I Think I’m Back

I haven’t been here in approximately forever. To be honest I forgot how to log in! So I’m just putting this up as fair warning to all you who were comfortably relieved that I was gone for good. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most recently I have been doing some deep thinking and experimenting with certain aspects of symmetry in music that for me, at least, can help push the envelope. With this “newfound” blog here I might do a few posts exploring this topic to help me better formalize my thinking. I’m doubting that my old regular readers would have much interest in this but you might just consider it a phase that I’m going through and then I will probably go back to what is normal for me.

Time will tell whether I do the above or anything else at all. Much has happened in my life since I’ve last posted an entry and gods willing I have a great deal to write about. Until then!

Dream of Me

Just a heads up that I finished a new song, something that happens 1-4 times each year. I forget how to embed a SoundCloud song here so I’ll just paste in a link so you can hear it if you like.

>> Dream of Me <<

The lyrics are viewable at the link site above.

 

 

Bird Song

I was asked on Facebook what music these birds are trying to convey, assuming the above is a musical staff. Hmmm. A three line staff with no clef, key signature, time signature, or bar lines. To the internet!

 

Three Line Staff

 

We now have Do, Mi, and Sol, for the three lines, given the reference above. For rhythm I’m reading from left to right using relative positions. To keep it easy, there is an anacrusis with an opening 8th note after which we’ll immediately insert a bar line, followed by four quarter notes, ending with two more 8th notes at the end.

 

So, I’m using the bottom three lines of the “regular” treble-clef musical staff so that Do, Mi, and Sol are correctly used on those lines. Here’s a brief movie that you can both view and hear:

 

Under the Viaduct

Here’s my latest and greatest piece of music. It’s a slow blues with light jazz elements. This is probably the best sound overall I’ve ever been able to muster on a recording. Click through to give it a listen.

Rounded Brainary – Full Version

Been working on this complete version since I last posted the harpsichord part naked in my previous post. Here it is in it’s full version, just click the following link:

Rounded Brainery

Here it is, kids, my latest and greatest keyboard masterpiece. Three minutes in length, solo harpsichord. I’ll likely be adding violin and cello which was my plan all along. First I wanted to make a foundation that I could play live and by myself. Click in to listen if you like.

Flat Stanley

Hi,

I’m Flat Stanley and I went to Hastings, Michigan, to visit my Uncle Jim.

When I first got there, the Fairies of the house came to make sure I didn’t bring any Woodland Magic into the house that didn’t belong.

After that, the house Dragons checked me for any evil Fire Magic. No fires allowed in the house.

OS X 10.10.3 Update – What a Scare!

This post is for my Apple Trove followers, Apple users in general, and maybe Apple haters. The rest can follow along out of morbid curiosity or maybe to see how I trouble shot a problem I had with my computer after updating it’s operating system to the latest and greatest upgrade on the first day of release.

Writing Music Like Mozart

[Classmates, if you want to hear my final project and see the submitted score, please scroll down to the bottom of this article.]

For the past six weeks I have been taking a Coursera class called, “Writing Music Like Mozart”. I’ll not bore non-music theorists with the details of what was covered, but I do want to address certain people in this world.

Giving a Hand Up

A couple weeks ago my wife, Cathy, was looking through the local Facebook community page and she saw a post from a wife asking for a ride to work for her husband. Their car was vandalized and they could not afford for him to lose his job. Cathy showed me the post.