Dear BEBOP,

I have taken a lot of time reading, responding and posting to members in the Synth Zone, as well as to their emails. (There are nine emails sent to you alone in the very short time since I became a member about ten days ago.) Many of these different correspondences and emails contain words conveying my gratitude, enthusiasm, reflection, insight, etc. etc., often presented in flowing, synergistic ways. Altogether, they have gone much further than just a simple "thank you", which, I also hope, is not the only criterion by which you judge a person's worth and character.

I also regularly deal with a large volume of music, information and writings that concern many different fields and disciplines, many of which are not even related to music. All of these take time. Family duties, work, helping friends and other commitments also share the rest of my waking hours. I was still up after three in the morning (as Bill Norrie probably knows, for I was still sending him emails at those dream hours), and as I am writing this sentence, it is not even ten o'clock on a Sunday morning here in Brisbane. I hope that you do realise that making this offer to listen attentively to members' musical pieces, reading their notes or essays about their submissions, and thinking/commenting/reviewing intelligently and fairly are EXTRA commitments on my part, as much as it provides or contributes to a new form of interaction to members at the Synth Zone. Realistically speaking, this provision or contribution cannot even be properly compared to a simple "thank you", which "would only take you a fraction of the time", as you indicated. Should I find time and energy to be too scarce, it might all become impossible to sustain.

All of these also mean that I have little time in recent years to make or record my own music, a situation very much like that of the music teacher, composer and family man, Mr Holland, as played by Richard Dreyfuss in the movie. I will send some of my music to BEBOP when I have sufficient time to organise and choose them from my collection, which I have neglected. I may even plan a quiz for members to guess what instrument each piece was done on and how. A friend of mine who is an amazing pianist is planning to collaborate with me on recording a CD for a commercial release of my three piano sonatas, which are fiendishly difficult to play. A lot of my pieces are also notated as scores.

Khai

[This message has been edited by Khai (edited 01-15-2005).]