Author Topic: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread  (Read 300563 times)

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Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1085 on: November 11, 2015, 08:34:31 PM »
I like the name. You should do it in the style of the Flashdance writing. :lol

Only King could mis-spell a LETTER.
Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.

Offline Lucien

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1086 on: November 11, 2015, 09:22:03 PM »
"Kind of a stupid game, isn't it?" - Calvin

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1087 on: November 12, 2015, 01:38:44 AM »
How did you brainstorm that and not go with the name:
The Big d

Just make sure you don't become dated with FlashDrive.  If your band started earlier, you would be:
The Floppy d

Offline BlackInk

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1088 on: November 12, 2015, 02:23:33 AM »
Brilliant  :lol

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1089 on: November 12, 2015, 03:02:26 AM »
Oh yeah, I finished the third movement of the symphony: https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/1247851

here are the other two movements: https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/781356 https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/1025111

Nice work.  Do you just keep it on musescore or do you have your own instrument sounds elsewhere?

Offline Lucien

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1090 on: November 12, 2015, 04:26:26 PM »
Oh yeah, I finished the third movement of the symphony: https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/1247851

here are the other two movements: https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/781356 https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/1025111

Nice work.  Do you just keep it on musescore or do you have your own instrument sounds elsewhere?

I have no knowledge or ability with sequencers, so the sheet music and sounds that come out of it are all I've got
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Calvin6s

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1091 on: November 12, 2015, 05:46:15 PM »
I have no knowledge or ability with sequencers, so the sheet music and sounds that come out of it are all I've got
Do you have to drag/click it in note by note?  I do that, but hooking up a MIDI (USB) keyboard is much more conducive to getting it down quickly, naturally as well as experimenting more freely.

What did you study?  Videos, books, transcribing / reading / listening to famous recorded scores?  Besides the instrumentation (which you hinted is still being explored by you in your comments) do you free flow the song form, or do you set up charts/forms and try to keep with tradition?

One thing that is very aggravating about using MIDI, patches, programs, samples is that you hear something in your head and no matter how full and dynamic it sounds there, it seems a shell of itself in the programmed format.  It is fine for the composer because they can hear it in its full glory, but it can be annoying that the people you are sharing it with cannot.  You realize it is just a scratchpad, but to the listener it is the final product.

All that said, it sounds very good.  I listened to all 3 (but I only did about half of 1 because clicking on the next page of comments stopped it and I didn't know where it cut).

What are your short term and long term goals with this?

Offline Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1092 on: November 12, 2015, 09:07:48 PM »
I like the name. You should do it in the style of the Flashdance writing. :lol

I want to see one of the professional guys come with that.  That could be fun.  I have not the skill.  The "logo" I came up with is basically Word Art, although I did cook up the outline color and custom fill gradients to match the lightning bolt (which was just clip art I found on the net).



Click on it to biggify.  There's actually a bit of detail to it, which I'm kinda proud of.


In other news, we already have a guitarist/singer lined up to audition a week from Saturday, which would have been our next scheduled practice anyway.  His name is Pat, he's about our age and background.  The band he was in before was really good; in fact, they got so good that they were working every week, sometimes twice a week (one-nighters Friday and Saturday probably) which was really getting to be too much, as most of them have full-time day jobs.  So he ended up leaving that band and taking a break, but now he wants to get back into playing.  Once or twice a month, tops, and that's perfect because that's exactly what we'd already decided on.  We don't want to gig every weekend, certainly not twice a week.  Once or twice a month sounds about right.

I've seen an old promo video of his former band on YouTube.  Guitar sounded pretty good, vocals sounded great.  He was one of three singers in the band, and the promo vid showed that off, but we got to hear him sing a verse of "Come Sail Away" and "Footloose" and he's got that high voice that sounds pretty effortless.  As an added bonus, the video was made at the same crummy bar we played at a few weeks ago, our one and only gig.  When I recognized it, I chuckled mightily.

Anyway, John has already talked to him, he says he knows a lot of the songs in our list.  They're going to decide on four songs for the audition.  We usually work on four songs every two weeks, so this will be basically like a practice session.  I do not know if Anne is the one who "found" him or what, but he said he's worked with Anne before and he likes her.  So that right there is a big step up over Steve, who told me point blank that he didn't really like or respect Anne.  So this should be fun.

Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1093 on: November 13, 2015, 12:09:37 PM »
:clap:
Hef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1094 on: November 13, 2015, 12:52:49 PM »

Shazam TV show opening

I was trying to think what that lightning bolt reminded me of.  But it isn't quite the same, so you are legally able to proceed.   ;D

Nice work on the lettering btw (I biggified)

Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1095 on: November 13, 2015, 02:29:38 PM »
I remember that show.
Hef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Offline Lucien

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1096 on: November 14, 2015, 03:31:46 AM »
Do you have to drag/click it in note by note?  I do that, but hooking up a MIDI (USB) keyboard is much more conducive to getting it down quickly, naturally as well as experimenting more freely.

Yes, I click the notes in. Don't have a midi-usb adapter.

What did you study?  Videos, books, transcribing / reading / listening to famous recorded scores?  Besides the instrumentation (which you hinted is still being explored by you in your comments) do you free flow the song form, or do you set up charts/forms and try to keep with tradition?

We've discussed form (binary/ternary) in my theory class, which sort of inspired me to look into more complicated forms such as sonata form (as you can see in the first movment. the second and third movements are both sort of a mirrored ternary/ABCBA). When learning about sonata form, this page was what I followed most to write the first movement. I never really wrote anything down drafting exactly what I would do when (as I often write in stream of consciousness, even when I'm using a specific form). Tradition is unimportant to me, moreso now than when I began seriously writing the first movement back in april or may.

All that said, it sounds very good.  I listened to all 3 (but I only did about half of 1 because clicking on the next page of comments stopped it and I didn't know where it cut).

What are your short term and long term goals with this?

Thank you. Short term, start drafting the 4th movement, complete 4th movement, sit on the 'completed' work for a while. Long term, get more serious about dynamic markings and articulation, learn orchestration so that no instrument has an impossible part (I've already failed this part with french horn :P ). After I feel that it is actually completed, then I'll see about publishing it and having it performed. But that might not be for a while (God I'd love to hear it though.).
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Offline Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1097 on: November 14, 2015, 08:06:44 PM »
I was trying to think what that lightning bolt reminded me of.  But it isn't quite the same, so you are legally able to proceed.   ;D

Nice work on the lettering btw (I biggified)

Thanks.  And yeah, the Shazam logo zags twice, whereas ours only zigs once.  I figure other than the lightning bolt itself, which is clip art that I directly grabbed from somewhere, I'm pretty safe, and since the bolt is tilted a little bit (it tilted 11 degrees ccw when I tilted the letters, since they were grouped at that point) it might be considered modified enough to skirt an infringement.  We're just a bar band from the burbs.  If someone wants to sue us, we'll stop using it, but they're not going to get blood from a stone.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1098 on: November 14, 2015, 11:44:34 PM »
Not that I'm a graphic designer and have any weight behind what I'm about to say, but ...

You did a nice job of adding some flair without going over the top.  When I did my company logo, I started off a bit over the top, but when I found time I scaled it back to simpler design (less color and texture).  So don't pick at the logo and find new things to add.  Your balance is already ... balanced.

Offline Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1099 on: November 15, 2015, 07:21:07 AM »
Thanks.  That's the thing I was going for.  The idea was that it needed to look good in a tiny square as a Facebook profile picture, bigger on a T-Shirt, or really big on a poster.  I wanted it to be simple, little more than just the name of the band and a lightning bolt.

I wasn't exactly sure how to combine them, but I started with just writing the word with the lightning bolt behind it, and I already felt that I was most of the way there.  I knew I wanted to use Word Art, since it's simple and easy to reproduce, with the words filled in with color, so I found a font that looked good "hollow".  I liked how this font has the extra shadow lines built in, giving it a 3-D look.  Then it was just a matter of playing with the colors until I liked how they worked with the lightning bolt.  Outlining the letters in dark orange had the unexpected but welcomed side effect of changing the lines inside the lettering to the same color.

One of the "professional" designs had the word written in the lightning bolt, which looked kinda cool, but it was hard to read the word itself.  They provided a couple variations on that idea, none of which I really liked.  Another design had the word much more stylized; the "F" had a lightning bolt "tail" on it, and the "E" angled up, but had a weird downward curve at the end which made the whole thing remind me of a dick going limp.  A third design was just too busy.  Lots of colors, and lightning in the background.  I have no idea how that could be reproduced, but in graphic design, lots of colors = more money to reproduce.

The one thing that all three of those designs had in common was that they were just so damned fancy that you had trouble reading the word FlashDrive.  In my mind, that is the most important point.  If someone looks at your logo, which is basically just the name of the band, and it takes them more than a few seconds to even read it, the logo fails.  Promoting the band, and the brand, is way more important than looking all super-fancy.

