Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012
7:47 PM:
The kids are in bed and settled. The evening dishes are washed and put away. I've got my electronic keyboard set up on the kitchen table and the coffee pot is on. Tonight I have a three hour window of time to get some music written for the big band project I am doing for Tyler Hornby. Let's go!
Tonight's goals:
Completed the customization of my template file for this project. Now, onto entering notes.
9:09 PM:
It feels GREAT to have finally made the leap from lists and scraps of paper to entering notes into a score. It now looks and feels like I'm writing a big band chart, rather than just dealing with a collection of vague, abstract ideas. Psychologically this is HUGE!
10:32 PM:
Cracked open a Sam Adams Octoberfest (my first of the season). If I have any more caffeine at this hour it'll be a sleepless night. Since ending my fast a week ago, I have been extra sensitive to caffeine. One evening I had two cups of tea and didn't sleep a wink. I ended up catching a nasty cold which has slowed me down considerably and set me back in my running training.
About a 1/2 hour ago I found a nice contrary motion line for the recurring "measure 16 lick". I like it!
11:57 PM:
I'm calling it quits for the night. My kids will be up at 6 AM, and I'm on my own this weekend. My wife is off in Boston running the Boston Half Marathon. This was a full and busy day. In the morning I mowed the lawn and did some painting outside, and then I spent the afternoon with my kids at Old Sturbridge Village. I'm wiped.
I'm happy with the work I did this evening. So far I haven't deviated at all from my formal plan, and it appears to be working. I like how it sounds with Finale's playback function. Maybe I'll post an audio MIDI file and a score excerpt on Monday. I have about a minute and a half of music done so far. Not all the details are filled in, but I can see where its going and what needs to be done. I'm feeling good and optimistic. This will be a great chart, if I say so myself.
7:47 PM:
The kids are in bed and settled. The evening dishes are washed and put away. I've got my electronic keyboard set up on the kitchen table and the coffee pot is on. Tonight I have a three hour window of time to get some music written for the big band project I am doing for Tyler Hornby. Let's go!
 |
| tonight's work station |
- Start up a Finale file for this project, using my big band template. Enter title, credits, etc.
- Enter notes for the intro and "in head", following the formal plan I created at the end of last week.
Completed the customization of my template file for this project. Now, onto entering notes.
9:09 PM:
It feels GREAT to have finally made the leap from lists and scraps of paper to entering notes into a score. It now looks and feels like I'm writing a big band chart, rather than just dealing with a collection of vague, abstract ideas. Psychologically this is HUGE!
10:32 PM:
Cracked open a Sam Adams Octoberfest (my first of the season). If I have any more caffeine at this hour it'll be a sleepless night. Since ending my fast a week ago, I have been extra sensitive to caffeine. One evening I had two cups of tea and didn't sleep a wink. I ended up catching a nasty cold which has slowed me down considerably and set me back in my running training.
About a 1/2 hour ago I found a nice contrary motion line for the recurring "measure 16 lick". I like it!
11:57 PM:
I'm calling it quits for the night. My kids will be up at 6 AM, and I'm on my own this weekend. My wife is off in Boston running the Boston Half Marathon. This was a full and busy day. In the morning I mowed the lawn and did some painting outside, and then I spent the afternoon with my kids at Old Sturbridge Village. I'm wiped.
I'm happy with the work I did this evening. So far I haven't deviated at all from my formal plan, and it appears to be working. I like how it sounds with Finale's playback function. Maybe I'll post an audio MIDI file and a score excerpt on Monday. I have about a minute and a half of music done so far. Not all the details are filled in, but I can see where its going and what needs to be done. I'm feeling good and optimistic. This will be a great chart, if I say so myself.
what a great post--i can't wait to hear the audio file now that you've talked about the process a bit. this is a very cool idea, Earl!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mitch. I'm trying to "keep it real", while showing some insight into how the process works. I think it was one of your previous comments that sparked the idea of this current blogging series. I appreciate your encouragement.
ReplyDelete