Saturday Sessions: Brian Finnegan on writing tunes

Brian Finnegan, from County Armagh, has played flutes and whistles with the group Flook, toured with William Coulter, and fronted his own ensemble. He talks about writing tunes:

“It comes and goes in waves as I guess it does for a lot of people,” he said. “I’ll write a huge amount for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, completely haunted by it and waking up at three in the morning, writing jigs and reels and waltzes and strange time signatures that come out of my ears, but after a while the creative well runs a bit dry, and then I can’t think of anything.

“A lot of my tunes are written when I’m out walking,” he says. “If I sit down in a room I find it very hard to write to order, but a lot of stuff will come out when I don’t have a flute, I’ll just start hearing things in my head. I have to be relaxed and just let it flow that way.”

This part of an ongoing series here at Music Road called Saturday Sessions, about teaching, learning, and creating music. Join us again for ideas from Eddi Reader, Gretchen Peters, Matt Heaton, and others.

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Saturday Sessions: Matt Heaton on playing for others

Saturday Sessions: Emily Smith on songwriting

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