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…
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Aug 2, 2025
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…
Read more
Jul 10, 2025
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…
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Jun 23, 2025
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…
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Jun 18, 2025
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…
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Jun 12, 2025
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…
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Jun 10, 2025
May 27, 2025
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…
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