For those who don’t know, I have a YouTube Channel titled “James Revels Composer” and I attach my original instrumentals to the MIDI visualizer “Synthesia” It would be so awesome if you listened and left some feedback. If it’s a true ear worm you should totally share it. Thanks for your time.
James Revels III
I know I said no new content would come until June 22nd but I have some amazing news. I was part of a winning short film project for the Flicks4chicks contest and now it’s part of a festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One problem though. I’m in Dayton,Ohio and after number crunching I realize the crippling $310 round trip for the Greyhound Bus is preventing me from going. Honestly, this isn’t a lot of money, but on short notice and rent to pay, it’s a pretty tight squeeze. So, I’m humbly asking for your assistance. I started a Gofundme campaign (don’t all sigh at once). There will be a campaign video coming in the next couple days. I appreciate your time reading this and I hope you consider supporting me and this next step of my artistic journey. Go to https://www.gofundme.com/jamesfilm to support!
(Beyond here are visuals and my excerpt from Go Fund me Page)
Hi, I’m James Revels III, a freelance composer from Dayton, Ohio that promotes science , art , math , music and writing . Recently, I was asked by a long time reader of my blog to compose music on a short film project for theFlick4Chicks contest hosted in Cambridge, Massachuesetts. Winning films would be showcased June 29th at Brattle Theater, a local indie film spot in Cambridge. Long story short, our film was among the chosen ones! Bad news is the travel cost is outside of my budget. On a Greyhound bus, It’s $155 ONE WAY, for a roundtrip total of $310. Although, this isn’t my first short film project, it’s the first project I’ve ever worked on this is playing in an actual theater. I also recieved no compensation for my work on the score. This was a labor of love that serendipitously grew into something more. I appreciate your time spent reading this and hope you decided to help support me on the next step of my artistic journey. Thank You
James Revels III
Today’s the day! The first single “Genesis” from 5 track album “Escapism”. Genesis depicts the story of how I created music in 8 days; an allusion to how God created the world in the book of genesis in the bible. Listen below in the embed and if you like it consider downloading it for $1. I created the lyrics, instrumental, art. I even mixed the song myself. This is more than music, it’s a creative project. If this is the type of music you want more of please support it. I’m a one man team, working an $8 per hour, part time job trying to juggle my passion for creativity.Every play is crucial and every penny counts. I thank those faithful who have supported me over the years. If you happen to not have 4 quarters laying around, at least share it with a friend and convince them to share with a friend. Good music also needs good fans. I hope you enjoy this aural story that I have penned for you. Thanks for being a part of my creative process. Without further delay Genesis….
(Rap Genius Lyrics Found Here; Normal Lyrics Below)
[Verse 1]
Day One, I invent paper,
Then look around I found myself on a college ruled acre
Looking east, I go there and prepare
To get sustenance from vegetables shout out to nature.
Day Two, I invent pencils,
Then trace my brain, outlined on the page with a stencil.
Puffing lentil between dentals before Popeye;
Laser focused on nowhere with my blind hawk eyes.
Day Three, I invent Rhythm. I’m that guy.
The whole ecosystem bobbing head with him.
Visions of the future seems my creator hid them.
“Seconds. Where y’all going?” I’m starting to miss them,
Day Four, I invent poetry.
Before Yiruma, I found the flow in me.
Other animal ridicule; jokingly,
Then I destroy the close minded, openly
[Hook]
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
Day Five, I invent melody.
To give my words time to play with some company.
Add a little counterpoint and a couple timpani.
Then accidentally smoke a whole forest. Hickory.
Day Six, I invent Hip hop.
From there, I figured that I would never stop.
Now I don’t know who it was who invented pop or country.
It’s not me so hold the phone.
Day Seven, I invent the microphone.
Hmmm. I wonder.
That was me thinking I should invent the first song
And that song is what’s been playing all along.
Day Eight, I invent humans.
To give a way this soul food that they’re consuming
After putting my elaborate plan to movement,
I fade away to nirvana with my favorite Buddhist.
[Hook]
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
One Day I’m made from the clay of Cassius,
Then reborn from the burnt bridges ashes.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
This is the revelation of my genesis.
[Verse 3]
Invented paper to savor this emotion.
Wrote this genesis of rhetoric, unlike electric can’t resist.
This sets the precedence for the rest of this dissonance.
I’ll speak this stream of consciousness even without an audience.
Heart of a lion cloaked in a brown human pelt.
Mind your business. Enjoy your ride on conveyor belts.
What do you when everyone wants to escape?
While I’m on a mission to go find myself and relate.
Sleep is for the dead, I’ll live forever so I’m restless.
Me, myself and I the only one on this guest list.
