Zappa.com

I'd like to hear from people who either:
( A. ) Compose Music or create their own non-mainstream songs
( B. ) Create other audio - for example, humor, say like an '00's version of Firesign theater, or Python, etc. or does Ken Nordine "word jazz" stuff, or "serious" material like Randy Hostetler
( C. ) Write poetry or screenplays or whatever, that could be worked in to things like the above, or that could be used a la "What's Up Tiger Lily" ? with old "educational" films or material that has fallen out of copyright etc.
( D. ) People who enjoy old "lounge" or "retro" and so-called "cult" music/films that would LIKE to get started with stuff like this, but haven't got a "portfolio" of existing material ( stop laughing - this is for the uber-modest but talented types ) put together, except in their head.

You can either post in the thread or send me a PM. The question is not academic - maybe we can collaborate . I am Category D, by the way, only more procrastinator than reserved or shy.

Hello - I'm composing music, every day, and get more and more interested in the zappaesque complexity. In my view it's a coloumbi egg, with a lot of untried solutions... could be a complete new branch in the history of music.
Yours,
Jon Larsen

Seems like there are a lot of threads on here of musicians espousing what they can do, or music they've created.

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You gotta give the people something good to read, on a Sunday

I'm not surprised that there are more than just a few musicians here that are FZ devotees.

What would be more surprising to know is how many filmmakers or editors there are on the forum. I think what Zappa did with his concert footage (especially the blend of his work with Bruce Bickford's visual orgasms) is a testament to what he could do behind a camera and in an editing room(not to mention the sound design that's as memorable as it is idiosyncratic), and I wouldn't be shocked if there were a few people here that pursued the cinematic arts because of their connection to Frank's work.

Anyone?

Oh yeah, I play a few instruments and write a good bit, but it's of little consequence to anyone. Just fun to do.

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NJP

Hey there guys, I'm trying to be a composer of sorts , but as i'm sure many of you have encounted ,it's rather hard to get people to look at your work , let alone even play it.

Been composing of sorts since I was thirteen. I also write a lot of things, from fairy-tales and comics to screenplays. And I love cult-films, currently I'm indulging in Rocky Horror, which I've been watching every day for the past two months. I'll catch up to Sal Piro in three years!

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Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

Is there any compositional software on the market worth checking out?

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The power of the state does not come from the people, but rather through the people.

If by that you mean: "tools to make sheet music and MIDI files", yes!

I used NoteWorthy Composer a lot before the PC broke down last year. It may be slightly limited in use concerning tuplets (only triplets can work), but the controls are easy.

Finale is the one used at our college, and I understood Steve Vai uses it. It has many, MANY possibilities, but the controls are much harder to master.

I also own a MusicMaker home studio, but I haven't checked that out yet.

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Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

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The power of the state does not come from the people, but rather through the people.

I use A program called sibelius 5 and it goes alright , and it can handle preety complex tuplets.

I am a composer. I use Cubase SX. It's a very powerful MIDI Sequencer, Score Editor and Audio Editor combined. I program a simple MIDI drum track first using the Drum Editor to get the timing right then record acoustic and electric guitars and vocals and then produce those using the built in audio editing tools then add some more MIDI tracks to jazz up the percussion, plus say vibes, harp, bass and so on using the Score Editor. I'm currently working on building up a collection of audio samples recorded from just about anything that occurs to me and I've got some ideas for using those in some of the projects I'm working on.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

You all might want to check Crudblud's work. I am genuinely impressed by his composers/performers skills...

http://www.zappa.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=348985

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The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true Art and Science. - Albert Einstein

I use a very simple program called Tracktion. A virtual mini studio that functions with any plugin device (drums samples, keybord samples, real sound samples, effects devices, and so on, and so on). I have a Stealth Plug Guitar ASIO external sound device (which included the Tracktion sofware). Armed with my guitars and a cheap midi keyboard I can compose whatever I want. If I just had the time.........

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"Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself" - FZ
http://www.myspace.com/kirnehness

It it were possible I'd like everything I've written in the last 30 years and see if I could squeeze a five-minute long song that was something that even sounded like something.

