I was settling down to write the page for Sexercise when Alex over at Stramash Consulting tweeted about a new music app called weepr.
It's kind of like sitting in a Japanese dentist's waiting room on 'shrooms - not that I've actually experienced that - but - I'm thinking....
It's a lot of fun to play with and the interface is really simple and intuitive; sure there's a hundred things that aren't right with it and certain simple features that would make it a hell of lot easier to use - but who cares - it's free and puts making music into everybody's hands and I'm all for that. As Alex says it need's an audio export function - you can hack your sound card if you want to invest the time - but I suspect Weepr know what they are doing. The easiest way to demonstrate what you have created is to publish their widget - and in doing so you (in this case - me) promote the Weepr brand - cunning.
I imagine they'll have a premium release somewhere down the line which they'll market to those who were curious enough to hand over their email to play with the free version. I seriously doubt that they're going to tempt musicians away from the tools they're already using, but, if they can make it easy for "non-musicians" to enjoy creating with it - and remember - there are a hell of lot more non-musicians than there are musicians - maybe they can create a new market and encourage more people to play with music - and wouldn't that be cool!
String piece written for Jackie's wedding. Always thought this would work well for the signing of the register - very pensive, subtle but uplifting
When I first started to develop these sessions, I would get people to give me two numbers; one between 45 and 200 and one between 2 and 13. I used these to set the tempo of the piece and the time signature. As I started playing with different numbers I started to use any combination: birthdates, meeting dates, age, etc, etc to come up with a tempo and signature to start with. This session's tempo and signature were set by combining the birthdays of the happy couple and then applying a "Top-Secret" algorithm.
When I think of wedding pieces, I am heavily influenced by the traditional church ceremonies I experienced growing up. As a Cathedral Chorister I loved the big sweeping sounds the church organ would make and the sheer size of the pieces that we would sing. When writing this piece I was thinking of how this would sound in a huge space played by a large orchestra - the keys that come in at the end are an indication of where the piece was going.
Jax is happily married to Chris and they have twins - another good outcome!
---------------- Now playing: music2work2 - Jax Wedding Theme via music2work2
Meaning "soul friend" in the original Celtic. Piano music written to accompany my sister Victoria's arrival in the wedding hall.
[audio:anamcara.mp3 |titles=Anam Cara |artists=music2work2]
The wedding was held in a beautiful hotel in Scotland, the hall was lit with candles and the bride arrived as the sun was setting. We had the track Arrival playing while guests were seated and this set the tone for the ceremony.
I remember asking my father to measure the length of the hall and pacing it out to work out how long the piece should be. The intent was to create something that was instantly recognizeable, simple and beautiful. Written in 6/8, it has that lilting triplet feel that always reminds me of Scotland and my Celtic heritage.
It all worked perfectly and they're still married 9 years later with two wonderful kids! Feel free to use the Anam Cara, if you would like music written specifically for you, please contact me.
Download: Free download - Anam Cara
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Now playing: music2work2 - Anam Cara
via music2work2