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| Composer Sabrina Pena Young (SOURCE: TEDxBuffalo) |
Electronic Music Technology Straight Talk: Music Technology -The Great Democratizer
Want to make a difference? Want to write music? Straight talk from a music pro. Change the world one note at a time.
(Lecture at Murray State University IAWM Electronic Music Concert November 9, 2010)
I could give you a historical overview of electronic music. We could sit here and trace the birth of electronic music, from the record player and ondes martenot and theremin all the way through the whacked out 80s with MTV and Laurie Anderson's drum suit. We could talk about France's IRCAM electronic Studios and the contributions of women like composers Pauline Oliveros and Alice Shields. I could mention younger generations of electronic music composers like Kristine H. Burns and Alex Shapiro. But to be honest, you can Google or Wiki almost anything I have to say about electronic music history.
So if you are interested in electronic music history, here is a quick list (quick, write them down):
- Electroacoustic
- Electronica
- Theremin
- Ondes Martenot
- Pauline Oliveros
- EIS System
- MAX/MSP
- Supercollider
- Multimedia
- Intermedia
- Mixed media
- Dick Higgins
- Tape Music
- John Cage
- Sound
- Silence
- O Superman
- Wendy Carlos
- Louis Barron
- Alice Shields
- Alicyn Warren
- Alex Shapiro
- Recording
- Char Davies
- Beth Anderson
- Mixing
- Brenda Hutchinson
- Joan La Barbara
- Ione
- Laurie Anderson
- Laurie Spiegal
- Rebecca Allen
- IRCAM
- Virtual Reality
- Bell Labs
- Fluxus
- Futurist
- Performance Art
- Forbidden Planet
- Graphic Notation
- Yoko Ono
- Noise
- Synthesizer
- Science Fiction
- Moog
- Njinga
So. What are we going to talk about today?
Electronic music? Yes.
Technology? Yes.
Women? Maybe.
We are going to talk about YOU.
What is happening now in technology, where it's going, what you can do with it.
Technology is the great Democratizer. If I don't want someone to judge me based on my appearance, gender, or age, I can create a new avatar, an identity, all linked to a valid e-mail account and website which tout my achievements without giving away a single personal detail. I can contact someone across the ocean (or even just two blocks away) via text or FB or Twitter, Instagram, collaborate on a project, distribute it, and never have to meet a living, breathing soul.
What is beautiful about this? If you, or you, or you want to create a great piece of art, whether it is music, or visual art, or an ebook, all you have to do it create it and hit SEND. It doesn't matter if you are ten, or twenty, or one hundred and ten. It doesn't matter if you speak Spanish, or Mandarin, or Arabic. If the music is good, if you know what you are doing, you can share your creations with the world.
Even if your music is bad, someone is bound to like it out there.
So here is the crux of today's talk:
1. Say Something
Seriously, there is a massively huge world out there. In case you didn't get the memo, the economy sucks, people around the world are starving to death, corporations are raking in billions, and the media keeps shoving worthless garbage down our throats.
So say something. Don't waste your talent, whether its in music, or art, or writing, or math, or whatever. Don't waste it. Use it. And make a freaking difference.
Musicians, there are thousands of songs out there about dum tweeny bop crushes and partying. Are we really that lame? There are tens of thousands of string quartets, thousands of symphonies, and tens of thousands of piano solos. Is that what we are about? Tiny little notes on scraps of tree bark?
Make a difference with your music, your art.
Change the world one note at a time.
2. Get with the program.
Which program? Garageband, Audacity, Acid, Fruity Loops, Cubase, Cakewalk, Ableton, Logic, ProTools, Finale, Sibelius, PC, Mac, or Linux...it doesn't matter. The program is just the tool, the creator of great music is you. And don't worry if you can't read a note, never wrote a lyric in your life, or don't know a major dominant from a majordomo. Music is sequential and exponential. You learn one new skill today, you will know two tomorrow, and four the next.
