Matter over mind - Piano composition

On Monday, Craig Cavanough and I set up to record another section for our composition. We spent a long time trying to expand on the very first riff that I started playing, before we realised that it was weak material. What ended up being recorded in the session came out pretty quickly and was more complementary to the bit we recorded last week. Craig also re-recorded his drum part from last week, to account for his drums being tuned differently.

I tried to do some composing on the piano Monday night, but I was feeling lost away from my usual set up. I spoke to Gail about it on Tuesday and explained how I felt more comfortable translating the notes I heard in my head with the guitar. She suggested that I should try composing on the piano using cells (I can't explain the difference between cells and motifs, if there is one) and concentrate more on the physical nature of the instrument, rather than getting too carried away with notating what is in my head. It is possible that what is going on in my head is too complicated a lot of the time, and the visual nature of the piano might help me to take a step back and start composing more efficiently.

I still place a great deal of importance in being able to write without an instrument. It may not be the most ideal situation all the time, but it is certainly a useful skill to have. It would certainly make commuting to Sydney by train - as I am inevitably going to have to do soon - a more productive way to use 2-3 hours of the day. I trialed the journey today attending a job interview. I managed to write some lyrics for the composition with Craig Cavanough, start notating a few ideas for my arrangement of Benjamin Kunkler's Theatre of Cruelty, and give some thought to the overall structure of the Benjamin Britten arrangement.

Multi-Layer Recording and Music Puzzles

It feels like I've acquired several projects to balance since the beginning of this diary. Productivity measured in small increments adds up to a much larger effort than I've ever been able to reflect on before. The Tetanus Rig composition process has been slow and meticulous, but now it seems like I have more evidence to support the beauty of it. It is amazing to work with people who have the patience to let each other search for their optimum part in a composition. I certainly take my time with this, as I struggle to play my ideas as I think of them. There is something about working in a group that makes the ideas come quicker.

Molto-talented drummer/producer/engineer Craig Cavanough and I got together for a jam on the weekend for the first time in nearly a year and a half. We have been planning to record some multi-layered, asymmetrical tones for a while now, and when we set our instruments up on Sunday we started realising them straight away. I urged myself to get away from repetition (i.e. the riff) in favour of rhythmic and melodic alterations to a simple idea introduced at the start. This is something that fascinates me in my own listening and it is what motivates me to study orchestral works. Craig and I bounced ideas off each other in our customary way, though he was a lot quicker than me at executing his on the drums. Craig engineered the recording of what we'd come up with and pulled a great sound in a short amount of time.

As we listened back to it, I started to hear a low two-part vocal idea in my head. I explained to Craig how it could follow the drums and decided to work on it at home. I came up with some harmonies tonight and started trying to write lyrics to them. This was in addition to 40 mins on the Britten arrangement, which I haven't worked on since my last entry. I still haven't worked out the structure of the whole piece or even the current section. Writing with the pencil and paper is like a riveting puzzle that wakes up some obscure part of the brain. Learning piano is a bit like that too. When the time comes to worry about the structure, I'll have a wealth of material to play with.

Musique concrète on a parlour guitar

A mate recorded me doing some improvising on his parlour guitar last night. I played it fingerstyle and tried to push the tempo of some arpeggio finger exercises that I've been learning. I cut the best phrases from my improvisation and pasted them together using audio editing software. He was rather amused with this particular approach and what resulted from it. I stopped as soon as I lost the enthusiasm and flow that I started with and saved the audio file for listening some other time.

I had a pretty productive composing session tonight, even though I had to stop the clock half way through to answer a phone call. I am composing more quickly and freely now without worrying about the structure, dynamics, expressive techniques, etc. I am really happy to just focus on getting as many of the notes down as possible at this stage.

Piano lessons are going really well. My practice is scheduled in such a way that I only focus on learning, not revising. I have a list of new scales and cadences to practice each week, and I only ever spend a maximum of 5 minutes on each one. I take 2 minute breaks in between each short burst of intense learning to clear my head with some light reading. I save learning new pieces for the very end as a reward. I focus on 2 new pieces a week and spend 10 mins a day on each. I got this idea of time limits in my practice from a book called Chord-Tone Soloing by Barrett Tagliarino. I find that it keeps practice sessions focused and is proving to be highly effectice.

