A New Music Writing Reference Tool

 This Christmas, I was gifted with a book that is a much welcome addition to my growing music reference library.

This is "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Music Composition" by Michael Miller.

I'm assuredly not claiming to be an idiot, but there is much I need to learn as I embark on my new theatrical music 'career'.

This book contains a wonderful amount of useful information covering all aspects of music writing: melody, harmony, chord progressions, song structure, lyrics, dynamics, and so on.

The book has sections covering orchestration as well, which will be highly useful to what my main focus of the play-in-progress encompasses. 

Let the study begin.....

My First Ever Music Recording

 I always enjoy going through the old storage totes that reside underneath the basement stairs in my home.

Something forgotten and interesting is always found there.

This past week I ran across an envelope that contained a 33-1/3 vinal record.

The recording features a selection of short classical pieces performed by a Colorado Springs elementary school string orchestra.

I was a part of that group, being a fifth grade student.

The concert was performed in 1967 as part of a large music educators' convention.

The music is horrible....

Imagine, if you can, 50 or so kids, new to their instruments, trying to hold together a music performance.

An out of tune cacaphony for the ages!

Side B of the record contains a piece by Haydn and Bach each, performed equally cringe-worthy as the first side.

But, hey, at least I can say that I've actually played the famed Broadmoor Hotel Ballroom!

(The record producers mis-spelled the name Broadmoor on the label....)

Cheers!

Musical Theater, Part 2

 In my last post, I stated that I had no previous experience with musical theater.

Not true...

The other day, I was going through a storage tote of memorabilia.  Inside the box was a large envelope containing programs and  playbills from concerts and music programs in which I was involved in orchestras during my grade school and junior high days.

Though I couldn't find a paper program for it, I recalled a musical play that was put on by Washington Irving Junior High School in Colorado Springs in either '69 or '70. The play was called 'The Columbus Caper'.

I played violin in the pit orchestra!

Voila....musical play experience....

....now back to writing!

A Brand New (Musical) Adventure

 

As most of you readers know from past posts on this blog, I have a deep interest in performing and writing music.

Until now, most of the writing I have done has been limited to fingerstyle acoustic guitar pieces that I have subsequently performed at various gigs and open mic venues.  The majority of these songs reside only in my head and on my fingertips.  In other words, I've never bothered to pull out a pen and some staff or tab sheets to write any of it down.

Recently, I've taken on a project that requires me to make drastic changes to this scenario:

Back in September I got a call from an old buddy (Mark) with whom I have played a great deal of music in the past.

He has another old acquaintance (Neil) who is in the process of writing and producing a major musical theater show.  This gentleman has asked my friend to write and score the music for it.

Mark has turned around asked me if I would like to collaborate with him on the project!

How cool is that?!!

And how intimidating...

Mind you, I have no experience with musical plays. I've never even attended one, save for a couple of high school productions years ago in which my daughters participated.

This current project requires Mark and I to write, arrange, and score for voice actors, on-stage chorus, and a twenty piece pit orchestra!

I have no experience doing any of this.

The one thing I do possess is deep appreciation and knowledge of a wide array of music genres, from baroque and classical up through pop, classic rock, progressive rock, fusion, and jazz. 

Over the decades my vinyl turntables, cassette decks, CD players and streaming devices have not been idle.

Playing multiple instruments in public and studying music theory has come in a bit handy, as well.

I'm not entirely sure yet how big this musical is destined to be. It definitely is off-Broadway, but big enough to tour around the country.

So, starting back in September, I've been in major musical-theater-learning mode.

Lots of material to write.

Premier performance is scheduled for late 2029.....gotta get crackin'!

More to come, right here on Eddie's Random Ramblings!

Space-Themed Bunk Bed, Part 4

 This weekend's work on the bunk bed planets consists of filling in the wood grain of the plywood cutouts to make smoother surfaces for painting.

This is done by applying several coats of thinned carpenter's wood filler and sanding in between coats.

Here are all of the planets just after the second coat has been brushed on:

It will likely take a third coat before the grain is adequately filled in. Sanded high-grade birch plywood has pretty decent original surfaces to begin with and thus don't require too much prep work to achieve smooth results.

I bet you are wondering what that strange semi-circular piece is doing among the planet cutouts.

That will be revealed in due time.

Stay tuned ...

Space-Themed Bunk Bed, Part 3

It's planet-building day in the Rockies !!

Normally, I do most of my woodworking projects with hand tools, but today I am going to forsake the coping saw and fire up the shop scroll-saw instead.  I would like to see this project through to completion by the second week of March, so the sacrifice of a few electrons will serve to save me a lot of time. 

Surprisingly, I was able to knock out all eight planets and the moon in only a little over an hour, including a couple of short Mountain Dew breaks!

Once the "cuttin' was done" I hit the discs with some sanding blocks to even up any residual scroll saw cut marks on the outer edges.  After that, all the planets (and moon) received some round-over sanding on the top edges.

Here's a shot of the Solar System, laid out all nice and purty:

Next post -  it's paint prep time....

Space-Themed Bunk Bed, Part 2

 Today's post is a continuation of drawing out the remaining planetary discs on sheets of birch plywood.

With the most difficult one, Saturn, completed, I proceeded to render the patterns for the remaining outer planets - Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.  The latter two were drawn as regular circles, with no attempt to duplicate any type of elongation.  

For the inner planets, I went with a much different size scale.  I couldn't stay with the same scale as the large outer planets, else they would be insanely tiny!

Using a five- inch diameter Earth, the other planets were quite easy to scale.   I even included a small  Moon to scale, which came out to roughly 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

Here are the ply sheets, all ready to take to the scroll saw:

Stay tuned...