It's a bit late, but here's my annual Christmas arrangement!

I tried to get one out by Christmas but it just wasn't happening. And then yesterday it just came together. Better late than never.

I think I'm done with music for a while.

This is what I was thinking when my choir concert ended this afternoon. But don't worry, I'm not done with music. I'm just done with singing for a bit. You see I've done quite a bit of it lately.

Yesterday my school choir went to compete at a choir competition. We did a fantastic, amazing job on our songs, but when we got to the sight-reading portion we were thrown for a loop. My director said that the sight-reading we were assessed on was the most difficult she'd seen in 17 years.

Today was the spring concert for my out-of-school choir. We did pretty well but we had severe trouble with our 2nd to last song. Nevertheless we ended strong and the rest went pretty smoothly. I love choir, but it takes up so much time and energy that I'm glad it's over for the year.

I actually have a new composition that I hope to get up in the next week or so. I'll have to see how my schedule works out though.

My school's Tournament of One-Act Plays opens this week and I'm involved in 2. I'm feeling a bit unsure about them since we had so much trouble pulling them together and we haven't even rehearsed on the stage yet. You see, the directors for one of the plays didn't do their job so we replaced them. Our new director decided to rewrite the script and condensed the entire 20+ page play into just 3 pages. We began work on that only this last week. The amazing things about plays, though, is that somehow they always seem to come together in the end. I'm confident that we'll do just fine.

I have a new goal: Write something that sounds Chinese. I'm not really sure where to start, so I'm listening to a bunch of traditional Chinese music and experimenting with chords and all. I'll let you know how that all comes along.

Goodnight, my friends!

(Because you can't have a post without a picture)

Virtual Choir 3 Has Been Released!

And I'm in there somewhere...

Some New Favorite Songs:

Gotta love Owl City!

Also from this album: I especially love The Real World and Dreams Don't Turn to Dust

I'm figuring out how to play this on the piano. It's quite remarkably easy.







This is from Leeland's latest album. It has a different sound from their previous and at first I wasn't completely satisfied, but once I heard this song I was sold. This is by far my favorite of their songs so far.

Also from this album: I really like I Wonder, which is quieter, and Not Afraid Anymore, where they pick up the pace and take on the sound I know them for.







Finally, I have fallen in love with this song by Sidewalk Prophets, and guess what, I'm also learning to play this on piano. Which includes me listening to 3 seconds at a time and carefully writing out the piano part. Yep.

An End-of-the-Year Composition For Your Enjoyment

It's been a great year, full of excitement and fun, and challenges and new opportunities.

There have been those times when all I wanted was to escape from the world, to crawl into bed and hide.

There have also been those moments that I wish I could relive, that will always be in my memory.

This year has changed me, that's for sure.

I think, in a way, this song is a recap of 2011 for me.

Pictures by composer4christ


 

(Insert Ridiculous Title Here)

I've officially been blogging for a year (as of October 31)! I can hardly believe it!

So my Picasa album became full, so I've been searching for a different way to post photos. I think I've finally done it. So hopefully I can share some more with you all.

One of my friends at school started a writing club and I recently created a blog for us. When we get it going, we'll be posting our work on there so we can share it with you all! You can find the blog here, although there isn't anything there yet.

I realized something: Back when blogging was new to me, my posts seemed to be way more amusing. So I'm working on a little something for you all in honor of my birthday, which is next week. And it's called...

Things E.F.C. wants for her birthday but knows she most likely will not get.

And who knows? It might even be as funny as that hairbrush post. You know, that one.

I've also been composing some things again and will hopefully be posting some music soon.

The school play I'm currently participating in, Twelfe Night by William Shakespeare (I'm playing the character Fabian in case you're wondering), opens in less than a month! I'm so excited! We're doing it in a different style called original practice. It's supposed to be more like the actors in Shakespeare's time did it, where they got their lines right before the play and performed it without any rehearsal. Except we're rehearsing. As far as we know, we're the first school in the country to try this new approach.

Oh, and I won't have wrinkles in this play. I'm happy about that. In the last 2 major plays I've been in, I've had wrinkles and I'm tired of them.

Random pointless trivia: The bell at my school was half a step flat this morning, but it was back on pitch (a flat) by lunchtime.


I'll leave you with this song. I heard it a couple weeks ago and fell in love with it. This is the best recording I could find.

Sometimes I Wish I Lived On a Private Island...

It's been an interesting day. I felt like composing something, but the world seemed to feel otherwise. First of all, my neighbor was blasting music from his open window (again), my dad wanted to play his guitar, and my headphones wouldn't drown out the noise. So I rode my bike down to the park and it was so peaceful and quiet that I was (finally) able to compose. So I jotted it down in my notebook and rode home.

