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My plans for recording in August were put on hold by an unexpected finger injury.

Towards the end of July, I rescued an elderly cat whose owner had been taken to hospital, and wasn't expected to leave. I brought the cat (Lady) home, much to the disgust of Puss, our resident rescue. Lady toddled around with her nose almost on the floor, looking understandably sorry for herself (she's 19). She ate and drank, and located the litter tray OK. 

The following morning, I woke to find bloody paw-prints all over the house. They weren't from Puss, who was still asleep on my daughter's bed. When I checked Lady, I realised that she had badly ingrowing claws. She'd somehow managed in her familiar environment, but being in a new house and trying to find her way around, extra walking had made the claws puncture her pads. The claws were so embedded that they were impossible to release by pressing the paw. When I tried, claw clippers in hand, Lady bit me.

I couldn't blame her; I was a complete stranger after all, so I washed the puncture mark on my finger and took her to the vets with the help of my daughter. The vet got a nurse to help her clip Lady's claws, wipe her sticky eyes and cut off some clumps of matted fur. Lady then had a long-acting antibiotic injection, and we took her home and installed her on a new blanket next to the heater. She was already looking more comfortable.

But two to three hours later, the bitten finger just didn't feel right. Over the next few hours it began to burn inside the pad, with the puncture mark taking on a blue tinge which I supposed was a bruise. 

Twelve hours later, I was on an IV drip in hospital. The following day I was cued up for surgery . A plastic surgeon confirmed that the blue on my finger wasn't a bruise, it was necrotising flesh. I had an ellipse of flesh cut out of my finger and the wound, which was badly infected despite the IV drip, was washed out. 

Two stitches, five IV drips, some strong painkillers and an overnight stay later, it was confirmed that I'd had a brush with pasteurella, a fast-acting bacteria. If I'd waited 12 hours longer, I was told it might've been ICU.

Geelong Hospital dealt with it all absolutely brilliantly, and after a week in bandages, during which the community nurses came to change the dressing every other day, I had the stitches out. This week I'll be dressing it myself and then, it's back to practising. I have some nerve damage (the fingertip is numb in places) but nothing which will prevent me from playing.

I feel very lucky. The old cat Lady has no idea of the trouble she caused, but she's looking considerably better, no longer walking with her head down and her nose on the floor. Her coat is smoother and her eyes are a bit brighter.

It's been a strange week…

Mid-August UPDATE: the nerve damage and swelling around the first joint are a little bit worst than I first thought. I can't play harp at all, but I can type OK, play the piano fine, and I can play guitar for about 20 minutes at a time, although it feels strange. I've been told the numbness will gradually disappear in about 3-6 months, so fingers crossed. 

Early October UPDATE: I'm now playing as normal, both harp and guitar, although I've still got a numb patch on my finger and a swelling on the first joint. I've to wear a silicone sleeve every night on the affected finger for a full year, to reduce the swelling. 

Earlier this month, we took a short break to the Otways. We stayed in Forrest, at a lovely old cottage with a log fire. It's open plan, and has a great rehearsal space (photo of the kitchen/diner above; Craig, his violin and our shared amp were behind the camera).

Much of Craig's fiddle repertoire is Scottish (he was taught by a piper/fiddler). I'm just the accompanist, which basically means two things - Craig usually chooses the tunes; and if anything goes wrong, it's always my fault (I'm smiling as I type this; it's an accompanist's joke, but it's true!). Because ceilidh tunes are chosen for the timing/dance steps, we've played up until now in traditional sets. These are pairs of tunes with the same time signature and a specific number of repeats designed for dancers. This year, acknowledging that we don't actually play for dancing (so we can be a bit more inventive), we've put together some sets with time signature changes, including slow and fast pieces side by side. I've also started to work on some DADGAD accompaniments. The alternative tuning brings lovely possibilities which aren't available in conventional tuning. 

