When should our next official meeting be, and where? What about the week of Oct. 23? I'm free any afternoon/evening except tuesdays. Is there somewhere on campus that has cozy chairs and coffee? Or off-campus? I'm not that familiar with Cheney.
Who has music to perform for the Nov. 6 concert? I'm working on a piece that involves little notation (i.e. mostly improvised....within boundaries). I need people to play stones, simple percussion, violins, and flutes. I need to see if my idea works.....
I'm also interested in hearing feedback about all ya'll's* creative process. Do you compose on a computer? On the piano? On paper? With real instruments? With a candle burning? In the middle of the night? After drinking chocolate milk? Would you write comments or blog about this topic? I'd be very interested in knowing how you work. I'm trying to figure out my process, and what works best for me, and you might have some good ideas that we all can use.
*Footnote: don't you just love this Southern plural possessive (or whatever you call it)? It works so well and is ever so fun to say.....
--S
posted by maestro @ 4:08 PM
3 Comments:
Whenever you guys want to have a meeting would be fine with me. I'm done after 3:30 everyday, except tuesdays, which are 4:30.
I'm also trying to find a good procedure for composing. Right now I'm having a hard time finding inspiration for new pieces and the pieces I'm working on, which sucks.
But when I am in the zone, I like to work either at a piano for simpler things like songs or duets and at a computer for orchestral stuff. The instant feedback is really helpful and helps me know that what I am hearing inside my head is right.
I tend to be really sparse on the computer though. In my symohony, I'm having to go back and fill in the inner voices and make the sound full enough.
Eating cookies aslo always helps me think better. Preferably chocolate chip...Mmmmmm
Anna
Meetings: I'm free at these times
Monday: 10, 12, 6
Tuesday: 12, 5
Wednesday: 12, 6
Thursday: 12, 3:30-5, 6
Friday: 3:30
Well, for compositional purposes I keep a notebook of little snippets and melodies, occasionaly even short orchestrations and whatnot on my computer. They're labeled by Style date and mood (eg Classical23-minor 6/8, or Jazz12-Fast Latin). I rarely have my laptop with me when my ideas come to me (which tend to be in the bathroom, or when I'm goofing off in a practice room) So I write what I can on whatever I can find and transfer my ideas over later. Usually, if I need to write something I go through my notebook and identify ideas that are appropriate for whatever I want to do and I go from there.
Most of the time I write a melody and find chords that work well beneath it, or I'll find a counter melody and extract my chords from that. At that point I flesh out the parts in a Theory II choral writing manner. Not that it sounds like that necessarily, That's just my process.
Usually I figure out approximately what I want to do on piano when I'm goofing around and then I transfer it over to computer and rarely touch a piano after that. Frankly, I'd rather sit in front of a piano when I write, but I hate the "elektro-piano-deluxe" I have in my apartment. It's not condusive to creativity and I don't want to lose my steam by walking to the music building.
As I'm sure many of you know I write alot of polka music. The formula for that is pretty easy. I have three parts: Alto horn, Baritone and Tuba. I write a melody in the Alto Horn line and split the underlying chord into the oompa parts (the tuba gets the "oom" (first and fifth degrees of the chord) & the baritone gets the "pa" (third degree of the chord)
When I arrange for marching band I always try to remember that everything I write should be playable to a competent 9th grade band. There are only 5 parts Tubas, lows (trombones, tenor saxes, baritones: all of which should play the "groove" and set up the chords, though only the trombones should be split) mids (horns and altos: they should play the exact same line. Occasionally, the altos can split) trumpets (split into two or three parts, usually holding the melody) and high woodwinds (flutes/piccolos and clarinets: they should only play a single line of music)
Alex
Because flute players can only think about one thing at once. ;)
Anna
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