Seems this might become a once a month occurrence. Been studying a lot really, practicing, learning two instruments, writing a good deal. Working on a new site just for my music. http://freewebs.com/thomassimpsonmus . Got a bunch of goodies lately. Crap load of soundtracks, two books, munchies, lots of good stuff, further proof that yes my gf is 10000 times better than YOURS. Thats about it really.
I realize I havent written anything in a while and for all those that actually do read this dribble, shit happens. At the moment I am very busy with college and whatnot, put in for my FAFSA, got it back. Went up there again today and did more financial shit. Played around on the ukulele a little bit. only has 3 strings on it, and its a shitty one so meh, nevertheless I got something out of it. I also traded a computer for a weighted keyed keyboard so Im rather happy about that. Its a good keyboard and it will give me the time and set up I need to learn 2 years worth over the summer. Yes people I said it correctly, to learn 2 years worth of piano over a few months period. Drive and fortitude are a composer's greatest assets sometimes.
No Im not going to talk about the Virgina Tech thing because fuck like I care so long as I get more money for my college experience I dont care who goes down so long as its not one of my future teachers.
Ive been working on a few pieces here and there. The power trio and orchestra indeed did get scrapped. No lose though. Wrote a odd ensemble last night with a guitar, bassoon and drum set. Been doing various things with counterpoint and whatnot. Working on a few large force (orchestra) pieces. Other than that Ive just really been experimenting with a lot of different timbers. Anyway, have fun.
So the other day I went up to the local college, as Jessica and I have been talking about me going to college for the longest, basically since we got together. So I decided to take the first step yet again, so I got my FAFSA stuff and talked to the head professor of Music there. He told me to get a scholarship application and go from there. So yeah thats basically it, been busy writing and practicing. Mr. Jones wasnt in for my lesson last Wednesday so I have an extra week to learn my theme and variations.
Wrote a new piece earlier for Jessica for when she gets home from work, its nothing special, just a violoncello duet. I like it. Two melody lines, not strict species counterpoint but it sounds good nevertheless. Im also working on a much larger piece at the moment, that may very well get scrapped, its a Power Trio with backing Chamber Orchestra. We will see where that goes. Anyway have a good one people :)
This isnt so much a scatter shoot as its just a ramble. I was driving home from the shops earlier tonight and I realized after running into an old friend, that I have been blessed with a woman that loves me and cares for me and really supports me 210%. She allows my mind to go where it wants to go, she doesnt hold it back and that lets me create more and more things at its will, which is great I cant say that enough. So really I just wanna thank her.
This past Wednesday I had my first violin lesson. It was fun, I enjoyed it, and I got to know a little bit more about my teacher. We shared a few laughs and I did my best. He thought I would excel quickly, and I know I will as well. Hopefully next week our lesson will progress with a faster speed. When being taught, I love to learn quickly, I am a knowledge monster with learning. I love to know all the details and what go where and why.
Earlier today I wrote a little piece called "Mice Paws". It's a little short 23 bar piece that anyone could play after a single lesson, at least thats what I think. Other than that, I haven't been up to much I assure you.
In a few days I start my violin lessons. It will be the first time I've had musical instruction in years, almost a decade. I remember being a rocker. Oh yeah, thats right I was a rocker at one point. Long hair, kind of, wearing all black, listening to heavy metal, yeah the whole nine years. Now look at me, still dressing in all black, but listening to concert hall music, thats the genre of classical music for all you fuckwits out there. I personally feel I appreciate music better now. I read somewhere that for the human brain to understand and comprehend complex melodies, they have to hear them more and more. So is that saying for people to better understand counterpoint and everything else that barely anyone uses in the 21st century they need to appreciate classical music? I'd like to think so.
But anyway. I am still without job, and the guy from Cici's Pizza didn't call, so Imma call this thing for IRS jobs. Or try for this dishwasher job at a Mexican place. Not to worry I will get a job! I have no other choice. Not to mention I need to find me a junker car to get around in. At my age you come to realize something very clear. It's not about how many women you can possibly get, what kind of car you have, or even if you have a nice house, none of that shit matters in the long run, what really matters, is if you are happy. On that note, Im going to go punch myself in the face with a brick because of what I just wrote. Have fun people, and remember, if you shake it more than twice, your playing with it.
