Clarinets and Saxophones

A long time ago I used to fall asleep to the sound of James Galway playing the flute on my mom's old record player. For a very long time I believed that the flute was the most beautiful instrument in the whole world, and if I ever had the chance to play an instrument, that would be the one.

But that was before I heard the clarinet. When fifth grade came around—the year I got to pick what I would play—just before that moment of decision I heard the music teacher perform a simple piece on the clarinet. And suddenly I was hooked.

I loved everything about the clarinet: the nostalgic tone, the look of the silver keys against the dark wood, and the way it seemed to tell me “there's more here if you're willing to look.” I didn't want to try out anything else; clarinet was for me.

And when I first got a clarinet of my own I became even more sure. I didn't just love hearing it, I loved playing it too. We were a great fit. We worked. (And I was ever so glad I had not chosen to go with, say, the saxophone—if the sounds coming from the sax section were any indication, it was a miserable instrument to play.) For several months, my clarinet and I were BFFs.

But then, one day, playing got a little bit harder. I had to transition from the comfortable low notes to the tricky, squeaky high notes. And suddenly I wasn't quite so sure that this clarinet thing was going to work out for me.

I remember something my teacher said at that time. She told us, “Clarinets, do you remember picking on the sax players just a few months ago for all their squeaks and messy notes? Well, now you get to go through what they did. And saxophones, it's your turn to sit back and learn some easier notes.”

That was motivation enough for me. If the sax players could stick with it through the hard notes, then I sure could too. And I did. I stuck with clarinet for a long time, and I never wished I'd chosen anything else. Clarinet wasn't always the absolute perfection I'd first thought it was, but it was worth the hard work.

And I kept that lesson of clarinets and saxophones in mind. I came to learn that a lot of things in life could be separated into “clarinet” groups and “saxophone” groups. Some things come naturally to me and at first seem like the perfect fit. Math was like that. For a long, long time it was really, really easy. Only once I got to college did it get hard. Other things start off really hard and get progressively more comfortable as I go along. And that's writing for me—difficult from the start, so I knew that I must really love it if I was willing to deal with all that difficulty right away. But regardless of whether something is a “clarinet” or a “saxophone,” if it's worth doing, at some point it will be challenging.

I think relationships are like that too. Sometimes we meet people and immediately hit it off and feel that click. Everything is rosy and the other person can do no wrong. The rose-colored glasses can sometimes stay on for a really long time. But eventually, they're going to come off. Something the other person does is going to rub us wrong. Something they say won't ring so well in our ears. And suddenly the relationship isn't so easy.

Other times we meet people we have no spark with. We have nothing in common, and their personalities are grating, and given a choice between talking with them and eating dinner with a hyena, we'd pick the hyena. But sometimes, whether through circumstance or simply being in proximity day after day, we come to find a lot of good in these people. We find that we love them in spite of all those things that originally annoyed us... and maybe we even start to love the very things that used to drive us crazy.

I guess all this is on my mind because right now I've got a lot of “clarinet” people and a lot of “saxophone” people in my life. So maybe this post is for them.

To all the “clarinets”: Some of us still have on the rosy glasses, and that's cool—let's enjoy that for a while. It's fun.

But some of us are starting to take the glasses off. And that's a little scary. I don't know if you'll like what you see in me when they come off. Maybe you'll notice one of my many bad habits and start to flinch every time it happens. Or maybe something you originally liked about me will start to get on your nerves. Maybe I'll start to feel that way about you too. But listen, if you're still willing to be friends with me, then I'm not letting go of you.

And to all the “saxophones”: I already like you more than you probably think I do. Because I know that even if nothing about us seems to work right now, the future has a lot of potential. Maybe one day we'll click. Maybe not. Either way, keep being you. In some way or another, you're awesome, even if I can't see it right now.

Maryland Renaissance Festival

Have you ever been to a really big Renaissance fair? I went to one this past Saturday in Maryland and had a fantastic time. Here are some of the highlights:

Wolgemut

One of the first things I did there was go to a music show by the group Wolgemut. It consists of four guys: two on drums, one on a short pipe and one on German bagpipes.

See that guy in the back on the red drum? You can kind of see from the picture that he's got this lazy swagger while he plays the drum. The guy on the far left is the leader of the group, and he puts on a good show. His stage name is Micha. The word Wolgemut apparently means “having a good time,” and he seems to embody that word.

