Douglas Gibson | Music Blog

 Happy New Year

I would like to begin by wishing you a very happy and successful 2013. This is always one of my favorite times of the year. Out with the old. Time for setting new goals. I am determined to make 2013 a musical success, and I hope you are too !

Jiro Dreams of Sushi: I want to share with you one of the most inspiring films I have seen in a long time. It is called Jiro Dreams of Sushi. While the film is not about music composition per say, there is no better metaphor on how to approach your craft than this film. The film is nicely constructed, but it is the story of Jiro that really blew me away. Jiro is a self made sushi chef in Tokyo. He runs a little restaurant  that holds between 10-15 people. There are most likely thousands of these restaurants in Tokyo. But, eating at Jiro’s is one of the most difficult reservations to get in the world. Bookings are required months (even years) in advance. You are only allowed to stay for 20 minutes. Jiro has been awarded 3 Michelin hats which is the highest honor bestowed upon any chef. How did he do it ? He practiced a distinction called “Kaizen” which means the relentless pursuit of perfection. It is the pursuit that is important, not the attachment or attainment of perfection. It is the love of the pursuit that makes the difference. When one is stuck on perfection often times we struggle to get started, or get frustrated at all the phases of imperfection a composition must go through. Also this mindset is one of life long learning. One can always find a way to improve.

Congratulations to Sumi Toonoka: I am so lucky to work with such inspiring students. In September Sumi contacted me for orchestration lessons as she was applying for the American Composers Orchestra/ Jazz Composers Workshop. Sumi is an amazing Jazz pianist. (sumitonooka.com)

The workshop is highly competitive. All participants must demonstrate a mastery of their craft, and orchestration skills, which Sumi certainly has done. She was one of the composers selected to write a new 8 minute composition for the ACO. This is an exciting new direction for Sumi to step into the orchestral composition world. Let’s all wish her luck as she begins preparation for the June reading/recording session.

The Big Arch: There are a few topics that come up over and over again for almost everyone. One of them is how to connect the micro (motives) with the macro (form)

I can tell you one piece of advice that has helped me with my own compositions is this: Think about the big arch.  Here is what I mean. If I were to sit down in a car and begin to drive what is the first question that would pop into your head? Where am I going ? No …. this is not really the most important question now is it ? The most important question is what is my final destination. Where do I need to end. Where you are going (north, south, east, west, turn right , turn left) will be determined by your final destination. But do we compose like this ? Often times not. Rather we leave the end as the last step in our journey. Begin with the end in mind and work backwards. This creates a learning gap. The mind does not like gaps in knowledge and will seek to finds ways to fill these gaps. A “void” however is too ambiguous and no urgency for a resolution is created. In fact we often shut down. Knowing where you will end keeps the ambiguity from being a void, and creating a gap/

Try this:  Write an opening 8 bars of a composition. Now stop. You hear me?… stop.   Write the last 4 bars of your composition. Get the beginning and the end solid. (I personally feel this is easier to do with pencil and paper.) All too often the computer can get us thinking about our compositions in a linear fashion from the very outset and we remain stuck in this pattern. If composing at the computer is your most comfortable method of writing then I suggest you create a scrap file (or a few) that you use to simply jot down ideas that will be expanded upon and developed at a later time.

New Composition

Over the past 3 months I have been updating my commercial music showreel for 2013. I would like to share with you one of my compositions from this reel.

Cutting Edge Concerts

I am finishing up the final touches on a new composition for new music renegades Loadbang ensemble.  I am trilled to be one of the composers selected for this years Cutting Edge Concert Series here in NYC. The roster is a stellar cast of some of the finest composers in the Northeast. All the information regarding this concert can be seen here: welltonenewmusic

Wishing us all a wonderfully musical 2013

Doug Gibson

Sandy:  November has been a tumultuous month for those of us living in the New York, Tri-State area. Tropical Storm Sandy had a more devastating impact than anyone expected. As a small way to give back I will be donating 10% of all music lesson proceeds for November and December  to the Red-Cross Hurricane relief effort.