Earlier tonight I finished up a larger piece of music called, Battle of Hurtgen Forest. I didn't actually have any family in that battle of WW2, hell I don't think I had any family of any actual blood in WW2, we were either lawyers, judges or we shot ourselves in the foot from what I know of it. Its using the classical orchestral format of four winds, two brass, a single timpani group, one tuned to B and the other tuned to D, and a string quintet. I think the F horn memorium is one of the best parts, you can tell its at the end of the "battle" with a slow mellow declaration of victory. A very beautiful piece I think, you can really feel it in the end after everything is said an done. After finishing it up I didn't honestly know what to do, I just kind of sat here listening to it and meditating on the moment. Its that last section that I think really pushes the emotional point of the title.
For those not familiar with the battle that took place, watch the movie When Trumpets Fade. That is without a doubt the inspiration for the piece. Other than that I don't know what to say about it, its kind of overwhelming to me.
In other news, still trying my damnedest to finish that new marimba piece. I think after this I will no longer take commissions for percussion piece unless its for a very large sum of money, they just irk me way to damned much as it were. I found a violin teacher, He's a retired orchestra director, with over 40 years experience. I think it will be a joy to learn under him. Maybe even as much of a joy as learning from my old band teacher for trumpet, Tracy Farr. Such is life. Have fun people :)
Yeah I know I know I haven't written much in a while, well lets see, I reformatted and reinstalled XP from a disc I got from Jessica, and I think orchestrating on a larger screen would so help me work around being so intimidated by it. So far of everything I have installed on the new os, Finale is numero uno. I probably should hook up the speakers and stuff aye, not to mention figure out why there are no VSTs on it. Other than that, everything is peachy.
I spoke with my old old band directors wife earlier tonight, he still teaches so I will have to catch up with him one day, maybe check out his pieces she said hes been writing. Hell maybe even see if he wants to collaborate on a piece or something. Other than that. Same ol same ol.
So lets see here, Ive done a lot of work of late, finished the marimba piece, but it was too difficult for the girl so Im having to write a new piece. and thats okay too. I got a new desk, Jessica bought it because I had two desk but neither have enough space for me to do anything on them. I received my peg dope so now my pegs wont slip on my violin, and I also received my wall poster of my violin, its huge! Thanks babygirl, and I also got a concert mute. such a tiny thing. I'm sure I will put it to good use though. We had to go all the way to Commerce to get the new desk, and it was an interesting trip to say the least. Had a lot of fun and good bit of laughs, but Jimmy and I normally do when we go somewhere together. One of the best brother-in-laws you can have. Took a few pictures of him acting stupid in the trucking going there. Will show Jessica those images tomorrow hopefully. The desk is great, its a really good size. I can fit all my stuff on it with no problem what so ever. I have room for both the tower and monitor and the laptop, so thats really good. I can finally also use my orchestra pads to write orchestra music :) so thats really nice, finally space!
Been working on a string ensemble for Jessica, its only for her so you guys wont ever hear it unless I'm dead :P which its pretty nice I must admit, some areas are giving me trouble but I can deal with those in time. Thinking about working on a waltz so when I go to Australia Jessica and I can waltz to it, I cant wait to get over there, I miss her, and I haven't even met her. She supports me in everything I do, you cant get any better than that for a significant other people. And my mom was right, if I get the chance to marry this girl, DO IT! And I do plan on it. Anyway thats pretty much all I have been up to. Writing and practicing the violin. Below is a picture of the new desk:
Pretty nice I would say wouldn't you? :D I like it very much.
The year was 1988. What important shit happened in 1988? Nothing that’s more important that me forming a close bond with the rejection of authority! You might be asking yourself, “rejection of authority?” What would he know about that? Well my friend let me tell you, I know a thing or two about nap time, and I know a thing or two about not bowing before the teacher’s so called tyranny of the classroom. Yeah, I’m a dreamer. Yeah, I was short, and yeah I’m going to make an allusion to prison in this next sentence. Depending on where you go, schooling can be very much like prison, on many, many levels. So here we are comparing school and prison, let’s take another lesson from the big house. When you are small and weak, you have to figure out how to beat the shit out of someone much bigger, otherwise your ass is tuna casserole. Actually its not, but just for the sake of argument let continue on as if it were… I was pretty small, smallest kid in the class, hell in the grade. But I was smart, until a little conk on the head changed all that, but that’s later on. Anyway, so I developed an authority issue with the teacher, more specifically over the issue of nap time of all things. Hey, now I’m not completely complaining here, I enjoyed the milk and graham crackers before hand, but I’m a hyperactive person, so instead of milk and cookies or whatever making me sleepy, that just give me more energy to burn. Silly child psychologist and their stupidity in not understanding their oh so specialized branch of psychology, anyway I degress, I have some anger issues with head shrinkers too.
