TheBanyanTree: Musicality

[Laura]

(I've decided I'm going to make myself write more.  I used to write a lot,
but got out of the habit when the kids got big enough to need to be
transported thither and yon constantly.  Now my youngest has his driver's
license, and the oldest will be gone to college 6 hours a day.  So, I have
no excuse for not writing.  Here's my second attempt.  The first was
yesterday, and is on my blog (see my sig file) if you're interested.  It's
about grocery shopping.)

During the orientation meeting for the co-op my youngest son attends, I
volunteered to help with the Show Choir and Musical Theatre.  I have lots of
experience with both, and thought it would be a fun way to help out.

I was right.  So far, it's been fun!  I like the director, and the kids are
all terrific.  I like the music the director has picked out, and the dances,
her specialty, are cute and appropriate for the music and the age group.

There is one song, the anchor song of the whole show, that is totally
musical.  The dance bits will have solos, and the chorus is mostly dancing
and ooohhh-ing or whoa-ing in the background.  So this one song will sort of
showcase the music.  The director has put me in charge of this song, which
is fine.  But, my mind takes over and starts thinking of ways to improve the
music, and make it simpler for whoever the girls are who are going to be
singing it.  None of them read music, and the arrangement the director has
chosen is complicated, which is what makes it so beautiful, but it could be
difficult for the girls to pick out the separate parts.  So, I thought I'd
listen through it, and write out the parts.  Even someone who can't read
music can follow along with the notes.

I found a free trial of music writing software on the internet, which has
made this activity less stressful.  I've about decided to go ahead and buy
it, it's only $10, because there have been other times when I wished I'd had
something like that.

It's time consuming, because I have to listen to the song (which changes key
at least 4 times), play the notes on the keyboard to confirm the key, then
go over each part multiple times to get the separate parts typed into the
program.

It's actually been fun working on it, and digging around remembering my
music theory.  It's a part of my brain I haven't used for several years, so
it's nice dusting the cobwebs off.  :)

Last night I was working on the most difficult section of the song.  The key
changes from major to minor in the middle of one verse, and the harmonies
become dissonant.  It is a beautiful and moving verse, but somewhat
difficult to separate into parts and get on virtual paper.  I pushed
through, finished that difficult verse, got the change back from minor to
major in the next verse, and got the chorus, which is done as a round, all
written out.

After all that, I was kind of burned out, so I stopped work.  I saved my
file, and without closing the program, moved on to other things on the
computer.

As I was closing the computer down, I realized the music writing program was
still open.  I shut it down, and selected "Save All", just in case.  What I
didn't realize was I had somehow gotten two copies of the file open when I
started.  I had one file I was working in, and the other was still as it was
when I started.  When the program "Saved All", it closed them in the order
they were open, so it closed my working file first, then saved the original
file over the work file, because they had the same name.  So all that work I
did was lost.  Gone.  Poof.

I was a little bit upset.  <ahem>

There is a little bit of good news.  At one point I decided to transpose the
alto part up an octave to make it easier to read, and saved the file with a
new name just in case I messed it all up.  Then I transposed the alto part,
and pasted it into my working file.

That means I have the first verse intact with all three parts, instead of
just one part of one verse, so I don't have to start over from the very
beginning, just from the middle.

<sigh>
-- 
Laura (aka Wolfie)
wolfljsh at gmail.com
http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com