Showing posts with label music composition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music composition. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
New album to be released by April, 2012
There will be a new album released by April, 2012 with original compositions and exclusive recording production by Kevan Paul.
The emphasis is on electric-violin in various fusion styles overlay-ed across a background of jazz-rock, smooth-jazz, and ambient electronic styles.
The album will be initially available through Google Play, but will try to get published on iTunes, etc. as the project progresses.
At least half of the songs will be added to the YouTube channel (2010media) to experiment with other visual elements and related ideas for the compositions.
A more detailed description of the songs will be added to this web page.
The name of the album is "Passing Through The Portal" which is also the name of track 4 of the album. The intent of the album is to continue the exploration of using electric-violin in fusion styles, especially where synthesizer sounds can be added and invented. The intent is to go beyond the dance-beat influences and provide an interesting sound-scape to overlay melodic violin to blend into an interesting ambient quality of sound. There are obvious influences from classical, new-age, jazz-rock fusion, and smooth-jazz that tend towards allowing the violin to create effortless melodies. This is the foundation for this album.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
New Song KP2-02-Through The Fog
This new song has all of the jazz fusion elements that I want to hear in my compositions: 1. violin melodies with song form. "Verse - Verse - Break improvisation - Transition - Verse - Verse" 2. electronic rhythmic contrast parts 3. electric-violin solo that sounds like an electric-guitar solo (during transition) 4. vocal overlay with ambient choral effect. 5. jazz elements for violin phrases. The themes are stated, extended, and then repeated, with jazz improvisation in the middle section. 6. syncopated bass parts. If I can have these elements in each song on the "Going Home" album, then the collection should sound coherent and easy to follow. Hopefully, I can extend this framework to the next group of songs. Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Three Musical Worlds for Violinists
This is my assessment of music industry opportunities for violinists versus capabilities.
There seems to be three musical worlds that violinists can thrive in. For most violinists these seem to be mutually exclusive musically spheres of involvement. There are many violinists who are very expert in their music knowledge and performance experience, however, there are traditions and preferences that influence and limit the development of a career performer. My assessment does reinforce stereotypes, but since perception can shape reality, this is that best I can do without survey data.
The first world, is the world of the classical music trained and classical music performing violinist. These are generally orchestral performers, with a rare soloist who can master the demands of the repertoire that requires a brilliant memory and a stand-out tonality along with impeccable technique. What a lot of pressure there is for a solo classical performer, and with limited audience. The performance and rehearsal expectations dictate the lifestyle -- busy and competitive, but with a price. The price is not having much time to explore other forms of music, or "programming" that limits the ability to play "by ear" and/or blend-in with other "non-classical" musicians.
The second world, is the world of acoustic folk music with traditional, bluegrass, country, Celtic, Irish, etc. influences. This world provides interesting performance opportunities, but there are limited recording opportunities, and if you are lucky enough to "break-out" of the first world, then you may be a good performer, but limited in ability to "compose" the parts that are required. In this world, the violinists may be asked to perform very limited amount of time with "fills, runs, and harmony-parts". This may be boring for a classical performing musician that can sit down and play an hour-plus piece of music. There may be some income opportunities, but probably not enough to raise a family. buy a house, or create a retirement package - yeah, right.
The third world, is the world carved out by a few very good musicians who have had enough talent and luck to find a career as a solo artist with a record contract. How many violinists are in this category, as compared with other solo instrument artists? Not many in my assessment. Why not? This is where I offer my opinion. The fact is, the violin is a very difficult instrument to record and perform in the current popular genre driven commercial music. This requires a re-assessment by recording engineers and digital signal processing experts to work with violinists to develop a better way to make the violin relevant again in commercial music. Just as the electric guitar has changed the definition of a rhythm section, the electric violin needs to be re-defined. Simply plugging a violin into a guitar amplifier will not work. The reasons are based on the physics of the wave form of the violin as compared to the guitar. This will be the topic of my next post to give my theories about what may change the game and give the violin a chance to compete in a new generation of music. Are the violinists ready to perform in the third world?
There is, no doubt, a number of dedicated violinists who could rise above an amateur status if given a greater opportunity to perform and have enough free time to practice the instrument.
It may be too late for me to create a place in the third musical world (especially in terms of a recording contract), but with home recording techniques and tools, I may be able to leave a legacy of experimentation into many styles of music that are not usually considered available to a violinist. My current genre to experiment with is "electronic-heavy-metal-instrumental", with violin lead solo.
There seems to be three musical worlds that violinists can thrive in. For most violinists these seem to be mutually exclusive musically spheres of involvement. There are many violinists who are very expert in their music knowledge and performance experience, however, there are traditions and preferences that influence and limit the development of a career performer. My assessment does reinforce stereotypes, but since perception can shape reality, this is that best I can do without survey data.
The first world, is the world of the classical music trained and classical music performing violinist. These are generally orchestral performers, with a rare soloist who can master the demands of the repertoire that requires a brilliant memory and a stand-out tonality along with impeccable technique. What a lot of pressure there is for a solo classical performer, and with limited audience. The performance and rehearsal expectations dictate the lifestyle -- busy and competitive, but with a price. The price is not having much time to explore other forms of music, or "programming" that limits the ability to play "by ear" and/or blend-in with other "non-classical" musicians.
The second world, is the world of acoustic folk music with traditional, bluegrass, country, Celtic, Irish, etc. influences. This world provides interesting performance opportunities, but there are limited recording opportunities, and if you are lucky enough to "break-out" of the first world, then you may be a good performer, but limited in ability to "compose" the parts that are required. In this world, the violinists may be asked to perform very limited amount of time with "fills, runs, and harmony-parts". This may be boring for a classical performing musician that can sit down and play an hour-plus piece of music. There may be some income opportunities, but probably not enough to raise a family. buy a house, or create a retirement package - yeah, right.
The third world, is the world carved out by a few very good musicians who have had enough talent and luck to find a career as a solo artist with a record contract. How many violinists are in this category, as compared with other solo instrument artists? Not many in my assessment. Why not? This is where I offer my opinion. The fact is, the violin is a very difficult instrument to record and perform in the current popular genre driven commercial music. This requires a re-assessment by recording engineers and digital signal processing experts to work with violinists to develop a better way to make the violin relevant again in commercial music. Just as the electric guitar has changed the definition of a rhythm section, the electric violin needs to be re-defined. Simply plugging a violin into a guitar amplifier will not work. The reasons are based on the physics of the wave form of the violin as compared to the guitar. This will be the topic of my next post to give my theories about what may change the game and give the violin a chance to compete in a new generation of music. Are the violinists ready to perform in the third world?
There is, no doubt, a number of dedicated violinists who could rise above an amateur status if given a greater opportunity to perform and have enough free time to practice the instrument.
It may be too late for me to create a place in the third musical world (especially in terms of a recording contract), but with home recording techniques and tools, I may be able to leave a legacy of experimentation into many styles of music that are not usually considered available to a violinist. My current genre to experiment with is "electronic-heavy-metal-instrumental", with violin lead solo.
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