Here are several videos I have really enjoyed lately.

Here Adam Maness talks about modal interchange and then his particular slant on it. His team calls it “Cush Chords” — a name they made up to describe the vibe.

For example — he takes a simple chord progression I ii iv V

You could simply change the chords to what they would be in a different mode (ex. aeolian or phrygian). Instead what he does is, think about what key the phrygian is equivalent to? Then after playing the 1 in the original key, just change the chords to the 2, 6, and 5 of the new key. The result keeps the same “shape” as the original chord progression.

It would be good if I worked through some examples.

Another couple of videos had to do with Chromatic Mediants. My random notes of the day gave me a composition with some crazy chords, and I couldn’t tell if they were chromatic mediants or not.

Here Michael Keithson talks about how there’s Chromatic mediants in a strict sense and in a looser sense; he likes to use both. He’s a new resource to me; I’m glad I stumbled on him.

David Bennett gives an example (around the 10 minute mark) where he says “Is this a chromatic mediant, or would it be better to think of it as a secondary dominant?”

Now for something completely different — here’s Jameson Nathan Jones talking about sound design with Phase Plant, a soft synth. He steps through the process of creating a sound.

I really enjoy Nathan’s music. It’s the sort of genre I would like to work in (he calls it ambient with classical overtones). Usually I react to skilled musicians doing “my sort of thing” with envy and resentfulness. Ex. Venus Theory’s music makes me feel discouraged –“Why should I even be trying to do this. I should just sell all my instruments and give up”. So I watch VT’s videos, and avoid his music! But I don’t react that way to JNJ. It’s as if, VT does such an epic job that it seems like there’s nothing more that can be said, and I might as well just sit down and be quiet. There’s no room for me. Like trying to have a conversation with someone, but their knowledge and eloquence is overwhelming. But with JNJ I feel like there’s room left for me to add something. Like “yeah! Not only that, but, this too!”

I’m not sure why I have that reaction — doesn’t make a lot of sense.

OK, one more set of videos. I’ve been oblivious to Wicked (both the musical and the movie). But I saw an interview with Kristin Chenoweth talking about her experience with Ariana Grande (Chenoweth met her when Ariana was a star-struck 10 yr old!) Then I watched a video on the movie by Eric Voss, my favorite interpreter of what’s new and hot. That led me to several interviews with the composer, Stephen Schwartz. Turns out he also was the composer for Godspell! That was a favorite of mine in the 70s.

I’m feeling more able to focus on music again. This summer we had construction (including some drama when I got reported for not having a permit on part of the project), there were a couple of covid scares, we got ready for electrical work by cleaning out half of the basement and leveling a mountain of dirt. Oh and digging up a banana tree that must have weighed 100 lbs. Then there was the election. A lot of mental energy went into those things.

I’m very grateful for the progressives who are planning, doing research, strategizing, writing articles and posting on social media. I’m exhausted and discouraged though, and I’m coping by sticking my head in the sand. I will get back to keeping an eye on things eventually, but for now it’s nice to pretend that there’s not a train wreck in slow motion happening just a ways down the road.

I’m continuing to work on the morning Random Note Project! Today was # 262. I moved a bunch of pages from a temporary notebook over to the massive D-ring notebook. It now contains exercises 1 through 250 (each of which might take up several pages). It’s cool to think that this project means filling up 3 more of these notebooks and most of a 4th (250 + 250 + 250 + 250 = 1000, and then add 200 more).

Here’s how I have my Composer’s Corner set up. The little cabinet off to the right has pencils, erasers, a straight edge and the dice in the top drawer. Other drawers contain things like midi cables, audio cables, power supplies and headphones. The handy-dandy little Tascam recorder stays right there. Note the special 11″ x 17″ graph paper.

Here’s the Solfege Dice.

Speaking of the piano, this came up in my Facebook Memories recently. It really is wonderful to have a piano. A lot of people grow up with them but I did not, and it still seems surprising to see one sitting there in the living room. My piano teacher at the community college really had to push hard to open my mind to the idea. We just weren’t piano people. “Where would we put one?!” “Don’t you have to get them tuned?” “What if I lose interest?” She came up with an answer to each of these objections.

In the end, buying the piano and meeting my music tutor may have been the best (longest term) results of the time at the community college. Also being introduced to Adam Neely and other music YouTubers. And I suppose the time spent generating a video every 2 weeks; what a great example of picking a project and learning, while doing a very awkward job of it.