I’m using the wordpress blog to outline a plan for a music organization I want to start in Austin. It will be a composer’s orchestra using improvisation and collaboration to create and perform new music. Keep up with this to participate in the discussion or join the group.
I like this
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Southern shape note singing
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This is a project I worked on from fall 2009 until early 2010. I collaborated with a dance student to score her senior choreography piece. Out of anything I’ve written, this piece required the most reworking, but the scrapping and starting over yielded results that were more satisfying. Working hard on something is satisfying… sometimes frustrating, but brings a lot more gratification than when inspiration just knocks on your door. This piece is an example of using what resources are available to you: I don’t have the best setup and am not very experienced in recording, but I think the music still comes across well.
this is is how i want to approach music
“Let’s live in an enormous world of sound we can use randomly, with no rules at all. Let’s play with sound, forget all knowledge and instrumental skills, and just use instinct – the same way punk did.”
-Yann Tiersen
although, i would add that you have to know something before you can forget it, this doesn’t justify bad music but wants us to look at what it is in music that can be neglected when the focus is on skill or perfection. my struggle is with perfection, i suppose. I judge myself and what i can create based on my personal ideal not on what others think, but our personal ideals can be harsh slave drivers. sometimes its good to hear some encouragement from friends and take it to heart. I just had a very uplifting conversation with a great friend and musical collaborator and i wanted to pass on some encouragement:
work hard on what you love, be it art or music or anything, and find joy in it! focus on instinct and play to your strengths, use whatever tools and resources are available to you and be grateful for them, true art-making only occurs in times of self forgetfulness, practice this and you”ll find it easier and easier to step immediately into that “zone” where things really start to happen…
…now to go practice what i’m preachin.
