I was really touched when Tommy asked me to take part in this project. As I was shielding and had additional caring responsibilities I hadn’t been able to play the violin during lockdown, not even open the case, and this was literally about 5 minutes after I started playing for the first time, having pressed ‘record’ just in case anything was usable. I was warming up with some very basic two note motifs based on a ‘perfect cadence’, a closing chord sequence which often ends a piece bringing it back to the ‘home’ key, and then some improvised simple short melodies. I ended up layering the motifs over each other, with some deliberate flux in the timings, to make that repeated pattern. As I was in a very hectic work and home period, was using podcasting software to record and edit on my iPad without the skills to make it sound how I wanted (plus find it quite difficult to listen to myself) and then got floored by a virus, the actual process of creating it probably skirted wildly around the definition of ‘happy’, but Tommy worked wonders with it and, for me, that very simple chord sequence feels so grounding, and almost comforting, that I can’t help but smile when I hear it!
Kate Miguda