It’s clearly a reflection of the world today, of conflict, of destruction and stark and powerful as anything that has come before. ‘Broken City’ feels dark and cold, despondent and mournful and you can’t help but feel the picture of despair painted by Clarkin’s words and Bob’s vocal. A real highlight on this album!” You can’t help but agree! The recordings were great fun, especially the moment when Chris’s sax took the lead and my guitar responded. The second single ‘The Seventh Darkness’ though is just like the Magnum we all love and now but with a twist:Īs Tony said: “ (There’s) some awesome brass sections courtesy of guest musicians Chris ‘BeeBe’ Aldridge (saxophone) and Nick Dewhurst (trumpet), which lend the song brilliance and shape. Songs like ‘The Day He Lied’ may lyrically be less open to interpretation but are just as powerful. I’ve always found that part of the real charm of Magnum’s lyrics – the elemental nature and the universal themes all set in the unique world Clarkin created. So I’m sort of protective about explaining the meaning of songs that I’ve written because it can actually spoil a person’s enjoyment of the song, better that they find their own meaning in it.”

Clarkin: “ Over the years hearing maybe some records that were my favourite songs at the time and then only much later did I ever discover that the meaning of the song was totally different to what I thought it was. “ I thought this would give me more time to do it, but I found it harder to get into a writing mindset when I was being interrupted by preparing for live shows.”Īs far as subject matter is concerned, he doesn’t have a hangup with any particular topic but takes inspiration from all sorts of places. The complexity of the music is not intimidating for them, and it is so easy for me to insert into lessons.Clarkin spent more time writing this album because the tour getting delayed due to Covid split his normal writing time into two sections. I see a difference in my students' comfort level approaching new piano pieces. now they have a reason to pay attention to where a sharp actually goes. Then, the following week, it was D, D, A, A, B, B, A. We have been writing out 'Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.' No timing - just plain whole notes.įirst we all started with C, C, G, G, A, A, G. I like to give them a familiar tune, and make them write out just the first phrase. We'll keep drawing those treble clefs until they can make them better than me! What good is this for older players? Mostly they will get it, and then we expand outward from there. Where do you think it will be?' and I ask them to draw the F. What is the note below G, touching G?' (It is F, of course.) Then I say, 'So F has to touch the G line. This is for the beginners who are having trouble seeing higher and lower notes, line or space notes. None of the cursive letters REALLY look like the treble clef, of course but after a bit of guessing, I'll mention how in the OLDEN DAYS, cursive writing was very fancy, and that treble clef really did look like the letter G. I'll draw line note G on the second line and ask them, 'What is the note on that line?' and then we go through the musical alphabet, with me drawing a cursive alphabet, if they don't remember what that landmark note is. swoop up and over to the middle line, then down and swirl around the second line!' That second line is 'G', of course

now make a big backwards capital 'D', landing on the bottom line. up to the top and over a little bit - make a small capital 'D'. it is a challenge just to make the loops and swirls in the right directions, and then to land them on the target lines takes real attention!įor an all-in-one line, I direct them (as I am also drawing), 'Umbrella handle - start at the bottom.

They all LOVE to practice drawing notes and musical symbols! I start with drawing the treble clef Lately, every lesson, all of my students spend about 3 minutes with one of these staffs.

Manuscript music sheet