So it would be nap time and we would get out our little nap mats or whatever and then go lay them on the floor. I always laid mine near a window so I could look outside. There’s only one sharp problem, we were suppose to be sleeping, but who needs to sleep at this point and time in life, you can sleep plenty when you are dead ya hear! Obviously that is a characteristic of my hyperactivity really showing through. So the teacher would make her rounds and check each child to see if they were asleep, and sure enough who would be the only one not asleep? Me. So instead of taking me some other place I would get into trouble for not napping during nap time. Did I learn my lesson? Of course I didn’t, wouldn’t make for a very good story if I was all straight laced and did as I was told always. Would also end up being a pretty boring life.
Then came the time to read and learn how to count and learn numbers et cetera. Now my sister was in another class, so while I was learning all this kick ass stuff, my sister was colouring all day and making paper mache dinosaurs, drinking chocolate milk till it came out her nose… Yeah I got the shaft to start with. I remember my teacher putting on a little record and we would get in a circle and go around and say our names. At that very moment when it came my time to say my name I realized I had a pretty crappy name. I also remember reading the I am Sam books. I couldn’t read so great so when it came time to go to first grade they put me in a class to teach me how to read better. We ended up just playing games and pissfarting around on the computer. It would be years later that I would take my own education into my hands and teach myself how to do things. As it stands I have three learning disabilities. Dyslexia, Dyscalculus, and sentence construction problems, or should I say that’s what the state of Texas thinks I have from going to so many head shrinkers. The next chapter will be on something I haven’t thought of at the moment. Maybe about me facing adversity and over coming it and telling the American Educational System to take a flying fuck off a burning bridge.
Lets see what we have for the thirtieth scatter shoot. I implemented emotes in the post body of my blog. I also finished up the oboe and bassoon piece I was going to do, and I will place the links under the Music Thats Online section shortly. Still trying to figure out the marimba piece. This is so not easy at all. its driving me absolutely bonkers. Maybe I should put it in with an accompaniment or something. I took a nice picture the other day:
At least I think its a nice picture. Was in 27 degree weather, so it wasnt exact warm, as if the icicles didnt give that away. Nevertheless I like the fact that the leaf is the only thing not monochrome in it naturally. Thats right people it was hanging on a white building with a black eave going around it. Anyway thats my picture. I think its about time for a shower. Have fun people . :)
Ah, the start of the first chapter of my autobiographic bullshit life, dig in, make some pop corn, this should be touching.
The time was 1:13 am; my mother had just gone through labour with my sister. A few minutes later the doctor came back into the room and told her, she wasn’t done delivering yet, much to her surprise. At 1:17 am I came into the world partially ass first. I do wonder now as I write this how many breeched birth people have told the world that it can kiss their ass. Zero; well count me in as numero uno! I weighed in at a whopping 3 pounds 1 ounce. The ounce I spec was just to spite the scale. Nevertheless there I was, and there I went into a cold metal pan… then after being wrapped in a nice blanket, held in my parents hands, I could fit completely in both my fathers hands, I was stuck in baby nuker.
I see it almost as the same as microwave dinner directions. If not completely cooked the first time toss back in and nuke it some more, and so I was in a round about way. I think I stayed in the incubator for two straight weeks. After that I came home to either Wharton or El Campo, Texas… Not that I would know I can’t remember that far back and its not like it really mattered. I was a shit factory with a twin sister of the same calibre, though eight months later I was walking… at which point I was then a walking shit factory. The best educated professionals can make of it, the walking bit, was because I was extremely smart for my age, I chalk it up to being impatient and needing to get somewhere and get their fast and walking seemed a more logical step, no pun intended, than crawling. Though I would let it pass without saying, it also allowed me a more advanced way of taking toys I wanted to play with from my sister, whom was still crawling. She got the looks, I got the brains.
I think we stayed in the house for a year or so. Moved, moved again and then, moved to Northeast Texas. The Piney Forest region of Texas, oh joy!
A few years passed, and eventually my parents had it in mind to enroll me into pre-school. Fantastic idea Peabody! So they find this nice little pre-school somewhere and enroll my sister and me, I lasted count them with me… One day, okay don’t count them, count it. Nevertheless I lasted a whole day at pre-school. They had a fluffy bunny there I am told I enjoyed petting, other than that I didn’t like it, I much rather play and create stuff than learn. How ironic is it that to learn one must in a way create.
