Lazy Sunday CDVII: Spiders!

The spooky season is almost upon us, and with the post earlier this week about tarantulas, I figured it was a good time to look back at posts about and/or related to, however loosely, spiders.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

New Music Tuesday XXV: “Andante for a Late Summer’s Eve”

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.

Read More »

New Music Tuesday XXIV: “Weird Doll”

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.

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CDV: Music Lessons

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

The titular “Will” loved his waltz!

New Music Tuesday XXIII: “Will’s Waltz”

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.

Read More »

New Music Tuesday XXII: “Clusters”

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.

Read More »

New Music Tuesday XXI: “Deep Chorale”

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.

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CDI: Koi Dance on Other Blogs

Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That promo code is also good for everything on the site, so my full discography is under $10.

A couple of my blogger buddies very kind wrote little blurbs about Koi Dance, so I thought I’d share them today:

Legendary blogger Roman of Opium Tales has also graciously agreed to review the album, so stay tuned!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

New Music Tuesday XX: “Chorale for Single Reeds”

Sunday morning I jotted down another chorale—I’ve been on a chorale kick lately—and decided to experiment with 9/4 time. I really just wanted to see how composing for longer measures might affect the final product. I did find that my “grammar” changed a bit while composing in this unorthodox time signature, with more subdivisions of three popping up.

I exported the WAV from Noteflight and imported it into Audacity. There I applied a “Large Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect; and a “Lush High-Ends” master effect.

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CD: 🐟Koi Dance🐟 Posts

Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s $1 for twelve tracks of great music (that promo code is also good for everything on the site).

As such, I’m featuring some posts related to Koi Dance (and the title track, “Koi Dance”):

Happy Sunday!

—TPP