Melancholia -- more info

First up: the rules done changed in classical music, and now a lot of people play from scores in full recitals.

Serious. Particularly guitar players often read rather than memorising everything. All my friends who have given recitals recently, except for Mike Stoop, have played from the music for some of the pieces. -

I typically memorise songs to add them to my party repertoire, but I prefer reading scores in my room to the tedium of memorising music.

That's why I'm not a concert performer: it's not fun for me -- while other people enjoy that challenge, I've always been keen on reading lots of pieces rather than mastering a few. Jane encouraged me to do that. - Snark: I might also add that the violin and piano are way easier to play than guitar.

That was Jane's bugbear: she always said harp and guitar are the two most difficult instruments to learn.

And all my composition teachers said guitar was impossible to write for. 🤬 -

So yeah... my whole career has been me proving the impossible is possible.

Which has made me bitter and sorta selfish. Flattery will get you nowhere with attempting to lure me to VUW: I've said no, and that's my only response. Respecting me means respecting my life choices, rather than bitching me out for not wanting the life of a professor... I'm not interested in that anymore. I'm bored with debating academics. 🤣🤬

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It's a $200 guitar. Of course it sounds cheap. That's the point: Bream and others like to demo on a cheap guitar to show it's the player, not the instrument, which produces the tone. But, as I say, there's many other talented guitar players in Aotearoa, and I'm trying to open the door for them, rather than just for me (which is what the powers-that-be are offering). I want Chris Everest to premiere my preludes, and I want Rameka to sing my Glad They Were Playing song. 👋 -

Snark: people want me to make Llewyn Davis because they lack vision or find my dystopia scary. 🤣

I'm proud that my 2030 script seems to given the greenies a kick up the arse to push the boundaries. It may be annoying the powers-that-be (including the Mayor), but if my musical has encouraged regular people to protest, that's awesome. 💚