Special Holiday Lesson Offer: Refer a friend and get two lessons free. When you refer a friend to sign up for lessons you both will get two lessons free (when purchasing a package of four) This is a great chance to give the gift of music and creativity. The new year is always a wonderful time to reflect on what is important to you, and set new goals. Make 2013 a creatively inspired one.

Recording Session and Composing News: I recently had the privilege of composing music for MAXLOVEPROJECT which is non-profit that supports research for fighting children’s cancer. The music was a lot of fun for me to compose. Great musicians, great cause. Additionally I found out I will be on the “cutting edge concert series” in April of 2013 composing a new work for contemporary music ensemble “Loadbang” at Symphony Space. I am very honored to be asked to be apart of this long running prestigious concert series and look forward to getting to work on the piece ! http://www.welltonenewmusic.org/

New York Orchestration meet-up group:  For those of you in New York City I have been a monthly lecture series on Orchestration. The meetings are held at my mid-town teaching studio (about 2 blocks from Carnegie Hall) http://www.meetup.com/New-York-Music-Orchestration-group/

Student achievements: I am always inspired by the immense talent of my students. This month I would like to congratulation Tanya Young  http://nyc-composer.com/  who successfully placed her music in Revostock music library. Here is to Tanya’s success.

Music Tips:  What is creativity and how do we maintain it ?

This month instead of speaking on the craft of music composition I wanted to tackle ideas on staying fresh and being inspired by your work. What to do when the creative spark is gone ? It can happen to anyone, regardless  of how much technique or experience we have. I strongly advocate during my lessons having a workman like approach to the study of music. As composers the more our pencils are filling up pages, (or mouse clicks at the computer) the more we are growing. The word “Composer” rings truest to my ears when it is used as a verb. However there are certainly times when we fall back on our old tricks, solve new problems with quick answers learned from our past and rest squarely in the middle of our comfort zone. Here are some things I have used in my own composing practice.

First I would like to recommend a book I used that helped me through a 10 month writers block about a decade ago. The book is called “The Artist Way”  by Julia Cameron. The first two suggestions are taken directly form this book.

Keep a Journal: The idea behind this is to give yourself a space to write without judgement. Free associating is highly encouraged. The journal is not ever meant to be shown to anyone, and as a practice write 3 pages per day about anything you want. This can be about your work, or about anything on your mind that is taking up your mental energy. One of my favorite quotes is “As artist we need a blank canvas to create” and this is especially true with our own minds.

Go on an Artist Date: The second practice is to block out a chunk of time each week to do something for inspiring your creativity. This exercise is meant to be done by yourself, to give you alone time and contemplate your art work.  Some examples could be going to a concert, an art museum, reading a book. So many great composers have been influenced by artist of other domains. (poetry, visual art, filmmaking etc.) The important thing is this should not feel like work. This is not meant to be practice time. It is meant to be fun, stimulating,  and fill up the creative well.

Meditate/go for a walk: In my opinion being an artist and not meditating is like being an executive and not playing golf.

Converse with a trusted colleague or friend: One of the most helpful things I did to break out of my writers block was set up a bi-weekly coffee meetings with a violinist friend (now a popular classical radio announcer on KBAQ 89.5)  I find I often get my best ideas by talking them through. What really helped was that our meetings were purposeful. The whole point was to speak about our new projects (she was leaving the orchestra to pursue being a Irish fiddler) and talk openly about our thoughts and concerns of our new directions. We never got sidetracked into chit-chat. I always left inspired.

