Maybe not hugely creative but necessary knowledge anyway. And with the immininent departure of our resident command-line guru, it’s sort of a self-preservation measure too. Should know it anyway though…
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Yup, Chapter 5 done & dusted. Quite straightforward really, especially considering the minor scales chapter. Also settled on a text for the choral piece – Edgar Allen Poe’s sonnet on Silence. Yes, I get the irony of writing a piece for multiple voices on ’silence’ but nevertheless, I think it’s the best poem for the task in hand.
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Understanding a LOT more than ever before, thanks to new book’s approach focusing on pentachord/tetrachord combinations rather than just lonely scale degrees. Trying to hammer in basic info about modes too (Ionian – Dorian – Phrygian – Lydian – Mixolydian – Aeolian – Locrian. ‘Major’ modes are Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian; ‘Minor’ modes are Aeolian, Dorian Phrygian. See how I didn’t look any of that up? I bet you’re impressed, huh? 
)
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Chapter 2 of the new book was on rhythm and metre. I’m really enjoying this actually, even though everything’s so simple – it’s all stuff I know – but it’s also stuff I haven’t really needed to think too much about since… ooh… year 7 non-elective music and I’m really enjoying just reviewing the basics and doing the exercises, basic as they are. It’s good to be reviving these ancient undercurrents of knowledge. Scales up next!
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I was a little alarmed, I must say, to find that I actually learnt something (or rather, corrected some misinformation I had somehow picked up) even from the scarily basic first chapter. But this is A Good Thing, I think. Looking forward to chapter 2 now.
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So now I have a short list of two books to have a look at: The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis by Jane Clendinning, and Stephan Kostka’s book on harmony which sounds more like a traditional harmony text. Very excited to be getting this project underway!
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Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, a disc of Poulenc & Britten songs, performed by the composers and some Reynaldo Hahn songs. Hunting for a clear way through the transposition mire for the Whitman set.
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… conducting Les Noces, Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Symphony of Psalms, from the CD set I bought yesterday – amazing. Also transcribed a bunch of notes I made on the Walt Whitman prose works I’ve been reading, napped and played through two levels of Lego Indiana Jones. And the evening’s not done yet! Now, which CD to listen to while I read the next chapter of the Twyla Tharp book?
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For the collaborative project I’m working on with a friend. This involved looking into the new Google Android operating system for mobile phones and wandering about learning about Mobile Web Servers. Interesting stuff!
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I’ve realised that my basic business skills need some love, and that if I’m to really push forward with my composition then I need to sort myself out in a number of different ways – being confident with business concepts and planning being one of them. So I’ve started working through the free Open Learning courses being offered at Creative Choices, starting small with “Maximising your potential” which is all about management styles, career planning and managing priorities and so on. Planning on gradually working up to the accounting bits…
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