If you're asking, "What's MuseScore?" then it's this piece of software, used for music composition and notation. I've always liked dabbling in making music, although I have very little actual ability there. A lot of music-making software out there is of the FL Studio type, and I confess I don't really understand that – and can't really justify the substantial cost in any case. However, I can read music, and so a simpler, stave-based composer is much more my scene.
What does all this have to do with My Little Pony? Simply that the title "Lavender Unicorn Blues" popped into my head one day as I was reading a particularly LUS-heavy piece of ponyfic. And, as these things do, it refused to get out of my head unless I did something about it. Of course, Twilight has ascended these days – so the piece has now been rechristened "Lavender Alicorn Blues". And yes, I do intend to post it here eventually. Buy your earplugs now!
Naturally, given the title, my stupid little gimmick is to use a LUS-style intro for each verse. To give you a little flavour of the silliness of the concept, here's the verse one – this is a draft, so don't expect it to be identical when it's finished:
A butter-yellow pegasus flew up to my tree,It's going to be a pretty short piece – three 12-bar verses and an eight-bar bridge, totalling a mere two minutes – but that's probably for the best. The amount of blues in brony music is tiny, barring a few Wasteland Wailers tracks. While I'm obviously not in the same continent as the Wailers, and indeed not even close to my average ponyfic writing standard, I'm enjoying myself rather a lot with this. :)
She said, "Hey now, Twilight, won't you listen to me?
The bunnies are stampeding and the skunk's on the run,
The bats won't go to sleep because you won't raise the sun."
I said, "Don't tell me 'bout your mice and your shrews,
'Cause I've got those lavender alicorn blues."
Huh. o.o Ceffyl Dwr leaving was kind of a big deal, yet he was here the whole time? Not sure how to feel about that. Also can't believe there are two fics on this site called Mamihlapinatapai.
ReplyDeleteWell, how I feel is this: if, as it seems, doing that played a part in helping him to be in a better place now, then I'm happy he did it. :)
DeleteAlso can't believe there are two fics on this site called Mamihlapinatapai.
Not really that surprising -- the word was practically a meme at one point.
Aheh... Well, I guess it's fair to say I wasn't gone for as long as I originally intended. I left in Dec 18 and came back at the tail end of Aug 19. So almost a year. Ish. Personally, I blame Smolder.
DeleteI don't know who that is, but being in Wales I can instantly recognise that Ceffyl Dŵr means "water horse" and is also a cute name :) I take it they are a Louder Yay! recommended writer?
ReplyDeleteBoth Ceffyl Dŵr and paperhearts are well worth checking out, in my limited experience. (Okay, they're the same person, but I didn't know that until now!) For paperhearts, you'll probably need to like the Student/Young Six -- though that applies with a few later CD fics too. For example, Dance Dance Dance (PR 190) is cute, fluffy Gabby/Tender Taps shipping. (Still the only time I've ever seen that pairing!)
DeleteThe fics published under the Ceffyl Dŵr name are a bit more varied in their personnel. Also, while writing as CD, he wrote a story inspired by a ZX Spectrum game, and that sort of thing is always likely to please me. (Atic Atac; PR 93)
Bah, my links haven't worked -- and I got the number wrong for the second one, too. Oh well:
DeleteDance Dance Dance review: http://louderyay.blogspot.com/2018/02/ponyfic-roundup-190-sunday-joint-of.html
Atic Atac review: http://louderyay.blogspot.com/2016/04/ponyfic-roundup-103-agree-with-me.html
Huh. Weird. I replied to a few posts here yesterday and it doesn't look like any of them published. Ah well.
DeleteYou're very kind to have shared what you have, thank you for that. Dance3 fell between the cracks of the archive sites, along with a fair few other stories. I've probably got the original documents for them floating around still, so I might link them via GDocs at some point.
Good luck with your composition. I'm really intrigued, and I enjoyed what you have shared so far lyrically.
Hmm, just had a look and indeed, your comments haven't shown up. I have absolutely no idea why, I'm afraid.
DeleteThanks to my calibre library, I do actually have Dance Dance Dance, albeit only in EPUB form. If in the end you can't find your copy, I'll happily send this one to you.
And thanks! I should repeat that my musical standard is rather low -- not dreadful, but patchy certainly. Probably lower than my writing standard was when I started on Fimfiction.
Well... yeah, the phrase "toxic environment" really made me wince. I recently came close to deleting my own FiMFic account, but realized that would be a bad thing for the few people who still enjoy my work, while gratifying the ideologically "superior" ones. A lose-lose situation from my perspective.
ReplyDelete(That, plus now I'm getting paid to write pony fic.)
MuseScore is a wonderful program! I've actually used it in professional work. There are instrument packages out there to replace the standard ones that make them sound very good... at least good enough for BG music for commercials.
I think the idea for your song is pure genius, and can't wait to hear it!
I'm very glad you didn't -- though of course as with Ceffyl, your well-being is a damn sight more important than me being able to read some fanfic. I reflect that I've been very lucky, never really having had to deal with anything like that -- partly, I suspect, that's down to blogging and reviewing here rather than on Fimfiction itself.
DeleteI think I can say without fear of contradiction that nothing I produce with MuseScore is going to be of professional quality! :D Its main attractions for me are: a) it's free, b) it runs on Linux and c) I can vaguely understand it. I shall see if I can get a very rough and very unfinished version of the song out in the next few days.