Don’t be mistaken: this is a blog, and at the most, a glorified compendium of personal reflection, reaction, and research to just a very small sampling of some of the greatest, most interesting music ever written. But I’ve been writing here for more than five years with more than a million words about music, so that’s not nothing.

The Blog is Here

I’m an amateur musician, at best, but I have always had a love for music, and my relationship with it has changed over the years: what I listen to, how I listen, how I feel about it and approach it, but here are a few of my points:

• Music is one of the simplest, most effective, straightforward ways to make your life more enjoyable and more interesting.
• Classical music, besides being a terrible term for what is literally centuries of music from various cultures, artistic periods, in a variety of forms, with myriad purposes and backgrounds, is not highbrow or difficult to appreciate. It’s not for rich people in fancy suits or powdered wigs, and it’s not just (or almost ever) background music or to help you fall asleep.

Where Do I Start?

Well, for one, I’d say (to the first point above) go have a read at this article, called You Should Be Listening to More Music for a primer on what this blog is about and what I hope to accomplish with it. I wrote it as I was reflecting on a few milestones for the blog.

Secondly, or alternatively, go have a rummage through one of two areas:

Listening Guides

Here you’ll find constantly-updated collections of pieces of music based on various ideas. There’s a collection of really short pieces, one of really big pieces, pieces that tell a story via programmatic or narrative means, or works you might find quite challenging to listen to (at least at first!), and more.

Series

Aside from the current series (plural), available from the Series dropdown at the above menu, go have a look at The Old Series, lists of works I packaged up and presented based on a certain theme. Some are by composer’s country of origin, some by instrument, musical form; some are ongoing, some a few weeks long, some a few months long. You might find something interesting there.

And last but not least, contact me if you want. I’d be thrilled to hear from you. Thanks for reading.