The Big Think

Hey hey! Danielle Milam has some good educational ideas. I knew her when.

It’s done! After months of work, I’ve finally finished all of the music for my part of Sing 2010- the arranging, recording, charting, and assembling is complete and the show fills an entire legal sized box. I just spent a day and a half assembling all 600 pages of music into musician folders (which takes that long because each card stock page has to be hole punched, taped, or cut so it’ll fold and fit into the folder so the musicians aren’t wrestling with loose pages during the show). I’ve also recorded and mastered the 59 minutes of music track that’ll be underneath the live band on the necessary songs. Here’s a picture of the sheet music stack before I put everything together (iPod for scale):

Stats from this year-

Total pages: 594
Total measures of music: 4224*
Total “Active Frames”: 14268**
Approximate time: 123 minutes

*measured “left to right” without any regard for systems or additional staves. If you played all of the music straight through and counted each measure as it passed, you’d get to 4224 as the show ended.

** this includes every measure that I touched. In other words, if a single measure of music includes the rhythm section, two trumpets, alto sax, tenor sax, and trombone, and each measure has notes, this counts as six “active frames”. It’s a good way to measure how much actual work went into the scores.

If you’re coming to the show this year, expect a great one. I’m incredibly proud of the months of work and prep that have gone into it, and I think it’s going to be the best show ever. It’s not too late to get tickets (though they’re becoming very scarce).

Rehearsals start in 10 days!

The Accidental Music Lesson.

I just finished the big transcription I was hired to do. What fun! Here are a few sample pages. This was all picked off the original track by ear and rearranged for the available instrumentation. I just wish I could hear the final result!

I will occasionally get calls to do transcriptions of CD’s for musicals or other types of live performances. I got one not long ago for a high school musical program. The group is doing a big number from Guys and Dolls but the score they have from the publisher doesn’t have a big dance section that’s on the live musical CD, so the choir director hired me to listen to the CD and transcribe/arrange the section for the orchestral forces he’s using.

It’s a ton of fun, and I’ve been at it since about 3am (another insomniac night, fortunately not wasted). What I do is that I listen very closely to the original CD and figure out what’s going on in the orchestra. Who is playing (tenor or alto sax, clarinet, trumpets, etc)? How many parts are there? What are the harmonies? I pick out all these parts by ear and then slowly build the score. I have to alter things as I go since the orchestra I’m writing for isn’t necessarily the one that’s on the CD (for instance, the one I’m writing for doesn’t have a baritone saxophone even though it’s on the CD). So there’s a fair bit of rearranging and recontextualizing parts. I have to make decisions on who gets what notes and how the different parts fit together. I also have to pull out the vocal parts and make a piano reduction of everything that makes sense so the choir director can rehearse with the choir when the orchestra isn’t there.

Hundreds of years ago, trainee musicians used to copy the scores of the masters to learn how to write music. What instruments did they write for? What were the common doublings (having, say, a flute and oboe play an octave apart)? What were the normal and out-of-bounds ranges on all the instruments? This was great training for when young musicians started writing their own stuff. What I’m doing is the modern equivalent but with a hefty dose of ear training built in: take a CD and break it down into component parts and recreate it in score form. There’s also the aforementioned decision making process of readapting what’s on the CD to the limited or different orchestral pallet. It’s a fun challenge that I really enjoy.

Next time you listen to a movie score or radio song, concentrate on what’s going on in the background. What instruments are playing? When do they play? When do they drop out? Are there patterns? Try to hum the main melody (easy). Now try to hum any countermelody (harder). Now try to hum what are called non-diatonic notes- the passing tones that don’t strictly belong to the key, but they’re in there anyway. Now write it down in musical notation so that other musicians can recreate it seamlessly. Fun, right?

It takes patience and time (In the last 5 hours I’ve managed to create 37 measures with a medium sized orchestra- about 45 seconds), not to mention a hefty dose of music theory and years of intent listening, but in the end it’s very rewarding to be able to recreate a full score from a recording. I’ve been doing it for so long I can pretty much recreate anything that I can hear. What a fun skill!

And this is what I do.

Don’t forget, Sing 2010 tickets go on sale on January 22nd (and sell out within a few hours). Make plans to buy them on the day if you want to see the show this year!

I love writing giant brassy charts with lots of moving lines and fun harmonies, but when you stack a bunch of songs next to each other that are all big brass numbers, the sheer volume can get intimidating. I’ll beat this into submission with my computer mouse, but it’s hyouuuuge! Can’t wait to hear it (and wish I had just ONE MORE dang horn slot). It’s hard to make a convincing jazz band Eb#9 without that extra saxophone.

Don’t forget, Sing is February 18-20 and 25-27. Tickets go on sale soon (go here for tickets) and usually sell out in 24 hours. It’s worth seeing!

Music production on the God of War III video game. Very cool behind the scenes if you’re a music/sound/production geek.

h/t barry

I once knew a guy who taught me to play Blackbird on classical guitar. I learned it exactly the way he played it. What was fun was that we were able to each play one-handed while the other guy played the other part (I’d play the right hand and he’d play the left, or vice versa). We could switch back and forth mid-song. Fun stuff.

Some pics from Pigskin 2009, which wrapped last Saturday night.

I like this second shot as you just barely see the 2200 people peeking over my shoulder. I was directing the show last week and realized how surreal it is to be the point man on this. I have the best seat in the house (closest to the front, anyway), and rarely ever think of the number of people behind me. My pulse used to race and my palms got sweaty whenever the lights would go down and the curtain go up. Don’t screw up! But now, it’s a rare occasion when my heart rate gets above 90 unless we’re really cooking on a song. Hyper aware? Always. Nervous? Not in many years. Funny how we can adapt.

Thanks to Josh for the pics.

I usually view accordion with a certain amount of ironic distain (subconscious, but still). No longer. Vivaldi’s Summer (3rd movement: Presto).

*UPDATE*

Great Jumping Judas on a Vespa:

*NOW I’ve Gotta Go Practice*
Okay, this is stupidly fast. Flight of the Bumblebee. On guitar. At 320bpm. (ffwd to about the 6:00 mark):