(NMR Interview with Xambuca member Chandra Shukla) NMR: Tell us about the members and ideas behind Xambuca. XAMBUCA: The group is ever evolving, ever-changing, but the constants in the group are myself (Chandra Shukla) and visual help from Jason Scott-Furr along with vocals and other found sounds from Elisa Faires. Other collaborators have included RK Faulhaber, Todd Mellors (Saifir), Lux Vibratus (Chrome), Larry Thrasher and many others. Xambuca was a reaction to the various genres of music and more specifically to bands and groups who were type-cast into these genres. As there are many types of music we love, we also wish for Xambuca to be the grounds to explore different types and styles within music with varied approaches, varied instrumentation, varied ideas, varied visuals and an ever evolving cast of characters and an overall open-mindedness to anything and everything in terms of sound.   The main objective is freedom from the rules of what we are "supposed to be...

Logic Studio (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Try these Music Technology exercises to test your creativity or give them to your music technology students. I originally developed these projects as part of my Music Technology class at Murray State University. They helped developed both skills and creativity in the classroom. These are each worded exactly as given to the students. Feel free to borrow and improve on these assignments in your studio. MIDI EXERCISE Using a variety of musical and nonmusical sound samples and MIDI instruments, create two 2-5 minute compositions demonstrating: 1) Musicality  2) Originality 3) Variation 4) Use of 8 separate MIDI tracks (minimum) each song 5) Concept 6) Professional/Concert Quality 7) Use of at least 1 audio files (of any length) each song The two compositions must be of entirely different styles and should be concert quality material. Finished composition must be burned to a CD using a high-quality audio file and u...

Now for some music basics. Treble clef For higher pitched instruments Bass Clef Lower pitched instruments Class Rhythm Exercise: Divide up into groups of four. Each group needs to come up with a two minute musical work to perform in class. You may use standard music notation or a hybrid graphic notation and music notation style. You will have 20-30 minutes to write and practice your piece before you perform it in class. You can use any instrument, sound, or voice at your disposal. Perform the piece in front of the class. Turn in the music at the end of your performance with each group member's name on the paper to receive credit (worth 30 points). CHORDS (In Class Piano Demonstration) Major Chords Minor Chords Seventh Chords Major Seventh Chords Whole Tone Scale Minor Second Related articles How to Tune Your Guitar with Your iPhone (iphone.appstorm.net) The perfect movie soundtrack: Hans Zimmer - Inception (netnewmusic.net)

Composing for Tape/Multimedia and Live Musicians Composing for tape, media, and live performers is closely related to composing film music. Just like a live orchestra must have a score perfectly synced to what is happening in the film, a score for multimedia and live performers has to be perfectly timed and in sync for the performance to succeed. This usually means: 1) Including Time Code in the score 2) Including audio and/or visual cues in the score 3) Many hours syncing up measures and notes with time code 4) For rehearsal (and possibly concert purposes), a practice CD or DVD with a click track for each performer and the conductor 5) Neat, legible, and professional quality music scores 6) As much communication as possible between composer and the ensemble during the creative process 7) It is up to the composer, not the ensemble, to make the entire composition understandable and performable by providing clear instructions, legible scores, and playable music. A note here: There ...

Having just completed two major works for percussion and multimedia, I decided to take this extra time to begin working on an opera for multimedia. Being an avid bibliophile, and thus an avid Internet-file, I have compiled a list of articles that can help a composer begin the journey of creating an opera of the third millennium. (Okay, and a few not so helpful, but definitely interesting, looks at this great classical tradition.) Below are some tips on writing musicals and operas.  Tips Writing a new opera by Robert Hugill Writing an Opera a Composer's Challenge Composition Tips from Pete Thomas Something Out of Nothing: 21 Songwriting Tips by Ken Hill How to Write an Opera How to Write a Musical by John Kenrick A word in your ear (but not too many) Online database of libretti (public domain) Karadar Classical Musical Online Library of Libretti Description of Libretto Design and Implementation of a Multimedia Opera 6 Things every producer should know when working with a composer Yo...

Like many contemporary composers, I am fascinated with the correlation between music and the visual arts. The cross-pollination of the arts has given birth to many great compositions and visual works. Dr. Kristine H. Burns (see link in Artist Links) at Florida International University has mastered an animation style utilizing Final Cut Pro's Video Generator features. She used it for her amazing video piece, Copper Islands. Final Cut Pro has a variety of Video Generators available. You can create a simple color matte, text, shapes, bars, noise, etc. For electroacoustic composers, think of these as the basic sine, triangle, and square waves (and noise, of course) that a composer manipulates electronically through sound synthesis. These are building blocks. You need to be familiar with the KEY FRAME feature available in Final Cut Pro. By setting KEY FRAMES you can alter an effect over time. Start with something basic, say a basic Color Matte with a Mask Shape (ex. a circle) over it. N...

CHAPTER 3 WHAT IS MULTIMEDIA? The exponential outgrowth of technological innovation has left digital multimedia without a cohesive sense of definition. Lacking specific criteria for categorization, multimedia indiscriminately encompasses the visual arts, theater, virtual environments, music, and, according to John Cage, "...all sounds, sights, and other sensory experiences that occur in and around a performance situation..." New media has transformed the notion of art through the lenses of postmodern plurality. Clicking a mouse may make a computer user the active conductor of a sound synthesis ensemble, or a dancer can choreograph a duet in real-time with her own shadow. A computer can generate algorithmic music by analyzing the color of an accompanying video, and a digital gallery disguises itself as a CD-ROM cookbook. Contemporary digital forms, though marginalized by "classical" composers, are the "rational extensions of ballet and opera" and satis...

"History is the story of an angel being blown backwards into the future." - Laurie Anderson Intermedia - the copulation of the art forms. Movement accompanies sound and the visual in an overstimulation of the senses. Once orchestrated with analogue tape, static images, and inexplicable actions, current intermedia art encompasses logorhythmic music, digital video, and virtual reality. As Dick Higgins described in his landmark, "Statement of Intermedia," in 1966, intermedia exists "between the media" (1) . Though often considered a visual art medium, the role of music and sound proves to be essential components of many artworks. Technology has accelerated creative expression as ideas, once existing only the in the mind, can exist in a tangible form. Music has embraced the digital world. Out of circuitry and imaginiation the next musical age evolves. No survey of contemporary culture can begin without a comprehensive look at the history that gave birth ...