And then I had to actually get it off the page. The second I sat down at my keyboard the man who lives across the street turned on his leaf blower. It was an E flat. My song was in D. Not a good combination.

Then my dad's phone rang.

Sigh...


But I finally got it into Garage Band! I recorded it once, then saved it multiple times. For one, I kept all the instruments as piano, for another I changed some of them to strings and such, and the last one I made techno. I shoved them all together. Enjoy, and please, please, please tell me what you think of it. I am anxious to hear read your thoughts.  After all- I can't get better unless I know what I need to improve on. And for the record, you guys have been really, really quiet. When I posted my last composition, I only got like 3 comments. That was super discouraging. Just saying.

Come on!!! I shouldn't have to beg for comments!


Anyway, here it is...

Adventure/Western- Orchestra, Piano, and Techno by composer4christ

Soundtrack Review: Tangled

Hey there! It's been a while since my last soundtrack review, hasn't it? I can't believe I haven't done a review on this one yet.





Alan Menken, an American composer, has written the score for numerous Disney movies, including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and more recently, Enchanted.

Before I saw the movie, I wasn't quite sure what to expect as far as the score goes. Needless to say, I was very impressed. Menken was able to retain a more traditional feel that really enhanced the movie, while the songs with words were definitely more modern sounding. Mostly, as it usually is, it was the instruments he chose. The very traditional sound was created by using a blend of solo wind (don't know what exactly) and (I'm guessing) violin along with what sounded like a bodhran, or a traditional Irish drum, and a tambourine. This can especially be heard in the track Kingdom Dance, which is by far my favorite track from the movie.





Menken also did a great job capturing moods. The track below is a great example. I heard this track before even seeing the movie and I could tell that the scene took place at night because of the guitar, and I could hear light, and something grand and life-changing taking place. I was happily surprised when I saw the movie that I had been pretty spot on.





Finally, here's what the composer himself has to say about his music:

Notice the wall in the room there- Isn't it epic!?


Alright, I think I'm done raving about Tangled for a while. Enjoy the break while it lasts.

And in case you haven't heard it yet, I posted another composition in the previous post and I would love love love some feedback.

Also, I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow and probably will have little or no internet access. So just consider this your Soundtrack Saturday.

And finally, please pray that we don't have any more car trouble. We've had a lot of that lately and we certainly don't need anything going wrong while we're on our trip. Thanks!

Live Recording of the Lost Journals

I finally did it! I got a MIDI keyboard about 2 weeks or so ago which means that I can now record my compositions into Garage Band! I'm extremely happy about this because I can get the dynamics and the tempo changes and special things like that just the way I want them. And the piano doesn't sound all clinky like it does on Sibelius. It sounds... real!

So yesterday I made a decent sounding recording of this song and am here to share it with you all.

This is a monumental day, folks!

Live Recording of Lost Journals by composer4christ

This is Not Summer.

I woke up to the sound of steady rain- for the fourth morning in a row. The morning is cool, wet, cloudy, not at all like the summer mornings one would expect this time of year. It's the middle of July, but here, it looks more like April.

Lately, I've been lamenting over the fact that I would really really love to go swimming but the weather doesn't want me to apparently.

But one good thing ("good" thing) about the lack of nice weather is that there's tons of time to read! Yesterday I finally got my hands on a copy of Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo and read it all in one sitting. Now that was one riveting story!

Also, our public library has these things called "book bundles". They're groups of 3 books, all with different themes like "pirates", "horses", etc. and you read the three books in the bundle, fill out a little tag that goes with it and turn in the tag for prize drawings. Well, the other day I actually won a drawing. And I never win drawings.

My prize? 2 coupons for frozen yogurt. That made me very happy. Now if only the weather would warm up a bit so I could use them...

Right now I have this song running through my head. It describes my predicament perfectly.








I wish I was in California...


What about you? You all have been strangely quiet... How's your summer going?

A Message From My Music-Teaching Mother

Keeping my Ducks in a Row                            May 31, 2011


One morning a week, I teach music to a class of 25 wiggly kindergarteners.  Many of them have summer birthdays, which means that even in May, quite a few are still five years old.  This is my true story.

“Hello, Kindergarten.  Today I have a new song to sing for you.  Here it is.”  I begin to sing: “When ducks….” Immediately, I lose one third of the class.  “Ducks!” say their little brains, “This song is about ducks!  What do we know about ducks?  They quack, they flap their wings, you can make a duck beak with your two hands in front of your mouth.”  They proceed to do so.

