pp. 54-55). To expand beyond the guitars restraints, I developed two separate experimental tunings from drawing random note sequences from a hat. With the inability to play two guitars simultaneously, I sampled each sequence into the MIDI keyboard and composed the following melody that became the basis for my piece Oriental Moon (audio media 9).
The absence of structure in Oriental Moon, and several other unfinished pieces, directed my research towards the area of beats. Ben Neill explains that ‘beat science’ is the “… new jazz of the 21st century”, and technology provides the computer musician easy access to “… shifts of tempo, subdivision, sonic manipulation and complex quantization structures” (Neill 2002, p. 4). Neill also argues for the innovative compositional process using 4/4 time signatures as the composer takes advantage of the metronomic beat within sampled loops (2002). Experimenting with loops and beat samples on the 4/4 grid of the DAW allowed me to construct pastiche beats.
Throughout the process of producing my album the idea of extracting from multiple sources became significant. This was initially due to a strong desire to expand beyond the confines of preset beat sounds, sequences and loops. Slowly the beat became an integral aspect of each track I was creating, not just an after thought. Neill speaks of the significance of beat construction and how this in itself has become an art form (2002). One beat experiment, with the addition of a bass line, resulted in the following (audio media 10). Challenged to find a use for this particular element, and recognising similarities in pitch and tempo qualities, I combined it with my earlier core element of Oriental Moon (audio media 11).
