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After a great holiday and January break, we’re up and at ’em here in the Music Composition for the Screen MFA program. We started off our second week with a fabulous recording session. Read more about it below!

Program Director David McHugh gave us the assignment to write a piece (not for film) over the break. We were to write for the instrumentalists that we already had within the program. Just about all of us can play multiple instruments with some proficiency, so it was fun to think of different combinations that could be possible. Flute, Violin, Guitar, Percussion, Mandolin, and Bouzouki were just a few of the possibilities.

Of course, we all play piano, and I thought it would be fun to fit as many people as possible around our grand piano for my piece. So, we got 9 of us around the piano—some people banging on the sides or the lid, others with guitar picks in the strings, and the majority of us playing on the keys. Here’s a picture of us:

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(There really are 9 of us around the piano. You may have to search to see Brittany.)

It was a lot of fun to make recordings with these guys. We normally just listen to each others’ compositions, but it was a great experience to actually perform with them. As you would expect, Rich was at the computer running the Pro Tools sessions and making sure levels, tempos, and headphones were all set.

I think my favorite piece was Jordan Lewis’s. He wrote an awesome samba that I got to play percussion on. Tracie was on cello, Batu and Brittany on piano, and Jordan on mandolin. It’s a really nice tune, and I look forward to hearing the final product.

Rich will be helping us with our mixes in our private lessons, and then the pieces will be available for sharing. We learned some great things, and this type of class was a perfect way to kick off the semester!