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
I firmly believe in praising the people who have helped me, and giving credit where credit is due. That's why I'm blaming my friend Shawn. This, of course, relates to the progress of my musical endeavors. And pajamas.
But before we talk about misshaped eyebrows and out-of-place nose hair, I want to summarize the reality of my current situation. Right now I'm at a crossroads, of sorts, and many people may be aware of this already. In the past year or two my music has really had two main facets: the private piano lessons, which have been a decent success for me (they're now providing about half my income) and the other one being the occasional live performances. When it comes to the "end goal", I've maintained consistently that the live performances are my focus. It's been my dream to tour, perform, play my music live for a big audience, etc., because what person wouldn't want that? For the moment, the piano lessons are much better financially, but as it stands my dreams still haven't changed.
I'm sometimes mildly concerned that this two-tier system is too multi-faceted, and that I need to pick just one, instead of offering two services. The very few opinions that have been given to me have been somewhat mixed; a business guy once told me that it's good to be multi-faceted, but not too multi-faceted. On the other hand, when it comes to providing private lessons and live performances, many people have responded with "why not?" when it comes to the idea of doing both.
A live show I did at La Rocca last year
Aside from the fact that I actually sort of enjoy teaching piano lessons (most of the time) the reason I do it is to make money and invest it in better music equipment, and in the live performances. The other way I make money for this purpose is by droning on about independent clauses to a classroom full of confused foreigners, who mistakenly say "My wife is a bitch," when they meant to say "My wife is at the beach." The income I get from teaching English as a second language is not without the entertainment of mispronounced vowels and catastrophic misunderstandings.
So I figured, what's the difference if I make my money just teaching music lessons instead? I may also be able to use my piano instruction as a springboard into the live performances (see my recital hall idea on my previous blog post, August In Bloom Album (And Other Updates) ). And in addition to the recital hall idea, another way I may be able to use it as a springboard towards getting more live performances is by Internet marketing, an idea concocted by Shawn himself. If people are able to learn the piano without leaving their homes, they can just stay in their fuzzy flannel pajamas, and not have to get all gussied up to drive to a lesson. It is fall, after all. Did you think I was not going to somehow relate this to flannel nightwear? I don't just spout out words willy-nilly, you know. This is also why my unusually long eyelashes will come in handy.
Smile! It's time for Piano Thor'sdays
It's not enough that I have the Thor'sday Blogs, a Discussion "Thorum" on my website, and "Throwback Thor'sdays" on my Facebook page for people who want to see my face during the dorky pre-bearded era, but my friend insisted that I also call this Internet marketing endeavor "Piano Thor'sdays." The next thing you know is I'll be opening up my own piano store and calling it "Thor's Hammers."
In any case, the idea is that each week (I'm sure you can guess which day of the week it is) I will record a few-ish minutes of live Facebook streaming, in which I play "teasers" on the piano, either to introduce a new song or to showcase part of a song for an upcoming album or show. The live streaming feature on Facebook is apparently becoming popular with businesses because it reaches a lot of people. Plus, people are drawn to videos in general; they gravitate towards them like a moth fluttering straight into a porch light.
This, of course, is also where the springboard comes in. Not a real springboard, a metaphorical one. Stay with me here. Eventually (somewhat soon, I would think) I would do a short mini-lesson on the piano, during one of these Thor'sday streaming vids. If people liked it, they could sign up for the at-home piano course that I'm going to offer. This means that people can pre-pay for a series of videos, and once they pay they will have access to, say, 20 videos, each containing a piano lesson (I would be in the vid, giving the lesson). They would have to watch them in order, and as per my recommendation they would watch one video each week. That way they could sit at their piano at home, in their flannel pajamas, and have their lesson right there while they drink their morning coffee. Again, this is why my long eyelashes will come in handy, as will my trimmed nose hairs and eyebrows that I mentioned earlier. And if people don't like my long eyelashes then they don't have to buy the videos.
These at-home video lessons could be put on my website for purchase, and as I said the reputation that I might be able to build could help me launch into the live performances more easily, especially if I'm able to announce and promote the upcoming shows, using the existing fan base to reach more people in the process.
The first video for this Facebook live stream series will be tonight (or, it was, depending on if you're reading this after the fact) and this is because Shawn is making me do it. Apparently I'm not allowed to procrastinate, hence me placing the blame entirely on him for even giving me this idea in the first place.
Remember, flannel is underrated. So stay tuned and you might be able to take piano lessons without leaving your home... because I know that's exactly what you've been wanting to do :D
The vast majority of people know that chicken noodle soup doesn't just contain chicken. I mean, obviously you would expect to find other ingredients, right? Maybe celery, carrots, some other veggies, and certainly you'd expect to find some noodles. And let's not forget the broth. What does this have to do with the title of the heading, you ask? Well, a lot. If you ate nothing but chicken the rest of your life, you would get bored of it. People like variety, and they can get bored of being exposed to the same thing day after day. In the same way, the Heart of Storms album seems to be well-liked, even though it is a "home recording," and there are no reservations for my wishes to re-record it using either the Yamaha N2 or an acoustic piano (with a mic, of course) but I didn't want this to be my next big release. People like something different -- variety. That's where the new piano album came into mind, and it didn't take me long to convince myself that this would be a good move. Hence, the chicken noodle soup analogy -- I wanted to give people something different to listen to, in addition to Heart of Storms.
