__Creating this Refrain__

So for the past year or so I’ve been the unofficial branch pianist.  Unofficial because I have another calling, and I’m the default pianist in the branch.  Not the only one, but the most convenient one for the branch because I just show up and play.  They just called a new pianist last week, and I am a little sad to no longer be playing prelude and postlude music.  That’s usually where I experiment and try add some twists to the hymns.

Occasionally, I’ll try and spice up the hymns a little bit during the congregational singing portions of sacrament meeting.  Called to Serve is a fun one, that hymn is meant to be a rousing call to service and should be played as such.  But generally, I try and stay true to the reverence of the hymn.  Every so often I’m tempted to bust out, but I try to be a good little pianist.

However, a couple of weeks ago, we were singing O My Father, and the song ended up being this internal tug of war emotionally and musically between what’s right and what’s wrung*.  I was happily playing the hymn in 3/4 time.  Tri-pl-et, Quarter Quarter, tri-pl-et, quarter quarter, tri-pl-et, quarter quarter.  You get the picture.

Unfortunately, the rest of the congregation was singing the song as if the whole thing was 6/8.  I went through one complete verse of the hymn before I succumbed to rhythmic peer pressure and ended up playing the poor song at full lilt.  The whole time, I kept thinking “This is all wrung, dang it! Should I force 3/4? I should force 3/4.  Come on people, read the music.”  But finally, I was just too tired of fighting against years, nay, centuries, of tradition.  Ok, only one century, but still!

*Wrung: When something is sung completely wrong.  Example: W. Hung sings “Mary had a little ram, little ram, little ram.”

So about a month ago, a good friend of mine sent me an interesting text, “Can you call me, I have a music question.”  Turns out he had a request for rates for a 30 spot.

We’ve gone through a different versions.  In the future, I’m going to be more of a stickler for a final (or close to final) video cut.  Most of the time, the producers request different “hits” at specific spots within the commercial.  Without a final version of what you’re scoring, it’s a bit more difficult to determine where the right instrument hits should be, or even the musical direction that should be taken.

My first version I sent out is drastically different from the last version.  And that’s to be expected.  But where things really came together was once I had the final cut, complete with animatic effects.  That version of the video gave me a better understanding of what the producer and director were shooting for.  The commercial itself reflects a mood change or two, but it was only with the effects that I knew how dark or light I needed to score each section.

Scoring films, on the other hand, is a bit different.  I think an early copy of the film is important in other to sketch out ideas and come up with general themes.  The earlier, the better.  But realistically, in that industry, you’re probably always going to running up to deadlines and madly racing to get things finished in time.

I’ll see if I can get permission to upload a copy of the music in a later post.

Just a quick update on what’s going on musically.

I’ve had a few calls in the recent weeks requesting permission to be added to my studio.  I’m open to teaching any age and skill level, as long as it’s a good fit between the student and the teacher.  However, at this rate, I might not have any personal time to do writing.

I finished up a short film in December.  The director wanted a little more music, so I wrote a piano piece or two for him.  I also got to play the role of music director, as there were a couple of places in the film that necessitated a classical piece based on the actresses actions.  Chopin ended up winning out.

I also have some other potential projects lined up, including producing a demo CD and some more media composition.  Definitely keeping busy.

The latest thing I’m working on is an Asian Knight Riderish theme.  It’s cheesy, but sometimes that’s what you feel like writing.  I’ll upload it when it’s finished.

-J

So, I spent my Sunday evening trying to catalogue some of my most favorite classical pieces for a random post request I found on the internet. Doing so brought back memories of four semesters of music history. I have fond and not so fond memories of trying to memorize scores and pieces late into the night. So much fun when a piece is 30 minutes long and the professor can ask you to identify any section of the piece using a score or mp3. Once you get into 20th century music, it’s hard to tell between the different pieces because they are not nearly as melodic. I think our teachers were trying to force us to like Schoenberg. Well it didn’t work, but I do have an appreciation for his twelve-tone practices. Oh, the horrors of studying Hexachordal inversional combinatorialism.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites that I’ve collected over the years (either from my classes, or just listening in general). It was fun trying to pull melodies and movement names from the recesses of my mind. Youtube and iTunes were a big help.

Classical Period
Mozart – Symphony No. 41 in C Major K 551 (All movements. Known as the “Jupiter” symphony)
Mozart – Piano Concerto in D Major K107 (especially like the 1st movement, Allegro)
Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G minor K550 (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, one of his most famous)
Mozart – Piano Concerto in E-flat Major K. 271 (all movements)
Beethoven – Symphony No.3 (Known as “Eroica”. All movements are fabulous, this might be my favorite Beethoven Symphony)
Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F Major (known as the “Pastoral” symphony)
Beethoven – Sonata No. 8 Pathetique (all movements. Movement no.2 is one of the most beautiful melodies ever composed, in my opinion)

Romantic Period
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E Minor op. 64 (all movements!)
Brahms – Symphony #3 (especially Movement 3, it’s one of my favorites)
Chopin – Nocturne in C Minor op. 48 no.1
Chopin – Nocturne in E flat Major Op.9 No.2 (one of Chopin’s most famous pieces. I remember hearing it in The Incredible Machine software game)
Chopin – Prelude in E minor Op. 28 No 4.
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 in B Minor op.74 Pathetique (all movements)
Dvorak – Symphony No.9 (known as “From the New World” You might be familiar with the 4th movement)
Mahler – Symphony No. 2 (known as the “Resurrection” symphony. The movements are quite transcendental in nature.)

