One Sizzling Summer

This has been quite the summer so far.  First off, I have the best job in the world!  I get paid to dress like a pioneer every day and make music with some amazing people and sometimes even get paid to go to things like Fantasy Con and promote the park (hence the picture).  That was particularly interesting since I even got to add the make-up factor to my costuming.  And the people watching.  The people-watching at Fantasy Con was quite good and I was impressed with how open and comfortable everyone was.  Unfortunately some of the girls got particularly comfortable at the store located next to our booth that sold bustiers and corsets.  No comment.

Then, just to underscore how cool the people I work with are, we had a big murder mystery party, with costumes and all, and had a little too much fun figuring out why our co-worker was dead.  I love murder mystery parties!

Well, I suppose there is one thing, but it's just that sometimes I get so fatigued from being out in the sun all day that I have very little energy when I make it home.  That reflects itself in the fact that I haven't posted in a very long time, especially with music.  I try, but it just doesn't happen sometimes.  Because of that I sometimes feel like I've completely neglected this blog which is sad when the whole reason I started it was to force myself to step out of my comfort zone and compose things frequently.  Sigh.

But I've finally finished another piece!  Originally it was supposed to be a choral piece but I recorded it as a string piece and it's going to be for my musical I'm writing.  It's only about half of the song, but something is better than nothing right now and at least this time I fiddled and actually wrote my fiddlings down which means I'll be more likely to come back and finish it later.

Again, please let me know what you think and I hope everyone is having an absolutely awesome summer!  (Despite the heat.  Horrible, horrible heat lately in Utah.  Ugh.) :)

Mid-term Madness

You know, it's hard to find time to blog or do anything not stressful when you're in the middle of your last year of college.  Weird, right?

I am always left amused when I sit back and realise that each of my professors has the idea that, to "help" us feel less busy, they are lighter on the homework at the beginning and end of the semester and pile everything at mid-term.  As "good-hearted" as this may be, the problem is that when everyone is doing the same thing it doesn't really work as they intend.  Instead the students are left with two or three weeks in the semester in which their lives feel like they're about to unravel because EVERYTHING IS DUE AT ONCE!  The result?  One of my classes didn't happen for me on Tuesday and one assignment became ignored completely.  I am okay with this.

Even with all of this going on, Halloween is upon us.  I don't actually care for Halloween very much.  I appreciate the candy and sugar portion of the holiday, but I could live without everything else.  Especially the costumes.  There's a reason I've been a "model" and a "nudist on strike" the last couple of years.  I just don't care anymore.  Some people do and I'm so glad that they do.  They can care on my behalf.

Having said that, this song is my latest project from my Orchestration class I was talking about last month.  This time we were supposed to do a string and woodwind version of a piece from Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos.  I thought it sounded kind of creepy in a cool way so I tried to stay true to that while orchestrating.  This is the closest I get to Halloween.  Enjoy!

Mikrokosmos No. 150 - Bela Bartok (Stgs & WW Arr. Segment)

July Already?

I know I have so many avid readers that were sitting around wondering in their spare time "I wonder why Jordan hasn't really posted anything lately" and becoming very concerned.

Now that I've put my lame attempt at ego to rest, I will still apologise that I haven't tried hard enough to keep writing.  One of the reasons I started blogging was to push myself to write and produce things more frequently and actually get working on all the projects I've been making for myself, and yet that hasn't happened.  Oh, well.  At least I'm trying to get on it now.

You always tell yourself that summer will be the time that you will work on all the things you don't have time for during the school year, and yet I personally get so busy during the summer that I don't want to spend my free time doing anything except lying on a couch and vegging out after work.  I can't complain though since I love my summer job and wouldn't rather be doing anything else!

So here's something very rough I put together tonight.  I found I had some free time and finished plucking out a crude melody and accompaniment on the piano and just wanted to see what some of you thought of it.  It's going in the show "Pride" I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post and will be sung by the female lead to the male lead who is offstage.  After some tweaks I think it will be pretty good.  Thoughts?  Musings?  Concerns?  Awkward moments to comment about? :)

Someone to Watch Over You

I Finally Finished!

Somehow, at long last, after a very long week I've finished another song!  It only took me a month to finish a new piece.  Why would this take me that long?  I wrote the first two-thirds in two days.  Whatever.

How long a week, you ask?  It's no big deal.  Not like it's the second to last week of the semester and suddenly every project is due in every class.  Can't tell you how much I enjoy that.  Probably about as much as I enjoy placing a spider on my face.  Nah, that's a little harsh, maybe just gnawing off a limb.

Now all of that is done and I can focus my attentions on other things.  This isn't necessarily one of the most important things I could accomplish right now, but I'm still happy!

Again, if there is anyone reading willing to help me out so I could have a proper live recording of something I would owe you so much - like cookies or something...  If you want to read the lyrics so you know what's going on, feel free.

