I love Christmas music! As an organist, I found the selections lacking. So, over 2 decades ago, I started handwriting Christmas arrangements. Despite Christmas carols and songs intending to be sung, I’ve found that the majority of arrangements out there are way too high for most people to sing! So,…
I had started working on a new arrangement, but took a break from it and thought that it would be worthwhile (quicker?) to digitize another hand-written one: Danse Macabre, which I arranged in 1989/1990 to perform at the 1990 Yamaha Electone Festival on the HX-1. Having started yesterday, by lunchtime…
It’s been 2 weeks since I last published an arrangement! As much as I’ve wanted to work on some more arrangements, I’ve had other more pressing things to focus on. However, thumbing through a book I’d not opened in a few years to start choosing pieces to practice up for…
I published an arrangement of Mental As Anything’s “Live It Up” on Friday, which brings the total of contemporary pieces published to 5. I decided to reorganise how I post the contemporary arrangements on the Music With Simone Shop, as I’m aiming to continue to add several new pieces each…
The theme from the BBC TV serial “EastEnders” was the first arrangement I wrote for electronic organ – an easier one around Yamaha Grade 8 level. It’s now been digitised and tidied up; I had written an introduction, but I’ve left it off to enable it to fit neatly on…
The newest arrangement added to the new Music With Simone Shop is one that I completed today, of a piece I’ve been eager to play at our monthly Theatre Organ Society concerts. I have a number of versions of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” in my own library, but I’ve found them frustrating…
Frank Mills’ “Happy Song” was the first organ arrangement that I ever wrote down, around the age of 9 years old! Writing arrangements was a requirement for the Yamaha Organ exams I completed, and I’m so glad that I had to arrange songs from an early age, as I soon…
When I was 11 years old, I wrote a rather advanced arrangement of Saint-Saens’ “The Carnival of the Animals” to perform on the Yamaha Electone HX-1 at the 1989 Yamaha Electone Festival. It was my first arrangement for the HX-1, as in previous years I played the FX-20. The significantly…
I’m thrilled to announce that my student Joya Tjitrahadi has been awarded the Dux Artium WA award from the Australian Guild of Music & Speech (AGMS) for earning the top score at the top level out of all the WA candidates in 2023. She completed the Professional Performance Diploma in…
Congratulations again to Joya for her outstanding exam success last year, earning a Professional Performance Diploma in electronic organ through the Australian Guild of Music & Speech. Unfortunately Queensland is a bit too far to go to attend an Awards ceremony, but it’s always lovely to receive an invitation nonetheless!