I briefly mentioned in the News tab of my website that I was going to be playing a wedding gig in September. This will be a good opportunity to network with a couple of other musicians (two vocalists that I haven't met yet) and to gain more experience. I'll be accompanying the two singers, and one of the songs includes Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", one of my favorites (you can also read about the artist in another blog post I wrote last year, by clicking here). The only other time I did an accompaniment "gig" is when I played the piano for a vocalist who sang Christina Perri's "Lonely" at a talent show. It was enough experience for me to "catch the bug" and be more than willing to do an accompaniment again. There's something rewarding about collaborating in real-time with other musicians and having to get everything "just right".
I've only been able to reach one of the vocalists (by phone) so far, and will be meeting with both of them on Sunday morning to talk about the details--where we'll set up, the order of the songs to perform, and when we'll have our dress rehearsal. I've already begun practicing "Hallelujah" and the actual accompaniment is not difficult. I'm not used to only having to play the background, without having to worry about the melody, and I have to admit it's pretty nice.
Halfway to Completion
August In Bloom (the piano album I'm producing) seems to have been more like a series of experiments rather than a straight-forward album project, and in a good way. I now feel like I understand ProTools 12 like the back of my hand, at least in the capacity that I need to in order to finish the project. I'm halfway done, for the most part (there are 10 tracks, and 5 of them have been successfully recorded). As luck would have it, the album just may be finished by some time in August, making the title quite appropriate for the timing ;)
I believe one of the best approaches is to originally record acoustically. The final recording ends up being digital. But yes, I can play acoustically first, and at the same time record that into the internal memory of the hybrid piano (Yamaha AvantGrande N2). All I have to do after that is play it back, but during the play back I have the piano plugged into the digital recording software. Playing acoustically requires me to get up early, because I have office neighbors and I need to be alone when I play out loud instead of playing with headphones. The bottom line with this issue is that playing acoustically just does something to me where I instantly get inspired to play way, way better, and with much fewer mistakes.
Official Transition to Chico's New Music School
What was once The Wright Keys Academy (the piano school on Vallombrosa Avenue, in Chico) is now owned by Vincent Chambers and bears the new name of Apollo Academy of Music, and soon to be a full-fledged music school that offers classes in a variety of different instruments, as well as music workshops and group lessons. There are package deals being offered right now (Fall and Spring tuition) and some word-of-mouth going on. So far, the folks I've talked to about this seem excited, and the first student I taught at the location seems thrilled.
A few people have asked me questions about the actual piano store itself (Apollo Piano) and yes, that location will stay. In fact, it has been upgraded! The beautiful pianos in there have been rearranged, and new furniture has been brought in to make guests more comfortable. Maybe they did a study showing that people who sit down to listen to piano music are more likely to buy one--who knows :D The store also has a new employee whose job is to keep the books and schedule all the appointments while she's there in the mornings. I'm there two days a week, and I think my job is to hold the floor down with my feet, and drool while I stare at the pianos. Okay, so maybe I've done a few other things while I'm there (print out price signs, answer phones, greet customers, and, you know, drool while I stare at the pianos).
The entire Apollo Piano staff had a meeting recently at a very quiet and work-conducive space (a rusty pizza joint, with beer) and we discussed a number of issues, including a problem having to do with Apollo Piano's moving service. When you sell pianos, you generally have to offer piano moving services, and this can be challenging for several reasons. Since this delves into something a little different than the issues I want to focus on, however, the piano moving plight will be a topic of another post.
In the mean time, I've finalized my routine for the rest of the summer, as well as the routine I'll start when I go back to teaching some of the ESL classes at Sutter County Schools. For now, maybe I'll shoot for having that album done in August-ish. Something has to bloom out of the hot month of August, so it may as well be a finished album :D
In recent days I've been staying busy recording and editing for the upcoming album August In Bloom, and for a while it was an obsessive-compulsive game of finding the "acoustic sweet spot". I had to get into my mad scientist mentality (see my previous blog post) and I kept experimenting until I found something that was at least close to the sound I wanted. The phrase "acoustic sweet spot", by the way, is not an accurate technical term. I ripped it off from an episode of The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon "tests" the acoustics in a movie theater by making embarrassing noises while his friend Leonard is in there, trying to impress his date. But, I digress...
For me, the sweet spot is the ideal sound from the recording of August In Bloom. It took multiple sound tests and multiple recordings for me to finally say, "Okay, I think I can record a song with these settings and confidently hand someone a CD." The intricacies of ProTools 12, the software I've been using, are many. It has also been one set-back after another, even if some of them are more-or-less excuses. Now, however, barring my admittance to a hospital and ending up with no limbs (or something just as drastic) there is no excuse for me not to work on this album. I had the option of teaching a summer session at the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools in Yuba City (my part-time day job), but I declined the offer, specifically to give myself more time to work on this project. So, say it with me: "No excuses, Thor!" ;)
Doing things my way...
