Almost Halloween!

Here it is, the day before Halloween, and I'm sitting at a computer in a lab on campus finishing yet another project.  I don't know about anyone else, but it always seems that about this point of the semester is the time when you feel like you do nothing but homework in the vain hope that one day you will be free.  Let me know if that day ever comes for any of you.

I mentioned in an earlier post how I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween, though I will admit that I agreed to go to a friend's party tomorrow and I am a little excited to go.  I wish I wasn't expected to dress up (I have this mentality on costumes: if you can't do it well, why bother?) but it should still be way fun.  Maybe I'll post a picture or two of it later, should I actually think to take any, that is.

This song has nothing to do with Halloween, however, so hopefully that's not too much of a downer for those listening to it.  It's my first attempt at orchestrating for near full orchestra (no percussion yet) and it took me ages to complete this project for my class.  It's a rendition of Debussy's Sunken Cathedral which I feel sounds amazing on piano already which made this project tricky.  Hopefully it sounds good.

There were some who were wondering about getting copies of some of my pieces, particularly the last one, so if you want any either email me or, if I already know you, message me on Facebook and I'm more than willing to give you the pdf of anything.  Thanks!

Sunken Cathedral - Claude Debussy (Segment - Arr.)

Stress Relief for the Holidays

Yet again it seems as though the holiday season is upon us.  Although I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween at least I can appreciate the time of year it rings in.  Yay, Christmas! :)

Not that everything is always so joyous and wonderful.  Just this week I failed to pass on my recital preview at university which is a major disappointment.  That doesn't mean I won't graduate because I do get to try again though I don't know when at this point, but it also doesn't change the fact that it hurt a bit.  Mostly I've been trying not to think about it.

However, I will mention one thing that I've blogged about before: how great my friends are!  As soon as I got the news my friends became the biggest support to me and it meant so much that they were there when I needed them!

With all that going on I haven't been much in the mood to practice voice quite yet so I've filled my time fulfilling an obligation I committed to a couple of months ago.  I have a friend who was recently assigned as her church choir director and she asked if I could do an arrangement of Joy to the World and O Come All Ye Faithful together and, until now, I haven't had much time to do it.  Guess what I did this week instead of practice? ;) It's been a good stress relief and I hope that I did what she was hoping for.  If not I suppose it will be back to the drawing board.  The parts are mainly derived from the LDS Hymn book and it's not anything amazing, just simple and intended for a congregational choir.  As with most pieces I post here, I'm sure this will sound much better in real life.

Joy to the World / O Come All Ye Faithful - Arr.

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)

Back to School

So here we are, back to school and just a few weeks into the semester.  At least for most people.  This is my final year of school and I can openly admit that I already find myself saying each Monday morning "Three weeks down - twelve to go".  Is this a bad sign?  I'll assume not until further notice.

One thing great about school, though, is getting to see all my friends again.  I love the weirdos I get to associate with!  It doesn't make me feel normal, per se, but I do feel less conspicuous around them.  Just last night we got together just to share cheesecake and ended up laughing hysterically on the floor for hours.  It was epic!

Contrary to what has been my norm for the last few years, I actually do not have very many music classes this semester.  I don't know what to make of that.  One of my few music courses is Orchestration, something I find fascinating.  I've really been getting excited for our assignments in this class so I can play around a bit with writing for specific instruments besides piano and voice.  We're not allowed tons of creativity (i.e. this is not an arrangement class, purely orchestration) but that's okay with me since I'm still learning a lot.

This is my "final" draft of our first assignment.  It's the opening segment of Edvard Grieg's Elfin Dance for string ensemble.  I didn't do anything over the top, but I didn't really want to.  I kind of like the lightness this has.  Anyways, let me know what you think.

Elfin Dance - Edvard Grieg (String Arr.)

Also, in regards to my last post, I still would really love some stories or other such ideas from other people to help me write the libretto for my increasingly pipe dream-esque musical.  Don't want to seem pushy, just want to make a pleasant reminder.  That is all. :)

Book & Blog

It's hard to believe sometimes that summers are never quite so long as you would like them to be.  In some ways I'm excited because the closer the school year comes the closer I am to finally being a college graduate.  But in others I wish it could continue indefinitely.

