Hi, I have been writing music since I was 14. I have moved on in leaps and bounds since. I have gone from writing in 7/8 (due to not having any knowledge of music theory) to regular timings and passed my grade 5 theory with close to merit in early 2004.

I have since written many pieces, ranging from Caribbean style Gamelan for world music fusion, entitled "SMWorld" (my first, in 7/8 time), a later second version contained the piano to add a more European feeling to the piece.

The next piece was a bit of Rondo form, to be played at a modern art exhibition. It was entitled The Elements, written for the electric 12 string guitar and was quite... "extreme" is the only way to describe it, and I haven't been able to write similarly to that since. A second version was later written with more instruments and percussion for a more textured sound.

Then followed a minimalist piece, consisting of many modern techniques, however I was not at all happy with the end result and am not sure what I have done with the recording.

The next piece was a popular song entitled "Welcome to the game" written about a street racer unfortunately, the recording is rather quiet and the levels are way off because I was short of equipment and so the whole lot was done through the same microphone at the same time. Even the teacher who was to examine and moderate the piece, Raymond Macfarlane, sang it to help with the recording because of the lack of resources, this is why the drum beat is appalling because of the midi box used to produce the beat.

All the pieces mentioned above were written in the course of 2 years. The following group were written from the end of the second of those two years, to the present day.

 The first of the second set of pieces was a theme and variations piece, based on the theme of "Greensleves", surprisingly enough called "Variations on Greensleves". This piece didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, but I think it sounds OK just the same.

Then in the second half of that year, I wrote a Fusion of blues, jazz, rock, pop and classical music. I called this piece "12 Bar Fusion" it was really a piece of instrumental 12 bar blues, but because of the fusion of the other styles, I could write it exactly as I wanted it. This piece I think turned out quite well. I handed this piece in for AS Level music and as yet have not been given my recording back, however as soon as I get it, I will upload it onto the site.

During the period between the above two pieces and those that follow, I began learning the guitar. My friend Alastair Gilding and I wrote a short duet based on a simple riff I wrote on my guitar (very simple). This piece was entitled "Leopard's Kiss Duo"

This year, I am currently writing another theme and variations piece, using the theme "Mary had a little lamb". It is so far written for the guitar as a solo. However, when complete, it will include drums, bass and lyrics. A clip of this song can be downloaded from here. You will need WinZip to open this file and the others included above, you can get WinZip from www.WinZip.com.

Also, I have just written two short improvisational pieces from my "midnight range" based on the blues scale and written, funnily enough, at midnight. These are entitled "Midnight improvisation" and "Midnight mystery blues".

Along with these, for those of you who like experimental or minimalist music, I have written "Feedback", made using a guitar amp and effects produced from the guitar lead. This could be known as arranged rubbish, but hey you don't have to like it, it just shows the sounds you can get without even having an instrument.

As well as "Feedback", a friend from my band (The Revelations) and I wrote "Incessant mumbling". This is based on an idea of randomly surrounding someone with one hundred people, who proceed to mumble at them. The piece is a slight variation of the idea, experimenting with technical equipment and electronic music techniques, such as multi tracking used to make Robert Davis and myself sound like around twenty people, with a guitar playing in the background as the person they surround, which continues to play as the mumbling breaks of person by person and then ceases all together.

You may remember a while ago I mentioned that I was working on a new piece of music. I have since finished it and entitled it "Paganini Dreams". I finished writing this piece on the 16th of Janurary after working solidly on it from the start of November and over the Christmas break. Unfortunately I have not been able to find musicians to play it for me as of yet, so instead the midi version can be found here. It is based on Paganini's 24 caprices, played in a rock style. I got the inspiration for this piece one night when I was listening to some Jason Becker music and I heard him play Paganini's 24th caprice on his guitar. This made me think and soon afterwards I had started writing. In the end I came up with what I think is the best piece I've ever written, but don't take my word for it, download it.

Since "Paganini Dreams", I have since recorded some improvisation on my guitar based on the 12 bar blues structure. This is overdubbed using Acoustica mp3 audio mixer and all of the parts are played by myself. Apologies for quality of play, it was 1:05 in the morning. Please download it here.

One of my compositions for my A2-Level music posed a particular challenge, as it was to be sung by the local church choir and therefore in four part harmony. This meant that I had to be careful the chords I used, but also the words and that they didn't sound strange against each other. Three weeks after I had started, the choir had their first attempt at singing it, the bits I was worried about were as difficult to sing as I'd thought they'd be and many weren't sure, but despite this, when they sang it for the recording, they sung it extremely well. They had only 3 weeks to perfect it themselves, as the deadline was quite close, in fact the recording was done the night before the deadline! This recording can be downloaded here.

I have now reached the end of my A2 Level education, my final piece of music written for A2 Level music is entitled "Hardcore classical blues fusion". It is a fusions piece based on features from classical, blues and heavy metal music, I let myself go with this one and I think it is my best yet. Sadly I have only had time to record the backing track, so I had to use a midi and record it from the college's electric piano. Despite this however, I think it sounds ok, have a listen here. I shall endeavour this year to try and have it recorded properly.

I am just awaiting the recording back of "12 bar fusion", a piece I wrote last year and have not yet had my recording given back, hopefully, you'll think it's worth the wait.

Finally, I have recorded me playing a couple of acoustic pieces, well intro's really. The first is the intro to "E.S.P" by the great Jason Becker. You can download it here. The other is the introduction to "Stairway to heaven" by Led Zepplin, hope you like it. You can download that here. If you want to hear an out-take of that recording, when I made a mistake, but couldn't be bothered to stop, you can download it here. I just decided to improvise for a bit, you might like it; let me know.

Once I have completed the pieces I am currently writing and have back my Fusions piece, I will produce a CD containing the whole lot. This CD will be entitled "Total Steve" and will feature myself, Raymond Macfarlane and Alastair Gilding, playing my compositions. This CD will be on sale for purchase from this site via a web form on this site, which obviously will not be here until the CD has been made. However, if you wish to make an order for one now, please send me an email to a57737@hotmail.com and let me know your name and email address and you shall be the first to know that the CD is available. Each CD will be signed and may even be worth a bit in later years, who knows!

Thanks for your interest.

Steve