30 days.
30 pieces.
Each November.
In November 2017 I decided to write 30 pieces during the month — short pieces, just piano, but they had to be finished, recorded, and neatly presented. And then I did the same thing the next two years. And I ended up with some pieces I was really proud of, the sense of achieving something, and a bit of insight into both my favourite musical elements/fallback habits and what happened when I was pushed past them. And it’s now been running for seven years!
These pieces, tidied up, you can now download as albums or as sheet music.
2023 – Restore
2022 – Sostenuto
2021 – Night Lights
2020 – Flower Moon
2019 – One hundred sparrows
2018 -wide the starry sky
2017 – Piano for a day
There’s a variety of styles, references, and even formats in which the music is presented, and at the same time these pieces are some of the purest examples of my style and language. The difficulty level varies, but is for the most part around early-intermediate, making all of the piano books suitable for learners. The most challenging pieces are also necessarily short, making them achievable challenges. They’re also suitable for more advanced players, especially for dipping in and out of, trying out – even using as short encore repertoire.
The primary audience I have in mind with these however is the player herself.
In more recent years, and particularly in 2020, a small community has grown around the Pianowrimo challenge of several composers writing pieces and supporting each other during the month.
In 2020, I also started making videos of the pieces.
“Pianowrimo” the name is inspired by NaNoWriMo, but is just a nickname for this project, unofficial, and completely unaffiliated with National Novel Writing Month!