Lastly, I would like to suggest an activity. Put on some headphones, go to Rainy Mood and find a piece of music to listen to in combination with the sounds you hear. Try and adjust the volume levels of the rain sounds and the music so that you get the optimum mix between the two. Shift between listening to individual sounds and the overall combination. Write down how this makes you feel. Describe any urges you may have, or any images or colours that you can visualise. How is the music affected by the rain sounds? Do you hear the music now in a different context? Do you favour different parts of the music now over the ones you do normally?

Mobile composing

After several composing sessions with the manuscript paper and pencil, I have gotten to know the notes pretty well. This is handy at times when I have nothing to occupy myself with, such as on the weekend when I was waiting for someone. I started to try and play the individual parts in my head from memory and then to try and hear them all together. Then, all of a sudden I was actually hearing ideas for what could come next! I didn't write them down, but I didn't have any trouble remembering them either. I found that I was much quicker when I sat down to write this evening, as the composition is starting to enter my mind more often when I am away from it.

I haven't forgotten about the Mahler reviews. I will aim to complete these by the end of this week.

Goal setting and spotting gems

I read a great article in Computer Music magazine today that explained the importance of scheduled composition time. It referred to the composition process as an exploration of musical fragments, where the composer has to sort through them and decide which to accept and reject. The idea of composing regularly is to practice this sorting process and become quicker at it over time. In other words, the more composing you do, the easier it is to find the ideas you'll want to keep. Inspiration comes with training.

I did some goal setting today using Aleks Srbinoski's Fulfilling Happiness (I composed the music for this program- to hear some: follow the link, scroll down and click "Sample 1"). It is overwhelming to discover how planning a few major outcomes for the near future can influence so many factors in the present. The main thing for me to keep checking is that the goals are achievable and the process of achieving them is enjoyable.

The most relevant goal to this blog is that I reach a point with the Britten arrangement where I can start seeking out people to perform it in July. I am thinking this point will be a complete movement of at least 10 mins in length. I want to compose more movements, but I figure if rehearsals begin earlier I will be able to uncover major problems and write more efficiently after developing a rapport with the players. I will be repeating this goal to my close friends so that they know come July whether I deserve my birthday drinks or not.

Piano fingers assembles bookshelf

If you needed any measure of how easy it is to assemble Officeworks' furniture, then I can say that I managed quite well today. It reminds me of the old joke that my dad often cites from his own OH&S class, about how his son thinks that Manual Handling is a spanish guitarist. Apart from the purchase of a new computer chair, the construction of the bookshelf was supposed to be the last step in my workspace optimisation; however, I only managed to squeeze my music books on there. There are still several physics textbooks, computer reference books and novels with no place to go. At least now I have some experience in the assembly of bookshelves to match the inevitability of me purchasing more books.

I must have made an impression at my first piano lesson, because Gail started giving me more work to do for next lesson before I even played a note today. I was glad that she decided to push me harder, because as I was practicing over the week I felt like I could have been learning more new material. Also, since I mentioned playing in Tetanus Rig, she has started pointing out where certain techniques can be applied to rock piano. She was very complimentary about my technique, which makes me more confident about my instincts towards what feels right while I'm practicing.

I think I am making progress with the Britten arrangement. The section I have been working on for the duration of this blog is very busy harmonically and dynamically. I reached the end of a kind of 4 bar arch tonight that I feel should be followed with something even more intense. I want to make sure that I get as much out of this section as possible before trying something more sparse or atmospheric. By that stage I will have three sections and most probably not be too bothered about the order in which they will appear.

Guitar fretboard workout

It has been almost a week since I last worked on the Britten arrangement; however, I have been participating in the creation of some new Tetanus Rig material. During these group writing sessions I have noticed the positive influence of piano lessons and composing by hand. I feel like I already have more of a grasp of the theory and a greater sense of the potential for note choices. It makes sense that composing and playing music more often is an effective way to study theory.

I spent about ten minutes figuring out what the Britten arrangement thus far would sound like. After convincing myself that it was okay, I wrote some more of the guitar chords with a vague idea of the direction that I wanted the melody to take. It is a familiar trait of the guitarist to strum some chords first and come up with a melody second. I feel the need to break away from this, although in a way I have already started with piano lessons and composing by hand. Already I am becoming much more aware of the actual notes on the guitar fretboard.