The Past - How I got started
John Mynard
I started writing music in about 1975. At first it was simple choruses that were very basic. I make no apology for that as some of the simplest of words can have the strongest of meanings. Some were written whilst attending North Wembley Methodist Church. I was living at Lancelot Road in Wembley with Mum and Dad, plus three other brothers, how dearly Mum would have loved a little girl.
Born in 1937 I was raised during the war years and we all had a tough time, with many bombing raids around us and families losing their homes and all their possessions. For a small boy this had a lasting effect, some of which will stay with me for the rest of my life. In my growing years I used to watch my Mother playing the piano and wished that I could learn. Seeing my interest and thinking that I did have some talent, Mum went out cleaning so that I could have some piano lessons. The person my Mum went cleaning for happened to be a professional piano player, who agreed to give me some lessons at a reduced cost. This was surely an answered prayer, for Mum introduced Marjorie Moore to our church and she not only became our organist for many years but also our choir-mistress. I stayed with Marjorie for a good number of years, and although I learnt much and played a little I never mastered it very well. Looking back now I suppose I never did enough practice to become proficient. But all this was a good grounding for my future.
I joined the Boy's Brigade when I was 11 years old and where I learnt to play the Bugle and eventually becoming the Bandmaster. (That's me in the camp kitchen preparing a meal ) I also started a Skiffle Group and later a group with my brother and two other brothers who were also in the B.B. I played rhythm guitar, my brother the bass, Graham Herring, lead guitar, and Michael Herring the drum. We made some good religious music and played in many venues around Wembley and Kingsbury. During this time our group were arranging various songs to be able to sing them, transposing some for our voices, and all this gave me a tremendous insight into chords, keys and general rudiments. This was of good use when arranging my own material. On the right you can see a photo of a small group of BB members singing skiffle at the last night concert.
During those early years I wrote probably half a dozen songs, most of them have been lost except for a couple which live on today. One is on the story of The five loaves and two fishes and the other is called, He's knocking at your door. Having grown up and married Sheila, the Boys Brigade's Captain's daughter, and having had three children, we moved to Surrey with the University of Surrey with whom I was working. I ran a Bugle band at St Andrews for a few years after arriving in Woking, but settled in Knaphill Methodist, and with Sheila, transferred our membership.There, I worked with young people in Sunday School and Youth Groups, and started writing songs suitable for them; you can find some of them under the heading of Children's songs.
I wrote my first piece of Brass Band Music which was premiered at Knaphill Methodist Church at a concert given by the Almac Bisley Brass Band, to commemorate our re-dedication of the church premises. I've done most jobs at Knaphill and at the moment I am part of the Audio Visual team and help the Webmaster with keeping up with recording the services and adding them to our Church Web Site. I also look after the church Copyrighting. I have written a musical on the book of Ruth and have started to write one on Esther. I hope to keep writing songs and having the inspiration to make them even better.
God Bless you all.
