Travis Conrad

So I started working on my elegy composition and I’ve been exploring a lot of different avenues. It has to be well composed, fluent throughout and above all, beautiful. While experimenting on the piano I stumbled upon a melody containing only five different notes, and it was just the ticket. Just the sound I’d been looking for. And it occurred to me, why not make the entire opening using a pentatonic scale?
And so I did.

This is the opening ten bars, it really sets the mood for the whole composition. And I have to say it, I really love the harp as an instrument. It’s perfect in so many ways. I could listen to harp music all day, and I’m sure one day I’ll make a playlist full of it and do just that. So yea, this is the pentatonic harp opening. So lush, I’m very happy with it.

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Off to see the Last 5 Years at the Grand tonight. Word on the street is it’s pretty good. I’m fond of Jason Robert Brown’s work for the most part. What I’ve seen of 13 I wasn’t too crazy about but I never really gave it an honest chance. But the Last 5 Years…. so good.

-Travis Conrad

P.S. Tip of the day: Don’t put zuccini… zuccini? zuchini? zucchini? zucchini….. don’t put it in soup. Adds little taste and ends up looking like pickles. #gag

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been a terribly blogger, but I’ve joined a self-help group about it and am working to improve a wide array of blog-related skills. Started working on a requiem type piece, starring flute and cello. I have the instrument ideas mapped out on paper, but the melody is still a mystery to me. I have a strong feeling about it.

Then there’s the musical. Remember? That thing I’ve been working on for the past two years. Oh yea, THAT musical. Dysfunction, I think that was the name of it. Guess what. DEMOS. That’s right. One song has already been recorded. It’s the almost-love song, with Cam and Charlotte, sung by my amazing friends Daniel Wheeler and Steph Savage. I’ll have that posted in a little bit. Turned out legendary. You’ll probably cry when you hear it… just saying. NBD.

So 2010 has started with wide-open floodgates. So much has gone down and it’s barely been three weeks. Stay tuned children, stay tuned.

-Travis Conrad

Here’s the score I composed for my friend’s short film. The film is called Erin, and it’s a lovely little 5 minute masterpiece.
We wanted to keep the music simple, so I stuck with piano and strings for the majority. ‘Melancholy made Beautiful’ was the theme to reflect the film. Check it out, let me know what you think.

The Beautiful Mean – Opening

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Motif for a Letter I – Charlie receives the first letter from Erin.

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Motif for a Letter II – Charlie and Erin’s correspondence / Erin stands him up.

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Motif for a Letter III – Conclusion

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-Travis Conrad

WORK.
SWEET POTATOES.
SUPERSTORE.
VEGETARIANISM.
DUNGEONS.
DRAGONS.
DYSFUNCTION.
SHEET MUSIC.
SINGERS.
CANCELLATIONS.
COUSCOUS.
TIEFLINGS.
FAMILY.
WINE.
MORE WINE.
HIMYM.
COOKING.
TWITTER.
ROSEMARY.
PURPLE COUCHES.
CHORDS.
FINALES.
NPH.
CLAY.
PHOTOS OF BOGS.
PROCRASTINATION.
HARMONIES.
NO MONIES.
GOOGLE CHROME.
CHICK PEAS.
PIANO.
SLEEP.
VAGUE REVIEW OF A MONTH OR SAD ATTEMPT TO JUSTIFY DOING NOTHING ALL SEPTEMBER.
QUESTION MARK.

-TRAVIS CONRAD.

So lots of exciting stuff has been happening. Between my job going awesomely, the excitement of designing the set for Western’s Big Purple Couch, having my friend’s string quartet learn my rendition of O Canada, running a D&D campaign with some friends and finally recruiting some singers to help me make some demos for Dysfunction, I’ve had next to zero down-time.

