This will probably be the final version of the first part of Grand Champion.  In this version, I added more sections with a lot more dynamics from quiet woodwinds to heralding trumpets.  

At about the 4 minute mark, as the piece moved from a quiet woodwind section to a brass part, I like how the transition turned out.  It wasn't intentional at first.  I kinda' stumbled one it, but I liked it, so I kept it.

Grand Champion Part 1

Similar to version K of part 1, this will probably be the last re-write of this piece.  Of course, 'never say never'.  This would probably be the finale of the complete piece because it is so dramatic.   There are a lot of moving parts, so I worked on providing more clarity between the different parts in this version.  This piece starts as a dialog between piano and strings, then the brass takes over from the piano.  At that point, the strings and brass work together until the very last couple of measures where I bring back the piano to help with the ending.

Grand Champion Part 2

This piece has 4 sections and probably has enough different parts for two full orchestras.  For example, in one part I have some fast moving short-bow string pieces that is on the down-beat of another set of fast moving pizzicato strings.  

To tie the different sections together, I use a simple harp refrain.  Candidly, it makes it easier to move from one theme to the next with a simple element.  

Although I enjoyed having all the moving parts, I found it very challenging to mix and I hope I was able to get it right.   We'll see.  If necessary, I'll fix and upload another version.

There is one part, about 2/3 of the way through, where I adopted some orchestration structure from Roman Bokarev &  Misha "Music Mike" Mshensky of Ego Works Music.  It's from their Capitol piece they recorded on the Symphony Orchestra Jam Pack CD for Apple.   Those guys are brilliant.



b.



Redeem

This is a work I just started - I'm kinda' excited about it.   This excerpt is from one of the middle sections.  In this excerpt you'll hear short-bow strings, brass, including a supernatant french horn solo in two places, and some tubular bells.  

Obviously, its still in process, but you should be able to clearly hear the theme of this piece.

Noble____Part 3

This includes the first three parts of a piece I'm writing called 'Noble'.  Because there are a lot of dynamics in this, you'll want to listen to it with your headphones.  

It starts out with an echo and sometimes dialogue between a Flamenco Guitar, a Peruvian pan flute, and pizzicato strings.   Then pizzicato and staccato strings as well as tubular bells pick up the rhythm from the guitar and pan flute and progress that way for the next two parts.   

The Flamenco Guitar was ultimately selected as the opening instrument because one of the chord progression motifs, Im bVII bVI V7 Im, is regularly used in South American and Spanish music.  I'm not a musicologist, I just stumbled on this chord progression, really liked it, so I used it.

An earlier version of part 3 is on my soundcloud site, too.  In this newer version there is only a little bit of difference; I re-wrote some of the brass and added some more string movement to keep it a bit more interesting.

The tricky part for me is always the mixing & mastering.  I listened to this on a few headphones, small speakers, large systems, even computer speakers.  This sounds great with a nice pair of headphones, flat eq, and reflects my intent. It sounds okay with some lo-fi speakers, even small computer speakers.  It's not as rich, but it's not bad.    However, certain systems that have other eq settings can over-expose some brass in part 3 and/or can muddy the bass.  When this happens, its not a nearly as appealing as it could be.     

Hopefully, your system is well balanced and you can enjoy this piece.



Noble    Parts 1 2 and 3

Two Strings

This particular version is an update of the one I just published last week, I added a measure in the beginning to help make the intro a bit smoother.  It's still a work in progress.  It is a fairly simple moderato piece, instrumented with Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses, and French Horns, but it has a pretty full sound.  I wanted to try to write something with flowing strings, different than most of my other allegro pieces; it turned out better than I expected.  

Notion

This is a very short piece with strings and brass including violins, violas, cellos, bass, french horns, and trumpets.  Although I frequently use 'ChordBot' to sketch out musical ideas, I wrote this piece with 'Notion for iPad'.    I would recommend both of those tools, both are a tremendous value.  (Note, if someone like me, who has 0 musical training, can make use of them, imagine what benefit they could provide someone with actual musical ability.)   

I plan to remix this section to bring a bit more warmth to the violins and to fix a couple of measures around the 1:07 mark.  My intent was to have the violins rising up a scale just a bit more prominently than they are currently.  Just for a couple of measures.   You can just hear them now.  Otherwise, that horn is standing on that note just a bit too long.

Regardless, I think this piece has 'legs', that is, this has potential to grow into something more than it is now, perhaps a larger more robust piece.   Right now, in addition to the aforementioned fixes, I am starting to work on another section. Hopefully, the new section will live up to the intro.

Start

Conrad Kocher   (1786-1872)
William C. Dix    (1837-1898)
William H. Monk (1823–1889)

I heard this a few weeks ago and decided to see what I could do with it  Although it is public domain, I wanted to give credit where credit is due so I listed the original composers/arrangers/lyricists above.

