A visit from Dads Rock

Recently, at Expecting Something in Wester Hailes, the group were lucky enough to welcome a special musical neighbour . . .

I work for Dads Rock, we have an office at the Whale Arts Centre.

I was making a cup of tea in the kitchen when a boy of about 3 came in with a plastic trumpet.

Meg from one of the other resident organisations said “Hey Barry they have a guitar next door, go and play him a song”, so I did. Next thing I know is that I am being invited to come along to the groups next session.

The group is for pregnant women and those with kids up to about three. So after a bit of thought I decided that playing guitar and singing a few songs would be a reasonable start, but there could be more fun had by messing about with synthesisers.

I brought along a music workstation type of synth, it is what I call the ‘Erasure machine’. It has three synths and a drum machine all in one unit. It is a digital version of some old fashioned analogue synths. It has loads of twiddley knobs and sliders for inquisitve fingers and as it turns out one of the Mums is a big Erasure fan. Bingo.

I also brought along a microphone and an echo unit. To the uninitiated an echo unit will repeat what you say, repeat what you say, repeat what you say, or any other noise you make, or any other noise you make, or any other noise you make, which is highly entertaining for those in the 0-80 year old age range. A quick twist of the delay time control either slows down or speeds up the sound echoing. Try it yourself, it is very funny. Every home should have one.

So we sang a few songs, played guitars upside down, made some spaceship noises, created music for a Sci-Fi film soundtrack, and generally had a lovely time.