At least I can't really say I haven't done anything interesting this summer.  It's not often that you have a group of friends willing to do highly unusual activities in public, such as going to movies in your work clothes (it doesn't sound weird, but when you consider I work at a pioneer park it raises the peculiar factor of it all a few degrees).  The only thing I wish I could do more of is write music, but with a computer completely down and an overarching laziness that makes me unlikely to notate the good old-fashioned way, it doesn't really happen.

And so instead I guess I should probably start trying to actually write the book/libretto (music training in me begs that use the formal word) of my musical.  Not that I'm so far advanced in writing the music, but that I should at least get an idea of the sequence of events so that I can figure out where musical numbers should be placed.  Mostly the show, PRIDE, is going to be loosely inspired off events in my life since I'm only ever good at retelling and satirising true stories.

Speaking of stories, does anyone have a story in their life when you didn't feel as though you were being true to yourself or had lost all confidence in you or your abilities?  I would love some input and other ideas to possibly incorporate into the book.  Granted I don't actually know how many people actually read my blog.  I feel a little like Amy Adams in Julie & Julia when she wonders what her audience really is on her blog.  Am I currently watching that show?  Yes.  Does it make me want to cook and blog?  Very much so.  Anyway, comment or email or what have you if you want to help at all.  Maybe here in the future I can even post rough drafts of the script! ;)

The Power of Friends

Sometimes I feel like I have the most active social life when I'm sitting at home alone on the 4th of July because the person I thought I had plans with told me otherwise with one days' notice.  Ever have that happen?  Don't get me wrong, I have lots of friends, but when you have not much time it's hard to make much plan (yes, I know how that sounds). I decided to at least be a little productive and actually post at least twice in a single summer month!  Look at me being all wise with my time (I say after having just turned off Food Network following a three hour stint)!

To those who actually read and comment on things, that really helps me out a great deal.  Obviously if my goal is to write a musical, even if it never hits broadway, I want to at least know what people are thinking of the rough drafts I develop.  I still wish I could actually get some live recordings with vocals of some of this stuff so it's not all so lackluster, but c'est la vie ("La vie!" :))

Earlier in March I posted a rough draft of a song I named "Call Me" from this same musical Pride I've been working on.  I finally got around to playing around with some ideas for lyrics.  I mentioned in the original post that the song idea and melody came to me when I was half asleep, well that included lyrics as well.  Unfortunately even the next morning I forgot nearly all the lyrics that had come to my head.  They may not have even been that interesting anyway - I was half unconscious at the time, for crying out loud!  The only things that stuck were the first two lines of the chorus, which is why they repeat.  Keep in mind also that this is a rough draft, so don't be too harsh.

One thing I've noticed is that I'm not that good at creating stories (unless they're stories like Lewis Carroll would write, because I'm really good at nonsense stories - maybe one day I'll post "The Adventures of the Peach and the Apricot"), however I'm decent at satirizing my own life or reworking experiences I am highly familiar with.  Lyrics sort of follow the same suit.  This is one reason why it can be hard for me to share things because, when it comes to stuff for this show, it's automatically kind of personal.  I just want to help others out from the things that I've learned, and this song is meant to give the sort of advice I received from many great friends in my life.

When life hits us hard we often just see all the bad.
It leaves us so frightened, bitter, so angry and sad.
Sometimes when that hits
It's easy to give up,
To throw in the towel,
But, buddy, please don't shut me out.
I'm reaching out.

Call me, call me when the sun goes down.
Call me, call me when the lights go out.
I know you're feeling alone,
You're feeling lost and depressed,
Just know I'm here by your side
And that I'll never rest
To see you safely home.
No, you're not alone.

I've watched you so long, I've seen you have courage, be strong.
To see you like this, I have to admit - it seems wrong.
What happened to joy?
What happened to laughter?
Denying yourself,
Ignoring our pleas and our shouts,
Please just reach out.

Call me, call me when the sun goes down.
Call me, call me when the lights go out.
I know you're feeling alone,
But that's so far from what's real.
You have your friends by your side,
And if you'll just kneel
And ask Him for that peace,
You'll feel that happy release.

Call me, I'll be there by your side.
Never surrender.
Keep smiling through.
Call me.


These are a few pictures of some of my amazing friends who have given this sort of advice to me in the last couple of years.  Yes, I'm aware the pictures aren't the greatest, but I suppose that can also protect the identities of the innocent! :)

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