'Songs' or 'Pieces'

Hi, y’all! Here’s what’s been going on!

Last week was our fall break. So, I had no classes and lots of time on my hands. I decided to use that time to get ahead on my schoolwork. I completed my arrangement of “Only the Lonely” for chamber wind ensemble for my Arranging for the Recording Studio class. The recording of that arrangement is this weekend! I’m super excited about it. Since it was winds, I felt less risk in overpowering the vocals. I focused on adding more textural elements. Especially compared to my last arrangement for this class, there is more material here. And now that I’ve had one recording studio experience, I feel more comfortable going into this session.

Over the weekend, I saw the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra perform Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 live-to-picture. It was my first time seeing a film with the score live. It was amazing! It was eye-opening and brought my attention to parts of the score I never noticed before. I could hear all the tiny details in each cue. Trust me, I was taking lots of notes for my compositional benefit. Thank you, Alexandre Desplat!

I had another cool opportunity this week. Instead of our normal Arranging for the Recording Studio class, we had a songwriting masterclass. Songwriting is a skill I’ve been admiring for so long but never could understand myself. But this class made me feel so much more comfortable. You really can write about the most random topics and make it sound good with simple editing and lyric choices. Before this, I never thought I would explore this territory of music any further. But now, I feel a new sense of inspiration and confidence. Who knows. Maybe I’ll be making more ‘songs’ instead of ‘pieces’ in a few years.

Until next time,

Rita Veneziale

(Click on my CONTACT page to message me with any questions or business inquiries)