December 2016 - Composer's Toolbox

Video – When the Feelings Are the Facts

DanLisMusic Posted on December 28, 2016

This piece takes aim at the prevalence of fake news, but more specifically, our desire to let our feelings about an issue become the facts of the issue in our minds. We create an enormous amount of suffering when the feelings we feel become the facts we find truth in. We make our feelings our […]

Video and Analysis – “Lifegiver”

DanLisMusic Posted on December 18, 2016

This is a post about the final project I made in a course focusing on the sound design program Metasynth. The video I made with the sounds, images, and videos I have compiled over the past years is here: To access the source audio files, please see below. Lis11-MicrowaveBeep.wav Lis16-LipSmack1.wav Lis17-LipSmack2.wav Lis22-HardWaterFlowAndCreak.wav Lis24-WaterDraining.wav Lis25-Fan.wav Lis28-MidZipper.wav […]

Engraving Melody Music Notation Software Rhythm Technology Theory Tools for Composers

Proportional Notation (Tool #59)

DanLisMusic Posted on December 9, 2016January 19, 2019

One trap that is easy to fall into as a composer is the rigidity of rhythm, meter, and barlines. While these are good tools to use when constructing a piece, sometimes a true sense of line requires that you write music that is free from strict rhythm, meter, and barlines. This allows your music to […]

Issues Opinion Professional Development Tools for Composers

Tips for Musicians with Day Jobs (Tool #58)

DanLisMusic Posted on December 5, 2016

Many of we musicians have day jobs. For some, it is a temporary, seasonal gig for extra cash. For some of us, it is a part time, or multiple part time, jobs to make ends meet. For some of us, we have full time jobs, both exempt and non-exempt. Some of us love our jobs, […]

Issues Opinion Professional Development Tools for Composers

I’m Actually Taking the Advice I Post Here

DanLisMusic Posted on December 4, 2016

I blog from time to time about life as a composer, musician, and arts administrator, and reiterate many key qualities and skills one should aspire to have. There is one skill that I advise readers to learn, but one that I don’t consistently follow through: stop, breathe, relax. If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted […]

Mental Illness Professional Development Psychology of Music

Mental Illness as a Musician (Part 1 of many?)

DanLisMusic Posted on December 1, 2016October 17, 2018

(This was written on 11/30/16, for posting on 12/1/16.) I would like to write on a rather personal topic tonight. I have a mood disorder, an amalgamation of mental illness that is best described on a spectrum (i.e. there is a spectrum of mood disorders, and I am somewhere on that spectrum, with my own […]