My area of expertise lies in music production and electronic composition. Three words that are often not universal are:

1. MIDI - (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) a language standard for interconnecting electronic musical instruments and computers. Basically this is an electronic instrument signal language that sends messages to and from each other and/or a computer. For example: if you plug a keyboard into your computer and play notes that you can manipulate on the computer, all that information is being send by MIDI.

 2. ADSR Envelope - (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) this is a term referring to the amplitude envelope used in some synthesizers. Attack - the time it takes for a sound to go from nothing to its loudest point. Decay - the time it takes for that initial attack to the sustain level. Sustain - the level at which the sound remains while holding the note. Release - the time it takes for the sound to fade to nothing once the note is no longer being played.

3. DAW - (Digital Audio Workstation) any electronic system designed to record, edit, and playback digital audio. Any music production software is a DAW. For example: Ableton Live, Logic, FL Studios, Cubase, Reason, Pro Tools, etc.

Something that is mentioned quite a bit when referring to my area of study, is a misunderstanding or limited view of what people like to call “real music.” Plenty of people will ask me “do you play or write any real music?” This is probably one of the most degrading things to me, especially because of the fact that I have been a percussionist for 11 years and not just “pushing buttons on a computer.” (another phrase that degrades the complexity of good music production). The way I view music is simple. It is an emotion and a feeling. No matter what kind of technologies, materials, or objects where used to make the music, as long as it invokes an emotion or feeling in you, it is real music. Period.

Blog 2

In each discipline, and really in any human endeavor that involves a closed group, the members develop an internal language that has specific meaning for them and little or no meaning for those outside the group. Even words that are in normal usage take on a new meaning in the in group. What are three of your favorite words from the 'secret language' of your discipline, and why are you drawn to them? Conversely, people outside of the group, not knowing the intricacies of the discipline, tend to reduce the function of the group using an unfair condensation of one or two words that they use to describe the totality of the group. What is the outsider description of your discipline that you find to be most inaccurate, reductionist or plain wrong? Due Sunday, 11:59 PM.

This is a piece I recorded with my quartet about a year ago, I hope you all enjoy! The piece is entitled Billies Bounce and was written by Charlie Parker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU3yf3tu94A

This is something I'm interested and have always wanted to do. I think electrifying the trumpet and using effects is super super cool and I've always wanted to experiment with this aspect of the horn. I'm going to post two links, one is an example of an electrified trumpet and the other is a recording of Miles Davis's electric ensemble where he uses his trumpet with a violin pickup.

electric trumpet-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ER_RsaHCUc

Miles Davis-   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxSFSdcGPLM

Here is an audio piece I made for class last year. It is composed entirely out of found sounds from my dorm room, around campus, etc. Everything I am currently working on is unfinished so I figured I would just post this.


The video below is obviously quite a large scale production, but I have always loved the way projection mapping and light were presented in this video. I hope to do something that is visually intriguing like this is, but also something a little more interactive, and of course with lots more music.

Here's an audio recording of a composition I made for erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument that could be compared to a violin (synthesized in Garageband--I only wish I could play one well enough to make decent music) accompanied by an acoustic hammered dulcimer playing and various electronic sounds and effects.  I chose this because it demonstrates some of my classical and folk influences as well as my interests in combining acoustic and electronic sounds and techniques (and how far I have to go as a composer and as a student of electronic music).

In the spirit of combining acoustic and electronic textures, one direction I'd like to go in would be to augment acoustic instrument performance (something I feel more comfortable with to date) with live electronics, as in this composition by Kaija Saariaho:


As I indicated above, I like acoustic music and think that it and electronic music have a lot to offer each other.  But in comparison to what I know how to do now, I would like to use electronics to enhance the performance, not just in playback.  I like the aesthetics of this piece (not that the recording is of the best quality) and some of her other work in a similar vein but for other instruments like the cello.  

Mr Funn

Write a reflection on your collaboration with your team throughout the semester. Address questions such as:

* What did you learn from observing or crossing over into your collaborators' disciplinary practices? 

I learned the most about listening to others and how to balance wants, needs and desires to fit into the composition. To listen I found where I could fit in my skill sets to offer a dialogue from the palate of which i had to offer

* What was surprising about the collaborative process? 

For us it was how close our ideas over lapped of wanting to use our work to speak to social awareness of the things that are currently facing out world and communities. 

* Identify any hurdles you overcame that might have been created by disciplinary expectations or norms.

 I think time management was key to us pulling off our project. We all had busy schedule being grad students. We had a chance to really figure out what the other persons thought process was not even being in the studio. We were able to check out other arts that helped tease out ideas for ourselves.

* What insights did you take away that might inform future interdisciplinary collaborations?

I think to remain open to ideas and not to get to attached to anything in the process. We can set things aside for a version 2-3 or 4. Another take away is that there is no thing such as perfection in some of these processes. It is about making work that fits that circumstance and space.  I think that is a great way to manage expectations. This also gives room for others to explore past their norms.

