Category: Music

Music

Music as Writing Inspiration

Aubrey Leaman

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I was honored to be featured as a guest blogger on author Shannon A. Thompson’s blog! Here is a snippet of my post:

Ah, yes, that terrifying word: inspiration.  How do we find it? And if we find it, how do we turn it into something worthwhile?

For those of you like me who bump (or crash) into writer’s block, perhaps the muse may speak to you through music.  Here are some specific ways to help get those creative juices flowing:

1) Pop/Rock: Listen to your favorite song, shuffle a playlist, or find new music…there is always a story behind the song.

For example: “Someone Like You” by Adele: who is Adele’s character? Why did she and her lover separate? What prompted her to show up at his door in the first place?

For example: “Mr. Roboto” by Styx: Is the character an actual robot/cyborg? Or is this symbolism for something else? Why does he need to hide, and why is his life in danger?

Read more

What are your favorite ways to find inspiration from music?

Books, Music

A Colorful Symphony

Aubrey Leaman

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“The last colors slowly faded from the western sky, and, as they did, one by one the instruments stopped, until only the bass fiddles, in their somber slow movement, were left to play the night and a single set of silver bells brightened the constellations. The conductor let his arms fall limply at his sides and stood quite still as darkness claimed the forest.” –The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I love how Norton Juster makes music the source of color in his children’s book, “The Phantom Tollbooth.” (For those of you who aren’t familiar with the book, it’s very Alice-in-Wonderland-esque with puns and other wordplay.)

He really hit the nail on the head here: different subtleties of sounds are as beautiful as all the different shades of color! And without music, how colorless would our lives be?

This passage also made me think about synesthesia, the state when a person sees actual, physical colors when they hear music among other things (I knew a band director who had this). It got me thinking: what color would my favorite songs be? Would each song by the same artist have the same basic hue with different nuances, or would there be an entire spectrum in every album? Do all synesthetes see the same colors for the same sounds, or is each person different?

On a related note (ha! Pun not intended), Continue reading “A Colorful Symphony” →

Music

Free and Legal Music Downloads Through Your Library

Aubrey Leaman

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If you thought there was no way to legally download free music, think again! Many public libraries have this amazing resource called Freegal.

Basically if you have a library card you can download 6 songs each and every week—for free! They never expire and every Monday you get 6 more songs. No strings attached, and it’s perfectly legal. Continue reading “Free and Legal Music Downloads Through Your Library” →

Music

Did You Know That Classical Composers Were Superheroes?

Aubrey Leaman

Screen Shot 2015-08-03 at 2.18.27 PMLudwig van Beethoven: Mind control

How else could he have ignited the fierce battle that took place between Brahms and Wagner? They were both so obsessed with pursuing Beethoven’s legacy that they must have been under his power.

But before you go thinking he’s a supervillain like Loki, he also wrote some pretty different music that stretched the boundaries of what was acceptable at that time, and everyone loved it. We still love it today. So he used his powers for good, too (wait…could we still be under his superhuman influence??).

W.A. Mozart: Super speed Continue reading “Did You Know That Classical Composers Were Superheroes?” →

Music

Valley of the Bells

Aubrey Leaman

In classical music, there’s a good chance that you’ll hear the opening music return at the end. It might be: A) literally repeated note for note or B) altered in some way (but let’s keep this second type under the “repetition” umbrella, too, for simplicity’s sake).

TIME OUT for a delicious food analogy:

Opening and closing music = outer donut      Middle music = custard filling

Okay, so why do composers repeat the opening music?

Well for one thing, I think music sounds differently each time it comes back, even if it’s repeated note for note. It’s like when
you go on vacation. You start out at home, go someplace else for a while, and then return home. I don’t know about you, but home always feels different by the time I get back (sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a not so good way if I really enjoyed the vacation).

Continue reading “Valley of the Bells” →

Books, Music

First Things

Aubrey Leaman

What if mermaids wore suspenders?

What if the White Rabbit played an Olympic sport?

What if music could take you on an adventure?

Some things you can expect from this blog:

1)    Mixing and matching book characters and/or settings (EX: What if character from X met character from Y?)

2)    Imagining book characters in new situations

3)    Telling stories to go along with classical music*

And who knows what else.

Let me know if you have any ideas, questions, or anything else you would like discussed on the blog and I’ll do my best to get back to you in a timely way!

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading!

*As a quick note, I don’t pretend that classical music needs an explicit story to be interesting or compelling.  But I do think in many cases hearing stories makes the music easier to understand and enjoy, besides giving it a new and often intriguing interpretation.