Summer is just about here, and while many folks warned me that it's common to lose a few music students during this time of year, my clientele has stayed about the same. I lost a few (or, I should say, they informed me that they're "taking a break" from piano lessons), and this caused my count to dwindle a bit, but then I gained more students after that, keeping the count about the same as it was in the first place!
My next focus is going to be my curriculum. I've been experimenting quite a bit because I listen to feedback from different students. One of them, a retired woman in her 60's, absolutely loves one of the lesson books I use (The Alfred Piano Library) but a lot of the kids hate it. In response to this I looked at other publications, and I've ordered a stack full of lesson books from Amazon, but every book and every publication always has something that seems to be missing, at least for my teaching style.
The solution? (Yes, there is one! :) ) I've been using Sibelius software, which is a program that lets me write and print out my own sheet music. This means, of course, that I can write and print out any song, whether it's a cover or one of my own, and I can use it to design my own exercises. So all that's necessary to fix this is to write
and print out my own exercises, and fill in the "holes" that I've found in the other books.
Here come supplemental materials, here come custom-made lessons, here come happier students, here come more phone calls from folks who want to take lessons :D The fun part is that I found a way to increase the size of the print when I write the notes out on the program.
It's almost as if "technology" is a big thing nowadays...
Okay, I know that the title above is the item that appears last on the title of the actual blog post, but I don't care. That's the wonderful thing about having your own blog :D
That being said, I have something to say about productivity. As most people know, this is just a fancy word for "getting things done." All jobs, careers, duties, tasks, etc., whether it's writing a report, cleaning a toilet, repairing a pressure system on the International Space Station, wiping the snot off your 3-year-old's nose, or writing a symphony -- all of these "tasks" require productivity. If they didn't require productivity, they wouldn't be tasks.
Needless to say, composing and creating music is no exception to this. Different types of tasks also require different time frames, and this is where the "Mad Scientist Syndrome" plays a key role.
How long does it take to clean a toilet? Twenty minutes? That's not a particularly long time. But how long does it take to write a symphony?
The writing of a symphony, or any other task that requires a similar amount of effort (as well as training and talent) is one that obviously calls for a longer time frame. Jobs that require these lengthy time frames are the ones that require the Mad Scientist mentality. Wiping your kid's nose is easily done by dropping what you're doing and just doing it quickly. "Drop everything and just do it" can be tricky to pull off, however, when the task involves writing an opera, building a house from scratch, starting a business, sculpting a statue, or designing the blueprint for a new shopping mall. When it comes to lengthy tasks like these, where do you start? "Just drop everything and do it real quick" isn't a realistic answer, but "Drop everything and just start," is. Why not start now? It may take you three months, three years, or more than a decade, but there's no better time than the present.
If a tree fell in the woods...
No, I am not asking that old question about whether a tree makes a sound if it falls when no one's there to hear it. (This is an easy question, by the way: Yes, it makes a sound. It creates sound waves. The sound waves are still there, even if nobody is there to detect the them -- it's not exactly rocket science). What I do want to accomplish, however, is making a connection between a fallen tree and this Mad Scientist syndrome I mentioned.
In 1997 I worked at a private resort near Santa Cruz, where my job was to maintain and clean cabins for the guests. I remember on one of the days that I worked there when a tree had fallen over unexpectedly, and as a result the landscapers had to run out with chainsaws and spend a day and a half sawing up the tree and removing it, so that it wouldn't block the trails. I don't know why, but I distinctly remember talking to one of the landscapers.
"At least you're getting your exercise," I told him jokingly.
"Yeah," he replied. "Well, I was going to clean the pool, organize the shed, check up on the electrical, clean the gutters, AND take a trip to the city dump. But instead, THIS tree here just had to fall over, so we've gotta spend all day taking care of that instead."
Just like the fallen tree incident that day, there are some tasks that suddenly become necessary because of an unexpected event, and if the needed task is something that requires nearly all of your attention, and/or is overwhelming and time-consuming, then often times everything else has to be dropped.
This was similar to what happened when I decided to take on the task of making a 15-minute slideshow for my aunt and uncle of their trip to Antarctica -- and yes, I was like a mad scientist, wrapped up in the work and the recordings, even forgetting to eat lunch. I was like that landscaper guy who had to "drop everything" and get it done -- you get lost in the work and feel energized because there's so much to do and somewhat of a sense of urgency.
