Wow its been a year and a half hasn’t it. We are 9 months into 2020 and I don’t think the year has turned out the way anyone has thought. Here in Australia we started the year with some of the worst Bush Fires that we have ever seen, then just as they were over Covid hit the world with a force to be reckoned with. This put paid to a lot of plans that many people had for 2020 myself included. 

Due to an existing blood disorder that likes to hang on to any illness that comes my way the effect that this might have on me is a massive unknown and because of that I think I have left the house about 5 times since it hit here in March. There have been some really hard days because of this mainly due to missing my bestie and her kiddos that live not far from me and who I was used to seeing all the time. 

So what I have done. I have immersed myself in music, both my own and other peoples. It has been amazing spending time just listening to music. I have also been working hard on my playing both guitar and piano as well as lots and lots of singing. 

I am excited to know that while many plans for 2020 have just had to be let go the release of my debut original song is still on track to happen. We have just recorded the first round of vocal takes and hope to get back in the “booth” in the next week or so to do another round now that we know exactly what I need to work on. I am so proud of this piece and it has so much meaning to me and I am so looking forward to having you all hear it. I am so grateful that we have a professional studio in the house so that we have been able to keep working on our music and recording. I have included some photos from the session below.

Music has given me a purpose in 2020 and helped to keep my heart happy. What had you done in 2020 that has made you happy? 

Happy New Year and welcome to 2020. I hope that you have all had a restful and joyful festive season. I was so incredibly spoilt by my amazing partner who paid off the stunning Fender Pink Paisley Telecaster that I had on layby. He then gift wrapped it (yes he gift wrapped a guitar and very successfully) and put it under the tree. See the included photos. If a guitar was ever made for a person this guitar was made for me and I am so looking forward to spending a lot of time with this guitar this year making beautiful music. 

As we welcome back the roaring twenties I look forward to experiencing all the amazing things to come! I’m not big on New Years Resolutions in the form that many people make them as they are often not thought through properly and therefore destined for failure. I like to set big scary goals and then set a bunch of smaller associated ones, sub goals if you like, that enable clear and measurable signposts for completion. Completing the smaller goals or steps help to ensure that you see progress and help me stay on the path to complete the big scary goal. 

This year I have the Big Scary Goal of my first solo releases. Yes you read that right releases! In order to achieve this goal I have many smaller goals to complete that will ensure that I stay on track and get this music to you all. Throughout the year I will be going live as often as I can on my social channels so that you can see what I am working on. I am still learning many things in this journey and I am looking forward to sharing this journey with you. 

I am also looking forward to learning the basic ins and outs of the recording processes as I learn to use some of the awesome gear that I have and make use of the cool tools that are available. 

Make sure that you like and follow me on the various platforms in order to see these lives. If you want to hear from me from time to time with my random musings and all the news for upcoming releases as dates are set pop your details in the box above so that I know where to send it. 

Do you have any big scary goals for the year? Feel free to tell me about it in the comment section below.

I am very proud to present you with a project that I have been a part of for the last couple of month. We have just released a cozy instrumental Christmas mini album that is perfect to play in the background while putting up the tree, while doing some holiday baking or during Christmas lunch as well as a perfect accompaniment to the family sing along. We created this with love and hope that you love listening as much as we loved making it. 

I not only played some of the guitar on these tracks but was also the co-producer. I am so proud of how they turned out. You are able to purchase them here as downloads they are also available everywhere you can get good music. If you are a Spotify user I hope that you will do us the honour of adding them to your holiday playlist. 

While I continue to work on my first solo release I will be continuing to work with The Don Macchiato Project on future projects.

A couple of weeks ago I had the honour of seeing Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening. Superlatives of joy and acclaim can’t even capture the significance of this evening for myself. As I had hoped the drums thundered, the riffs grooved, and the bass pumped through an impressive set list. In the earliest moments of the show I soon realised this was the closet to a true Zeppelin experience I am ever going to have in person. 

