Hi I'm Tom, based in Bristol, south-west England. I've been writing and recording at home for about 20 years, but this has been with a simple set up, and I only have a basic knowledge of recording and music production so I'd like to learn more but it can be difficult to know where to start. Writing and production are appealing because I like the process of gradually building something, starting with a single musical idea and then adding further sections and layers. I enjoy the craft of it, and I'm drawn to this more than performance. I also enjoyed getting into music theory (I know lots of people hate it) and this led naturally into composition. I've done lots of ear training over the years, mainly college courses and apps. UYE is the best I've found, it's given me the most improvement over a short time frame so I will stick with it. It's difficult to pick a single artist but for now I'll say Pink Floyd because they combined a lot of elements I'm interested in - Rock, Jazz (in terms of some of the chord structures and improv), avant-garde classical / sound art, and soundtracks. For genre I'll say art-rock / fusion, because I like combining various elements from jazz and classical music in a rock context. My biggest challenges right now are finishing projects, general lack of knowledge regarding production and getting quicker with transcribing by ear (the UYE method of transcribing without an instrument and using the keys colours has been really useful, but I'd like to get quicker with it). An accomplishment I'm proud of is learning how to play and improvise over Jazz standards (although I'm far from an expert and I don't do this regularly any more). From this community I would like to gain knowledge from the experience and insights of others who are on a similar progression, but who have their own perspectives which will be different to mine. I mainly play guitar, and occasionally bass and keyboard. Thanks to UYE I've recently had some success with singing as well.