Well... It's the last one. Why'd it go by so quickly?

It's the last one. Wow. It's gone by fast.

Today in class I finished writing the Tenor Drum part, and by doing so finished the entire piece. Unfortunately, I discovered that I had written out each part in the wrong music template setting, so I had to go through and copy and paste each part into a new template (one that will print out in the format I need, which will fit into a flip folder with a lyre), but this was a minor problem. It just took a while. It was also interspersed with some frantic studying for a quiz in Chemistry which I had completely forgotten about until the class before. The bigger problem that I ran into was trying to actually print the thing, and it turned out the computer I was using didn't have the printer I needed stored in its system. And then I ran out of time. I guess I'll have to go in before school or something so I can print it. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm excited to hear the band play it!

I'm sad to see this project come to an end, but at least I'll get to hear and play it at games. Looking back on the project, I realize I've actually learned a lot more about music than I thought I would. I learned how to use music writing software, which could be helpful at some point (and really, that was the only thing I really anticipated I would learn to do. The rest of the paragraph that follows should be evidence enough that I was very wrong in this assumption). I learned how to create a balanced sound, even with the band playing as loudly as they can, which is what they'll be doing at football games and such. I learned where a comfortable range on the staff is for each instrument, which is a useful thing to know for future projects. I learned that writing or arranging music only works if you put time and effort into it, something I never really had an appreciation for until now. This project gave me a greater appreciation for all the people who create the music I listen to and play, because it's really not an easy task.

The most amazing thing, however, is knowing that my work will be performed in a public venue and appreciated by hundreds of individuals. Maybe not necessarily my work in particular, but the work that the band does as a whole. Knowing that you influenced somebody's life in a positive way is the best feeling you can have. Actually, the best moment of this project for me was when Mr. Matthys asked to hear my work today. I gave him the headphones and nervously hit play, but the smile he had on his face when he listened to my piece told me something else: I don't have to be the only one who's proud of my work. It's a wonderful thing to see someone happy with what you've accomplished. I will never forget that.

For one last time, thank you all for keeping up with my work! It's been a blast!

-RachelTheDragon

Still Going Well... So Well I'm a Little Worried. Good things can't last forever.

Hey all,

Sorry I'm a little (well, a lot) late on this one, but it's kind of slipped my mind to post until now. I've had an extremely busy weekend with a football game on Friday, two shows on Saturday (which you should all come to see... Guys and Dolls in the LOHS Auditorium at 7 on Thursday and 2 and 7 on Saturday. General admission is $12. Apologies for shamelessly advertising, but those were my instructions), and a DI meeting followed by an extremely long nap and a nice evening excursion to Rimsky's on Sunday. It's been a nice three-day weekend so far. I'm gonna have a hard time getting up tomorrow.

The fourth Google Day went very well. About a week and a half ago I finally managed to find FinaleNotepad for mac, which I downloaded and wrote out all the basic parts except for percussion. At school (after having a few difficulties with finding an available computer with Finale itself on it) I moved the files to a big document and transposed them according to instruments. All I have to do now is write percussion parts (which I started in the last 20 minutes or so of class) and format it for printing. It sounds really cool and I can't wait to hear the band play it!

I guess I'll see how this all works out eventually. I'm still really enjoying this project and look forward to finishing it! I haven't actually run into any huge obstacles yet... it's worrying me. I wonder when something's going to come up. Oh, well. I guess I'll find out when it does.

Thanks,

Rachel

Running Out Of Time.... But It's Going Well

Hey all,

Don't have a lot of time here, so this will be short.

Yesterday was the third google day of this project and I'm still making reasonable progress, despite some technology issues at school. I've got part of the bassline done as well as the flute and clarinet parts written in Finale at school. I'm still loving it and am excited to finish this project!

Thanks!

-Rachel

Day 2: Pretty Good... So Far

Hey all,

Welcome to the second official day of the project, and I have to say I've made good progress. Especially considering I haven't had a whole lot of spare time to work on it due to volleyball (a huge time-suck) and other schoolwork. Last night, however, I spent a little time dinking around on the piano and somehow managed to get the basis for the melody written out, as well as the flute part, which I was very happy with. And because I enjoyed it so much, I must admit that instead of paying attention to Mr. Freeman's lecture about various function operations and compositions (or, at least I think that's what it was about) during first period today, I was writing out the trombone, clarinet, trumpet and bass clarinet parts for this project. So far, I believe I've been successful in transposing the parts from memory, provided I didn't slip up when I was writing in bass clef. I also got the rhythm for the bassline written out, which was quite the process because of all the syncopation and overlap with the melody.

