Introduction

Welcome to my new web site
Those of you that are looking for the sheet music arrangements, you can find these here.

The site will be completely redesigned to not only feature my downloadable sheet music, but it will also carry news from a variety of useful sources about composing and arranging.

Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion for sites that have feeds that could be included.

Featured Artist: Ginny Arnell

Chart debut year: 1963

Steinway Piano - Through the Years

Steinway has a rich history and tradition of making quality pianos. Every piece that makes up a Steinway is selected for its quality to create an uncompromising instrument and a beautiful piano.

Boring survey: Is Music Thing working OK technically?

Keith writes: "Hi, I've been reading your blog for years now and took a break from the internet for about 10-12 months. I'm back on and I noticed you've redesigned the page but it loads really slow and crashes Internet Explorer for me every time. Firefox loads it fine but, again, really slowly." So... Is Music Thing working OK for you? (Click here if you can't see the form)

  • It works fine
  • It's slower than other sites
  • It won't load properly
  • I usually just read it on RSS
If you're having trouble, please give me some details. If you're a web developer, please give me some tips. Thanks! UPDATE: Based on the first handful of results, just over 10% are complaining of slow loading. I've cut the number of posts on the homepage from 20 to 10. Might also move that huge Google map. A couple of people asked whether the ads make any money. The Google ones make a bit (about £4k a year, hopefully) but the others are struggling to pay their way, so I'll look again at them. Thanks, by the way, for all the compliments.  

Deconstruction: Joe Pass Autumn Leaves Part Two

Part One can be found here. The second run through the Am7-D7-Gmaj7-Cmaj7-F#m7b5-B7-Em progression. Pass does a really cool thing with the melody. An inversion if you will as he descends in to notes the motif ends on, rather than approaching from below. A great move. Pass also doles out single note phrases to outline the [...]

Tune Buster

Tune Buster is a free keyboard synthesizer for OS X, and can turn your musical USB keyboard into a complete instrument. Tune Buster is easy to use and no configuration is needed, just start the program, plug in a keyboard and play.

Different sounds can be selected by clicking the desired instrument in the popup menu. Use the arrow keys or the mouse scroll button if you have one to speed up the selection process.

Tune Buster can be made invisible by closing the main window, and the keyboard will still play.

Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'

Many have called Don Giovanni the finest opera ever composed. Mozart's classic is a brilliant combination of stark human tragedy and touching comedy, set to music of limitless genius. It's heard in a new production from Houston Grand Opera.

Today's Featured Artist: The Tremeloes

British Invasion pop group. Best known songs include "Here Comes My Baby" (1967), "Silence Is Golden" (1967), and "Even The Bad Times Are Good" (1967).