The journey begins! I've been mostly working towards my first goal of developing a practice routine. So far I'm not up to every day yet, but I have enjoyed practicing a few mornings before class or starting work.
In class last week Barbra suggested creating a database of sounds for use in composition. I've worked with something similar for improvisation but only in a text format. My Turntable Database includes two lists, one
of techniques that I've identified as part of my improvisational language and one of random adjectives or feelings.
I also have a python script that will generate random prompts from my lists for use in practice by selecting combinations of random elements from my lists.
Though sometimes they can be a bit nonsensical (as in prompt 3), I find these prompts very useful as a practice tool. I usually try to either use multiple techniques at once or quickly and smoothly transition between techniques; to me this feels alike
to practicing scales. Because my list of techniques is too long to easily remember, I am consistently reminded of methods of creating sound that I haven't used in quite some time. Furthermore, by being forced to combine
or I often fall into new and interesting techniques that I enjoy and incorporate.
During practice this week, I recorded several of my sounds and arranged them a bit in Audacity, just for fun.
While I'm not especially happy with the result, I did have fun making it. Its super simple, just two parts and not well mixed. I'm not expecting to return to it.
This week went ok, but I'm hoping to complete a bit more next week. In particular, I want to create an audio database to compliment my technique database. I think that having similar access to lots of recorded sounds might
make composing things that I like with them easier. Furthermore, its obvious to me that if I want to create things I'm happy with, I will need to complete many more compositions. Thus, I'm going to focus on quantity over
quality for a bit, until I'm more comfortable. Expect more quick compositions like this one.
Week 2 - Old Haunts
The journey begins! I've been mostly working towards my first goal of developing a practice routine. So far I'm not up to every day yet, but I have enjoyed practicing a few mornings before class or starting work.
In class last week Barbra suggested creating a database of sounds for use in composition. I've worked with something similar for improvisation but only in a text format. My Turntable Database includes two lists, one of techniques that I've identified as part of my improvisational language and one of random adjectives or feelings.
I also have a python script that will generate random prompts from my lists for use in practice by selecting combinations of random elements from my lists.
Though sometimes they can be a bit nonsensical (as in prompt 3), I find these prompts very useful as a practice tool. I usually try to either use multiple techniques at once or quickly and smoothly transition between techniques; to me this feels alike to practicing scales. Because my list of techniques is too long to easily remember, I am consistently reminded of methods of creating sound that I haven't used in quite some time. Furthermore, by being forced to combine or I often fall into new and interesting techniques that I enjoy and incorporate.During practice this week, I recorded several of my sounds and arranged them a bit in Audacity, just for fun.
While I'm not especially happy with the result, I did have fun making it. Its super simple, just two parts and not well mixed. I'm not expecting to return to it.This week went ok, but I'm hoping to complete a bit more next week. In particular, I want to create an audio database to compliment my technique database. I think that having similar access to lots of recorded sounds might make composing things that I like with them easier. Furthermore, its obvious to me that if I want to create things I'm happy with, I will need to complete many more compositions. Thus, I'm going to focus on quantity over quality for a bit, until I'm more comfortable. Expect more quick compositions like this one.