Hey all,

I'm Luke, a senior chemical engineering major and music minor. Despite my current life path leading me towards a scientific career, (mostly resulting from a whimsical "I kind of like and/or am good at sciences. I should pursue it" train of thought) music has always been something that I really enjoy and marvel at. Some people have air guitar, whereas I have "air conducting". Here at Cornell, I sing in the men's Glee Club and in the co-ed a cappella group The Class Notes, of which I am also the newly elected Musical Director. I guess I should give a plug about it here and here... (but seriously, we released some new singles the last few weeks, one of which I arranged)

I started with classical piano lessons early on (pre-5 years old), violin through the school system and a single year of choir during middle school with the Philadelphia Boys Choir (Yes, I was once a soprano I, and if you've ever been to Philadelphia to see the Nutcracker and remember the brief choral interludes in "Waltz of the Snowflakes," I was a part of that...). Unfortunately, because of the horrendously awkward adolescent years of high school which seems to plague all of humanity, my musical interest dropped off a bit. I thought of my singing ability as all but lost until the first few weeks of college when I auditioned for a cappella groups on a whim. Also, with the plethora of piano locations on campus, I do have the option to occasionally sit down at a piano (though "to play", and not "to practice".). Thank goodness my foolish teenage angst did not entirely consume my soul.

Anyway, I come to the class with a strong desire to compose music, through one media or another. So far, my "official" composition experience is rather limited. I have done a few musical arrangements of songs for my a cappella group, which gives a hint of composition. I composed one original composition last semester for an "ice level" for my friend's video game project, which was done while I was sitting in front of a piano with Finale, a music notation software, open. I guess I really enjoy sitting at a piano and just banging out whatever comes to mind (I particularly enjoy the pianos in Sage Chapel during its down time). Unfortunately, none of those impromptu sessions have been recorded.

So, I am anxious to see what I can create through this course and to explore the tools I can use to bring this inspiration to fruition. Do work, everyone.

Hi I'm Will and I'm an economics and history senior.  I play french horn, piano, and guitar: lots of classical music but I listen to a ton of country and jazz.  I'm very excited to take this course; especially to learn about techniques for live improvisation using synths and looping and stuff.  Excited for a great semester!

Hi All,

I come from a no-music kind of environment and discovering music slowly and in very odd places so it seems to be my legacy and I would like to expand on that. 

I was raised in Lisbon, Portugal and had a piano in my house all the time i was growing up. The only problem was that it didn't play. No sound ever came out of that piano. As a child I used to ask why and the answer I got was that "the music had been sold" which was a way of avoiding saying "it is broken, we need to have it fixed". I used to sit in front of it and play and actually could here what I imagined I was playing which formed my consciousness of inner music. I somehow managed to be part of an orchestra in school playing the tambourine.

Recently I visited my mother and noticed the piano still there now as a stand for all kinds of objects.

Hey guys,

My name is Marc and I am a senior History and Film major who is very passionate about creating acoustic and digital music. I am a guitarist (8 years) and mandolin player (2 years) from Los Angeles and love playing blues, American/Spanish folk, reggae and rock n' roll tunes. Recently I have been experimenting with new recording, editing and mixing techniques in programs like ProTools and Abelton Live. Hopefully through this course I will build on these interests and gain expereience creating drum loops and beats in programs like reason so I can have some new precussion tracks to jam over. I am also interested in guitar effects, tube amplifiers (I hope to build one soon!) and pro audio equipment.

Outside of music I love BBQ, surfing, futbol, road trips and art. I worked as a graphic/web designer this summer for a small ad agency in Washington, DC. When completing my internship I primarily used the Adobe CS5 Creative Suite so if anyone is interested in digital audio or visual art don't hesitate to get in touch. Very excited to take this course and to make friends with all of you talented people!

P.S. If any of you play drums let me know, my friend and I were hoping to play a few open mic gigs at The Nines this summer.

-Marc

Hi all, I'm Theo Wolf - A junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. I'm a College Scholar, meaning I get to construct my own major, and the focus of mine is humor. I've grown up loving music from an early age - listening, as well as playing all of the various pots and pans I could find in our house. When I was old enough, I began to play percussion, which I loved. Moving into high school, I was the only percussionist who could actually read music, and ended up transitioning into playing the vibraphone (which I've played in the Cornell jazz combos for the past two years). I am also involved in the Cornell Concert Commission.

I love almost all types of music, and have grown to love more and more as I'm exposed to it. My all time favorite musician is Leonard Cohen, but some of my favorite genres are jazz, rap, and random indie music (I don't want to list all of my favorite artists, as there are simply too many).

The past two years I've done a lot of songwriting (I can't sing, so I rap), and have fiddled around with Logic as a medium for music production. However, I only really know the basics (along with the occasional "ooh, if I hit that button something cool happens!"), and so I'm taking this class as a way of understanding how to properly use computer programs to their full potential.  I'm also not technically in the class yet, but I'm high on the waiting list, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Hello everyone!  I’m Carolyn Rogers, a senior English major with minors in Communications and Music.  I am a member of the Cornell University Chorus, I take voice lessons with Professor Judith Kellock, and I am also the Music Director and CD Producer of a co-ed a cappella group here on campus, the Chordials.  My involvement with the Chordials is the main reason for my interest in this class, as we focus a large portion of our energy on turning out high-quality, award-winning albums.  We have won in every category for Mixed Collegiate a cappella in the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, and we hope to have continued success with our most recent album, Pulse.  If you’re interested, you can check out our music on iTunes (just type in Cornell Chordials), or you can follow this link to our youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/cornellchordials.

