Around the time that I wrote Don't Forget To Boogie, I had booked for myself to go to the Tommy Emmanuel Guitar Camp in Pitlochry, Scotland. As someone who rarely gets to attend such events, I was so excited to go there and meet such a high calibre of guitarists. One of the ways I expressed my excitement was through writing this piece which was very inspired by the type of music Tommy Emmanuel is known for writing and performing.

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The main melody came to me through what I can only describe as "vague lyrics." There was a clear melody with some unclear words to it, but the only words that were clear were "don't forget to boogie." This provided the starting point for this upbeat fingerstyle piece. I also deliberately chose to stay in standard tuning as a challenge to myself (because apparently I couldn't stop myself changing the tuning!)

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Using a thumbpick for the first time, I knew that I wanted a nice percussive slap going through the whole piece if possible. I wanted to capture the groove-based playing of Tommy Emmanuel where it feels like there is a drummer, bassist, rhythm and lead guitarists playing all at once. But at the same time, I wanted to make it my own by adding quirky things that wouldn't normally work. This included some time signature wobbliness, unusual harmonies and a cheeky over-the-fretboard phrase towards the coda (can you hear it?). A straight-forward groovy piece, the message of Don't Forget To Boogie is clear enough in the title. So don't forget!