The Aftermath

This piece is entitled The Aftermath. It is a bit of a dramatic piece with heroic horns. In fact, the horn sound used is Williams Brass. If that does not mean anything to you, please consult your nearest soundtrack buff for further explanation. 

It took 9 days to complete, start to finish, though I did not log the hours. It was basically a few hours after work here and there. I shall try to log hours next time to see what the rate of creation is. 

Oh, I should mention this other semi-interesting fact: in downloading the previous Tyro 2 piece off my Technics digital piano several weeks ago, I also ran into some (very old) sketches. Like, circa 2003 maybe. Well, at the time floppy disks were still widely used and were an integral part of computers, so that gives you an idea of oldness. Anyway, one of the old sketches was the basis of the beginning of The Aftermath. Just goes to show how you should always save any ideas, no matter how unfitting they seem in the moment. There can always be a later purpose where it fits perfectly. In the music world anyway.

Note: the sounds are a bit 'muddy' - especially when there are a lot of instruments going on. All pieces I have uploaded are done in raw format, no mastering yet. (Sidebar: Mastering is when you virtually put the instruments in their place. For instance, when facing an orchestra, first and second violin sounds come from the left side. Percussion sounds come from left back. Cellos and double bass sounds come from front right, etc. Also, reverb and ambience and the like are added at this time.) I will get them mastered at a studio in the near future. My job is to write the notes. It's someone else's job to make it sound good ;)

Halloweeny

This is a halloween card for my cousin! Card people make cards for all sorts of occasions - Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Left-Handed People's Day, Nurse Appreciation Day, St. Patrick's Day - just about every occasion or non-occasion you can think of. I'm not THAT hardcore, but I did make this card because I thought it would be funny. Who makes Halloween cards? And for what reason? "Hey, good luck with trick-or-treating..." 

Earlier this year I received a Valentine's card from my cousin so I thought I'd return the favour with a spooky Halloween card. The ghost and candy corn are from my "Sticker-a-Day" Calendar. 

More music stuff to come soon. Working on a couple things at the moment. Also waiting... waiting... for better monitors (not the visual computer kind... the audio reference kind... ah, nevermind... just stay tuned.)

More Purple Stuff

My friend Angela got sucked into buying these Stampin' Up sets from someone who was a Stampin' Up demonstrator (Sidebar: For those of you not familiar with Stampin' Up, think Avon lady, but with stamps instead). Since they had been sitting around her house for a year or so, and she hadn't really touched them, she thought they'd get more use sitting around in my house, and lent them to me. So here I am, using them :). 

This card uses the sets Carte Postale and Delight in Life sets. In retrospect, the mounting on the dark purple should have been done in lavender to match the ribbon, but uh.. it was glued down already and I didn't want to change it. Dots were embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. Ribbon is from Fabricland's closing out sale. Heh heh. Boy, if I wrote that on the real stamping forum, people would probably shun me. That's not even a craft store - I used "no-name brand" ribbon! It's like saying "This sweater is from Army and Navy." All the ribbon and supplies used by the 'pros' are from specialty online shops that do "new releases" every month or so, of a new product, a new color, a new stamp set. And you can sign up to automatically buy everything that is new from them. And they have online parties to celebrate the "release" of the aforementioned items. Some of you may think I'm a craft nut... but... this is nothing! 

Tyro 2

This past long weekend I extracted some pieces from my Technics Digital Piano, so they can be posted to the web. Sound quality is not stellar, as it was recorded through the air, but... that seems to be the best I can do for now, though I am working on a re-jig of the whole piece so it can ultimately be recorded properly.

Some years back, I studied with a commercial music composer in Yaletown for about a year or so. During that time, my assignments included creating some one-minute pieces. The constraints were that the piece had to be exactly one minute (because often you will have to compose something that is exactly X min/seconds long, so you have to be able to do that) and use only repeating patterns of music. Tyro 2 is one of those pieces. Yes, I know, I have to work on my naming of pieces... but hey, if anyone wants to throw out some ideas, I'd entertain them.

At the time I wrote Tyro 2, I was also studying music theory at UBC, and one of the topics we had to learn was advanced polyrhythms, specifically from Indian descent. Imagine an entire class of students simultaneously reciting complex rhythms in syllables like ta-ki-ta-ta-ki-ta stressing a different syllable each time depending on the polyrhythm at hand. It was quite a sight to see. (Sidebar: A bit more on advanced polyrhythms and what that entails. Try tapping 3 times on your right hand and 2 on your left hand... not too bad, right? Now try tapping 5 on your right hand and 3 on your left... How 'bout 4 on the right hand and 7 on the left? It goes on and on). Anyway, this piece has some of that influence. Hope you enjoy.

It's a Bomb! Aw, Thanks!

Here is my second Christmas card of the year entitled "It's a Bomb! Aw, Thanks!" See, the captions fit with the picture. Anyway, thought I'd go with more non-traditional colors, with the purple glitter + color scheme. The background snowflake stamp is from the Michael's $1.50 bin, and uses the technique where you stamp, and then stamp again without re-inking for a depth effect. The snowman stamp is from Stampin' Up's "It's Snow Time," bought in my "baller" crafting days, pre-mortgage. Got it a couple years ago, but never inked, so here 'tis! The paper is from Wal-marto in the States. A giant pack for $6.88. Love it!

First Papercraft Posting!

Yes! Finally had a bit of time to make paper stuff. This is a Christmas card, but with non-traditional colors. The whole light-blue/brown/white colour scheme seems to be quite hip nowadays. The tree stamp is one I got at Michaels in a set by Rubber Stampede. Never used it on a card 'til now. The white dots are pearl white 3D Paint. There is this stuff called "liquid pearls" I keep on seeing everyone use. I think this is pretty close to it. 

Yes. I sewed the button on. I'm not okay with gluing buttons - they have those holes in them; they were meant to be SEWN! Incidentally, the button came from a random pair of shorts I bought. One of those buttons that come attached in a little plastic baggie, should something happen to the 'original' button. I'm sure people buy special 'crafting buttons' - in fact, I have some - but, this one seemed to fit perfectly. YEAH!

Sanguinity

Here is a piece I just finished. Hot off the press. You'll notice that this piece doesn't use much in the way of traditional orchestral sounds. Though there are elements of the traditional orchestra included (strings, for instance, and the odd percussion now and again), it uses mostly other more... 'wacky' sounds. Yes. Wacky sounds. They are from Korg's NS5R synth.

No real story attached to this. It's just instrumental. But seemed to have a "sanguine" nature to it after all was said and done, so that's what it ended up being called. I am poor with titles. Maybe I should just do the "Prelude No. 1, Prelude No. 2, Prelude No. 3..." etc. like those old school composer dudes. It would certainly be a lot easier... Then again, I suppose it would be difficult to remember after a while which piece was which.

"Sidebar" (HIMYM reference - love it!): I had meant to start on papercrafts yesterday, but got sucked in to finish this piece. Maybe papercrafting later. When the goin's good with this music writing stuff, you drop everything and take it.