I know nothing about design, either, but I looked at the "professional" submissions (we had the first two at that point) and said "Shit, I could come up with something better than that in half an hour in Microsoft Word" and proceeded to do just that.  The third submission came in, and it too was just too fancy and silly.  Often, simpler really is better.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1100 on: November 15, 2015, 07:36:51 AM »
which made the whole thing remind me of a dick going limp.
Save that design for your band's alter ego, The Floppy d

Quote
The one thing that all three of those designs had in common was that they were just so damned fancy that you had trouble reading the word FlashDrive.  In my mind, that is the most important point. 
Absolutely.  There are so many creative things one can do with the letters of a title/name, and it almost always ends up looking funny.

Quote
I know nothing about design, either, but I looked at the "professional" submissions (we had the first two at that point) and said "Shit, I could come up with something better than that in half an hour in Microsoft Word" and proceeded to do just that.  The third submission came in, and it too was just too fancy and silly.  Often, simpler really is better.
I wouldn't totally discount the pros though.  You might have just ended up with a few bad ones.  It is a bit like being a musician.  You can learn things to expand your abilities, but you still have to be a musician at the core.  The people that are meant to be in graphic design and take the time to learn the trade skills are actually quite impressive.  And sometimes the person requesting the work can make a world of difference by just articulating what it is they are looking for.

But you lucked out and already hit upon a clean logo.  Send the bill to the rest of the band.

Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1101 on: November 15, 2015, 07:46:51 AM »
Sounds like they were not very good designers. Simplicity is actually one of the hardest things to achieve, because it gives you nowhere to hide. Also a designer's goal is to fit what the client wants, and you seemed to know the parameters well (I've worked for people who have basically contradicted themselves at every turn, but you still try to give them what they want, because that's your job).

It is a bit like being a musician. 

I think it is like being a musician. The key to both is knowing when not to do something, just as much as doing something. A new designer is like a young musician; they think they'll be great and stand out by throwing in the kitchen sink and overdoing something (whether it's adding lots of gradients and lens flares, or trying to write a 5 hour wankfest prog concept album).
The pro knows how to do a lot with a little, because they can do it with style that only comes from experience and taste. You can hear an amateur guitarist and a pro guitarist play only one note, and instantly hear the difference in execution. It's the same with anything creative.
Only King could mis-spell a LETTER.
Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1102 on: November 15, 2015, 08:12:34 AM »
I always used to get a laugh when I worked at the rehearsal studio when bands would come in with Gibson Les Pauls and huge amps and massive pedalboards and huge drumkits with like 7 toms...



...and then they couldn't play :lol


Funny how some people think that buying the most expensive gear will make them sound better. Whereas a pro guitarist who puts the work in can sound good on any old shit.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1103 on: November 15, 2015, 08:17:09 AM »
But not quite as good as using good shite.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1104 on: November 15, 2015, 08:18:15 AM »
Well no :p


But a terrible musician will sound terrible on whatever they play.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1105 on: November 15, 2015, 08:20:29 AM »
I thought you were in the UK when clearly you are outside my office window.  Stop making fun of my playing.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1106 on: November 15, 2015, 08:21:29 AM »
I AM EVERYWHERE. I'M LIKE JOB IN THE LAWNMOWER MAN.

Offline Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1107 on: November 15, 2015, 05:20:20 PM »
John has some of the nicest gear I've ever seen, but the cool thing about John is that he's always made no secret of the fact that he's not a super-talented guy; he's decent and works really hard to be better all the time.  The gear doesn't make him any better, but it doesn't hurt.  He knows he's got no excuses.  It's all on him now.  So in that sense, I guess it does help because it's another thing in his head pushing him to be better.

Offline Nefarius

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1108 on: November 16, 2015, 01:00:09 AM »
I've worked for people who have basically contradicted themselves at every turn

Yup, they're called customers and I usually hate them with a passion!
Design & Development would be so awesome without them. :biggrin:

Greetings...
Nef

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1109 on: November 16, 2015, 04:24:16 AM »
Yup. My bro spent ages making exactly the video the "client" wanted. Then when he delivered it - they'd changed their mind in the interim and didn't want it.

