Tag: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Composing Beauty

Ingenuity, I love that word! It has such a nice ring to it, and such a deep meaning (at least to me). I view ingenuity as an essential skill in creativity, and creativity/ingenuity an essential skill of surviving in this new, digital age. I find it fascinating that one can create a job or a career for themselves where there was nothing before. In today’s day and age the opportunities for money making are endless. One of my inspirations for this exact thing is Lin-Manuel Miranda, internationally famous composer of Hamilton, In The Heights, and a member of Freestyle Love Supreme (who, I’m sure, has many more credits, both famous and not, to his name).

I’m absolutely enthralled by his tenacity, skill, perseverance, and his genius. He literally put himself on the map in the entertainment world. He created something brilliant using just his brains, skills, experience, and a pencil and paper. Not only that, but it’s given other artists the opportunity to be a part of the beautiful, caring community that he’s created throughout this process. He’s even changing the world and peoples’ lives by using his works to support causes that he cares deeply about. That, to me, is ingenuity. It”s creativity. I could write many, MANY more paragraphs about my admiration for him as an artist and person, but I’ll get to that in a later post because I could write a novel on it with my ability to go off on tangents and daydream (although that is not a bad thing).

With technology we have the tools to create new things every day. Heck, this article is new right now. It is not a masterpiece of an article, but it’s being created now, in the moment, and shared. Nowadays we have all kinds of opportunities for financial success, we just have to use our ingenuity to build on them. For example, in the past we couldn’t write something and automatically earn money  within a moments’ notice. Now we can. We couldn’t write a book and have it published on amazon without going through the proper book publishers outside of the company and then selling it…but now we can self-publish books and sell them online. We couldn’t automatically create a video of ourselves performing and broadcast it to the world, thereby gaining fame. Now, we have stars who got their start doing just that on youtube. The opportunities are endless. When you think about it, once you open up your mind and heart to creativity so many ideas can come pouring in, and you just have to work tirelessly at them, with all your passion and heart, to create something that you truly stand by. You don’t even have to create for others. Create for yourself, and your passion, care, tenacity, strength, and genius will shine through and you will find your own success by using inginuity.

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Composing Beauty

Ingenuity, I love that word! It has such a nice ring to it, and such a deep meaning (at least to me). I view ingenuity as an essential skill in creativity, and creativity/ingenuity an essential skill of surviving in this new, digital age. I find it fascinating that one can create a job or a career for themselves where there was nothing before. In today’s day and age the opportunities for money making are endless. One of my inspirations for this exact thing is Lin-Manuel Miranda, internationally famous composer of Hamilton, In The Heights, and a member of Freestyle Love Supreme (who, I’m sure, has many more credits, both famous and not, to his name).

I’m absolutely enthralled by his tenacity, skill, perseverance, and his genius. He literally put himself on the map in the entertainment world. He created something brilliant using just his brains, skills, experience, and a pencil and paper. Not only that, but it’s given other artists the opportunity to be a part of the beautiful, caring community that he’s created throughout this process. He’s even changing the world and peoples’ lives by using his works to support causes that he cares deeply about. That, to me, is ingenuity. It”s creativity. I could write many, MANY more paragraphs about my admiration for him as an artist and person, but I’ll get to that in a later post because I could write a novel on it with my ability to go off on tangents and daydream (although that is not a bad thing).

With technology we have the tools to create new things every day. Heck, this article is new right now. It is not a masterpiece of an article, but it’s being created now, in the moment, and shared. Nowadays we have all kinds of opportunities for financial success, we just have to use our ingenuity to build on them. For example, in the past we couldn’t write something and automatically earn money  within a moments’ notice. Now we can. We couldn’t write a book and have it published on amazon without going through the proper book publishers outside of the company and then selling it…but now we can self-publish books and sell them online. We couldn’t automatically create a video of ourselves performing and broadcast it to the world, thereby gaining fame. Now, we have stars who got their start doing just that on youtube. The opportunities are endless. When you think about it, once you open up your mind and heart to creativity so many ideas can come pouring in, and you just have to work tirelessly at them, with all your passion and heart, to create something that you truly stand by. You don’t even have to create for others. Create for yourself, and your passion, care, tenacity, strength, and genius will shine through and you will find your own success by using inginuity.

RDP Monday: Note!

Note, that’s an interesting one! I’m curious to see what others write about when they think about the word note. I’m a musician and vocalist, so naturally the first thing that I think of is a musical note. I’ve always had an interest in playing around with music writing software, and recently a buddy of mine from my day job (thanks Michael!) told me about Note Flight, a free software for just that. Usually these things cost a large amount of money, but not in this case! You can always upgrade your subscription, but the ten scores that you get for free are enough for me right now. I’m having fun messing around with the program and you never know what sort of fun work may come of it. Music writing has always been on the back burner for me…and I don’t think it will ever become a profession for me, but…you never know…for some reason I always seem to come back to it…now, on that…note…haha, the traditional form of music writing has always been hard for me. There are quite a lot of rules that you should follow in order to write correctly (at least in a traditional music theory sense). As my music theory teacher from college has put it (rather hilariously) you should go by “What would Beethoven do?” If Beethoven wouldn’t do that, then neither should you for your school projects. Now, there’s one composer I seriously admire who uses the rules…and bends them knowledgeably…and I’m entranced by his work as a performer and an intellectual. I’d like to write like him some day if I do become a composer/lyricist. That composer is Stephen Sondheim, the genius. He has inspired so many artists to create what they have…Jonathan Larson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, these greats are my inspiration; all 3 of them. You can see Sondheim’s inspiration in their work, especially in Jonathan Larson’s musical “Tick, Tick…Boom,” with the song “Sunday” directly inspired by Sondheim’s song of the same name in “Sunday in the Park With George.” I could go on and on and on about the large and small nods to Sondheim in Larson’s and Miranda’s work, but that would turn in to a novel of a blog post. Perhaps I will revisit this exact topic later and continue with my thoughts on these 3 and my admiration for them and their work, but for now I’ll leave you with this: check out this recent interview by Lin-Manual Miranda with Stephen Sondheim. It’s entrancing. I’m almost never so enthralled for an entire article (ADD is tough), but these guys…they have and will always have my attention.

