jahrad80325 + Musician in Edmonton, AB

SEEKING

ABOUT

INTRODUCTION

WARMEST GREETINGS FELLOW MUSICIANS AND FRIENDS!

It is with great pleasure that I address all. Collectively, whether we realize it or not, it is us, as MUSICIANS, in spite of many daily obstacles, who are managing to help this complex conglomerate of people on our planet, to maintain some degree of SANITY. Yes, MUSIC is THAT THING, and if you are here looking for others to help you pursue YOUR MUSICAL DREAM, it must be YOUR THING too.

Am Jahrad. MUSIC is MY RELIGION. MY MOST HIGH is a MASTER MUSICIAN MATHEMATICIAN COSMOLOGIST, and us PLAYERS OF INSTRUMENTS (natural and man-made) are GIFTS from the COSMOS, to our planet, EARTH. We touch all: bodies, hearts, minds, spirits. And since, ALL IN EXISTENCE are just DIFFERENT LEVELS OF VIBRATING ENERGIES, it stands to reason that musical vibrations are at the very core of what ever it means to be homo-sapiens - sapiens - human beings. Being is eternal, without beginning nor end. To BE, just is! IT IS A PROCESS, NOT A RESULT. All waves and vibrations ! ONE LOVE. MUSICAL! MUSIC! MUSICAL! VIBES! LIFE! Yes, MUSIC can be a cure and a balm, but it can also be destructive, since it is frequency dependant. And bad frequencies can be used globally to propagate propaganda. I would like to make the former - soothing, balmy MUSIC with curious edges, won't you join me, join us! OUR AIM IS LOVE! MESSAGE IS THE MUSIC!

Ours bodies are like MULTIVERSES of musical concerts occurring simultaneously while we live, and whenever we die too. LIFE is a song and a symphony. There is always beat, rhythm, strange harmonies, and haunting melodies, IN ALL LIFE. So, LIFE itself, is MUSIC, but the rub is that some songs, musics have dissonance, and discord, in them too, and that's when things can get brave and interesting. All is a LIFE OF MUSIC! We are playing a zen game of balancing opposites, which is what makes MUSIC mysterious and fun, no matter how simple the form.

EARLY YEARS

I can not ever remember a time in MY LIFE when I played no musical instruments. In my first class in elementary school we made maracas in our art period, and having gone through that process, when they were ready we coloured, and decorated them with strings, seeds, other exciting pieces and bling. In the music period, our teacher taught us counting in time, using those pretty little maracas. To this day, I still remember how joy filled the air. We were our own little percussion band, a joyous cacophony, an embryonic rattling rain of exploration, and awakening feelings. All rattles and rattlers shake uniquely, individualistically. LEARNING IS EXPERIENTIAL. Count, stop, and do it again. We learned while singing. We sang while learning. All was musical play! Most did not become MUSICIANS but some of us have been chasing her around this strange world of ours, for all our years, ever since, for better, or for worst. It is just LIFE! It is just MUSIC! LOVE! MUSIC!

CRUDE INSTRUMENTS MAKER

When I realized that I had an aptitude for making things with discarded wooden boxes, and garbbaged things like cheese pans, corn beef can keys, fishing lines, coconut tree branches, sardines cans, I started to make crude four stringed instruments, to teach myself, what I thought, was guitar. There was a lot of invention and experimentation going on in little cardboard lab behind our house, but although I got progressively better at it, if truth be told, none of them were ever really any good, but they made me yearn for THE REAL THING even more. GUITARS!

A 70$ UKULELE STORY

A dictionary definition for DYSLEXIA is : "an abnormal difficulty in reading and spelling, caused by a condition of the brain." So by this definition am DYSLEXIC. For as far as reading and spelling went, LIFE was just an ongoing nightmare. I will not recount the many horrors I went through here, but let's just say that my back is still telling me all that happened. But when I was about seven years old, my family had their first humorous experience of my DYSLEXIA on display.

I was determined to own and play a stringed instrument. On one of my little walks around our small island town, I saw a small four-stringed ukulele on display in one of the front stores' showcase. It was a beauty, all plastic, of course. But, in my mind, if I had that I would be on my merry way to exploring stringed things, and joys I was already aware it brought for and to others.

The tag on the ukulele in the window was clearly marked $70. But, me at seven being DYSLEXIC, even beyond the dictionary definition, also had issues with symmetry in symbols and numbers, which every one around me recognized and realized, but saw it only as a part of my difficult to get personality. In class it was no laughing matter. With each error came a lash or two. At home it was a laugh, and only my granny had sympathy for me in this. It is funny but I still had a phenomenal memory, was artsy, with a mad inventor mind, but was my littlest sister who still had to read to and for me the books I borrowed from libraries. I hated school, at least the classroom part. How I ever became a teacher, to this day still astounds me!

So anyway when I saw the little $70 ukulele, I went home and told my mammie that I had seen a ukulele and it was 07$. My DYSLEXIA had kicked in. We were poor people, so we would not have had money for something just for me to play with, and may be even eventually neglect, after such an investment. But I kept pleading my case, and her being my loving mammie, agreed to go look at the 07$ ukulele with me.