Positive Pressure:  One of the hardest the hardest things can be making choices in our work. Endless revisions or procrastination can mask a fear of completing a piece of work. I find having a mentor great for this. Someone who I have to hold myself accountable to. Also the constructive, no BS, feedback. My other favorite is collaborating with a performer. I am a big fan of “what if” questions. Some of my most enjoyable compositional processes have been working with a performer and starting work together with only a few bars. I feel like a director working with an actor and I compose the piece to bring out the best in them. (and myself) The other suggestion I have is at the end of every meeting create a next action step. This creates a timeline to move the piece froward, and to hold me to account. Also I find it helpful as it breaks down the larger task (writing piece XZY) into smaller action steps (by XYZ revise bars 12-32 of piece). As the saying goes “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

Auto-suggestion and visualization: Being a musician has deeply instilled in me the value of practice and rehearsal. While very similar to meditation I find recording myself speaking about a composition, or project, and stating exactly how I would like it to turn out, to be of great value. Sometimes I speak about dream collaborations, or I talk through a timeline of a project and offer motivation. I then listen back to this when I go to sleep, or on the subways of NYC. If something is important to get right don’t leave until the deadline to give it your first shot. If I am going into the studio I am not printing up parts the night before (ideally speaking – I have taken on a few “mission impossible” deadlines with only 24 or 48 hours notice to start). I give myself a deadline a few days before and I walk through every aspect of the session with a checklist.  I treat it just like the real thing. I always feel calm, and confident after doing this. Most importantly I am able to give 100 % of my attention to the music in the session. Of course things can still go wrong, but it wasn’t due to a lack of preparation, or organization. I wanted to include this item on the list as I feel that we all have to manage anxiety while on creative endeavors. Procrastinating is a method of controlling anxiety, as it subconsciously communicates to us that it is less stressful in the moment to put our project off until later. Doing this helps me keep on moving forward.

Wishing you musical inspiration

Doug

I am pleased to share with you a new recording of a composition of mine for Viola and Piano. It was such a pleasure to work with such talented and dedicated performers.

Viola – Frank Foerster

Piano – Stephen Gosling

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite tools I have for making music. These all are essential items for me. If I was to loose one I would most certainly replace them.

Transcribe:

Transcribe allows me to quickly select a piece of music an slow the tempo down to any percentage that I like. I like it as it is so easy to navigate and actually find it very useful to loop phrases.

Scorecleaner:

Another program that I hope will always stay simple. I use score cleaner to sketch out my initial ideas on the piano. I find score cleaner much cleaner than Sibelius for being able to play directly into via piano. I would not use score cleaner for any actual notation of the final score, but it certainly looks clear enough for me when sketching.

Sibelius 6 (or finale): Having a notation program is really the heart of my composing software endeavors.Learn to use them well and you will not be sorry

Logic (or equivalent DAW): Another program I do not know what I would do without. Other equivalents would be Cubase, Digital performer, Reaper, and Sonar,or Protools.

Microphone and Audio interface: I have a RODE NT1 and I really enjoy my Appogee duet. They allow me to have clean recordings, and the duet is so mobile I can record anywhere I go.

Midi USB keyboard: So many to choose from here. I knew I wanted weighted keys and full range of a piano so I settled on a Yamaha. Depending on what your goals are, many composers need a keyboard that acts as a controller for their midi samples. (I will look at midid samples in a future post)

Lastly I would like to give a special mention to my student Frank Foerster who had his composition for String Orchestra performed on fathers day at Fort Tryon Park in New York City. I was in attendance and happy to report it was a hit with the audience. Bravo Frank !

Many best wishes and musical inspiration

Doug

Firstly let me apologize for the delay in getting this “Tip of the week” out to you. Things have been busy, but very exciting over here. Please let me explain.

First I have had a breakthrough with my internet teaching capabilities. I have discovered a way     (I believe) to not only share my screen on the internet but also the sound from my computer. Why I am so excited about this is that I will be able to present more information and in a clearer presentation style.

As summer approaches I am putting together a series of tutorial videos that will be tailored to my students. This will NOT be generic youtube videos that is meant for everyone. I am blessed to have highly motivated and super talented students, and as such I aim to offer high quality “expert” content that can supplement our lessons.

Finally in the fall I am putting together preparations for offering group classes to my students in the NYC area pairing composers with professional performers and getting hands on experience writing for live performance.