I continue the line of song: “….get up in the morning…”  There goes group two.  I must say, you’ve got to like group two.  Their eyes get big with surprise.  Ducks!  Getting up in the morning!  They had never thought about this before!  What would the ducks do? They immediately go into full pantomime mode.  They sleep, they wake up, they stretch their arms – wait!  They are ducks! They have wings to stretch, not arms!  What would that look like?  But wait again, the words said they get up – maybe they should stand up! They stand, stretch their wings some more, and begin to quack.

I finish the line: “….they always say ‘Good day’.”  Group three must be the ones who are already six years old.  They are good with the concept of Ducks. They have no problem imagining them getting up in the morning.  They are simply waiting for any directions to follow.  They decide that the directions are to always say “Good day”.  They turn to each other and begin to say “Good day.  Good day.  Good day.  Good day.”  As there are so few of them in this group, they quickly run out of people to say good day to, so they get up and go over to the Morning Ducks.  Here they meet a language barrier, because the Morning Ducks didn’t get that far in the song and so have no idea why the Good Day Ducks are saying good day, and the Good Day Ducks can’t figure out why the Morning Ducks just keep quacking.  Finally, the Good Day Ducks decide to go bilingual, and add some quacks in with their Good Days.  Aha, a breakthrough!  Now the Morning Ducks and the Good Day Ducks can communicate. “Quack, good day, good day, quack!”

Meanwhile, the group one Basic Ducks have finished exploring their concise understanding of “duckiness” and are now spinning and sliding around on the floor, trying to snap each other with their duck beak hands.  They have already forgotten that these hands represent a duck beak.  In fact, they have forgotten that we are doing anything about ducks, but they do know that this sure is a great game!

Snap, quack, good day!  And this all happened within the time it took me to sing, “When ducks get up in the morning, they always say good day.”

The End. (Quack!)

How Awesome is This?

Be sure to check out some of her other videos. They're all great! She's done songs by Tenth Avenue North, Reliant K, and some others including The Call from Prince Caspian!

What's In My Head Wednesday

A favorite of mine... Except for the long, drawn out ending.

This Is The Day by John Rutter

In case you don't already know, John Rutter is an incredible composer.

This song was part of the royal wedding. Isn't it just lovely?

Just Had To Share This With You

I heard this song for the first time last night.

It got me.

Happy, Happy Easter!

I would have written a nice, long, inspirational post, but I'm sure you've read plenty of those already. So for now, just listen to this song and let the words sink in.

This is a Very Exciting Test...

So please bear with me!

Observe as EFC makes a valiant attempt to embed one of her (ancient) (ammature) (ridiculous-sounding) compositions into this post:






Did it work? Please please please leave a comment! I shouldn't have to beg.


Wow. I hadn't listened to this in ages. It's much better than I recall, except I should've had more breaks in the flute part- it's just one long, long strand of notes with nowhere to breathe.

Thank you very much, Director!

I Want To Do This!

And I probably never will, but it's still cool.


Watch this to find out what I'm talking about:







And hear the whole songs here:






And here:

It's Mine!!! It's Really Mine!!!

This evening, I became the proud owner of this:

Enough said.


Music review coming soon!

Soundtrack Review: Flyboys

I'm not quite sure how I happened upon this soundtrack, but I'm very glad I did. Full of heroic fanfare and hopeful melodies, the soundtrack for Flyboys by Trevor Rabin is well worth listening to.

The score is quite different from his other works which include Batman, Armageddon, and National Treasure, which are noticeably heavier. Flyboys, on the other hand, is beautifully light.


What really caught my attention was the way Rabin presented the main theme differently. Almost every time it was used, it was played by a different combination of instruments. As you probably know, I dislike the overuse of themes and by using such a combination of sounds, Rabin was able to hold my interest throughout the entire soundtrack, not just the first few tracks.

I also noticed his sparse use of drums. When he did use drums, and he usually used snare, it was only when it was extremely necessary. He made me want to listen harder so that I wouldn't miss them.


I already shared the Main Title to you, so here are some of my other favorites. Listen closely for the different ways he presents the theme.





The first time I listened to this one, I didn't think I'd like it when it got all "battle-y" but it resolved and became one of my favorites. Really, it's hard not to like it because it's so exciting. But don't just pay attention to that! listen to all the different ways the theme is used! It's used in major, in minor, with low horn, with high strings, you name it! That's what makes this an especially noteworthy piece.





This is an ineresting one. Having not seen the movie, I can only imagine what's going on. The way the music swelled or dropped, went major or minor, helped me picture what could be happening. Again, but I didn't need to mention it, the theme creeps in there.



I'll admit, the first time I listened to the whole soundtrack, i thought the theme was used way too much. But over time, I've come to appreciate the different ways it was played. It has taught me so many useful things that I can apply to my own compositions. Flyboys is a brilliant soundtrack, and I hope you'll check it out.