LostInCompositionLand

News! and Other things

lostincompositionland — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:42:57 +0000

Sorry it’s been so quiet around here. I’ve been busy working on my book, trying to get it revised and formatted. Every time I thought I was done with it, I’d have to go back and start over. I’m pleased to announce that I’m finally finished!

Go here to get a copy of it!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to my music pieces and have some new music finished for you all to hear in a few months. I’ve got figure out how to balance my writing work with my music work.

oh no, not another brief update

lostincompositionland — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:19:47 +0000

Sorry it’s been so quiet over here. There isn’t much going on at the moment. I’m trying to finish up my revisions for my book right now. I’m very close to being done. It’s like I’m almost to the finish line but I still have one more lap to go. I just hope I can make it across.

oh, irony

lostincompositionland — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:04:13 +0000

A few days ago, I managed to get back to the piano so that I could tackle “A Study In Bleakness.” Although it is a pretty good piece of music, it could be a lot better. Before starting, I warmed up by doing scales in D. When I used to take piano lessons as a kid, scales were my least favorite activity. I was more interested in getting to work on the pieces that I needed to practice. Now that I am older (and maybe a little wiser XD ) scales are more than a drudgery. They are helpful because it not only helps to warm up my brain but going through the same scale that’s being used in the piece can help to generate some ideas.

I had some ideas before about cutting a line of music that didn’t quite fit the pattern of the piece. I also began to think about how I could expanded and fix one particular section that needed a little work. The end of “Bleakness” is an inversion of the beginning but with a few slight differences. What I hope to do is exaggerate those difference and distort them to make the piece more interesting while trying to stay true to the theme of the piece. I became stuck for ideas, so I went into my room so that I could listen to the recording I had made last year. I was immediately stuck by how terrible it sounded. It was too fast and bang-y, ick. It also reminded me that I needed to get better equipment. I went back to the piano and pulled out a device that I used to hate when I was young: the metronome. The Metronome is a device used by musicians to accurately keep time on a piece. The one that I used, which belongs to my mom, looks a bit like this one.

The fact that I was using one voluntarily made me smile. I used to hate the annoying ticking noise it would make when I had to playing along with it. Once I set it to the speed I wanted, between 66-76, I played through part of the piece. I made notations to indicate which parts needed to be slower and which needed to be faster. I’m still not sure how I’m going to fix this piece, or if I should even change it at all. Hopefully, after mulling it over for a bit, I’ll work it out.

yet another brief update

lostincompositionland — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:54:17 +0000

Thought I’d pop in for a moment to give you a status update. Right now, I’m waiting for my book to be edited and I’m starting to write the second story. The going is really slow right now, which is hard for me because I tend to be rather anxious about everything. I’m going to try and drag myself back to the piano in the mean time. I plan to take a crack at fixing “A Study in Bleakness” and maybe work on “Inward.” Hopefully, things will go okay.

belated birthday

lostincompositionland — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:47:09 +0000

I meant to write this post last week at the beginning of the month but a busy holiday weekend coupled with unexpected car trouble put blogging on the back-burner. It has been one year since I started this blog. I looked back at my first couple of posts and thought about what my goals and hopes were at the time. I had just managed to pull myself out of a dark hole only a few months prior to starting this blog. Starting this project was a huge catalyst for me. It gave me something to look forward to each day, something to cling to while the rest of my life was nothing but one frustration after another. Post-grad hell. Not somewhere you’d want to be. Even though I eventually found work, nothing seemed to last for very long. Every time I thought I might finally succeed in the real world, reality would come in and sweep everything away. I ended up giving up on finding ‘real work’ after a while and focused on finishing my book. After a few months, I finally finished it and began the editing process.
At the moment, I am getting ready to e-publish to Kindle. I am excited and a little nervous about the e-book thing. It also mirrors my hopes and anxieties about this project, will people be interested in my work, will they like it or hate it, etc. My original goal was to write about five songs/compositions and upload them to share with friends. Currently, I have finished two songs, I’m stuck on the third, and I’ve sketched out some ideas for future pieces. I have no idea how this whole thing is going to come together. I do plan on finishing at some point but getting my book ready has taken up a lot more of my time than I initially realized. I have to wear more than one hat now. I switch between writer, musician/composer, and business person. Hopefully, I will come up a better schedule for myself so that I can get things done. Time management is not my strong suit In another week I will be having a birthday, which also brings another dimension to things. Being in your mid-twenties is a strange time. At times I feel my age and other times I don’t. My mom, who is super-awesome btw, still feels the need to bossy me around. I am grateful that I have a home to live in and hope that I’ll able to have my own space again very soon. I miss living by myself.

brief update #3

lostincompositionland — Sun, 22 May 2011 06:59:24 +0000

Well, it’s nearly June and I’m still working on getting my book together. I’m trying to find someone to beta for me right now. I’m also figuring out how to format my book. I’ve got this e-book program called Calibre but it’s a little confusing. The directions seem simple enough but for someone who doesn’t totally understand html and code, it’s very hard. On the music front, not much is going on right now. I hope to get back to it soon but I don’t know when that will be. positive vibes

a piece for the brat

lostincompositionland — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:49:23 +0000

Last night I finished typing up my book. Today I decided to take a break from story writing and play some piano. I played through “A Study in Bleakness” a few times and paused to look down at my cat, who was glaring at me. After he jumped in my lap, demanding to be petted, I decided to mess around a little bit and write a song about him. I looked through my music paper and saw that I had already started a piece for him. It was barely a measure long but I decided to start from scratch. I ended up writing about two lines of music before I got distracted. I may finish this piece at a later date. In the mean time, I have more book work to do. I have editing and revising that I still need to do before I go and look for an editor. I was hoping to be done this month but it looks like I may not be done until May. IDK, we shall see what happens (:

brief update #2

lostincompositionland — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:20:19 +0000

If you are interested in following my progress with my book and getting it ready for e-publishing, go here.

brief update

lostincompositionland — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 03:02:17 +0000

Just wanted to pop in to say that I’ve finished my book. I’m going to try and come up with a better schedule so that I can get back to playing piano again. I’ll be posting more soon, I think, lol.

shifting gears

lostincompositionland — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:10:06 +0000

For the last couple of weeks, most of my attention has been focused on finishing my novel. I am getting closer and closer to finishing it and I’ve been thinking about what my plans are for getting it into the hands of the public. The downside is that this project has fallen to the wayside. It feels like it’s taking me forever to figure out what to do next. Factor in procrastination and tons of distractions and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. What I hope to do in the next few months is finish my novel, get it edited, get the cover designed, maybe give out some advance copies to friends, and then finally e-publish it on Kindle and Smashwords. I know for a lot of people, e-publishing doesn’t seem to be a good idea but the publishing industry isn’t look so good either. Check out Joe Konrath’s blog about the subject. He’s done it both ways and has the numbers to back it up. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some money, so that I can get some good theory books, like this one I have on my wish list. Maybe once I do that, I’ll be able to get over myself and finish this project, lol.

In the meantime, I thought I’d repost the links for pieces I have finished. In case you missed it:

A Study in Bleakness

Trace Memories

I’m probably going to re-record “A Study in Bleakness” because I’ve been wanting to rewrite and add some lines to it. I did a little bit last month but I’m still not quite satisfied with it yet. Cross your fingers for me, guys!