Toward the end of the performance Micha made me get up and dance to one of the songs. My husband got some pictures, perhaps hoping to embarrass me, but they mostly came out pretty blurry, so I guess I'm safe.

One of the most interesting parts of the show was when they invited a jester up to the stage and had him play a saw like a fiddle.

It had the strangest sound, but I suppose this is actually kind of a thing. Here's a video to give you something of an idea.

Other Performers

Over the course of the day I also saw a joust, a Shakespeare parody and some acrobats. The acrobats were probably the most fun.

Crafting

Of course, one of the main attractions is the abundance of craftsmen everywhere. I saw a lot of great items, but didn't end up buying anything myself. My favorite was probably the glass blowers. They did a demonstration, and then I browsed through their collection.

All in all, lots of fun! Have you ever done something similar?

Math Stories

Thinking about game theory on Monday got my mind whirling about math for the first time in a while. I've probably mentioned before that I was a math major in college. For a long, long time math was my greatest interest. I loved the logic of it and the fact that every problem always had a correct answer. I loved its elegance and I loved that mathematical truth could usually be known with certainty.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that math wasn't my final destination. Much as I still love it, I never regretted making the change to writing. But I've always found a lot of beauty in math, and since I know so many people don't see it I want to talk about math from a story perspective.

History

Ever hear of Evariste Galois? I won't be surprised if you haven't. He was a brilliant mathematician of the early 19^th century, but he died at a very early age after being wounded in a duel. The reasons for the duel aren't entirely clear, but evidence suggests it had something to do with a girl.

How about Carl Friedrich Gauss? There's a famous anecdote about Gauss as a young boy. His teacher asked him to find the sum of all whole numbers from 1 to 100, thinking the task would take a long time to complete. Within seconds Gauss had the answer.

Surely you've heard of Isaac Newton. But do you know about Gottfried Leibniz? Did you know there was a huge plagiarism scandal over which of the two men invented calculus? Today they are both credited with coming up with it simultaneously, but in the early 18^th century the question sparked a bitter controversy. (By the way, Leibniz's notation is the one we use today.)

The history of mathematics is full of quirky people and dramatic events, many of which are fascinating to study. And I bet I wouldn't have to search very hard to find a mathematical story worth telling. Why? Because despite the pure logic of mathematics, it was developed by very human people, and human stories are universal. So if you're ever looking for a new character idea, consider browsing through a list of famous mathematicians for inspiration.

Mystery

As a child one of my favorite mysteries was Fermat's Last Theorem. If you already know about it, forgive me for explaining to those who don't.

Everybody who has taken Geometry should be familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem: a² + b² = c², where a, b and c are the lengths of the sides of a right triangle (c being the hypotenuse).

So here's the question: what if you change the equation to aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ, where n is a whole number greater than 2? That is, if a, b and c aren't squared but are instead, say, cubed, or taken to the fourth power, can you ever find a solution to the equation?

Pierre de Fermat (a mathematician living in the first half of the 17^th century) said no. At his death, his son found the following written in a book and referring to the fact that the equation had no solution: “I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.”

But what was his proof? Nobody knows! It was never found. And for a few hundred years, nobody was able to prove that the theorem was true. Only within the past fifteen years did one man (Andrew Wiles) and a 100-page proof finally lay the question to rest.

But surely Fermat's proof wasn't 100 pages long! So did he really have a proof? And if he did, what was it? It's still a mystery!

And it's not the only mathematical mystery. So if you've got writer's block and you're looking for something new to stimulate your mind, try delving into a math mystery for a while.

Magic

You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I'm still always amazed when I find that things in the real world come back to mathematics. There's something almost magical about how math just fits everywhere.

In fact, I wrote a story once about math and magic and music and the embodiments of Hope and Peace and other such ideas. I called it Fugue. It was a NaNoWriMo story and had almost no research, and a lot of the math was just hand waving because I didn't go through all of it rigorously, but it was a lot of fun and I liked the idea.

I already know what I'll be writing for the next couple years at least, but maybe some day in the future I'll work on another book with math in it. In the meantime, if you're looking for some interesting people to help you get rid of any lingering anger toward math, I'd point you in the direction of Martin Gardner and Vi Hart. They make math pretty irresistible.

