Back in the game!

It’s been…a while! I have to confess to not being the best at keeping up to date with my blog and it’s been over a year since my last post.

So what have I been doing? Well, to be honest I’ve been doing more of the same - gigging consistently with The Manytones, teaching guitar in schools & playing the occasional solo guitar gig at weddings, birthdays, a corporate event at Drayton Manor, my new hobby of card magic and oh yes, we got a new puppy this year!

I’ve fallen out of love with social media, not that i was ever IN love with it but I found myself overwhelmed with content coming from all directions and I’ve done my best to stay away from it entirely. Now, having a business like mine that requires public activity and word of mouth, this isn’t the most sensible course of action. After some time away now I think the time is right to get to back to what I’ve done for the last decade and put myself back in the Wedding industry. I’ll have to get over my aversion to videoing myself, something I’ve struggled with for a while now, and make a LOT more videos. Selfies are also something I’ve found myself avoiding due to a lifelong hangup on self promotion (again, something I can’t really live without in this game!)

So to the guitar itself, which I’ve been neglecting of late due to several factors including a foray into driving tuition that has taken up a lot of time in the last 18 months. I’m making a deal with myself to bring back my arranging ability and create a HELL of a lot of new guitar arrangements. After re-subscribing to Sibelius, some of these will find their way into ebooks that I’m planning, the first being a collection of Beatles songs that I’ve either already arranged or have the bare bones of. This will go alongside a another ebook of simpler arrangements of Beatles songs that I can use in school teaching for those young players who can’t quite wrap their thumb around the top of the neck or do a 5 fret stretch from index to pinky finger!

Look out for these ebooks very soon in my music store!

I’ll also be continuing this them with arrangements for after-school guitar ensembles that I’ll be introducing to my schools this Autumn term. I’ll be picking simple chord songs to strum at first but then hopefully as time and ability progress (my own included) then I can introduce more advanced arrangements with melodic elements. I’m a huge fan of Frank Vignola and his duo work with Vinny Raniolo so I’ll be taking inspiration from their work as well as revamping stuff I’ve used in the past.

Finally, my playing with The Manytones continues. We’ve played a number of weddings this year as well as Warner hotel gigs (you can see us very briefly in the current TV ad pictured below) and corporate events. We have a few different shows we perform for them currently such as a Disco show, a Soul show and coming up next year we have an 80’s show we are preparing. Our fantastic vocalists Meg Birch (sang at the BBC Disco proms last month) & Darrell Smith (sang at the BBC Northern Soul prom last year and still gets recognised for it on our gigs!) both make my job ridiculously easy. I just have to make sure I play the right notes and even sometimes…in the right order.

So there we have it for now. This blog post was my first step in getting myself back together and to make my name on the guitar scene once again. If you’re here wondering if I’ll play for your event, play guitar in your band, teach in your school, college or university or anything else then email me at paul@paulthorntonguitar.com and let’s chat!