OK…. enough with my propaganda onwards to the music:

I would like to pull out an earlier composition of mine. I have  often  spoken about using the mediant harmony a great deal. It sits right on the line of offering all the fruits of tonality (melodies, pleasing to hear) and the quick modulation abilities of chromaticism. It is so often used in both concert and film scores I believe every composer should be fluent in its use.I wrote this piece in 2005 and is based almost entirely on this concept.

If you would like to see an excerpt from the score or the piano reductions please let me know and I would be happy to provide them.

You can see a live performance by clicking here

Many best musical wishes

This week as I was thinking about music composition I thought about a book called “Made to Stick – Why some ideas survive and others die.”

I was wondering how these concepts could be applied to our work as music composers. I would like to share with you two points from the first two chapters.

Having a plan: In Made to Stick the authors speak about the importance of having a plan. However they also state “in any battle the first casualty is always a plan”.

Once you are in engaged in you composition your plan may indeed be the first thing you throw out the window. But the benefit of the plan is from the preparation and mindset it creates even if you decide to abandon it. Planning is closely related to sketching. Sketching allows you to develop raw materials for a new work, and can be very useful for finding sources of inspiration. Additionally you may discover a great new compositional idea that is foreign to the work you are composing, and become tempted to toss it in simply because you like it. The plan will serve as a guide on wether  to include the idea into the composition or capture in the sketchbook for later use . Which brings us to chapter 2

Getting to the core of your idea:  If you are the CEO of Southwest Airlines, and you know that the core of your business is to be the cheapest airline your decision making process now becomes a whole lot easier. If someone comes to you and says “I think we should offer caesar salads on our flights. We did market research and people like caesar salads.”  Knowing that the core idea of your business is to be the lowest cost airline and when faced with a tempting decision (to add an item that would add 6 dollars to every plane ticket) the correct answer becomes painfully obvious. NO CEASAR SALADS. I think there is something to be said about this for music composition. What is the core idea of your piece ? Is it melody, texture, harmony? In general compositions that focus on fewer ideas and explores them thoroughly are often more successful than compositions that have many ideas less fully developed.

I am very excited to share with you that one of my arrangements for composer Victoria Bond will be performed at Alice Tully hall in Lincoln Center on Monday May 7th.

The original piece was for piano flute and violin, and needed to be expanded to include Pipa, Erhu, Dizi, and Chinese percussion. A learning curve for me to be sure. However the reports from the musicians have all been very positive and for me to have one of my works performed in Lincoln Center is a real honor.

Wishing you much musical inspiration this week

Doug

Last week I read an article in the New York TImes on musical motives and  it’s connection with our own human DNA

New York Times article on musical DNA.

This has inspired me to think about the ways we can take a small thread of music and weave an entire world out of it

I find it can be  very useful to have a set of techniques I can apply to my own motives to help realize their full potential.

Lets take a set of pitches and I will call this my motive. Below is a list of 10 compositional devices you can use to transform your motive. Next week we will look at another 10

Original

This week I came across a really nice set of “Masterclass” videos done by the members of the London Symphony Orchestra. While of course working with a performer is the

optimal way to collaborate, I believe these videos are a great resource. Some of the valuable lessons are:

• You can see the physicality of playing the instruments.
• You gain an insight  into the musical decision making
• A greater understanding of what each instrument does well, common phrasing, and  what types of musical lines the musicians will have practiced and become familiar with.

Here are just a few:

Tip of the week

When writing fast passages of music, one very effective way to make the music much easier to play for the player, while fooling the listener, is to use the orchestration technique  “dovetailing.” What is dovetailing ? Essentially it is the swapping and overlapping  of musical lines between 2 instruments. Let’s take a look at figure one. This could be played be played by one instrument, but may be very difficult or simply slow down the recording/rehearsal session for the player to practice the part. The solution is to divide and to conquer.  Lets look at the following example. Say we have a line like this: