Soundworlds

Self-help books, a PowerPoint filled only with pictures, and a reminder of the beauty of a blue sky. I wasn’t expecting the course to end like this, but in retrospect I should have known. Technology is cool, but it’s also just a part of life, to be balanced out like everything else. What’s the other side to amplifying and connecting and communicating and creating? Just being, maybe. I checked out both The Art of Procrastination and Essentialism on Goodreads, and they were interesting, but then I decided that maybe I should just keep doing life the way I am and see how that goes.

Instead of making a long post as I head into my second prac, here’s a poem I wrote on my first.

To a Little Child Who Loves Bees

They will live, the swarm,
even as the new shoot
blocks off their hollow’s entryway;
they will fly in the red dawn
to a new home beyond the branches

even if they do not know
where, or when to,
or if it waits for their arrival.
They will fly anyway, without doubt or fear.
They will fly together into the day.

So do not fear for the bees, child,
even though the leaves spill
brightly through their hiding-place.
We bridge the branches with leaps of faith.
That is the only way we learn to fly.

And now, I think I’ll step away from the laptop and go outside with my partner.

Until next time.

J x

I’ve finished the draft of my composition! I got into a frenetic burst of composing, as I sometimes do, where I do nothing but write for several-hour long chunks. Here is the draft:

I’ll mention a couple of things in detail.

First, I changed the name. I realised that instead of quoting the first line of the poem, “spring is like a perhaps hand,” I was really writing about my own feelings about spring – as a time of transition, energy, and waking. Not quite as subtle as Cummings’ words. That being said, I gave him a little tribute in the title; it’s now “Spring, after Edward,” to represent that it’s a sort of auditory poem.

Section A’ – as intended, it’s got momentum (sticking to the 3/4 time signature, plus the dynamics), but still keeps all the same notes from the first section.

Section C, and the sul tasto wash of sound in the other three instruments as the violin 2 takes the solo. I’ve constructed the wash to centre on the F chord (F lydian, to be specific), but to move nebulously around it while the solo contrasts with its semiquavers.

Section C ends with an emphatic descending passage, which fades into the A” section. Here, I’m going for 9/8 to keep to the theme of playing the same notes in a slightly different grouping of rhythms.

Nice big build here. I love a dramatic build.

This is the coda section, and everyone’s doing something different. Violin 1 is doing a version of motif 2, augmented; violin 2 and viola are doing a legato variation of their parts in section B, the rhythmic one; and cello is doing the opening figure of the piece, but all grouped into one line. I can’t wait to hear this bit – it’s my favourite.

Cello moves to tremolo to build tension, as does violin 1 as its passages get quicker.

The opening figure (appearing in the violin in bar 52) gets layered. Big high chord, then soft low note from the cello to stop. I’m going for the cinematic vibe, I think.

That’s it. Keen to hear how it sounds, and I’ll incorporate any feedback I get into the next post.

Full disclosure: I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time on this project. I came up with a half-baked idea and ran with it, but now that I’ve gotten a chance to sit down and properly look at what I’m working with, I’m not sure how possible my plan is. Here’s what I know now:

I looked at putting custom sound files into the Micro:bit. I looked at some articles and threads: https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?t=3207 and https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/v1.0.1/audio.html. Apparently even if you can get it to work on the v2 using a bunch of complicated Python code, it sounds distorted and plays too long because custom audio files aren’t supported yet.

Then I looked at the Micro:bit itself. Now, the pressure plate alarm article Makecode published requires two Micro:bits, a sender and a receiver. There are only three pins on the microbit you can use for this: P0, P1 and P2. That means I can only really make this work for a maximum of three notes. Not great for an instrument with 5-6 keys, and especially not great if you want to make two of them.

Whatever. 3 keys playing harmonic-less sine waves are better than none. So I found this video of a guy playing the calung, and slowed the video to 0.25 speed and used a tuner app to find the frequencies of the notes he plays.

(The lowest three were 385, 429 and 531 respectively. I played them back on an online frequency player and they sounded about right.)

I’m unsure about this project, but I’m going to do what I can.

Caitlin’s seminar was awesome! I got some good feedback from her. Nothing was too problematic, but the beaming in the 7/8 bars was unclear in the cello:

Caitlin recommended that I split the crotchet in the cello into two tied quavers. Upon further thought, I think I should actually re-beam the whole bar, grouping the quavers 2-2-3 instead of 3-2-2.

