And just like that, another year is gone! Here is a look at my posts for the year. The blogging year started in March with my favourite book arriving, "Behind Bars", which I preordered in 2010. It is definitely the most used book on my shelf! I then talked about two approaching projects:

In April I introduced my new work, "blimp", and reviewed two projects - a song I helped a friend create and my work at the BOP music school:

May was a busy month, so in June I talked about what I had been up to - writing 31 microscores and the premiere of "blimp":

In July I posted the video I worked on with Sideways Productions:

48 hours to say “Goodbye Gilbert”

In August and September I covered my involvement in the KBB Music Festival and some composition tutorials that I held in Kerikeri:

October was the kick off of the Rugby World Cup here in New Zealand, I talked about my involvement in the opening ceremony and also made a post about what exactly I do when "preparing music" and why you would need someone like me to do it:

December means Christmas and I posted some Christmas carols that I prepared for my students. I also composed a new "holiday" piece for my Christmas post:

Happy New Year everyone, bring on 2012!

A friend of mine, Anna Donald, has a project for 2011 - she is a young mum and to keep living an exciting life, she is trying something new each week and blogging about it here: Mi Cosa Nueva. On Facebook she asked for ideas and I suggested she write some words to a song and I would set it to music. Within the hour Anna had written the lyrics, she continues:

"I flicked it on to Ryan, and he replied immediately, saying he’d ‘whip it up’. A couple of days later I was stunned to hear that he had not only written the music, he’d also recorded the backing track with piano, guitar, drums and bass. He suggested that I come over and learn it and record it with him. By this stage I was so excited that I nearly wet my pants."

Anna came over and recorded the singing while Wendy, my wife, got clucky looking after her baby, Rosalie, upstairs.

I then produced everything and I'll let Anna continue:

"Ryan turned up to my husband’s 30th a few days later with the complete package of CD, chords and sheet music, all professionally bound with some photos of me recording the song. My husband, for whom the song is written, is quite smitten with the song and has been humming it around the house ever since. (‘Da da da da soul food…’)"

Have a listen:

Soul Food by ryanyouens

I had heaps of fun, Anna loved it, what better way to spend a few hours!! Read her full post here.

2011 through the eyes of a blog

A recipe for Soul Food