Rehearsal Notes, Comments, and Insights from Sunday, August 26th, 2007:
It’s time to get Studio “Z” fully operational.
Sunday, August 26th, 2007
Daniel and Andrew worked from 2:30 pm to 10:30 pm.
WE DID IT!
Studio “Z” = installation, setup, and operational!
Instead of listing all of the gear here, take a look at our “Gear” page.
(It’s currently under construction, and looks pretty lame.)
–Andrew also did a Cakewalk Sonar Tutorial with Daniel so that he can start recording stuff at Studio “Z”
–also = looking at stuff on eBay = Alesis Andromeda A6 Super Analog Synth
We have basically everything we need; recording studios, guitars, keyboards, gear, samples and loops, etc.
We even have tons of “digital analog” synths and samples and software instruments.
How can we be a Progressive Rock, Symphonic Rock, or Symphonic Prog project without actual analog keyboards?
We may have to buy that Alesis Analog synth . . .
Thank you.
Dr. Andrew Colyer and “Professor” Daniel Aggers. Indra’s Net
“Progressive Classical Music for Progressive Rock Fans”
Rehearsal Notes, Comments, and Insights from several weeks in August:
Sunday, August 5, 2007 (post-rehearsal notes)
Sunday, August 12th, 2007
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
Sunday, August 5th, 2007 (post rehearsal notes)
–after Daniel left = Andrew came up with chord changes for “21st Century Bach”
–Recorded stuff = harpsichord and organ = cool intro stuff = GOT THE INTRO DOWN
Sunday, August 12th, 2007
–Bach = Well-Tempered Clavichord
“Well-Tempered Clavicle” (song title?)
Andrew played back for Dan what he had done last week
–Musical Story = Andrew and Daniel reviewing their life stories and how that contributes to who we are and the kind of music we are making today
–Effortless Mastery & Kenny Werner = reviewing the concepts, book, and reading excerpts
–Dr. David Hawkins = Consciousness
–”Forest Rain” = reviewed structure of the song
–Daniel = worked on Classical Guitar while JAC worked on the computer and mixing board with headphones
–Daniel worked on “Forest Rain” and also “SSVW” intro = gave him the chord changes from what he had done before
–Andrew = went through “Rock VW” and pulled out section to insert into “SSVW” = finished structure!
–recorded basic scratch tracks, tempo and time signature changes = recorded rough WAV and mp3 file
–including “rock slide” + “forest” sounds in the Chaos Transition
– including Craig Anderton loops
–emailed the rough mp3 file to Daniel and himself
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
–Andrew’s first lesson at the Blue Note in NYC with Kenny Werner!!
THEN DID NOTHING FOR TWO DAYS BUT “STEP ONE” = touching the piano, breathing and being aware.
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
–Andrew reviewed with Daniel stuff from his lesson with Kenny
–talking about first lesson with Kenny
–playing with Effortless Mastery
ANDREW IS ALREADY TOUCHING THE PIANO DIFFERENTLY
–Our Paths = Andrew & Daniel’s = he used to listen to classical music while working with his friend Pat every day
–Daniel probably knows more classical music than Andrew does, even though Andrew majored in Classical Piano Performance for his Bachelor’s degree at Rhodes College
–Andrew’s Rhodes College Senior Recital CD = listening to stuff
–listened to all of the Bach Toccata and Fugue
–some of the Beethoven sonata
–some of the Chopin
–“Dude, you’re burning!” cried Daniel.
Andrew = worked on “21st Century Bach”
–based on actual Bach and “Phil Collins Pedal Point” changes and robbed-borrowed-lifted from “Toccata and Fugue”
–ALSO going through “Baroque Jazz Prog Rock” and “Dan Jan 2006″ files and listening = writing stuff down
“SSVW” = Andrew computer arranging and Daniel guitar parts
Daniel playing his Gibson Custom Classic = really nice tone; long
Daniel also playing his 12-string = SOUNDING AWESOME
Andrew= working on the “Chaos Transition” section = dropping in samples and loops and trying to get stuff to come out right
–percussion effects from Sony/Sonic Foundry sample and loop CD’s
–also Discrete Drums’ EarthBeat “wooden crate” samples
–after Daniel left = Andrew worked for another 90 minutes = the computer screwed up and lost everything = because it had been on too long and the Windows memory leak thing happened = the files were corrupted = the computer locked up TWICE
–BUT Andrew was on a mission = kept working at the piano and came up with the CHAOS CHORD CHANGES!!!!
