Experimental recording for some upcoming projects.

It's Almost Summer

I'm teaching myself how to play the piano, practicing scales and chords, etc., and a melody randomly began to take shape, so... I laid down some rudimentary tracks in GarageBand as accompaniment (just to see if I could do it). The vocals were improvised and added last. It's definitely a diamond in the rough, but it's a solid start. As a multimedia artist who is not a musician, challenging myself to grow and expand creatively in a variety of media has always been an important aspect of my process.

Tell Me When (Demo)

To metronome, or not to metronome...

Before shutting everything down at bedtime, I usually like to sit at my piano for just a minute. A few sweet notes is all it takes to set the mood for a good sleep.

A few nights ago, one minute turned into an hour and forty-five minutes, at the end of which had emerged this nearly complete classical composition. I have no musical training, and only recently decided to try to learn, so despite my poor finger control and technique, I'm blown away by what I've accomplished already.

Today I mastered a coherent beginning, middle, and ending in GarageBand.

About the metronome... I was unable to use one for this piece because of intentional tempo variations and shifts of mood, so I know that some of it is a little 'off'. After explaining this dilemma to my son, he explained that there's something called "click track", which would adjust a metronome's bpm to all the time signature changes of a composition. Yeah, at this point I'm in desperate need of some lessons, lol.

Michelle LaRiviere • • • Multi meDia arTist