Caitlin also asked if I wanted the quavers in the opening slurred to the long notes. I asked her to try it both ways, and I ended up preferring the little lift that the non-slurred version had, so I will keep them unslurred for now.

She seemed happy with everything else, so I’m feeling good. The pressure is on, though, because I need to have a full 2-minute draft to workshop by next Wednesday. Quart-Ed are coming!

I’ve got my structural diagram and I’ve got the music in my head. I’d better get cracking.

This week I learned that Canvas is free if you’re NOT attached to a school. This is amazing news, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what to use it for. I feel like I’m four years old and playing school again, but with a website instead of exercise books.

So I made a Canvas site to indulge my fantasy. I do not have a real class, so I made a course for the choir I direct instead. Hmm…it would be so much easier to organise choir resources in Canvas, but then I’d have to make people join my Canvas, and that sounds like a hassle. Oh well.

I like the fact that you can embed Noteflight in Canvas and have it be editable, if you like. I like that you can embed so many things in Canvas. To be quite honest, though, after getting past the initial burst of power, Canvas isn’t technology that gets me that excited. After all, it’s mostly linked in my brain with assignment submissions and quizzes and readings, which is a bit sad because it is a fantastic all-in-one website.

One thing that I do like is the way Brad structured his Canvas site like he structured his classroom, so there was that immediate spatial link. I love how project-based his pedagogy is, and I have been thinking a lot about putting elements of it into my own practice. We had a chat today about practising what you preach as an educator, and I admit I’m often worried that I talk a big game about student agency and doing awesome fun stuff in the classroom, but won’t be able to put it into practice when I’m in the workforce. Brad has shown me some ways in which I can do that. I guess the rest is up to me.

I’ve written a little more of my composition, bringing me past the 16-bar mark for tomorrow’s workshop with Caitlin (thank goodness). This time, I’ve written the B section, which is more energetic and homophonic. Here it is:

The motifs are clearest in the violin 1 line, but they’re present in the other parts too: motif 1, repeated, and then motif 2, repeated.

I ended up giving the viola a more interesting part to keep the rhythmic pulse going, which I quite like – doesn’t sound as empty as it would otherwise. I’ve used some clashy harmonies – lots of seconds – to give it a crispness and some interesting colours. I’m a real sucker for tonal music that has a bunch of dissonance without being atonal – it’s the sort of music that comes most naturally to me.

I’ve definitely modelled this section off Paul Stanhope’s work with that type of tonality, plus the energetic pace and metric modulations. Like in this piece (which I did get to sing with Sydney Children’s Choir back in 2016):

I’m no Leunig fan, but isn’t this piece just gorgeous?

Anyway, I’ll hear what input Caitlin has for me, and edit my piece. Post soon.

I’m not sure if I came into the lesson with an opinion on the matter, but I left it squarely in BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – camp. We started this week by looking at facts and figures about devices, and the consensus seems to be that young people are using all different brands nowadays, so why make them (or their parents, rather) buy or loan a specific, expensive device that they might not want? Really, all students need to have in common is a browser, and maybe some freeware if they really need it (Musescore works on everything). But the focus of this lesson was DAWs that work entirely through the browser – easily transferable, no downloads. Just like Soundtrap.

So on that note, we looked at programs that are kind of like Soundtrap, but not. I looked at Bandlab, which I’ve heard of before. On first glance, it’s extremely similar to Soundtrap – same kind of layout. However, Bandlab is built for a slightly different purpose.

This is what you get if you use Bandlab as an amp for your electric guitar or bass. You can record straight into the program, and then put a huge array of effects on the track. You can do similar things with Soundtrap, but they don’t have nearly the same number of options. Bandlab is very much built for musicians who play real-life instruments and then tweak the tracks later.

So it follows that if you try to just put notes directly into Bandlab, it’s nowhere near as good as Soundtrap. Bandlab uses a piano roll for every sound effect, regardless of whether it’s drumset, synth or FX. Great if you can play the piano, but not nearly as intuitive as something like Soundtrap’s visual drum layout. The array of sounds is smaller as well.

Bandlab has loops and collaboration options like Soundtrap, but it also has a neat extra feature: the home page, which, as one of my classmates pointed out, looks a bit like a social media feed. To me, it looks quite similar to SoundCloud, a platform people can share their original tracks.

