For Orchestra!

“I hope it’s gonna make you notice / Someone like me”

I first heard about Kings of Leon about a year ago, but it wasn’t until recently that my friend Katie introduced me to them more in depth. I heard this composition, the lyrics, the drum beat, and was hooked. So I’m thrilled to have arranged it this week:

Preview!     Buy It!

[Songs Archive]

We’re all looking for something. We’re looking for our friends, people who understand us, a career we’re crazy about, and somebody to love us back. Sometimes it can feel like a lonely world, and we’ve all been there. We could use somebody to help us along the way, listen to us, hold our hand, and be a part of who we are and our lives.

Life is a learning process. It is something that brings us joy, understanding, desperation, growth, passion, and thought. I feel these lyrics capture our cries to be wanted. This piece speaks volumes, and each musician has a key role that I love in this piece:

1.) Keeping the drums out in the first verse. It builds tension, and allows the piece to grow rather than hitting it’s climactic moment too soon.

2.) The bass line in the second verse. It s perfect syncopated passage that compliments the drum pattern. Breaking away from simple ‘whole notes’ created a sense of movement, and freshness.

3.) The lyrics “Someone like you and all you know and how you speak” leading into the second half of the first verse. It hints at the lyric that enters the chorus, and creates uniformity throughout the piece.

4.) The guitar part underneath the last chorus.

This carefully crafted composition allowed the flutes to introduce the verse perfectly while the trumpets performed the chorus. Last week when I arranged the Foo Fighters, I was told I didn’t bring out Dave Grohl’s drums enough – so I was happy to bring them out more here.

Congrats to KOL on their role at the 2010 Grammy Awards. I hope I was able to capture the beauty of this piece within the orchestra.

I came across this Avatar-izer that seemed kind of interesting. Basically, you upload a picture and it makes you look like one of the people from Pandora. I couldn’t stop laughing at this because my eyes looks a little wacky, and my nose a little off, but like my friend Damien Basile would say “it’s a perfect use of branding because it takes the consumer and places them in the product”. I totally agree.

Big ups to Oddcast, David Chaitt, and McDonald’s for a cool product. Avatar was seriously one of the better movies I’ve seen in quite some time.

So how does my Avatar look?!

As an orchestrator who has always been interested in technology and trying new things, I’m actually very excited for the Apple iPad. But why? It’s not an instrument, or a standard computer. Exactly… it’s actually so much more.

The orchestra assembles over 100 musicians – violinists, flutes, oboes, trumpets, percussion, and more. And they all need music, they all need to be on the same ‘page’. Although expensive, orchestras should use the iPad on music stands, and order the music through a store like Sibelius Scorch. Imagine, a 120 person ensemble all living in the cloud.

Living in the cloud would allow audiences to interact in real time, set lists to be arranged on the spot, and group collaboration that Beethoven and Tchaikovsky would have only dreamed about.

Apple is set to launch the iPad next month, and everyone is on stand by for the preorder.

According to their Keynote it’s big stand is for books and for internet publishing. But the iPad can also, and should also be a new orchestra instrument. In a world where DJ’s and Techno artists have collaborated with the classic ensemble, I’m excited to see how this will become a part. Like any genre or business, innovation should be welcomed.

I’m currently selling my music here at ForOrchestra, but yesterday I was stuck with the age old question between two distributors for my iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon release coming next month: Tunecore or CD Baby?

I asked everyone on Twitter and FacebookFacebook, and the majority of the answers said to go with Tunecore.

The biggest difference between the two is that Tunecore has an upfront fee and CD Baby simply take a 9% cut of each sale.

So apparently if I plan on selling more than 300 downloads then Tunecore is the way to go, because it offsets the upfront costs, and the rest is 100% profit.

The problem is that I already have my CD Baby account from 2006 – and so I would like to not have to start ANOTHER account. I’m thinking about using Tunecore for my digital distribution, and CD Baby for my physical copies.

I’m leaning strongly towards Tunecore. What do you think?

It’s New York Fashion Week and the other day I received word about the Guide to the Best Dressed Orchestra Conductors as re-posted by W Magazine. I’m guessing they weren’t judging by their concert wear – because it seems all conductors generally wear the same black tuxedos.

Rounding out the Top 5 are:

1.) Maestro Daniel Harding
2.) Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen
3.) Maestro John Axelrod
4.) Maestro Nicola Luisotti
5.) Maestro Fabio Luisi

Maestro Daniel Harding is Opera Chic's Best Dressed

I’d be interested to know how they came up with the list, and perhaps who the runners up were. Nontheless, it’s nice to see a pop culture spotlight on conductors! I know first hand how difficult it is directing a group of musicians with my body while still trying to dress and look hip.

Thanks to Opera Chic for a great post. It’s a cool blog that I wasn’t familiar with, and wish they posted daily, but now I’m adding it to my blogroll! And Congrats to the Fashionistos!

And to follow New York Fashion Week on Twitter click here