--Bat

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<------PhotoArtWerk by debutante_daisy http://www.facebook.com/BatchainTheMovie

i've srewed with Finale and have made some lumpy gravy
type sound collages.

I write, but it sounds nothing like Zappa now. It sure did 14-6 years ago. Now it's all microtonal and droney.

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Horaţiu Rădulescu (January 7, 1942–September 25, 2008)

I try, but I'm still learning.

Hello

I can't call myself a composer but i'm making experimental/psychedelic music, and it's free

http://rod.cat.free.fr/audio.htm

It's not so new but i'm working on a second one.
Maybe some of you may like it.

I used to make music, and a lot of it was very Zappaesque along CivIII lines (my teachers were all Fluxus and they're all famous), but:

1. No one cared.

2. I got asked to "jam" one too many times.

3. The Bush family came in and stole all the money so I had to sell every bit of my equipment to eat.

4. I got offended by all the numbskulls with guitars busking in the town I live. Apparently they think that all you have to do is strum and yell and you're making music. They'll never understand that they Just Don't Have Any Talent.

5. The market shifted from selling little plastic waffles to selling keys to transfer 0's and 1's.

6. The keyboard market in the town I live in shrinked to nil for all of the goddamn guitars and I would have to travel for four hours to get anything repaired.

7. I find most musicians to approach music in some sort of magical mystical fantasy way, and I approach it like architecture, like Frank.

8. I got tired of telling egomaniacal singers to go fuck themselves.

9. I got tired of asking guitarists whether they could read and watching their minds melt at my unmitigated audacity. Also in this category, I would ask them if they could read and anything other than an immediate, confident "yes" got a "No."

10. I got tired of telling drummers that there are indeed such things as piano, pianissimo, mezzo-piano, and mezzo-forte. You're not supposed to tense up and pound the damn things to pieces. You're supposed to relax and *play* the things.

11. I realised that everyone was used to compressed garbage on the radio that had absolutely no dynamics whatsoever, and had never considered that music could actually have dynamics.

12. Everyone wanted to play like someone else.

13. I couldn't find anyone who could count to anything other than four.

14. I wasn't in it for the pot or the booze and distrusted anyone on them.

15. For some reason musicians get offended if you take the Miles route and play three notes for your solo. I can say more with a single cluster smash on the low end of the keyboard than most musicians can come up with in 100 solos.

16. I really hate the sound of stock licks. Especially the Eagles stock lick. "We'll find out ..."

17. People didn't believe me when I said that any band I was in I was going to commandeer for the sake of quickness and when I did they resented me.

18. I got tired of seeing people's faces go all colours when I asked them who their booking agent was.

19. I absolutely fucking loathe all country music and all americana type crap and that's all anyone wanted to play. Either that or California Cocaine Rogaine Singer/Songwriter bullshit. They'd flip when I'd play a whole show of that stuff with them and then they'd find out that I'd never heard any of the songs I'd played -- and I'd followed the whole show using my perfect pitch and my classical knowledge to tell which crap stock lick they were going to play next.

20. Guitarists can't comprehend the changes to Pat Metheny's song "Lakes", especially the killer solo progression.

21. Horn players kept getting thrown in jail.

22. I couldn't find any drummer capable of getting anything out of a five piece kit. It had to be Neil Peart territory.

23. My midi demos of my tunes sounded better than the band.

24. I really got sick of explaining to musicians that there is such a thing as a rest and they don't have to play every single microsecond of every single song. Apparently I "wasn't a team player" if I decided that a song might have more drama if I didn't play anything until the third chorus and outro or the return of the head.

So I said fuck it. No one gets to hear any of it anymore. Occasionally I'll make a song for myself if that damn radio in my head won't shut up with a new tune but I don't call myself a musician anymore.

Sounds like they won.

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The power of the state does not come from the people, but rather through the people.

Got tired of being in bands so I went the multi-trac route and now write and record my own songs with only myself to argue with.....and that alone can get a bit heated.

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