Hi Folks,
I wandered my way into livecoding while learning python, and after experimenting with foxdot for a while I’ve been having tons of fun with Sonic Pi, even if it’s really a ton to learn (between scales, fx, rhythm basics and so on).
I also started getting serious about piano playing, and have been exploring tons of a new music. It’s felt a bit life changing at times. I never really connected with my creative side in this way, and while I haven’t quiiiite dialed in music worth showing off… I’ve been feeling a lot of inspiration and pull towards this which is just awesome. It has really helped me through some challenging life circumstances at the moment.
Here’s something I made, but since I’m having trouble making multiple instruments sound good together, here are some drums with a bit of explanation:
live_loop :drm do
use_bpm 60
tick
density [1,1,2,1,rrand_i(1,3)].look do
sample [:bd_ada, :elec_cymbal, :perc_snap, :elec_cymbal].look, finish: 0.3,
lpf: [100, 120, 85].look, pan: rrand(-1,1), amp: 2
sleep 0.25 end
end
Likely 101 for many, but I want to point out something about the use of arrays length 5,4,3 in this loop - given this structure, (I don’t think) the pattern will completely “repeat itself” before the 60th beat.
The changes in density (and use of a randomized 5th) are neat - since there are 4 “beats”, it keeps things pretty fresh - (rrand_i falls on first beat of second loop, and so on). Having 3 “lpf” values also means the patterns take quite a while to overlap without throwing off the overall flow. Feel free to share other techniques of course.
Last, does anyone have advice for creating solid “backing tracks” that would be helpful to practice piano alongside? For the time being, I’ve been using very simple chord progressions at 60bpm just to get consistent… but it’s starting to feel like much less of a challenge keeping in time/key when improvising.
Thanks for being here!
