Using Imagery in Songs by Andrea Stolpe

December 01, 2008

…I love the part of your book where you said the greater the detail, the less time has passed. I think we live moment to moment, so it makes sense songs should too. But one thing that came to mind is, once you have zeroed in on a particular moment with detail, where do you go from there? Do you string together different moments with each verse, or do you keep defining the same detailed moment throughout? This is a great question pertaining to the craft of writing with external or... Read More...

Please Vote for My Reason Bass Line by Erik Hawkins

November 28, 2008

The Reason Bass Line Battle was a wonderful chance to flex your drum and bass production skills. Just 8 bars of rocking drums, funky bass, and swanky percussion using Reason’s Factory and Orkester Sound Banks and the Reason Electric Bass refill (or Electric Bass Demo refill, given away for free as part of the contest). And, you weren’t limited to just entering one bass groove, you could enter up to three! This all sounded like too much fun and I couldn’t help myself, I... Read More...

Free Notation Software - November, 2008 Update by Tom Rudolph

November 27, 2008

In my previous post on free notation software, I listed Finale NotePad as free music notation software. This is no longer the case. MakeMusic announced in August, 2008 that beginning with Finale NotePad 2009, which is the current version, it will not be free and will cost $9.95 per copy. The price is certainly reasonable, but it is no longer free. NotePad 2009 can import/export MusicXML files so it can save files that can be opened in earlier versions of Finale. I also means that Finale... Read More...