Tuesday 29 January 2013

The Girl Downstairs

The Girl Downstairs is somewhat jaunty 3/4 time waltz piano piece I was inspired to compose after hearing a short story.


A while back I came across the great website called LibriVox http://librivox.org/ which provide free downloadable audio-books of various public domain works.  These are read by volunteers who a great job and I thank them all for the time they put into it.  I encourage you to go and take a look at their catalogue   I've been listening to a lot of short stories lately.  They are to go to bed to and suit my short attention span!  One of the stories I participially enjoyed was 'The Man Upstairs' by P. G. Wodehouse which can be listened to here; http://librivox.org/selected-short-stories-by-p-g-wodehouse/
The story concerns a young woman who writes songs on her piano.  She is disrupted by a knocking on the ceiling from the man upstairs who is a struggling painter.  I won't go into what happens in the story, I suggest you listen to it yourself, but when I thought about the woman trying to write a waltz I was inspired to experiment with a 3/4 style on the piano.  The piece is a mix of sharp stabbed chords with gentle piano sections in between.  I felt like these highlighted the mixed feelings the woman in the story experiences throughout.

simonwillis.bandcamp.com

Thursday 24 January 2013

The Lady

This atmospheric piece was inspired by a painting I saw some time ago while in the middle of one of my unscheduled lengthy Wikipedia reading sessions (every article links to another. It's impossible to stop!).


The painting is an 1888 John William Waterhouse piece called 'The Lady of Shalott' depicting the title character from the poem of the of the same name by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.  The painting is very popular and I know it has been an inspiration to many other people.  Living close to London I was lucky enough to be able to see the painting myself at the Tate Britain art gallery recently.

More can be read about the painting and the poem on Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott_(painting)

Something about this image inspired me.  The idea of the lady finally making the difficult decision to leave her isolation and travel down the river, despite her knowledge that doing so she was doomed, seemed so powerful.  I tried to express the idea in music with haunting voice sounds and a fragile bell type sound.  The synthesiser-strings then come in as she realises the foreboding fate that she sails towards.  All the while the soft voices and bell sounds highlight her fragility and delicacy.  The piece ends on a major chord as if to express the beauty of the lady that the knight Lancelot beholds as the men find her body in the boat.

Having said all that I'm pretty sure when I recorded it however many years ago I did it without really thinking that much and have only attributed many of those meanings to it afterwards!  But as with all music I encourage you to form your own meanings and interpretations.  But above all I hope you enjoy it!

Monday 21 January 2013

First Piece

'First Piece' was one of the first things I played on my then brand new Casio Privia PX-310 digital piano back in 2006.

This was another piece that I kind of just played once and had for a long time on my computer under the temporary title 'First Piece'.  Not thinking of anything better to call it I decided kept the title.  I am often unsure of what to call something, but it is just another detail to procrastinate over!

When I first recorded this I had recently got a job after having come back from university and despite still being needing to pay off my student overdrive I decided it was time to have a proper digital piano.   While at university I had played on several pianos in practice rooms including a grand piano.  I didn't study music, but I certainly made use of the piano facilities!  Prior to that I only really played on non-weighted touch sensitive keyboard keys like those of my then current keyboard the Yamaha PSR-540. 

It was at university that I think I learned how to play a real piano.  At first the piano keys seemed so heavy and I think over the course of my playing sessions my fingers probably strengthened somewhat as they adjusted!  There is a certain expression that comes from those hammer action weighted keys on pianos and digital pianos, and when I got my own digital piano I realised how satisfying they were to play.  Having said that, the other type of keys can be very effective when playing others sounds like synthesisers and organs.

Of course I would love to have a real piano some day.  However, cost and space prohibits me from doing so any time soon!  But maybe one day.

simonwillis.bandcamp.com

Friday 18 January 2013

Ethereal

Here is another improvised calming track I composed some time ago.  As with 'Calm Sky' I composed this by experimenting with more rich synthesizer pad sounds and found it to be quite pleasant.  So here it is!



simonwillis.bandcamp.com

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Tokyo Night

I composed this track based off a couple of royalty free sound samples I found on a Computer Music magazine some years ago.  The two chords that repeat throughout the piece and the lady making an announcement over a public address system.  I loved how they painted a picture of a Japanese city busy and dense and yet calming and beautiful.  I played a variety of meandering notes over the top on one another to create an ambient and chilled out feel to the piece.


I created the artwork of the cityscape for this piece pixel by pixel using Windows Paint and then blew it up and applied some filters.

Thursday 10 January 2013

My First Album - Left Behind

Well I didn't know when I would finally manage to have this uploaded but here it is, my first instrumental album 'Left Behind' which is available to download at simonwillis.bandcamp.com  The tracks can be downloaded individually or as part of the entire album.

Below is the last track on the album 'Left Behind (Reprise)' which is a solo piano version of the title track.


I recorded this track to be a bookend, with the main theme both opening and the closing the album.  I have tried to have themes running throughout the album, but feel free to infer whatever meaning you like to the tracks!  I know that music can mean many different things to many different people.  However, I will continue to post the songs on here individually with a few comments as to what inspired me to create them.

The tracks are a mixture of old and newish pieces I have composed over the years.  I'm not sure I'm ever completely happy with what I have recorded, but there comes a time when you should just release what you have and see what happens.  I hope that I will continue to improve in my work.  I may well come back to some of these themes and ideas in the future, but I think it's good to release something and say to yourself that it is done, at least for now, so you can move onto other things.  I already have a concept for my next instrumental album and a few half done tracks which I will be looking at in the near future.  I will also be working on some vocal tracks very soon.  I have a large back catalogue of half finished music, lyrics and all sorts to wade through.  So there is plenty more to come!

Being a massive Lego fan I used two very old Lego mini-figures for the album art.  Additionally I didn't know what else to use.  I think the Lego man at the back has something he needs to say to the girl within his letter.  The Lego Lady figure is from a set called 'Mailman on Motorcycle' from 1984;
As for the Lego man, I'm not entirely sure which set he came with.  However, I now feel compelled to scour the internet to find out which Lego catalogue he might be in!

Monday 7 January 2013

Calm Sky

'Calm Sky' is a piece I composed some time ago.  I was experimenting with this lovely warm synthesiser pad sound on my keyboard when I recorded it.  The track is from an improvised session with the odd note fixed here and there.  I have always felt that it alludes a little to a something classical piece of music Baroque music someone like Bach might have written on a church organ, but with a different texture and sound of course.  Having grown a greater appreciation of classical music throughout the years I hear the similar style of fast chord changes and descending and ascending bass notes.

'Calm Sky' can be listened to and downloaded in the player below and I hope that it makes you think of a nice calming blue sky too!


For a long time this track was known as 'Clam Sky' on my computer due to either my poor typing or possible dyslexia or possibly both.  A sky of clams is not really the image I was going for.  Perhaps I shall save that image for a future piece of music.

Check back soon to hear another track.

simonwillis.bandcamp.com