RICHARD KENSINGTON VIDEOS

I wrote this song on becoming a parent for the first time. It’s part of a collection of songs called ‘Drum Baby Sleep’. It’s offered here as a reflection on bedtime; how such an everyday ritual can be mundane and repetitive while also being a moment to demonstrate a deep and profound sense of care, connection and love for a child. I’m singing it here just 13 days after the birth of my second child, with my own as well as my children’s ‘bedtime’ often on my mind… …“It’s bedtime that’s the best!” The song style is influenced by Rumba Yambu from Havana, Cuba. The rhythm that I’m playing on the Cajón was taught to me by Santiago Garzon Rill ‘Chaguito’ and forms the basis for his style of playing Yambu. Richard #takeoneaday

This is the last of the songs from ‘Drum Baby Sleep’ that I’ll be sharing as part of #takeoneaday and it was the first one I wrote for this collection of songs. It’s been a fun challenge to work out ways of presenting these without the full drum accompaniments that I’ve created for the songs in the studio. Going through the process of presenting them for #takeoneaday has given me the opportunity to explore and prepare all of these songs for use when we eventually get back into playing for children face to face in hospitals. I’m really looking forward to refining them more in response to the reactions of children and babies who need calming, soothing and lulling to sleep during their stay in the hospitals into which were all greatly missing bringing music. Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by @TNLCommunityFund. Thanks to the @dcmsgovuk for making this possible.

Soporific is the word I’d use to describe what I hope the effect of this song will be on the listener. It’s purposefully repetitive and slow. It was written to address a specific need that we often encounter when working in hospitals; that of a baby, toddler or young child who can’t quite get to sleep but who really needs to. We’ve often found ourselves playing a gentle song or melody more and more slowly, more and more quietly, over and over again as a little one gradually drifts off into a long-awaited, much needed sleep. I wrote this song as part of my drum baby sleep collection of songs with exactly this scenario in mind. It was surprisingly difficult to sing this song to a camera instead of to a tired child. Since starting this #takeoneaday series of videos I’ve been reminded over and over again how different our music making in hospital is to any other sort of performance I’ve ever been involved in. We normally have the opportunity to take the time to tune in to the person or space we are playing to, to really feel what is needed and appropriate. Without these cues I find it becomes really difficult to quite know how to deliver the song, with what intensity, at what volume and at what tempo. It’s a great illustration of what a huge impact the person we’re making music for/ with has on the music – even if they’re only involved to the extent that they’re falling asleep! When trying to decide how to present this video, the weather forced me indoors, so I used a green screen that I had set up for some other filming work I’m doing. I chose the backgrounds as a reflection on how much beauty can be present in even the smallest area in which nature has taken hold. It’s so easy to miss the ‘tiny vistas’ when looking to be awed by nature! Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by @TNLCommunityFund. Thanks to the @dcmsgovuk for making this possible.

Back in 2017 I travelled to Santa Fe in New Mexico, USA to attend a ‘Drum Healing Live’ course with Jeff Strong. One of the many things that I was introduced to on this course were frame drums. Although I’ve played Bodhrán (Irish drum) for many years, and this is a frame drum, I’d never tried learning any of the finger techniques used for playing the frame drums found in the cultures of North Africa and The Middle East. Jeff inspired me and introduced me to some of the basics used to play these beautiful and powerful instruments. The instrument I’m playing here is called a ‘Tar’ and although I’m still in the foothills of studying the rhythms and techniques associated with it, I really love playing it and seeing where I end up. This piece started with a video of me playing a simple improvisation on the Tar that I then sent to Sarah. She then played her Viola to this video, adding a beautiful melody that takes a short improvisation on a drum to a whole new level! I didn’t really have much of an idea of what I was going to play when I hit ‘record’ and I had literally no idea how Sarah would respond, so I hope you enjoy what came out and what we’ve managed to create between us! Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by @TNLCommunityFund. Thanks to the @dcmsgovuk for making this possible.

