With the Tot-related busyness (and fun) I hadn’t had much time to compose, but I had a scrap of staff paper and a scrap of free time Monday and jotted down a little musical idea that became today’s new composition. It bears the hallmark of a good bit of my composing over the last two or three years, with some multimeter; tight, parallel motion; and a dash of whismy.
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Last Tuesday afternoon I set down and jotted out a short melody in my music journal, and when I plugged it into Noteflight, I realized it would work well as a violin piece. I don’t often compose for strings, but something about the melody and the harmonic structure seemed suited to the distinct, bright tone of a violin.
I went through and added in some piano chords, then added a little quasi-trio B section that sort of shifts from the original key of Eb into Bb. I had a lot of fun with this section, as the piano gets a little more motion with some left-hand staccato octaves.
I decided not to go overboard with the effects in Audacity. I applied the usual “Large Room” reverb preset, just because it adds a nice roundness to the sound (and I’m a sucker for reverb). I then used a “Modern Contour” master effect to boost the overall sound a bit. I refrained from my ritual abuse of the chorus effects because I wanted the digital violin to sound less electronic and more authentic.
As I wrote the piece, I just knew it was an “Andante,” but as I listened to the unfolding melody and the underlying harmonies, I realized it had a wistful, enchanting quality, like watching fireflies on a warm evening in late summer. Thus, I landed on “Andante for a Late Summer’s Eve.” It might be one of my favorite pieces I’ve composed lately.
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On Friday, 18 September 2026, I attended the South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) Teachers’ Conference. I presented two sessions, one about creating a “DIY Garage Band Music Ensemble” from scratch, the other about teaching private music lessons to supplement your income. Paid subscribers have access to my full remarks, but anyone can view the Google Slide decks I assembled to accompany them here and here.
That said, I thought I’d look back at those two talks in this addition of Lazy Sunday:
I’ll have more details on how the talks went soon, but I’ve been all over South Carolina the past few days, so stay tuned!
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
While I was looking for an image to accompany “Lazy Sunday CDV: Music Lessons” I found the manuscript for an old piece called “Weird Doll.” As far as I can tell, I never did anything with this piece, so I decided to slap it together yesterday morning. I based the doodle on this creepy old doll my Mom had growing up, which is made out of some kind of strange rubberish polymer. It was so creepy.
Indeed, it was two dolls: a boy and a girl. I’ve depicted the boy in the doodle seen in the video below. The doll had these weirdly articulated eyebrows that were made from the same sculpted polymer as the rest of it.
As far as the mixing and such, I just added a “Ambient” reverb effect and turned the “room size” down from 100 to about 75 in Audacity, then a “Firm Bass” preset that I turned all the way up. I also applied a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect.
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Now that yours portly is essentially semi-retired (although maintaining our household is a full-time job in its own right), I have more time to work on music for my private music students. It’s really broadened my students’ repertoires with some fun pieces, and it gives us some recital-style work to do outside of the usual method books (although we still work from those, too).
Ergo, I’ve been writing more about lessons and such, so I thought I’d share some recent posts that relate to the teaching of music lessons:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
One of my favorite ways to write new music is to take ideas that pop up in music lessons and turn them into something fun. One common counting issue that turns up without almost every student is the tendency to rush a sequence of quarter notes when they come right after a sequence of eighth notes.
Something like that happened with one of my students, the titular “Will” of today’s piece. There’s a piece called “Waltz Time” that features a sequence of descending quarter notes in 3/4 time. For whatever reason, students tend to rush those quarter notes, even though they’re not preceded by a sequence of eighth notes. Good old Will was doing it consistently enough that I pointed out he was essentially turning every other measure into 3/8 time and/or a set of eighth-note triplets.
That got us talking about music theory and multimeter pieces, and we started to play the piece wrong on purpose to see what we could come up with (then I insisted he play the piece as written so he doesn’t program his fingers to rush those quarter notes). I floated the idea of writing a piece that intentionally switches between 3/4 and 3/8, and Will seemed very excited about that idea.
So it is that I sat down this morning and put together this little piece, which Will and I will explore during his lesson later this week. It’s a piece that I can use with my other students, too.
As far as the mixing and such, I just added a “Large Room” reverb effect—my go-to reverb effect—in Audacity, then a “Bakelite” preset that I turned down a bit. It gives it that kind of retro, phonograph sound.
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Ah, yes, another Labor Day here in the United States. Now that I don’t work full-time, every Monday is Labor Day, except since today actually is Labor Day, Dr. Wife is home, too. I might have to swing by Food Lion and pick up some hot dog and hamburgers and baked beans—’tis the season!
Today represents the spiritual end of summer throughout the nation, although most students have been back to school for three or four—or even five or six!—weeks already. It’s an odd, late Labor Day, as 1 September fell on a Tuesday. I imagine the kids and their teachers have been eager for this brief reprieve.
We’re still a good ways away from dog days of summer being over, but I’ve already begun detecting that crisp bit of autumnality stirring in the early mornings and at night. A little over a week ago I took a late walk as a storm was approaching, and it positively felt like I was walking through a Ray Bradbury story. I was positively chilly. It was the howling wind and swaying tree branches, though, that saw me cut my walk short and scurrying home to Dr. Wife and Nugget. I kept praying that the Lord Would Spare me from a massive widowmaker branch falling from one of the town’s ancient oak trees. He Saw fit to spare me for another day—and I’m sure I’ll take other walks in dubious weather again!
Fall is also a great time for music; if you haven’t already, you can still pickup Koi Dance for 90% with promo code koipond. You totally should!
With that, here is 1 September 2025’s “Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2025]!; New Releases!“:
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Koi Dance has been out almost a month on all streaming platforms and on my Bandcamp page, and it’s still 90% off with promo code koipond! That makes it about 8⅓ cents per track.
That promo code is also good for everything on the site, including a full discography purchase. That means you can get thirty-one (31) releases—almost all of which include tons of original artwork, scores, videos, essays, etc.—for $9.70 with promo code koipond.
Also, it’s Bandcamp Friday, which means Bandcamp waives their usual 15% cut of sales, making it the absolute best time to support your favorite pudgy composer—me!
Lately I’ve been working on a number of chorales, which will probably end up on Leftovers V. I’m also working on Säx II: Noodling, which will largely consist of improvised, experimental saxophone tunes that incorporate “found” sounds, repetitive vocal chants, homemade percussion, and—of course—saxophone. It’s a pretty wild departure from the kind of meticulous computer music I usually write. I’m not sure when I’ll release those (although Leftovers V will probably be the day after Thanksgiving, per tradition), but here’s my favorite track from SIIN:
You can read about how I composed that track here.
But, again—it’s Bandcamp Friday! It’s the best possible day to purchase a digital download of my music, and it’s still 90% off with promo code koipond.
Happy Listening!
—TPP
I had a bit of staff paper and some time Saturday afternoon, so I jotted down another little piece. I wanted to do something in the chorale-vein I’ve been mining lately, but also change it up a bit. The result is today’s piece, “Clusters.”
I imported the WAV of the finished product into Audacity, where I applied a “Medium Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect (one of my favorites); and a “Vintage” master effect.
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Yesterday morning I had a little bit of free time and a little bit of staff paper, so I jotted out a little chorale. I decided to write one in the bass clef, which I don’t usually do, and while I followed some of my own “rules” for these chorales, I also took quite a few liberties with them.
I imported the WAV of the finished product into Audacity, where I applied a “Medium Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect (one of my favorites); and a “Firm Bass” master effect. The result is this enigmatic, low-end-heavy chorale.
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