Music

Playing Music

I've been playing piano since 1990. I took lessons from Bonnie Knight until I graduated from high school, and also during the summers when I'm back home in San Francisco. My favorite composers are Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven. I haven't been able to play as much the past few years since I've been living away from home (and couldn't bring my piano with me ;-)). I've been playing guitar since around 1999 or 2000. I took lessons from Professor Sludge (who is totally awesome) for a few years. I've also played trumpet and french horn, though not in a long time.

Composing

Here are a few songs I've written over the years. They are MIDIs, so the instruments won't sound very good, but you can still hear the songs.

Ann
Dirge
The Love
untitled 1
untitled 2
untitled 3
untitled 4
untitled 5
Why Did It Have To End?
Your Maker - Used in VektorSchlacht
Battle - Also from VektorSchlacht
Contemplation - This song has four lines, all of which repeat the same sequence of notes in different rhythms and tempos.
Opening of Sonata Presto - This was an attempt to write something similar to the 3rd Movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I just wrote these few opening bars to experiment with it.

Here are a few songs that I wrote for an assignment for an intro music theory class in 2004. The assignment was to write a short piano piece in a mode (Dorian, Phrygian, etc.). We had to learn to play our piece by the end of the quarter for our keyboard final. I ended up writing about a dozen pieces, then choosing one to hand in.

#2 - I liked this one, but didn't think I could learn to play it in time for the final.
On the Eve of War - This is the one I ended up choosing (which is why it got a title).
#8 - This is adapted from one of my songs for VektorSchlacht. I couldn't use this one because it had a modulation away from the mode it was in (which we weren't supposed to do).
Sonata (1st Movement) - This was what I really wanted to do for the assignment, but I ran into several problems. (1-I didn't finish writing it in time, 2-It's too challenging to learn in 2 weeks, 3-It's a lot longer than what the teacher wanted).

Here are some songs written by computer programs I wrote:

From Street Spirit (mp3) - This was produced by a program I wrote to generate music based on other music. I specified the length, instruments to use, and input song in midi format (Street Spirit by Radiohead). The program analyzes the input song and generates probabilities for an n order markov chain of note sequences. The program does not analyze the rhythm of the input, so the output rhythm is fairly boring.
From an image - I'm not sure if I'd really call this music, but it might be interesting. The program that generated this takes an image as input and bases its notes on the RGB values of each pixel. It then scales the picture to 50% size and generates another bit of "music". The scaling process is repeated until it gets down to just one pixel. The final step is to assemble the song by starting with the 1 pixel bit, then playing through each size up to the original full size, then back through them ending with the 1 pixel notes. This clip was based on an image of David Cope (shown on the right), who teaches the Artificial Intelligence and Music course at UCSC.

Listening

I spend more time listening to music than playing or writing it. Here are a few of the modern artists I enjoy (in no particular order).

R.E.M.
Radiohead
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Black Heart Procession
Modest Mouse
Bob Dylan
Tori Amos
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
Tangerine Dream
...and so many more!


	Music Playing Music I've been playing piano since 1990. I took lessons from Bonnie Knight until I graduated from high school, and also during the summers when I'm back home in San Francisco. My favorite composers are Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven. I haven't been able to play as much the past few years since I've been living away from home (and couldn't bring my piano with me ;-)). I've been playing guitar since around 1999 or 2000. I took lessons from Professor Sludge (who is totally awesome) for a few years. I've also played trumpet and french horn, though not in a long time. Composing Here are a few songs I've written over the years. They are MIDIs, so the instruments won't sound very good, but you can still hear the songs. Ann Dirge The Love untitled 1 untitled 2 untitled 3 untitled 4 untitled 5 Why Did It Have To End? Your Maker - Used in VektorSchlacht Battle - Also from VektorSchlacht Contemplation - This song has four lines, all of which repeat the same sequence of notes in different rhythms and tempos. Opening of Sonata Presto - This was an attempt to write something similar to the 3rd Movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I just wrote these few opening bars to experiment with it. Here are a few songs that I wrote for an assignment for an intro music theory class in 2004. The assignment was to write a short piano piece in a mode (Dorian, Phrygian, etc.). We had to learn to play our piece by the end of the quarter for our keyboard final. I ended up writing about a dozen pieces, then choosing one to hand in. #2 - I liked this one, but didn't think I could learn to play it in time for the final. On the Eve of War - This is the one I ended up choosing (which is why it got a title). #8 - This is adapted from one of my songs for VektorSchlacht. I couldn't use this one because it had a modulation away from the mode it was in (which we weren't supposed to do). Sonata (1st Movement) - This was what I really wanted to do for the assignment, but I ran into several problems. (1-I didn't finish writing it in time, 2-It's too challenging to learn in 2 weeks, 3-It's a lot longer than what the teacher wanted). Here are some songs written by computer programs I wrote: From Street Spirit (mp3) - This was produced by a program I wrote to generate music based on other music. I specified the length, instruments to use, and input song in midi format (Street Spirit by Radiohead). The program analyzes the input song and generates probabilities for an n order markov chain of note sequences. The program does not analyze the rhythm of the input, so the output rhythm is fairly boring. From an image - I'm not sure if I'd really call this music, but it might be interesting. The program that generated this takes an image as input and bases its notes on the RGB values of each pixel. It then scales the picture to 50% size and generates another bit of "music". The scaling process is repeated until it gets down to just one pixel. The final step is to assemble the song by starting with the 1 pixel bit, then playing through each size up to the original full size, then back through them ending with the 1 pixel notes. This clip was based on an image of David Cope (shown on the right), who teaches the Artificial Intelligence and Music course at UCSC. Listening I spend more time listening to music than playing or writing it. Here are a few of the modern artists I enjoy (in no particular order). R.E.M. Radiohead Godspeed You! Black Emperor Black Heart Procession Modest Mouse Bob Dylan Tori Amos Pink Floyd Led Zeppelin Tangerine Dream ...and so many more!
	Copyright © 2006 Devin Kelly-Sneed