Composing

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Liked by Emily J and one other

Ashley Renee Smith
Today's Stage 32 Blog!

Hey Composers, today's Stage 32 blog is written by musician, composer, and actor Marco Antonio Berrios. Recently, Marco shared a bit of a story with us here in the Composing Lounge where he talked about a life-changing event in which he met an extraordinary man in the NYC subway who taught him how t...

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Linwood Bell

That was a great one! Congrats, Marco! Bravo, Sir!

Emily J

Such a great read, thanks for sharing, Ashley!

Linwood Bell
Creative Cribs

Show us your workspace. Share a photo of where you create your music.

https://youtu.be/8kbg3g0zJnw

Sydney Summers

Great pic! Thanks for sharing.

Nick Waters

Nice spot

Linwood Bell

Ok...I'll break the ice. This is home and where I sit all day. Linda slides pizza, pancakes, or flounder under the door and I keep at it. :)

Amazing Kacee
Looking for a composer!

I just posted a job looking for a composer for family-friendly film series. Here is the link. Thank you for applying! https://www.stage32.com/find-jobs/30965

Linwood Bell

Thanks for the heads up, Kacee!

Linwood Bell
Praise and Criticism

It’s always nice when we get a some praise but we get criticism, too. Sometimes the praise can be over the top and the criticism might be brutal. It’s good to keep all of it in the right box. https://www.stage32.com/photos/3285064988850399811...

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Emily J

Great perspective Linwood Bell!

Linwood Bell

Pat was an amazing musician and I was lucky enough to see him a few times. He had full command of his instrument and lots to say. He also had an incident where he lost all of his memory. All of it gon...

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Linwood Bell
Hymn To The Fallen

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day everyone.

https://youtu.be/2mzq7cx803o

Linwood Bell
Thomas Newman Interview

Not sure if this has been posted before but…this is a nice interview with Thomas Newman. His family is responsible for so much music that has touched everyone whether they know it or not. Love the way he writes and the way he orchestrates it and the instruments he chooses. He definitely has a unique...

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Linwood Bell

Yeah....you hear that opening lydian triad in the Six Feet Under theme and you know who wrote it. Or this one(2). Both are identifiable and two of the best ever on tv.

https...

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Ashley Renee Smith

What a great interview, Linwood Bell! Thomas Newman is one of my favorite composers. His score for Wall-E is one that I go back to listen to over and over again.

Linwood Bell

He’s one of my favorites, too. His hands on a piano and those voicings…instant vibe. Shawshank I’ve played a million times, but I even love the light stuff like Saving Mr. Banks. He’s gone gold at my...

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Sydney Summers

Great share!

Nick Waters

Thanks for sharing!

Linwood Bell
Empire Of Light

This piece is so simple. He was clever to use 5 in the bass. Just that sound; that rub in the center between 7 and 1…takes the listener to that place. It makes them feel; makes them aware/engaged. That one interval and where it falls changes the whole piece from just so so to perfect. Without it it’...

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Linwood Bell

It's also a reminder of how valuable 6 and 9 are in such a pure form. Lovely.

Marco Antonio Berrios
Composing with Nature

Throughout my music career, I've been blessed with some incredible lessons. One of these was the African drummer I befriended in the subway. Kwamijo (I hope I spelled his name right) had a way of drawing people in from far away with magic flow from his hands.

I asked if I could join him. He gave me...

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Joanna Karselis

What a great way of approaching your writing Marco. Love that, will definitely consider "what animal moves like that?" from now on. Thanks for sharing!

Dominic Murphy

Fantastic! That will really stay with me. Thanks so much for sharing, Marco!

Ashley Renee Smith

I love this, Marco Antonio Berrios! What a beautiful way to look at creating music from the world around you.

Marco Antonio Berrios

Thank you Ashley, Dominic, Joanna and Linwood! I'm so happy that I was able to present something new to your brains and souls.

Joel Irwin

Back in the 1990s, I was visiting the nature museum in Ottawa, Canada and ran across what turned out to be my first over over 100 CDs of the series called "Solitudes" - many were just an hour of natur...

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Linwood Bell
Reharm Weekend...

Reharmonization is something we sometimes use to get a little more out of existing material. Take a simple melody and share a reharm this weekend. You don’t have to write a lot. Just do a few bars to give us something to think about and analyze. Here’s a simple one. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If y...

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Linwood Bell

Bueller?? lol

Joel Irwin

One of the things my composition instructor does with the students each semester (he is imho one if not the top jazz pianist/composer in Houston) - he plays four bars of quite complex harmony and asks us to identify it. Turns out to be Happy Birthday. Try that one :)

Linwood Bell

Million ways to play a melody...

https://www.stage32.com/photos/3278721600337225680

Linwood Bell

....or your kid just got an invitation to Chucky's third birthday party. The point is, reharm is a useful tool we have in the toolbox and worth talking about and sharing how we might go about it.

http:...

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Ashley Renee Smith

What a cool idea, Linwood Bell!

Joel Irwin
Sound or Soundless

The question is how do you codify your music. Back in the 'old days' to write music, composers either used their preferred instrument (piano, harpsichord, guitar, violin, etc.) or they did so in their head 'sounding' the notes. And no matter how they 'envisioned' the notes, there was still the proce...

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Linwood Bell

For me it depends on what I’m doing, but it always involves a piano. I like that point of reference and I’m sitting there anyway. Sometimes things might just go straight in from the keyboard and other...

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Linwood Bell
Dave Grusin - Three Days Of The Condor

This week is done. Time to relax and enjoy life a bit. Here's Dave's opening theme to Condor. In '75 you could groove. :) Dave has such a body of work. The Graduate, The Goodbye Girl, Heaven Can Wait, The Champ, On Golden Pond, Tootsie, Mulholland Falls, etc. Tons of them plus his jazz career and re...

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Linwood Bell

What a gift he has for melody, right? Not to mention that touch...

https://youtu.be/7dHuhwrLLFE

Joel Irwin
The Arrangers and Harmonizers

Back in the 1990s in my previous career as a technology assessor for Exxon, I attended a tradeshow called "Comdex" in Las Vegas. The evenings often consisted of parties hosted by vendors. One such party which I attended by Microsoft hosted a group I had never heard before. They were then referred to...

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Niki Hayes

Love Big Bad Voodoo Daddy! Thanks for sharing this.

Linwood Bell

Living here, I've hit Comdex many times. Next time you're here let's grab lunch. If I'm doing strings/horns in a DAW I still write them out unless it's synth horn stuff. There are a few things you'd c...

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Ashley Renee Smith

This is so fun! Thank you for sharing, Joel Irwin.

Joel Irwin

For those of you who didn't know - this song originally appeared in the 1967 Disney film, "The Jungle Book"

Linwood Bell

So Louis sang that. I imagine Bob Rozario played piano on the Jungle Book recording. He might have done the arrangement, too. I know he was still seeing royalties for that gig. He was with Louis in th...

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