Week 15.1

Context*:  Running from a gang of percussionists in a giant cavern

Emotion*:  Heart racing, head pounding FEAR!

Other: "Drums in the deep"

I think this one came out well.  I need to get some more full orchestra percussion samples.  I had an awesome set sampled in a church, but I seem to have misplaced it during my musical hiatus, post Berklee.  Lots of deep choir bits, lots of tension.  The pattern is a Bmin-Cmin4-Fbmin-Ebmin4-Fmaj, or i-ii4-iii-iv4-V(1:30), not a standard progression but the 4ths make it fit (no, those aren't sus4, just drop the 5th, or you could look at it as a carry-over from the previous chord.  Without gettin all technical-like.)

Yeah, like I said, I feel that this one worked out well.  I'm going to attempt to do Tuesday/Thursday updates.  I need to get myself into the habit.

~græy

Week 14.1

Context*:  Watching the Geminid Meteor Shower
Emotion*:  Awe
Other:  Majesty in silence

I think this one went well.  The french horns bring some of that wonder and majesty.  The bells are the shooting stars.  I could have created more space, but I thought that focusing on the majesty and wonder aspects would do well.  Something we haven't really explored here.   I tried to create some space, keeping the harmonies relatively thinned and the instrumentation simple.
Sorry for the hiatus, it's been busy and rough.  I'll do my best to make up for my missed weeks.
~græy

Week 13.1

Context *: Birds flying
Emotion*: Joy
Other:

Another three-worder.  Well, I wanted to try to tell a story with this piece, and I think it worked.  You tell me.
It begins with some tentative and awkward steps in a warm and safe place, then builds some steam as our intrepid young avian puts more and more into his/her effort, up to a climax, then soars.  And little bird feels elation at its accomplishment, but realizes that it is, perhaps, a lonely life up in the skies.

~græy

Week 12.1

Context*:  Recently acquired proof that god hates you
Emotion*: Kinda bad
Other: Greek chorus

More mad props to the Symphony of Voices samples.  This one is pretty straightforward, as evidenced by the description.  Went with a choral arrangement, with an uncomfortable half-step chord change to up the 'kinda bad'-ness.

Update 1/3/: fixed the ending of the video, no idea what went wrong there, but it is fixed.

~græy

Week 11.2

Context*: Elk herd moving along the Black Canyon

Emotion*: In tune with Nature, then fright as traffic roars by

Other: Maybe some bugling??

I think that the elk's bugle is the most haunting sound ever, so this piece turned into something of an 'in memoriam'. I broke down the elk bugling, and one set of harmonics is pretty clearly do-le-so, or 1 b6 5 or I bVI V, with a fall off. Anyways, I wrote the progression around that sequence. Another one that I'm more or less speechless after writing.  I may have strayed from the submission.  Substantially.

~græy

UPDATE: Well this one lost a lot in the transition to youtube.  Sound quality is super shitty, dunno why it hit this one so hard and not others.  I'll try reupping it tomorrow, hopefully it'll sound NOT like it's being played through a fucking tin can.  ARGH!


UPDATE: 12/15 There.  Re-uploaded a much higher quality version.  youtube still kinda smeared it, but it's much better.  I'll be reuploading all the past week's videos as high quality video/audio over the next few days as well.

Week 11.1

Context*: Walking down an unfamiliar street

Emotion*: excited but unsure

Other: guitar and strings

Well I was out of my groove, so this one felt a bit rough.

I tried to give it some forward momentum, while including more and more modern harmonies, the foreign and unfamiliar nature of the location shows through in those abnormal note pairings, without being overwhelming.  If I took the 'unfamiliar' element too far, the piece would end up being scary instead of just unsure or uneasy.  The excitement comes from that forward motion, and I think it works pretty well throughout.
I reveal my cello fetish once again

~græy

Week 10.2

Context*:  Fleeing from an accident you caused

Emotion*:  Panic, guilt and dread

Other:  guitar as percussion

This one starts out with numbness, the realization of what has been wrought, and then blooming panic, guilt and fear.  And then a crazed escape.  I'm not sure why it moved off into harmonic minor, with a very Arabic feel.  It felt right to ratchet up the dread.  And it makes a nice thick, swirly texture.

Ten weeks in.  Thanks for your submissions, and your continued support!

~græy

Week 10.1

Context*:  Alone in the Hall of Dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum

Emotion*:  Awe, disorientation from time travel through evolutionary life, wonder

Other:  Instruments evolving

This one took longer than usual, and ended up being longer than usual.  I tried to start with simple lines on basic instruments that then expanded into more complex lines on more (and more advanced instruments).  There's a point where that continued evolution peaks, I'll put a marker in the video.  After that point, the instruments regroup with the simple lines from the beginning.

Might not be quite what the submission was looking at, but I liked the idea of evolving lines so much that this is where it went.

~græy

Week 9.2

Context*:  Stealing Chickens

Emotion*:  Intensely erotic

Other:  More Jiggling than can be imagined

Secret project, being animated now.  When it's done, it'll go up, so keep your eyes open

My sax chops are a bit rusted, so I didn't feature it too prominently.  I think it keeps the focus on the bassline, which is kinda what I had in mind anyways.

~græy

Week 9.1

Context*: 70's gritty cop drama

Emotion*: 70's gritty cop drama

Other: 70's gritty cop drama

The theme to our hypothetical 70's gritty cop drama shows all the drama, all the action, all the mirrored aviator sunglasses and top-down; violently colored sports cars, all the drama, all the racially insensitive sidekicks, all the action, all the drama, all the thinly veiled TnA, and all the drama from your favorite television programme.  Our mustachioed caucasoid hero probably drives a car.  He probably wears sunglasses and doesn't play by the book.  He probably gets the girl.  And he probably solves crimes.

