| All of the music on this website was written by me. All
of it is dedicated to Peggy (except for Little Tuba Trio, which is for
Charley). I've been playing and composing on the guitar for many years, but only began writing things down in the late '90s when a friend introduced me to Cakewalk midi sequencing software, a kind of word processor for music. Before then, I had to keep everything in my head and play it over and over to keep it fixed there. Cakewalk allows me to choose from over a hundred instruments, enter notes onto musical staves, and have the computer produce the instument sounds as I enter them. When I am finished working on a piece, I can save what I've written to a file, edit it as often as I like, then record it as an ordinary MP3. Using this software, I could, for instance, write something for a couple of guitars, and then, with some fiddling, rescore it for woodwinds, strings, keyboard, or any other instrument combination. When I first began using Cakewalk, I used it almost exclusively for notating the guitar pieces I'd already written (thus the Alberti bass lines, arpeggios, and guitar-like rhythms in many of them). Since then, I've been writing for instruments of all kinds. Almost all of my music was written to be performed by human beings on traditional acoustic instruments. This is the way I hear it in my head. Unfortunately, since I don't have a house band to play it for me, I'm forced to use computer soundfonts and digital instrument samples to approximate the real instruments. These sounds are usually recognizable as the instruments they're meant to be—but not always. Using cheap (or free) soundfonts, as I do, sometimes results in truly bad effects: clarinets that sound like flutophones, cheesy violins, and other "mystery" instruments. I am aware of this, and I apologize for when the instruments sound unrealistic. I hope one of these days I'll be able to persuade some humans to perform my music. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy some of it. All of of the music on this website can be licensed under these Creative Commons Licensing Terms. Please email me if you have any ideas for using it in ways beyond the limits of these terms. |