music
I am at heart a musician. I love sound. I suppose I've always been making music, starting with just silly songs as a kid and rhythms on my body, my body was my first instrument. Throughout schooling starting in middle school until college, I studied the Trombone. I was in all the school related music functions: symphonic band, marching band, jazz band, even a jazz combo. I quickly became lead trombone and played in a private brass ensemble led by my private teacher.
I am self taught on every other instrument I play which is ever expanding -- guitar, baritone uke, (anything with strings probably), harmonica, whistles, percussion, electronics, and piano perhaps becoming my favorite. By self taught, I perhaps mean self practiced -- all I ever did was listen and play, rarely learning actual songs or formal technique, just developing my own. I enjoy improvisation the most -- playing from the heart.
More recently I have been working with my friends the computers to make sound and have built a few untraditional instruments.
some electronic works
The following are pieces I made as projects for an electronic music class at UCSB (MUS 109L series).
wind - mind the wallconvulure - a study in convolution based techniques
granulure - a study in granulation based techniques
let's walk - environmental shifts
laughing uke
dream on you
Sound sources for 'wind' include natural sounds, chairs on linoleum, soda fountain pump, and synthesis from Windidi pd patch for wiimote. Sound source for both 'convulure' and 'granulure' is a blade of grass.
other compositions
I've written a number of incomplete songs, and some finished pieces for piano and small ensembles. My brothers (I have two) are also musicians. We have played a lot together and have done various gigs, where we'd choose random instruments right before and improvise the whole thing. I've played with my brother Brian for some dance classes, and also for my mom's dance improvisation class at Cal State Fullerton, sometimes moving between dance and music.
Music I composed for a dance piece in the student run 'Why Art?' project at UCSB. I also performed as a dancer and musician in the project. The dance piece was a mixture of movement and painting, centered on a canvas on the floor.
Here is the score to a piece I composed for trombone, flute, and bass. Unfortunately I do not have a recording of this piece so you will just have to imagine for now. Water Lily score
You can listen to other random works and improvisations in the bouncing ball music player I created at the top. The volume of the player is mapped to the total energy of the ball.
