Getting Back In To It

[JA Trondson]

So, ive been out of it for some time, haven't REALLY played anything in a while. Sure I count writing some things here and there as progress or "playing" but it really has been a chore. And as the current equipment situation is practically non-existent, writing and going into detail while making compositions it hard enough to make me question if it's "worth while".  Everything I have written in the past few years has been either sombre or metal (or sombre metal.)
I recently got an old violin fixed, that I used to love playing, and started to play from memory some old tunes. Horrible, they were too fast, not anything that at the time I wrote them I would have called "particularly challenging". So, again, I became a bit dismayed. 

I first started with recording/arranging music when I was 15 on a Yamaha sy77. I took video game music from memory or recorded to a cassette and played it on headphones while programming it in one note at a time. That gave me some structure with which to diffuse some of the music I had in my head, and a way to play it all at once. I could program a whole backing band and play violin over it, and later, guitar. 

 

Recently I was messaged by Michael Amaron and went to check out his soundcloud. While not particularly my "style" of music, I did enjoy it, and I was inspired by what sounded like pure enjoyment in writing and playing.

 

I have a problem with writing most of my recent music as my very young son doesn't much like anything 'sad' sounding, so I started playing some old Irish tunes while in the family room with him, and then went back to thinking about recording.

 

I talked to some friends and mentioned that I wanted to start from scratch again, relearn some lost technique and just do something to track my progress. Immediately someone suggested that I do some video game music with a midi programmer, and play over it. But that quickly turned into a "heck with how it sounds just do something" idea. So, I put out the question to some friends "what video game music do you want to hear done with only violin"? The suggestions came flowing in. 

 

I am fully aware of how ridiculous it is, but it's pretty much where I started, and it has been a good while since I've derived as much enjoyment out of figuring things out and just practicing the same things over and over again. All while learning new recording programs. So a thanks to Mr. Amaron, and to everyone here.
don't get your hopes up:
https://soundcloud.com/japstrings

-j