Would You Pay $2,000 for a Domain Name?
I just purchased the domain name "ThorGunter.com" a couple of days ago, which I'm really excited about. There was some thought put into this as well as discussions with valuable friends regarding the name of the new site. I did quite a bit of searching around, and "ThorMusic.com" was technically "available", but only in the sense that the domain name was bought by some other company, and in return they are selling it for upwards of $2,000. I would have liked "ThorMusic.com" but I'm not going to pay $2,000 for it. The company also offers an installment plan where you can pay $200 a month or so for the domain name (you know, like a car payment). ThorGunter.com was available for a cheap price though, so ThorGunter.com it is! I considered ThorteinnGunter.com but was cautioned that people would have trouble remembering it and/or being able to spell it correctly when typing it into their browser.
For the time being, the new domain name re-directs to the Arctic Melodies website that I've had up for a few years. The next step is to design the new website. There was some decision-making and discussion also about whether I would use a template or try to design (or hire someone to design) the site via a Website editor or HTML coding. I won't go into boring details about what I decided to do, but I will say that for now I often can't even press the right buttons on my microwave, let alone figure out HTML coding.
Why The New Site, And What's On It?
The why has to do with the name "Arctic Melodies". The original intention behind this name was for it to be used as an independent record label, which I would use to publish my own music. And I can still do that. However, most successful soloists, from what I understand, use their own name as the brand name of their music. George Winston (American solo pianist) is just "George Winston" in concert, nothing else, and his website is, simply, GeorgeWinston.com. I think this is a better route to go as far as people remembering who I am. The "Arctic Melodies" label, which I may or may not keep, will just sort of be hanging out in the background. A name like "Arctic Melodies" also makes it sound more like a "company" where it's not just me but a bunch of others running the joint. People can get confused.
As far as the content of the site, some of it will definitely be the same as that of the Arctic Melodies site, but the new one will be more geared towards booking live concerts and providing information on CD's and music downloads. The other "services" that Arctic Melodies provides (piano lessons, piano accompaniment, lyric writing, etc.) will still be on the new site but probably not as obvious. Out of all the music students I had for the piano lesson services, only one of them found me on the Arctic Melodies website, and that was still after he first saw an ad for my lessons at The Music Connection. For most of my students the information about my lessons originally came from word-of-mouth.
I haven't provided a time frame or a date yet for when the website will be up and running, but I'm hoping soon, maybe in a few weeks. I already know how I want it designed and organized, so it's now just a matter of designing the webpages and arranging a photoshoot or two. Once it's up and running, my main task will be to fill the "events calendar" with actual events. That means taking time to promote myself locally.
New Recordings and the "Colors" of Instrumental Sounds
Again, I won't be getting into too many technical details about recording equipment or software, but I will be (and have been) re-recording some of the pieces from Heart of Storms as well as other songs that will be downloadable. After that there's the submission to CD Baby and then making sure all of this is available on iTunes. Many of the steps I'm taking are the result if ideas I got from reading the book How to Successfully Promote Your Music on the Internet, which I bought online from the author, David Nevue, who now makes a living doing exactly what I'm planning to do. I've read the book cover-to-cover and picked it apart to the last detail. I'm like one of these obsessed Biblical scholars that knows everything about the Bible, to the very last passage and very last verse -- but with that other book instead of the Bible.
Okay, getting back to the recordings. In addition to using a track for the piano parts, I sometimes add tracks that feature strings or other background instruments. I'm primarily a pianist, but some people know that I'm deeply interested in using other instruments, and one day writing a piece for a full orchestra. Yes, that's a lofty goal, and no I'm not ever going to back down from that goal. I used multiple instruments in very short pieces that I composed for the indie sci-fi film Terminal Glitch, directed by Joshua Siegel. Most of those pieces, though, also featured a piano track that blended in with the other instruments.
When it comes to piano being blended with background instruments I like to use the analogy of music as it is compared with a painting. A composer who writes music for a full orchestra is like a painter, and each instrument is like a different "color". French horns, flutes, violins, percussion instruments and clarinets all sound different and have different "flavors" of sound, just as the colors red, blue, orange, green, purple and turquoise all look different and have a different feel to them when certain colors are painted together or mixed.
When it comes to me using just a piano in a song, it's like doing a sketch with just pencil. A composer who writes solo piano pieces is like that sketch artist. But sometimes (often, actually) I like to experiment by using the other "colors". In Heart of Storms there will be some background tracks, mainly strings, but that's probably about it. Other albums will feature pieces where a piano and the sounds of a full orchestra are featured. One of the most satisfying creative experiences I've had is when I worked on the soundtrack for Terminal Glitch. The music clips are mostly just a minute or two long, but wow was it fun! I used brass (trumpets) in a piece for the first time, and I blended this with the timpani (kettle drums), strings, cellos, and piano on top of that. Sometimes it's just fun to play with "multiple colors" instead of just "sketching", although the piano is still my primary instrument and I will always use that as the main feature in my pieces. And I will always write solo piano pieces as well.
Did I Mention That A Song Is Like A Painting?
This analogy of music compared to art, by the way, is great for teaching music composition to kids. I tell students to imagine a painting of a woman standing in a field of trees. Or I'll just point to a painting if there happens to be one in the room. The woman in the painting would obviously be the "subject," and the field of trees can be thought of as the background. Music is often written the same way. The melody is the "subject" of a song, and the other notes (i.e. the bass notes or other patterns that are often played with the left hand for the piano, etc.), are the "background". The melody should "stand out" a little bit from the background, the same way that the subject in a painting should stand out a little bit. The background is there to support the subject. This is why the background in a piano piece should often be played slightly softer than the main melody (often played by the right hand). This analogy seems to work well with students I've had in the past, and even young kids seem to understand it to a significant capacity. If anything, it ties nicely into a famous quote by Leopold Stokowsky, who said that "A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence."
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