This was the most fun I had writing any piece of music.  For context, I left the first four measures with the simple original melody.  After that, I kept some of the melody ... sometimes. 

So, technically, I arranged some of this and composed some of this.  Hopefully, I mixed this correctly.    

Enjoy.  



As with Gladness Men of Old

If you have already listened to "Start", you can skip the first half of this song.  In the second part of this song, the Whirligig part, I wanted to provide a fast moving, almost out of control, whirling motion of music.  In the middle of that second part you can almost hear each piece twirling, almost colliding before the piece slows to the original pace.  

I wrote this using Chordbot and Notion for iPad and then mixed in Logic.  As always, I hope I mixed this correctly.  Let me know.

Start and Whirligig

I'm a very amateur composer with no formal music training and no ability to play any musical instrument ... so I'll keep my day job.  However, I enjoy writing short symphonic pieces and started doing this about a year and half ago.  Obviously I'm still learning.  Any constructive comments welcome.

At this point, you might want to ask, "Without any training, how can you compose anything?"  The simple answer is: very slowly.  The slightly longer answer is: I read (actually, just skimmed) a few books on composition and then, realizing I needed more fundamentals, I skimmed a few wikipedia articles on music theory.  At this point I have gained enough knowledge regarding composition to fill at least several, perhaps four, (4), pages of smallish notebook paper if I write with large letters, and if its double spaced.  If I use wide margins, can get up to five, (5), pages!

Along the way, I discovered and made use of a few composition tools, namely, Logic, ChordBot, and Notion for iPad. With these new tools, I was able to speed up the galactically-slow composing process multiple times so now it is merely a glacially-slow composing process.  

Also, one of the most useful things I found was to study how Roman Bokarev and Misha "Music Mike" Mshensky of Ego Works Music composed the pieces they wrote for Apple's Symphony Orchestra Jam Pack. Prepared with this deeper understanding of orchestration, I was ready to dive in musically ...  well... um ... to the kiddie pool of orchestration ... as long as it wasn't too deep ... and...um ... as long as I still had on my floaties.

Since I cant play any instruments, I write music the old fashioned way, I use a computer.  

Actually this is my creative process: I open the aptly named book, "The Complete Idiots's Guide to Music Composition" to page 27, put on my headphones, open up one of two apps on my iPad, either Chordbot or Notion for iPad, then, (this is the creative part), I stare at the blank screen for hours until I decide to turn it off and watch TV reruns.  This will happen for a few days in a row until my wife says she is going to watch the TV show "Downton Abbey".

Because I am a guy and therefore genetically unable to watch Downton Abbey without making fun of it out loud, I put my headphones back on and start sketching out some musical ideas, starting with chord progressions.  I start with chord progressions because that is what's written on page 27 of "The Complete Idiots's Guide to Music Composition".  Page 27 has a table on chord leading.  

Using that table as a guide, I plod out a few chords that I think sound good, for example, I, V, vi, iii, IV, I, IV, V, then back to I.   It kinda' sounds familar, but I figure since there are only so many notes, I'm sure someone else may have written something close, but nothing quite as awesome as this particular chord progression.  At this point, I'll be pretty excited because my chord progression is catchy and I know I can lay a melody line over that awesome progression. 

Because I am excited, I want somebody to listen to this awesome chord progression.  Since I am a dutiful husband, I patiently wait for a Downton Abbey commercial break and then ask my wife (who really does have musical ability), to listen to my awesome chord progression.   I've done this many times and my gracious wife always agrees.  

So, I play the awesome chord progression and wait with bated breath for her to pronounce that she thinks I am awesome and I am a musical genius.   Looking at me with an expression of compassion, she says in the most gentle tone possible,"That's Pachelbel's Canon, again.  Honey, you've written his chord progression, again.  Perhaps you can substitute a few chords and try again."   

I look back at my iPad and stare at Pachelbel's chord progression and think that if Johann Pachelbel weren't born I would be sitting on a musical goldmine .... grrrrrrr.    Downton Abbey starts again which forces me to put on my headphones again.  I erase Johann's stupid ole' canon, then stare at a blank screen for a few hours till it's time to go to sleep.  I'll decide I'll try again tomorrow.  Eventually, I'll come up with a chord progression that is not Pachelbel's and then start the rest of the process to orchestrate and find a melody line.

For what its worth, when I am writing, I still have to count up from the G on the G-clef to know where to place a note.   All-in-all it's a pretty slow process, but just between us, it beats watching Downton Abbey.

- - - - 
  
Oh! By the way, I'm not the surfer in my profile picture, but I did take the picture.  It was just one of those providential times, right place, right lighting, etc.

bshaw-music

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