::)

Offline Nefarius

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1110 on: November 16, 2015, 06:08:22 AM »
Besides customers I also hate my local music store with a passion. They're only good enough for the most basic of needs like strings and cables, which was exactly what I intended to buy there on October 31st. I've been using a Shure SM58 as a stage microphone for many years but got increasingly interested in trying an AKG D7 after I got my AKG C414 XLS studio microphone and being extremely happy with it. And so I made the mistake and decided to get one there.

They checked their computer to see if they had it in stock, then one of their monkeys went off to fetch it for me. I paid while waiting for him to return. A few minutes later he came back empty handed, looks like their computer was wrong. I actually wanted to try the new microphone that very night but wasn't overly angry with them as I had my SM58 in perfect working condition anyway and didn't actually need to have it right away so I gave them my phone number to call as soon as they had a D7.

As of today and thus half a month later I still don't have my D7. :facepalm:


Edit a few hours later on the same day:
Seems like complaining on DTF works! :biggrin:
I got a message at noon and picked it up after work.


Greetings...
Nef
« Last Edit: November 16, 2015, 01:19:40 PM by Nefarius »

Offline sneakyblueberry

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1111 on: November 16, 2015, 11:45:27 PM »
Ooh, my bro has one of those mics, they're fantastic.  Certainly better than any SM58 I've used. 

Offline Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1112 on: November 24, 2015, 04:38:51 PM »
The curse of Orbert's almost-band-now-actual-band continues!

This past Saturday was our next scheduled practice, and was also to be the day we auditioned potential new guitarist/singer Pat.  Instead, we got 12 inches of snow.  John lives out in the sticks a ways (in a "neighborhood" of mansions) which means 10 miles on a two-lane road that winds through hills and shit.  It was still coming down Saturday morning.  So... no.  Practice/audition was postponed until tonight (Tuesday), the next day we were all available.

Last night, our drummer JT got in a wreck.  Nothing broken, but some separated ribs and torn cartilage.  He'll be okay, eventually, but is currently in the hospital on a lot of pain killers.  He will not be playing drums for a while.

It just never ends.

Offline James Mypetgiress

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1113 on: November 25, 2015, 09:44:14 AM »
Are you a praying man, Orbert? If not, your look seems so bad, you really should be.
Best wishes to JT. Hopefully Orbert's almost-band-now-actual-band won't do a Yes and kick him out like Jon Anderson...

Offline BlobVanDam

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1114 on: November 25, 2015, 09:51:06 AM »
Is your rehearsal space by any chance built upon an ancient Indian burial ground? Have you noticed any suspicious looking people hanging around sticking pins in little dolls that look coincidentally just like the members of your band?
Only King could mis-spell a LETTER.
Yep. I think the only party in the MP/DT situation that hasn't moved on is DTF.

Offline Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1115 on: November 25, 2015, 11:14:13 AM »
Are you a praying man, Orbert? If not, your look seems so bad, you really should be.

Funny you should mention that.

Monday night, I was at a meeting at the church, and we start each meeting with "check-ins" which is just going around the table and each person checking in, giving a little update on what's been going on in their lives and what's on their minds.  Music and the band is never far from my mind, so when it came to my turn, I just said I've been working on music and the band, the usual thing for me.  They all asked how the band was doing, and I said that we'd managed to play one gig, then our guitarist quit rather suddenly, but we have an audition tomorrow.  I did not ask for prayers, although that was an option, and it did occur to me, the way things have been going for this band.

I can't help but think of "that kind of prayer" as being rather selfish.  A relative dying of cancer, or a friend going through a rough time, sure.  Pray for help, for them.  But I figure God has plenty to deal with without dealing with my stupid band that can't seem to get its shit together.

Less than two hours later, JT wrecked his truck.  I don't know whether to feel guilty or what.  I also don't know how serious I am about that last statement, because I know it doesn't work like that, but... damn.  This is getting truly ridiculous.

Offline TheLordOfTheStrings

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1116 on: November 25, 2015, 12:01:11 PM »
Wrote this a month or so ago. Kinda different than anything I've done up to this point. Thoughts? https://soundcloud.com/cody-marshall-mckenna/death
Check out my various music projects - I’ve got concept albums, singer/songwriter, rock, metal, prog, and more coming soon:

https://linktr.ee/STARCOMMANDStudios

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1117 on: November 29, 2015, 09:03:33 PM »
Very nice.  I like chill stuff like that.  Not what I was expecting, based on the title, but that's my fault for expecting something based on the title.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1118 on: November 29, 2015, 09:44:01 PM »
In other news, I did the church music thing again today.  Not with the praise band, just me solo on the grand piano in the sanctuary.  It was kinda wacky, because today was the First Sunday in Advent, which is a big deal, something worth playing up a bit in the service.  Lighting the first Advent Candle in the wreath, the official start of the "Christmas season", etc.  Except the choir director is out east visiting family for Thanksgiving, and the organist is also out of town visiting family, so no choir today.  So they asked me to play the piano and basically provide all the music for the service.  Obviously, there's no way I'm gonna turn down an opportunity like that.  I say "again" because I did this once earlier in the year, but that was during the summer when attendance is traditionally on the low side.  Today it was not.

