New Song Diary: Momentum for two

In November, SJT will be doing a Works In Progress (WIP) mini-concert for donors and special guests. at our studio.

The idea is not to present a finished or even completed song, but a section or snippet.  For the audience it could be a lot of fun, but for the composers it takes a lot of the pressure away to make a song and get to focus on composing a song.  From there, some of the WIP pieces might get green-lighted to be completed for our Spring Concert.  If not, they can still be worked on if the composer desires.

For this WIP, I have two songs lined up.  One is the piece I've talked about for a couple of years now - left hand playing a non-stop straight beat between the left and center drums, while the right hand plays patterns.  It's a very simple concept that really challenges the hands and brain.  The other song is a hybrid of two pieces I never got traction on - one being a katsugi okedo piece that focuses on chops and musicality, the other being on naname and playing facing the head flat-on striking in an x-form.

Workshopping both pieces has been really successful, if not always easy for the people playing the parts...

For the first piece, which I'm calling "the pod piece" for now, I'm aiming to do about 1.5 to 2 minute's worth of material, showing how I up the tempo in a sneaky way, throw some patterns, get some soloing, but this one is definitely the piece I'm still trying to develop a mood for.  Do I go a little silly?  Do I go a little rock-and-roll feel?

For the second piece, which I'm calling "the hybrid piece", I definitely have the mood of the piece I want, and I figure I should aim for the same amount of time by November.  Throw some patterns, soloing, and see how people take to it.

With both pieces, I have to constantly remind myself that I'm not WRITING A SONG by November.  I'm just doing "songstuff" for now.  It's weird for me not working towards a definite, finished project, but it's a good way to compose without too much pressure!

Stay tuned...