This mad scientist mentality is healthy, in my opinion, because it helps to maximize quality. I've seen a lot of people get into this mindset and thrive on it. When it comes to music, musicians and composers should try and get into this frame of mind when they're creating something. I had quite a few other things on my plate that I knew I had to get to, so I didn't spend quite as much time on the Antarctica project as I wanted, but I finished it nevertheless. Agreeing to take on that project was a lot like being a landscaper and having to deal with a fallen tree unexpectedly; I had to drop everything and focus on just that.
More Time Needed for the Album
The recording project August In Bloom, my next piano CD, is taking up so much more time than I anticipated that for a few days (or maybe a week or so) I was feeling frustrated and discouraged. I realized, however, that this feeling of pressure and angst was because of the deadline I had set for myself (April 29th). The recording process has not only been time-consuming, but it has been a series of experiments. I ended up upgrading my software, which in turn required me to buy a new (better) computer, which in turn also required me to install and learn how to use the new software. Basically it has ended up with me spending more time doing sound and recording tests rather than recording the actual tracks. So I submitted a request to myself and asked myself permission if it was okay to extend my own deadline, and I told myself "damn you Thor, what's your excuse this time?" and after explaining to myself how I wanted to find the right sound, I granted myself the extension. This clearly took a lot of convincing ;)
The background tracks (strings, percussion, etc.) are being included in most songs, so this also requires more of my time. There is no rest for the Mad Scientist.
Play the notes right. Okay, now play them differently...
I talked about something called "Controlled Imperfection" on the last edition of "Piano Thor'sday", so I figured I would cover the topic here as well. As I mentioned during the broadcast, not all musicians know how to read music (many of them don't), but those who do were probably taught, originally, to play the music exactly as it's written on the paper, in the most accurate and best manner possible. If you're playing a piece by some other composer, this is generally true (sort of). Well, at first anyway. I tell my students this at the early stages of my Beginner Course. Then, if the student ends up being with me for a number of months, I tell them not to.
Sheet music is perfect for showing you which notes to play, and what the beat is. It also gives you a general idea of what the tempo is (the speed of the song). But, as any seasoned musician knows, many things about how to perform a piece are subjective. These subjective elements about musical performance are, in my opinion, grossly understated by most music teachers. I'm one of those teachers who has no problem telling a kid a bunch of rules about note-reading, and then telling that same kid to bend those very rules, just for effect. If the kid knows which rules he or she is breaking, and knows why they're being broken, what's the harm? It's the good old Mark Twain effect. The famous author certainly knew the rules about English grammar when he wrote Huckleberry Finn, but he deliberately broke a variety of rules in order to use a dialect that was common in that geographic region.
As many people know, performers who play the correct notes in a piece but have their own "style" (they play it at a certain speed, they perform at a certain volume, they play certain parts gracefully and other parts aggressively, etc.), it's called a performer's interpretation of a piece. The fun part about learning music is how free you can be to interpret pieces in your own way. During the broadcast last week I covered four ways that you can vary your interpretations of a piece, which I've summarized below.
Four ways to explore your interpretations 1. Vary your tempo (a.k.a. change your speed)
Pianist Valentina Lisitsa concentrating on interpretation while playing a Nocturne
When playing a song, speed up in some places and slow down in other places. There is a healthy balance between doing these two things at just the right time. This technique normally only applies to music that doesn't have a consistent drumbeat, like most rock and pop songs do, so if you're in a band and writing a song that involves a drummer, this might be an exception (but not necessarily). For any kind of solo performance, though, whether it's a flute, a guitar, a piano, a violin, etc., I typically suggest using this technique fairly regularly. The beautiful part is that you can actually master this to the point where the listener almost-sort-of doesn't know there's an actual beat, even though there is one. The listeners can hear the beat, but they can't. Or the beat (even the time signature) can just change completely during a song.
2. Create a delay
So, wait. You're playing certain pairs of notes together, just like the sheet music tells you to do? What are you, crazy? ;)
In printed sheet music, notes that are to be played simultaneously appear to "line up" so that if you took a ruler you could draw a line and the notes would both touch the line. It's generally good to play many of these pairs of notes together, but occasionally it's also very effective to play them so that there's a slight lag, or "delay," meaning you play the lower note a split-second before the higher note. I do this frequently and deliberately, and it creates a very nice sentimental effect, thus showing this so-called "controlled imperfection". It shows that you're human and not a robot, making the song sound far more emotional and touching. This is very common among soloists and vocalists alike, and again you can see examples of it on my broadcast from last week (you can watch a recording of it here). 3. Vary your dynamics
The musical notation for a crescendo (getting louder) and a decrescendo (getting softer). The 'p' signals you to play quietly, while the 'f 'signals you to play loudly.
