)

2. Videvisan (Willow song). Words: Z. Topelius. Music: Alice Tegnér 1864 - 1943. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 52.)

3. Fjäriln vingad syns på Haga (Wingèd butterfly in Haga). Words and music: C. M. Bellman 1740 - 1795. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 63.) My post about it: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-butterfly-in-haga.html .

4. Nu tändas tusen juleljus (Now a thousand Christmas candles are lit). Words and music: Emmy Köhler 1858 - 1925. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 135.)

5. Den första gång . . . (The first time . . .). Words and music: Birger Sjöberg 1885 - 1924. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 73.)

6. Uti vår hage (Out in our paddock). Traditional folk song from Gotland. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 89.)

7. Vi ska ställa te' en roliger dans (We are gonna do a joyful dance). Traditional. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 99.)

8. Nu så är det jul igen (Now that it's Christmas again). Words and music: Alice Tegnér 1864 - 1943. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 137.)

9. Vi gå över daggstänkta berg (We walk over dew-sprinkled hills). Words: Olof Thunman. Music: Traditional / Edwin Ericsson. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 105.) My post about it: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2023/12/on-magic-lands.html .

10. Tre små gummor (Three little old ladies). Words: The first verse of a 1909 poem by Anna Maria Roos. Music: Later attached to a traditional melody.

11. Å jänta å ja (My baby 'n' me). Words: F. A. Dahlgren. Music: Traditional Värmland polska. (Sjung Svenska Folk no. 100.) My post about it: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-janta-ja-my-baby-n-me.html .

Prelude No 17

 

One more prelude, No 17 in D minor. My progress towards the full 24 is slowing down, because now I'm no longer relearning older compositions but writing them from scratch. It's better if I don't pre-think what I want the composition to be like, but this time I did. I knew I wanted a feeling of the random sounds of nature but I was also thinking about the heavy angular polska rhythm (Swedish dance): there are a few quotations here. The result is rather unsettled.

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 17 In D Minor

Listen to all the preludes so far:

michaelpeverett · Preludes

Another three preludes

Frome, 29 January 2023.

 

Another clutch of preludes, with some January birdsong in No 16. 

Prelude No 14 in B:

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 14 In B

Prelude No 15 in C# minor:

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 15 In C# Minor

Prelude No 16 in B flat:

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 16 In B Flat

Listen to all the preludes so far:

michaelpeverett · Preludes

Dry August

 

Leaves of Small-leaved Lime and English Elm. Frome, 16 August 2022.

Robinia seedling in a dry lawn. Frome, 5 August 2022.

A second brood: young larvae of the Large Rose Saw-fly (Arge pagana), feeding on a wild rose. Frome, 15 August 2022.

Housing estate verge with dropped leaves. Frome, 15 August 2022.

Verge with leaves of Italian Alder. Frome, 15 August 2022.

I've been doing some busking down by the river in Frome. Here are some of the tunes I've been playing. The links are to my Soundcloud recordings. 

The Weight                   (the Band's first single)

Always On My Mind    (late Elvis classic, but I learnt it from the Willie Nelson version)

Celluloid Heroes          (song by Ray Davies from about 1972)

You Don't Miss Your Water (I learnt this and the next two from the Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo")

You're Still On My Mind

Hickory Wind

Fryksdals Dans Nr 2            (Swedish dance tune: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2019/11/that-fryksdal-dance.html )

Så Länge Skutan Kan Gå     (by Evert Taube: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2018/04/evert-taube-sa-lange-skutan-kan-ga.html )

Sjösala Vals                          (by Evert Taube: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2017/09/evert-taube-sjosala-vals.html )

Summer Night                      (by Evert Taube, in my translation)

Calle Schewen's Waltz          (by Evert Taube, in my translation)

Sol, Vind Och Vatten            (by Ted and Kenneth Gärdestad: https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2017/06/lyrics-by-kenneth-gardestad.html    )

Get Set For The Blues           (a jazz blues song I heard on Julie London's "About The Blues")

Marie                                      (by Randy Newman)

Please Help Me I'm Falling     (country standard by Don Robertson and Hal Blair, recorded by Hank Locklin and many others)

You Wear It Well                     (Rod Stewart classic)

America                                   (by Paul Simon:   https://michaelpeverett.blogspot.com/2019/07/signal-point.html )

Our Last Summer                    (the Abba number)

Baby I'm Feeling It Now           (my song)

Lay All Your Cards On The Table    (my song)

Wide Open Road                       (David McComb, from The Triffids' "Born Sandy Devotional")

Preludes in F, F# Minor, C Minor      (my compositions)

Cowboy Tune                            (tune with no real title -- my composition)

French Tune                               (ditto)

I Won't Let You Down                (by Albert Lee)

A Matter of Time                        (the Los Lobos song)

Kerb with elm leaves. Frome, 15 August 2022.

Housing estate. Frome, 16 August 2022.

English Elm. Frome, 20 August 2022.

Not Dutch Elm disease, in this case. Just a tree trying to keep going with a severe shortage of water.