When we got the show window, the $70 ukulele was perched on its stand, looking out at her in plastic, glorious and grand. And, of course, that was mightily out of the question. But she was not mad at me. She did not scold me, nor anything like that, she just told me that the order of the symbols in the price, matter. Then she laughed it off, just shaking her head, as she was wont to do when she was bemused. Then she took me gently by the hand, and walked me home, smiling all the way back, at my folly. When we got inside she reported to our household that I had misread the price because I thought $70 and 07$ are the same. It became one of those family stories. But after that I started to look at numbers more keenly, and I began excelling at arithmetic.

The next year, I got a brand spanking new ukulele as a gift from my favourite Tan (auntie). Her name for me was "bush" I believe, because I was born in the country, in the bush, on an island. So ukuleles are girls, hence her name was Missbush. She became a constant friend and companion.

I began my quest on stringed instruments by tuning that ukulele (Missbush) to some innate mental melody and harmony, and started making my own unique tunes on her. I was into alternative tunings and did not even know that any of it existed. It was just using the vibes I was getting from the cosmos. No one had taught me to play, I just tried to play whatever came. Back on Earth the boys in my neighbourhood began telling me of and showed me standard tuning, so then I learned to play with others. That broadened my MUSICAL HORIZONS.

GUITAR NEIGHBOURHOOD

The neighbourhood of my childhood boyhood, was one in which, if you were a kid, and you did not play an instrument, in a band, or sang, or played on a church choir, somewhere on the island, you just would not have been in with the real cool and balanced ones. When you live on an island you have no choice but to be close to all the people there because when NATURE sends whatever she desires to any given island, she is never selective nor partial. Storms come for all. So ultimately all Caribbean people discover, IN UNITY IS STRENGTH. Life, growing up on an island, between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean has its challenges and rewards. All of my closest friends in my high school years played in bands, were jocks, and still to some extent bookish. I was not so bookish, I preferred, snorkelling, adventuring, and music, enough not to get too carried away in the post colonial, Caribbean education system.

THE REAL THING: GUITARS AND GUITARIST ON AN ISLAND

In our part of town, one could always find someone else who owned and played guitar or some other musical instrument. As a child I remember a very talented MUSICIAN who would come as a visitor friend of many of my family members. He and they were from the same island. He played the violin amazingly well, with lots of passion and whimsical skills that thrilled and delighted us. Sometimes he'd use his bow and make a carpenter's saw produce all kinds of delightful weird weepy sounds. Ooo weee! Steelbands, Combos, Jazz Bands, Orchestras, Choirs, and what we called HOTEL Bands, practiced and played all over cities and villages on every island. Ours being typical. In our islands we have always had a very pronounced musical dimension to our culture. And so many of its elements are now global we tend not to recognize that the original home is the Caribbean. (TO BE CONTINUED)

LEARNING LIFE THROUGH MUSIC

A wise HEAD, keepeth a still tongue, it has been written, and said many times by many. It is one of the great TRUISMS of speech. So, I took in what I knew would serve me well, for times like these, and those to come, and the rest I let slip vainly away, just like they were supposed to, still, keen enough, to get what it all meant, and where it was trying to steer me. Remember you are the only LORD in this temple of LIFE that you have been given. Know this! If you understand who is trying to teach you, and you are cognizant of their, not so hidden agenda, you quickly learn how to learn, what not to learn, nor to take too seriously, all you hear from some people. Always be aware of the ultimate philosophy of any programme you get into and its real plan. In pursuing music you learn about learning and unlearning. Music is a LIFE discipline. Music is a GREAT teacher. Hence, Music is my religion! I was always, and will be pursuing her, no matter what ever else I happen to be doing with my LIFE at any time. Music, and music LOVING have been, and will always be greatest constants in my LIFE!

MOKOJAH

We have a band called MOKOJAH and would like to audition some female vocalists who can rock. Bassists, Drummers, keyboardists, and horn players are all welcome to contact us too. We do covers and originals.

Screen name:

jahrad80325

Member since:

Apr 10 2018

Active within 1 month

Level of commitment:

Very Committed

Years playing music:

35

Gigs played:

Over 100

Tend to practice:

More than 3 times per week

Available to gig:

2-3 nights a week

Influences

We are from the Caribbean so we have a Caribbean thing going on in Raggae, Soca, Chutney, and Calypso, but we are innovative and like the world of Blues and Blues Rock especially some of these fellows: Robert Johnson, BB King, Freddie King, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Otis Redding and James Brown....And we view our music as a world fusion thing with classical, funk, retro-rock and joy thrown in for good measure. Biggest influence the Beatles.

Instrument experience:

Rhythm Guitar:

Expert

Other Percussion:

Expert

Vocalist - Tenor:

Advanced

Acoustic Guitar:

Advanced

Background Singer:

Advanced

Vocalist:

Moderate

Bass Guitar:

Moderate

Drums:

Moderate

Ukulele:

Moderate

EQUIPMENT

I play a Fender Voodoo Stratocaster (1952 reissue - Her name is Syn) through 4 different amps with lots of pedals. I call it my quadraphonic AMP sound. The sound SOURCES comes from A Fender Super Six 2 channel AMP plugged into a Marshall 4x8 Cabinet 2 channel on one stereo side, and on the other stereo side, is a Crate 2 channel Acoustic AMP teamed with another 2 channel Line 6 combo AMP that is hip and versatile. Also, from this quad setup, everything goes to multiple pedalboards. That brings me to the fact that we need a GUITAR TECHNICIAN to help me with all this, especially at big performances. My present guitar collection is 13 girls at the moment, and, of course, there are plans to expand. IT'S A BAND SO WE HAVE BAND STUFF.

MUSIC