Though I have produced a couple a cappella albums now, I have only produced them with artistic direction and opinion, but never with technical expertise.  The actual recording, editing, mixing, and mastering of our albums has almost always been outsourced to professional recording engineers, so I only have a vague, general idea of how these things work.  I’ve spent hours and hours and hours directing recording sessions, but I don’t know how to use recording software!  In this class I hope to obtain a working knowledge of the more technical aspects of musical production, so that I can be more useful in the production of our albums and perhaps even get started recording my own music.  

Hi Everyone,

My name is Nathan Sordillo and I'm a senior in Applied Economics & Management, where I'm completing specializations in finance and entreprenuership.  I decided to take this course for fun with a couple of my roommates, and because I've had an interest in electronic music since I watched a friend of mine teach himself how to use studio software over the past few semesters.

My musical background isn't particularly strong, and I don't play any instruments, but I have a natural affinity for fiddling around with software and electronics and am confident I can pick things up as I go. Between my various friends' upstart country band and fanaticism for dubstep I'm gaining an appreciation for all flavors of music-making.  Also, I took Introduction to Rock Music last semester and really enjoyed myself, and am sure this course will be no different.

I look forward to working with everyone.  Thanks for reading and see you in class.

Hi I'm Liza Sobel.  I'm a senior majoring in economics and music, focusing on composition and voice.  I am excited to take Electronic Music, which I have wanted to take since freshman year, but one conflict or another always prevented me.

Despite being a music major, I don't have much experience with electronic music, and I am somewhat a traitor to my generation because of my ineptitude with technology.  My only experience with electronic music was when I recorded my own compositions on Protools in high school.  As a listener, love electronic and electro-acoustic compositions by composers such as Steve Reich (New York City Counterpoint, Vermont Counterpoint, Piano Phase), Zoe Keating, and even early electronic music by Mario Davidosky (Synchronisms), and Milton Babbitt.

At Cornell I'm President of Contrapunkt!, the undergraduate composition club, which I must now shamelessly advertise.  Contrapunkt! is having our first meeting Tuesday, September 6 from 6 - 7 PM in Lincoln 316.  Contrapunkt! meets every other Tuesday, and we're always looking for new composers, performers, or even people who simply enjoy talking about new music.  Members can enroll in Contrapunkt! for 1 credit.  In addition to our meetings, Contrapunkt! has several concerts throughout the semester.  Contrapunkt! has performed in numerous venues, including the Johnson Museum, Willard Straight Hall, Hans Bethe Dormitory, and even Ho Plaza, just to list a few.  Every semester, Contrapunkt! has its final concert in Barnes Halls.  Our concerts feature a huge variety of music from chabmer orchestra, electric guitar, string quartet, trombone octet, to Indian classical singing.  We encourage electronic music, and our concerts frequently feature electronic compositions.

For more information about Contrapunkt!, feel free to contact me, Liza Sobel at las374@cornell.edu.  Or feel free to come up and talk to me in class.

I'm Steve and I'm a senior majoring in computer science and minoring in music.  I've been singing in various choruses and musicals since elementary school and I played trumpet from 4th grade through high school.  I took piano lessons for a bit in high school and also started playing guitar.  I take guitar lessons for credit here at school and sing and write songs.

I listen mostly to indie/early alternative bands.  A few of my favorites are Radiohead, Pavement, The Beatles, Wilco, Modest Mouse, [early] REM, Pixies, Arctic Monkeys, Frightened Rabbit, My Morning Jacket, and TV On The Radio.

I'm hoping to gain more knowledge about recording and overdubbing as well as some insight into how to create genuine electronic music. I'm specifically interested in using randomized algorithms to both generate songs (with a few lax harmonic guidelines) from samples and modify live instruments (see this solo-- http://youtu.be/53MaNyo-BkI?t=2m42s --created, I believe, with a Max/MSP patch).

Greetings everyone,

My name is Graham Hall.   I’ve worked at Cornell for over 21 years currently as a technical project manager.  I’ve been interested in computers and music since I was in high school in England many years ago.  It’s been amazing seeing how technology has evolved and revolutionized music creation.  When I was 14 my music teacher in high school purchased one of the first commercial synthesizers made by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in Putney London and brought it into our music classes. It was the Synthi A, a VCS 3 in a briefcase. See http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/synthi.php for more info. The VCS 3 was used by Pink Floyd on their album Dark Side of the Moon and by many British bands in the 1970’s.  I was so inspired by the Synthi A that I taught myself electronics so that I could build my own voltage-controlled synthesizer.  Our music class visited the Electronic Music Studio in Putney London in the 1970’s – it was amazing to see so much equipment including a PDP 8 computer and a massive Synthi-100 synthesizer crammed into the lower floor of a house. These YouTube videos are a good depiction of the formative years of electronic music from a British perspective and show the EMS synthesizers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtktHPCoYgw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msK7wL3Vr3s&feature=related

and the last part

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlHtp3Nw9Mo&feature=related

(Robert Moog, a Cornell Engineering Physics PhD student, revolutionized synthesizers  in America inventing and manufacturing Mini Moogs and the formidable Moog Modular in Trumansburg NY just outside of Ithaca.  Check out Keith Emerson explaining the Moog Modular on this You Tube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpgS9prNZT4&feature=related and playing an awesome solo at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxTShKhAm74&feature=related)

In the last few years I’ve played with some software synthesizers but haven’t had the time to really catch up with the latest innovations in computer music.  I’m hoping I can keep my day job at bay and spend some creative time with everyone in the class to catch myself up!