The Music Studio

This glass studio is flooded with sunlight and filled with potted plants. A modest piano, about 10 years old, sits in the center of the room. A few wicker chairs are scattered about the room, beside wicker tables bearing music pads and songbooks and small instruments. A pair of music stands stand by one of the glass walls. There's a bookcase against the only nonglass wall, the stone wall containing the door to the NorthWest. The bookcase holds a nice stereo and a large CD collection.

Not quite music, but not quite not, a collection of recitations of my poetry are available on an mp3.com site. One of these currently has musical backup.

When I was young I had seven years of piano lessons. I can read music for piano, and play written music quite well, but didn't have even basic music theory to go with it until I took Music Theory I and II at New College. It was a fantastic course, starting with chant, moving from hexachords through modes, through major and minor scales, tuning systems, then into rhythm and harmony. Music Theory II starts where I leaves off, right where tonality has been established and starts to break down -- secondary chords, pivot-chord modulation to closely related keys, augmented sixths, modulation to remotely related keys, and all the way down to atonality. I feel like I have a really good grasp of the theoretical materials, both abstractly and in terms of analyzing music. My aural skills -- harmonic and melodic dictation--have naturally lagged behind, but are certainly present.

Most of the piano music I've played has been classical. My favorite classical musicians are Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Musorgsky, Kulau and Brahms.

I also have a recorder that I can't play very well, a beautiful tambourine, and a harmonica. I know some simple straight-harp songs and some simple cross-harp riffs. I can't bend notes yet. I would like to learn ukulele, but one of the strings on mine won't stay tight. I would really like to learn celtic harp someday.

Julia's Compositions

Copacetic Beginnings MP3 (also sheetmusic) -- my final project for Music Theory I, an upbeat diatonic piece. Performed by Platypus on violin and his mother on piano.