Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

25 May 2025
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Gigging and Rehearsing

Despite still having my arm in that cast for another few days, I’ve managed to both gig and rehearse this weekend (with a little help from my friends). Last night I went along to a band gig with a mic and amp in order to do the vocal countdown I add to one of the songs. Tonight, I attended the first rehearsal with the band for the summer tour, to follow along and note things I need to focus on when I am playing again. It has been good to keep in touch with people and demonstrate commitment.

There is also an ancillary benefit – a busy day helps with a good night’s sleep!

24 May 2025
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Cable Clips

I couldn’t contribute much to the spring cleaning at church today but I did track down and print a cable management clip to help reduce stage clutter:

Cable Management Clips

The model was by Victor on Makerworld.com and, as the one I printed worked brilliantly for jack and XLR cables, I’ve now run off a handful more to take next time.

23 May 2025
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Functionally One-handed

Purple Sling

Although this photo might suggest otherwise, I’ve still got two hands. However, while some minor tendon damage starts knitting back after today’s surgery, I’ve got a plaster cast and a fetching purple sling, which renders me effectively one-handed for a few days.

Hurrah for all the wonderful staff at Nottingham’s Queens Medical Centre who have helped me get thus far in my recovery.

22 May 2025
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Assessment

Todays professional hand assessment was that I seem to have avoided any nerve damage or significant tendon damage. Movement and strength seem to be in place although I am cautious about stretching things too much.

Back to the hospital again tomorrow for day surgery, where I’ll get a full clean up and repair done under local anaesthetic, so I can enjoy it in full technicolour!

21 May 2025
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Trees and… Chainsaws

Unfortunately I didn’t get to my concert tonight because, this morning, I was pruning a cherry tree for some friends and dropped a chainsaw on my arm. Ouch! I need to return to hospital tomorrow to see the specialist but, while I’ve suffered skin and flesh damage, nerves and bones seem to have survived unscathed. I can still feel my fingers and wiggle them but it will probably affect a few forthcoming performances.

20 May 2025
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Trees and Choirs

My personal summer concert season continues tomorrow night with a performance of the Loughborough University Choir at The Cope Auditorium on Epinal Way. Details can be found online.

The concert features an almost-premiere of the Twelve Trees piece I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. There will also be a genuine world premiere of a piece by me called Summer… Is Icumen In. That takes a traditional British folk song but my contribution is to gradually blend the singing from a modern translation to the original Middle English.

19 May 2025
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Mic holder

I managed to fit in a little bit of 3D design and print over the weekend. We’ve got some new equipment at church, donated from another church, and that included a second wireless handheld mic. However, there wasn’t a clip large enough to hold it so, between setting things up on Saturday afternoon and the Sunday service, I’d worked up a simple design to hold it when not being used, in the form of a threaded nut with a large ring attached on one side.

I’m not very experience with measuring and printing threads so I did a few trial pieces first and, after I’d hit on what seemed to work, did the larger piece. It seemed to hold up okay although I wonder if I should have gone slightly smaller on the thread. I’ll have to keep an eye on the piece and do a revised version if required.

18 May 2025
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Lighter and lighter

Over the past few weeks, the amount of equipment I’m lugging to church has shifted down, which is great! Firstly, I got a speaker cabinet to use so I can now take my small amp head rather than my combo amp. We’ve now also got some more music stands and extension cables so I can now do without the stand, iPad holder and extension I was taking too. I still have a few bits of kit to carry but it is down to an easy load now.

16 May 2025
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Thank You For the Music

That’s the Broom Leys Choral Society concert done – as always a very enjoyable evening. There was lots of good music but, if I had to pick the songs I enjoyed playing the most I might go with the ABBA numbers. It isn’t because I think they were the best songs or the ones I’d be most likely to want to listen to but just plain old nostalgia.

When I was in the process of taking up the bass, the music teacher at school had a number of medleys that he used. There was definitely a Beatles one, a Simon and Garfunkel one and, the one that perhaps made the deepest impression on me, an ABBA one. I think I just had words and chords to work from. That medley was used in one of my first public performances… and I haven’t played a lot of ABBA since. We did have a bit of ABBA in the ukulele group at Oxford but I don’t think we ever performed it and I’ve played a medley with the concert band but that doesn’t have any singing and all the notes are written down for me.

For tonight’s performance, I managed to track down some transcriptions online for three of the numbers (although they all needed work to mesh with the choral arrangement) and I had to work up Super Trouper from scratch. So the fruits of some labour, a dash of nostalgia and an enjoyable evening.