Week 4 Musings and Composition: Carolan Carol

How do you know if it’s a good tune/melody, especially if you don’t respond immediately to a piece of music and it takes several hearings at least, and as if you listen to anything for enough repetitions, it starts sounding good; and I will be biased toward s my own composition.

Carolan's Carol: the melody

Week 4 musings I had a 9 am rehearsal yesterday morning that was 3+ hours long; there were breaks for food and talk, always lots of talk, but when I got back home, I jotted down a list of items I needed to do. All Deborah Henson-Conant (DHC) inspired items. As I am in the Harness Your Muse Class (HYMM), I get free access to all the other DHC classes, and as a result I am trying to keep up with the Blues Webinar. I am 2 weeks in, and homework is due today, and I am not sure about the 2 handed requirement. But I decided to spend 30-60 minutes on the Blues module. I also wanted to write a simple harmony for the week 3 piece, and complete the 2nd part of the week 4 piece. And if there was time, I wanted to practice Carolan’s Lord Inchiquin as part of my effort to get my repertoire on Youtube. And I still need to finalise the week 2 harmony. And do the 10 questions and answers (for the 2nd week). After the Blues practice, I felt in hand with getting homework done the next day, but then read about the two handed requirement , and don’t know what I missed. So I’ll have to backtrack a bit. The simple harmony, is never simple for me. After 2 measures of notating a simple 1-5 chord, I’ll think that that is boring to the player and listener. I will go off on just a little deviation from a nice pat-sounding harmony, and then that attempt to create a bit of interest spins off into questions about how much is ok, or how little is ok; what is the right amount; and now as I write this, there is the question, am I writing for me or the listener. Its supposed to be to my ear, what appeals to my aesthetic. If someone likes it that is unexpected tribute. I will try to remember this today. Write for my ear, don’t try to inject insincere creativity into the composition; don’t try for an effect on other listeners. I expect that I should be able to, and can do it now; the finished product. Finishing off is hard. I barely got 16 measures of simple harmony for week 3 composition, and I took 15-20 minutes to play with Lord Inchiquin. But it wasn’t really practice; it was just playing the tune, trying to get the harmony and feel I wanted. Not correcting the problem areas; Just playing something, to play; the composing effort makes me feel choppy and bound up. Then I spent an hour or so trying to sweat out a part B for the Week 4, and I was not very satisfied; It sounds very classical again; like Carolan a bit, and is that what I want to compose. I cheated for Week 4 A part, taking something I composed the week before for the A part. So I am floundering. Oh and I am playing at a tea in a couple weeks and need some time for repertoire work. How to make this all happen. Or how to simplify my entanglement. And the Sunday meeting to decide on music for a multi harp concert in 2017: Harpa Galora, with 50 + harps on stage. Want to feel on top of the blog, the technical aspect, I want to be able to practice music (not my own). I like the moments where I become charmed by the phrase, and the musical idea I have expressed. But they are only snippets; the whole is a bit beyond me. And I immediately think of the ocean as the whole.