I Can See A Little Light...
I've been working hard this week, studying Music Theory, so as not to end up failing Friday's Exam...I've got secondary dominants coming out of my ears, but I think it's all finally starting to sink in...I'm even finding areas which I thought I understood from last semester, but actually didn't...and believe it or not, I think it's starting to affect the way I play and compose music...in a good way...more on that later...
In the meantime, I've got a couple of school observations...
This semester, I'm finding ALOT of interplay between my classes...
In my Free Jazz class, we end up using the same language as my Music & The Religious Experience: They both talk about the space that music creates, the intention of the music played and (when talking about trancing) "deep listening" (there's actually quite a few philosophical similarities between trancing and free jazz...) It's really weird and fascinating, actually...
I've already mentioned my inter-related issues with both Theory and the MaxMSP programming in Computer Music...However, I really am finding a nice remedy for both in Free Jazz: After a long night of studying theoretical notation and programming structure, there's nothing better the following morning than listening to recordings of Ornette Coleman blast the rules to smithereens...
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In other news:
Next semester will officially be my LAST semester...Then I graduate...within two years of starting...give or take twenty years previous...
Also, next semester, I will be taking composition lessons from Alex Lubet...I was going to sign up with Doug Geers, but he will be on sabbatical next year, so Alex was kind enough to meet with me and take me on...He will also be helping me with my Senior Project, which (I believe) will be to compose a small chamber ensemble piece...No idea how that will work yet, since I've never really truly composed one before, but I'm excited...It'll also be my first 8xxx level class; the U actually doesn't offer an undergraduate composition program, so I end up with a foot in the graduate door...
To be honest, I'm starting to feel more and more like a grad student every day, partially because of my age and experience, partially because of my classes...I just need to get through Theory and that can become a reality...
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I got a bit of a revelation through a meeting this week with Dr. Damschroder, the Theory prof...We were talking about the fact that I'm a composer, and he off-handily mentioned the fact that, "Oh, well, then theory is just studying the past for you..."
I hadn't thought of it like that before...
I've guess I've had this unreasonable feeling as a composer that if I didn't know the rules, I wasn't REALLY a composer - I was just posing...
Now, I'm finding that composing isn't necessarily about knowing the rules...It's about going beyond them...Sure, theory has REALLY helping me understand jazz improv and has greatly improved my understanding of vocal arrangment and harmonic tension and has made the actual act of transcribing my ideas less intimidating...Theory, however, is a means to an end for me; always has been - I'm just becoming much more comfortable with that fact...
And with that comfort comes a sense of freedom...to do anything...
In the meantime, I've got a couple of school observations...
This semester, I'm finding ALOT of interplay between my classes...
In my Free Jazz class, we end up using the same language as my Music & The Religious Experience: They both talk about the space that music creates, the intention of the music played and (when talking about trancing) "deep listening" (there's actually quite a few philosophical similarities between trancing and free jazz...) It's really weird and fascinating, actually...
I've already mentioned my inter-related issues with both Theory and the MaxMSP programming in Computer Music...However, I really am finding a nice remedy for both in Free Jazz: After a long night of studying theoretical notation and programming structure, there's nothing better the following morning than listening to recordings of Ornette Coleman blast the rules to smithereens...
-------------------------------------------------
In other news:
Next semester will officially be my LAST semester...Then I graduate...within two years of starting...give or take twenty years previous...
Also, next semester, I will be taking composition lessons from Alex Lubet...I was going to sign up with Doug Geers, but he will be on sabbatical next year, so Alex was kind enough to meet with me and take me on...He will also be helping me with my Senior Project, which (I believe) will be to compose a small chamber ensemble piece...No idea how that will work yet, since I've never really truly composed one before, but I'm excited...It'll also be my first 8xxx level class; the U actually doesn't offer an undergraduate composition program, so I end up with a foot in the graduate door...
To be honest, I'm starting to feel more and more like a grad student every day, partially because of my age and experience, partially because of my classes...I just need to get through Theory and that can become a reality...
-------------------------------------------------
I got a bit of a revelation through a meeting this week with Dr. Damschroder, the Theory prof...We were talking about the fact that I'm a composer, and he off-handily mentioned the fact that, "Oh, well, then theory is just studying the past for you..."
I hadn't thought of it like that before...
I've guess I've had this unreasonable feeling as a composer that if I didn't know the rules, I wasn't REALLY a composer - I was just posing...
Now, I'm finding that composing isn't necessarily about knowing the rules...It's about going beyond them...Sure, theory has REALLY helping me understand jazz improv and has greatly improved my understanding of vocal arrangment and harmonic tension and has made the actual act of transcribing my ideas less intimidating...Theory, however, is a means to an end for me; always has been - I'm just becoming much more comfortable with that fact...
And with that comfort comes a sense of freedom...to do anything...