Little Orb

Credentials

none.

I learned many years ago that you can't take shortcuts. If you are serious about becoming notable in any field, be it science, engineering, politics, the arts, whatever it may be, you need to put in many years of dedicated work to learn the craft.

And now for a long aside...

When I was younger, I spent about ten years learning guitar, and then piano, and made very good progress. I also discovered that I was pretty good at math and electronics.

In between school obligations, I started a small business teaching guitar. I guess I started about 50 people or so on the path to playing the guitar. A few actually went on to some degree of success. I feel very good about that. I also nurtured some strong friendships with several local musicians; we played tons of jams, we wrote a number of songs together, and actually managed to play publicly a few times.

Around this time, I discovered poetry. I wrote a lot of it. Some was published locally. Some of it became lyrics, some did not. I learned how poetry and lyrics are similar yet different. I also learned how different people hear different things from the same words and/or music. I learned that just because I think about something a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else does, and that, most importantly, there is no such thing as the "right" way to interpret something. Even your own creations.

I also used my electronics skill to build the latest (at the time) guitar sound effects from scratch. At one point, our little "band" boasted the only guitar "synth" around town. I was into making envelope followers, automatic wah-wahs, hyper sustains, and all that stuff at the time. I even built and sold a few effects boxes to friends. I fondly remember performing a set of original tunes at the Odessa Coffeehouse (Glastonbury), with my guitar, a mic, and a tape-loop...

At school, one of my goals (in between all the engineering requirements) was to get access to the electronic music lab. So I took a number of music theory courses, mostly to achieve the prerequisite requirements. And, as a side effect, I discovered there is a huge breadth to music. That small exposure was the beginning to my informal study of music ever since.

Eventually I needed to decide between pursuing music or engineering as my "bread and butter" career. I chose engineering. But music has always been my second love.

So most of my daylight hours were spent designing computer logic (first memory systems, and then mostly floating point accelerators). No shortcuts there. I put in the hours, I learned the trade. I have gathered 10 patents from that work. Recently I've switched to software engineering. I'm still putting in the hours.

But nighttime (after the kids) was always for music.

Over the years, I recorded various 4-track compositions with guitar, piano, and effects. I subjected my friends and family to endless cassette tapes of my creations. (No doubt, most weren't so good, but still, at least they never groaned and said "stop it!") Then computers began to be affordable. That was a tipping point for me.

I started composing electronic pieces of various kinds, usually based off of whatever electronic / computer / software thing I had created at the time. For example, I had a TRS-80 running an Aarp Omni 2 for a time. Then a VT-180 (running CPM) running a home-built Z80-based waveform generator. Then I built a whole set of songs using a voice synthesizer chip for the percussion. More cassette tapes...

MIDI was invented around then. Along the way I got a Mac SE-30, a Casio CZ-101, a couple of MT-32's, an XP-50. A few Mac clones. More cassette tapes...

Sometime in that era I became involved in VAXNOTES COMMUSIC for a while. I submitted some material to that early music community too.

Then I got bored. Or bummed out. (You choose.) I didn't do much writing at all for about ten years.

But I continued to listen to many styles of music, however I happened to become aware of them. There are uncountable styles out there, past and present. Music seemed to have exploded. I long ago gave up trying to categorize them. Especially because many artists have been intentionally mixing styles from around the world. It's all getting very mixed up. I decided to go with what appeals to me, be it cerebral or visceral.

With the advent of the internet, I set up a website and wrote an article about Alternative Tuning and How We Hear, and several other things, such as how to build a giant vortex ring generator. Then I discovered poetry again. I wrote and web-published a bunch of poetry. All on a PC.

And music began to well up inside me again. Maybe it was discovering and hearing the Indian Hill Orchestra. I don't know.

I decided it was time. I did some research. Found out all about GarageBand. And I got an iMac G5, with GarageBand 2.

And I started writing music again. All the things I had learned in the past slowly started to resurface.

So, about a year later, I discovered MacJams, and here I am.

Now, back to credentials.

Number one, I'm doing this for fun, for the love of creating tunes. It's a hobby.

I may very well not have another ten years to learn how to play any particular genre on some particular instrument. But, really, why should I? There are lots of styles, and there's not enough time to learn them all. But I know what a lot of them sound like and how they are structured. And I know how to create the impression of some of those styles.

But it's all fake, right? I didn't put in the time. So whatever I do is dismissible. At least by the experts, who actually put in the time. They know most of the rules by heart. It's second nature for them. They can create great music almost instinctively. I only know some of the rules. I'm not qualified to break the rules until I've mastered them. Isn't that how it works?

But I choose to take the shortcut.

I'm going to create music for me, publish it, and allow whoever may like it to enjoy it. If you hate it, sorry to have wasted your time.

I'm not trying to earn any money here. Nor fame.

But, finally, I also believe I have an advantage over the experts. Sure, I may stumble over obvious, stupid stuff. But I am also very willing to break the small set of rules I do know about. And certainly break the ones I know nothing about! And I think I may be more able to explore the great unknowns of music than the more seasoned professional, who may very well be shackled by their knowledge.

I plan to have some fun while I'm still on this little orb.

So there.

Bill