One of the things I tell people often, especially students, is that playing music is one of the only times in life when it's acceptable to be a complete drama queen. In music, "dynamics" refers to the loudness or quietness of the notes during a piece. Most instruments allow for this, with some exceptions (i.e. the harpsichord apparently has a fixed volume level). The harder you bang on a piano, however, the louder the note will sound. The harder you dig your bow into a string on a violin, the louder the sound will be that comes out. It's wonderful. This dynamism and variation in the volume of an instrument allows for a huge range of potential for emotional expression.
Sheet music does, actually, have symbols for changes in dynamics (i.e. there are symbols for a crescendo, meaning to "play louder", as shown above) but the measure by which how much louder you play and the decibel levels are not exact, so it's still pretty subjective. This subjectivity is what makes it fun to be a performer -- you can interpret the song how you want.
4. Let some of the notes linger
A fermata symbol, used in music to indicate
that a note needs to be held longer than its value.
A soloist can play the next note at his/her discretion,
whereas a musician must wait and play the next note
at the conductor's discretion.
Many pianists and other instrumentalists will occasionally play a note for a longer duration than what's written on the sheet music, causing a certain note to "linger" before playing the next note. I demonstrated this during my live stream last week, but you can certainly see more examples of it from other performers. There are symbols for this as well, such as the "grand pause" (two diagonal lines directly after the note that's supposed to linger) and the fermata, illustrated to the right.
Since I know that examples always help, I attached a video of world renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin below. He's playing a piece by Chopin (from memory, of course, hence he no longer needs the sheet music) but if you listen to it and watch him you can clearly seem him using the techniques of interpretation I mentioned above.
Hope this helps. Beethoven said it best in his famous quote, which I feel really pin-points this entire discussion: "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable."
No, I didn't go to Antarctica, and no, I didn't adopt a penguin. I would never actually adopt one anyway -- I mean, sure, they're cute, but I heard they poop everywhere.
The titles and headings of blog posts (or Twitter feeds) can sometimes be misleading, and I've had at least two people ask me if I actually went to the deserted continent(hence the title of the heading above). What I did do, however, is agree to put music to an Antarctica slideshow for my aunt and uncle. They visited Antarctica years ago, and have saved a plethora of penguin pictures, as well as pictures of the magnificent cliffs, shores, snow, etc., involving their trip to the bottom of the globe. To clarify, I've already done a slideshow with my music for my aunt's retirement ceremony, which she's having in February.
The fun part about making these slideshows, aside from living through my aunt and uncle vicariously, is timing the slides so that the music syncs up with the pictures. I used my song "The Falls of Dynjandi" for the retirement one, and now I have my work cut out for me as they want one for their Antarctica trip. The images are amazing to look through, as you can see by the couple of pictures I provided below.
There's no deadline so far for finishing this particular project, since I'm still working on August In Bloom, but I'll definitely provide updates on the progress. I normally use Windows media player to make the slideshow, but have also been experimenting with another program by Sony called Imagination Studio. In the mean time, you can check out the slideshow I did for my aunt (below). It's dedicated to her upcoming retirement ceremony but a few Antarctica shots are still included.
My uncle checking out the finished product.
A concert in the works!
Speaking of something that has nothing to do with penguins,
I chose a date for the release of August In Bloom (my next piano album), which will be Saturday, April 29th, 2017. The later-than-January date was decided upon partly because I also plan to put on a concert that will accompany the release of the CD, so that I can perform the songs from the album (and sell the CD's during the break at the concert). Just like the slideshow project for my aunt and uncle's mingling with the penguins, I have my work cut out for me as far as getting this concert together by April. A few people seem pleased, also, that the release of the CD is closer to summer (since it's summer-themed).
Yes, you get to meet Zoey
Okay, so I named my piano. Stop laughing! It's just a sign of a passion for music (or an unhealthy obsession). Part of the plan so far is to hire one of the movers affiliated with Apollo Piano in Chico to haul the piano to the concert and back. It's a pretty penny well-spent to ensure quality sound that I'm not taking any chances on. The venue where the concert will be held is still to be determined, but updates will be available soon, including the news feed on my website (which you can check out here).
The plans for the concert are still in the early stages, but if you're wondering if songs from other albums besides August In Bloom will be performed, the answer of course is yes :)
Comments are always welcome while I stay busy working towards the April date. And if I don't see you in person between now and then, I'll see you in the spring!
