Ruminations/recount of recent events.
I've had a fairly eventful week or so.
1. It turns out I'm not getting an apartment in Portland. Due to my Native American tuition waiver, I am eligible for very little financial aid - not nearly enough to afford an apartment. This was a huge disappointment, because now the only option I have is living in a dorm room in Gorham. Bleh.
2. I went to Portland for an interview on Friday. It was for a graduate assistant job for the upcoming semester. I got it! I'm going to be working at the Career Services Office, helping undergrads with their resumes, planning career fairs and other events and publicizing said events. It pays well, and seems like a pretty interesting job. Yay!
After not having any success finding a real job for this summer, getting this job is a pretty big confidence booster. This place specializes in critiquing resumes and helping people improve their interviewing skills, and after a fairly short interview they hired me. I think that's a good sign that I won't be cursed to unemployment and abject poverty for my entire life.
3. Last night I saw Apollo Sunshine at the Bank of America Pavillion in Boston. Unfortunately, they were opening for State Radio. State Radio, I believe, played at some event (Bumstock?) at UMaine a couple years ago or so. I listened to their music on their Web site before said event, and found it to be terrible. My recollection of their performance last night is similar, but I really didn't expect anything out of a band whose claim to fame is partially comprising former members of Dispatch. Apollo Sunshine's set was way too short, and they didn't play anything from their first album (of two), "Katonah," which happens to be my favorite of theirs. They played mostly music from their upcoming new album, which will be released on Tuesday. Although I'm super excited that they have new music coming out, hearing new music live is never as good as hearing music that I'm familiar with. But on the upside, new album coming out Tuesday!
4. Before the concert yesterday, I spent the entire day writing and recording music. This was a very rare occurrence - the two demo/brainstorm ideas I recorded yesterday are the second and third original compositions I have ever written. I felt lazy not doing anything else all day, but I don't regret it, because writing and recording music is such a rare thing for me. The creative process was very different this time.
The first thing I wrote and recorded (henceforth referred to as "Composition 1") originated as a bass line I improvised while jamming with Matt and Dustin. I liked it, so I put it to tape (well, hard drive space). I then made up a drum beat and some guitar parts to put over the bass line, then wrote a new section on bass onto which I added guitar parts and drums, and that's as far as I've gotten.
After that, I was worried about the possibility that I was only able to be creative when playing live with other musicians. I was also worried that I was only able to write original music on bass, and it would always end up being very simplistic.
Well, yesterday I started out trying to add onto Composition 1. I got bored, and felt the new parts I added were boring. I basically got annoyed that every section of the entire "song" revolved around the same two chords. So I started playing around on guitar, and ended up writing parts of two new songs on guitar. They're much more interesting harmonically than the first thing I wrote.
Composition 2 (as I will now provisionally call it) revolves around an arpeggio on electric guitar, with a phase shifter effect courtesy of a program on my computer. I then sort of improvised different potential bass lines over it, some of which I like. That's as far as I've gotten, but I've brainstormed some more ideas that I'd like to record soon.
Composition 3 is an arpeggiated chord progression on acoustic guitar with a capo on the fourth fret, recorded with a microphone. On top of that I recorded a lead part which I think harmonizes very nicely with the underlying progression.
One thing that excites me about these new recordings is that I could very easily imagine singing over them, unlike Composition 1. I think I can attribute this to having written them on guitar rather than bass. I believe this resulted in my writing guitar parts that don't dominate the soundscape; there's enough room to add a vocal melody on top of them, whereas I sort of filled everything up with guitars over the bass line on Composition 1. I'm still terrified of writing lyrics, but I have some ideas floating around in my head. I may soon start a paper diary to document my thoughts and brainstorm in.
5. I go up to Washington County to rake blueberries tomorrow. I'll be there for two weeks, in Medway, MA for about a week, and then I go up to Portland for orientation on August 27. On Sunday, August 31 I move into the dorm room in Gorham, then school and work both start that Tuesday, September 2.
I'm really glad my summer has been more eventful lately. I'm also extremely excited to start school and work. This school year should be so busy that it will more than compensate for all the times I've been bored to tears this summer.
