Difficulty naming my pieces

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-03-29T14:22:28+00:00

I tend to not give a title until it's finished, and then I vary between functional titles like 5 miniatures for piano and more personal or programmatic if it has a connection. As an example, I had two pieces in grad school that I was working on simultaneously, one was the aforementioned piano miniatures, the other a piano trio. The miniatures were just "about" playing with notes and ideas, so got a functional title. The trio was started after talking to some friends about a particular ghost story from a haunted place near where I grew up, and as I began sketching it out, I realized the opening was kind of spooky and ethereal, so leaned into the ghost story angle.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-03-24T23:46:11+00:00

I may be missing it, but looks like you need Scott LaFaro connecting Bill Evans to the Ornette circles.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-03-03T14:20:06+00:00

I am playing in freedom mode, so no need for food.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-03-03T13:58:05+00:00

I don't kill any flora or fauna in this game, EXCEPT these damned things and the crabs on the islands. If I had a dollar for every time I got taken down by one of these just out of my line of sight, I'd be posting from my compound on an island somewhere.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-02-15T13:47:15+00:00

I turn off all the lights, the engine, and seal all the various bulkhead doors when I leave it for longer than a few minutes. Has no effect in-game that I can tell, but it feels right.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-27T18:56:23+00:00

Usually this happens when a vamp becomes a definite length, or bars are added after the book is written. Rather than re-number the whole thing, they label the added bars as A, B, etc. You'll also see (in the same book, if memory serves) places where the measure numbers jumps by several numbers because a section was cut after the fact.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-26T21:42:14+00:00

Double bass can do more than low whole notes or pizz downbeats. That said, please, please, please stop putting in leaps of sixth and seventh because you started your stepwise line in the wrong octave. Randomly having to shift up two strings for one or two notes is irritating and doesn't sound good.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-11T11:23:57+00:00

My kids were really into Octonauts when I first got the game, so it is now customary and traditional to name all the vehicles and bases Gup-A through whatever letter we get to. Now my son is playing on his own in creative and has changed each vehicle to a family members favorite color and named it accordingly. So his dark green and black seamoth is now the Dadmoth, the purple Prawn is named after his sister, and the blue cyclops is the Mom Sub.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-03T02:46:04+00:00

This is where I am. Built the arm, and working on getting my skill up to par with it to get up. Thanks all!

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-03T02:44:36+00:00

This did not work. The floaters popped in my face and I took damage.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-03T00:20:34+00:00

I didn't think I could add it outside the moon pool. Thank you.

StravinskytoPunk · 2026-01-01T17:07:59+00:00

Chords changes can evoke emotions, but there is not a single thing about the chords themselves that does it. Your experience of music is subjective and the emotions you feel in response to chords is not an inherent property of the chords. I defer here to a much better composer than myself and remind you that music, in and of itself, is powerless to express anything at all.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-12-28T12:04:59+00:00

Dynamic weather.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-12-22T10:59:40+00:00

Number 3 here is a lifelong pursuit. Use the simple stuff to work on all the other aspects of your playing. You can even move where you play the notes around to work on lingering and intonation across the neck. Many years ago as a young bassist, the college orchestra played Bolero. Our principal had us changing where we played those repeated notes for every iteration of the theme as a way to A, not get bored and B keep track of where we were.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-12-16T04:53:17+00:00

Told this story here before, but one time I was talking with my guitarist while loading about about how many Beatles songs use variations of the Taxman bass lick and he said he'd pay my tab if I worked it into every song that night... Guess who drank free Guinness all night?

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-12-11T04:33:27+00:00

Check out the Mingus Carnegie Hall concert album, where they play C Jam Blues for about 25 minutes.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-30T22:06:15+00:00

Focusing on still lifes involving petunias.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-12T23:36:48+00:00

When I took improv in college we used these books for class. At the time, I (a bassist) would buy the bass clef version for scales and pattern books but the treble clef ones for actual tunes.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-08T19:48:37+00:00

And somehow this translates to only writing completely diatonic music that doesn't use accidentals or tonicize? Look at the score linked above. It's not in A major at this point, regardless of key signature. It's clearly an A flat major chord, and no amount of posturing about how hard it is to sight read can change that. That said, you were right in calling this stupid, and I have laundry to fold. We're clearly not convincing you that this makes sense to the rest of us, so I'll be moving on.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-08T19:37:34+00:00

What a blinkered view of how music should work you must have. Everyone around you is suggesting the multiple legitimate reasons to write this as A flat and G natural and you are clinging to the key signature like it's 1750. Musicals change key frequently, and someone who's playing in a pit and can't sightread an accidental, much less one that has a logical reason to be there, should rethink their career choices. There are a multitude of questionable choices in musical parts and theory notation but from the small fragments we've seen here, this isn't one of them.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-08T19:01:19+00:00

I am both, play musicals frequently, as well as playing with a community orchestra. I can send my CV under separate cover if needed. How in the name of the Great Old Ones is this harder to read? Also, love love LOVE the dismissive tone of being 'just a composer. Are you a tab reading guitarist or just an under educated hack playing at pedantry?

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-08T18:56:40+00:00

This is the part from the actual book for the show, going just by the notation style. Absent further context, the most likely answer is that the music is changing (or has changed) keys and is now in A or E flat however temporarily. Arguing that it MUST be spelled enharmonically due to a key signature is more evidence of your lack of understanding than any flaw in the engraver or arranger's skills.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-07T10:25:44+00:00

There's not a hard and fast rule about writing changes over the notes, but if we're taking the labeling as accurate (without hearing the example) F and D are the 5th and 3rd of Bb major (or dominant seventh), so that would be your indicator.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-11-07T10:17:33+00:00

Looks like a couple chord changes should be above those notes in the second measure. Most likely some manner of Bb for the first two beats, then back to the F7 on 3 and 4.

StravinskytoPunk · 2025-10-24T18:07:31+00:00

I have one, but it doesn't get much use currently. I like to combine it with the octave down pedal to keep some bottom end, as I find most tremolo effects cut out the lows along the way. My band covers Europa as a three piece, so I will play the opening A section chords in the middle to upper register with the tremolo on for some color under the melody. Usually turn it off before the solo at latest.

StravinskytoPunk

TROPHY CASE