I must admit I felt some trepidation about this at first, but it definitely paid off in the end -- my approach to begin the August In Bloom project (the piano album I plan to release in the near future) involved me just "going ahead" and rehearsing the ten verydifficult songs I plan to put on the album, and then figuring out the recording logistics "somewhere along the way". It's like the "shoot first, ask questions later" philosophy, except safer, and it has nothing to do with guns.
Now, to get really technical, I'm going to summarize a description of my recording equipment by listing two important devices that I have in my studio: 1) The ProTools computer software, and 2) That one recording multi-do-hickey thingamabobber.
If I wanted to bore you even more, I could get into more detail, like the fact that the ProTools system requires the use of that Interface gadget thing, which is an M-AUDIO something or another, and that I recently replaced that with a spiffier one that will make the recording sound way cooler (you can see a picture of this above). It's a really good thing I wasn't an engineer aboard the NASA space shuttle. I'd be telling people to "unhook the thingmajig and ignite that one funnel-looking thing with the small-ish hose, then clamp that attachment thingy to the belt or whatever," and then the mass explosion would be entirely my fault. But, believe it or not, this process of figuring out how to make a good sound on a CD has been on-going and brought my bank account down a few notches (okay, a LOT of notches), but the exciting thing is that I'm finally getting the make-a-CD-with-awesome-sound-quality thing to work!
This process took quite a few "baby steps" and it involved a lot of research. In the mean time I've been practicing the actual songs on the Yamaha N2 hybrid. Sometimes the "shoot first and ask questions later" (or, more accurately, "practice first and figure-out-the-recording-thing later") is a great strategy, because it's efficient time-wise. Now, for anyone out there who claims that the sound quality isn't really that important... "Sound quality doesn't matter"? I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that...
I like to think that I'm not an "eye-roller." When I think of people who roll their eyes, I mainly think of the ornery teenagers I sometimes see when I occasionally partake in my job as a substitute teacher. But there's one thing that will make my eyes roll back far enough to pretty much go full-circle, and that's when I find a piano that's out of tune and people tell me, "Oh, come on, no one will even notice."
As if a blog post is going to reach out to the population of people that induce this eye-rolling response in me, I'm going to set the record straight: You do notice the difference. You might not think you do, but you do. Yes, you, the you that's reading this, the you that's maybe not "trained" to hear music, the you that "doesn't know the difference" between a tuned piano and an untuned piano. When I play on an out-of-tune piano (i.e., most pianos), I often get this reaction from people: "Nice! Sounds like you need to practice a little bit, though". They don't realize that the constructive feedback in the second part of that response is often a result of the piano being crappy and not necessarily because of poor piano-playing. Interestingly, when I play the exact same piece, or the exact same melody, on a tuned piano, I get this reaction: "Wow! That sounded really good. Sounds like you've been practicing!"
Again, keep in mind that I've encountered these two reactions when playing the same thing on two different pianos, one out-of-tune one and another in-tune one. It's not always the skill level or ingenuity of the composition that people love so much about some piano music, but it's also just the fact that an expensive, quality piano that's maintained and is in tune just sounds amazing. So I generally make it a rule that I don't play on pianos that are out of tune; it doesn't do the music any justice. Would you listen to a guitarist if he were playing on a guitar that was obviously out of tune? And if so, don't you think the quality of the song would be significantly less than if it were in tune? The piano is no different.
My point in bringing this up is that the same is true for recording quality, when it comes to CD's, albums, mp3 files, etc. Many people will notice that I'm being quite patient about any amount of time I need to take before releasing August In Bloom, just to make sure I can get the most optimal sound quality possible. Oddly, I don't hear many people (or anyone, really) disagree with me when I say that sound quality is important when it comes to releasing a CD, but a bunch of people will tell me "no one will notice" if I play an out-of-tune piano at a concert.
Bottom line: you, yes you, do notice when a CD has poor sound quality. And you, yes you, do notice when a piano is out of tune. You might just think the pianist is playing poorly, when, again, it's often just the piano that sounds bad. Look up a famous piano song (like a famous classical piece) on YouTube, and you'll see that the performer using an in-tune piano, with good sound quality, will have tens of thousands of hits, whereas the "homemade quality" video of the kid playing on an out-of-tune piano will only have 20 or so hits. There's a reason.
