Tower in the Fog: Coursera & Soundcloud

It's been a while since I've said anything here! No worries, blogosphere, I continue to attempt art.

Recently I heard about an online service, Coursera, which lets you take free courses (or you can pay for an official certificate of completion). They have a great course on Songwriting from the Berklee College of Music. It's just wrapping up its last week, and it's been completely worth it.

The first few weeks go over writing verse (lyrics), talking about point of view, the in/stability of the story and how to express this through line lengths, rhyme schemes etc. -- super useful factors I'd never, uh, factored in to my songwriting. I've only ever written songs when something struck me, and it 'just goes from there'. While this is a fun way to do things, especially seeing as I'm an amateur and this is a hobby, this course taught me the extent lyrics can change when you play with number of lines and consonance rhymes and etc.

The last couple of weeks of the course look at melody, and how notes in relation to the base chord, coming in at the bar or on the downbeat, and so forth, can create a stable/unstable feel.

One important concept discussed several times is that of 'spotlighting'. Basically, if you want something to look awesome, one way to do this successfully is to diminish the things around it. If everyone has a spotlight everyone is important, and, you know, when everyone is special, no one is.

Taking the course is an inspiration because, yeah, I get to play with lyrics and melody and learning this stuff is awesome -- but also, there's a community. You can talk with people in the forums and learn how small a fish you really are, but they're all supportive, and some have awesome stuff for download on Soundcloud.

Soundcloud!

I've come across it before but never used it. Now I am. You can find me here:
https://soundcloud.com/emkayas

Check out my latest piece, Tower in the Fog. The melody kind of 'came to me' with a few sessions but the lyrics I had to work really hard at. I mean, 'invoke' and 'fog' can rhyme but it's actually hard to put verbs at the end of phrases. Unless you're Yoda.

I'm going to have to shut musical me in a box for a while as I concentrate on my writing (so much time and so little to do -- wait, stop, reverse that). But this beast will not be contained long! Muahahah!

Shoot

I used a Planet Photoshop tutorial on Refine Edge for this one. Then I had fun.

Sir Beetle

This homage to a metallic beetle I once met was created using this Planet Photoshop Tutorial.

Working with 3D might be more pain than it's worth. But for Sir Beetle, anything.



By the way, I haven't abandoned this blog, nor have I ceased creating images or music. I've been -- to put it delicately without too much affront to my fragile ego -- lazy. As I re-enter a productive stage, more tidbits of talent shall appear on this excellent blog.

Backyard Birdie

Naomi's Theme

(Click me ^)

Naomi is the main character in a fantasy trilogy I am writing. She loves music, she sings, and her forte is in piano. I wrote book 1 in 2009, and started book 2 for NaNoWriMo in November (2011). Sometime during then I sat down at the piano and thought, if Naomi had a theme, like in a movie, what would it be like?

I actually came up with the main melody sometime last year, but I had not written it down or recorded it and thus forgot it. Recently, while hiking, I started humming a tune and realized it was this one. As I started working through ideas for Naomi's theme, I once again spontaneously remember this tune, and it influenced what I came up with.

I don't know if it was because I had an idea behind the meaning of the piece, or what, but it came swiftly to hand. I had the basic elements after a couple short piano sessions, and only had to iron out the order and some specific parts. It's still not completely finished, there are a couple of places I play differently every time, as I am still seeking the perfect progression.

In working to develop Naomi as a strong character, I'm glad she has a theme, and hope you will like it as I do.

Dancing Clown

(Click me ^)

I came up with this song while still working on Dark Sea. It's rather short, so I'm still trying to expand on it, but I like how it is now.

(Not to say I didn't make mistakes in the recording, or that all parts have been ironed out.)

Dark Sea

(Click me ^)

Hello cyberspace, I'm celebrating the new year by posting one of those pieces I promised :)

I composed the basic elements of this piece sometime in the summer or last spring and have been developing it since. It's not completely finished yet, in fact there is a part at the end I just figured out as I was working on recording the song.

By the way, the name is subject to change, I just needed something to call the songs for my notes.
I hope you enjoy Dark Sea.


Composition notes:

I have two requirements for piano music. 1) It must sound cool and/or pretty. 2) It must be fun to play. And that is how I compose. I also get this strange idea that the music should be more complicated (but still fun), so sometimes I'll change things around in order to do that.
Also, I did not have a metronome until the recently-passed Christmas, so I have not practiced my pieces with a metronome and did not record with a metronome.

Recording notes:

I recorded this (and the next two pieces) using my little sister's awesome electric piano, with Garageband. If anyone has recommendations for music notation software for Mac, I'm looking desperately. Garageband does a pretty good job, but it doesn't let me control the sheet music (notation) very well. I've tried Intuem 4, which is basically the same as Intuem 2 except they want me to buy the upgrade (and the UI is a little prettier, but it's not a great program, and there are no tutorials). I also tried a few free apps, but, you know, you get what you pay for.  Next I will try out the Finale series of applications and see if one of those fits my needs.

Having used a computer since I was about 3, and now working in the Software industry, I find myself really picky about applications. I'd like all apps to basically be like Scrivener, which is a word-processing application designed for writers of all sorts. The first time I opened Scrivener I could use it and all of its basic word-processing features. It has an interactive tutorial that effectively teaches you the advanced features, it also has video tutorials, and it comes with a great (PDF) manual for all the complicated things you want to do. That, I say, is a good application. If people like those at Literature & Latte created a piece of music notation software, I bet it would be the best.
(Note, I don't have anything to do with Literature & Latte, but I do write, and I love Scrivener over all other writing and word-processing applications I have tried.)

So if you detect a hint of frustration in the music, it's possibly the failed software tryouts, or dealing with a foreign piano, or being out of my home environment at a place where there are people who won't just let me sit at a piano for 3 hours (they expect me to be social or something, especially on Christmas Eve, silly right?).

This will be a great new year!