chair backwards in horror, I knew it was time to either try to find another musical outlet or else quit. Te creativity, space, and innovative theory jazz music offered really attracted me and soon that became a fairly intense obsession. I began to develop a deep interest in improvisation specifically, which I found offered both fun and interest but even more importantly catharsis and expression, and which continues to this day.


I began playing the guitar in earnest comparatively late-on. My initial attraction to it was both its portability (especially from the


perspective of a pianist) and the sympathetic accompaniment to singing it offered. And it was around this time that I began to sing regularly and began also to write songs – tentatively and appallingly at first, gradually gaining confidence and even more gradually gaining the odd bit of skill here and there.


I soon moved from finger-picking a cheap plastic steel-string guitar to playing a nylon- strung, classical guitar. With this transition I began to develop a real interest in playing what people call ‘early music’, music from the European Medieval and Renaissance peri-


ods. Tis led, perhaps chronologically, to me playing more and more ‘art music’ (horrible term that) on the guitar and studying classical technique and method with some fervour. It was around this time I moved down to Leeds to study at the School of Music, and along with the other areas of study I had the opportunity to further study the classical guitar, something which I threw myself into for some years aſter. As well as learning greatly from my inspiring teacher, Robin Hill, I listened keenly to and was amazed by the older grand masters, Ye- pes, Segovia, and Breams. Gradually, though, I began again to play the steel-string guitar


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