Well it's been a while since I last posted anything which wasn't my intention when I started this blog! The Rolling Stones may have had Time on their side back in the Sixties, and I thought that I had then too. The summer seemed to last for much longer than it does now - despite Climate Change - and the winter seemed shorter. These days I know Time isn't on my side and it never was. This was brought home to me with a phone call from someone who asked me to play at her mother's funeral. Her mother isn't dead yet, but has Alzheimer's, has probably not got that much longer to go, and she just wanted to be prepared. I hope my own funeral is a long way off, but supposing I developed Alzheimers's? Would I still remember how to play? Would I be able to repeat anything I improvised? I start all my compositions from improvisations. If I am writing for a specific person, event or emotion, I begin by focusing my thoughts on the subject. Then I just let my fingers loose on the fretboard until I play something that appeals to me as a theme and then the real process of composition begins! There may come a time when this is impossible for me whether through Alzeimer's or natural bodily deterioration, arthritis or other such scurge. So I know time isn't on my side.
Last year I set myself a target of writing and recording one new tune a month. Something that is not (or should not be) impossible. However, as I decided to rearrange my studio which has taken me some time, I am only now able to get going again. So from today I am back to my schedule and finish the tune I started in January by the end of this month (March). Also I have a commission to compose a wedding tune for June which I must also start now, and an electronic music project which I expect to be starting in May, but can't say any more than that at the moment. So back into my studio I go...