In this piece from my project Butterfly, I go to a deep place where struggles are no longer negative but fuel for extraordinary transformation and ultimate freedom. Effort, discipline and determination are energies that generate metamorphosis and ultimate emergence into a state of ease and flow, and music as the language of such deep feelings is a wonderful way to inspire ourselves to overcome difficulties and thrive.

This spontaneous improvisation of romantic piano music is a journey from a feeling bleakness to a magical place that alchemically changes the bleakness into something beautiful. Music has the extraordinary power to transform the experience of darkness and pain into something transcendent. In this sense music is a cure or escape from despair.

The initial state of feeling hesitant and unsettled is the starting point for this improvised piano piece which goes through the looking glass of these everyday feelings to discover a magical place of calm resolve and deep peace.

When I make up this kind of romantic music on the spot, I’m using the language of music to explore, evoke or enter a transformed state, an altered state of consciousness, if you like. Sharing it is more of a conversational thing than a performance – as I often say, I feel more like a stand up musician. I use whatever feelings happen to be present as a starting point, however mundane or everyday they might be – today, I was feeling a little sad and uncertain about the world (well, who doesn’t?) – and from this starting point, the music seems to go deeper into the feelings, deeper into the shadows, to generate a kind of alchemy, where those feelings become beautiful. They may not be happy, certain feelings, but they are feelings of great compassion and love, acceptance and wonder.

In this video I talk about how improvising music is as natural as speaking, and it’s nice to do even when you don’t feel well, as it has the power to make you feel better!