When I took this photo, Craig was learning Mrs Crehan's in the background, and I'd taken the chance to rehearse some of the solo music I'm recording in August.

We don't play professionally, we only play for fun. When we started our duo again in 2024, we were surprised to realise that there'd been a 25 year gap since we'd last worked together.

It's good to be back.

After the Portarlington Festival, I started to arrange O'Carolan's Blind Mary (which we'd played in a workshop session) for two guitars. It hadn't occurred to me until this point that I've never spoken to other arrangers of traditional music about their sheet music process. For me, this is completely different to the aural process I'd use to devise a ‘live’ accompaniment, because when arranging for sheet music, I work alone. Here's how I'd approach a new arrangement:

First, I start with the instrument I want to write for. My guitars all have their own characteristics. One is classical; my favourite steel string has an even tone anywhere on the neck; the other steel string has a lovely mid-range, but goes slightly out of tune if I try to play too high up the neck, particularly the bass notes. I also have a silent guitar so that I can work in my music corner while the family watch TV, using headphones so that I don't disturb them. The problem is, I find that if I use the silent guitar to write or arrange, then once swapped to the ‘proper’ acoustic guitar, the music I've written never sounds the same. I've only just realised (after too many years) that whichever instrument I use will shape the arrangement I'm working on. I'm favouring the cutaway guitar at the moment, because I can access notes higher up the neck. Because the tuning is more stable with this particular instrument, I can be freer with alternative tunings and a wider range. All this affects the end result. 

Second, I notate the melody (always in tab if the guitar is in an alternative tuning). Then, I play around to see what chord or inversion I'll want underneath. This is the part I enjoy most about arranging. Most listeners expect traditional music to be reasonably consonant rather than completely experimental, so I'm informed by other arrangements in the same genre. There's a modern fashion for messing with rhythms in traditional music - this is great fun, especially in dance pieces which are played fast. I'll admit that I do follow some classical rules. But, I wouldn't do this to the extent of spoiling a folk arrangement which needs a drone-style accompaniment in consecutive 5ths, say. My easy Christmas carols have a few ‘hidden’ consecutives, but the alternatives would've made the pieces too tricky for the level of player they're aimed at, and the arrangements work thanks to the surrounding harmony. 

Third, once I've chosen the chords, I fill out the harmony just a little (nothing too dense), and then write the second guitar part. This is where it gets interesting, because I don't use a recording studio to test the harmonies. Before mobile phone days, I used to sit at the piano (or use the guitar) and bash out both parts simultaneously, which can be tricky. I'd then use a live rehearsal (with as many musicians as required - some of my arrangements are for trio or small ensemble) to test the parts.  Because I don't always have access to other musicians, for duets, I've recently started using my mobile phone to get a rough recording of part one. I use the phone to play back part one whilst playing part two (live) alongside it. I find this method more useful than the playback on Musescore, because on a real instrument you can get away with some things which don't sound great on the computer playback, and vice versa. 

Fourth, I complete the notation. The fine-tuning to arrive at a final version takes a while, because it's always good to experiment with ornamentation or with notes which might be played in different places to give a different effect. This is possibly a unique quirk of fingerboard strings; on instruments like harp and piano, a note can only be played in one specific place rather than having alternatives which sound subtly different. 

If I don't write the music down, I know I'll forget it!

I first started arranging for students in 1993, when there were no music notation programmes widely available. Technology wasn't as advanced or cheap as it is today; many of us didn't even have our own computers or printers. We wrote for our students by hand, and then used the school or college photocopier to reproduce the scores for class.  (There were no mobile phones or socials back then either, but that's another story.) I take real pleasure from looking at my finished scores today, because I remember how they compare to the old stuff, which had often been scrawled in a hurry the night before class. I wish I could say that it's been an easy journey to learn to input the tab and dots into Finale and Musescore; in truth, I've been pulling my hair out!

