Tales From The Subway #1

It's been months, but I've finally started playing in the subways again.  it feels really nice to get back to it.  It's amazing how much time of day & location really influence the experience.  My overall favorite spot to play so far has been Union Square - I feel like there's always a great mix of people there who get into the music.


It's been a bit slower getting back into it, but also, very refreshing ... It's very interesting for me to see how I've developed different music over the last year or two, and how I've something I did a year or two ago & added a new twist to it... it's also interesting to see how everything get's faster & faster the longer I play it (sometimes that's good ... sometimes not so much) ... a lot of the time my compositional ideas come from playing in the subway too (I'd say most of them really...)

Take this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExR8dWkb6pc&feature=plcp - I do all the same stuff, but now I have the loop station drone under it & I add a middle eastern sounding section influenced by Gladiator to it

The truly great thing about the subway though is the people you run into - the old friends, the kids, the people whose day you made, the people who dance as you walk by, the whackos, everyone...

I hope to be sharing some of *those* stories in the near future!

The Music of the Lord of the Rings

http://themusicofthelordoftheringsfilms.blogspot.com

Here's another source of musical inspiration: The Lord of the Rings Scores. Both the music itself & people talking about the music from a theoretical & experiental viewpoint. This blog in particular has some really great interviews with Howard Shore & Douglas Adams (who's written a soon-to-be-published book about the music of the films). Film music has always been something I've been into (since I discovered it) & it often receives very little substantive/informative press, so this is really great to read. Particularly, it's inspiring since the music is so large-scale and so classically-influenced. (It also means I'm really going to have to start exploring Wagner & the rest of Opera soon ... this is going to be a very big journey!).

Howard Shore talks a lot about his musical development & the fact that he'd been composing music since he was ten (I find that to be so cool!) & what he was influenced by & stuff like that ... go check out the interview transcripts ...