Christmas Cheer & Song Writing Progress

"Bestia" has finished writing itself. Despite the many idea clouds still floating around, the orchestration phase hasn't begun yet. That will probably happen much later. Nevertheless, the condensed piano version is complete. I've been working on snippets of it for a few months now, but I've never been able to complete very much of it during a sitting until this week. You can't force creativity. In my experience, whatever's being designed will do whatever it wants, when it wants. However, one can still provide structure for it to work within. Ideas can be written down and scratched out, later reappearing in strange, but beautiful mutations. 

It's challenging to remain true to who we are. Almost daily we are faced with pressure to become what others would have us be, which can often leaves us feeling robbed of our sense of self. The other day I came across a quote that said, "Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself." I believe that we are able to create and find ourselves. On the religious level, I sincerely believe that each of us is a child of God, spiritually begotten of Him. Because of this, we have a divine nature that we can choose to cast away, or embrace, hence the "finding." The way that we react to our surroundings among other things shapes our character, hence the creating. 

It's kind of the same process with music. 

On another note, Christmas was great. I was able to spend a lot of time with family, including my dog. Tomorrow, the vacation ends, but life is still good. :)

Christmas 2013

And the Endeavor Continues - Composing Music

These first couple months of music-ness have already been an adventure. Between moving to a new state, a new apartment, a new job, being around new people, and figuring out life, it hasn't been exactly what I was planning on. The original plan was to devote as much time to this music as possible this fall, but it hasn't worked out so well. Despite this being the case, I'm not too bummed out about it; some great, as well as not so great things are happening in the process, leaving me with a little more instruction regarding life. 

In the past when I've composed, I've used a looping method. I recorded ideas on the guitar and played them back while simultaneously recording over them again and again. "Heaven Rain" is a perfect example of this. The majority of my compositions have been recorded in one way or another. It helps me understand the bigger picture of where the music wants to go. It's also great because I can more freely add other elements, like the drums... :) When I do sit down to write out ideas, they are just that, but they become more concrete in my hands more than anything. The "finished" manuscripts sport notes with vague rhythms, chord symbols, and no time signatures. This has posed a problem recently, as my focus has been exactly this- writing down my music in Finale. 

This week's task has been "Lullabied." It will be nice to have it written out and eventually recorded. The music I had here was a map of mainly ideas, and I couldn't provide much of an outline for my friends who accompanied me. Either way, with all of its mistakes, this was still an awesome evening. I love playing music with others, especially when there is that "uncertainty" as to what someone will communicate through their instrument.

"Lullabied," original manuscript.