Around three years ago, I was lucky to have a short collection of O'Carolan arrangements (for guitar ensemble) published by Manley Mallard of the Guitar Chamber Music Press (USA). Manley told me that he couldn't accept Musescore files because they were full of bugs. He told me that he'd only take scores in Finale. Dutifully, I bought Finale and started to experiment. 

Finale wasn't a particularly intuitive programme, but I battled my way through it by telling myself that if I took things slowly, and didn't get stressed no matter how long it took, then I'd be OK. It took a good while, and I was constantly typing questions into the internet, but there were plenty of internet discussion forums to help. I cracked it in the end. When I sent the Finale files to Manley Mallard, they didn't corrupt.

Around the same time, I was experimenting with Musescore (which I found slightly easier to work). I soon discovered that it was indeed full of bugs. I had notes leaping around the screen, deleting themselves randomly, changing their time values and whizzing about all over the place. I'd hit a key by mistake and an entire line of carefully-typed melody with immaculate counting and layout would suddenly twist itself into nonsense in a heartbeat. On bad days, I saved many of these without even realising they'd happened, overwriting my perfect original with something which would take hours to input again. So, I went back to Finale. 

Then Finale was retired. Out of necessity I came back to Musescore, resplendent with all its bugs and foibles. Finally, after many months (if not a couple of years), I've learned for the most part to anticipate and dodge the problems it throws out. I'm always careful to ensure the note icon is changed to the arrow icon so that I don't go slipping unnecessary notes in by accident, and I always save the file regularly, often to two different locations. 

I still can't understand the random pad feature which changes every bar in terms of note duration. Why this feature was invented in the first place, I'll never know. I haven't yet met a musician who would decide on a whim that every bar in a part needs rewriting simultaneously with a strange new rhythm - but, I'm quicker to spot it when it springs itself on me now. I just use the ‘undo’ function. 

One of the complexities of writing for a harmony instrument (rather than a melody instrument) is the multiple voicing. I'm a bit of a notation nerd, puzzling endlessly over which voice should take which note, wondering how best to notate parts if they overlap or share notes (which isn't always easy to achieve with Musescore, even if you know exactly what you want). I confess I haven't yet cracked every permutation. Sometimes I have to settle for a compromise. One of my favourite notation tools in the programme is the ‘Linked Stave’ feature, with which you can write in either tab or conventional notation, and have the alternative spring up automatically. Another great tool is the string properties section, where you can change your guitar from conventional tuning into alternatives like DADGAD, ensuring the notation is accurate and that it will play back correctly. Finally there are the grace notes and slurs (which provide hammer-ons and pull-offs, vital for guitar arrangements) and slides. I daresay there are more sophisticated programmes out there with features even more exciting, but I have enough on my plate coping with this one!

When I've input and checked the score, I export and save it as a PDF file. The PDF file is completely stable - it can't be accidentally input with new errors. My teenage kids would be horrified I'm actually making a point of saying this, but honestly, this simple fact is still as exciting today as it was when I first discovered how to export a file. By way of explanation, I grew up in the 70's-80's and started teaching in the early 90's; home-printed properly typeset music was never a given. Today, I've successfully copied sixteen PDF files onto the Sheet Music page ready for download/sale. The earliest pieces date from 2001, the latest from this year, 2025. I'm still sorting through piles of my original arrangements dating from the 1990's, many of which were pop songs written in both notation and tablature. These were designed to keep early-to-mid teens interested in keeping on coming to Saturday morning guitar group (run by Rotherham Music Service and known as ‘Music Centre’). It's where I learned guitar; it was a privilege to run my own class there for several years, teaching in the same classroom I was taught in as a child and a teen. Lovely memories.  

I now keep a file of commands in a desktop folder especially so that if I forget how to re-tune the virtual instrument settings in Musescore, or how to flip my note stems, or how to achieve triplet semi-quavers (I sometimes forget if I don't revisit the programme for a while), I have a document to hand, to help.

