‘Gui­tar Cycles’ is a study for solo gui­tar and explores the idea that the expres­sion of notes can have as much influ­ence on a work as the notes themselves.

It focuses on a pre-written 19 bar phrase which the per­former first plays in the style of their choos­ing, fol­low­ing sim­ple direc­tion. The per­former then begins the cycle again, devel­op­ing this 19 bar phrase – let­ting their emo­tions influ­ence their play­ing style, with the objec­tive of being able to express them­selves and their feel­ings through this lim­ited soundscape.

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Tags: cyclic, expression, guitar

Right, before we begin please accept my apolo­gies for what is, I fully admit, the most obvi­ously gra­tu­itous title pos­si­ble. Now that’s out the way let us begin.

Every day, on my stroll to and from work I get stopped by chug­gers, the home­less and those sell­ing the Big Issue (also home­less). Please do ignore the chug­gers in that sen­tence, they are for another day and another post, but let us instead focus on the main topic of The Big Issue.

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Tags: homeless, The Big Issue

Whether you love it or hate it, the Media gar­ners atten­tion from all of us, and in some ways gov­erns our every­day lives. It cre­ates crazes, it influ­ences what we wear, what we eat, what we lis­ten to and what films we see. But the point which I am try­ing to make today is that its influ­ence doesn’t stop there, and instead spreads to much darker and more seri­ous mat­ters; to such an extent that the Media itself can become the fuel that per­pet­u­ates crimes through its dra­matic influ­ence over people.

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Tags: influence, media, news

“Would you like that with chips or a side-salad?” A phrase which I’m sure you’ve all heard count­less times, but why is it now said so much? When I was grow­ing up, chips were a rar­ity, they were a birth­day treat, a Mac­Don­alds to cel­e­brate the end-of-term, an occa­sional plea­sure, but now it seems that every meal has the option of being accom­pa­nied by these greasy lit­tle blighters.

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Tags: food, health