Post by indigodave on Sept 10, 2017 22:39:36 GMT
I'm David. I'm a musical eclectic. I majored in music theory in college. Then struggled thru much of my 20's to play gigs. Went back to school and did some computer operations/programming in one form or another for about 25 years. I retired about 2 years ago. Now I usually spend 3-6 hours at the piano, which I sometimes call my "sandbox". Or if I'm a "cultivator of music" , maybe the piano is my garden.
Whatever the case, I do some original composition. It goes way to slow for my liking. My written notation is often just simply noteheads - with no stem-specified-durations. So my written music is more like cue cards for me. I've wished someone made software that was more flexible, to allow someone like me to make my musical cue cards and copy and paste and so on when I needed to.
My (I like to call them) holy trinity (in no particular order): The Beatles, Ellington/Strayhorn and Keith Jarrett's Quartets (both American and European) in the 1970's. But I tend to view music largely more as chord progressions or moving voices. I don't get hung up on liking just certain styles or genres. I was listening to Chopin's Etude #6 recently - on YouTube with the slide show score thing. The inner voices, I thought made the piece brilliant. I had the thought that Chopin was to harmony what Jimi Hendrix was to electric guitar. Maybe I'm wrong.
When I write, I'd say I often (sortof) emulate Stravinsky, Ellington/Strayhorn - certain harmonies and voice leadings you might hear in these guys. Also Keith Jarrett's writing for the American quartet AND some Ornette Coleman styled tunes. This may mean nothing to you guys.
I did also study Arnold Schoenberg's "Theory of Harmony" - writing 4 part harmony exercises. We had a tiny harmony study group on Skype...we finally broke up. I still often write 4 part harmony exercises. I think of them as sort of like scales for my musical mind.
I and looking to compose a bit faster. I wonder if there are any good primitive , rudimentary notation sketching software tools that would allow me to just write my noteheads on the score.
Here are some YT videos, made mostly as demos. My current gigging is ALF's (assisted living facility).
www.youtube.com/user/cdgoethe