Lesson with Steve

ok I'll clean it up tomorrow, i was rushing to get it to you by tonight for you to look at, and writing for a Bb instrument isn't a strongpoint of mine...I will see what I can do about getting a hold of the Berio, I have knowledge of the piece but haven't heard it or seen a score...

You don't need to notate it in Bb, just write it in C and you can do the transposing later.

here it is, no double sharps!

Steve,

It seems like I need to be more specific on what I ask from you to do. For now, your work shows that you are taking this class seriously and I appreciate that. So far I am liking your work and it shows a lot of potential to be a nice piece.

I need you to decide a main theme for your song and be more economic on your themes. This is another golden rule you should understand. Being economic in your melodic materials not only makes it easier for you to organize your piece but also makes it easier for the listener to understand your music. Ultimately it helps your piece to be more coherent. For your next assignement choose a melodic material from your recent sketches and try to be more faithful to the original material when you make the transformations and alternations. I am going to be more specific: on the staff paper write the theme that you choose and after that write 3-4 different alternations of it. It will be also a good idea to choose a contrasting theme to be the 2nd theme of the song. You can also write alternations for that one. Please indicate everything with text on the finale file.

hey i'm going to try to post something tonight, I've been very busy with school and work lately, sorry I couldn't turn in material sooner

okay back from my hiatus, sorry it's been a while, I've been VERY anxious for our lessons! anyways, I think I held a bit more true to the theme, did struggle a little bit, mostly because I got kind of sick of the theme and starting getting stale...I wasn't too sure if I was supposed to do a bunch of variations on a second theme because the first and second set of directions were different...I like one of my older motives I came up when I did the assignment incorrectly and left it there with its proceeding chaotic breakdown, which I also like It's labeled "theme 2?"

I am very sorry for the long delay. But this was due to the fact that I had no internet connection the past week and also I was in the middle of some important stuff. But anyway, hope you forgive me for that and lets get back to our leson.

Your materials are good. I think you mis understand me from somewhere because I never said you did something incorrectly I just wanted you to work on limited number of motives at first. Of course I don't ask you to erase your materials.

Here is what I think about the progress so far: I do not want to interfere with your melodies so I will only speak of what could have been done to improve them. First of all the rhythmic aspect is very unvaried and predictable at some parts. For example the ascending triplet figure, you know how it will end at the moment it starts.. You get my point ? Also the persistent 16th notes starting at measure 9. I know that this stage is too early to get into such detail but I am just telling you what I think as we progress, it might help you later on. I would suggest you to be more inventive with your rhythmic patterns to avoid predictability which sometimes is the reason to be a piece to be boring.

On the second page however, you used 8th notes and quarters. why? why the sudden change in pace? Or did you make it like this as a working draft of your motives. Or do you intend to crate a contrasting character with these ?

Ok see, now you got plenty of material to start writing your piece. Now you know for which instrument you are writing for and you got plenty of themes to work with. Have you decided on the form or the length perhaps? I assume this will be a pretty fast piece so it might be only 2 minutes or so. Perfect for our first assignment, so we can quickly finish this up to move on to another one.

For your next assignment:

Organise your materials in a fashion to represent an ABA form. You can use your main theme at the both A parts and the slow themes of the second page on the B part. Organize them and leave blank measures where you plan to crate transitions and other materials later on. This way we will have the backbone of our piece and will get the basic idea before the details get in.

if you get stuck.. just post what you have

okay...i have to go to my job for a few hours and willl work later, but a few things to say first...yes, this was a draft with motives and themes...I will work on improving the themes, maybe coming up with new ones, etc...i was hoping to make it short, and I didn't have a form in mind (although I'm open to your choice of ABA)...from the begininning through the end of the 16th notes was originally conceived as one whole beginning, and the stream 16th notes were on purpose and is intended as a virtuoso display, but is intended to be "stretch" effect through changes of drastic slow and fast tempi (I don't know much on controlling that type of playback)...but if you really are opposed i can get rid of it...i'll try to finish the assignment too (I'm anxious to move on to something else too!)

sorry it has been so long...i have been swamped with my job and school work, and will get to the assignment asap...don't worry I am still anxious for our lessons!