You can also join bands within Bandlab, make posts, like music, and follow other people. It’s the music-making and promotion rolled into one. I think this would be a very exciting place for students to produce and share tracks – everything is smooth and it feels quite official.

The world of online DAWs is very exciting, and I’m considering using Bandlab for another one of my upcoming assignments – my original track for Popular Music Studies. I’d like to know more about it, and I’ll be recording all the instruments myself anyway, so why not plunge into the deep end and experiment with production beyond what Soundtrap can offer?

The Micro:bits (I guess I’ll start spelling them correctly) arrived! Sorry about the bad lighting.

So I also bought the Inventor’s Kit, most of which is for me to play around with in my own time (if I ever get that again). But it did come with a bunch of cords, which will be useful in building my project.

And yes, those are two v2 Micro:bits – the ones with inbuilt speakers. Very exciting. Mine also come with battery packs and USB cables, which is good.

Also: after a lot of fruitless searching, I found some sound samples! I think I can safely assume recording the Con gamelan is out of the question at this point in the semester, but I did find these free samples of Balinese gamelan online.

Royalty Free Instrument Sound Effects – Balinese Gamelan | freetousesounds

Now these aren’t really as specific about the instrument as I would like, but they will do in a pinch.

Now to figure out code.

I’ve made a start! Here it is:

So this corresponds to the initial A section of my structural diagram. The nice thing about the structural diagram is that it doesn’t dictate metre, so I go with whatever I feel will best represent the music I hear in my head. Here, it’s a bunch of metric modulation between 3/4 and 4/4.

I’ve gone with a pentatonic-ish feel in terms of tonality, centring on D with a one-sharp key signature. I am a huge sucker for mixolydian mode (that flat seventh just feels good, I think), but I know I also have a habit of modulating within a piece, so I’m sure that’ll come up as it goes on.

I’ve layered motif 1 (“Spring,” the major second-ish interval) through the instruments, and it’s augmented in the cello. I modulate it up a fifth. Then, at the end of the second line, I introduce motif 2 (“carefully,” the three-note gesture – down, then up) in violin 1, and it gets passed through the instruments. I didn’t want to make it too metric, so I left some gaps.

I’ve treated both motifs more as shapes or “gestures” rather than solid motifs, which is how I like to compose. The idea of “gestures” is borrowed from Damian Barbeler, who taught me composition, and I like it – it allows for more freedom within the moment while still creating unity, plus it removes me from the classical tradition, which is always nice.

Point is, I haven’t adhered to the intervals or notes of the motifs, but stuck to the shape, and that at least is highly recognisable due to how many times I’ve repeated it. This will become a recurring theme in this work. Stay tuned.

I’ve now finished my structural diagram. It took a long time, but remember, it’s a HUGE part of the composition process (for me at least). I found myself, as always, making big decisions about structure as I went along, and I’m super excited to write this. Here it is:

Opening section: pretty much the same as it was. Note that I’ve chosen a modified rondo structure for this piece, because I like the idea of repeating material while still having bits of deviation. Thus the big A.

B section: it’ll be faster and more energetic to cut through the polyphonic wash of the opening. It’s the two motifs put together and looped, basically. It’ll have all the parts in rhythmic unison, I think. I’ll probably develop this more as I compose, though. (That’s the fun bit!)

A’ is going to be more metric and structured than the opening, as I’ve written there. Pretty much the same material, but snappier.

C section is going to be a solo for violin 2, because altos just don’t get enough love. Plus I think it’ll be nice to have a high voice in the wash above it. Everything else will be doing this looping pattern to create the wash of sound (I sure love saying “wash of sound,” huh?) which is basically the two motifs stuck together again. It’ll be a more muted colour – perhaps sul tasto?

It also won’t be as long as this, that was a mistake. I got carried away while drawing.

After looping motif 2 a bunch, the parts will come together in a big homophonic drop. It will ABSOLUTELY be shorter than this so we can have an actual coda.

I will say here: I do like that I’ve given myself some freedom to write the coda as it comes. Some of my best work has come out that way. I know I want to layer 3-4 different iterations of the motifs on top of each other to lead to a big moment at the end, but I’ll see what happens when I do it.

Now I’m finally ready to open Sibelius! (Next week!)