How to work with discouragement? There are bound to be plenty of times when you sit and play, and are clearly presented with the most mournful and pathetic sounds coming from your instrument. What's the point? This sucks... why bother? At the time, it feels impossible to deny the message imposing itself in your face. Any attempt to do so is met by your own mocking, since its you who has made the original observation in the first place. Confusion ensues.

I have learned that while denying the misery does not work, ignoring it does. The reason is that denial is an act of aggression, and it locks one into a struggle with oneself, where no winner can emerge. The act of ignoring the self-judgement provides a very different set of options. It is very similar to influencing children by not only being patient with their mischief, but also offering them something interesting to do to relieve their boredom. If one accepts the inner critical voice's right to exist, but patiently ignores it ( since, after all, mental judgements are in fact irrelevant to the actual music, which needs no validation ) then one will eventually notice it tiring, and even becoming interested in some new sound that may emerge from the distant quietness. At this point the fruits of patience might be recognized.

In many ways, discouragement is a sign you are on the right track, as it means you are taking on something more difficult than your current capacity, and therefore will learn by it. Important, however, not to bite off more than chewable amounts at a time. Having taken 20 years to be able to compose a piece that was a true expression of my heart, I will assure you, hurrying is not useful :-).

Chariots of Fire put Vangelis in front of the North American audience, but he has a huge following in Europe and is an eminence gris through and through. Great melodic grooves and soaring riffs, sophisticated themes and explosive builds.

My favourite work is 'The City' which captures this essence of modern European life, from the grit to the romance. You can get it here.

There must be a story to his relationship with the web, as there is no official site, but vangelis.com has a placemat that says

"This Web Site will always be under construction: Keep checking frequently"

The site is registered in America, but that is so zen, I have to believe it is him!