Update on Newest Tune
If this blog is doing nothing else, it is helping me stay committed to my musical affairs. Posting my progress “in public” helps ward off all the excuses, however valid, that get in the way. That said, progress or lack thereof is not always about having available time. There is indeed something to be said about “writer’s block” or simply not being Satisfied with the result because I’ve been noodling with this composition for several weeks now. SO IN OTHER WORDS, it’s taken me over a month (since my last posting) to reach a satisfactory point and hence this post!
To be clear, satisfaction does not mean perfection by any stretch. Rather, it is means that the project is in “good enough” form to go from the Composition Phase to the Orchestration Phase (then followed by Mixing and Mastering). This may or may not be the way to go about it according to purists; but it’s what works for me…
So to review, I start with a Concept as described and shared in my prior post. This can be something as simple as a riff coupled with a rhythm. Since then, I’ve been working on Composition and this is always the most difficult phase for me. Going from a Concept to a Tune is the equivalent of creating the “first draft” of a script. While only a draft, a Tune has an identifiable musical structure. In writing, terms such as introduction, body, conclusion are used to describe structure. In music, we use terms like verse, chorus, bridge, etc to describe structure. Regardless, a tune has a beginning and an ending and (hopefully pleasant) structure in between!
Technology, in the form of Sequencers, really helps because it is does for musical composition what a word-processor does for writing. I can freely develop various “parts” which are often nothing more than variations of the original concept and then “piece them together” (or Sequence them) in a desirable play order. I can even maintain different play orders and go back/forth until something resonates. Quite often there are “holes” – which means there’s more music to write! As a Tune begins to shape up, you begin to consider Orchestration: the selection and blending of different musical instruments and/or sounds… and that’s the FUN part because in the modern studio, the sound palette is virtually infinite!Sometimes a compositional issue can be helped by a change in orchestration. This update presents one example of that. If you play the conceptual MP3 I posted in February, you’ll hear the opening “riff” on the piano. I ended up having the “bass guitar” play this instead and now the piano plays a more gentle “jazz comping” to provide a better foundation for the verse melody (played by the sax).
My personal rating of the tune? Well… honestly, I’m not entirely satisfied with this one because I wanted to experiment with more complex musical constructs that ended up not being workable into this tune. I did try, however! For the musicians amongst you, I was trying to work in a time signature change into odd-time (5/4 was the closest fit, but it just wasn’t happening so I scrubbed the mission). So what we have at present is a very basic no frills tune which will hopefully “come to life” with some clever Orchestration. I say that with caution, however, because like a movie, everything hinges on a solid script. Great actors and dazzling special effects cannot save a flawed script; but they can bring a so-so script to life and such will be my hope as I share this “draft” with my other collaborators.
Next, we will record live drums, bass, and guitars; including Solos for those “openings” I’ve left after each verse as well as the “finale” section. This will definitely “fill” things up, and then I’ll add my own piano solos and possibly some additional comping, most likely some horns…