Synths horns, synth pads, rhythmic synths and strings.  I tried to make it high intensity and cheesy.  Like a delicious mixed-cheese casserole.
It was nice to do something cheesy, instead of the abstract artsy submissions.

~græy

Week 8.2

Sorry for the delay

Context*:  Sick in the hospital
Emotion*: creeping anxiety
Other:  Sterile machine beeps

Seems like all I'm doing is atmospheric.
Went with a glitch approach.  Delays on everything, except the square heart rate monitor noise.  Did a lot of additive synthesis.  I tried to think of noises you'd hear in the hospital, and a far away radio came to mind.  So that's what the filtered violin is, playing some happy, half-remembered music somewhere else.

Again, not my best, but all these 'out there' submissions are making me work to come up with something.  Not saying I wouldn't appreciate something that I could take a more melodic approach to.  Like 7.2.

~græy

Week 8.1

Context*:     walking through a ruined cathedral
Emotion*:    anxiety, discovery, and fear but not frightened
Other:      the air around you heavy with ghosts

Another atmospheric piece. This one has tension floating high in a synth that trails off into a blend of whole-steps. There are whispered voices stuck in and panned to all different directions, hopefully giving it a "spiritous" feel. And a classic gregorian moving 5ths choral bit.
Again, textural, not melodic.
The picture is from Sligo Abbey, in northern Ireland

~græy

Week 7.2

Context*: Journey home on a dark autumn night

Emotion*: Tired longing/nostalgia

Other: cold wind whipping dry leaves

I don't have anything to say after writing that.

~græy

Week 7.1

Context*: Contemplating philosophical questions

Emotion*: Frustration turning to epiphany

Other: Strings, Violins, Drums, Guitar (acoustic)

Building anticipation, some simple chord changes and a basic resolution. I tried a few approaches to capture frustration without changing the mood, but none of them seemed to work out. So the frustration aspect isn't strong. I think the build up to the B section (the epiphany) is nice, and I like dropping everything out to let the pizzacato viola take us there, almost saying “oh, of course, it's so simple.”

~græy

Week 6.2

Context*: Robbing a bank while somnambulant

Emotion*: Sweet (w/threat of death)

Other: Staccato

So, robbing a bank while sleepwalking?

Well I structured this in three parts, the beginning of a dream (subject falls asleep and drifts away), the middle, happy section of the dream (subject is happily armed and dangerous, robbing the bank), and then the growing realization that something is very much not right at B (subject is not so sure this is still a dream).
I tried to keep a simple, light tone (monosynth) and a set of vibes to give it the 'sweet' request that carries the melody and the chord progression
There are several textural bits that I tried to layer under the 'sweetness' that add dissonance, keeping a threatening undercurrent
And staccato?  Well, I used the vibes, and there is a violin part, but that's more marcatto.  Well, it'll have to do.

~græy

Week 6.1

Context*: being at the bottom of the ocean and eating chocolate

Emotion*: content in my choco pod

Other:

Well I tried to keep with the ocean and content.  There's a warm 60's-esque organ sound that I used for a kind of drone, you can hear it after the waves fade out (around 30 seconds).  Everything was tweaked to be heavy on the mid-range, for that warm goodness.  There's a wood marimba, an echoey pipe and some other stuff in there on top of four or five textural synths.

High on reverb, High on mid-range eq's, and a few warm pads that have some movement in them.
Hope it's enjoyable and makes you wish for a choco pod of your very own from which you can explore the ocean.

~græy

Week 5.1

Context: Drama queen stricken with Tonsillitis

Emotion: panicked, irrational

Other: mock-Baroque

Ok... Well... seriously?? Tonsillitis?

This one is simple and to the point, I tried to include as many Baroque-esque (say it three times fast) flourishes as possible.  There's strings, clarinet, and guitars spanning melody, counter-melody and ostinato.  All the instruments fly into a panicked section in the middle, then calm back down.

~græy

Week 4

Four!

Context: An amplifier falling apart

Emotion: Certainty

Other: Gentle made abrasive

Another more textural and atmospheric.  Listen with headphones, there's some lower tones that don't really come through on crappy speakers (laptops).  Actually, I'd suggest to always use headphones if you don't have decent speakers.  It really does make a difference.

I used a bitcrusher on a set of drums and a few of the guitar parts.

This one is a lot like week 2 in the way I approach.  Melody wasn't really important, the color of the instruments was.  This one needed to be warm and clangy, unlike the cold detachment of W2.
I decided to do a sus4-major repeated chord progression, and detune it as the song went on.  It gets a little painful.  The synth pad adds a lot to the texture, and there are some crunched drums thrown in.

~græy

Week 3

Context: You've gotta hurry!

Emotion: frenetic

Well, this one didn't feel like it came together.  But it's done.

I tried to use quick runs (in this case, piano and pizzicato violins/violas) to create some more frantic motion.  

I do really like the rhythmic synth

But it's not my best

~græy

Week 1.3

Well I'm just on a role

Context: forest/jungle/tribal

Emotion: Happy, but a little detached

The piece starts out with instruments peeking in a little disjointedly during A. I imagined it as the forest coming alive with noises after some kind of disturbance. B lights up with an ostinato phrase that carries the expanding width, filled with little flourishes and expressions, to a simple, warm ending. I tried to keep reverb and echos on all the instruments to give a little etherial quality. Without that hint of expansiveness, I think this piece would be too upbeat. There's just a little bit of longing floating in there.

As usual, let me know what you think, ask questions, etc etc


~græy