Here's a link to Musescore: https://musescore.org/en

Here's a link to Dorico (the official replacement for Finale): https://www.steinberg.net/dorico/

 I now have Dorico Pro, although I've yet to steel myself to begin learning how to use it. 

Here's a random selection of some of my favourite source material for traditional melodies from the British Isles:

A Northern Lass - Traditional Dance Music of North-West England - compiled by Jamie Knowles, published by Dave Mallinson Music (1995). Suitable for any melody instrument. 

The Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master - edited by Jeremy Barlow, published by Faber Music. Playfords English Dancing Master has been around for hundreds of years and has been updated several times (my version was published in 1985). 

The Complete Works of O'Carolan, Irish Harper & Composer - Ossian Publications (1984). One of the first, if not the first, complete compendiums of O'Carolan's surviving music. Suitable for any melody instrument.

O'Neill's 1001 Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Airs and Marches - The Irish Music Collection, Waltons Manufacturing Ltd, Dublin (1986). Suitable for any melody instrument.

One Thousand English Country Dance Tunes - published by Michael Raven, distributed by Music Exchange Manchester (1983). Suitable for any melody instrument.

I have other sources for Scotland and the Isle of Man etc, including on-line resources. Some of the tunes I've arranged have come from memory - from sessions (where I've learned by ear) or from childhood hymns (medieval music and folk tunes were a staple of the Victorian church - lyricists would take the tune and add new words, which has been terrific for ensuring the survival of many melodies).

Attribution: the music of the British Isles has travelled around the Islands in various incarnations, meaning the origins of many tunes are disputed or just plain forgotten. Hundreds of traditional melodies have different versions of the same original, now rooted in different regions/countries. I've found that websites like The Session are terrific for the tunes themselves, but are variable in terms of reliable attribution. The heritage of what's often termed Celtic music isn't (as is sometimes assumed) simply Irish and Scottish, it grew from the British Isles as a whole, and so includes English and Welsh music along with that of smaller Islands such as the Isle of Man. We often share tunes.

Here's a link to The Session website, where you can find and learn traditional tunes, use playback at various speeds to practise alongside, and print out the dots. The site is advertised as Irish music, but it contains traditional folk tunes from all over the British Isles and beyond:

https://thesession.org/

When I'm working out guitar accompaniments, I use the playback feature on The Session to practise to.

Turlough O' Carolan, courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

Today, I’ve finalised my harp and piano arrangements of the Welsh folksong ‘The Queen’s Marsh’ (also known as ‘Conset y Peipar Coch’ - an internet translation site suggested this means ‘Red Pepper Sauce’, but a Welsh friend thinks it's more likely to mean ‘The Concert Set of the Red Piper’ - if you're Welsh, you're reading this and you know any different, please reach out and let me know!). My all-time favourite arrangement of this piece is Steve Baughman and Robin Bullock’s Celtic Guitar Summit recording (for guitar duet). Their version is quite fast, but mine are both fairly slow. 

It made sense to use the bones of the harp arrangement for the piano version, but I've made a few changes. I used more notes in the piano version of the right-hand, changed some of the harmony subtly, and removed the harp ‘rippled’ chords and replaced them with block chords. These sounded better on piano. Chromaticism on the lever harp is limited to what one hand can do in terms of lever changes, so the only accidental I've added is C sharp. I kept this the same in the piano part, but was able to use an extra quaver because the left hand doesn't need to leave the instrument to flick a lever. 

I'm pleased with the results, because it's such a beautiful tune.

Free resources to help with writing/arranging for the harp:

Composing specifically for lever harp:

https://harpcolumn.com/forums/topic/advice-on-composing-for-lever-harp/

Scottish lever harpist Ailie Robertson on how to compose for lever harp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHYvbxzTIrs

Berklee’s Writing for Harp guide:

https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-today/fall-2004/writing-for-harp

Fifteen Seconds to Write for Harp:

https://www.15secondharp.com/

May 2025