I wish I could tell you that I have a top of the line studio back home. That I run everything on only the best equipment in the world, and that I have tens of thousands of dollars of engineering goods at my disposal. Truth is, my studio used to be the most ghetto of studios. For years I composed using a half-broken kid's keyboard hooked to a decade old MOTU and used a demo version of Pro Tools.
The tools didn't matter. During that same time, one of my film scores made it to the NY International Independent Film Festival, another was a finalist in Miramax's Greenlight Competion, and another was chosen for an international sound festival.
My studio was garbage. I am not.
So don't stress what program, just get the program.
Any program, and start making music.
3. Get it out there
What's the point of writing the most amazing symphony, love song, or beat in the world if you keep it all to yourself? Get the music out there. You don't need to wait for a contract or someone's permission. Get your music out there.
How are you going to know if it is good or bad or just plain ugly if you keep it safe at home?
Set your music free, and wait to see where it lands
(or crashes), then write some more.
One day you will find that you actually are good at what you do, and you won't even realize it until people start asking you for advice.
4. Keep at it
Figure out why you do what you do. And I am not just talking about music. Why do you study what you study? Find what you are passionate about, whatever it is, and pursue it like a starving wolf hunts its prey. Thirst and hunger for what you do. If you don't care about what you do (what you write), then no one else will care about it. Be passionate, and forget everything else.
5. Share the wealth
Once you get to the point where you are doing what you love and actually living your dream, and you will if you work hard, then share the wealth. Share your knowledge and your experiences.
Help those around you get to where you are. It makes you a better person, it helps someone else, and it makes this crazy world just that much more livable.
"Libertaria: Genesis is dystopian, and good at it, and that needs further examination."
Based on the "groundbreaking" and "epic" animation sci-fi film Libertaria: The Virtual Opera by award-winning composer and artist Sabrina Pena Young. In the spirit of Hunger Games and Divergent.
With a score composed by award-winning composer Sabrina Pena Young, the Libertaria Instrumental Soundtrack combines electronica and film music in an exciting and riveting way that jars the imagination and explodes the soul.
"Libertaria: Genesis is dystopian, and good at it, and that needs further examination."
- J. Roseman, escapepod.org
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In the abandoned ruins of a Nueva York dystopia, teen Libertaria escapes a horrific world of DNA testing and loneliness, only to team up with her megalomaniac father in a quest to destroy the Factory that made her. Armed with a ragtag army of cyborg misfits, Libertaria joins forces with her drug addict dad Simeon Aguila, leader of the Underground metropolis, to destroy GenTech's immortal Collective. But who is the deformed soldier invading her thoughts? And can she destroy the Factory before her traitorous deformed nemesis Lucinde betrays them all?
Unearthing dangerous family secrets that explain her mysterious past, Libertaria learns that sometimes to save the world
you must first lose your soul!
“One of my favorite things about this story is its odd apocalyptic tone and strong sci-fi/fantasy foundation. The dark quality that comes with it is the cherry on top.” –FanboysAnonymous.com on Libertaria: The Virtual Opera
Based on the "groundbreaking" and "epic" animation sci-fi film Libertaria: The Virtual Opera by award-winning composer and artist Sabrina Pena Young. In the spirit of Hunger Games and Divergent.
With a score composed by award-winning composer Sabrina Pena Young, the Libertaria Instrumental Soundtrack combines electronica and film music in an exciting and riveting way that jars the imagination and explodes the soul.
With over fifteen years experience in music, film, and the arts, Sabrina Pena Young can provide you with the insight you need to develop your creative dreams into a reality.
Contact Sabrina Pena Young Today:
Spenayoung@Gmail.com
@dalatindiva
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Composer and Filmmaker Sabrina Pena Young creates mind-numbing multimedia works in her home recording studio that is currently shoved into the corner of her dining room between the coats and trash can in not-so-sunny Buffalo, New York. Check out her "groundbreaking" and absolutely "EPIC" sci-fi machinima film Libertaria: The Virtual Opera, created entirely through Internet collaboration and social media. Young's latest projects include a work for Malletkat and Comic-Book inspired Multimedia, a social media opera, and a virtual machinima rock concert.
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