Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

These are the beliefs and precepts that stand behind any piece composed or arranged for the Dream & Shadow Huntsman Group.

1. The definition of music: organised sound of artistic intent. The level of organisation may vary.

2. If it makes a sound, it is an instrument. The Voice is just another instrument.

3. The two classes of sound: Ugly & Pretty. Both are beautiful.

4. Any sound audible to the human ear can be useful in music.

5. All instruments are melody instruments. There is no such thing as a "rhythm instrument."

6. The only time signature: 1/1

7. No padding. If you have no real reason to repeat a passage, then don't repeat it. Tradition (including any "standard" forms) is not a reason to repeat a passage.

8. Multiple instruments should only play the same passage simultaneously for emphasis. Playing a passage an octave lower or higher does not make it a different passage.

9. Full, non-arpeggiated chords take up huge amounts of space -- use sparingly, and only for emphasis. Strumming is lazy, taking up space that could be better filled with actual melodic passage.

10. All melody is arpeggio.

11. Specific harmonic shapes should be used for specific effect; major and minor are not and should not be considered standard.

12. Any two or more notes occupying the same harmonic space comprise a chord.

13. There are more than 12 notes in an octave.

14. Lyrics do not excuse composition. Lyrics are subordinate to composition, and should serve only to improve the composition. If anything, the composition excuses the lyrics.

15. Play it organic like you just dug it out of the soil. Steel is boring, rust is interesting.

16. Play with a balance of disciplined technique and reckless abandon.

17. Listen to instinct. Your bones know more than your brain does.

18. Listen to ideas. Your brain has its moments.

19. Balance the 4 elements:
Earth -- rhythm, pattern;
Wind -- whimsy, rhapsody;
Water -- harmony, flow;
Fire -- dissonance, angularity

20. Risk.

21. The best is not enough without Heart. Heart is not emotion or feeling or anything else human. It is something cosmic. Art should be universal. The human part of the universe is insignificant on the universal scale.

22. Break every rule at least once.

Mars,

This sounds like a concise listing of precepts that I've used for years as a method for coaxing music out of the air in cooperation with other musicians.

Here is a piece that was recorded using a version of those precepts.

Joy Urchins--On the Precipice

I remember that piece
That was one of my favourite Joy Urchins pieces. The other was called "Walking on the Water" or something akin to it, I believe

When we did that piece, I sat in the recording booth with the bass and there was a piano in the main studio room and two drummers in the drum booth for the first pass.

I played the bass while speaking into the ears of the other players and 'conducting' the piece.

The piece is the score for a dance in a musical drama. It's a battle scene. I patterned it on the 1812 Overture.

We had specific themes worked out beforehand but the on the spot playing was improvised.

Then I went back on the second pass with the flute (which was played through an echoplex and an octave divider and a wah-wah pedal which were operated by my partner as I played.)