All during Advent, the Introit is "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence".  Except that with no choir, it was down to me to provide the theme, so the Prelude was "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence".  I introduced the Dm theme straight, then wandered off into a theme-and-variations thing featuring Bbmaj7 for extra color and flavor.  It was cool, maybe just this side of jazzy.  Came back and finished straight, all in about 2.5 minutes.  Then the opening hymn ("O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" of course).  Call to Worship, Announcements, then Lighting of the Advent Candle, so music for that.  Middle hymn was a Taize thing which naturally lends itself to a lot of improvisation, so I obliged.  For the offertory, I did an original arrangement of "Do You Hear What I Hear?"  Four verses, starts really simple ("Said the night wind to the little lamb..."), each verse builds, big and slamming by the end ("Said the king to the people everywhere...").  Got a spontaneous ovation, so that was cool.  You don't always get that in church, but I guess they couldn't help themselves.

Doxology, again my own arrangement.  Big and booming on the grand, ha ha.  Closing hymn was "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus", another standard First Sunday in Advent hymn.  After the Blessing and Dismissal, I kicked into "Deck the Halls" for the Postlude.  Pounded for a few verses, then cut way back, just for some contrast, then finished up big and booming again.  I intentionally went four verses so hopefully most people would have filed out, because if too many people are left when I finish, they might applaud again, and I was hoping to avoid that.  Really, it's kinduv embarassing.  But they did anyway.  I mean, yeah, it feels good.  It feels great.  And people coming up to me afterwards telling me "Nice job!" and stuff, very cool.  But it's weird.  Any other music, I'd eat it up with reckless abandon.  But this is church music.  It's not about the accolades; it's not about the applause.

But a chance to serve, and provide four written pieces and four original arrangements, you can't beat that.  I love playing that grand piano in the chancel, making it sing.

After lunch I took a short nap, then finished up the arrangements for some of the songs for the Christmas Pageant.  They asked me if I could do another arrangement for the Youth Ensemble, so I arranged "Fum, Fum, Fum" for a wacky quartet with piano accompaniment.  Clarinet Soprano, Violin Alto, French Horn Tenor, Bassoon Bass.  Those are the instruments I had to work with, so I had to voice things accordingly.  You might wonder why I didn't do Violin Soprano and Clarinet Alto, but it's a matter of proficiency.  Our Clarinet player is much, much better than our Violinist.  Also, the Clarinet is going to naturally be louder.  The best musician in the group is the girl on Bassoon.  She's amazing.  I gave her the first half of verse two by herself, with just a little backgrounds from the others.  Anyway, it worked out pretty well.  Each of the instruments gets at least a little spotlight, just like last year's thing.

The other song is the one the little kids are singing, "Mary Rocked the Little Baby", which is a 50's-style rocker.  Our pianist can't exactly jam, but he can play whatever I write, so I wrote up a boogie-woogie shuffle thing in 12/8.  All he has to do is play what's written and it'll rock.  Violin and flute for color.  They double the melody mostly, per instructions from the director, but they get to break into some harmonies here and there.  I let them have some fun, while still supporting the melody.  I'm pretty happy with the arrangement there, too, even though I only ended up with an hour and a half to do it.


This is why, as much as I love Rock and Roll, I won't be heartbroken if the band implodes.  At church, I get to do original piano arrangements of all kinds, and write and arrange crazy ensembles to give a bunch of kids each a chance to shine.  That's a gas, a total gas.  Music is the best.

Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1119 on: November 30, 2015, 01:21:07 PM »
We had a special First Sunday of Advent service as well.  What we did was a combined service, with our contemporary band starting out with a song called "Christ Has Come" and then a more mellow song called "Let Us Adore".  We then combined with the piano, organ, and choir for a stanza of "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus", the chorus of "Let Us Adore" ending with the second stanza of CTLEJ.  I was on drums the whole time.  It was fun.
Hef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.