I have so many projects ongoing at present I don't feel I'll ever finish any of them if I carry on the way I am.
I've been pondering this in my mind over the last few weeks. I really want to start concentrating on one piece of work at a time.
Firstly I have to finish the Monthly Music Challenge hosted by Cosmic Bos. There are only two months left, and I have submitted an entry every month so far this year. I initially thought this would make a new album for 2024, but I've decided that the collection is not cohesive enough. Ultimately, my circumstances have changed through the year, and I'm not the songwriter I was. I struggle to write actual songs each month, so I fall back on instrumental work when needed.
Come January I will start to focus on the oldest work in the list of projects. I've revisited Volume 20 whenever the mood has taken me. I would say it's actually fairly close to completion. I'm in no rush though. The reason I've gone back to this album is because I didn't dedicate enough time to it, so to rush it now makes no sense at all.
I have a large chunk of my next "song" based album (23) written and recorded. Some of this will come from the previously mentioned Monthly Music Challenge, but also I have a few other pieces that I have recorded, and some others that still need recording. I have a feeling that this may be my last song album for a while. I'm not entirely sure I have much more to say.
I'd then like to work on a couple of other things I've started. A brass quintet and guitar quartet. These are predominantly learning exercises, but they have nice moments, and it seems a shame to not give them some time.
Finally, I have started work on a second orchestral suite. This is proving way more challenging than I anticipated. I have the premise and also some nice themes to work upon. However, the more I study orchestration the less confident I am in what I am writing. I listen back to earlier sketches and they now appear to be wrong, or rubbish. I hope to work my way through this with additional study, but I really don't know if the suite will be finished any time soon.