Really big trees, with mysterious access to water, are doing OK (but still dropping leaves). It's the small trees and shrubs  that are most threatened. The young beeches near Sainsburys have dropped 80% of their leaves.

Beech leaves. Frome, 22 August 2022.

Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus). Trowbridge, 24 August 2022.

I was going to write that cherry laurels appear to be unaffected, and to comment on how well the glossy leaf surface reduces water loss. But then I caught sight of this specimen, in the sensory garden in Trowbridge. At least it's still alive, unlike two of its neighbours, a holly and a dogwood. 

Silver Lime pollards damaged by fire. Frome, 21 August 2022. 

Three more preludes

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 11 In F

Prelude No 11 in F

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 12 In F# Minor

Prelude No 12 in F# minor

michaelpeverett · Prelude No 13 In C Minor

Prelude No 13 in C minor

This is the latest batch of my preludes for guitar. There will be 24 eventually, in all the major and minor keys. 

Listen to all the preludes so far, in sequence: 

michaelpeverett · Preludes

Enjoy!

*

Chopin's Preludes (Op. 28) were written between 1835 and 1839. The arrangement by cycle of fifths was not his invention, though. It was taken from the 24 Preludes by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 - 1837), published in 1814 (Op. 67). 

Many of Chopin's preludes are fairly brief, but they are all fully-formed and self-contained pieces. Hummel's preludes, on the other hand, are just expository flourishes. Often only four bars in length, a dazzle of scalework and arpeggiation, ending with big dominant-to-tonic chords. Here are all twenty-four (on today's equivalent of a pianola):

Hummel's collection, which lasts just eight minutes in total, would make no sense performed as a sequence. 

Its context was the practice of preluding. A keyboard performer, before playing a main piece (a Sonata in G, say), would normally improvise a brief prelude in the same key. It told the audience to quieten down and attend; it also allowed the performer to warm up the hands, get a feel for the instrument and its projection into the room. Hummel put together his collection for the benefit of those pianists who found it difficult to improvise their own preludes. 

[Information from Pei-Lin Liu's interesting 2010 thesis, available online as a PDF: 

https://www.proquest.com/openview/899bd1c3cb12d8940092c36abbde682e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750

.]

Incidentally Hummel's more substantial Etudes (Op. 125, c. 1834), have a different 24-key arrangement.  Here too the major keys ascend by fifths, but each is paired not with its relative minor but with its parallel minor, in that respect recalling Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. This arrangement means that the minor keys also ascend by fifths, but shifted along from the majors, so to speak.

Hummel's and Chopin's Preludes:

C major - A minor - G major - E minor - D major - B minor, etc.

Hummel's Etudes:

C major - C minor - G major - G minor - D major - D minor,  etc

Here are Hummel's Etudes, performed by Mary Louise Boehm:

How to pronounce Hummel's full name. (If, like me, you are worried about showing yourself up as ignorant of classical music, but don't want to reveal your inner pedantry either.) 

First, if you are going to give his first name, you ought to give both parts of it (i.e. "Johann Nepomuk Hummel"; it is really not OK to say "Johann Hummel"). Hummel was born near Bratislava to Austrian parents, and was named after the Czech patron saint John of Nepomuk (c. 1345 -1393), himself named after the town of his birth. John of Nepomuk was drowned in the Vltava by Wenceslaus IV. 

"Johann Nepomuk" really operates as a single name, like "Gianbattista". It was a reasonably popular first name in Austria, especially among those with Bohemian connections. For instance the wind band composer Johann Nepomuk Wendt (1745 - 1801). Or Adolf Hitler's great-grandfather, the farmer Johann Nepomuk Hiedler (1807 - 1888). Or another composer (of eight symphonies among much else), Johann Nepomuk David (1895-1977). 

The name has a hybrid origin, linguistically. "Nepomuk" is Czech, but "Johann" is German, not Czech (which would be "Jan"). The saint was just as popular among German-speaking Bohemians as Czech-speaking ones. 

You'll pronounce "Johann" just as you pronounce it in e.g. "Johann Strauss", i.e. give the J a Y sound, but make no other effort to sound German. (Incidentally both the waltzers' names should really be "Johann Baptist Strauss", as per above, -- or, say, the Czech composer Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739 - 1813) --but here established tradition overrides accuracy.)

Likewise it would be inappropriate to pronounce "Nepomuk" precisely as a Czech would. 

In an English language context, I'd suggest an anglicized pronunciation like nepp-uh-muke. Stress is on the first and third syllables. (In Czech the primary stress is actually on the third syllable, but mimicking that in English risks sounding pretentious.) The third syllable should be anglicized to rhyme with "Luke" (the Czech vowel sound is more boomy, similar to the way that our royal family pronounce the word "spoon"). Likewise I'd suggest it's OK to pronounce the unstressed second syllable as "uh" (schwa) -- the general fate of unstressed vowels in English. There's no need to give it the definite "o" value that it has in Czech. 

A debate, obviously, that will go on and on!