The equipment I intend to use for the new piano album remains to be decided, although I've already started working on the album. Three of the songs ("Dozing on Avalon's Shore," "Drifting of the Dandelion Seeds" and "Stars at Crescent Lake") have been rehearsed profusely (I don't know if that particular adverb is a good way to describe it, but my dental hygienist uses it to describe how my gums bleed if I don't t floss enough, so I'm using it to mean that it was "a lot"). Recording of two of the songs ("Dozing on Avalon's Shore" and "Drifting of the Dandelion Seeds") are scheduled to be recorded this weekend, and even though it's not going to be on the album, "Velvet Touch" will also be recorded because I'm going to use these three recorded pieces as a new demo CD to hand out at potential gigs.
Possible album cover for August in Bloom
But, I digress. Enough about the chicken soup. I'm working on a new album, August in Bloom, and I hope to set a date soon for its completion but I want to get a better idea of the rate of progress, seeing as there will be 10 tracks, and a few of them are really difficult to play.
Also, it's summer-themed, a contrast I decided to create because Heart of Storms featured many of the songs I wrote that were inspired by my experiences in Iceland. You know, contrast -- I want carrots with my chicken soup.
The Yamaha School of Music has snuck up on me like a thirsty raccoon
This actually happened to me, by the way -- not the new music school, but the raccoon. The scary part of this is that I had just parked my car, at about eleven o'clock at night, and I happened to be wearing sandals, with no socks. I looked behind me and an enormous raccoon was tip-toeing behind me, within attacking distance. When he saw me he freaked out and started drinking water from the street drain. The new music school has done the same as far as sneaking up behind me, but in a good way. The long-term goal that Vince Chambers (the piano gallery owner) and I have envisioned is that a new music school, very much like a small conservatory, will open up in Chico, and it will be at a separate location from Apollo Piano, the actual piano dealer and gallery. Vince wants to start off having a single piano lesson studio at the gallery, though, to start getting students in, so that this location will be temporary. That way we can generate some cash flow from the students and use it towards acquiring a separate location. These ideas have stemmed from Vince's dream of opening up a music school in Chico, and it's more than enough to get me insanely excited about it. The sneaking-up part of it is that students might be able to start signing up as early as next week. A massive collection of sheet music and songbooks have been ordered for me to use to start teaching new students.
Temporary lesson studio at Apollo Piano
New additions to the office space
As said before, the Yamaha AvantGrande N2 hybrid piano will be used for recording. For live performances, I've been using a Roland F140R digital piano. I don't want to talk about how many other pianos I have in my office. It's embarrassing.
An old Knabe upright piano, to be tuned and fixed up in the near future.
Upcoming Recital Hall
Speaking of something that has absolutely nothing to do with recital halls, the live events I attend (such as a performance by the Chico State opera workshop last month) may be a good way for me to network and get more exposure with my music. The opera performance, for example, which was extraordinary, is something I may look into because I arranged about ten of my songs, years ago, to fit lyrics for female vocals. Even just one of these arrangements could be of good use at, say, a recital hall, for instance. I've been pushing the idea of a recital hall for a few reasons, one of them being that if we have one at the new school, I could use it to put on a sit-down concert of my own and get exposure. The plan would be to then use that as a spring-board to start touring, and the touring/performing part of my career is really the "end goal" for me, and it always has been. I've made this clear to Vince and others, even though I do actually get quite a bit of enjoyment out of teaching the private music lessons.
I want more carrots!
Enough of the monotony of eating chicken noodle soup with nothing but chicken in it. I need variety, like anyone else, and talking about verbs all day is synonymous, analogous, equivalent and the same conceptually as eating the same food over and over. This is also true with writing a string of completely redundant adjectives. I'm fairly sure that I could spend the rest of my teaching career talking about verbs (and fancy adjectives) to students whose first language is not English, but as much as I occasionally enjoy this job, it may not be long before my days as an ESL teacher become numbered. This would be especially true if I get enough students at the new school to actually support myself. By "numbered", though, I mean to say that it could be something like "in a year from now." Don't get too excited. In any case, verbs are like chicken. Talking about them day after day in an ESL class is like eating that soup with 100% chicken. I want carrots too.
I'm actually far more excited, though, about getting going on August in Bloom, so hopefully the development of the project will be the focus of my next blog post. My posts are shorter than some of my earlier ones, but that's because I find myself remarkably busy these days, and usually in a good way. Talking about verbs, getting an old violin repaired, getting an acoustic piano moved into my office, writing web content for the revised website for Apollo Piano, ordering sheet music, and having to make another trip to the store to get my French vanilla creamer, is a lot to juggle. Nevertheless, I do respond to comments, as I believe in reaching out to people who are interested, so make sure you leave a message if you have questions or comments. Happy fall to everyone :)
