Lately, I have been really into ‘Rounds’ – I was introduced to them by Moondog on his album ‘Moondog 2′ – an album with 24 original rounds.
a round is simple on its surface but technically complex to write a good one. an example of structure:: a 4 line poem has four singers who sing the same four lines in sequence but offset by one line each. Each melody composed has to harmonically be consonant (as opposed to dissonant) and also has to be interesting and ideally have a counterpoint (where the alto and soprano lines cross and reverse). another cool point, it can be a song of infinite length!
There are lots of rules about writing them since they have been around for centuries. but I don’t know any music theory so those are pretty much useless to me at this time. The moondog album came with a pamphlet that talks about his methods (generally) and also has the sheet music.
Step one for me was just winging it and trying to figure out the patterns based on playing by ear. One rule i read that i did understand is that you can easily form nice sounding rounds by making the beats land on a piecewise form of a chord. but i kind of struggled to build chords playing multiple parts at once, and I am still learning how to play keyboard well enough to use midi to do analyzing. Ultimately, it proved way easier to actually learn how to read sheet music and it took me about 45 minutes to understand it. I used this free software called Musescore3 and transcribed the music from the pamphlet into that program. helped me figure out what was going on since i knew the pieces very well by ear.
I have a far way to go but I am having a lot of fun!
In other news, I quit my job! my last day is Friday wooooofuckinhoo! I am scheduling 2 hours of music per day at minimum so there will be lots of learning ahead. my mission of being unemployed is to understand, appreciate and be able to be intrinsically motivated. so stay tuned. I also rearranged my workshop office to have a music and painting zone that won’t have to be put away – lowering the bar for activation.