For the remainder of the year I spend my days at my father’s mother’s house. We called her Nanny. Interestingly enough she was never our nanny per se, the reason she got that name was from my first cousin Robert, when he was younger he could not say Granny, and so said Nanny and it stuck. Now my Nanny lived in a very little town called Rocky Branch, basically say, take a left at Bum Fuck Egypt then chuck a Uie and you will find it. A little ways from her house was a little pond that was covered with alga and had a large log sticking out of it. I was terrified of that pond; I thought alligators lived in it. Might possibly come to the conclusion because when my father was a kid he did in fact have a baby alligator for a pet… it accidentally got smothered by my Nanny because it crawled into the basket of fresh wash. Poor little thing, never saw it coming, probably didn’t care either way.
It was also here that I developed my fear of snakes. And this is how it came about, there was a steep embankment beside the house, and as any little boy knows, when you have to wiz, you do it where you are, so I peed up the embankment, well somehow it uncovered a hole and something long came out that hole. I still to this day believe it was a snake, but it could have been something as simple as a centipede. I very much thought the thing was trying to bite my wee bits and so developed a defence mechanism which people refer to as ophidiophobia. Probably for the better. Next chapter will be kindergarten and my developing authority issues! I should mention though, that after I was born my parents had to go out and buy all the shit they bought my sister, just for a boy… fucking chromosomes!
Autobiographical chapters, kind of like scatter shoots but not! So I thought of something when I woke up and I think I may very well put it into effect. So scatter shoots are basically day to day affairs, shits that going on in the now. I’m thinking of doing things called Chapters. Basically saying chapters will be events that have happened in my past, possibly to explain certain things about me, namely why I am so weird. That and I think my girl friend might get a good kick out of reading them. I will work my way from birth on up, they will be a more refined style of writing, but still regardless, the same amount of humor, because by god, the world is a funny little shit hole. Anyway that’s my idea. Though I should warn you, I’m not very much of a remarkable man, hell I would even say I’m much of an entertaining man, but I have my moments. :)
I went back to A&A today with my dad in the hopes of possibly getting back my job, to no such luck. They only hire though the place I quit because I was tired of their ham-stringing. I talked to some old friends today while my dad was getting loaded. I do miss the place I'm not even going to joke anymore about it, I do miss it. It was fun, James is gone though, hopefully he is at that job he spoke about. Might have to see if I can get a job at Texas Tube, thats where my dad worked for 10 years. 100 hour weeks, but good money. Nevertheless, I feel like I may follow in my dads foot steps with pipe and whatnot.
Ive been working on a marimba piece, worked out one that was about 18 bars long, and then decided to scrap it, just wasnt what I thought it should be, I have until March 1st to have a completed piece done. I think that is amble time enough to get it done. Might work on a more rhythmic piece with a cantus firmus or something and have the second part me and overlay, a counterpoint marimba piece, that might be fun to try, and it would be a little different for me Im sure. I have a lot of fun doing music but Im not exactly sure why, never have been. Even when I was very little I always hated choir class, but Im not much of a singer, I can sing, but I dont like to sing. The in 5th grade I got my first taste of music theory and all that good happy horse shit. But thats a story thats been told before.
I need to get a job and I need to get a job soon and that pays good. Jessica isnt doing so hot, and I know it, shes not saying it but I can feel it from the way her words are coming out of her. Shes resting a lot more now, and shes taking more time off work. Im starting to worry a lot more than normal, shes a tough woman, but sometimes I wonder if shes going to be able to handle all the harder stuff.
Its rainy today, drizzly, muddy. At least we get to talk more today. Have fun people.
Today is my nephew's first birthday. Jessica and I got him another thing for him to play with for the little gaming system thing we got him for Xmas. Jimmy and I will be playing the happy birthday song on dual guitars. I transposed it from a piece of sheet music made for violin and piano. You would think as popular as the song was they would have it but they don't. Oh well, at least I am happy with chord shapes I decided to go with. Originally the piano plays major triads for a few keep points, well I'm not looking to play major triads, the kid has got to rock so I just took out the third in them and made them root fifth chords. Hopefully it will sound good.
I'm fucking tired as hell, I had to go drop my dad off at his truck so he can go to Arkansas to drop off a load. So with that said... I say good night and good `morrow. Have fun people.