I'm in a Classical Music Band

Growing up and even now as I reach towards thirty years old, being in bands and playing music with people has always been one of my favorite things about being a musician. So much of my earliest musical experiences happened in community and with people. There’s just something so profound about being with other people and making great things happen. I’ve had so many great opportunities to make music with others, but it was only in the last few years that things got serious.

While in graduate school at the University of Louisville, I met now one of my favorite guitarists and closest friends, Jamie. Apparently our first encounters were of me clowning him for bring chocolate protein shakes out our twice weekly afternoon guitar ensemble rehearsals. I don’t remember that at all though! Fortunately we became closer friends and then had the opportunity to spend a year being coached by Dr. Frederick Speck as part of UofL’s New Music Ensemble. Those coachings are some of my fondest memories from Louisville and I learned so much from them.

Although Jamie and I found ourselves in different places after graduating from UofL, we still managed to come up with the idea to continue this crazy endeavor and in the summer of 2019 we officially announced ourselves as Duo Charango.

Duo Charango has become one of my musical highlights. Very few experiences in life can top getting to make music with one of your closest friends. We have wild, wild ideas that we often come up with and we push each other to do even wilder stuff. We play both classical guitar and electric guitar, although not at the same time…yet.

So, I’m in a classical music band with one of the greatest guitarists and friends and I’m so grateful for that experiences. Being in a band is cool and can’t wait to melt some faces off too!

-Ciyadh

P.S. Although not many in-person performances are happening right now, Groupmuse is an amazing organization that promotes classical music by presenting classical musicians in house concerts throughout the world. All of their concerts through April have moved online which means we can all experience them in our homes together. Check them out here.

Duo Charango!

Weekend Plans #1

Welp, we’ve made it to the weekend. For me, weekends used to be a time to catch-up on things that I wasn’t able to do during the week. Now that my schedule has changed to work from home and be at home 24/7, I get more things done during the week so now I have time for some fun things on the weekend.

I have a deep love, obsession, with analog ephemera. I think being a musician further feeds into this. Awhile ago I came across a make your own pencil kit and naturally, I had to have it. 7 months later I was finally in the position to get it and it arrived in the mail on Wednesday. I promised myself I would wait till the weekend to do it and I am so excited to make my own pencil! I’ll post pictures when it’s finished. Here’s a link to the kit.

Other than that, I have a few creative meetings and a book to finish and those should be lots of fun!

Hope you are able to get some time to yourself this weekend.

Take care,

Ciyadh

P.S. Write a letter to someone! Snail mail is my preferred way to go, but email works too!

Everything Really IS Bigger in Texas

In my most recent blog post I mentioned that I’ve lived in Texas for 3 months. I moved here on December 30th, 2019 and started working at my current job on January 3rd, a few days later.

I wanted to share some of what I’ve learned and experienced while living in Texas thus far. First of all, the saying that everything is bigger in Texas is TRUE. Everything really is as big or bigger than one could ever imagine. For instance, your local grocer. Small, local, independent, quaint-all words people might use to describe their favorite grocery store. In Texas, they are not only bigger but there are more than you could ever imagine. Here we have this store called H-E-B, which is basically a way of life. They have endless options and a line of items throughout the store they’ve branded, “Texas Strong”. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

The food here is unbelievable. Before moving to Austin, I was a casual taco eater. I’d eat a taco if offered, but rarely would I search them out. Now, I would consider myself a near taco connoisseur. There are so many tacos here and they’re all great. There’s endless possibilities with these tacos folks. If you ever find yourself in Austin, let me know and I’ll take you on a taco tour.

Austin is full of people who’ve come here for whatever reason or another and it makes this city a really cool place. Once it’s safe to go out again, I look forward to getting to see more of this state.

-Ciyadh

P.S. Book People is this really awesome independent bookstore here in Austin. I read that there are less than 3,000 bookstores left in the US. I haven’t been able to visit yet, but I’m going to place an order here soon in hopes of supporting my local bookseller. Check out this article for more information on how you can support independent bookstores. Thanks to Bookshop, Indies Stand a Chance Against Amazon - InsideHook

Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself

Hello!!!!!! Welcome to my blog!

