Update

Hello All,

Wow, I have been neglecting this blog terribly.  Having a Facebook page now isn't helping.
What have I been up to?  A lot of things have been happening in my musical life.

Violinist Audrey Buddington and I have enjoyed growing success with our musical careers.  We have been finding gigs, working on music videos, invited to play for the Ooh La La dance weekend in Quebec, working on an album of our originals, writing tons of music, and having a lot of fun.

I am currently working on intensive music theory, ear training and piano technique.  I am entering a busy composing stage as I am writing music for a Shakespeare production, composing pieces for a short stop-motion film, an infomercial, and am looking into possible payed work through Compass Light in Camden.

Best,
Clayton

Away With the Wind

Here are two pieces I fixed up for the Berklee Writing and Composition Scholarship application. The First is the piece I composed for my Orchestration Course this summer through Berklee Online.

A Successful Day

I have been having such a wonderful day and I realized it was a perfect opportunity to give my blog some attention.

I started out the day by getting some letters posted in the mail which I had been putting off for no reason. I printed out the three musical scores I already submitted to the Berklee Writing and Composition Scholarship and I burned a CD of the music to drop off at my piano teachers house.  Then I hopped on my bike and delivered the letters to the post office (one was heading to a friend in Ecuador), the scores to Mary Anne's and stopped by the Co.op to hang up a new poster for my concert on the 9th.  I also talked to Sheryl and she agreed to sell my Album there.  In my confidence I was ready to hit every store in Belfast that might be willing to sell my CD but I only had one copy with me so I gave it to Coyote Moon and left for home.

On the way home my head was swirling with inspiration and I stopped a few times, pulling out a notebook, and writing most of the first draft of my college admissions essay (a process I have long been dreading).

When I got home I lay on the couch and read a fantasy novel.  This was a calculated step as I have not been reading enough lately and with all my inspiration that morning I didn't want to push myself too hard as I have a tendency to do and loose my productive streak.

My two hour piano practice was focused and productive.  I could see huge improvements in my playing since last week.  I was also inspired and wrote down a few melody lines I came up with and started an orchestration in Cubase which I will probably never finish.

Checking facebook I discover that the filmmaker I have been working with, Jon Cunningham, has recommended me to a conductor looking to work with young composers.  I have no idea where this might lead but I contacted her and am super excited to hear back.  I also told Jon about the film class I am teaching and suggested we teach some classes together this winter.  I can't express how excited I would be to be collaborating in teaching film.  Film is my hidden passion and teaching has been my excuse to work on a film project that I might otherwise not make the time for.

I have a bunch of gigs lined up for November.  I am working hard on my Berklee audition piece and I'm looking forward to playing Ultimate (indoors, now) and more contra dancing.

Anyway, that is it for now.
Things are shaping up for my music career it seems.
Best,
Clayton

CD Release Concert Nov. 9th

My CD release concert is coming up!

Pianist Clayton Clemetson will be performing at the Belfast Free Library on Saturday, November 9th, 6:30 to 8:00pm. 

A resident of Belfast and world traveler, Clayton Clemetson has been composing and improvising for 11 years and has developed a New Age style influenced by film music and traditional fiddle tunes.  This event kicks off the release of his most recent album, "From the Treetops," a collection of original solo piano compositions.

Listen to his music at:

sound cloud https://soundcloud.com/clayton-clemetson
or his blog: http://claytonclemetsoncomposer.blogspot.com/

Details:

Saturday, November 9th

6:30-8:00pm

Belfast Free Library Gammans Room
light snacks and refreshments!

reetops.

Autumn Excursions

This is a piece that Audrey and I wrote (admittedly more Audrey than me but I'll take credit for providing some inspiration).  After we performed it at Fiddle Camp, Neal Pearlman (one of the piano teachers) asked us to teach it to him which was high praise.

Cloud Pieces Score

It was suggested that I write up the score of a string quartet that I composed a few months ago and I thought I'd post it on my blog.  You can download it from Google Drive here.
The recording is actually a quintet with a double bass but for the sake of the score I rearranged some of the melodic material and pared it down to four instruments.

Orchestration Course update

The orchestration course has been wonderful and we are wrapping it up with week 12.  The last four weeks we have been working on our final project and I will be handing that in tomorrow.

This is a piece I composed for an exercise a couple weeks ago.  We were given some drum loops and were told to craft an orchestration around them.