It's Sunday, so I slept in today. Spent some time trying to find and learn some music theory. There's so much out there, and beyond just the currently tough parts of learning stuff like chords and intervals and melodies and harmonies, I also face the practical challenge of figuring out, uh, literally how do I actually write musical ideas down before they totally dissolve out of my head? I have MuseScore, FL Studio, and BoscaCeol installed on my computer from previous but I'm having trouble just getting started using the tools, honestly. On occasions where's I've had a piano in front of me, it was tough because my ear training (I think that's the right term?) is not very developed. Probably why I couldn't figure out jazz solos. But hey, down the line, I'll have picked up enough to make a halfway decent attempt. I did find a website with some nice beginner-friendly PDFs, and I think I did actually pick something up today around identifying Intervals, and having a better intuitive understanding of what Major/minor/Augmented/Diminished mean and how they can be derived in this context. Still no clue how to apply that to anything practical, but I'm sure that'll come later.

I guess even if you're drinking from a firehose, some water gets in your mouth.

For now, I'm solving the "getting musical ideas out of my head" problem by humming or whistling into voice notes on my phone. I figure I can do the analysis later to understand what I'm actually doing.

That being said, here's a taste of some rough musical ideas I've put together so far: (jank) (zeroth draft) (it was actually kinda tough to get these here. I had to open discord in my browser, get the files directly from the element, and put them through Audacity to convert the filetype. There's definitely an easier way I'm sure, but whatever)

I've got a pair of phrases here that I'm imagining would fit into a type of sea shanty or upbeat waltz type of song. The first would be the main melody, and the second would be the countermelody.

Now, as for narrative and worldbuilding, I think I gave a basic overview in a previous blogpost, but I've got some more ideas that have started forming that are more or less ready to share, even in their alpha-beta-proto stage. Let's start with a few characters:

Morvic - A sensitive boy growing up in a quiet seaside town. He hasn't exactly had the happiest adolescence so far, for various reasons. Naïve and abrasive at times, but overall trying his best.

Manor - An outgoing and kind girl from Morvic's hometown. Love of Morvic's young life, he is absolutely head-over-heels infatuated with her, and has been for as long as he can remember. Her tragic and avoidable death incites Morvic's journey into the Realm of Shades on a quest to bring her back to life.

The Psychagogue - A mysterious man rumored to be a powerful necromancer. He watches over the entrance to the Realm of Shades.

The Goddess of True Life - Not much is known about the Goddess of True Life. It is said that she resides in a temple made of horn at the far border between the real world and the Realm of Shades and has the power to bring a shade to true life.

Morvic's Shade and Manor's Shade - Morvic's companions (of a sort) on his journey through the Realm of Shades.

For worldbuilding, I have some quick sketches I put together today showing off some rough geography and my concept of Morvic's initial encounter with the Psychagogue. I'll let those speak for themselves.

Geography so basic you can find it in an elementary schooler's science textbook next to a peninsula, volcano, and diagram of longshore drifts.

A cave deep in the mountains composed of what appears to be crumbling ivory. The Realm of Shades lies behind a solid wall within the cave. In order to enter, you must cast your own shade onto the wall, and then you may pass through. More about shades in a future post.

Rough geography of the Realm of Shades located under the mountains. The cave entrance leads to the top floor of the Ivory Spire. Descend through there and there will definitely be interesting locations for Morvic to traverse through on the way to the Temple of True Life. Despite the Temple of True Life being physically very close to the Ivory Spire, there is an uncrossable gulf that separates them, making you go the long way around. From the temple, there is a 1-way climb back up to the real world.

I've got way more ideas than just what I've shared here; these are just the ones most developed and ready to share at this point. I have a private Discord server I use to take notes, and basically anytime I have an idea about Psychagogue I write it down as soon as I can before it evaporates. I have the rough shape of the story, some key moments, additional characters, and at least one song shaped out narratively so far, but those will come in due time.

I want to make sure I'm striking a good balance on this blog between Epic, Psychagogue, and various development musings, so next post will be some more Epic analysis on Just a Man. Probably starting on that after I post this, tbh.