Being interested in playing early-music from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries for harpsichord,organ, and consorts of viols,I built my Spanish-style five octave harpsichord [FFF toG''] to cover the range of Bach's and Scarlatti's music.

I've been playing this now for about sixteen years and some five years ago I was considering adding a pedal-board [pull-down] to this instrument to facillitate the playing of pedal parts in organ music and base lines in viol consorts.

However, I found I could side-step this by using the toes of the left foot directly on the keys.Progress was slow butsure leading to a toeing system,[like fingering]scale and a legato span of a fifth!

I travelled in Indonesia and very often in India,attending music festivals like the Madras winter music festival,the KathaKali season in Kerala and the numerous dance and gamelan festivals of Java and Bali.

In Peliatan [Bali] I learned how to make the 'geng-gong' [jaw's harp] from I Gusti Nguri Togog.This is made from the wood rind of the huge leaf of the Sago-Palm,'the tree of life' which is also tapped for juice and wine.

Mr Tagog had researched the genggong while travelling throughout Indonesia as a merchant seaman.

I studied veena in India with KS Narayana-swami in Kerala and later played with the group of Sheshagiri Achar in Bangalore where I also met Doreswamy Iyengar [veena].

I learned from several Karnatic flute players and makers about bamboo flute making and I collected a variety of different bamboos from forests in Kerala,Mysore,Megha-laya and also from Greece and Spain,the Arundo Donax for the ney,pan-flute and double reed shawms etc..I experimented with types of emboucher for low flutes and inverting the right hand to give a longer finger-span for bass flutes.

Recently I've been developing the nose-flute of Malay-Polynesian origin and the nose-ocarina for which this way of blowing is ideal and not so difficult,some managing straight off.

Nose-flute playing and simultaneous overtone-singing is effective.

Apart from side-blown flutes I make many other types such as quena,xiao,shakuhatchi,Turkish ney and Iranian ney,which is blown through a gap in the teeth.I played ney with the London-based Iranian traditional group 'Pejvak' for which I made a Persian Kemançi [fiddle].

Other Persian and Turkish instruments I have made include Ëd,Tambur,Zorna,Santu and Daf.At the time of writing I am working on two more of my favourite instruments;a bass viol from walnut is almost finished and a Chinese 'chin from Indian Red Cedar.

I had lessons from Li Xiang Ting when he was teaching at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.Ilearnt also from Chung Yu,of the London Chinese Ensemble,also teaching at SOAS.

Since the early sixties I have been developing new types of ceramic and wooden ocarinas and flutes increasingly so in the last eight years.

Many others, including some of my friends were inspired by my earlier ocarinasd so that the instrument underwent a revival after mbeing forgotten mostly since the nineteenth century when in Italy Guiseppe Donat made instruments for ensembles of ocarinas.

David Liggins has written an article about my development of the ocarina and it's revival in England and other countries.This was commissioned by the 'New Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians' -which includes extracts from the article in the new edition.