Last Friday, I went to composition lessons. My teacher gave me a book. The idea was to listen to the CD, and learn to play the music, with a focus on noticing the patterns. Then the goal was to take some of the music I’ve composed, and see if I could change it into some of these patterns.
She came up with this, after I shared how I’d started my very first composition…by taking a pattern from the end of a Mozart piece I was playing, and creating something new.
Last Saturday, I accidentally double dosed myself with ADD meds. And likely coincidentally, last Saturday, I played piano for 8 hours.
I played some of the songs in the book, and I had a blast with them. But then, instead of doing something with one of the patterns, what happened instead, was I created this song. And while I was creating this song, I was doing a lot of other things I’ve never done before so purposefully.
Here are just a few of the new things from that day. I wrote music out for the first time ever. I purposefully created patterns. I strongly imagined what I wanted the music to be about, instead of playing and letting the music tell me what it was about.
When I shared a rough iPhone recording with a girlfriend, and didn’t tell her what I’d imagined, she completely guessed and described exactly what was in my head. (She should get a gold star for that!)
The links here are better recordings than she suffered through. I used my Zoom recorder to create them, and they were created after a few more days of playing this song.
The song is still rough, but so are the waves. They are created in the moment, with an ocean of force behind them, washing over us. They’ll drown us if we’re not careful, but they can save us, too. They can carry us into the shore when we’ve gotten out too deep, if we don’t fight them.
SLOWER VERSION
FASTER VERSION
Wait for it.
Wait.
What am I waiting for?
Do you know Steve? 🙂
Holy Socks, CJ. Thank you for sharing these. I hear SO much growth here. I love the 3/4 tempo, the chord progressions/patterns, that you’re not playing off chords as much and are much more melodic and FREE in expressing yourself musically. You’re taking chances that I’ve never heard you take. BOOYAH! Can’t say which version I prefer — much like the ocean can be calm and serene one moment and fierce and raging the next — I like them both. Rock on, sistah. This is some good shit, girlfriend.
Awwww, THANK YOU! 🙂 I sooo needed something to smile about just now, and look what I found.
Yes I know. Waiting for me to have time & peace of mind to give your music my undivided attention. 🙂 not yet though. Too tired.
Ok finally. I listened on Sound Cloud & there were 3. I started at the with the 3rd one & worked my way up. Amazing CJ! I liked each better than the last. Turns out each one was longer than the last. Loved it your are so gifted. Make a video I’d love to see your expressions as the music moves you. Good stuff thanks for sharing.
So sweet. I love that you gave this attention. It really means the world to me that you take the time to do that….and then you tell me that you did. What a wonderful treat for me.
The pleasure was mine. 🙂