Years ago I began improvising arrangements not based on known melodies as is usual, but based instead on more random or personal subjects: my impression of artwork hanging on the wall, or melodies derived from peoples’ birth dates. A couple of times I tried this in concerts and it went over better than anything else. I guess it was the spontaneity, or the fact that it opened up the process of music, showed you the bones inside, and made it personal.

These days I’m doing this again, but taking more time to flesh them out into songs. Here’s how it works with birth dates: you take the numbers in the date, say 23-01-72, and turn them into notes of a musical scale: the second note of the scale, the third note, first note, and so on. That melody is then harmonized and expanded into a piece of music. Do the same with any date: an anniversary, or birthday, the day you got engaged, your personal harmonic convergence…

You can download these to your iPod, make them into ringtones, use them as you wish. Each tune is 30 seconds long. A variety of styles are represented.