BPM YO

               This semester I learned that collaborations are extremely important and allow you to create things that you probably never would have made before. I also learned that I am not the best communicator and that I need to be more assertive. 

               Our creative process was quite slow. I feel as though we knew our goal: electronic dance music and flute. Unfortunately, that gave us a wide variety of options, and without a clear leader in the group we were quite stagnant in ideas. I feel as though the amount of options we had combined with our group lack of experience in dance music made all of us nervous about what exactly we should work towards within the classroom. For a while, Paige and I were mostly worried about how to make “dance music and flute” a cool and exciting project while keeping it challenging enough to give us a good grade in the classroom.

               I felt the pressure of making sure our project was “PAT” enough, and I feel like Paige thought that too; half the time I was wondering how to throw MAX at our project without really any creative experience in MAX at all. To be frank, I looked at all the other groups with a Kiran, a Sam, a Peter and so on and was concerned about how our group would be graded if we didn’t make our finished project complicated enough in comparison what the heck others did.

               In hindsight, Paige and I love to compose. Meryl is a great improviser. We should have jammed out. Our minds took ourselves out of our own strengths and tried to force us into a technician space that we aren’t that strong in.

               With all of that happening, I eventually freaked out about making sure we made progress and started to bulldoze the group. The first track we had was basically me making a bunch of decisions without asking for too much input. We threw Purplopia together and that felt good, but then I got worried about the tech of it all again and most of the work we did was focused on Listen to The Rhythm.

               Our progression was terrible, and eventually we had two weeks to learn to perform well two unfinished songs live and somehow make the sound travel around in a circle in a room and I took over because I was stressed out about failure. I stopped asking for input and just started doing. I could feel Paige feeling frustrated with our process. There were so many tech problems combined with our time limit and I lost trust in any hands that weren’t mine.

               The tracks turned out great in my opinion, but I feel like we could have done better working as a unit. I think we could have done a lot more if we got another shot at it. All in all, I learned so much about Ableton and the challenges of performing live.

BPM 4EVA

The end!

What an incredible ride this course and semester has been! I have to say, I feel extremely fortunate to have been in a group with AJ and Carlos. Not only am I happy about the work we achieved together, but I am so grateful that the three of us created bonds together throughout this process. 

There were many experiences throughout that assisted in uncovering more about my artistic practice and my attitudes in collaboration. One of the greatest parts of this collaboration was re-learning how to let go and embrace every moment. During my music degree, this was something that was really hard to uncover- especially during practice sessions or performing. I've definitely gotten better throughout the years, however, being around other individuals who practice this (like my team) reaffirms this approach. 

I think just the general notion of being/staying CHILL no matter what technological mishaps during collaborations can be a bit tricky  - especially as a techy PAT major - who has to make sure that everything is working and developing with the larger technological framework.. this was definitely challenging during "the Dante sessions". Shout out to Leith for all his help on this :) 

Another aspect of our performance that I am really happy about is how we utilized this space. I remember when I first went to the Davis studio, I was looking around the beams and speakers, and was brainstorming about the performance possibilities of the space. It was really cool designing the staging with my teammates - this is something that I think we could expand on. Installations always feel so rewarding because of the transformation of the physical space and how it informs a performance and/or social interactions. It was really cool to see AJ and the dancers do just that during the performance. It was also really rewarding learning how to build the projector mounts and screens. 

It was such a unique opportunity to take a brand new collaborative course, and I would definitely suggest everyone to take a course like this at some point during their degree, because you get to experiment and play with incredible resources including the space and other talented individuals. 

Go Team Pineal Gland!

On Collaboration

What an interesting experience.  Looking back, this couldn't have gone more differently than I imagined.  The process that Sydney, Spencer and I developed was very fruitful for our personal practice and the project we were developing.  I gained a lot for what I do individually in many of my projects, and I also grew into a better understanding of how to be a better collaborator in a personal sense, and in a practical sense.

The outcome of our final performance was very fulfilling mostly because of this unique practice.  I do not believe our intention was to end up with a product that we would have found such confirmation and fulfillment from like one might feel after composing a very detailed work, our intention was to create something that was informed from our practice that felt natural, honest, and authentic.  I am pleased to say that I do love our piece, and I find great satisfaction in what it became.  To me, that is an incredible bonus because we didn't want spend much energy on "making a piece", as opposed to making a collaboration.

I learned a lot about structure.  We spent a lot of time trying different forms of improvisation.  Using simple prompts and constraints informed me in new ways about how and what form and structure can exist in a improvised work.  We didn't dance as much as I would have assumed in the beginning, but many of these ideas about form and structure came from Sydney and my time in a performance improvisation class we were taking this semester.  In that class, we spent our time moving and dancing, but the concepts were universal to whatever we chose to apply them to.

