Red-tailed Hawks and Jeffrey Pines

I was out taking a walk this morning like I usually do when I noticed some very noisy activity overhead. Two red-tailed hawks were circling the sky. It didn't appear that they were looking for anything in particular. It looked like they were flying around on this beautiful San Diego day just for the fun of it.

I then watched them lunge after other birds invading their territory in the Jeffery Pine trees. The reason I mention all this nature stuff is that this is what inspires me musically. I look up and see the majesty of nature and music just wells up in me. I hear arpeggios, melody lines and textures. I may or may not write it down or go to the piano to play, but walking outside and taking in natural beauty fills my reservoir and keeps me inspired.

Musical Ideas

These 2-bars of music are from the piece "Thanksgiving." The entire piece was created in about 15 minutes using chords. You see, once I have the melodic idea (first 2-bars) the rest is easy! I know what chords I will be using and I work in 8-bar phrases (mostly). All I did then was transfer the melody to Finale Notepad for a very quick and easy piece. Of course, I would never have been able to "compose" this had I not learned how to let it all go through improvisation first; the most important skill you can learn if you want to trust your musical intuition and be able to create without constraints.