The Plan
And now to the fun part: the plan for recording the album! There are ten songs, each played on the Yamaha AvantGrande N2 in my office/studio, and the songs will be recorded as WAV files using a TASCAM multi-track recorder. I may use some of the songs (or all of them) as one track, and copy the WAV files directly to a CD. I might also upload these tracks onto my ProTools editing software, if I want to edit the songs (or add other tracks, such as strings, percussion, etc.). Then I'll be recording these songs onto ProTools directly, using a Scarlet 2i2 interface device that I just recently ordered. The two recordings of the songs will be compared with each other, the best-sounding one obviously being selected, and the ten WAV files will be given to a sound engineer I plan to hire to clean up the tracks. Then the CD will be submitted to a company for manufacturing, and/or to CDBaby. End result: the CD will be available for purchase from my site, as well as from CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon, and from myself directly. The individual songs will also be for sale (99 cents each) from my site, just as I have done with the tracks from Heart of Storms. As one can imagine, this entire process keeps taking longer than I anticipate, which is why I've changed my "release date" from January 1st, 2017 to, you know, "January-ish". Maybe after my 3rd, 4th, 5th. etc. album I'll get a better idea of how long this stuff takes and be able to better estimate a date when these processes are completed.
Planting the Seeds for a Tour
Playing at Wine Time (restaurant in Chico, CA)
As some may already know, my intention is ultimately to travel to different areas and perform. This, of course, is every musician's dream, and a host of obstacles come up that prevents them from doing so (it costs too much money, they fall in love, they get married, they have kids, they get swallowed up by day jobs to pay their bills, or they simply convince themselves that it can't be done, etc.). The release of this coming album is intended to be a launch-pad into possible concerts and shows, even if they are simple, such as "house concerts" or small benefits and/or shows dedicated to various causes. My next step after the album's release, in addition to the release of additional albums as well as a host of other things that have mainly existed as only ideas so far (including the publication of a novella to be associated with a "trilogy album", which you can read about in a blog post from January of this year, called "Why Music Is Incomplete Without a Background Story") is to start scouting out venues for a possible tour. Traveling is fun, anyway, and I'm curious as to the kinds of experiences I may have and the people I may meet along the way. This is also why I'm putting in the kind of money that I have been putting in and being as careful as I am about the sound quality of August In Bloom. There's a lot of people populating this planet, and a lot of competition in this industry, so I have to be picky. That being said, it's back to work :D
Having had some success with a weekly broadcast that I do on Facebook Live ("Piano Thor'sdays") I've been able to stay busy with it and I was apparently persuasive enough to coerce a few followers to actually watch it. The Thursday music blogs will of course continue, although my busy schedule gives me that much more reason to only have the blogs every other Thursday (which is the routine I've ultimately established). As far as the blog posts themselves, one topic I've been wanting to cover (which I also talked about in one of my broadcasts) is having to correct false rumors that I'm in need of a psychiatrist, but that's only because I was hearing voices in my head. Okay, so let me rephrase that... what I really meant to say is, I was imagining the voices in my head. I blame it entirely, of course, on the Chico State Opera Workshop, which put on a benefit concert in September that inspired me. Because of those opera singers and their darn talents, I keep hearing the same voices in my head when I compose, so naturally I now have to compose an opera. Now, when I say "opera" I really mean just a 6-ish minute song with piano and operatic-style vocals, so it wouldn't actually be a full-blown "opera" per se (the full-fledged story divided into movements, transitions, a full orchestra with a plot within the story, and a woman in a viking helmet shrieking at the top of her lungs, that sort of thing) so it's actually just a single piece that resembles the length of, say, an aria. The fact that I'm doing this and not writing a full-length "traditional" opera is obviously related to the camping trips I take with my dad, especially when he brings a chisel and hammer during one of our hikes. But we'll get into that later. (And if you don't think I can relate the two, please see all of my previous blog posts. This will only take you about 12 hours or so).
Wait... you mean musical styles change over time?
Anyone who asks this question has either spent their life in a cave or was just expelled out of their mother's womb, like an hour ago. What I want to focus on a little more is some of the modern music, especially the styles that many millennials listen to. It may seem that I'm "favoring" one style of music versus another, especially when it comes to lyrics, but I'm not going to claim that one type of music is necessarily better. What I will say, however, is that many lyrics in today's music contain quite a few cliches (whether that's good or bad) and I am strictly stating this as an observation. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, so there are certainly modern-day songs that contain well-written, original and well thought-out lyrics (and there may very well be lyrics from the distant past that are contain cliches). Note that I have not stated whether or not cliches are "good" or "bad," just that some music has them and some music doesn't.
Below are part of the lyrics from Katy Perry's hit song, "Roar". I don't listen to this type of music very often, but I took a gander at these lyrics, and I've decided to share them because I found several examples of cliche lines. I also found, in the same song, lines that I thought were quite original and clever. I took the time, as you can see, to pick out lyrics that had both cliches and originality so that Katy Perry doesn't write me an angry letter. I have to say, though, that receiving an angry letter from Katy Perry would be pretty cool. In any case, here are the lyrics. I've underlined some of the cliches in the lyrics so that they're easy to spot.
