Fitting tune for the gorgeous day out there today.  Written on the last day of January.  Really not much to say about this tune except that it feels good to feel good and be able to write about it.

My Sunny Day (Jan. 31, 2011)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

My Sunny Day (PDF)

Here is a solo clarinet piece titled Meditation I.  Performed by Beth Fleenor.  When written out, the piece has no time signature and no bar lines.  It is up to the performer to interpret the tempo of the phrases and the relative rhythms.

Meditation I (Jan. 16, 2011)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Meditation I (PDF)

Here we go.  This is a dirge.  This one was written very quickly.  Sometimes a piece just comes out, you don’t really have to do anything.  A little bit o’ St. James Infirmary, a little bit o’ Chopin, and a little bit o’ me.

Dirge (Jan. 18, 2011)

Here is audio of a new tune from my Tune A Day project.  What can I say, I love chorales.  I waited until my piano was tuned to record this piece.  Glad I did.  In undertaking this endeavor of writing a tune everyday I am learning a few things.  One that it is important not to judge your composition as one is writing it.  This alone wastes so much time in the process.  Commit to the idea and then figure out if you like it later.  Same as when you are improvising.  Another thing I am learning is that it is okay for your piece to sound like something else.  When we are children we learn to speak by imitating our parents.  Same as when we learn to speak in the musical sense.  At first we will imitate those musicians we admire, but eventually we develop our own way of speaking, of communicating, of making music.

A Moment’s Peace (Jan. 7, 2011)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

22 days have gone by since I started writing a tune a day. So far so good.  For the following 2 tunes I enlisted the help of my friends Beth Fleenor-clarinet and Paul Kemmish-bass.

Smart Mouth on a Fast Broad (Jan. 21, 2011)

The title was a line in a 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival play.  It was set in the 50′s in a women’s prison.

Smart Mouth on a Fast Broad (PDF)

Habanera (Jan. 24, 2011)

I have been playing Astor Piazzola’s music lately and I think some of that is coming through here.

Habanera (PDF)

Here is the tune that started this project: Kraken by the Sea. Named after a beach bar in San Diego. They had a great bluesy, Southern rock cover band and poured stiff drinks.

Kraken by the Sea (Jan. 4, 2011)

Kraken by the Sea (PDF)

Hey Folks!  I am back in the blogosphere after a nice hiatus. I recharged the creative batteries and decided to take on an artistic discipline.  Namely. I have vowed to write a tune every day for the duration of 2011.   So far so good.  Just about at 21 days. I am told that this is the amount of time that it takes to create a new habit.  What exactly is constitutes a tune? Well, I told myself that style and musical language don’t matter.  Neither does length.  All that matters is that each piece can stand alone as a little musical universe.   Produce and express is my motto.  Some of the tunes will be good, most will probably be stinkers.  But that is not the point.  The point is to de-mystify this crazy process of composition I have come to call a way of life.  I will be posting video, audio, and sheet music of the tunes I think should be heard by other people.  A musical diary of sorts.  Music will go up as fast as I can learn it well enough to be presented.   The compositions and performances will be far from perfect, so bear with me.  Here are the first tunes.  Enjoy!

Tendu (Jan. 5, 2011)

A Tendu is a ballet exercise.  I often improvise when I accompany ballet classes and this piece came from a tidbit I improvised for a class.  It uses a rondo form for you music nerds out there.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tendu (PDF)

Socked In (Jan. 8, 2011)

That Seattle fog/mist/low-level clouds have a way of making one feel wrapped in cotton…

Socked In (pdf)