New Pianist/Composer on the block

[richbatsford]

Hi Folks

great to be a member here amongst so many fellow pianists.   Ive got to admit to a few nerves tho, this feels a bit like "coming out" or something ..

Anyway, Im a pianist composer (in my spare time so far but Im taking it seriously and working hard).  Id be very grateful if any of you guys would like to listen to some of my music and let me know what you think of it.

My main influences are Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Satie and Brian Wilson if you can imagine that - I also listen to postrock and downtempo electronica.   Anyway, please have a listen here:

www.richbatsford.com/music and do let me know what you think

very best wishes

Rich

[hansscherff]

Hi Richard,

I enjoyed the four tracks, even though i didnt listen them through to the end yet. I would not spend 5 pounds on your CD, i might however spend a few bucks on the sheet music, haven't seen that option however on your website!

Good luck composing,
Hans

[richbatsford]

Hi Hans

glad you enjoyed my free tracks and thanks for the feedback on the pricing.  Ive been wondering about setting the price fixed at five pounds.

What I often do at gigs and concerts is to let people have a CD in return for a donation of any size - in other words let people choose what price to pay.  Perhaps at this early stage in my career it would be good to do that online as well.

Do you think you might have been tempted to download the album on that basis?

many thanks

Rich

[richbatsford]

ps of course I'd welcome any other opinions on the music as well, thank you 

[hansscherff]

Hi Hans

glad you enjoyed my free tracks and thanks for the feedback on the pricing.  Ive been wondering about setting the price fixed at five pounds.

What I often do at gigs and concerts is to let people have a CD in return for a donation of any size - in other words let people choose what price to pay.  Perhaps at this early stage in my career it would be good to do that online as well.

Do you think you might have been tempted to download the album on that basis?

many thanks

Rich

It is more that i prefer having the sheet music and playing myself over listening to a CD. Which is why i would rather spend it on that. Thats a personal thing however!

Take care,
Hans

P.S. Personally i don't think you should sell your CD on that basis, people will buy it to support you then instead of because they like it. Supportive people are nice, but in the end i would prefer 5 people honestly liking my music over 10 people just supporting me cuz i'm a nice guy or whatever. Good music has its price!

[richbatsford]

Hi Hans, its good to know theres some interest in sheet music.  I had some time on the Sibelius software recently and was hoping that using midi files of my album, itd be fairly easy to produce accurate sheet music, but unfortauntely the results, even with some tweaking, were very mixed.

I was left with the feeling that producing sheet music is going to be a pretty time consuming business and its not something I can probably justify spending the time on at the moment.

Interesting point you make about sales/donation thing - Im still pretty tempted, I think its really a mix of reasons why people exchange money for music and wanting to support an artist in their efforts might be a legitimate part of the mix.  Also, my main concern is that I really want people to hear the music, raising money from it comes in secondary.  Will think on tho!

best wishes

Rich

[bbush]

Yes, very nice - and I can hear you Romantic influences and, in parts of "Completion", some Impressionism, yes?

Thanks for sharing your work!
Bruce

[richbatsford]

Hiya Bruce

many thanks for your message - really glad you like the music

yeah, I have a strong affinity with the impressionist style for sure - learning the piano as a teenager I was very struck by the third of Poulenc's Three Nouvelettes, which Ive just turned up an online recording of:

https://server3.pianosociety.com/protected/poulenc-threenovelettes-3-alianello.mp3


and the likes of Ravel and Debussy definitely have an appeal too.  maybe Im secretly French!

best wishes

Rich