Raechel's Teardrop DAY 2

The wood Geoff is working is over 100 years old and was savaged from the demolition of the old parcels building at Sydney railway station which is now a youth hostel. My library shelves are made form timber from the same job and  Raechel and I went to Sydney on our way to see the Renaissance exhibition in Canberra, we stayed there. Too weird that just the right piece of timber for the dulcimer came from there too.

To start with he  put the fret board together, then he glued that on to the sound board, he then made the sound board thinner by grinding it down,  then he put the bottom and he is now putting the sides on.















For the design for the painting on the back, I used a compass to draw the matrix but I'm having second thoughts about doing it because all of the things we are doing, theres so much to do and only 4 days left and there are little extra things we keep coming up with.

Same for the song I've been working on -  there is so much going on that I forgot the tune I came up with it yesterday so it may not get finished.

That was the day - then there was the night and OMG - Bass guitar! 

Even better than Raechel's aptitude for dulcimer is her uncanny facility with bass. Never played before, but admits that she always wanted to. Rule No 1 - always always do what yo long to do. Within minutes of picking it up, she had it down - figured out the cute slide you can do along its lovely neck. Raechel is a natural - who knew? Up till now, noone - but she's got it, oh baby she's got it! The inner power of knowing what you love to do, what makes you feel great about yourself is what I see in her as she transforms into a musician and fills out every untried part of herself. 

When She plays music you can see her heart! She is Eva Ferrell, the punk folk hero of Geoffrey's song about girls like me (and Raechel) from Brisbane. She's got the whole package too - intelligence, large talent. If we lived in Bach's time, she'd already be inducted into the family music business, like any baker or stonemason. Music was once a craft, administered by a guild that awarded admission as a master craftsman by submission of a master piece to a guild of peers. We talked about doing music as a thing to study - maybe do it at uni. 

With me on cello and Geoff on the acoustic, we did some passes with all of us playing, then as Raechel became more familiar with the song to the point where she's singing and doing tricky slapping on the bass, Geoff recorded an electric guitar track while we rehearsed the words to "The War is Over". 

Then Raechel sang the lyric though a few times until she found her real voice - not the mimickey Britney squeezed-through-razorblades-eek of young fan girls, but her very own personal voice. And when she plays she plays with her mouth, like she's singing through the instrument, playing the music though her mouth; so expressive and in the body.

I have always wanted to play bass and I  have listened to many people play and listening to the bass section of the song I got an idea of what to do. I play keyboard and drums at home and I sing at school.

I do a lot of thinking about what this song means to me then I sing from where it means most to me.

I think my voice on tape sounds horrid.

I do not agree! It just sounds different from what you think you can hear as you speak or sing because you can't really get outside of your own voice, because it is in your head even if you don't utter a sound.