If I should die

Work in Progress

This is the point where I'd usually share some interesting point of my life to tie it into what I'm planning on sharing with the world, but to be honest not much has really transpired.  My life is ever so interesting.

Anyway, I have another song that's fairly new.  Just as I was heading to bed a couple weeks ago a melody came in my head that I've tried really hard to remember.  I think I still have the majority of it there, but if you've ever been in that situation you know how annoying it can be when inspiration strikes as you're falling asleep.  I'm of the opinion that God does that just to make you frustrated that you were almost really awesome automatically and then takes it all away whilst you slumber.  Oh, well.

So, back to my story, I hurried and put together something on the piano and recorded it so I could remember it and get something solid I can have faster than what it would take to notate.  Long story short, here's a new piece for my musical that is still a work in progress, but this gives the general idea.  When inspiration strikes at my bedside again, maybe I'll finish lyrics for it.  Ha ha!  In the meantime, enjoy and let me know what you think! (But no comments about the playing - I was improvising and kept second-guessing what the next chord was supposed to be. :))

Call Me (Preview)

Surprise! . . .or Not so Much

I had a completely different idea in mind for this post until last night.  Now it's story time!

Last night we had the opportunity to sing an Anglican Evensong here in Logan which was really cool.  Afterwards I had a recital to go to then plans for dinner with a few friends.  When I arrived at my friends house they actually were throwing me a surprise party - though not so much a surprise.  I had kind of figured it out a week before that they were going to throw me a party either last night or tonight so I wasn't completely surprised by it all.  I felt a little bad because I know my friend had put a lot of thought and effort into the party, but she didn't hide things as well as she should have.  Besides, I'm kind of nosy and a little too observant sometimes.  It made my night, regardless!

I also finished this song last night.  The first half I wrote probably around 2 years ago and never finished it so I decided to try and finish it last night.  It's nowhere near perfect, but you can let me know what you think.  It may or may not be the last one for a while since there has been a computer error on my old computer and all my old songs may be lost (yeah, I'm a little freaked out about that).

So you all know, I really appreciate everyone who has been listening and giving feedback. Though I don't like to share it, music has little point if no one hears it.  I love the world! :)

Prelude in F Major

Choir Music!

I'm starting to feel as if all I'm preparing to post up here is really old pieces I wrote when I was just barely beginning, but I know I've come a long way and that my stuff is actually good now.  To prove it to myself I wrote this choral piece this afternoon as a challenge to myself to write something without hearing what it sounded like first relying solely on my voice leading abilities.  I'm actually a little proud of me, if I do say so myself! :)

I don't think I'll ever write words for it, so I guess I'll just call it an "invention" and leave it to be sung on "ah" or "ooh" or something like that.

(Okay, people really don't realise how much out of my comfort zone I am when I post things here.  It's terrifying!)

Choral Invention in C-sharp minor

Spirit's Rest - Piano Solo

Sometimes I feel like I'm suddenly really eager to get all this music out there, but at the same time I don't want to wait a while and prolong posting just to put up something like this piece.  It's not my favourite or best, but I still enjoy it.

Okay, here's the story:

I wrote this piano solo over three years ago before I had any sort of music training beyond the basics of song harmony.  It was Christmastime, the end of the semester was coming up, and I had no ideas for gifts for my girlfriend at the time.  Being a poor college student who feels like I have no real talents to offer, I figured I would just write her a song.  I had had bits of this melody in my head before then but this seemed like the perfect time to actually write it all down.  Great idea, right?

All in all it took me about three days to get it all finished.  We went out on a date one night, I took her to the music building to find a piano, and I played this for her and gave her the score to keep.  We ended up breaking up about two months later.  Romantic, eh?

Well, I still have this.  It's very simple and I've discovered non-chord tones since then which I love!  At any rate, I hope somebody enjoys this.

Spirit's Rest

Dan's Theme - Piano Solo

This blog is meant to force me to share some of the compositions I create.  I do it quite a bit but don't typically like to share them with people, but hopefully if I do this I will feel I have to finish projects and put them out there for people to listen and critique.  That thought really terrifies me so I'm putting myself out on a limb here!  I'll probably also likely end up using this as a sounding board, since I know many people likely will never find this and I can feel free to unleash things to the Internet!

Most of the stuff I do is more musical theatre and classical since I'm a trained singer.  These are all pieces I have in my head that I write down on occasion, but I by no means feel they are perfect.  To start I thought I'd just share one of my more recent compositions.  It's a piano piece entitled "Dan's Theme".  Maybe some time in the future I'll elaborate on the title, but for now you can just listen and enjoy (hopefully!).  This is converted from a MIDI file so there are some tempo/ritardando issues that don't appear.  Just use your imagination.  (Oh, for any that care or even know what it means, I would term this to be a sonata-rondo.  That is all. :))

Dan's Theme