Unfortunately, the aformentioned events offer nothing to share on my blog (yet!!), but give it a month and I’ll have real updates about stuff! Big stuff! Cool stuff! Stuff that will make not hate my blog so much! Haha, so as a peace offering, I’m giving you a sneak listen of this version of my Festival Waltz that I’ve been working on. I wanted to give it a latin/blues feel, so it’s got some sax, marimba, pizzicato, bass, lil bit of steel drum. It’s different. Darcy (@darcypatrick on twitter) is trying to convince me to arrange it for string quartet, but we’ll see.

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Hope everyone’s summers are going as great as mine.

-Travis Conrad

Yesterday I was trying to convert some new songs I have been working on from .midi form (which I do my notations in) into .mp3 files, but the site I normally use (HamieNET) was down.

I was not impressed.

And as is usually the case in these situations I promptly looked for alternative free routes.

And that lead me to the Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter. It may not be free but it’s got a great 30 day trial which I’m VERY pleased with. It comes with it’s own soundfont and makes adding new soundfonts incredibly simple. The sound is crisp and clear which is a huge step forward; HamieNET’s conversions (as I’m sure you heard) tended to get scratchy. Not these. And it lets you control the reverb and adjust individual track volumes as you’re about to convert your files which is just fugging awesome. Needless to say I’m very impressed. It may not be garageband but it’s the best I have to work with right now and it’s a hell of a lot better than what I was using.

So in light of the new renderings at my disposal, I thought I’d share some of my older, pre-Dysfunction stuff here on the ol’ blog. It’s all classical/instrumental shit stuff, so I hope you like it, let me know what you think.

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This one’s aptly named ‘Orchestration 4′. Really got the creative juices flowing on that title. This was the first time I ever really toyed around with percussion instruments, as well as weaving motifs throughout a song. SO MUCH fun to write. It’s for strings, harp, glocksenspiel and numerous percussions, along with the occasional orchestra hit.

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This second one is called ‘To London’. It’s a piece I was writing in dedication to my city (here in Ontario, not the one cross the pond). It’s got a bit of a jazzy feel, I was aiming for something kinda urban although I think I failed at that. I worked on it for a couple days then got bored so it’s not even close to being finished. It’s for full orchestra.

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This final one here was a string quartet piece I was working on called ‘Orsus’, being Latin for ‘a beginning, undertaking, or initiative’. I thought of it as one of the first more serious pieces I worked on, and so ‘a beginning’ referred to the beginning of the wonderful things I would write (roflmao, talk about delusions). It’s very slow and not even CLOSE to being done, but this new rendering sounded amazing compared to the old version so I might just be inspired enough to work on it again.

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On a side note, I rearranged my room last night!!!111!!1!1!! I know you’re as excited as I am. There’s something about newly rearranged rooms that inflicts me with such joy. It’s a sickness really… and it runs in my family. My mom didn’t work on Fridays when I was younger and so more often then not, we’d come home from school and the living room would be turned around or the computer would be in the basement or somehow the couch found it’s way onto the back patio. -sigh- Goooooooooodtimes.

-Travis Conrad

MUSIC UPDATED: July 20th, ‘09

So I’m working ever diligently on the Dysfunction Septet and I’m extremely satisfied with how it’s coming along. Looking back at my past work I concluded that I do better work when I write for multiple instruments rather than just piano, so with that in mind I’m writing the Dysfunction Septet for piano and violin so far, possibly adding more as I feel the need. I’m thinking I might throw in a double bass or cello, but we’ll see. We shall see.

In general though, this song is so much fun to write. Tonnes of emotion upwelling with every line, characters are pissed, nerves are raw, it’s awesome. The song was inspired by the Tonight Quintet in Westside Story (the name is a major nod to it). The way that the Quintet elevated tension and brought all the different plot lines up to speed in WSS worked so well that I thought a similar format would be perfect for the scene in Dysfunction. The Septet is going to contain a handful of melodies that weave in and out of depending on the characters on stage, but all of them sing the Septet melody at some point. It’s going to be legendary.

