Maplympics 2009!

Maplympics 2009 was such fun!  thanks to everyone who came out and competed for your freedom. here’s a video recap of the days events:

La Quinta Ad UPDATE!

la quinta letter, originally uploaded by jonsteinmeier.

hey,

thanks so much to Ted Schweitzer, VP of E-Commerce for La Quinta Inn and Suites for this gracious letter and coupons for TWO FREE NIGHTS AT LA QUINTA!

j

La Quinta Ad

this weeks entry is a video one, for www.steinimation.com.

(or here:  Youtube)

at a wedding a couple of weekends ago in Des Moines, IA, i stayed at a La Quinta Inn and Suites.  i figured it was the perfect opportunity to shoot a high quality commercial for them to bring home and score, so i went to work.

The content for this was really handed to me.  As i walked around the hotel i realized that everything i needed to know about this place was staring me in the face.  i shot my room a bit, the hallway, lobby, elevator, parking lot, and stairwell, and over the course of a couple of days got a couple of good shots of the La Quina sign.  i made sure to get some stills to animate when i got home too, including the little shampoo bottle and the making of a coctail.  BAM!  shoot wrapped.

then i came home and made a basic lyric sheet for the images i got, and put them in a functional order.

then, as the lyric sheet came together in time and content, i started playing guitar over cuts of the video, set at a specific speed, so that the video would match the music in time.  had i started cutting the video with these specific clip lengths i would’ve saved a lot of time, and now i know.  i set all the image lengths to divisions of 2 seconds, and set my music metronome to 120 beats per minute.  BAM!  music wrapped.

also, thanks to vimeo.com, i now have a much slicker video player for steinimation.com, and several videos posted on their site.  thanks vimeo!

also, thanks to Nate Roettgen for his inspiring performance in the video!  nate was a real jem to work with.

thanks for tuning in!

j

piano etude number 6

COUNTERPOINT!  WOO!!!

(listen)

this is a favorite of mine among the etudes so far.  until now, counterpoint was a secret love of mine.  now you know.  for a real how-to on counterpoint, start with bach’s keyboard material.  inventions, fugue’s, sinfonia’s, they all set the bar high, and they’re all created with a pretty specific set of rules.  what i tend to do with counterpoint now is approach it within these rules/guidelines and break them as my ear leads.  a recent approach i like alot is to stick more or less to rules for theme and form, but break some of the rules of harmony.

this piece get’s a wee bit out of the harmonic box, but mostly stays close to home.  things that it does do that are the most strict are.

1.  harmonic and rhythmic themes

2.  theme at the relative minor (briefly)

3.  theme at the fifth (modified)

4.  two voices only

5.  canon

—

right around :53 seconds, listen for the “canon”, which is the theme presented exactly the same way in two different voices, but at different times.  in this case, they’re offset by one beat.  you’ll hear the theme start in the high voice and then follow in the lower voice, remaining exactly the same until the very end, where i changed the lower part to end the piece.

thanks for listening, as always.  and toon in sometime soon, as i’ll hopefully be posting some fresh tracks from a hip-hop record i’m making.

p.s.  i’ll also be updating www.steinimation.com soonly, with my first attempt at an advertizement.  if you havn’t seen this video site, please stop by!

piano etude number 5

well, hello there!  thanks for reading this sentence.  i maid it myself with my bear hands.

this weeks “song of the week” is another etude.  this one is all based on a whole-tone scale.  the score (for the time being) says, “monsters approach triumphant”, cause that’s how it feels in my imagination.  this, like most of the etudes, was a great exercise in limiting the parameters in order to come up with a cohesive piece, and the whole tone scale creates a pretty fun character that can be devious, with all its tri-tones, and dreamy at the same time.  it leaves you hanging a little, listening for a harmonic home-base.

thanks for listening.

j

p.s.  i’ve made a little house for my stop animation videos, at www.steinimation.com, give it a looksy!

new etude AND new site

hey friends,

thing 1: etude number 4 is now posted HERE. this one is the “pretty” one, and the longest of the bunch.  i’m still a little on the fence about it.  i’m happy with the theme and general idea, but may try and trim it down a bit.  stay tooned. 

thing 2:  i just launched www.steinimation.com as a host for stop-animation shorts i’ve been making.  hope you like them!  they’re ridiculous.

love,

steiny

piano etude III

here’s an etude focused on right hand chromatic scales!!

it’s mischievous.

www.jonsteinmeier.com

piano etude number II

the second in a series of 7 (so far), this etude a funny mix of mystery and classical scale/chord work.  it’s a short, fun one.

i’ve been making sheet music for these as well, so please let me know if you or anyone you know would want to perform them anywhere (student recital maybe?).    i have one student of my own working on one already!

more coming soon!

thanks for listening,

j

Piano Etudes! number 1

hey friends,

i’m writing a set of piano etudes, and i’ve posted the first one at www.jonsteinmeier.com (etude 1)

an etude is sort of a teaching piece, often focusing on a specific technique or skill.  some of my etudes (7 so far) stray from the textbook definition a bit, and some are more specifically focused.  i’m approaching them also as recital pieces, so making them fun and performable is important to me.

this one is sort of the Russian of the set, and it’s character requires a certain amount of gusto and articulation. jumpy left hand work, a little rubato in the transitions, and nice crisp staccatos.

more to come!  thanks for listening.

also, VISIT MAMA STEINY at www.mamasteiny.com for amazing knitted hats and scarves.  She loves you after all.

j

MamaSteiny.com!

hey friends,

My dear mother now has a website for her handmade knittery.  it’s terrific, quality stuff, and it’s available at etsy.com!

www.mamasteiny.com

Mama will continue to update the site with new products, and is able to take requests for style and color as well.  drop her a line!

love,

j