The Quiet Girl

This is a Brazilian groove, my newest. It is called "Partido Alto." I named it "Game Slow" originally, to make fun of putting the noun before the adjective. I learned that "partido" means game. I once went on a missions trip to Guatemala. The stop signs said "Alto", and you have to slow down to stop. This sounds like a straight dance to me, I added jumping staccato piano and an upbeat bass line. It changes from D minor to E flat minor. There are plenty of live shakers and maracas.

My Afro-Cuban groove does have some elements of African drums, but I was mainly thinking of Mexican music. I wanted it to sound like a Mexican restaurant, a little like Mariachis strumming their guitars and blasting their trumpets in the streets while people eat nachos.

I wanted to write an improvised jazz groove for class, so I wrote this. I improvised on the piano and used recording MIDI for the bass as well as the drums. I wanted this to be a simple, straightforward concept piece. I thought of driving down a calm, rural highway as what it sounds like.

I have always wanted to imagine a tough girl with a guitar. I like it when girls are playing in the band instead of being "fan girls". I played around with my guitar one night and this is what is the result of it. I also used Logic drums.

I loved recording this groove. I once saw a friend find a cat sound effect called "Catmosphere" for Logic Pro. I decided for this Hip Hop groove that I would record my cat and paste the meows into the groove. I did. I let Polly walk around the mic and it caught every time she meowed. I put the cuts into the song and now it is a cat rap! Thank you, Polly! I love you, baby cat!

I have never been familiar with funk music. It was before my time. However, my professor taught me what it was, and I only know from videos. This is my attempt at funk music. I liked modulating from the major to the minor, and back again. I added a trumpet interlude before the saxophone comes in at the end.

      "A Better Place" is a soul ballad with a bit of jazz thrown in. I put ballad drums in, recorded extended chords with my church's piano, and played the clarinet solo myself. I originally wrote lyrics, but wanted to play the clarinet instead to make it sound more jazzy. However, I saved the lyrics so I can someday record it with a friend singing them.

The first projects I worked on in my Groove Writing class were EDM tracks, or Electronic Dance Music tracks. Groove Writing is a class where you learn how to compose pop culture music, as opposed to classical music or band music. The first track is titled "Mill Mountain Star." I named it after the star in Roanoke, Virginia, shown in the video. It lights up at night. The second track is called "Festival Beat." I emphasized the electronic synth in this one and used thirty-second note percussion. The third track is called "Skate Center." When I wrote this track, I thought of disco balls and colored lights in a skating rink.

I arranged "Everybody Wants to Be A Cat" for the Clarinet Ensemble at my school. I love the Aristocats (and cats in general!) and this is one of my favorite songs. In the original, the improvised line underneath Scat Cat's voice is a clarinet. This is my favorite part, so I decided to keep that while arranging different parts to the clarinets. There are four parts for B flat clarinet, the E flat clarinet plays the loud, obnoxious trumpet parts, and the bass clarinet plays the part of Scat Cat as well as the drums and piano in the second section. The arrangement includes the first section, which is in C minor and has a swing tempo, then immediately goes into the second section, which is straight eighths and in F minor. I love all the changes and transitions in this song, so I arranged it accordingly.

This is the original score I did for the "Somewhere In Time" kiss scene. I wrote it from a nervous woman's perspective when she knows the man wants more than just a friendship. The other version, the "Soap Opera" version, as I called it, is more dramatic. My friend told me it sounded like a soap opera. This version is more quiet and contemplative. I especially wanted the piece to sound tense when the woman says "Oh my God, what's happening?", because that is the way I felt in a similar situation. This video made me laugh when I was scoring it, it was difficult to concentrate. I wrote it in a comedic way instead of the traditional romantic. Enjoy!

I did my own version of the kiss scene from "Somewhere In Time." I wrote it in a humorous way, from a nervous woman's perspective. I had a similar experience happen to me, and I wrote this piece based on how I felt when it was happening.  Life can get very dramatic. Score it accordingly.