I can’t believe the simple word “note” inspired this whole post, but I’m glad that it got me going down the road of inspiration in the subject I have loved my whole life. I hope it does the same for you. 🙂

RDP Monday: Note!

Note, that’s an interesting one! I’m curious to see what others write about when they think about the word note. I’m a musician and vocalist, so naturally the first thing that I think of is a musical note. I’ve always had an interest in playing around with music writing software, and recently a buddy of mine from my day job (thanks Michael!) told me about Note Flight, a free software for just that. Usually these things cost a large amount of money, but not in this case! You can always upgrade your subscription, but the ten scores that you get for free are enough for me right now. I’m having fun messing around with the program and you never know what sort of fun work may come of it. Music writing has always been on the back burner for me…and I don’t think it will ever become a profession for me, but…you never know…for some reason I always seem to come back to it…now, on that…note…haha, the traditional form of music writing has always been hard for me. There are quite a lot of rules that you should follow in order to write correctly (at least in a traditional music theory sense). As my music theory teacher from college has put it (rather hilariously) you should go by “What would Beethoven do?” If Beethoven wouldn’t do that, then neither should you for your school projects. Now, there’s one composer I seriously admire who uses the rules…and bends them knowledgeably…and I’m entranced by his work as a performer and an intellectual. I’d like to write like him some day if I do become a composer/lyricist. That composer is Stephen Sondheim, the genius. He has inspired so many artists to create what they have…Jonathan Larson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, these greats are my inspiration; all 3 of them. You can see Sondheim’s inspiration in their work, especially in Jonathan Larson’s musical “Tick, Tick…Boom,” with the song “Sunday” directly inspired by Sondheim’s song of the same name in “Sunday in the Park With George.” I could go on and on and on about the large and small nods to Sondheim in Larson’s and Miranda’s work, but that would turn in to a novel of a blog post. Perhaps I will revisit this exact topic later and continue with my thoughts on these 3 and my admiration for them and their work, but for now I’ll leave you with this: check out this recent interview by Lin-Manual Miranda with Stephen Sondheim. It’s entrancing. I’m almost never so enthralled for an entire article (ADD is tough), but these guys…they have and will always have my attention.

I can’t believe the simple word “note” inspired this whole post, but I’m glad that it got me going down the road of inspiration in the subject I have loved my whole life. I hope it does the same for you. 🙂

Don’t Miss The Hamiltome or This Video Either!!!!

Please take a look at the video below as it is so cute and so funny. These guys are hilarious! Also, while you’re at it: check out Lin-Manuel’s fabulous book (and I’m sure it will sell out quickly on Amazon when it comes out on April 12th…so hurry because you don’t want to miss it). Here’s the direct link to Hamilton: The Revolution

 

 <— Click the picture to go directly to the page and buy the book in hardcover, for kindle, on audible, or even on cd!

Plus…here’s some Hamilton fun below!

 

 

I Have To Admit It: I’m A Diehard Hamilton (and Lin-Manuel Miranda) fan!

So, you may be curious what this MusicTrGrl in NYC has been up to lately, seeing as I haven’t posted for a while. Currently, I’m working a lot and…seing LOTS of shows. Sadly, Hamilton is not one of them because it’s so popular and tough to get into (kudos to them for being out of this world amazing artists and creators). I’ve also been performing with a company called TAPNYC…which has given me the opportunity to meet lots of agents and one very sweet manager. You see, this fabulous company has given me the chance to get in front of industry professionals through their workshops and their showcases. Yes, that’s right! I’ve been able to do something really cool: to perform in front of casting directors, agents, managers, and a very sweeeeeeeeet audience.

The other thing I’ve been addicted to recently: anything and everything Hamilton related. Seriously. The soundtrack plays on repeat on my iphone. I have whipped my phone out of my pocket at some points only to find out that somehow a button got pushed and guess what’s playing without me even selecting it: yep, you’re right! It’s Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda is such an incredibly talented individual. His lyrics are so poignant and the rhythms of his rap and musical composition is so expertly decided upon and executed. Every time I listen I find something new that I hadn’t noticed before. I find something exciting. I find something meaningful…and I’ve found a renewed love of the history of the founding of this country. So, being addicted, my boyfriend constantly gets to hear about Hamilton. In fact, for Chanukah he bought me the Hamilton recording I’m speaking of! He has no idea how much that gift means to me. I’m a serious lover of genius composers and meaningful lyrics. Lin-Manuel Mirando is phenomenal (and Hamilton is not his first incredible Broadway success…you should also check out “In The Heights”). In other words…for the “Hamilton” lover in your life: I highly recommend it as a gift (hint hint: Valentines Day is this coming weekend) and I guarantee it’s a unique present that they will love. A very easy and quick link to have sent to your valentine (and maybe even gift wrapped with a personal note), is available on amazon.com. This link will take you directly to it without having to search: //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=gwynethjohans-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B013JLBPGE&asins=B013JLBPGE&linkId=EF5DPM5NSJYJ4LKI&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true

Happy early Valentines Day and I hope to hear your thoughts on “Hamilton.” Believe me , I can’t wait to hear what you think so we can chit chat about this show!