Open Mic Adventures CXXXIII: “Skiddle-Diddle-Diddle-Dee (Dit-Dit-Dit)”

Apparently, I failed to make videos for all of the pieces on Leftovers IV.  Indeed, I neglected to upload a lot of the goodies that I usually include with digital purchases of albums; that has now been rectified.

So I am back to looking at some tracks from that short EP.  This week’s has the most ridiculous title of any piece I’ve ever composed:  “Skiddle-Diddle-Diddle-Dee (Dit-Dit-Dit)”:

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Open Mic Adventures CXXIX: “Clarinetti”

I recently uncovered a bunch of old music I wrote during a period spanning from roughly 1999 through probably 2012.  Today’s piece is not one of those pieces, but I’ll soon be highlighting some of my super deep cuts here.  If you want to hear one piece—recorded with me playing real instruments, not computer ones!—check out this past Saturday’s post.

Today’s piece is another digital piece, composed in Noteflight.  I’ve been writing a lot of trios lately, and have been experimenting with getting three of the same instruments to blend without sounding too boring.  I’m not sure if I have succeeded, but this week’s piece is a stab at it.

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Open Mic Adventures CXXVIII: “Airy Chorale in Two Movements”

Pickup my newest release, Leftovers IV!  Get 80% off with promo code ham.  That’s 80% off ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on my Bandcamp page, including the album, full discography purchases, merch, etc.!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

I’m still brainstorming what my next music composition project will be, but I’ve been noodling around with a few ideas.  Even when I am not sure of a thematic direction, I keep composing.

Composing is one of those things that scratches a very deep itch for me.  I like to tinker with sets of music theory rules—some of my own creation—to see what kinds of sounds and ideas I can develop within fixed limits.  The challenge of “solving” the problems these limitations create is part of the fun for me, as I tease out melodies and harmonies within whatever confines—arbitrary or otherwise—I’m set for myself.

One thing I’ve been interested in lately is writing trios consisting of three of the same instruments, or three very closely related instruments.  It limits the palette of sound fonts I have to work with, but that also creates unique opportunities for music expression.

The piece this week is one of the first such attempts, a piece that explores the airy, high woodwinds.

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Open Mic Adventures CXXVII: “The Whale Shark”

Pickup my newest release, Leftovers IVGet 80% off with promo code hamThat’s 80% off ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on my Bandcamp page, including the album, full discography purchases, merch, etc.!

Grab the release that today’s Open Mic Adventures piece comes from, The Galactic Menagerie!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

Today’s piece is one of the first I wrote for The Galactic Menagerie, but somehow I neglected to upload it to YouTube until last week.  So here we are today with this whimsical piece about the largest non-mammalian sea creature (I think that’s true; please correct me in the comment section, my beloved trolls, if I am wrong):

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Open Mic Adventures CXXVI: “Morning Moon Sliver”

Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

This week I’m featuring one of the more unusual tracks from The Galactic Menagerie.  It’s not as unorthodox as some of my compositions, but it’s a bit of an odd fit for an album ostensibly about animals.

I came up with the idea for the piece—“Morning Moon Sliver”—after snapping this picture one morning while walking Murphy:

That inspired this folksy little piece; when I listen to it, I hear the lyrics “Morning Moon Sliver/Shine down on me!” in my head.

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Open Mic Adventures CXXV: “Stately Stags”

Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

We’re nearly done touring The Galactic Menagerie, but this week I’m sharing the last piece from the album, a musical representation of majestic stags.

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Open Mic Adventures CXXIV: “Cosmic Choral II”

Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie!  Use promo code obesekangaroos to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp!  Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Friday, 4 April 2025.

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously?  Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).

Yours portly is all about amorphous chorales, oozing harmonic dissonance and consonance in a blurry, flowing amoeba of sound.

That’s the gist of this week’s selection for Open Mic Adventures, “Cosmic Choral II“:

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