I started writing this song around the year 2002 and got stuck. It languished in a draw for many, many years until I heard reports from Sarah Matthews of an interview that her husband, Doug Eunson, had done for Radio Derby. One of the questions had been about why folk musicians so often had beards. His answer, ‘Well if you don’t have a go then how will you know just how long your beard’s going to grow?’ gave me the start I was looking for and from there the song almost wrote itself. So, thank you Doug! I hope you all enjoy the song and that you can relate to the sense of pensive pondering on the unfolding of a natural process, over which you have very little control, but to which you await the outcome with some degree of curiosity and interest. The instruments I’m playing from left to right are 8 string ukulele, udu drum, triangle, basket shakers (Caxixi) and tenor ukulele. I’ve placed the triangle in the middle out of respect for an instrument that is much overlooked and can often be found languishing at the bottom of the school percussion trolley. Sadly, it’s sometimes seen as a joke instrument for people who don’t have any musical ability, but the triangle is a very versatile percussion instrument that sits in a very particular sonic space and is used to great effect across many genres of music. More triangles please! Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by @TNLCommunityFund. Thanks to the @dcmsgovuk for making this possible.

This Christmas song, by Puerto Rican singer / song writer José Feliciano, is a world-famous Christmas classic. It is one of the most played, downloaded and covered Christmas songs of all time. I played it a lot when I used to play congas with the Latin Trio, Más Y Más. I’ve chosen to record it as part of #takeoneaday as a fun Christmassy offering that reflects (and hopefully pays tribute to) what a huge influence Latin music and particularly Cuban music has been on my life. 20 years as percussionist with Más Y Más, my studies in Havana with Chaguito and other musicians out there, alongside years of playing with Simon and Dave in The Axis Percussion Trio, have very much shaped who I am as a musician. I’m really looking forward to being able to get together with my new band Lo-Ke-Ba, once we’re all free to meet again, to actually play some original Cuban influenced music with some great musicians, in person! I’ve arranged this song using Cuban instruments; congas, bongos, campana and marimbula (bass thumb piano), along with the 8-string ukulele. This video brings to an end my solo contributions for the #takeoneaday project. It’s been an amazing opportunity to reflect on the music I make in and outside of hospitals and to find ways of presenting this for all of you. As someone who has spent most of their performing life as part of bands or accompanying / duetting with other musicians, normally playing other people’s material, making 14 videos of myself playing to camera and sharing quite a bit of original material has been a real challenge, but one that I’ve greatly enjoyed and one that’s helped me to grow as a musician. It’s also been a great means of maintaining connections with friends and colleagues in hospital and beyond. Thank you to all of you for your support and encouragement throughout the project. We all look forward to playing for you in person sometime in the not too distant future! Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by @TNLCommunityFund. Thanks to the @dcmsgovuk for making this possible.

I picked up this tune from musician James Tolhurst during his apprenticeship with OPUS. Thanks James! It’s a French tune traditionally played for dancing and I believe, usually played a lot more rapidly than I’m playing it here. In hospital we’ve found it to be a beautiful tune to play at much lower tempos, bringing calm and peace to places and situations. I’ve presented it here with simultaneous close ups on melody and chords to give you the opportunity to disentangle them as you watch the same instrument play both parts. Being able to watch an instrument playing a part often helps me understand exactly what it is that a particular musician is doing and how that contributes to the whole piece. This can be a great thing to focus on when watching musical performances and it often keeps me coming back to videos of performances over and over again until I’ve cracked it! Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund. Thanks to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for making this possible.

This is a folk melody which I’ve picked up from my OPUS colleague Sarah Matthews. I’ve always loved accompanying her fiddle playing on this tune with the Bodhrán (Irish Drum), so I decided to make a feature of the drum in this video placing it as the main instrument. I’ve played the tune on tenor ukulele and the chords on an eight-string tenor ukulele. We tend to use this tune in hospital to brighten and energise spaces and people and likewise here, my intention is to offer the piece and the footage of it being played on a beautiful sunny morning in autumn, as something upbeat that will make you feel good! Richard #takeoneaday is supported by funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund #CommunitiesCan, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund . Thanks to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for making this possible.