The Quiet Girl

I said in an earlier post that I would expound more on my compositions later. I am going to talk about my compositions and arrangements that I have written this past semester. Early in September, my new clarinet professor asked me what my major was. I told her that it was Film Scoring. She then explained to me that she wanted to find opportunities to give students job experience before they graduate so they can have a better chance of being employed. I thought that was a great idea. As an introvert, I never liked the idea of networking, but now that I have gotten several gigs over the past 2 years, I am used to it and like meeting new music businesspeople. I like being professional and building a good reputation in the music industry. So, in the middle of September, my professor asked me if I would like to arrange some praise songs for the clarinet ensemble and the woodwind quintet that I play in. Of course, I agreed to it. The first arrangement I wrote was "Come, Now is t

I performed three times over the past week. I am a member of the woodwind quintet at my school. The School of Music is hosting Atrium Concerts in the Library, a concert by a certain ensemble every Friday at lunchtime. We performed in the atrium of our library on Friday. We performed a piece by a composer named Paul Hindemith called "Kleine Kammermusik fur funf blaser" or in English, "A Little Chamber Music for Five Wind Players." The piece sounded very dark and haunting , which is why this piece was my favorite. Paul Hindemith wrote a lot of modern music, and lived during the early twentieth century.  Next, we performed a piece by a composer named Franz Danzi from the classical period called simply "Quintet." The second performance I played in was with the community symphony orchestra. I had never played in a professional orchestra before, and I truly loved the experience! We played "Les Preludes" by Franz Liszt as well as George Ge

The Quiet Girl Featuring Rachel Christenson- Confidence I wrote this song in March for a Songwriter's Open Mic Night. It is shorter than some songs, it only has one verse and one chorus. It started out that way. I then played around with the idea of an instrumental break and once I recorded it, I loved it! I had my friend, who usually sings opera, come and sing the vocals for this song. I recorded this song with my small home studio that I recorded "Thoughtfulness" and "Alone River" as well as other songs with. This is the first time I used a MIDI controller with live instruments and vocals. I am pleased with what I am learning.  The theme of this song is finding yourself and being comfortable with yourself. I was recovering from depression when I wrote this song, and I wanted to focus on my goals of being successful in life and satisfied in life.  Verse: Exploring the world Setting myself out Gaining my confidence Getting rid of doubt Chorus: I w

I have been very busy in life very recently. I have been doing a lot of things. And it is fun stuff! Also, it is more than I ever thought I would ever accomplish any time soon.  I have been asked to compose musical arrangements of hymns and praise songs for the clarinet choir as well as for the woodwind quintet that I play in. So far, for the clarinet choir I have arranged and finished "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" as well as "O, The Deep Deep Love of Jesus" for the woodwind quintet. I have been asked to keep writing, so I am working on and I am almost finished with an arrangement of "At The Cross (Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed)" for the clarinet choir. My professor told me how much the clarinet choir loved "Come, Now is the Time to Worship", even though it is in difficult keys. When I performed with the Woodwind Quintet for the first time this year, we played my arrangement of "O, The Deep Deep Love of Jesus." This is more th

I have very much grown in my songwriting and composition skills over the past year. It is more than I ever asked for, more than I ever dreamed of doing! This composition is an epic cue that I wrote during the second semester. I wanted it to sound like it had action and punch to it. It is called "The Sword of Sif." I thought of my favorite superhero, Lady Sif, when I wrote it. I like Sif because she is a girl and is very fierce. She fights very hard alongside Thor, Hogun, Fandral, and Volstagg. I love seeing her stab and defeat the big monsters with her giant sword in Thor and Thor:The Dark World!!            

I took a Film Scoring class when I was at school. It was very beneficial to me and I want to continue in it. I learned how to very well use Finale and use a MIDI keyboard to compose the music. The Entrancing Forest was one of the scores I wrote for this class. My professor had me write four different 2-minute cues: an action cue, a reflective, sad cue, an epic cue, and a love theme cue. This is my love theme cue. It starts out soft, with violins and flute, and gets more upbeat to become more like a rock-violin style composition. It ends with the piano playing reflectively and the strings bring it to a soft end.                         

It has been months since I have written. A lot of things have happened. I am at school and I am working on getting my Commercial Music degree. I have written a lot more music, which is yet to be posted and will be soon. I have been very busy this year, taking Music Theory, Aural Skills, General Ed, and Songwriting classes. I especially love the songwriting classes. I was looking for a bigger opportunity in that area and I have found more than one opportunity, taking them. I have found that I have improved my lyric writing as well as arranging my songs in a more understanding way. I have also had to deal with a guy who did not treat me very well. I will not mention his name, but he tried to show off to me and make me feel bad about myself and my accomplishments, including my songs. He had opportunities that I did not get before I was in college, things I had only dreamed of doing. When I told him to stop bragging, he then started lying to me. It came to the point where I told him