64Digits

Finally.

Anyway before the actual blog, here's a quick question: Should I start doing game reviews? They wouldn't be amazing or funny like Cesque's shenanigans, but just basically be me ranting on about what's good and bad about a game. Should I do that?

Actual blog:

First up, here's what I got for my birthday:

$90 (I got some for graduation though)

Ocarina of Time 3D

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

$20 3DS card

New strings for my guitar (One broke, but I don't play too often)

Arm weights for when I march (So I can get more muscle, a 6 and a half pound instrument isn't enough anymore :P )

Also I'm going to get a laptop for college soon. Not sure what to do with all the money I have. I was considering getting the air fixed on my car (No AC in Texas = fun!) but I'm not taking that to college so that would be pointless. I'm going to buy another kick pedal for my Guitar Hero drum set since it's annoying to play on expert with only one.

Speaking of college, I graduated High School this year, and I've been taking an english class at a community college, since I suck at writing and Baylor supposedly has really hard english classes. It's only one class, but it takes up time and I haven't had much of a summer yet, but it ends on the 5th (Like a half cadence) so that'll be nice. I'm going to leave on August 13th to go to Baylor University in Waco- Mechanical Engineering major with a minor in math. I'm also going to be in the marching band and I'll still be playing music, so I'll be pretty busy. If I don't like engineering, I'll probably change and be a music major, but then I won't have a career. Oh well.

Warning: Most of the rest of this blog is just me rambling on about music.

I started composing music a couple months ago, because I wanted to make an unaccompanied solo to play for the Solo Contest. There aren't many euphonium solos, and the one I was playing was actually for trombone so I couldn't quite play it like it was meant to be played, so I started writing my own. I also wrote it without a piano part, so that I could save money AND not have to go through the hassle of practicing with a pianist. That was a pretty good move, since most people who had accompanists got this lady that wasn't too great at piano and it hurt they're performance.

It started out as me just improvving in D major/b minor but I started writing down the parts of it I liked and based my improv off of that, so there wasn't too much theory or structure used to make it- I don't like having restrictions. Rather than have a main melody, I decided to just embody an emotion: sorrow. Eventually I was just going to have a couple "mood changes" and have the entire piece be maybe 10 minutes, but I decided it was best to cut it into movements. I took out the transitions and added endings. Eventually, it became a learning experience, which is why each movement is a different mode. Here's a list of the movements, hidden because it's not too interesting:

I-b minor- Just a slow, sad piece that ends quietly but happily in the relative major. It introduces a couple "ideas" or short phrases that are referenced in later movements.

II-D major- Sort of a happy, almost-march kinda thing. This is the only one where I had a main melody that reoccurs throughout.

III-D phrygian- Bipolar and pissed off. Starts off with the melody from II but quickly modulates to phrygian where it becomes very quiet and ominous. There are occasional quick "stabs" of loud notes, but that quickly goes back to the quietness. Suddenly, hell breaks loose and everything suddenly gets very loud. Throughout, there are some pockets of movement 1 that show up, sounding very beautiful amidst the chaos. Then, this repeating line begins; slowly and quietly at first, but then it accelerates and crescendos. Eventually, the rhythm changes and becomes more complex, requiring decent double-tounging. Just as it begins to seem like it's going to get impossibly fast, it drops down to quietness again but even faster it ramps up until it shoots up and octave and ends very, very loudly- and then there's a nice deceptive cadence as a tonic triad of the parallel major is played. One of my favourite movements.

IV-D dorian- This one is pretty unique also. The first 16 or so measures are just re-articulated D's, but with accents placed on some to keep a rhythm going. It's in 8/8, but there are isolated measure of 7/8, 5/8, and a small section of 6/8. There are also two slightly-jazzy sections, and then a cadenza near the end. After that, it quietly goes away, repeating some of the jazzy parts, but slowly and melodically, along with some lines from the earlier movements. This movement is entirely based on the style of how you play.

V-D mixolydian- First off, I dislike mixolydian, so this movement is maybe 45 seconds long. Just a silly, joyful movement.

VI-D lydian- On the other hand, I like lydian. It starts off with arpeggios of the tonic triad, to make you think it's just in major, but then the augmented fourth is introduced. A repeating phrase is introduced, that contains an unresolved 7th and the augmented fourth; as dissonant as you can get with just 1 instrument really. This accelerates until it breaks out into a different phrase, and then it ends by going back to the first recurring theme, and then ending with some double-tounging.

VII-D locrian- This one isn't entirely finished. Similar to the phrygian movement, it jumps from quiet and beautiful to loud and pissed. It alternates between a couple quiet sections, with loud fast cadenzas between each. It ends quietly, but after a slight pause there are 2 loud notes, just because it's funny to scare people :P

VIII-All keys with a home note of D- Haven't written this yet, but it will combine the ideas of the other 7 movements, only everything will be exaggerated. The loud parts will be louder and faster, the quiet parts will sound even better. I've just been too lazy to write it.

Without the 8th movement, I think it's about 22 minutes long. I only have 3 and 4 typed up because it's a pain to type these up, the rest are on paper. I would provide some recordings, but the acoustics in my room suck, so I'll need a room with good acoustics and a good quality mic. I played movements 3 and 4 for Solo contest, and I was going to play 7 for my marching band audition, but decided against it. I'm not sure if I'll compose anything after that. If I do, it'll probably have structure and make more sense theory-wise.

I've been playing mostly just TF2 and Guitar Hero lately. I can only drum since I hurt one of my fingers (it's almost healed!) and I've actually gotten pretty good at it. I wish TF2 didn't have a limit for items per week, I'd play more otherwise. If you wanna play either TF2 or Guitar Hero(360), I'm down for that.

I dunno, I don't feel like much worth mentioning has happened lately, guess that's all I have to say.

EDIT: Forgot something!

I've been learning a lot of new music lately. Here's a quick list of some of the things I can play on the euphonium:

Lord of the Rings theme (and a couple other LotR songs)

Some Zelda music

Mario theme song

YYZ by Rush (I've learned most of it)

Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas (most of it)

Black Dog by Led Zeppelin

I arranged Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, but it has 3 parts.

Bare Necessities from Jungle Book

Star Trek theme (I might've forgotten it though)

Universal Studios theme

Part of Schism by Tool

And more!

I have a large list of things to learn, such as the theme from Up, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time, and Spanish Flea. If you want to request anything, go ahead! I'll put up recordings once I'm able to record.

pounce4evur 12 years, 5 months ago