Perhaps unusually for myself, I will try to put into practice, something that I resolved to do, in the last post.  That is - I’ll try to keep this one, pretty short and simple…

 

After last week’s reflective ramblings, this time I’m going back to some other ways in which I now fill my days.

 

For me, this is a really big one and it occupies very many hours – namely music. 

 

In common with many, I listen to a lot of it. I also involve myself in some other music-related activities.  These things can, however, wait for another day. Today I’m concerned with playing music.  I might not be much good at doing so, but it is an important part of my life.

 

This isn’t a thing that is unique to Phil v2.0 and it is something in which I have engaged since fairly early childhood. As a boy, I learned piano, guitar and clarinet. In later but nevertheless, pre-accident days, I continued to play guitar and took up playing the mandolin, octave mandola and Irish low whistle. Fairly shortly before the birth of Phil v2.0, I had started to play the flute. The new me has brought about some changes, but playing instruments was a pre-existing state of affairs. After all, I might be Phil v2.0, but I’m still “Phil”. The new me is a revised version, but such revision is just that – it does not constitute absolute alteration. 

 

Looking now, at what I currently play:


I still play the flute, although doing so has involved a great deal of re-learning.




 I tend to think of it as my most “serious” musical pursuit, as I play music on the flute, that many would describe as “classical”. Much of my current flute playing interests are in the field of modern classical music – an expression that my father considers to be a contradiction in terms!

 

Classical music though, is not all that I play on the flute. For example, I try to play some jazz and (believe it or not!) Japanese and Chinese folk music.

 

I guess the instrument that I actually spend the most time on now (although flute is a very close second), is the guitar. I have been playing this, since being about 8 years old although for most of this time it has been an informal and occasional hobby – which is my excuse for not being very good at it! I might lack talent in this instrument, but do like to own a few of them – as this picture of my living room illustrates:



A friend of mine believes that the number of guitars which a person needs is n + 1 – where “n” is the number currently owned!

 

 Before leaving the guitar, before the accident I had played (latterly) the 12-string guitar in a band. I’d like to say that this led to a jet-set lifestyle and riches untold. Sadly though, it was more a case of playing to the drunk and disinterested in local pubs! More seriously – since my injury I rarely now (for a few brain injury related reasons), play in public or with others. This is a source of some regret, but there are compensations!

 

I have now, taken up a few other/instruments:

 

I tinker with the soprano sax and an Indian bamboo flute called a bansuri. I have also started to play the steel pans in a band whose members are for the most part, visually impaired.

 

Finally, another new pursuit is playing the synthesizer. On the back of this, I have ventured into the uncharted waters of composition and recording. I’d like to be pretentious and call this my “home studio”. I suppose it is – in the sense that it is my facility for recording. A better description though, might be “a corner of my front bedroom”.



While I am proud of what this equipment (with some input from me!) has generated, I suspect that a Christmas number one is not around the corner. I’ll spare you today, but one time, I might post some of my work. You have been warned!

 

Anyway, if nothing else the various synths etc. do look rather prog rock. As a “man of a certain age”, this is somewhat appealing to me! 

 



 

 

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