Composer James Douglas (www.caritas-music.co.uk/james_douglas.html) is beginning a series of occasional articles for the Caritas Music Blog.

He writes:

'In the 1950's, when I was a teenager, I was interested in all kinds of music. If I wanted to say 'get into the charts' that word 'charts' meant and was based on the sale of SHEET MUSIC. Sometimes, a song could sell hundreds or thousands of copies of sheet music in a week. Now, you can listen and even watch the music on CDs, DVDs, Videos, Film or even online on websites. Quite a lot of my teenager days were spent playing from the printed pages!

Nowadays, all that has changed. Today, the charts are compiled by RECORDINGS only. Again you can make a lot of money IF your records sell in hundreds or thousands a week.

That to me, means a complete change, made possible by listening to the piece as many times as you wish. Things have changed!

James Douglas

Recommended Listening: 'Peace of the Highlands' (ABZ151CD, Caritas Live No. 11) http://www.caritas-music.co.uk/order_system/peace_of_the_highlands.html (Not available in USA)

Caritas Music Publishing www.caritas-music.co.uk