Over my exciting music filled life I have picked up many different instruments, both orchestral and those from different folk cultures.
The instrument I have really cultivated and worked hard on my whole life is my voice. I shared a singing studio with Eve Boswell for 10 years.
I have maintained it as best I can with a daily ( well, most days ) warm up routine, and singing of songs around the house whenever I feel like it.
The best way to talk about those I play melodies and accompaniments with is to go chronologically.
At 5 years old when I was at Wallands Primary School in Lewes, I started learning the recorder. I absolutely loved it and spent many hours playing the tunes in the gold ole Recorder Books.
I still play some tunes on my treble recorder when I do my shows. I prefer the deeper sound.
At 8 years old, some of us were given the opportunity to play the violin and along with half a dozen others, I began to play. I loved it, and was chosen to play as one of the children with the Sussex Orchestra at one of their concerts – Mummy was very proud.
When I was at Watford Girls Grammar School, I changed to Viola and my parents bought me a beautiful Neuner Viola when I was 14.
( With a mixture of grief and anger, I can tell you that it was stolen in ‘the struggle’ from the back of our van – someone must have thought it was a gun !)
I got to Grade 7 before I left school, and carried on playing throughout college, going across to the Leeds Orchestra with my lecturer who played the violin. I have another viola now and love playing it for another ‘flavour’ in my shows.
At the age of 16, my viola teacher suggested I try for a Music College, so I started the piano, and within 18 months got to Grade 4. However, this was just not good enough for a further education in music and I failed all the entrance interviews. My teacher said it was just a practice run and I should try again the next year, but my parents could not afford to pay for all those trips and fees again, so that put paid to that.
Those piano skills I was able to use decades later to teach singing.
Meanwhile I loved music at school, it was my favourite subject and, if I got an A instead of an A+ I went into a total decline !!
I passed my O level, and went on to A level, but only got a C because I am exam phobic and just froze !!
I went on to a continuous assessment Teacher Training college – Margaret MacMillan College of Education in Bradford, which specialised in Pre Primary School Teaching. I came out with skills I have been able to use all my life.
Whilst at college, in 1969, I borrowed my friends’ boyfriends guitar and the strings were about half a centimetre from the fret board. In a month I had mastered a few chords, but my fingers had literally bled in the effort.
Much like the Bryan Adams song !
With my first pay check I bought a guitar and used it extensively in my teaching. The kids would say “Why aren’t you on TV, Miss ?”
( That’s another story and I’m glad I still have my integrity ! )
Also at College I got together with some lads at Leeds University and for a few months we had a band called “The Phoenix” playing Latin American songs by Brazil 66 and others. I still remember Guantanamera in Spanish !!
At the same time I was exploring Ole Time Country Music from the Appalacian mountains and, together with Alan Hardwick and John ? we formed the “Original Preservation String Band” playing mostly New Lost City Ramblers book songs and other old classics like Shady Grove and Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender.
I started out playing the guitar and viola, but also learned to play the autoharp and the dulcimer on the way.
I still play the autoharp at most gigs.
Another ‘string to my bow’ was going all the way to South Africa over the Christmas of ’74 to ’75 to play as a Minstrel in a newly formed Medieval Banqueting hall in the President Hotel in Johannesburg. This would be a recurring theme in my life.
During my 4 years 1973 to 1977 as “Miriam Backhouse, First Lady of Folk” I played mostly the guitar and learned to play quite complicated accompaniments in a variety of tunings.
This takes me to the end of Part I.
Part 2 is my Musical adventures in South Africa.
