Congratulations to ICMP’s Associate Professor of Music and Guitar Tutor Dr Rich Perks on winning first prize in the International Microtonal Guitar Competition. 

Rich’s piece, ‘Curse of the Sandman’ , was judged to be to be the winner and follows his previous achievements at the prestigious contest. 

Commenting on this first place, Rich said: "I'm absolutely chuffed to have won first prize this year!"

"'Curse of The Sandman' is written for solo microtonal guitar, fretted in eight equal divisions of the octave (8-EDO) and incorporates lots of electronic effects."

The thing with only having eight frets per octave is that you end up with a crazy set of quarter-tone notes spread across the fretboard, and you can only play certain pitches in certain places...this notion of 'breaking habits' really interests me in terms of discovering new ways to approach the guitar."

Rich is one of the UK's Europe’s leading exponents of the fretless electric guitar and has extensive live, studio and theatre experience in the commercial industry alongside numerous academic achievements. 

Visit Rich's website and connect with him on Instagram to find out more about his music.

You can check out the full score to the piece and watch Rich perform 'Curse of the Sandman' below:

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