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted on here and so much has changed. Before I get to some updates, I want to make sure you’re in the right place. My name is Ciyadh Wells. I am a musician and, among many other things, a lover of blogs. I currently live in Austin, Texas, where I have lived for 3 entire months. I work in development for an arts non-profit here and it’s really cool.

In addition to my job, I’m pursing a doctorate of musical arts in guitar. Yes, you can become a guitar doctor, but more on that later. I’m in the world’s best guitar duo with my musical partner, Duo Charango. I started an artist collective called the Margins Guitar Collective, do some YouTube stuff, and make music from trash sometimes.

So, what can you expect from this blog? Well, you can expect to hear from me more regularly-not just once every three years. This will mostly be a collection of my thoughts and musings on whatever I feeling like sharing with you. Some of it will be music. Some of it will not and that’s the goal! I’ll write, you’ll read, and it’ll be what it’ll be.

If you feel so inclined, you can poke around the rest of my website. I’ll be updating somethings around the site soon too and I’ll update you when that happens.

Check back sooner than you think!

-Ciyadh

P.S. I’ll end each post with some sort of recommendation. The recommendations will be products, organizations, music, videos, and whatever else I want you to know about. Today’s recommendation is to check out The Bali Project.

December 2017 Tour Wrap-up

Over the past week, I spent a lot of time performing and playing the guitar. I wanted to write this post as a way to wrap-up all of those performances and share my experience performing with you as well. 

1.    December 18, 2017

The first performance of my tour was at the Bellevue branch of the Nashville Public Library. The concert was in their meeting room and we were able to open up the beautiful glass window for everyone else in the library to see and hear. I performed a wide variety of music including Brouwer, Turina, and Presti. I had a great time playing for the audience members and even received a few questions during the concert, which I was happy to answer. I like being able to converse with the audience during the concert because I think it allows us to make closer and deeper connections with each other and with the music. I also played a set of holiday tunes.

2.    December 19, 2017
As a student and a musician, I know that I am not always able to offer monetary donations to organizations actively working to make communities better. However, I do know that I can provide some of my time and music to help these different organizations. I decided that I would offer to preform at  National Health Care in Murfreesboro. (NHC) NHC Murfreesboro provides a full spectrum of healthcare  services to patients with varying health needs. I had a wonderful time playing for everyone there! 

3.    December 20, 2017

On Wednesday, I was asked to play for a first grade classroom at Rockvale Elementary School in Rockvale, Tennessee. I had the pleasure of attending this school during my elementary and middle school days. I was actually invited to play for this particular class because it is my mother’s first grade class. Funny story, when I was in the second grade, my mother was my teacher! Anyways, it was their holiday party and my mother asked that I provide some music while the students and parents were eating. I love teaching and sharing the guitar with kids. They are often my most curious audience members as they tend to ask very creative questions. I played mostly holiday tunes and they sang along as well. 

4.    December 21, 2017 

Thursday was my final performance at the Smyrna branch of the Linebaugh Public Library System. I played the same recital as I did on Monday and Tuesday with the exception of the Holiday tunes. At each of these performances, I asked audience members to choose the Holiday songs that I would play from a list that they were given on the program. I did this because I wanted another way to interact and engage with audience members. This seemed to be the night where the audience members were really engaged with the holiday songs as there were many people who sang along. 

I had a great time playing this past week. It was the first time I had ever given three full length solo recitals in one week. I really enjoyed having these opportunities and I will definitely be doing more solo recitals and other performances in the future.  If you are interested in guitar lessons or hosting me for a performance, head over to the contact page on my website or email me at ciyadhwells@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 

-Ciyadh 

Preview of Concert Program  

Promotional Flyer from Nashville Public Library  

Promotion from Smyrna Public Library 

Photo from NHC

Photo from Rockvale Elementary School Holiday Celebration  

Photo from Bellevue Public Library Performance  

Photo from Smyrna Public Library Performnce