Connection is an important part of making music. When lockdown began, I knew one of the biggest impacts for myself would be a lack of making music with others. So, I've been finding ways around it. We all know by now that music over the internet in real time does not work (oh the lag, [...]
My last blog post was all about how little time I had to do creative work. Now, suddenly, I have so much time. For obvious reasons. I'm not going to complain. I'm in a very good situation compared to most people. I do still have a bit of income and I should be able to [...]
I began this year with the knowledge that the balance between my instrumental teaching and my 'creative work' (composing, improvising etc.) had to be addressed. 2018 was a fantastic year for me, creativity-wise, but during 2019 the financial realities of life forced me to prioritise a steady income over project-based work. But also, I enjoy [...]
A conversation I had with my mum when I was fourteen has been replaying in my mind. The memory goes like this: We're sitting on a bench in the school playground. It's evening, it's cold and I'm cross. My younger sister is progressing faster on the cello than I am on the violin. She's just [...]
It's finally done! You can now listen to catching ashes on my Bandcamp (and, if you haven't already, you can hear my other November albums, sketching the rain and tracing shadows).
You may have noticed that my NaNoWriMo project hasn't been going so well this year. It's partly my fault. Even though I had another composition to finish, I thought I could juggle both projects and this may have worked had it not been for the awful cold that struck me down at the end of [...]
Yes, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again! For anyone who doesn't know, each year I join my writer friends in National Novel Writing Month. But I write music not words, so instead of writing 50,000 words in 30 days I set myself the challenge of writing 60 minutes of music. You can find my last two NaNoWriMo [...]
Rachel Graff 