In 1979, the year I recorded my first album, Ancient Ships, I collaborated with my friend, Winnipeg animator Richard Condie, on an animated short which became a classic. Getting Started explores procrastination and impatience, two mortal enemies of successful creativity. Richard is a musician, a guitar player, and owner of a piano he very much wanted to play as well as he played guitar. His frustrations at learning the piece Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum, from Claude Debussy's Children's Corner Suite, inspired the infamous temper tantrum scene. I was thinking about the film yesterday and decided to recreate a bit of that insanity, and just kept improvising for a bit. Debussy's music has always been a goldmine of ideas, gestures, harmony, melody and deep thought for me. I am not really a classical player, I make out well enough for about 16 bars and then I generally feel a wobble coming on and to right myself I head off in a new direction, and then try to find my way home. Maybe I will try a few versions of this but for now, here is a revisitation of Getting Started and a short improvisation. Patrick
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