Tag: Composition

Back To School!

You may at first get the impression that I’m excited to go back to school indicated by the obvious exclamation point at the end of my title. While that assumption is not entirely false, I am more that a little reluctant to let go of my summer freedom. And by freedom I mean being able to have the time to actually balance all the aspects of my life.
But all complaining aside, I have set a few goals that I need to reach before I set foot in school the morning of September 8th. I’ll spare you the non-musical ones.
  1. Finish the first draft of the piece I am working on for my school’s symphony orchestra.
  2. Finish the final draft of “A Miracle,” a choir piece I plan to show my school’s choir teacher.
  3. Have a decent enough (presentable) grasp on this:

Status Update

Instruments

  • Clarinet: I have not gotten as far through the beginner book as I would have liked, but progress is quite evident. I can play themes such as Shenandoah and Schindler’s List on it, and plan to to move onto Pep Band music as soon as I can get access to it.
  • Flute: A lot of effort has gone into playing the flute, and it seems it was all worth the work. I can play themes from the Lord of the Rings, Gabriel’s Oboe, and more. I plan to learn more high notes and improve my tone in the high registers. I would’ve moved onto Pep Band music quite a while ago if I had access to them!
  • Guitar: For having played the instrument for only about 2 weeks, I’d say I know quite a wide selection of chords. Still trying to get the strings names down, though. I overcame my inability to switch chords quickly after the first week of practice, and since I love to play songs such as Perhaps Love, American Pie and House of the Rising Sun, I think I’ll be playing it more as the month goes on.

Composing

  • I’ve recently started writing a piece for our school Symphony Orchestra, which is turning out quite well. More updates on that later for sure.
  • The choral piece I composed for Jim Papoulis requires its final edits, and after that it should be ready for the school choir director’s perusal. 
  • I do need to write another piece for our band, as I have done every summer. However, inspiration has not struck me yet, and if it doesn’t come to me before school starts, I may just do the heavy revising that is required of the piece I composed last year for the school band.
That’s about it for now. Check back later for more updates!

M-Audio Keystation 88es

My new MIDI Controller, after all the hassle of life, was finally ordered and received. Now, I can start composing once more!

For the few weeks that I’ve been without a keyboard, I didn’t stop doing musical activities. I did scores studies and transcriptions, which made me much more fluent in transposition. I plan to keep on doing more with just pencil and paper, as I have realized it can teach me quite a lot.

Here is an image of my current setup:

Back to composing for now. I have to make up for the missed time!

Forgiveness

I don’t like putting up unpolished work, which is probably why you don’t see much of my original work on the blog. Combine that trait with my ever-so-busy schedule, and that means not too many finished pieces and infrequent blog posts. However, even though this piece is unpolished, I thought it was good enough to let people listen to it.

Forgiveness: I may deserve it, I may not, but I ask for it and your renewed trust in me.