Saturday, August 18, 2012

I had a wonderful time at Fiddle Camp this past August week.  It was easily the best I have ever attended in my six years of going and I am leaving tomorrow for another week.

Neal Pearlman, an incredible pianist and great teacher was instructing the pianos along with another teacher and so, for the first time we were able to have both a beginner and advanced piano group which was awesome!  In the advanced group we went over all kinds of crazy chord substitutions and funky rhythms.  It didn't quite push me out of my comfort zone so it could have been a little more advanced but I learned a lot nonetheless.  I also did some jamming and played for a couple contra dances and performed with a couple fiddle groups.  There is a growing demand for me as an accompanist which is great as I am starting to really get into that style of music.

I did some jamming with some talented musicians.  The track below is two tunes that Duncan Hall wrote.  We put together a pretty awesome arrangement which we performed for the Coffee House. Duncan is on cello, Noah Fishman on bass and me on piano.  I spent much of today composing some tunes which I hope to finish and be able to play with Duncan this next week of Fiddle Camp. Noah, unfortunately, won't be going as he is heading off to college.



I played with Chris Moriarty again this year.  We performed a new tune that he wrote.  I'll post it later.

Clayton

Film Noir Score

Hey,
Thought I'd give an update on how the Film Noir scoring is going.

I have been listening to lots of Jazz and watching some Film Noir movies (Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon so far, though I have listened to the music of more).  So far the best example of what David wants the score to sound like is the music for a video game called L.A. Noir which I came across on YouTube.  The films I've watched have all had old fashion, scratchy orchestral scores.

Since the movie isn't actually finished yet I have been experimenting with the genre and composing themes and melodies to use when I create the full score.

Clayton