Week of Monday, August 20th
–later during that entire week = Andrew = practicing the CHAOS CHORD CHANGES and tempo changes = on the piano with the metronome
–recorded the piano part chord changes into Sonar = rough piano just to have the structure down
–will have strings and woodwinds going in different directions
–recorded horn part coming out of CHAOS
–lose the Rock Slide effects
–other cool stuff in the works
More next time . . .
Thank you.
Dr. Andrew Colyer and “MacGyver” Daniel Aggers Indra’s Net
“Progressive Classical Music for Progressive Rock Fans ”
We here at Indra’s Net haven’t had a chance to listen and review the CD/album yet,
but when we do, we’ll give you our comments, thumbs up, and/or thumbs down.
Rehearsal Notes, Comments, and Insights from Sunday, August 5, 2007:
In Dr. Bruce Lipton‘s book, The Biology of Belief, he discusses how important your environment is to the health of your body, all the way down to the health of your cells. Not only your external environment, but also your internal environment.
We (Indra’s Net) realized that the environment in Studio A, where we have been doing the bulk of our writing, arranging, and recording, needed to change. So on this day, we took action!
After going to Staples, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Office Depot, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and the Hudson Valley Mall (which included Best Buy and Radio Shack), we came home and “renovated” our workspace!
We started with cleaning. (When was the last time you cleaned your studio or work space?)
Then, new furniture, shelves, desk, workspace table, chair, and lights.
The place looked and felt entirely different = transformed!
Much more comfortable now, and with more space for everyone.
That’s our challenge to you: transform your environment, and you will transform your own world.
Universal Law: Your Outer World is a reflection of Your Inner World.
And vice-versa.
Create a better environment around yourself, and your inner world will change also.
It has to.
It’s a law of the Universe.
We hope to assist you in changing your inner world.
Our intention is for your external environment to be changed in a positive way by listening to our music = which will then directly impact and influence your inner world in a positive way.
After spending the majority of the day on the Studio A Renovation Project, we still got some work done on the following songs:
Forest Rain
Space Schubert Vaughan Williams (working title) = we cut out the weird funky part that didn’t seem to be working
Rock VW (working title)
21st Century Bach
After Daniel left, Andrew kept working on SSVW, and realized that we cut the wrong part out of the song = we needed to cut the “Oboe pretty melodic section” part, and put the weird 5/4 funky part back in = and repeat it twice! Now the song is really flowing along.
You’ll get to hear it when the album/CD comes out.
Thank you.
Dr. Andrew Colyer and “MacGyver” Daniel Aggers Indra’s Net
“Progressive Classical Music for Progressive Rock Fans ”
After months off due to other professional commitments and personal life stuff, Indra’s Net rehearsals resumed on Sunday, July 29th.
We are fully committed to finishing this first album/CD as fast as humanly possible, given our current outside work and personal commitments.
One of the things that we like to do is start off rehearsals by playing or listening to classical music or progressive rock music that we really like and admire. We find that that really gets our energy levels up and going, and generates excitement for our project.
“English Gentleman” Daniel Aggers brought a whole stack of stuff to listen to today, including Genesis, Allan Holdsworth, and King Crimson (more on that in later posts).
We reviewed our song list for the album/CD, which looks like this:
“The Beginning”
“Isle of Joy”
“Swirling Mist of Incense”
“Forest Rain”
“Fields of Mourning, Fields of Peace”
“Ireland”
“Surge”
“Space Schubert Vaughan Williams” (don’t worry, it’s only a working title)
“21st Century Bach” (again, a working title)
Right now, because we write in a more “classical” style of music (hence our newly self-named genre of “Progressive Classical”), these nine songs add up to over 60 minutes of music.