Party of one. Celebrating our essence.
Not a graven image that we paint for the masses.
Can’t accept your bills your social currency is counterfeit.
Died ten times. I’m out of lives now that I think of it.
The conclusion, I’ve included is a great revelation
Every ending’s followed by the light of a genesis.
Here’s a preview of the track art for the song “A More”. A song about a man’s close amor, wanting “a more”.
When you think of musicians and artists you usually refer to them with a pseudonym. A fake name that they give themselves to be identified throughout their career. I have nothing against it’s use but, personally it’s not for me and here’s why.
So those are the reason’s that I use my real name instead of a made up one. Stay tuned for updates on my upcoming Hip-Hop Project “Escapism EP”. It’s a 5 track original EP that is an escape from the current norms of hip hop. I also released the album cover yesterday (also designed by yours truly) Check it out. If you like it hope you stay tuned as I get ready to release the first single “Genesis” in the next couple of weeks.
So, my lease is ending soon in early May and I’m seriously considering moving to Texas; Austin, Texas in particular. I’ve lived in Dayton,Ohio my whole life and I want to see what opportunities are out there for. I suggested this idea to my music friends and instead of them fighting me and trying to make me stay. They agree that Dayton is cool for steady jobs and getting on your feet but there isn’t many opportunities to grow as a young adult and mature in a business sense. They then suggested we team up and move together. My reaction was this face -> O.O. I’ll keep you updated on anything crucial that happens but I’m excited to see if this works because it could help us all pursue our dreams of living a life of creativity and art. Teamwork makes Dream Work (Studios)
There are many types of intelligence that exist in this world. There’s social intelligence and academic intelligence, but I want to focus on two I am intimately familiar with; analytical and abstract intelligence.
We’ve all heard the saying “Think outside the box”. Well, analytical intelligence is the exact opposite of that. Analytical people will look inside the box, describe and break down every thing inside the boxes. They may even get lost in the boxes inside the boxes! This type of intelligence is great for understanding the nuances of specific objects. It’s like taking a magnifying glass and notating all the like cracks, crevices and colors. This lends well to math and science. The problem with this intelligence is that getting lost in the details is all too easy.
Abstract intelligence is the counterpart to analysis. Theses are the ones who “think outside of the box” and realize that all ideas are in one big box with infinite smaller boxes. Stated simply, abstraction is the act of generalization; stripping away the specifics and focusing on the similarities. For instance, “Color” is an abstraction of the specific colors “Blue” and “Orange” or “Sport” is an abstraction of the specific sports “Soccer” and “Baseball”. An abstraction is, like a big box that you fit other smaller boxes in to connect them together. This lends well to poetry because you can abstract two unrelated words like, “bullet” and “shark”, into a simile such as “The shark swam like a speeding bullet”. Abstract minded people usually are good at creative writing, art and music. The problem with abstract thought is that if the relation between the two ideas is too loose communicating the thought could be disastrous.
No intelligence is better than the other. I’d say analytical intelligence tends to be more practical, but abstract intelligence tends to be more beautiful. Although, in practice we use both simultaneously, there tends to be a preference for analytical over abstract. There’s nothing wrong wrong with this but without understanding the balance we miss one half of the equation that makes subjects like math interesting. Math is the analysis of an abstract concept called numbers. While writing composition classes are the abstractions of multiple pieces of writing. By framing school work or problems in this way it could help with finding solutions. If you know all the details and are still stuck, try to find a loosely similar situations that you relate to and try to tackle it that way (analytical to abstract). Or if you are confused on a dense concept, try to ground the idea in a metaphor, by relating the parts you do understand to something familiar. (abstract to analytical).
Late night at work last night by here’s Ear training day 26 & 27. Today I’m trying something new the melody exercises! It’s like the melodic intervals listening to 3 or more successive notes and guessing the distances. Even though I’m great at melodic intervals this is a challenge which I have accepted and will conquer!
Today is day 25 of ear training and I’m continuing review of Harmonic intervals or guessing the distance between two simultaneous note. The goal is 90% and I got an 83% today
Hey guys! Didn’t get to post my ear training results to wordpress because I didn’t get to my computer after work until it was really late but I did post to instagram (@jamesrevelscomposer) if you want to see the ear training results fresh off the press.
So I’ve been doing doing chord progression recognition of the Major scale particularly the I,ii,IV,V scale degrees. Yesterday I got a 65% which was a huge jump from the 48% I had but today I normalized with a 56% with my goal for each type of training being 90% I still have looads of work to do
Here is day 12 of ear training and day 5 of harmonic interval training where I guess the distance between two simultaneous notes. My goal is 90% accuracy.
Audio SeXXX 