This section of the site contains various musing on the subject of music. Playing and singing has been a life-long joy of mine, yet I remain, at best, a dilettante. A happy one who finds joy noodling and attempting to improve. This section is dedicated to sharing some of those efforts.

Introduction I started my musical journey by playing trumpet in our school’s cadet band. We had a band unit of 12 trumpets and 6 or 8 snares and we drilled, and marched, and did a few Anzac Day parades, and stuff like that. I learned how to play, got hooked on Herb Alpert, and then stopped when the Cadet Corps was disbanded. I taught myself how to play the flute (thanks Ian Anderson!

This section of the site contains some musical experiments, mostly in the realm of cinematic scoring. nova series As an exercise in actually doing something possible, I decided I’d challenge myself to write short-shorts for cinematic scoring, typically of no more than one minute. There is no specific clip associated with any of these piece, more they are an attempt to create a mood typically associated with a genre scene. I’ve created them all using material to hand, including sound clips where I think that will enhance the mood.

Here are some videos with scores I have created, because nothing say practice like actually attempting to put your mouth where your music is at. A quick editorial note on copyright I have not, for the most part, created any of the films or videos used here. I have sourced them from various places on the understanding they are either public domain, Creative Commons Reuse, or educational course material. I have used these images for educational purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.

Here are some examples of me attempting to jazz. Not so great, but I have a fun-time playing along and attempting to find a voice. I hope you may find something you like here (eventually). The backing tracks come from a variety of sources including the excellent Jamey Aebersold series, the Hal Leonard Jazz-Play-Along, and some are Band-in-a-Box renderings. The copyright for the first two lies with their owners. Tunes Summer 2023 and we–my wife, my brother-in-law, and myself–are down the South Coast of NSW for a much-needed week of rest, sun, and surf.

Some material related to singing in the Choir of St Francis of Assisi Paddington. Missa Gaudeamus omnes Practice material for this mass. These are computer-generated from the score. Clicking on the link will play the .mp3 file in your browser; right-click to save it. Here is the decoder for the .mp3 files FULL means all parts are at equal volume _SOP _ALT _TEN _BAS these parts are more prominent (the others down 9dB)

This page contains various music related stuff I’ve worked on, including scores by various authors, not jazz related. Vaccai’s Practical Method Over the years I’ve been singing, Nicola Vaccai’s Methodo Practico di Canto Italiano per Camera (1832) or Vaccai’s Practical Method for short, has proven an invaluable companion to my singing. So much so that I’ve created my own edition (twice now). This time around I’m releasing the work under the Creative Commons Licence (BY-SA 4.

This page contains various synthesizer-related stuff I’ve been playing with. Cardinal/VCV Rack One of the many very cool freeware synths available is Cardinal, a fully self-contained plugin version of VCV Rack, released under GPL 3.0. VCV Rack is a software simulation of a EuroRack compatible modular synth with a user community that has contributed many emulations of existing hardware modules, plus many that are unique to the software. Cardinal contains a curated collection of modules that provide a solid basis for learning synth techniques and enjoying the world of Eurorack without the staggering expense.