Eighties Flashback is the title of a piece arranged by Paul Murtha that got handed out at the CSWO rehearsal tonight. Gulp! Three pages, with some reasonably up tempo tunes and quite a few syncopated rhythms among them.

Two things got me through. One is that the 1980s were my teenage years, so I was taking in a lot of the pop music of the time. I’ve even played versions of several of the included pieces, like Time After Time and Eye of the Tiger in different groups over the years. All of that gives the ear something to go on. More importantly though is my developing sight reading ability. The time going into that, week by week is certainly paying off and parts that would once have baulked me are beginning to flow more naturally. The ambition I mentioned (!) eight years ago is coming to fruition.

If you want to listen to the arrangement, the publisher has put it online here:

Meanwhile, I’m going to track down the original recordings. The conductor has given me the go ahead to unleash some of the special FX in my Helix box of tricks so I’m going to do a bit of work out just what will capture some of the moods from the source pieces – for example, Thriller cries out for a synth bass sound and I think I’ve got some of that in the tank.