I have owned a beautiful Yamaha C4 baby grand and I must admit, most of my composing comes from here. But I am, more than anything I suppose, a guitarist - and many pieces, even though they may not end up featuring guitar on the final recording, begin on those six strings.
My favourite guitar is a hand made Mirabook, built for me by Gary Albrecht. Although I do also favour a very special Takamine Sante Fe classical. Inspiration grabs my heart and hands at any time, but most notably in the wee hours of the morning - 2, 3am.
That's what writing music is like for me. I feel like I am trying to describe some amazing event, share an emotion with you and I use notes and sounds instead of words to describe it. I realise that I produce and arrange the notes, but the experience is not mine to own... it's something we all share.
I will generally end up with most of the piece of music by the time I leave the instrument. Sometimes I will live with the piece for days, weeks or months..... adding to it, getting to know it better, what it wants to say. Most often however I will take it into the studio straight away and begin serious work on recording it.
Life Inspires Me.