Not a Bad Monday

Three things that make this a pretty good Monday:

1. Nathan Bransford's First Paragraph Challenge. I've read through several of the entries. Some of them are quite impressive. Go on over and check it out if you haven't already.

2. Only one more day before The Iron Queen is released! So exciting. I can't wait to devour it.

3. You folks have got me thinking about some of my favorite songs. In particular I started thinking about (and then listening to) my number one song, which, unsurprisingly, I associate with writing. One Prairie Outpost by Carbon Leaf has a line that, for me, epitomizes writing: “One prairie outpost you are how I feel / Alone in a flat land 'tween the dream and the real.”

To me writing is about living in that lonely place between dreaming and reality, looking over the flat landscape and choosing to fill it, to create something worth sharing. Every time I hear the song I feel a chill... and then I get the urge to write.

What song best describes writing for you?

Life of an Amateur Composer

Good afternoon Blogeers and Blogettes! How are you all?

We've had a string of lovely days here—very few clouds, which means lots of energy for me. And a lot of that energy has gone into making music... the topic of today's post.

I believe I've mentioned before that I've been composing music for an indie video game. The theme for the game is “space cows” (a play on the ubiquitous “space cowboy”), so the music was supposed to be “space western.” Well, the space part kind of got cut, but I've managed to keep the western part pretty much in tact.

Now I am by no means a professional composer, but the music I put together is good enough to put in the game, and I'm having fun with it... and learning a lot.

The hardest part is writing battle music. I kept thinking I'd gotten a good tempo with lots of punch, only to be told over and over that it's too slow and ho-hum. Now maybe that's because the majority of my musical experience involved playing clarinet in band and orchestra. It's not quite the same thing as saving the world with a rousing battle tune.

What about you? Have any of you ever tried to write battle music?

Well, I knew I had to find some inspirations. I needed to keep the western style, and I needed it to be fast and exciting. So I set about trying to merge music along the lines of Megaman with something like, well, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caxAXxnXQ68

See the challenge? In fact, if you're looking for something to do on a rainy day (and you happen to have some sort of music composition software—I use Finale PrintMusic), try your hand at combining the two.

I think I've managed to come up with some passable pieces. (Along the way I gathered a few pointers from listening to the instrumental version of Lady Gaga's Poker Face, of all things.) It's been fun.

Though I am looking forward to doing something besides western music for the next game. As much as I've grown to love the banjo over the past few weeks, I'm ready for a change.

And how are all of you?

NaNo and Fugues

Have you ever done National Novel Writing Month?  Participating in NaNoWriMo was how I first became interested in being a writer.  It was a rush!  I was in school at the time, so I had to keep up with my work, but I couldn't wait to get back to my story.

Now that some years have passed and I write more regularly I find it more and more difficult to do NaNoWriMo.  I do a lot of editing as I write, which doesn't lend itself to the fast pace necessary for NaNo.  My stories are usually more than 50 thousand words now too.  But I still have a soft spot for NaNo, and I would recommend it to anyone thinking about making writing more a part of everyday life.

My second NaNovel was a story called Fugue.  It was about music and math and supernatural creatures that embodied things like Hope and Peace.  Hope was summoned from the performance of one perfect Fugue, and then the others came through variations on that Fugue.  (All together the Fugue and its variations were a mathematical group with musical operations, for those who are mathematically inclined.)  It was a very conceptually based story with a shaky plot, but I had a good time writing it.

When I first started writing that story I bought a CD of Bach Fugues and listened to it almost exclusively while I wrote.  Hearing that CD now I automatically go into writing mode.

I have a somewhat different relationship with music than most people I talk to.  I really love music—I love listening to all kinds of music and I enjoy composing too—but most of the time I prefer silence.  Too much audio or visual stimulation wearies me.  So while I like music, what it is, what it stands for, the reactions it can evoke, it is too intense for me to listen to it all day.

However, sometimes music provides me exactly the sort of energy replenishment I need for writing.  If I am at rest, too much music is overstimulating, but if I am expending a lot of mental energy through writing then music helps fill me up again.  I like to listen to upbeat music without words to keep me going while I write.

So what about you?  How does music affect you?  Have you ever come up with a story idea that involves music?