"Roar"
Katy Perry
Katy Perry
I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath Scared to rock the boat and make a mess So I sat quietly, agreed politely I guess that I forgot I had a choice I let you push me past the breaking point I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything You held me down, but I got up (hey!) Already brushing off the dust You hear my voice, you hear that sound Like thunder, gonna shake your ground You held me down, but I got up Get ready 'cause I've had enough I see it all, I see it now I got the eye of the tiger,a fighter Dancing through the fire 'Cause I am the champion, and you're gonna hear me roar Louder, louder than a lion 'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar!
As I've shown above, "bite my tongue" and "hold my breath" are both expressions that are over-used, which makes them cliche (and therefore makes the expressions in the lyrics unoriginal). I also underlined "brushing off the dust" because it's too similar to "dusting yourself off" when you get back up, as it relates to the metaphor of "getting back on the horse," etc.
The phrase "I've had enough" is so cliche that it probably gets uttered millions of times a day by the English-speaking population.
Finally, the phrase "eye of the tiger" in the chorus of this song is not original at all. As many of us know, not only is it used in a famous song by Survivor, but it's also the actual title of their song! Admittedly, I'm too inexperienced in the music industry to know whether the lawyers from Survivor had lunch with Katy Perry and agreed not to sue her. I've wondered the same thing about Adele's recent hit, "Hello," and Lionel Richie, who wrote a song with that exact same title.
Part of my purpose for bringing this up is to also point out lines from the song that I thought were original and clever. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, and for all I know I could be completely wrong about this. But I thought "stood for nothing, fell for everything" was okay, even though "falling for" something is not original. The full line is still clever because it involves two common phrases that have opposite meanings, yet they make sense in describing the "trapped" situation she's in. Okay, so I like that. "Scared to rock the boat" may be a tad cliche too, but I didn't underline it because I hear it rarely enough that I actually like the image. Again, people may have different opinions about this. "Dancing through the fire", while the image of "dancing" and using that as a metaphor is in itself overused, the combination of that and a "fiery" situation is neat. Oddly enough I also like it because it's literally the opposite of the line "Dancing through the snow" in Jingle Bells.
If we compare this song to an older song -- say, "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas, we get something a little different. Here are part of the lyrics to it:
"Carry On Wayward Son"
Kansas
Kansas
Once I rose above the noise and confusion Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high Though my eyes could see, I still was a blind man Though my mind could think, I still was a mad man I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say Carry on my wayward son, For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Now don't you cry no more
Masquerading as a man with a reason My charade is the event of the season And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely Means that I don't know On a stormy sea of moving emotion Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say Carry on, you will always remember Carry on, nothing equals the splendor Now your life's no longer empty Surely heaven waits for you
Carry on my wayward son, For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Now don't you cry no more...
The difference between these two songs should be clear. The lyrics from the Kansas song above has pretty much no cliche lines, making the metaphors in the song far more original than those in "Roar". The only exception I can think of is the line "stormy sea of moving emotion". So, one somewhat of a cliche line in an entire song -- not too shabby. Not only that, but from a literary standpoint, I find the writing in this song fantastic, personally. There's even irony thrown into the mix (i.e., "Though my eyes could see, I still was a blind man," etc.).
Okay, so what's my point? My point is that I've seen many other examples of this. Time and time again I hear lyrics from modern-day songs that have one cliche after another. And often times, when I compare these to songs from the '70s and '80s, the older songs typically don't have this kind of cliche writing.
Want another example? Take Kelly Clarkson's pop hit, "Stronger". The transition from one of the versus to the chorus goes like this:
Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong... What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!
Kelly Clarkson
Really? Yes, I know many people like this song, but as a matter of plain fact, the phrase "dead wrong" is very cliche and therefore took no time or imagination on her part when writing it. And the line, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is an age-old expression that has been uttered by millions. It's not original. If Kelly Clarkson had been the first person to use this expression, and put it in her song, then I'd be a little more impressed. But she merely steals it from everyday speech and sticks it in her lyrics. I could just as easily write a song and stick in the phrase, "Birds of a feather flock together," and it would be just as imaginative.
