So once again, this object I have on my lap is a musical instrument.
It was invented in the year 2000, it was first sold in the year 2001.
I saw it myself in the year 2005.
When I saw it, I was quite content knowing that someone else played it.
I didn't actually want to have it straight away.
When I saw someone playing it, they sat cross-legged and it was in a tent.
There was loads of music happening, rain happening outside.
There was someone playing a guitar distorted with lots of solo, a drum player, keyboard player,
playing a psychedelic chaos.
And there was this guy called Chris who just sat down cross-legged on the floor, just content.
Just like having all this chaos happening around him.
And he was just basically tapping on it.
Just using his hands like this, you know?
That's okay, please.
Now it's the instrument.
As you can see, it gives a wonderful tone.
In the centre I have a D, A, C, D, E, F, G, A and a B-flat.
So basically the way it's working is if you can see each one of these different dents,
each one's a different note.
So the same as on a piano, you'd have a long string for the bass
and a short string for the treble.
On this, I've got a large circle for my bass
and a small circle for my treble.
So my journey with this instrument,
well, when I first began to play it,
I used to use to do this with one hand.
And then from this, I expanded.
And then from this, I used to do this with one hand.
And then from this, I used to do this with one hand.
And then from this, I used to do this with one hand.
And then from this, I used to do this with one hand.
So yeah, that's why I started doing it with one hand.
So as I say, when I first initially got this instrument,
okay, so I started in the years 2005,
I became very good friends with a guy who was playing it, you can imagine.
He changed my life immensely up until that point.
I'll give you the whole story.
Okay, so I was the first baby born in Essex in 1984,
on New Year's Day.
Strange enough, as I was growing up,
I realized that nine months premature to that
was actually April the first.
So cheers, Mum, cheers Dad.
So yeah, and so basically I grew up in,
just on the outskirts,
about 12 miles from the centre of London.
And I was a naughty little boy, you know?
So yeah, basically when I was 11 years old,
I actually became a drummer in a military marching band.
I looked a bit different then, you know?
Very shiny shoes, you know?
Performed for the Queen by the age of 13
and loads of other boring stuff like that, you know?
And at that age, I actually started travelling
with this band as well.
So we actually toured extensively in Germany,
Spain, France, all over the place really.
And yeah, so I got used to being
with a group of people playing music.
I was actually the bass drummer.
So you imagine I was there with the bass instrument,
like this on my chest, you know?
And I was able to see about this much
because the hat was coming down here,
the instrument was here.
And occasionally I'd turn around
and knock the cymbal player out of the way.
So it really taught me an important thing
about looking out for the guys who are smaller than you,
you know?
Whilst giving a strong basis for everyone else
to be keeping the rhythm to.
And yeah, by the age of 14,
I was a naughty, let's say,
maybe the wrong group of friends who knows.
So basically I was thrown out of one school,
thrown out of another school.
Every time I was thrown out of a school,
I had to travel further to my next school.
So some people would say I fervoured my education.
But in essence, really, I had to get further away.
So when I was 14, my mother sold the house in Essex,
and I moved to Lincolnshire,
which is about 200 miles north of London.
And at that point, I began to play the guitar,
which I fell in love with, is my meditation, you know?
And I actually found that by laying in my bed
with the guitar and my lap playing along to Iron Maiden
and, you know, Black Sabbath, was my meditation.
It was amazing.
The amount of times my mom came in and found me asleep,
like with the guitar sort of here, you know?
So obviously I had, like, the strings and the big amplifier
and the vibrations carrying through.
Very good fun.
So I enrolled when I was 16 years old into a college
and studied music for two years.
I did a BTEC National in Public Music,
which basically taught me how to facilitate other people's needs.
For instance, we had lots of people who were singers,
and they didn't want to play over backing tracks.
So we were constantly always playing for other people,
which is quite nice.
But by the end of two years of doing this,
I kind of got bored of playing the guitar,
but I still loved it.
And I realized to have a job in the industry somewhere,
I needed to find something to do.
