It always comes back to the camp song
School is winding down. I have one more piano class and one more composing lesson. Strangely enough, I have three more French classes, but that's just because of how everything has been scheduled. I think if I still had my other piano teacher, we'd have two more piano classes, but whatever. I have more than enough to work on and am a tad thankful we don't have a formal final, though it would be nice if the teacher said I want you to play X song at Y tempo so I'd know what to work on.
I really haven't been that creative with composing this semester. Last semester I had something new almost every week, and my teacher even gave me some parameters on things to help me out. This semester, not so much, and I realized the other day that I was kind of disappointed about that. I like being challenged and pushed to do things. However, I did show him the camp song and even played Kris's video for him, and that was clearly the most ambitious thing I'd done, even if it's almost four years old now. I've already made a number of changes to it--the song was very top-heavy in places in terms of melody versus harmony/bass, and I've adjusted that--and had a few more things written down that I wanted to do but wanted to get his opinion on before I did anything. Of course, I didn't get to them because we were too busy talking about other stuff, but that's okay. Everything he said was helpful in some way, and overall he really liked the piece and said I'd really written it to the band's level. He even brought up the P-word, getting it published. It's kind of nice to hear that coming from somebody who wasn't a part of camp or otherwise invested in the song. He also mentioned that certain publishers have guidelines about what parts can be written for certain instruments--staying within a certain range, for instance, or not going over the break for clarinets--as well as making sure parts are doubled. Nearly every band has flutes, clarinets, alto saxes, and trumpets; it's the other instruments that cause issues and would need their parts covered. That was something I'd thought about but not in respect to what a publisher would want. That was actually really interesting information to have. I don't doubt I have other band or even orchestra pieces I'd want to write, so I'll have to keep it in mind, or else do a little research on some of the publishers out there. In the meantime, I have to look into finishing up the changes I've been making, because I'd really like to print up copies of the revised parts before I'm done with school.
I really haven't been that creative with composing this semester. Last semester I had something new almost every week, and my teacher even gave me some parameters on things to help me out. This semester, not so much, and I realized the other day that I was kind of disappointed about that. I like being challenged and pushed to do things. However, I did show him the camp song and even played Kris's video for him, and that was clearly the most ambitious thing I'd done, even if it's almost four years old now. I've already made a number of changes to it--the song was very top-heavy in places in terms of melody versus harmony/bass, and I've adjusted that--and had a few more things written down that I wanted to do but wanted to get his opinion on before I did anything. Of course, I didn't get to them because we were too busy talking about other stuff, but that's okay. Everything he said was helpful in some way, and overall he really liked the piece and said I'd really written it to the band's level. He even brought up the P-word, getting it published. It's kind of nice to hear that coming from somebody who wasn't a part of camp or otherwise invested in the song. He also mentioned that certain publishers have guidelines about what parts can be written for certain instruments--staying within a certain range, for instance, or not going over the break for clarinets--as well as making sure parts are doubled. Nearly every band has flutes, clarinets, alto saxes, and trumpets; it's the other instruments that cause issues and would need their parts covered. That was something I'd thought about but not in respect to what a publisher would want. That was actually really interesting information to have. I don't doubt I have other band or even orchestra pieces I'd want to write, so I'll have to keep it in mind, or else do a little research on some of the publishers out there. In the meantime, I have to look into finishing up the changes I've been making, because I'd really like to print up copies of the revised parts before I'm done with school.