Sounds harsh, I know -- but again, I'm merely making an observation. And again, when you compare modern songs like these to some of the older hits, you don't see nearly as many cliches in the older lyrics. Scroll through the lyrics of Peter Gabriel's song from the 1980's, "Sledgehammer". It's one creative metaphor after another, and almost none of them are cliche. And yes, I know most people say the lyrics in that song are probably a series of sexual innuendos. Either way, the metaphors in the song are brilliantly original. The first line of it ("You could have a steam train, if you just lay down your tracks,") is an expression that you don't hear everyday.
The broader point I want to bring up here is that musical styles change over time, in very many ways. Anything that's creative and artistic tends to change over time. Fashion, for example, is obviously different now than it was 50 years ago. People used to wear neck-ties that were thin. Then "wide" neck-ties became more popular, and I think are still the trend in formal settings. But now some of the younger folks are wearing "thin" ties again, in certain casual settings. This intrigues me, because it means that creative trends can revert back to a style that used to be "in" a few generations ago. I realized this when I was watching the vocalists at the opera workshop, as they were performing. For a few reasons, I generally prefer instrumental music over anything else, and when I do listen to anything vocal it will, often, be something like "Nessum Dorma" (an aria from a famous opera called Turandot). If you haven't been blown away by this incredible piece, you can click below to hear Paul Potts (a then-amateur opera singer) perform it at a national talent show.
Bring back the voice, but let's lose the helmet
My attempt, after all this rambling, is to connect this idea of changing trends (and, more importantly, reverting trends) to music. As an art form, music changes pretty rapidly over time. That's expected. One of my interests, which is somewhat incidental, is to make instrumental music more popular. There's a great quote by the popular instrumentalist Yanni, from his memoir entitled Yanni in Words, that goes like this:
"I don't need lyrics. Classical composers communicated across cultures and centuries beautifully without words. That's proof that it can be done. I prefer not to use words when I'm trying to move you emotionally, so you don't have to use logic to understand what you were just told. Also, my music gives you the ability to make up your own story as it plays; your mind is free to wander and create. You can use the music as a soundtrack to your emotions."
But in addition to this, I've wanted to make opera more popular. Let me be clear, however, in stating that there are only some kinds of opera that I like. If you hang out with people who go to operas, you will hear them raving about many of the same selections, i.e. certain arias from an entire opera production. The selections they mostly praise are usually a very small percentage of all the opera music that's out there. I happen to agree with these people, meaning that I find only a small percentage of opera to be absolutely gorgeous to listen to (to the point where it often brings me to tears) and the rest of it I don't care for at all. The stories behind the operas, as well as the drama and costumes associated with this art form (in case you didn't know, opera is a combination of music and theater) are also interesting, although some of it seems over-the-top to me. As an example, the woman wearing a viking helmet is a bit much. So I say, let's introduce the gorgeous melodies that I sometimes hear in a few of the arias, and just have regular songs, with operatic vocals, and lose the viking helmet.
I intend to do the same, by the way, with regard to popularizing only certain kinds of classical music. Many people don't seem to realize that classical music has may different styles and types, and that there are certain kinds of classical music that I don't like at all. The early baroque music, for example, I can only take in small doses. If I listen to too much of it I'll start to go crazy, and none of the music I've written so far has ever really emulated that style. However, the later stuff, i.e. classical music from the Romantic period (Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, to name a few composers from that era) I find incredibly exhilarating to listen to.
If neck ties can go thin again, I think we can include the awesome parts of some of the older music back into the music world -- and yes, I know that what I consider "awesome" is completely subjective. As far as leaving some parts out, like the shrieking viking lady, you can look at it this way: mullets are probably never going to be back in style, as far as haircuts go. At least I don't think so. And if they do, I am not growing one. My big scheme is that I want to introduce the style that echos the memorable, popular opera selections, and integrate it back into modern music. I want to do the same, by the way, with lyrics that aren't painfully cliche to read. Yeah, how did you guess? I think that stripping away a style of lyrics that is painfully cliche will be a gradual process, like chipping away the crappy parts of a rock in order to get to the gold nuggets, when you're digging for treasures. See, told ya I could do it! ;)
Collaboration Time
I haven't yet contacted the Chico State Opera Workshop, except when working with one of the vocalists who happens to own a piano gallery in Chico, but it's only a matter of time before I will. I'm already planning on writing arrangements to my own piano pieces (including "Lara in a Rain of Petals") that include operatic vocals.
Chico State Opera Workshop (September 2016)
The inspiring part of this is that the opera performance I went to in September was actually a benefit concert that used the proceeds towards introducing opera music to kids, at local schools. It's a start. I'm convinced that if these incredible voices can move me the way they do, they can move others to the same degree.
I think it would be best if we all started hearing more voices in our heads. I don't care what the psychiatrist says -- it's healthy :D
