Where do I begin? Well, assuming you're not interested in ancient history, I'll start much more recently and begin by explaining why I've set up a website. I'm a retired music teacher but have always had many interests outside music. Amongst these interests are electronics, elementary computing and DIY.

Whilst teaching I had many opportunities to develop the first two of these because I was involved in the early days of IT teaching. An interest in electronics led to building keyboard amplifiers, stage lighting and that sort of thing. During one school holiday I borrowed a BBC microcomputer and became hooked! The DIY activities largely grew out of the renovation of our present home, but more about that elsewhere.

It is several years since I first became interested in designing a website - my local church needed a new webmaster and, because of my interest in computers, rather foolishly I was conceited enough to believe I could fill the role. I really had no idea about HTML, CSS et al but I had written programs in BBC basic and even dabbled in machine code and so in ignorance I thought writing a website could not be all that difficult. Little did I know . . . !!

So a new church website gradually emerged and, although rather amateurish by today's standards, it was up and running until just a few months ago. (Over the years people even complimented me on how informative and user-friendly they found it!) I have to admit though that recently, when compared with other church websites, it did look rather tired! This time the church understandably decided to task a professional with setting up a new site. So, amongst other things, this personal website is largely about my continued (if old fashioned!) interest in website building using the 'old' methods of coding (because I like a challenge!). In it you may come across all sorts of problems such as poor layout, links that don't work properly and pictures which fall off the edge of the screen but hopefully the content will still prove interesting to some and I hope too that there won't be too many spelling or grammatical errors (or my pride would take a bashing!).

But why do I need a website? Well, music has always played an enormous part in my life as a pianist, teacher and music examiner. Consequently as a result of involvement with choirs, orchestras, bands and shows I gradually developed an interest in arranging music and, more recently, in composing. I have never dreamed of writing a profoundly moving or sensational score which would draw the attention of the musical world in general but have instead contented myself with shortish fun pieces in the hope that one day someone might make use of them. (Of course there have been some more serious pieces as well). So this website is one way in which I can bring to the attention of anyone idly browsing the internet some of my 'works' by putting some snippets online. If any of them prove to be of interest to anyone, then please let me know and I'd be happy to make full copies available if requested. But in any case the website is an ongoing and fun project for me!

So, enjoy browsing and do let me know what you think of the extracts. Who knows? Someone somewhere may find some of them interesting enough to want to play them!

Click here for quick and easy access to the music.