Recently I had lunch with a retired U.S.Marines veteran with more than 28 years of experience (LinkedIn: Joseph Brennan). The topic of teamwork came up, and he talked about what it means to be a team on the military:
Same ability. The military trains its soldiers to possess the same skills as everyone else, such that when one falls down in the field, another soldier can carry on the same tasks.
Same knowledge. To maximize the efficiency of communication, every soldier in the field have access to the latest information regarding the battlefield.
Interpret instructions the same way. Authorizations (the briefs) are always written in a clean and clear manner such that the action carried out will be the same regardless of the person asked to carry out the instructions. In a war scenario, when the person given those instructions dies, the next person given those instructions ought to be carrying out the same actions
Efficiency of the team depends largely on the team members having the same knowledge, speed and strength. To do so, they need access to the same information
The team can be as soon as its weakest member.
To evaluate performance of teamwork, take out half of the team and evaluate the length of time that team can still survive given the same condition
The military does not create specialists.
If we are to apply these methodologies into the business world, it will look something like this:
Everyone working at the same company ought to have the same level of knowledge related to works done by the company
In this ideology, designers should know how to write programs, and programmers ought to know design principals
Efficiency of the work force will be greatly enhanced if every bit of information is shared among the team
New acquired knowledge will be shared among all members of the force through either corporate emails or blogs.
When you can get everyone to have a working style that has almost the assemblance of a single person (hive mind), projects will be much easier to handle
It is my life's dream to be able to work symphonic instruments together with electronic instruments. It's a simple idea really, and I expect that I should hear it somewhere soon, but I did not.
Contemporary classical music using electronic instruments are often very 'analytical,' and to me, they aim for dissonance and atonal but somehow loses its soul. I played a lot of piano music in Bartok, Rachmininoff and the like when I was a teenager, but deep down I much prefer Baroque.
Process
On my path to broaden my musical taste, I came across Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. It's contemporary classical but very listenable. On the booklet which comes with the CD, Steve recalled that his professor once advised him--I can't find the exact quote--that if he wishes to make harmonized music, he should just write harmonized music. I took this to heart and started writing simple fugues, using counter-point techniques that I once learned in college for music composition.
On the electronic music front, there has been a few DJs, most notably William Orbit, who has attempted to redo baroque classics in electronic music--but in my opinion, they are no difference than sampling records in the 70s and claiming as their own by putting a few VST filters on them. Indeed, Pieces in a Modern Style is so disappointing that I question how it ever got out of the studio.
Then one day while I was listening to trance on Rhapsody -- my pumping background music for work, I came across Hybrid's Finished Symphony. It was the first symphonic electronica piece that I responded to. It combines symphonic parts with electronic instruments and have a lot going for it. It is from there that I thought to myself that perhaps it is not such a bad idea to do something about it.
I started writing this piece in early 2006 as a way to fight depression. Music lets me free from my surroundings and allows me to go places where words and images cannot. But like most afflicted with NADD, I have trouble finishing it, and I was also too insecure to release this piece for fear of getting excruciatingly bad reviews that I probably would not be able to handle.
Studies
In the late summer of 2006, on my research to figure out how to construct better dance beats (since I'm a classically trained pianist, I naturally had no training in percussion and must somehow acquire that knowledge), I came across a fact that many DJ contests on the Web which gives out pristine vocal tracks for download to be remixed and uploaded. At that time, I was toying with Sony ACID Pro, so naturally I signed up with ACIDPlanet and began producing.
My intention was to do these mixes just as studies, to gain experience, in order to write my Symphonic Electronica piece. So I simply took the vocal tracks of all these songs, throw away all the synths, percussion and instrumental parts and throw in my own strings, choir samples and baroque instruments for a symphonic / choir mix of commercial dance remixes!
My first remix is Madison Park's All about the Groove (original commercial release / my remix) To my surprise, I received many positive feedback, both from friends whom I know and from strangers who were kind enough to provide me with criticisms. The best comment came from Steven Hall, a friend of mine who is a music producer by profession. He noted that this was the first piece I have created that is actually good. I took that to heart, and so began a new hobby--mixing music from ACIDplanet.
One thing great about contests is that you get to learn a lot from other entries. It is from these entries that I discovered new ways of handling samples, and experimenting with different things. Coming across Ableton Live was also a blessing, which enables the programmer side of me to experiment with settings that are too challenging in a linear setup like Cubase.
Symphonic Electronica Opus 0.5.9
After many months of remixing, I came back my Symphonic Electronica piece again. From my experience of the remixes, I identified my style and decisions. I decided to publish this piece and ask the world for my opinion. So here is one of many sketches of musical ideas:
What I am aiming for is a synergy of symphonic and electronic instruments, as a co-existing harmony, like a vanilla+chocolate twist you get on an ice cream truck on the street when you were a little boy / little girl.
Unlike my other music posted on AcidPlanet, it is 100% original material.
Remix: All About the Groove / Madison Park / SML (08:48) / WMA MadisonPark.AllAboutTheGroove.SML.Remix.0.8.41.M1 Copyright 2006 Madison Park / See-ming Lee. All rights reserved.
Original: Highest Mountain / Robert G (03:48) / WMA Commercial Release Copyright 2006 Robert G. All rights reserved.
Volley Ball / Steven Hall / SML (04:16) / WMA stream / RM / MP3 download StevenHall.VolleyBall.SML.0.4.7.M1.R Copyright 2007 Steven Hall / See-ming Lee. All rights reserved.
