Orchestral music is just that - it is written for the instruments of the orchestra, and usually refers to a fairly large grouping of players. Smaller groups are often referred to as chamber ensembles. Orchestras are made up of distinct families of instruments: the wind instruments, such as piccolo, flute, oboe, english horn, clarinet, and bassoon; the brass instruments, such as trumpet, french horn, trombone and tuba; the stringed instruments, such as violin, viola, cello and double bass. Additionally there is often a percussion section featuring instruments such as timpani, crash cymbals, triangle, gong and tubular bells, for example, as well as instruments like the piano and the harp. Such ensembles can reach numbers of well over 80 - 90 players, depending on the needs of the piece, and, well, the budget! Some of my favourite orchestral works are by Prokofiev, Holst, Shostakovich and Hindemith, who are all from the late 19th century to mid 20th century era of classical music. My music in this genre.

Unlike orchestral music, this is not so much referring to a grouping of certain instruments as it is to a genre of music. This genre encompasses a huge cross section of music. For example, an orchestral ensemble could perform a piece of music that falls under the jazz banner with perhaps the addition of saxophones and electric guitar and a standard jazz drum set. Jazz styles range anywhere from the blues and ragtime, dixieland to big band, bebop to Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz, to avant-garge and jazz fusion, the last of which is a combination of the elements of rock and jazz and which I would say is my favourite type of jazz; I'm a big fan of Pat Metheny and Chick Corea. As for the older era of jazz, I very much like the music of George Gershwin - I think he and I would have gotten along great : ) To go further back, I also love the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, who dates back to the late 1800's. My music in this genre.

As it says, film music is music that is scored to moving picture, whether it be live action or animation. Film music's origins go back to the early silent films, when the composer would sit at the piano in the theatre and bang out the music to follow the action of the picture. Then, when the first "talkie" movies started to be produced in the late 1920's, film music’s role became more focussed, now having to work alongside the newly added elements of sound and dialogue. Film music is meant to heighten the emotional impact of a scene or its dialogue, add another dimension that isn't there, or inform the audience. Themes are often written for important characters, events, ideas or objects, and may be played in variations over the course of the film, depending on the situation. There is some crossover of classical concert music composers into the world of film music, although film music is still not generally regarded as serious concert music. I would say my favourite film composer is John Williams. My music in this genre.

This category is for instrumental music a lá John Tesh and David Foster and anything left over because it didn't fit into any of the other instrumental categories! My music in this genre.