For at least 2 months I've been struggling to come up with new compositions. I've nearly always got 2-4 chord structure experiments in process, but of late I've not been inspired as what to do with them style-wise once I'm finished, plus while I now have the music for 5 songs just awaiting vocals added - 1 for female, 2 for duets and 2 just requiring mine - I can't even record demos due to the limitations of where I live.

This new instrumental was pretty much finished earlier this month, but I had 2 final solos for it and I couldn't make up my mind which to use. One is electric guitar, the other acoustic, but while the electric is the better and more dynamic solo, this piece is predominantly acoustic and thus the acoustic guitar solo fit better with the vibe. I finally chose the latter - Calm Lake Acoustic Mod Jazz Solo - but as it has spaces in between each phrase I had to create a hybrid solo out of 5 regenerations to fill in the blanks (see below).

"Winter Piece" consists of two short movements, the first featuring piano, two sets of strings, plus added cello, viola and violin; the second introducing acoustic fingerstyle rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drums and organ followed by a fiddle solo and finally the hybrid acoustic guitar solo.

Piano: Pop Ballad Solo Acoustic Piano ~ John Jarvis
String Quartet #1: Runaway Soundtrack Country ~ Matt Nelson
Strings Quartet #2: Snow Gentle World Flow ~ Avery Bright
Cello: Sobbing Cello & Nylon Guitar ~ Matt Nelson
Viola: Viola & Violin Ballad ~ Avery Bright
Violin: Viola & Violin Ballad ~ Avery Bright
Fingerstyle Rhythm Guitar: Acoustic Guitar: Seek Smooth Panpipe ~ Quinn Bachand
Drums: Country Rock Guitar Solo Pop Ba ~ Brian Fullen
Bass: Runaway Soundtrack Country ~ Dow Tomlin
Organ: Giddy Up Country Ballad w Organ -~ Blair Masters
Fiddle Solo: Fidget Bluesy Pop with Fiddle ~ Andy Leftwich
*Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar Solo: Calm Lake Acoustic Mod Jazz Solo ~ Brent Mason

*The Calm Lake acoustic guitar is a hybrid of 5 different samples as any single sample leaves spaces between the phrases. The sample was also mastered in Soren to give it lacking body, but bizarrely it amplified innumerable string squeaks which had to be muted when only one squeak could be heard on the original.

C - 4/4 - 100bpm - 4:02

Some favourite Waoist Adages:
#1: Play on the Way.
#13: Ask not for whom the flower blooms, it blooms for you.
#58: Bring consciousness to it.
#63: On the road to effortlessness, effort must be made.
#92: Be Love Now, the rest will come on its own.