I spent most of class today trying to wrap my mind around transposing to alto sax. I think I got it, but I'm not too familiar with the instrument so it was a bit of a challenge to write the part out. (Again, I have no software to transpose the parts because my computer, being a Mac, doesn't run Finale NotePad. Still a bit of a predicament.) All of my notes for the project and the parts I have written out so far are handwritten on blank staff paper I printed out yesterday. Seems to be working pretty well. And besides, it's probably a better learning experience because I have to write the whole thing out by hand as well as from memory. Hopefully I didn't mess up too badly. Alto sax parts are a bit annoying to transpose because they're up a 6th from concert pitch (e.g. a Concert Bb would become a G. I think). Even though I play bass clarinet (up a step from concert pitch, making the alto sax part a 5th up from that), I still had some difficulty transposing it. It was hard to wrap my mind around and I still have some doubts about whether or not it's right. Oh, well. I guess I'll see when someone finally plays it. But hopefully I was successful in writing it out. And if I know what I did wrong, it will be easy to fix. The next challenge will be getting the bassline written.

Overall, though, I think this project is going very well so far. I've made a lot more progress than I had expected to, especially in a period of about 24 hours (which is really the amount of time I've actually been working on it). As of right now, I'm really enjoying this because one, it's a great song which sounds cool and is fun to arrange and sing, and two, because I'm learning more and more about music and music theory as I'm arranging it. This feeling, however, is likely subject to change as the due date approaches and I fall into what I like to call The Cramming Game. Pretty self-explanatory, but stressful nonetheless. But for now, this is great fun and I look forward to working on it in the future. I suppose that's all for now! More information to come soon.

Thanks!

Rachel

A quick overview of the project: What the heck am I doing?

Hey all,

Alright. Before I get carried away with a bunch of info about what I'm doing, I'd like to take the time to say that 1) this is my first Google Project and 2) I'M SUPER PSYCHED ABOUT IT. Even though this is the first time I've ever arranged music. Could be interesting. For this project, I am going to arrange the top-selling song from a very famous power metal band for... well... for my school's pep band to play at football/basketball games. Amaranth by Nightwish. Composed by Tuomas Holopainen (I worship this guy... and he deserves it. He's a genius. And he's Finnish. What's not to like?) Of course, nobody besides we metalheads out there have ever heard of this song. I will tell you this, though. This song is EXTREMELY CATCHY. It will get in teams' heads. It will bore its way into their minds and turn them to grey goo. It will win us the game.

As for a more musical description of the song, it's more of a hard rock beat than anything, even though it's classified as metal because of the nature of the band that wrote it, with a very syncopated melody and bassline, at least for the part I'm arranging (refrain and outro). The vocalist in the original track recording (Anette Olzon) brings her talents to light in this song with a soaring melody which involves a lot of interval jumps and changes pitch while on the same syllable in the lyrics. For those of you who are curious (and you'd better be... OR ELSE!), here's a link to the music video. I hope you can put up with fallen angels, a heavy bassline, and epic guitar riffs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdZn7k5rZLQ

The first day of this was... well... interesting. For one, I was originally going to do this with a friend in another band, but she backed out on me to write music with another person without telling me until I'd already created this blog. Also, after I created it, I realized I couldn't really do anything about getting started on this project other than listen to the song over and over and over again. At least I finally figured out the gist of the rhythm for the bassline, and this was no small task because of the overlap of syncopation with the melody. I ran into another problem when I got home and discovered that the software I need to write this out (Finale NotePad) only runs on Windows operating system. I have a Mac. Just a bit of an issue, don't you think? I guess worse comes to worst, I'll just use the program at the school to finalize the parts I've arranged. Hopefully it won't come to that, though.

Well, I guess that's all I have for today. There's more to come! Please do come again! Thanks!

-Rachel (the dragon)