The Start Of My Piano Playing Exploits

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Corey Stewart

On October 17th I did something that I had wanted to do for a very long time but either never had the skill or, the confidence to do

I played a song on keyboards in front of an audience.

This was done at the Open Mic @ The Dan, the song was the Annie Lennox classic “Why” and for me it was a bit of a turning point in my musical development.

Ever since I could remember I have wanted to play the piano, to write songs and perform them on instrument other than a guitar and finally, I made it happen.

It’s a wonderful feeling achieving a lifelong goal such as this and I intend to keep on kicking goals for as long as I can.

Being able to know my way around a piano keyboard has given me a lot more to play in the area of writing songs.

Expect a lot more piano pieces in the future.

Peace,

Corey

Synthesiser Heaven – “Synth Britannia” (2009)

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Corey Stewart

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a special place in my heart for the music from the late 70’s through to the end of the 80’s, especially if there’s synths involved.

I stumbled across the 2009 BBC documentary Synth Britannia on YouTube (as a series of 10-12 videos I think) a little while ago and it had me entranced from start to finish.

I found it fascinating to see how artists and bands such as Human League, OMD, Joy Division/New Order, Yazoo and Gary Numan got their start and even for just for a little while, it made me wish that I was born at least 10 years earlier.

Here is the full version of Synth Britannia… Enjoy

Peace,

Corey

The Making Of “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Corey Stewart

I want to thank Chris Foster for turning me on to this video

Bohemian Rhapsody is an amazing song, Queen is an amazing band and Freddie Mercury is a musical genius but this video shows that even the most complex songs have to start from somewhere.

Peace,

Corey

King Crimson – Three Of A Perfect Pair: Live In Japan (1985)

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Corey Stewart

This video I’m about to share with you is for me, the single most inspirational piece of media I have ever witnessed.

I would go so far as saying that if I hadn’t stumbled across this video then my musical journey would’ve turned out a lot different to what it is now.

I can remember where and when I saw this just like it was yesterday.

I was still in High School at the time when I saw the beginning sequence of the video played on the classic ABC music show Rock Arena (do you remember that program) and I experienced the what could be described as the closest thing to a religious epiphany.

It literally blew my mind. I had never heard music like this before and I was hungry for more.

I hunted down the video and once I had it in my hot little hands I went over to my music teachers house and we both watched it in awe of the music and the musicians that played it.

To put things into some sort of perspective I want to give you some background as to what was happening for me at the time as I was in a world of confusion and pain regarding where I was going in my music.

I was studying music composition and clarinet (as well as everything else) at High School and I was being groomed by the school to go to the Adelaide Conservatorium Of Music to get my Bachelor of Music degree and become either a music teacher or, an orchestral player (music teacher was looking the most likely path).

Everyone else had my musical life planned out for me but I wasn’t so sure.

I was just starting to learn guitar at that stage and I didn’t know what I should do but once I saw this video, I made my choice and for the first time in my life I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I wanted to do what THEY were doing.

This video has been long lost from my possession but I was beside myself when I found the full version on YouTube so here is King Crimson – Three Of A Perfect Pair: Live In Japan in its entirety just for you.

Enjoy…

I’ve always considered King Crimson’s “Discipline” trilogy of albums, starting with Discipline in 1981, Beat in 1982 and lastly (my all time favourite) Three Of A Perfect Pair in 1984, as my most favourite albums of all time.

It’s influenced my playing style on both guitar and bass as well as shaped my musical approaches and attitudes in more ways than I can imagine and I’m so glad that I can share this video with you all.

Peace,

Corey

Sting’s Songwriting Process – An Insight

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Corey Stewart

I stumbled across this old video on YouTube of Jools Holland interviewing Sting (circa early 80′s) recently and it gives a brilliant insight into the way that Sting gathers, processes and demos his songwriting ideas before introducing it to the rest of the Police band members

Even though the video primarily focuses on how he came up with “Message In A Bottle” (one of my all time favourite songs) there are plenty of pearls of wisdom to be had if you listen for it.

Look out for the introduction of Dennis as one of the central characters in his songwriting process.

I loved every minute of this video especially the old recording technology I mean, I used to have a Tascam Portastudio (ahh, memories). I hope you enjoyed it too, let me know what you think.

Peace,

Corey

Words Of Wisdom From Steve Vai

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Corey Stewart

Below is a video I came across today of Steve Vai at one of his private sessions guitar events answering the age old question… “How To Become Successful?”

What struck me about this video was how eloquently Steve Vai constructed his answer. He certainly had put a lot of thought into what he was going to say and, it showed.

For me, the best line of the video was when Steve said that “…the level of achievement that we have at anything is a reflection of how well we were able to focus on it.”

I was very, very impressed… Here’s the video for your enjoyment.

Peace,

Corey

My Trip Down (Data) Memory Lane

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Corey Stewart

Recently I’ve been clearing out all of my external hard-drives and sorting out my audio and visual archives and I’ve been having a really wonderful time doing it.