So many times, during the night I was transported deep inside the songs captured by the musician’s skills and the diversity in Zeppelin’s catalogue of songs.  I was rocked by Immigrant Song, engaged by Stairway to Heaven and enveloped by the sonic lushness of Kashmir. 

My own view of Led Zeppelin, like most other fans, is that they were Rock Gods that had once walked and toured the planet – they were beyond normal life. As a group they were untouchable in their skills and always seen from a far. Today they live in the memories of a mythical and foggy time which has long since passed. The press at the time didn’t seem to understand the music and no doubt this lead to the band being very defensive and cagey when dealing with the main stream media, isolating the group further from wider communication and connection. Your only real connection as a fan was with the album covers, the posters and the records themselves.  

Pausing for a few moments from the rocking pace at around the middle of the show, Jason Bonham began to talk about Led Zeppelin and the legacy of his father John Bonham’s famous drumming work on the Zeppelin Albums.  

Jason’s love, respect and fandom like that of the rest of the band for Zeppelin music was evident in every note during the performance. The real twist of the evening was the showing and discussion of old home movies of Jason Bonham as a child that also included grainy footage of a very young John Bonham shot by his grandmother. It was a strange and surreal moment as Jason and the audience were returned to a very personal place in the Bonham family history. 

And with that the fog that surrounded the myth of Zeppelin lifted. I was now sitting at an old wooden kitchen table with a cooper kettle boiling in the background, hearing the crackle of a wood stove, being genuinely welcomed and invited in to break bread with the family – Grandma, John and Jason Bonham.  

It was an impossible, inconceivable and unimaginable event at a rock concert, but also an incredibly humbling experience. I understood a little more of where the family had come from, its demons and maybe some of its motivations. For me, it really changed the context of the evening. The why of why I create music resonated so deeply in this moment and reaffirmed everything about my choice to follow the path that I do. 

It was such an amazing night that I hope to repeat in the future. Thank You for coming to Australia and giving us a little insight into your world as the son of John Bonham and what you went through yourself growing up as well as giving us an amazing Led Zeppelin experience. It was a real honour to be invited into the Bonham home!

We see so many articles and statements floating around these days that state this, that or the other is good for your health. So, what about music. I know personally that music is mentally beneficial for me and when I started to think about this topic I realised that it also helps me physically if I’m stressed or tired by helping me relax. It can also boost my energy levels if I’m feeling flat it just depends on what type of music I listen to. I wondered is there any medical proof to back this up or is it just one of those feelings things. Now I’m always a bit of a sceptic when it comes to researching these types of things as you can usually find some article somewhere that talks about some obscure study that will back up your point of view no matter how out there it is. When I typed in health benefits of music in Google I was surprised at the wealth of positive studies that came up and the amount of studies that backed each other up. 

Charles Darwin has been quoted as saying “If I had my life over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week.” Albert Einstein once stated, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a Musician.” And of course, anyone remotely connected with music knows that Jimi Hendrix called music his “religion” which is something that most of us probably agree with. So, what about science, what does science say on this subject? 

Music can make you happier! A study by now Dr Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University showed that when you listen to music that you enjoy the brain releases dopamine (the feel-good feeling). In her study, she injected 8 participants with a substance that binds to dopamine receptors after they had listened to their favourite music. A subsequent PET scan showed that a large amount of dopamine was released which caused feeling of happiness and pleasure amongst the participants. Read Study Here. 

Music can enhance running performance! As a runner I personally found this one very interesting and know many people that can attest to the difference that running while listening to music can have on their performance. For me I use it as a distraction while training and certainly notice that different tracks with high BPM can certainly increase my pace. Interestingly if I am participating in an event I don’t use music as I find there is so much going on around me with all the people and noise that if I try to add my own music I get distracted and can’t focus on anything properly. 

