Howdy!

[Joshua Harrison]

Hey yall!

Sooooo... I realized I had been postin' without even doing a proper introduction!

Well, my name is Joshua Harrison. I'm a Junior in college for Music Education Choral with a secondary Certification in Band. I'm involved with multiple ensembles to include school ensembles, community band, opera performance and I direct my own choir. I am one of four students at my school in private composition studies and I've written a lot of things focused on performance. Me and a bud of mine were going to start a publishing company doing Choral and School Band stuff, but we both wan't to do film music. I ended up being kidnapped to the dark side by video games. I am relatively new to the realm of making video game music, but have a deep understanding of music, the musical process and all things related there-in. So that's an explanation of why i'm here... that and the game I started making with 0 experience in game making. Fun times.

Anyways, away from business.. here's a few things about me super fast. Male, 23, Guitar, Bass (Voice), Army Vet, Graduated High School in 2008, USA,  speaks English and adept in French, drive an SUV, love camping, engaged, going to be a HS teacher and eventually a college professor (*cross fingers*), I have cats, I listen to a lot of music, I play a lot of video games, I love horror (scary horror, not gore), I hate the ocean, I suck at playing the viola (seriously, don't ask me to), Um.... I was accepted to UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks) for music back in 2012 but didn't go because of money, now i'm here in South Carolina... uh... um... I love mountain dew? And... uh yeah...i'm a huge nerd? I think that covers most of it.... yeah..

So.. Hi.... 

 

[tearsofthenight]

Welcome To the Forums Friend! If you are ever in need of Battlers for your game i have made hundreds of them in my shop.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Hey, there! Already said hello in the 'post your music' thread but of course I'll say it again! Do you play anything else besides the guitar? I got a great sense of classical music from listening to your Soundcloud as was wondering what else you might play! I personally love the viola, but violin is my major instrument so it exactly wasn't a huge leap for me.

 

[Joshua Harrison]

Hey, there! Already said hello in the 'post your music' thread but of course I'll say it again! Do you play anything else besides the guitar? I got a great sense of classical music from listening to your Soundcloud as was wondering what else you might play! I personally love the viola, but violin is my major instrument so it exactly wasn't a huge leap for me.

Heh, hello again!

Well, for instruments that I actually "Play"? That depends... there are instruments that I am proficient in, and instruments I could play and get away with. I CAN play guitar, bass, percussion (the section, like orchestra), piano, stuffs... I can get away with flute, cello, handbells, organ.... Heck i'm even working on building my own Glass Harp, so that would be cool to use at some point. (I'll be completely honest, there are things that I can play that I just forget about because I barely use it, like cajun drum, harpschord, didgeridoo, shofar)

I pretty much try anything I can... most of the time I can make a good sound, but that viola (I had it for a method class on how to teach string instruments) was one tough cookie. I applaud you haha.

But my "Major" is in Voice and Percussion (Choral/ Band) 

Every time I listen to your soundcloud, I want to go write some more piano music... That's why I like calmer, romance/story driven games... I feel more comfortable writing in a Romance era Piano Quartet style.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Ah, I'm very much the same. I will try to play anything and once I've learned one instrument from a family, a lot crosses over to all its related instruments. I started out on violin when I was very young and have played the violin and viola all throughout college orchestra. I understand the cello quite well but haven't played on in years. I can also play mandolins because of violin.

The year after I started violin I also started alto saxophone and that led me to be pretty proficient in flute (and many ethnic flutes), and I can figure out the basic patterns on most woodwinds. I haven't played much brass though.

And same. I've played a lot of random things like Taiko and Djembe and it's hard to count it because they were community activities and whatnot. But I mostly learned culture and music culture. Which is still neat.

I mostly use piano as my 'study' and composition instrument but I am pretty competent at some playing but no means professional. I'd love to learn guitar so I am already super jealous. I just need to go buy one! I can do it! 

I'm so happy you've enjoyed my piano compositions. That means a lot to me! I start a lot of songs on the piano and orchestrate later. But I love making a lot of my songs strong stand alone piano pieces. 

 

[Joshua Harrison]

Ah, I'm very much the same. I will try to play anything and once I've learned one instrument from a family, a lot crosses over to all its related instruments. I started out on violin when I was very young and have played the violin and viola all throughout college orchestra. I understand the cello quite well but haven't played on in years. I can also play mandolins because of violin.

The year after I started violin I also started alto saxophone and that led me to be pretty proficient in flute (and many ethnic flutes), and I can figure out the basic patterns on most woodwinds. I haven't played much brass though.

And same. I've played a lot of random things like Taiko and Djembe and it's hard to count it because they were community activities and whatnot. But I mostly learned culture and music culture. Which is still neat.

I mostly use piano as my 'study' and composition instrument but I am pretty competent at some playing but no means professional. I'd love to learn guitar so I am already super jealous. I just need to go buy one! I can do it! 

I'm so happy you've enjoyed my piano compositions. That means a lot to me! I start a lot of songs on the piano and orchestrate later. But I love making a lot of my songs strong stand alone piano pieces. 

The funny thing is, I can play double reed instruments like clarinet a WHOLE lot easier than single reed like saxophones... it's so weird... i'm probably going to pick up bassoon soon.

So all your piano works are digital? They had such good control of dynamics and timbre that I thought it was you playing! Hah. 

I've recently tried plugging my piano in via midi to Finale and trying to at least notate it as I play... it only works a hand at a time and most of the time it gets the gist of it in there, but I have to back and do a heck of a lot of cleaning up. I just started working on one now and the amount of rests it puts in is insane.... The problem I have is that (I don't want to blow my own horn, but) I am a pretty good improve player.... but once I play it on the piano, like it, and decide to notate it it's either long gone or I can't portray the same feeling... So I may just end up recording live piano sometimes... the struggles are real. Maybe we could compose a 4 hands, or piano duet sometime... would be an interesting project indeed.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Yeah, the stuff on my soundcloud is computerized. The likelihood of me playing one start to finish without colossal screw ups is pretty slim. I find that Finale lets me have incredible control over dynamics and articulation if you fiddle with the settings just right. I've worked with Finale so much that I've learned how to use its programming to do what I actually want, even if I'd never print the exact output on a sheet of music. 

Since we both use Finale it would probably be pretty easy for us to do a collaboration of some sort. Down the road I'd definitely be game for that. As for your improv. Maybe just write it down on good old staff paper? I have several books around for that reason. I play at the piano and write down what I get. I don't have a midi keyboard yet, otherwise I'd probably also play right into Finale.

 

[Joshua Harrison]

Yep I still got a big book of like 400 sheets of staff paper, heck I still have a folder with a bunch of my older compositions all hand written and not transcribed on computer. I have a Yamaha Clavinova so it plugs straight into my laptop, it's just a new technology i'm not quite used to yet. Getting to that point where it's harder to learn new tricks but it'll happen haha. 

 

[Cadh20000]

Welcome to the group!

 

[markjacks]

Welcome Joshua. Feel free to post a preview as well once you have it done so others can provide feedback.