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?

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.

Patience - Brain power will increase with time

I had my first piano lesson with Gail this afternoon. We worked through two pieces from the Suzuki piano school book: The Happy Farmer by Robert Schumann (the one with syncopations I was talking about) and Hungarian Folk Song by Bela Bartok. She told me that mature students should practice two pieces a week, as only practicing one usually leads them to become fed up with it. I found that most of my attention was focused on where I was putting my fingers and I was concerned that I was training myself to memorise finger positions rather than actually read and play the music. She told me she was pushing me pretty hard by getting me to play the pieces start to finish, and that this can be a real brain strain for beginners. I learnt the C major scale with both hands going in the same direction to have the thumb-under technique ready for when I start learning harder pieces.

I almost completely rewrote the bar of the Britten arrangement that I spent all of the last composing session on. I must have been deliberating over the guitar part last time, because when I looked at what I had for the string quartet tonight it looked rushed. I referred to the actual melody of At the mid hour of night (as I do when in need of inspiration) and new parts for the 1st and 2nd violin and viola grew from there. I am still unsure about the length of this phrase and the broader structure of the piece. This is in part due to the fact that I can't hear what all the parts I've written sound like together. For the time being I'm going to continue composing bar by bar on paper, because I feel that if I keep at it then I'll gradually develop the brain power to hear all the parts in my head. This is probably a good time for me to pull out a fantastic book called Hearing and Writing Music by Ron Gorow. It contains many exercises for developing the ability to hear music in your head.

Piano lessons, Robert Schumann and syncopation

When I first picked up the manuscript paper with the Benjamin Britten arrangement on it tonight I noticed that I had composed 2 new bars without Finale. I was so tempted to hear them that I got up and started walking towards the computer to program them in. After taking a few steps (roughly halfway along on the journey from lounge room to bedroom) I realised how mundane and time-consuming that was and sat back down with guitar, pencil and paper. Good move, because I ended up breaking the time limit commandment again by continuing to write after my 40 mins was up. At that point I had just started a new bar of guitar and already knew what I wanted. I didn't trust myself to remember it without writing it down.

I have been thinking a lot about the melodic line of each instrument and trying to have less movement over time. I think what I am doing is mainly homophonic because the guitar is involved and I like lots of chord changes, but the guitar is now getting closer to four-part harmony than the usual tugging on the neck with barre chords. I've also picked up a few new chords from playing Bach.

I'm starting piano lessons next week! This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but I only recently thought to ask a great piano player that I already know. I told her that I want to learn classical piano and that all I can do at the moment is play bass in the left hand and chords in the right. To get the whole two hand thing working we're going to start with scales and the pieces in the Suzuki books. I had a look at volume 2 earlier and the highlight was a piece by Schumann. His use of syncopation is instantly recognisable. They come out gentle and slippery compared to the more measured, jarring syncopations of Stravinsky. The staggered moments at the start of the Britten arrangement that I mentioned in my first post have been a constant source of inspiration for new material. I hope that my syncopations come out as a pleasant suprise when they are eventually played.