Again

Its Fall, again. The third since i started this blog. School again, this time I'm happy to report that I'm taking Spanish. I'm enthusiastic about it, there are lots of similarities with french and i can't help but francify what i'm studing. I've been writing "L'Hombre qui hablar..." things like that. Anyway, I can understand a lot of it already. Hopefully i'll reach a decent level of spoken spanish before my life's out.

In music news, well, theres no real music news. I work occasionally on the third movement of Suburban Scene, i know it could be done in a few days if i actually put energy into it. I just don't have it. I lack a personal drive to finish it up quickly. Maybe things cook better when they're cooked slow? Maybe not. The first and second movements both took me all of two weeks to write, and they enjoyable to write, which is something kinda rare. I work on things piecemeal anyway, a half hour here and there, day to day it piles it up into some 5 minutes of music. Kinda satisfying.

Troy- thank you so much for your conversions of the midi files. I have dozens of these of my dozens of pieces, I'm not going to shove them all your way, don't worry. But I really do need to thank you. They sound beautiful. I'll (re?) post them soon. :)

Midis for My Music

*Edit* fixed the link for mov. 2 so now it actually linking to the second movement!


So here are some basic, mechanical midi files of the two movements of Music for a Suburban Scene finished so far. The third may be on its way soon. Do not hesitate to tell me what you think. I depend on it.... so comment please. Thanks.


Suburban Scene Mov. 1

Suburban Scene Mov. 2

It is true that i've been abscent from this blog. I just havent felt the energy. I've been busy. Other excuses like work and school come to mind. Frankly, i just havent had anything particularly meaningful to say. I feel like I'm stagnating in terms of my musical development a little. I want to stretch the piano in different directions but don't feel incapable at that. What i need is a good electronic keyboard that offers some interesting new sounds to work with.

I've been writing more of Music for a Suburban scene. I'm just starting the third piece, which is the one im most hesitant at adding anything too. Ironically its the piece i know the best when i play it.

Sometimes I feel like this kind of thing is an embarassing mistake, a display of my inability to be fresh or original. Some days I feel confident that my piano works have some merit to them and that they're worth presenting to people. I go back and forth. I like my works, most of the time, if that means anything. The movement of suburban scene has got a solid energy and even virtuositic touches. Its structured, maybe too structured. Maybe bordering on stilted, maybe just poorly structured. Maybe well structured? Maybe its too archaic in format, maybe its refreshing and effective? Is my music a watered down compromise or is it still interesting? I guess you guys can tell me. I'll post it soon.

Suburban Scene Part 1

I'm finally getting to work writing out pieces of music that i intended to finish 3 years ago. The work, which was framed with parts written while i was still in highschool, has waited for 3 years for me to feel musically mature enough to make something coherent out of it.

While i dont necessarily think i'm "musically mature" Its more or less high time that i get to work on it, regardless as to how i feel about my own compositional voice. Everything is a learning process, so why not just dive in? I'm not going to get anywhere with it if i dont try. So thats what i've undertaken, the first piece is almost finished and... its intended to be a set of maybe 8 piano pieces. So one of 8 so far... a ways to go, but i have a lot of time and i'm in no rush. They've waited for 3 years or more... they can sit on the burner a while.

Anyway, the interesting part about all this is that i knew what i wanted to call this set of pieces long before i knew exactly what would be in it. And the name of it actually gave the name of this blog. The set is entitled "Music for a Suburban Scene" and its sort of my attempt at a summation and melding of the musical influences that inevitably resulted from my years in suburban america. Kinda a lofty goal, i'd say. But hey, aim high right? Really, its a set of pieces meant to evoke life in a cul-de-sac, life around SUVs , Burger King, Safeways, traffic and parking lots.life around families with teenagers, dogs, Sprinklers and unkept lawns. I'm not actually sure as to the titles of all the set but i sure as hell know that one of them is going to called "The Mandingo", you can google to figure out what that means.

other ideas for titles were "beige carpets" and "tricycles".

I guess those are still on the drawing board. Anyway, this first piece has turned out to be much more technically demanding than i expected, and it was *supposed* to be the simple introduction. Ah well, makes things more fun to play.