Daniel is really good at critically listening to things, and cutting-editing-deleting parts of the songs that don’t really work:
“What are we trying to say with this song? Does this really work? What kind of statement are we trying to make?”
So while working on “Fields of Mourning, Fields of Peace”, we chopped out an entire section of music = that had cool chords and major-minor changes, but didn’t really fit in with the rest of the song. That dropped the song from being almost 10 minutes to around 7 minutes. Now the song flows much better, and we may use that section in another piece of music later on.
We were in the studio today for about 6 hours, working on things.
We finished up the end of the day listening to a couple of 1970′s Progressive Rock bands = Renaissance and Illusion.
Listening to some of this older stuff really helps to give us perspective on what works and what doesn’t. Some Progressive Rock bands of past and present do a good job of keeping the music going and making a great statement; some bands seem to just ramble on in service of their “artistic ego” without having much consideration for the listener.
Our intention is to produce music that is inspiring and uplifting.
Thank you.
Dr. Andrew Colyer and “English Gentleman” Daniel Aggers Indra’s Net
“Progressive Classical Music for Progressive Rock Fans”
Here at Indra’s Net, we tried for months to come up with some kind of name to describe the genre of music we write, record, and produce.
Dr. Andrew Colyer eventually named our style of music “Progressive Classical”, because none of the other traditional names seemed to fit.
We love “Progressive Rock” music, but we’re not really Rock. We also love a lot of music that is classified as “Symphonic Rock”, because of the “symphonic” part, but again, we’re not really that rock-ish.
Our music is definitely classically based, but there are way too many elements of pop, rock, jazz, world, and sound effects to be called classical.
Hence, the New Original Genre Name of “Progressive Classical.”
Anyway, part of our mission here at IndrasNetMusic.com is to spread the word about other outstanding musicians, and develop a community of friends and like-minded individuals.
The following video is something to see.
Enjoy!
Thank you.
Dr. Andrew Colyer and “MacGyver” Daniel Aggers Indra’s Net
“Progressive Classical Music for Progressive Rock Fans ”
The picture to the left is of Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank Zappa.
Dweezil is currently on tour, playing his father’s music.
This post and article link is for all the people who like and don’t like Frank Zappa’s music.
How could it be for both?
Because, like him or not, Frank Zappa was a revolutionary and influential person, from a recording production standpoint.
Even if you think his stuff is weird and freaky, listen to it with an open mind, and try to appreciate what he was doing from the standpoint of innovation.
We here at Indra’s Net (Daniel Aggers and Dr. Andrew Colyer) are kind of like the “Ebert & Roeper” of Progressive Rock = we often have differing opinions, and we’ll share them here with you.
Daniel likes Frank Zappa because he’s weird and oddball and freaky. Daniel gives him thumbs up.
Andrew doesn’t really care for Frank Zappa because he’s weird and oddball and freaky. Musically, Andrew gives him thumbs down.
However, from a musician-composer-producer standpoint, Andrew has to give Frank the thumbs up.
“Frank Zappa is important to the development of production because he was a true sound sculptor who knew how to create soundscapes, instrumental compositions, and skill blends of the two.” –Virgil Moorefield, The Producer as Composer
This article does a really great job of concisely profiling Frank, Dweezil’s career, and the challenges that are inherent in trying to reproduce music onstage that was never really meant to be performed live.
I was checking out XKCD today and came across something that I thought I would share: The Tell Tale Beat (click for a larger version): It reminded me so much of how my family must feel, ... Related posts:Beat Sneaks: DIY midi drums in your shoes Binary Beat Techno Jeep […]
Robert Schneider is the singer for the indie rock band “The Apples in Stereo“, hailing from Denver, Colorado. Not happy with trying to play synthesizers with and actual keyboard, Robert modified a Mattel Mindflex(The ... Related posts:Mind-blowing vintage synth display Thermatron: the flame-controlled synthesizer Nintendo video controlled by a modular synth […]
Entries (RSS)