Here are some tunes I've written using some software called FruityLoops. They're named after the date they were begun, YY_MM_DD. This just in! I've finally named some of the tunes with real names!

Okay, this is something else I've done all my life, but never actually done anything with - music. But one of the good things about working for Starling Films, even though they never amounted to anything, was the realization that I had a large hidden potential as a composer. Somehow, the idea of writing music for movies enabled me to really expand my repertoire.

When I was 8, I took viola lessons at school. I had to be different, couldn't have a violin - too small for me! And not...different enough. Unfortunately, I never imagined that the viola never, ever plays the melody, so the only thing I remember about the recital was playing a bunch of disconnected notes that were supposed to uphold the melody lines being played by the - violins! - but I'm sure whatever we were putting out sounded totally cacophonous.

So when I was 9 or 10, I decided to do a different instrument, a horn, but again I had to be different, and chose the cornet. I don't even remember what became of that.

At 11 or 12, I took up the guitar, electric guitar, some no-name instrument for about $25. Now, there's an instrument you can practice and practice, and not make a lot of noise if you don't hook it up, or if you do hook it up but use headphones. I played all kinds of blues stuff, all the time. I liked Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden for a while, but never tried to play their stuff. Liked Led Zepellin too, but never tried to imitate Jimmy Plant. When I played, it was more like Chuck Berry, but also musicians like B.B. King, or the Allman Brothers. Never much liked Clapton. But Jimi Hendrix! He was the one I played most often, and my favorite album was Band of Gypsies. It's only 6 pieces, but it's got to be the best electric guitar music ever recorded.

Then I got a Gretsch and for a short while I had a band, Flattop and the Devastators. We never played for an audience, but we recorded a couple of tunes. If I can ever find the tape, I'll digitize them and put them in here.

I started playing classical guitar when I was about 25. Got a nice blonde Goya. I learned my first piece by ear, because I couldn't read music very well. After that, I learned to read music well enough to memorize a couple of measures at a time, and learned a dozen or so of the famous pieces by Granados, Torroba, Albeniz, etc., like what Segovia and John Williams play.

But then I got psoriasis, and it made my fingernails all crumbly, making it nearly impossible to play. After a while, other interests took precendence, and now, even though my nails are better, I can only play a couple of tunes by memory, and never seem to find the time to learn the rest that I used to know, much less any new ones.

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