5/4/2018 0 Comments April UpdateHey, friends! April felt like it just breezed by! And then... it ended pretty unexpectedly. Lately things have been falling in place quite nicely. I've stepped out of my comfort zone in a lot of areas and had opportunities I thought were too good to be true. And I've done things I thought I was too lazy to ever actually do. Overall, this month went very well. So far I've kept up on my goal to read my Bible (nearly) every day, and I've composed four pieces every month so far. My big goal this month was to perform a piece I composed called Disonancia. It's a percussion ensemble piece for seven players, and when I showed the comp professor at my college audition, he challenged me to get it performed. In March I asked some students at the college I was taking band at if they could help, and after I performed Night Before Chaos, they were very enthusiastic about my work. But then one of them made me aware that this time was very, very busy for the students of the percussion studio. So she told me to put it off until the next month. I agreed that it would be better, since I was planning Space Day at that point. Then, after Space Day was over, I started texting everyone again, asking when we could rehearse. But I got the same message - We're too busy. Wait a few weeks. So I did. I scheduled a time for us to meet. Let's not forget to mention that I made the mistake of not signing up for the recital class (because, AGAIN, I needed to check that everyone would be able to make it), so instead I decided to just record it the same night rather than performing in front of a live audience. Everyone had had the music for a few months at that point, so they should know it well enough. Then one girl let me know that she had to work. Oh, well, her part isn't that hard. I give it to someone else. Oops, conflict with another club. I'll schedule it to be earlier in the day. It was Friday, the day of our meeting, two months after the first one. I sent out a message reminding everyone that I'd see them at 4:30! But what one of the musicians replied struck me hard. Either that day or the day before, one of the teachers passed away. Needless to say, all the percussion studio was an emotional mess. This was last week. I felt horrible. I finally got the idea that maybe this isn't what God wanted for me right now. Whatever the reason, He was allowing things to come in my way to prevent Disonancia from being performed. I've let go of that dream for now. If I find another opportunity this summer, I'll certainly pray about it and try again. And now - on to the art! aRTI've slowed down quite a lot on this one. However, I've found the time to draw a little bit this past month, especially on my new drawing tablet! I was having a hard time drawing from scratch, so I decided to trace a selfie of mine, just to practice coloring and shading and things like that. After I got a bit more comfortable tracing, I decided to try tackling something a bit tougher. I began a piece of Crystal in a dark blue dress. There's a preview of it here, but I hope to finish the whole thing by the end of May! WritingI wrote something! You may have already seen it, but I wrote an article that is posted both here and on my friend, Kit's, blog, called Don't Live in a Creative Echo Chamber. It's all about broadening your artistic view and having more ideas and thoughts to draw from when you're making art! MusicHere's where it gets really fun. This month, I wanted to write longer pieces because I had planned to write a Symphony in May (more on that in a bit). The first piece I composed is called The Winged. It is a three-movement piece based on Crystal's first adventure here on earth. This was very, very fun to write because I had the chance to be like John Williams and write motifs for each character! It took me one and a half weeks to write. The second is a choral piece based off the poem "The Divine Image" by William Blake. This was also a new challenge for me, because, believe it or not, I've never formally sat down to write a choral piece. But I don't blame myself - looking for the right poem requires a LOT of poetry reading. It was fun, but it got a bit exhausting! This also took one and a half weeks to compose. Next up, we have a much shorter piece called "10am Distraction." I think I composed it in about an hour. And finally, the fourth piece I composed is "Reminders of Paris." I decided to fiddle around on my melodica this time, and I FINALLY used an augmented chord (why have I never done that before?!) to get the Frenchy sound. I also used woodwinds for the first time in forever, and I learned a few good things from composing this piece. Now, on to my future plans. I've said that I would compose a Symphony this month, but I'll be honest - I just don't have the skill for that yet. I've now written one very long piece, but that was only for five or six instruments. We're talking full-scale orchestra!!
So instead, now that I've tried writing LONG pieces, this month I'll try writing... tall... pieces? I guess that's right. In other words, add a lot more instruments. Get used to working with all of them at once. I have a few friends on NF that have some experience with writing tall (lol) pieces, and talking to them should help. I've also contacted a local music school about piano lessons this summer. It was a toss-up between music theory, percussion and piano, but I decided I needed as much piano as I could get before college. So that's what I'm doing! Thanks for your prayers and love. I'll talk to you in a little bit :)
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Lily Calicois an aspiring composer, writer, artist and musician. Archives
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