After the holidays, and a pretty successful run for my holiday CD "The Holiday Spirit" I decided to take some time to design a path forward with my music. Last year I released two CD's and that was intense at times. Releasing albums is a bunch of work and costs a good amount of money and time.
I decided to do something recently that I've always wanted to do. So far I've made string quartet arrangements for three of my songs. The software mock-ups I made sound gorgeous. Very satisfying. This is prompting me to record these arrangements and/or work them in to a performance set. I have some other instrumental arrangements/collaborations that could be added to make for a much more rich musical experience than solo piano.
I don't know where all this is going yet. There's also a considerable cost of time and funds to put a performance like this on. What's transpiring here though, is a vision that has been dear to my heart for almost ever. That's one of performing my music solo and with other talented musicians on stage, and moving from contemporary classical to jazz, americana, blues, and other styles that take the audience to a diverse array of genres and sonic colors.
Something else happened to me right after the holidays. I got pretty discouraged about the music business and the general cultural side of selling and performing original music. It takes a very strong ability to persist, and any independent musician will tell you not everybody is cut out for it. It feels that way for me sometimes. I've been through episodes where my "musical spirit" feels broken. The flame of creativity has dwindled to a mere pilot-light at times, but that is the time to persevere. I'm glad to be back with a new post on my blog here, and expressing some creative ideas again.
Yeah, I'm Back!
I decided to do something recently that I've always wanted to do. So far I've made string quartet arrangements for three of my songs. The software mock-ups I made sound gorgeous. Very satisfying. This is prompting me to record these arrangements and/or work them in to a performance set. I have some other instrumental arrangements/collaborations that could be added to make for a much more rich musical experience than solo piano.
I don't know where all this is going yet. There's also a considerable cost of time and funds to put a performance like this on. What's transpiring here though, is a vision that has been dear to my heart for almost ever. That's one of performing my music solo and with other talented musicians on stage, and moving from contemporary classical to jazz, americana, blues, and other styles that take the audience to a diverse array of genres and sonic colors.
Something else happened to me right after the holidays. I got pretty discouraged about the music business and the general cultural side of selling and performing original music. It takes a very strong ability to persist, and any independent musician will tell you not everybody is cut out for it. It feels that way for me sometimes. I've been through episodes where my "musical spirit" feels broken. The flame of creativity has dwindled to a mere pilot-light at times, but that is the time to persevere. I'm glad to be back with a new post on my blog here, and expressing some creative ideas again.
Yeah, I'm Back!