OK, so if I’m going to do an independent project totally on my own, I can take it in the exact direction I want rather than trying to meet someone else’s standards. Which is kind of a shame, because trying to meet standards & goals outside of my comfort zone could be a really good thing.

The main thing I’m interested in now is music for video games and for other virtual environments (ex. background music for a virtual tour of an architectural building still in the planning phase). One of the different things about this kind of composition is the use of “stems”. You submit not only the finished piece but also its building blocks (the bass line, the melody line, the weird sci-fi sound effects line) which can be used by the game designer at will — like toppings on a pizza. Here layer parts one, two and three; here just one, here pile them all on.

In game design this is important because the software can be programmed to react to what the player is doing and increase the intensity of the music by using more of the stems layered together. (“Player approaches monster, is attacked and retreats; cue ‘Run Like Hell’ theme”.)

I have been working on my own, posting videos on Youtube. Eight of the videos take place in the planet exploration game of “No Man’s Sky”. It would be a great project to write some additional music to capture the mood of these planetary environments, and also take the compositions I’ve already written and work with them; break them down into stems, put them in official music notation. This will be a lot of work because when I mixed the songs last year I blended all the parts — I don’t have the individual stems anymore! I’ll have to re-create them. Also, I dread working with Finale. I have done it but believe me I would much rather eat kale. Raw kale. Tough raw kale. Kale doesn’t make me beat my head on the desk.

Another project I’ve started (but haven’t posted any examples of yet) are videos that take place in the medieval fantasy world of “Dark Souls”. For these I would like to use music from the repertoire but arranged for synth (by synth I mean any electronic reproduction of instrument sounds, including the realistic samples used in Garritan Instant Orchestra). One song is based on a MIDI file of Machaut’s “Rose, Liz, Printemps, Verdure”. I used a different instrument for each voice part and used dynamics to bring one instrument to the foreground, then take it back and bring another forward. This comes under “arrangement” rather than “composition” but it’s also something I want to learn about.

So here we go.

1. Take notes on Emily Reese’s “Top Score” series. React to them.
2. COMPOSE more music — for the sci-fi world of No Man’s Sky
3. Take already composed music and make stems and scores
4. ARRANGE music for the fantasy world of Dark Souls
5. Read Winifred Phillip’s book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music

My “No Man’s Sky” playlist

An interview with Eric Whitacre. I found this interview very moving.

The “Earworm” series of videos by Vox is interesting and entertaining and thoroughly geeky. Here’s the most recent episode.

An article about music composed using “Artificial Intelligence” (AI)

https://www.wired.com/story/music-written-by-artificial-intelligence/

And — I had lost touch with Mike Rugnetta’s work several years ago. I’m excited to discover that he has continued his podcast series, called “Reasonably Sound”. One of the old episodes, called “The Drop”, turned me on to EDM and Paul van Dyk. Now I’m listening to Deadmau5, so that podcast made a big impression!

http://reasonablysound.com/

Here’s my fall curriculum, centered on Music Theory but touching on other topics too.

Main Text
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory by Michael Miller

Supplemental material
Music Theory Comprehensive 2, 4 taught by Jason Allen through Udemy (behind a paywall)
Understanding the Fundamentals of Music — recorded lectures by Robert Greenberg

One on One Instruction — “Miss Muse”  🙂

Exercises
post summaries here!
analyze music ex. songs from choir in church, folk music ex.  121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes

Also
the occasional “trip down the rabbit hole” on Youtube

A while ago my sister and I were talking about “what would we do differently if we could do it all over again”. She said that with the confidence she has now (now she knows she is smart!), she would go into nursing. I said that I would try for a degree in music and aim towards 1) composition and 2) music technology — synthesizers, samplers, recording; sound effects, backgrounds for films and video games. Back in the ’80s we didn’t have music for video games the way we do now (it was “chip tunes” — monophonic — only one note at a time!). Now, music for video games is composed using complex software, and the games themselves have enough storage that the music can be recorded by an actual orchestra and it will be played back with CD quality.

Composing music for games is an extremely competitive field. I don’t have the ambition to study cutting edge technology; I don’t have the energy to get another college degree!

However, I would really enjoy studying on my own. Maybe I could compose for an indie game. The composer I am inspired by is Ben Prunte, who was self-taught (much of that time while working as a janitor). Here are some of his interviews. I first heard him on the NPR show “Top Score”.

Here is his cheerful, retro soundtrack for the game FTL (Faster Than Light). I really like it because it reminds me of some synth music that was popular when I was in high school. I like to put this soundtrack on when I need to focus on writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygH9VcV7IBg

From left to right–

Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Myxolydian
Aeolian
Locrian

Ionian is what we think of as the “major scale”. Lydian and Mixolydian also sound like major scales because they have a major third.
Lydian is a sort of “super major” — it sounds extra bright because of the raised 4th (– Jason Allen)
ex. “Theme from the Simpsons”
Mixolydian — flat 7th — blues

Aeolian is the same as the natural minor scale. Dorian and Phrygian also sound minor because they also have a flatted third in the scale.
Dorian — Raised 6th — ex. plainchant; Kyrie by Josquin (– Jason Allen)
Phrygian — Flatted 2nd — which means your first step of the scale is a semitone
Used in flamenco (Spanish & Islamic culture fusion) (– Robert Greenberg)

Locrian is the odd one, off by itself, because it has a flatted fifth (“Tritone”).
Tritone is THE most discordant interval ( — Robert Greenberg)
Used in crazy compositions
ex. Mark Applebaum, see TED talk “The Mad Scientist of Music”

Here is Mike Rugnetta

Mike is host of The Idea Channel, where he talks about “the connections between pop culture, technology and art”. His videos are convoluted and soulful and always makes me smile.

In addition to his talents as educator and programmer, Rugnetta is also a musician; his podcasts center around the idea of sound. Here is my favorite episode.

http://www.infiniteguest.org/reasonably-sound/2015/04/the-drop/

This is one of my favorite TED talks ever. Conductor Itay Talgam talks about how the process of conducting music can be a metaphor for leadership of other kinds.

I’m very happy to have started taking music lessons again! My teacher this fall is a young woman whom I met through my church. In addition to leading our new “Global Worship” music group, she is also trained in music education for very young children. When I suggested the possibility of lessons in music theory, she said “I know just the thing!”. And so, I have now been introduced to the ideas of Edwin Gordon.

When I was in elementary school back in the late 60s, our music teacher spent some time teaching material from Kodaly. We 10 year olds didn’t call it Kodaly, we called it “ta ta titi ta” because of the names for the syllables.

My current music theory teacher (let’s call her Ms. Muse) told me that Edwin Gordon developed a method similar to that of  Zoltan Kodaly, but instead of being based on Hungarian folk music, it uses American folk music as its source. And instead of ta ta titi ta, it’s due due due-day due.

At least, that’s how I heard it! Actually the syllables are written “du” and “de”.

Here is a video featuring an article written by Edwin Gordon. I want to be sure to give him the recognition that he is due!

I mean, du.