So I repaired my own guitar, which was broken.
And about three or four weeks later,
I had a friend come to me with their broken guitar,
so I fixed their guitar.
So I enrolled in Leeds College of Music
and studied strings musical instrument technology
in a BTEC higher diploma.
So I turned into a Lufia, a carpenter.
I made instruments.
I made electric guitars.
Once finishing that course is when I found this guy called Chris
playing this instrument at the festival.
He really changed everything.
So at that point, I was a guitarist, obviously.
So seeing him play this.
Okay, that's interesting.
Okay, so I kind of decided not to play the guitar for a bit.
I started playing African percussion.
So if I played a bottom of this instrument,
it was a bit like actually a South Indian instrument
called Gattam.
I'll get to that in a second.
So some of the first rhythms I was playing was...
Yeah, which you can imagine, it's quite a dance.
He beats.
You might want to move.
And it's a West African rhythm called Jansa.
It's hundreds of years old.
So I had tuition.
I went to Africa four or five times,
learning how to play the African Jembe.
I came back to England.
And then I got this instrument.
So I started translating what I'd learned
from the African tribal sides onto this instrument,
which hadn't been done before, as far as I was aware, you know?
So once again, the instruments from Switzerland,
only 12 years old.
I've got to keep repeating this or you'll tap me in the shoulder.
So instruments from Switzerland, it's only 12 or 13 years old.
I got mine about five or six years ago.
And yeah, for the last maybe five years,
I've dedicated my entire time to this instrument.
The last four years.
Basically, I was working on a building site
because I was a carpenter from the university.
I learned how to use all the tools.
So I went straight onto the building site,
gave me more money.
So at that point, I kind of realized,
okay, what do I want more?
Oh, I should add, actually,
my boss brought a hammer onto my finger and smashed it.
So I had a bit of time off work to think about this, you know?
And yeah, I decided that, well, okay,
I can guarantee I would earn this much money by Friday,
or I could basically live my passion
and play an instrument which hasn't been played before
and try and travel with it.
I'm now, I think it's 23 countries,
I've been in the last 18 months.
And I don't know...
But the thing is, it goes even further,
because at one point, there was actually a video of me
which got put on the internet.
It's reached five and a half million views now,
which is unbelievable.
I never expected...
But the whole thing about it was,
he didn't put my bloody name in it.
He filmed on the street, you know?
And I kind of saw the internet as this amazing place
that's... It's amazing, you know?
When I first got this instrument, I went to YouTube.
There wasn't any videos there.
There was like no videos at all that I could learn from.
So I had to experiment with myself.
A few years down the line, obviously,
I've kind of realized the powers of it.
And yeah, now with the whole YouTube phenomenon,
it's pretty amazing, because I've actually put all my music
on the internet as open source.
So that basically means you can go...
Feel free to go to my website and you can download for donation.
The same as you would if I was playing in the street,
if you wanted to give me a coin, you can, if you don't, great.
And since doing this, I've kind of realized
what I've tried to be doing is trying to bring in
the ancient traditions of traveling and playing music
into the modern day,
where the internet is basically working for me in a way,
where it's basically busking.
It's performing for me.
So if anybody wants to contact or, you know,
so book me or anything like this,
or I managed to download the music,
it's there if you want it.
Yeah, you can pay nothing, you know?
So it's the same as like flicking a coin to someone
you see in the street who's good, you know?
Anyway, so without any more ado, I will play another song.
Sorry, I've been talking too much.
So I should tell you, this in my right hand,
they're called Cascass.
It's something I picked up in West Africa.
It's based on two seed pods and a bit of string.
There's no, you know, sort of magic to it.
It's just, you learn how to shake it, you know?
But it's a few thousand years old in design.
It's quite nice.
So with that, this is the rhythm section,
you know, the right side, I'll put that over here somewhere.
With my left hand, I can play the melody.
So after eight minutes left, and I'll just jam it out.
I'll give you.
Music
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