Impressionist Period
Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (one of my favorite pieces)
Debussy – Claire de Lune (famous piece. Played at the end of Ocean’s Eleven)

20th Century
Gershwin – Piano Prelude No. 1 (nice and short but so awesome. Even though Gershwin is more of a Jazz composer, who cares, it deserves to be on this list)
Stravinsky – Petrushka (all movements, although I’m partial to movement 1)
Stravinsky – Rite of Spring (all movements, although most people know it for it’s dissonance in the Sacrifice movement)
Copland – Appalchian Spring (One of his most famous works, a ballet score)

Hope you guys enjoy. What are some of your favorite pieces?

So, during the last few days, I’ve been sketching out a couple of different melodies/chord progressions. And it was during one of these sessions that I went back to the prechorus chord progression from “Just Saying”, and just totally ripped it off. Not that there’s anything wrong with reusing your own chord progression…I just thought it was funny.

What’s cool is that this chord progression goes from fitting in perfectly within a new age piano piece, to a fifties pop-rock tune. I’ll have to get some guitarists to help me flesh the thing out. I also need to think up some lyrics (I’m not a lyricist, so coming up with words are like pulling teeth for me).

By the way, I’ll be traveling on business for the next couple days, so I won’t have a chance to upload anything until I get back.

Just wanted to give an update.  I’m scoring a short film for a friend, he’s currently getting his masters in film.  This project ended up being much intriguing than I thought.  I don’t usually write music for a drama. Action, ballad, love scenes were what I did in college.  Drama, probably not so much.

Anyway, because I’ve been working on composing, my Memorial day song is still stuck in limbo.   I’ve done two or three rewrites of the rhyming schemes, so I should be pretty close to recording some scratch vocals.  I’m debating whether I’m willing to put my voice online again…we’ll see.

So, yes, despite the lack of music updates, I have been working on some music.  I have random working names for songs in the queue (think Blue Harvest and Return of the Jedi).  The current one is Memorial Day, and whenever I listen to it, I get all excited at the potential there.  But there’s something missing; it’s lacking gloss.  Or, as my former professor Ron Simpson used to say, “golden bricks.”

Part of that is that the lyrics/melody is in flux.  But there’s also something that’s lacking, and I don’t know what (ooh, that rhymed).  It’s helped a bit that I’ve added a bass part, and am retracking the drums to tighten things up.  But it’s weird that I’m just stuck (weird, that rhymed again too).

I really do need some time to just sit, write, and think.

I’m trying to come up with type of lyrics for the song in my last post, and I’m kind of stuck. I have a few ideas, but it doesn’t flow yet. Words have never flowed for me, at least not like music. Every once in a while, I’ll get a flash of inspiration and then I have a complete song idea that comes out in 30 minutes or less. But most of the time it’s like pulling teeth.

Usually, I start with a basic idea or feeling that I’m trying to write about. Then I figure out the story or details that will help convey that concept. I guess it’s kind of a macro to micro way of writing. I think with this idea (the belated valentine’s idea) I’m going need to the subconcious work through the song idea or lyric rhyming patterns.

I fired up Sibelius this evening to work on transcribing an arrangement that I’ve been meaning to put down for the last year or so. I got a great deal on upgrading to Sibelius 5, I think it only ended up costing $100 or so. It’s much more user friendly than Finale. I actually can notate without feeling like I’m pulling teeth.

I did run into some problems trying to get my Yamaha Motif ES6 working correctly with the Sibelius MIDI playback. I don’t know how musicians do it in getting all this stuff up and running correctly between hardware and different software applications. I’m a tech guy, and I still run into issues that can leave me stumped. Actually, most of the problem is with the Yamaha Motif ES6. It’s a powerful machine, but the interface is as bad as Finale’s GUI. I need to spend some time and learn the features, but it seems ridiculous that I’ll need to spend 4 hours reading the manual just to learn the basics.

Ever since I graduated, I’ve been trying to juggle work, church, music, and social life (not necessarily in that order). Not an impossible task, but it does require planning and diligence to keep growing in all of the above aspects of life. I’ve been thinking about starting a music blog for a while now. It acts as motivation, as one of my main problems is I am just not as prolific as I should be. Another benefit is that I’ll start to actually release songs, pieces, or sheet music, instead of clinging to them like a greedy little elf.

My goal is to update in writing every few days, and release some sort of downloadable material about once every week or so. It might be arrangements, sheet music, or just old compositions. Hopefully this blog will have enough content to be an interesting read (and listen) for those of you who have a vested interest in my musings.

Today, I spent an hour or so trying to learn Michael Bublé’s Everything. I really haven’t explored his music much, but this song was catchy enough. Actually really catchy. One of the difficult things about doing a piano arrangements is trying to get the lilt of a singer’s voice in the melody line. This song I found quite a bit more tricky than normal, because he swings his words in addition to the syncopation in the piano. I have no problem comping along to track, but I’m not too happy with what I’ve come up so far in terms of an arrangement solo piece. Maybe I’ll return to it in the future.