1. It turns out I'm not getting an apartment in Portland. Due to my Native American tuition waiver, I am eligible for very little financial aid - not nearly enough to afford an apartment. This was a huge disappointment, because now the only option I have is living in a dorm room in Gorham. Bleh.
2. I went to Portland for an interview on Friday. It was for a graduate assistant job for the upcoming semester. I got it! I'm going to be working at the Career Services Office, helping undergrads with their resumes, planning career fairs and other events and publicizing said events. It pays well, and seems like a pretty interesting job. Yay!
After not having any success finding a real job for this summer, getting this job is a pretty big confidence booster. This place specializes in critiquing resumes and helping people improve their interviewing skills, and after a fairly short interview they hired me. I think that's a good sign that I won't be cursed to unemployment and abject poverty for my entire life.
3. Last night I saw Apollo Sunshine at the Bank of America Pavillion in Boston. Unfortunately, they were opening for State Radio. State Radio, I believe, played at some event (Bumstock?) at UMaine a couple years ago or so. I listened to their music on their Web site before said event, and found it to be terrible. My recollection of their performance last night is similar, but I really didn't expect anything out of a band whose claim to fame is partially comprising former members of Dispatch. Apollo Sunshine's set was way too short, and they didn't play anything from their first album (of two), "Katonah," which happens to be my favorite of theirs. They played mostly music from their upcoming new album, which will be released on Tuesday. Although I'm super excited that they have new music coming out, hearing new music live is never as good as hearing music that I'm familiar with. But on the upside, new album coming out Tuesday!
4. Before the concert yesterday, I spent the entire day writing and recording music. This was a very rare occurrence - the two demo/brainstorm ideas I recorded yesterday are the second and third original compositions I have ever written. I felt lazy not doing anything else all day, but I don't regret it, because writing and recording music is such a rare thing for me. The creative process was very different this time.
The first thing I wrote and recorded (henceforth referred to as "Composition 1") originated as a bass line I improvised while jamming with Matt and Dustin. I liked it, so I put it to tape (well, hard drive space). I then made up a drum beat and some guitar parts to put over the bass line, then wrote a new section on bass onto which I added guitar parts and drums, and that's as far as I've gotten.
After that, I was worried about the possibility that I was only able to be creative when playing live with other musicians. I was also worried that I was only able to write original music on bass, and it would always end up being very simplistic.
Well, yesterday I started out trying to add onto Composition 1. I got bored, and felt the new parts I added were boring. I basically got annoyed that every section of the entire "song" revolved around the same two chords. So I started playing around on guitar, and ended up writing parts of two new songs on guitar. They're much more interesting harmonically than the first thing I wrote.
Composition 2 (as I will now provisionally call it) revolves around an arpeggio on electric guitar, with a phase shifter effect courtesy of a program on my computer. I then sort of improvised different potential bass lines over it, some of which I like. That's as far as I've gotten, but I've brainstormed some more ideas that I'd like to record soon.
Composition 3 is an arpeggiated chord progression on acoustic guitar with a capo on the fourth fret, recorded with a microphone. On top of that I recorded a lead part which I think harmonizes very nicely with the underlying progression.
One thing that excites me about these new recordings is that I could very easily imagine singing over them, unlike Composition 1. I think I can attribute this to having written them on guitar rather than bass. I believe this resulted in my writing guitar parts that don't dominate the soundscape; there's enough room to add a vocal melody on top of them, whereas I sort of filled everything up with guitars over the bass line on Composition 1. I'm still terrified of writing lyrics, but I have some ideas floating around in my head. I may soon start a paper diary to document my thoughts and brainstorm in.
5. I go up to Washington County to rake blueberries tomorrow. I'll be there for two weeks, in Medway, MA for about a week, and then I go up to Portland for orientation on August 27. On Sunday, August 31 I move into the dorm room in Gorham, then school and work both start that Tuesday, September 2.
I'm really glad my summer has been more eventful lately. I'm also extremely excited to start school and work. This school year should be so busy that it will more than compensate for all the times I've been bored to tears this summer.