What can I say... Been very naughty and not written a blog post in a while. It's probably more for good reasons than bad as Neetrix is starting to take off and the feedback has been brilliant. Still loads to do, but have a number of small businesses using Neetrix to run their businesses. We're are currently going through the second phase where the interface is having an overhaul now that the core is stable. The recent completion of the Trial Balance report for Neetrix Accounting has been a significant milestone that has proven the accuracy and stability of the system. These new enhancements will provide a far faster administration area, reduce our code-base for quicker implementations of new features, and hugely improve the ease of use of the system. In every respect, its very exciting.

I've also been trying to get the 2nd and 3rd piano pieces down on paper. That's been on the back burner for ages, but has recently had a bit of a burst of progress. I'm looking forward to publishing them up on this site as soon as they are done so I can put them to the side and work on my next stuff with the piano. (my reading speed has taken a small blow because of the focus on writing theory).

One thing I have managed to do recently is sort out a twitter background for my personal twitter account.. It's been long overdue! Check it out http://www.twitter.com/_AdamSaunders.

Well, I'm almost finished the 2nd movement of "unknown" (still don't have a name yet). Its drawing the story into a darker theme than the first, which means the 3rd and final movement needs to bring things right back up and beyond to finish in the right way. The good news is that I've already got some ideas for the 3rd and final piece, and its a lot more complex than the other two.. but it needs to be as I need to subtly encompass their themes into music.

I'm going to start scoring the 2nd movement very soon, and hopefully have some of the first drafts up on here. I just wish I had more time to work on these, I'm finding the entire theory and practice fascinating. I've certainly come to realise just how hard it is to do film scoring at the levels of John Williams, Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, Dan Elfman and David Arnold etc.

 So I finally submitted the score to my piano instructor whom asked if I would play it in the minor. I've not been able to do that before and it came out perhaps not as good as in A-Major, but none-the-less interesting when played in A-Minor. You can listen to it below.

- in A Minor

I finished most of the new tune. Not thought of a name yet, and there is still plenty to do yet. Some parts I'm not totally happy with, but its getting there. It's called Unknown #2 because I haven't thought of a title yet. You can also hear what the first written score would generally sound like at the bottom of this post.

Here is the score:

Unknown #2 - By Adam Saunders

You can listen to it below.  The second one is played at a more intermediate speed. Its very difficult to play this piece at the faster speed. It's technically possible, but would require a lot more practice and experience. I've created the second one to show how it would sound at a more honest tempo, and its also the speed I've actually put on the time signiture of the score.

- Quick tempo

- Intermediate tempo

I've also added what the previous tune "Commencons" sounds like. This is played by a computer so not quite as good as a human playing it. It really needs the flow and variable tempo a human can add to it.

If you have any feeback, think any part you just aren't sure about, be sure to leave a comment. I can't improve without knowing what people think.

I'm currently going through the process of writing my next tune. Been trying different scoring software and ended up using Sibelius which is actually an app used a lot in schools. It takes a lot of practice to start writing music quickly. I'm not totally convinced on the interface. An opensource application called MuseScore has a much easier input method but it was just too buggy unfortunately.

Next thing to get is a MIDI to USB cable so I can make note entry easier. (At least I hope). This week is getting rather anxious for me as I've got to play my first scrored music in public and to someone from the Royal School of Music. So I'm spending all this weekend writing up my second piece and practicing the first one... and biting nails of course..

 For a little while I've been taken piano lessons to learn to read music. I've been composing my own music for a long time, but I've never been able to write it before. It was an interesting challenge set by my teacher to take an intro from a Yann Tierson piece and compose my own based on his influence. I've played a few of his d'Amelie film score tunes and built a liking to his style.

Writing music has taught me a lot of music theory. Here is my first composition!

Commençons - By Adam Saunders

The reason for the name is that as a tribute to the influence of Yann Tierson and this is my first written composition I've called it "Let's Begin" in French, "Commençons".

This isn't too difficult to play except a couple of bars and would probably be classed at only Grade 4 or 5. None-the-less I'm playing this to an instructor at the Royal School or Music next month. Extremely nerve racking.. not only because its my own composition but I've not played in front of strangers before.

I'm not just a computer geek day and night, or at least I try not to be. There are a number of things that I really enjoy doing, and one of these is the piano. Something about playing the piano I really adore, and I think its mainly because its always the best instrument to release tension and help focus the mind.

I started learning the piano at a young age and stopped taking lessons also at an early age. Mixed with geekiness and passion of piano, I purchased a Yahama Clavinova and went back to the piano and just dabbled myself, a couple of years later, I'm actually back to taking lessons again, more over to learn to read music than anything else.

I much prefer playing my own stuff than other peoples, though I do have a lot of respect for many compositions I've had the pleasure of playing. Here are recordings of myself playing a random selection of tunes. Although some of these are "other instruments", they are all actually from the piano, including the guitar in "Summer Life". I don't think all of these are by any means great, but its the pleasure in composing and playing them that's all I'm after.

3rd Planet I found this tune the other day when I was browsing through some old disks. I can't remember when I did it, but sounds like I was just messing about. There is something I liked about it enough to record it to the computer. Its short and sweet.
Pandora's Box This is a reasonable tune I suppose, though I do wonder why I recorded it on a percussion instrument. I did originally record it to use as background music for a DVD menu system for my Nephews christening, so I suppose thats probably why. I really should do the piano version though. It should sound better.
Labyrinth I didn't actually compose this tune and unforunately can't remember who did, but I did play this differently than it was originally written. I thought this was a really good tune, and made an effort to make it more of my own. My teacher uses this recording as a teaching aid now to show that you don't have to play a piece of music exactly as its written on the page.
Her Tune I composed this for an old girlfriend's birthday. I've found it's difficult to write a piece of music for someone that represents them. People are very complex, and music can't be if you want to be able to enjoy listening to it.
Doodle I totally made this up as I went along. This was just when I was testing out the recording gear to the computer, hence the recording isn't very good in places, but I kept it so thought I'd post it up anyway.
Summer Life I made this one up also as I went along. Tricky thing with playing by ear is that different instruments require different styles of music. This is a spanish guitar, which required some more complicated piano playing so that it wasn't obvious it was not a real guitar. I few people have told me they can't believe it's actually a piano. Let me know if you think I'm yanking your chain and its actually a real guitar. ;-)