Category Archives: Musings

Song by song: Minimize and The Griot

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It’s been a while since I wrote one of these…let’s do two songs this time:

I think of Minimize as my prog song. As I composed it I was reminded of Discipline-era King Crimson with some Steve Reich. There’s definitely a minimalist vibe to it.

I don’t really remember how the Griot came about, but I remember really liking the melody. The rhythm changes between an afro-beat groove in the verses, and straight-ahead rock in the choruses. I could lie and tell you that it’s a juxtaposition of different cultures or something or other, but it isn’t. It just sounded cool…

Open Source Music

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Since the internet has existed, musicians have been looking for ways to collaborate online. A lot of great tools and sites have popped up over the years, but there’s still plenty room for possibilities.

One idea I’ve been mulling over is: what if we take ideas from developer community? If you want a great example of online collaboration, look at any major open source project.

Using software like Trac, they share ideas and propose changes. Not just by stating, but also by actually adding the change. Then others can add to or improve it. Or provide another alternative. And all the changes are kept track of, so you can always go back. Or even break things off in another direction. Here’s WordPress’s Trac, for example.

This is how I imagine it: One guy provides and idea or song. This would include all the files and recordings. Then another guy could come in and make a ‘ticket’ saying “Hey, this part is really cool, but the transition into it could be better.” So he records a new transition.

Things are discussed, others provide different transitions. Eventually, depending on the nature of the project, either the community as a whole or the original composer decides which transition is better, or if a change was needed in the first place.  If it’s not taken, maybe the guy who made the transition could decide it’s such a cool transition, that he starts a whole other project with it. And so on and so forth.

Those who are more prone to work with sheet music, can do all the above, but with notation…which is probably more practical for this type of thing.

Some of you might be thinking  this seems pretty dry, but I find it pretty exciting. Programming can also be a very creative endeavor and we can learn a few things from these guys.

The real challenge though, is to make software with the given functionalities that’s geared towards musicians and not code monkeys. Maybe something exists already that can be used in this way?

So, what do you think? Useful idea or pointless musing?

Influences: Dream Theater

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Last year I started writing about my major musical influences, and it’s been a while since I wrote one…actually, I’ve only written two…

But inspired by the new song Dream Theater released today, I decided to write about them.

I first heard Dream Theater back when Pull Me Under became a hit (or what constitutes a hit in the world of prog-metal). Needless to say, they made quite an impact on me. They were heavy, melodic and virtuosic. The perfect combination to impress a young guitarist.

The other thing I liked was that instead of just having solos, their songs also had a lot of ensemble-playing. This was taken to the extreme on Metropolis Part 1, which was probably the “you-gotta-hear-this-shit” song of ’92 amongst rock musicians…whether to listen in amazement, or laugh hysterically, depending on your tastes.

In any case, their music hit quite a nerve with me, and I became obsessed with it for the next couple of years. I bought all the CDs and videos, learned as many songs as I could…I wanted to be John Petrucci.

However, when I went to Berklee in ’98, and started listening to and playing a much broader range of music, I kinda did a 180. To be honest, their music started sounding a bit cheesy to me. I don’t know if it was simply a change of taste, or me “maturing”, whatever that means. But I think it was mostly me not being impressed by stuff that previously had blown my mind.

Still, when Metropolis Part 2 came out, I was pleasantly surprised. I bought it almost from a sense of duty, but I ended up liking it a lot. After that, though, their new stuff really didn’t do it for me. I still check out every new album, and there’s usually at least one or two songs that I like, but otherwise it really doesn’t do it for me.

But I still respect them greatly as a band and musicians, and the time I spent learning and practicing their songs improved my chops twenty-fold. I have to say though, I like this new song, and I’m very curious to see what direction they take with Mike Mangini onboard.

Dream Theater will always be one of those bands whose new stuff I’ll be checking out. And when I get the occasional nostalgia attack, I put on Images & Words or Awake and shred along.

Song by Song: Pierrot

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pierrotPierrot started with a chord voicing I really liked, and most of the song is built around that. You can hear it most clearly towards the very end, when I let it ring out.

It’s a very pretty chord, but it has this little bit of dissonance that gives it a twang of melancholy. This mixed with the circus-like waltz rhythm made me immediately think of Pierrot, the sad clown. Hence the title.

The middle section goes into a more classical/fingerstyle thing, which for some reason remind me of Opeth. The song as a whole flowed out pretty quickly, but I spent a lot of time hammering out the details: basslines, transitions, and other things. It took a while before I was completely happy with it.

Now the Muso/Tech-speak: This one also uses the C-G-C-G-C-Eb tuning, but with a capo on the 5th fret. The harmony is kinda weird…it’s mostly in F minor, but the constant use of minor chords leads to a very vague sense of tonality in the verse/choruses.

It’s only in the middle section where we solidly stay in F minor…another reason why that part contrasts so well with the rest of the song.

Song by Song: The Single Purpose Room

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Continuing with the song by song posts, let’s talk a bit about The Single Purpose Room.

This song grew out of a desire to do a Aerial Boundaries-type composition, so it starts with a rhythmic pattern in 3 (which, for my fellow music nerds, can be subdivided into 5/16 + 7/16).

The other thing that happened was that I half-jokingly tuned down my low E string all the was down to a G. This is way down in bass territory, and most guitarists will tell you it’s flab city. But it ended up working out pretty well, and I’ve actually used the low G on a few songs already, including Post-.

Originally I played the song without any percussion, but after playing live a few times, I felt like my intentions weren’t really getting through. I almost gave up on it, until I started messing around with looping a percussive loop under it.

This made all the difference…it made the song more energetic and emphasized the groove underneath it.

By the way, the title comes from a Simpsons episode where Nelson and Lisa are meeting in a room somewhere in the school, and “Single Purpose Room” is painted on the door.

Composing & Collaborating

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After moving to Berlin, I took the opportunity to make music on my own, without any outside influence. This was partly due to being oversaturated from being in several bands back in Panama.

Of course I’m insanely proud of all the music I made in all those projects, but it also meant I ended up leaving a lot of my own music on the wayside. And well, being in bands can have other daunting sides, like organizing rehearsals and unwanted drama.

So it was nice to just make music by myself again, not worrying about scheduling rehearsals, or figuring out a way to take all the equipment to the gig, etc…

But now that I’m starting to work with other musicians, it’s made me appreciate much more how important collaboration is. Just adding one musician to the equation can open up a whole new world.

This led me to think a lot about classical music…I think one of the issues with modern classical music, or “new music” as it’s called, is the way it’s made. One guy writes the music, the others perform it.

Sure, the performer has certain liberties in interpreting a piece, but from what I gather, the general idea is to be as faithful the composer’s original intent as possible.

Why must it be ONE guy writing the music? Why can’t it be two or three? What if a couple of them were the performers?

I think we’re missing out on a lot of great music because of this. It’s my experience that sharing and collaborating with others only leads to better music.

So my advice to any budding composers out there: get together with a fellow composer or two. Bounce some ideas around, see what you can come up with together. Or bring a piece to the performers and tell them to be ruthlessly honest about what they think…see if they have any suggestions or ideas. The results could be very exciting and could take the music in directions you’ve never imagined.

And if what you have really is all that and a bag o’ chips, most people will tell you that you should just leave it as is.