In any future collaboration I think I have realized the value in talking about perspective.  For example, talking about how an idea looks and feels to different audiences really matters.   Something I am familiar with may look and feel different to someone that isn't familiar with it like I am.  This concept might seem obvious, but this was a hurdle we had to overcome together and I learned a lot from it.

I am so glad to have taken this course.  I loved the opportunity to take a collaborative class with my brother and Sydney.  I know we will continue to make more projects together in the future and this class was what brought us together.

THIS CLASS MADE ME THINK ON A PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVEL ABOUT SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS AND I LOVE STUDENT PARTNERSHIPS

This semester was unpredictable and made me realize many positives and negatives faced while collaborating. 

I realized what little time it takes for Merryl to come up with something genius. Guess that's what happens when you play your primary instruments for hours upon hours every day. Computers take much longer to figure out. Problems happen. Things crash. Flutes don't crash unless you drop them. Often times Merryl would be very unoccupied while Ben and I trouble-shooted. 

Toward the end of the semester, Ben and I started having separate meeting times to do trouble-shooting. This does not mean Merryl did not help us with “tech.” Merryl helped compose our track Purplopia in the MTL with Ben. She also learned how to set up and strike a lot of our gear. She also wrote every flute part.

I was surprised by how SUCCESSFUL all three of us were. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure if our music would be “academic” enough, “fun” enough, “technical” enough, or “creative” enough. You would think that after taking ECM I would be way over that hurdle, but academia is terrifying.

MANY unfortunate situations occurred throughout our collaborative process. My interface broke on the same day Ben’s keys broke. I erased a day’s worth of work in Ableton. Nights were spent in Davis until 2AM. Even during the show itself, things somehow got unmapped, and Ben had to map in Ableton during the show. But it all came together in the end. It always does.

I took this class to better myself in collaborative situations. I do fine as a solo worker, but I struggle to voice ideas and opinions if others are involved. Unfortunately, thoughts such as their ideas are better than mine constantly flood my head. I have been told this fact about myself by many others. They have criticized me for letting people unintentionally step all over me in creative settings. This semester I continued to struggle with this problem. Even when I didn’t like something we were doing, I assumed I was wrong to think so. 

Toward the end of the semester, I felt comfortable pointing out what I didn’t think was working, but I still struggled to voice new ideas. What I did feel comfortable doing was experimenting with Max patches / Ableton plugins, designing cool sounds, and commenting on the mix. What?! The mix?! Also known as subjects I'm NOT good at! But what I specialize in, composing and performing, felt super scary to talk about with my group. This class now has me thinking. Am I scared that if people shoot down my ideas regarding composition, that means I'm a bad composer? Because if people shoot down my ideas regarding mixing, I won't care. I don't want to be a mixer for a living. (Does anyone?) The mind is really weird. 

I view myself as a composer and a performer, but I feel like because of this weird mind concept, I didn't do much of either of those. I updated the blog, set up equipment, provided software, designed plugins, booked rooms, scheduled things, recorded things, wrote lyrics, held onto all of the files, etc etc etc. I didn't do much composition.

Because of the type of collaborative work my group was doing, most of the action was happening on one computer. Ben ended up programming the sends because both of us couldn’t do it at the same time. I ended up sitting in the middle of Davis listening to the mix and throwing out suggestions every once in a while. This made me feel extremely guilty and useless. I felt like Ben was doing all of the work, but there was nothing I could do to help him. I would resort to updating our blog or setting up equipment / striking what we didn’t need anymore. 

Ben is fantastic at drums and bass. I am not. Because of this, Ben would work at home and complete portions of our songs. Sometimes he would continue to write even more on top of that. I constantly felt guilty throughout this process. At the same time, I was battling that dumb thought: their ideas are better than mine. Ben did not ask for my input, so I didn't want to bother him with my ideas. His were "better." It was not Ben's job to ask for my input. It was my job to shout out my ideas the way Ben did.

All right, I contributed compositional ideas sometimes, but they were always ideas that I was 100% confident about. They were ideas that I knew everyone would like. Any risky ideas I conjured up, I kept inside of my head. And if someone else ever had another idea in relationship to mine, I automatically assumed their idea was better and did not consider if I even liked it or not. (I'm sure I did though. Our group is crazy talented. I mean was talented. So sad!)

If I took a class already knowing how to do everything I was going to learn while taking it, then what was the point of taking it? I wasn't supposed to know how to collaborate with others before this class started. While in college, we're allowed to fail. That's not going to happen outside of this safe space. We can stay cooped up in our rooms for weeks, trying our  working on one school project, trying our hardest, and end up not doing the best but OUR BEST, and still learn SO much. Can I get a round of applause, PAT451? 

Thanks everyone. Student Partnerships rules. I hope to see this class continue for many more years.