For me, there’s nothing like a trip down memory lane from time to time (in other words, a good bloody spring cleaning) to show me some perspective to my life.

It’s been very enlightening experience.

From this nostalgia trip I’ve learnt a few things about myself.

First of all, I’ve amassed quite a collection of photos and recorded music, more than what I first thought. The amount of rediscovering I was doing was awesome.

This rediscovery has also proven to me that I have come a long way in my music in a relatively short space of time, something to which I’m quite proud of.

I have also realised that the path I have chosen to take, that of being an independent songwriter/musician/blogger is the right one for me.

In fact, I’ve been enjoying the journey so much I’ve decided to create an archives section on this website where I can put up all of my past for all to see and hear.

Hopefully it will give you all a better understanding of who I am, where I’ve come from and where I’m going.

I hope to be putting up the first of my archival material in the next few days so watch this space. It wont necessarily be in chronological order, just in the order of rediscovery.

I’ve been looking forward to sharing this with you all.

This is going to be fun…

Peace,

Corey

Getting Ready For FAWM 2012

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Corey Stewart

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

Man, we’re at the end of January already… Where did it go?

I don’t know where it went but I do know that the beginning of February is also the beginning of FAWM which stands for February Album Writing Month.

I’ll cleaning up my creative space, contacting all of my collaborators and sharpening my pencil for this one.

I know I’ve mentioned FAWM (and my lack of success in it) before in the past but for those of you that don’t know FAWM is a songwriting event that challenges the participant to write 14 songs in the 28 days of February.

However, seeing that 2012 is a leap year the challenge is now to write 14.5 songs in 29 days. The other 0.5 being an extra collaboration with someone new.

Here is some more information about FAWM taken from www.fawm.org

“The FAWM challenge is simple: 14½ songs in 29 days. Why?

If it is inspiration you are after, then FAWM is your club. Each February, this website forges a collaborative community of thousands of musicians worldwide, from all walks and skill levels.

We take on the challenge of writing an album’s worth of new music in the shortest month of the year.”

Interested? Then go to www.fawm.org and join up, immerse yourself into the community and enjoy the ride.

I know I will.

Peace,

Corey

The Joy Of Learning New Songs

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Corey Stewart

For my first official day back from the Xmas/New Year break I spent the good part of yesterday compiling a list of covers that I wanted to learn and integrate into my Corey Stewart Solo and FIGJAM Duo/Band song-lists for 2012.

I figured that the time between now and my first gig on January 18th will be best spent sorting out my covers. This has been something that I’ve been trying to do for ages but had never found the time to do.

After a few years of making changes to my covers repertoire in a sporadic and haphazard manner, I thought it was time to put some process into place because at the end of the day, I love learning new songs and I wanted to add new material on a more purposeful and consistent basis.

I love learning new songs because it expands my musical palette and forces me to experience new songs and genres that I’m not used to.

It also enables me to sharpen up my listening skills, hone my music and guitar chord theory knowledge plus it gives me a reason (as if I really needed one in the first place) to pick up my acoustic guitar and just play it.

Most importantly however, the reason why I love learning new songs is that by mucking around with covers, I actually come up with new songwriting ideas of my own.

This happened on four occasions yesterday and these were immediately recorded onto the iPhone for future reference.

It’s amazing what happens when you just go off on a bit of a tangent in the middle of learning something. Songwriting ideas can come from anywhere…

Even from other songs.

Peace,

Corey

The Second Time Around – Song Video

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Corey Stewart

As promised here is the video presentation used at the CD launch of “The Second Time Around” a song written by myself, Heather Frahn and members of the Community Re-Entry Program at Flinders University as outlined in a previous post.

Here it is for you to enjoy.

Here is some more information about the Musical Brainwaves project from the YouTube page…

Musical Brainwaves was a group song-writing project with members from the Community Re-Entry Program at Flinders University in 2011. Collaborating with songwriters Heather Frahn and Corey Stewart the members contributed their own song lyrics, voices and artwork expressing positive viewpoints about their lives.

The creation of the song “The Second Time Around” brought much celebration of the things that inspire life and wellbeing.

CRP Members: Ben Howell, Cherrie Almond, Ron Brooks, Bernadette Circtzki, Joelene Schmerl, Adam Houston, Ralph Kloss, Zeke Langsford, Peter Coulter, Gary Irons, John Weston, Peter Guidera, Joanne King, Andrew King, Jayne Linke, Darryl Thompson, Cele Richardson, Meg Bartel, Luna Aboulhosn, Janma Gazmere, Jasmine Grace, Matthew Thomas, Karina Wight, Margaret Ellis, Christiana Wu, Louisa Schettini

Musical Brain Waves was facilitated by Corey Stewart and Heather Frahn, with visual art assistance from Jasmine Grace. Recording and Music Production by Corey Stewart and Heather Frahn © 2011.

With thanks to Charmaine Mahar, Jaime Gardner and Roger Rees for their support for this project.

Let me know what you think.

Peace,

Corey