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34 composing

🔗microstick@...

5/17/2006 11:01:48 AM

Hey Gene...actually, an awful lot of my composing, micro or 12, is done by messing around on a guitar, improvising, and themes/ideas usually start to emerge, from somewhere. For example, when I got the 34 tone electric bass in the mail 10 years ago, within 5 minutes of playing it, I had stumbled on what would become the bassline for my tune "Microseconds." Of course, after that I had to do some gruntwork to come up with the melody and overall form, but the basis of the tune just sort of happened.
And, somehow, that seems to be how many of my compositions came to be. I do have a lot of theoretical concepts I'm familiar with, and an awful lot of hands on playing under my fingers, so sure, it all adds up. And, for example, I have a couple of future pieces planned out in 34...one will work off the cycle of 34 major 3rds, and the other off the 2 cycles of 5ths which are in the system. So, when it's time, I'll sit down and start playing through those patterns, and I'm confident that, sooner or later, a theme or two will appear. Then, it's only a matter of time till a form takes shape, and a piece will be the end result.
For me, the name of the compositional game is endless variations on a theme...so, once I get a melodic fragment, then I can usually take it and come up with what I need for a song. Bach is my mentor in composition, overall. Nobody could do variations like he did, he's a great inspiration.
And I am familiar with the chain of minor 3rds in 34, Erv sent me a paper on that some years ago, haven't sat down with it yet, but it's another concept that ought to be good for a tune or two...best...HHH
myspace.com/microstick

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🔗Keenan Pepper <keenanpepper@...>

5/17/2006 9:15:28 PM

How do you usually tune the open strings of your 34-tone guitar? Like,
what pitches?

Keenan