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Last year i wrote "Pleiades" for the Portuguese Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra. It was a challange, but it was also lots of fun! My inspiration was the mithological story of the Pleiades, the 7 daughters of Atlas. I didn't try to write program music about their story, rather i wrote the music about the feelings and emotions i feel when i read the story of the Pleiades. It was premiered by the Portuguese Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra in Portugal in 2015 and it has been on their repertoire ever since. They also recorded it on their CD last year. "Pleiades" is composed in a kind of experimental form, with ideas and developments coming one after another, without great regard for tradicional musical forms. I experimented a bit with textures and instrumentations because i wasn't really sure how a plectra orchestra would sound, so i thought it would be fun to put the melodies and motivs in different instruments. Since the piece was premiered the orchestra has had only one Contrabass, so actually the bass part is sometimes hard to hear or feel, and some parts now don't work anymore like i inicially intended. But overall i am happy with the result and it has been well received both by the musicians in the orchestra and by the public. You can listen to it on SoundCloud: or on YouTube: It is my first piece ever to be recorded and i am really happy! =D I would love to know what you think about it! Thank you

Progressive Rock is an awesome genre, nice to know that there are composers who aren't afraid to write for it! My advice, especially for a genre & composition this complex, find the "hook" you want and let that carry you through. For example, if you feel like the harmony is the "core" of the piece, then find ways to spotlight that as you write the other stuff. Or if you want the drum riff to be something that carries the listener, work that into and around some of the other things. There are endless possibilities, and that's the cool thing about this genre and how it works. Think like this, "In 50 years, when I'm famous for this song, what do I want people to start humming this song and everybody immediately knows what they're humming?" So to answer your question straight out, it's hard to tell whether a piece is "going somewhere" until you let it take you all the way to the intended destination. Sometimes it turns out to be nowhere, other times it's where you expected, and other times it's not even remotely where you'd thought but it's cool anyway. I guess I'd say go for it - pick your focus and have fun, and let the music "guide you". I feel like a jedi from Star Wars... "Use the force... Let the force be your guide..........." Gustav Johnson