The study by Marcelo Bigliassi of the University of Londrina Brazil and his colleagues found that if a runner listened to fast or slow motivational music they completed the first 800 metres of a 5km faster than those that listened to calm music or ran without music. The take away for me from this study was that if you want to improve your performance listen to something that gets you moving. You know that song that no matter when you are when you hear it makes you move and groove. Read Study Here. 

Music can help improve sleep quality! Sadly large numbers of people suffer from insomnia these days (30% of Americans in fact). A study conducted at Semmelweis University in Hungry found that people who listened to 45 minutes of classical music before bed slept much better than those who listened to something else or made no changes to their normal routines. Read Study Here. 

Music can assist in recovery from stroke! Finnish researchers found that if stroke patients listened to music for a couple of hours a day their verbal memory and focused attention recovered better than those that listened to other things or to nothing at all they also had a more positive mood. The study actually led to the clinical recommendation of “everyday music listening during early stroke recovery offers a valuable addition to the patients care.” Read Study Here.

I feel that I have only touched on the tip of the iceberg here and could write for days about all the different benefits that I have discovered. Suffice it to say that music has many health benefits so we all should continue listening to and making music. 

Keep an eye out for a piece that I am researching and writing specifically on the benefits of music in association with Alzheimer’s. Till then I hope you listen to some great music - Sue

When looking for my first guitar I wanted something a little different to the standard blonde honey coloured guitars. It wasn’t because I had something against this colouring it’s just that none of the ones that I had seen spoke to me. 

In a quest for a guitar that called my name I spent some time wandering around the few quality guitar shops that we have in Melbourne and at the top of a wall I happened across this stunning chocolatey woodgrain guitar at World of Music in Brighton. I pointed it out to my boyfriend who is the guitar expert, who was in charge of the review process in choosing a guitar for me that sounded good and is a quality axe. 

Turns out I really do have an eye for quality. It was a mid-priced guitar that is all quality. It played so well on the first try he went back later for another test play and brought it home with him. It really was a perfect choice for me from the smaller sized concert body and thin maple neck to the adorable pearl Hellcat Inlays. 

This guitar is based on the beat up 60’s acoustic on which Tim Armstrong has written some of the greatest hits for his Punk Band Rancid. 

The wood that it is made from is actually a timber that has always resonated with me which I think is one of the reason’s it called to me from the top of that wall. This baby has a Solid Mahogany top with laminated Mahogany back and sides. Along with the Maple Neck and Rosewood fretboard it is a thing of beauty. 

This guitar has a big sound. It plays stunning as a simple acoustic however thanks to its Fisherman Pickups it also transitions well to a Semi Electric for playing live. 

It truly is a pure pleasure to play this guitar even for me as a relative beginner and I know that I will be playing this guitar for many many years! 

Tech Specs 

• Body style: Concert 
• Scale length: 25.3 in. (643 mm) 
• Top: Solid mahogany 
• Bracing: Fender Advanced Scalloped Bracing 
• Back and sides: Mahogany 
• Neck: Maple 
• Nut width: 1.69 in. (43 mm) 
• Fretboard: Rosewood 
• Bridge: Traditional 
• Hardware: Chrome 
• Finish: Polyurethane gloss 
• Number of frets: 20 
• Tuners: Vintage-style open gear 
• Electronics: Fishman Isys III System with Active On-Board Pre-Amp and Tuner

Hello welcome to my website. This is where you will find everything about me on the internet. I am working on bringing you amazing stories through the lyrics of my songs. If you want to start by learning a little about me and how I got here then pop over and have a read of my bio by clicking here.

While I work on bringing you my music I hope that I will keep you entertained with my posts. Sometimes it will be a highly researched article, sometimes a review of an instrument or piece of music and then sometimes it will be just some silliness or general things that are floating around my mind that I want to share with someone.

If you want to be kept up to date feel free to sign up for my newsletter and I will let you know when there is something new and exciting for you to read or at the very least something mildly interesting.

I look forward to sharing my journey with you. Please also note that I am a bit of a nerd so no doubt you are going to see some of that through this journey together.

Love and Light.