string, wire & earthquakes

there's a minor earthquake afoot in my work life... deep underground because i'm not working now... the ripples... the aftershocks... i'll feel when i get back to work...

but 1st string & wire...

or arranging strings...

and watching stringer in the wire...

it took me long enough to get around to it but i arranged the 2 tunes for strings that i'm responsible for in T's set on august 1st...

composition, and even though the tune was written already, writing the strings is certainly composition... works best for me when i can get it to a certain point, then sleep on it... i don't always have time for that... also i have great ideas in the shower, it's always been a place rich in fantasy, and i know that sounds slightly rude, i don't mean it to be...

so the 1st tune i arranged, track 5 in the set a week on friday...

i got it done then realised that my strings were a little close together... did a version with the same notes but spreading the octaves a little... slept on it, listened to both... combined them, bits of close, bits of further out... because these strings have a place within the 5-piece band they can't be as far out as they would be if they were on their own...

it's interesting to be able to check out the alternatives and to choose... expands my string arranging head somewhat...

the other tune i arranged is the opener on the night and i wasn't so elaborate, partly to suit the needs of the tune...

all done and emailed off to T, along with one of his i tidied up... getting excited about that gig... i don't know if i've mentioned it much but it's a week on friday and i'm pushing more than i normally do to get people there... headlining @ the clapham grand is an event... so i've set up a facebook event for it, T has set up a myspace event, (or so he says, i can't find it)

check it out if you're in town next friday x

and then the wire... just finished watching the 3rd series and it is great...

the 5th series is coming on FX any day now, but i've got the 4th series in between me & that so i won't be watching it just yet, although i may catch it up through my means... but going back to normal TV with adverts, once a week, when you've had it with no adverts whenever you want... it's a different deal...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!3rd series spoiler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stringer bell... what a great character...

and what a great end... i leapt out of my chair and cheered when he got it... i love good TV...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!3rd series spoiler over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok so back to to the earthquake, some background, quite a few years ago i gave up my "working for all kinds of people" life and settled down to only working for one company... at the time there was ample work and i flourished, got a taste of having more money, not buckets of it but more than i was used to, liked it...

then gradually over the years that company cut my hours... every time it happened i was pleased, more time for creativity... the improvisations, the compositions, band stuff, film making....

but less work means less money... and the current earthquake takes away more work, although it's a big change and it could possibly signal more work in the long run... i'll believe it when i see it...

what it means is that my "only working for one company" notion is no longer working, now i started working for another college about 3 years ago and that's been good, even opened another horizon with the maths tuition, although i found out in the last days of work for the academic year that the maths tuition is being taken away, which disappointed me much and makes me feel somewhat undervalued over there...

so...

here we are, and like every other time work gets taken away i'm faced with a choice, celebrate the extra time my creativity is being given, or find more work...

and like every time i think that this time it's gone too far and surely i'll get more work now...

but will i?

it's funny, having less teaching work could also open the door, or give the space to, more music work, playing in restaurants and suchlike...

watch this space...

& watch the wire...

& come to our gig @ the clapham grand...

x

piano monday

i don't yet have it, because i walked the violinists home, and didn't hang around to get a DVD of my brand new strings recording.. but it exists...

it went very well, much longer than anticipated but that's often the case with recording sessions... i was in my element, being able to read music and communicate with the string players, by the time we got around to my one they were pretty tired and it wasn't the most perfect string quartet rendition of my arrangement but it was still sex on a stick and i didn't have the heart to get them to do it again, (i may regret that later)...

so i slept like a log last night after the session, got up today and lazily set to work learning up the tunes for thursday's flute exam, the first rehearsal was this evening and it was good, i couldn't play any of the 3 pieces properly but there's still time, we're rehearsing again on wednesday and i just have to be perfect on that day...

so i'll be getting up early tomorrow and playing my arse off all day, stopping only to do some paperwork for londonbridgework then going into said work to talk about paperwork, playing piano in the breaks...

the hardest piece is damn hard... the other 2 should be alright with enough practise, the hard one will just take more practise...

ok, once more around the 2nd hardest then i'm going to bed...

x

strings sunday

so, on friday T told me that the string session had to be tonight, sadly i'll be missing part of W(floopy)shaman's birthday bash for it but needs must...

so today, as well as doing my customary sunday thing with dinah, learning up another part of the handel piece that's hard, i'm putting together my string arrangement for anti-stardust...

i've been working on T's strings for a few sessions and i'm taking the opportunity of the session to record my own stuff as well, just this one tune...

it still could fall off the end of the session but i don't think it will...

so here i am, not a whole heap of sleep after a great night for me, dinah & Gordy @ dr K's... running MIDI strings through cubase, that will then convert into printed notes, that will then sit in front of real string players that will then become part of anti-stardust...

x