The ninth song in the Plant Songs series is called Music for Trimming Trees. This song is a bit of a throwback, being in 7/4 time signature. When I was a student at Manhattan School of Music, there was so much 7 as well as other odd meters. It was to the point where playing in 4/4 was getting unfamiliar and almost difficult. I enjoyed how the odd meters steered my improvisation. I wonder if odd meters are still a thing at MSM. I think it was trendy - just a few years after Brad Mehldau’s Art of the Trio series of records came out, on which most standards were played in 7 - but also a thing that musicians in their 20s are often into. I kind of grew out of the odd meter thing over time, although there has continued to be plenty of mixed meters throughout my composing history.
When I sat down to look for an idea for this week, I just started improvising in 7 with something like the introduction of Music For Trimming Trees, and gosh it was fun. So I thought it would bring me some joy if I just followed the fun and wrote a damn song in 7. As many of these songs have gone, the idea was found, and it was just a matter of flushing it out into a song - finding the nuances of progression and melody notes. I debated trying a more through composed form, but after some experimenting, AABA form seemed to be suggesting itself. I think it’s a pretty fun song. I hope you enjoy Music for Trimming Trees.
On a side note, for those of you who have subscribed to the blog with the follow.it subscription field, I’m not too happy with how that’s working. First of all, the videos never show up in the email. You have to click “Read More” which takes you to the blog post on my website where you can access the video. And the at the end of the follow.it notification email you get a bunch of ads and “click bait-y” junk. I didn’t know that either of these things would be part of follow.it, and I’d like to apologize for the inconvenience. I think it’s too late to change to something else at this time and ask you all to re-subsribe or whatever. If you like YouTube, you can subcribe to my channel there. I put a link to the blog post in the description of each video. Thanks!