Alan Clare

Alan's Musical Background

My musical journey up to Autumn 1957 consisted of a number of spasmodic experiences and experiments – choirboy from 8 to 14, cello lessons at school, a kind of Dixieland band with some pals (I played bass trombone).

Then it was time to “put away childish things” and go to university and get qualified as a Mechanical Engineer, marry, buy a house and raise a son and a daughter. They in turn have followed the same route and I'm now a grandad.

Then in 2011 my wife of 50 years died from cancer.

In 2015 I wandered into a music store in my City centre and met for the first time a large room full of instruments that had keyboards and lots of buttons and knobs. A few were being played, and I homed in on a Yamaha PSR-S970 arranger. A salesman tried to sell me an electronic piano because the arranger was too complicated for someone with my limited experience. I insisted. This machine would be the answer to those long winter evenings, and so it has proved to be.

A simple internet search led me to the brilliant structured Lessons of the PSR Tutorial pages, and thence to “our” forum. There is no doubt in my mind that I should have struggled without those tutorials. The friendliness, helpfulness, and patience of the members of the PSR Tutorial Forum have been crucial to whatever progress I have made. I am so grateful to them.