The song opens with Cam, Peter and Ryan at their office, with Cam debating what to do about Charlotte, and he’s singing a very flat and monotone version of the Voicemail refrain. The ending of that grows dramatically and then Pete and Ryan get on his case about being stupid for giving up. It’s here that we hear the Septet melody for the first time. The melody is sung over this awesome chord (which you’ll hear in the clip below) composed of D#, E and G#. It’s an inverted major 7th chord without the fifth. Very jarring and dissonant. After that (which is where the clip ends) the scene switches to a brief solo with Cam, then over to Kim, Natalie and Justin for a brief spell, followed by an intense duet with Kim and Cam, that quickly grows more complicated and dysfunctional. And then, well, then we have the 7th person in our Septet. And it’s fracking awesome.

Just the music for the first little bit. Let me know what you think.

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Off to Mom’s to introduce her to the amazing show that is Brothers and Sisters.

-Travis Conrad

a world so dark one marks at how it lasts
and how peace did survive it’s savage pasts
with greed so deeply planted in her fields
it’s all the wonder fruit is what she yields

-Travis Conrad

So, it’s about that time again…

That’s right, I have another new workout routine. Let’s see how long this one lasts. The previous one survived, what, three months? Probably less. ANYWAY!

Here’s the skinny. Follow along closely children.
1. I set three alarms on my phone. Each alarm should be a good 4-6 hours apart depending on your daily routine. I chose 9:30 AM, 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM.

2. When each alarm goes off, my phone says “20 push-ups”. And so (obviously) I do 20 push-ups. I can adjust the alarm to tell me to do less or more depending on how it goes.

3. The alarms go off every-day. Naturally there will be times when I can’t do it (like if I’m working) but for the most part if my phone tells me to do something I do it.

4. Depending on how the muscle groups react, I might switch one of the alarms to tell me to do something else (like bicycle crunches).

I think this idea is brilliant (naturally) for a couple of reasons. First off, it’s low impact but not LOW impact. There’s constant use everyday so it’s more of a gradual break-down rather than a huge wearing out at the gym. I chose push-ups because they work a wide variety of muscles (pecs, bi-ceps, tri-ceps, abs). Secondly, it can be easily adjusted if it ends up being too strenuous or not strenuous enough. And thirdly it’s all automated. I don’t have to worry about forgetting or slacking.

So, wish me luck! We’ll see how this goes. I’ll keep you posted if it ends up working.

In other news, I’ve been tweaking my rendition of O Canada for string quartet over the past couple days and accordingly updating the mp3 file in the previous post every time. I added a short 4 bar intro which I feel really adds a lot. Also, my good double-bass playing friend Dan Wheeler who’s in music at Western gave me some constructive criticism on the piece which made sense to me, so accordingly I broke up the constant motion of 8th notes by throwing in some 16th notes which help keep it exciting and less droning. I really appreciate good criticism, as long as it is constructive and not just someone trying to be a douche. If you don’t like something, say why. And if it’s just because you don’t like the style, then say that, but even if you don’t like it, you can still comment on the quality and form. That’s why I’m so lucky I have the friends I do, cause they get that.

I finished A Voicemail, Charlotte’s big solo number after her second run in with Kim. I’m about 97% satisfied with it. 1% is for the intro which needs more work and the 2% is for part of the verse music which I want to fiddle around with just a little bit. I really hope one of my leads on a female singer comes through soon to help me record it, so if you know anyone in London that might be interested, tell them to give me a shout.

-Travis Conrad

Happy birthday Canada!

In honour of Canada’s 142nd birthday, I arranged O Canada for string quartet. I like to think of it as a birthday present to our great country. The idea came to me out of the blue on my way home from work and it was more or less fully formed upon arrival. Over the last couple days I’ve been getting it all down before it gets forgotten, or worse, tarnished in memory. My good friend Darcy Blinch and his string quartet will hopefully help me make a recording of this for me to share, in the mean time you’ll have to settle for the computer generated version. If anyone is interested in the sheet music just send me a heads up at travis at travisconrad dot com.

Enjoy your Canada Day everyone (and hopefully my arrangement :D ).

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-Travis Conrad

PS Guess who got Twitter! Some bastard took TravisConrad so I had to settle for TravisOfConrad. It’s the best name that was still available, trust me.