THE SPENCIE''S TUNES TEAM

Steven recently teamed up with bass player Jonathan Ritch and pianist Alice Mullay, both first rate musicians based in Unst. Together they have been giving public performances of Steven’s tunes and are proving very popular with the audiences. As well as performing with Steven, Alice and Jonathan have become part of the production team which makes a “Spencie’s Tune” available as a package.

The process takes at least 10 hours to get the tune from Steven’s creative musical composing head to be presented as a framed manuscript and CD recording. Alice transcribes the tune onto manuscript and prints a copy from a music-publishing programme on the computer. Jonathan, Alice and Steven work together to devise a suitable accompaniment and arrangement for each piece. Spencie's Team working togetherThe tune is then played by Steven (fiddle), Alice (piano/flute) and Jonathan (bass/guitar), recorded in the studio and then mixed onto CD.

Jonathan is a qualified sound engineer with the equipment and experience necessary to produce a professional recording.Altogether, the final result is a nicely presented package for the customer consisting of the composed tune, the printed manuscript in a frame and a high quality performance of the tune.Last year a local man commisioned Steven to compose a waltz for his wife’s Christmas present. Steven obligingly composed a tune which he hoped would reflect the character of the man’s wife.

A couple of months later the man told Steven that his family were in tears as they listened to the tune on Christmas morning. Steven said, “I didn’t think the tune was all that bad”. The man replied, shaking his hand, “No Steven, it was . . . perfect”!