Composing Digital Music For Dummies

386 Pages·2008·16.58 MB·English

by  Russell Dean Vines

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Composing
Digital Music
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Russell Dean Vines
01_170953 ffirs.qxp 1/30/08 9:48 PM Page i
Composing
Digital Music
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
01_170953 ffirs.qxp 1/30/08 9:48 PM Page ii
01_170953 ffirs.qxp 1/30/08 9:48 PM Page iii
Composing
Digital Music
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Russell Dean Vines
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Composing Digital Music For Dummies®
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About the Author
Russell Dean Vinesis a music industry veteran, with more than 40 years of
experience as a bandleader, sideman, composer, arranger, clinician, lecturer,
and consultant.
Russ started music lessons as soon as he entered elementary school, eventu-
ally studying violin, French horn, guitar, piano, tenor saxophone, and his pri-
mary instrument, bass. He decided to become a professional musician when
he was in middle school. While attending a dinner show at John Ascuaga’s
Nugget in Sparks, Nevada, Russ realized that the tuxedo-clad musicians in the
house orchestra dressed better and probably earned more than the hard-
scrabble ranchers he’d grown up among throughout the West.
At age 13, he booked his first gig, in a biker roadhouse in Reno, playing
bass alongside one of the rare female baritone vocalists who could also play
barrelhouse piano, and a little person on drums. Russ’s featured solo con-
sisted of blowing bubbles with a straw in a glass of water, improvising on the
theme from the TV show Flipper.The gig paid more than his paper route and
made it possible for Russ to buy cutout records on sale at the local Western
Auto store. There he discovered the music of multi-instrumentalist Roland
Kirk (pre-Rahsaan) and bassist Charles Mingus. The adolescent Russ found
their music weird but appealing.
Down Beatmagazine awarded the young bassist/composer a Hall of Fame
scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with
Charlie Mariano, Major (Mule) Holley, Herb Pomeroy, John LaPorta, and
others. Russ learned many valuable lessons, such as:
* Don’t accept a gig at a joint that has chicken-wire surrounding
the bandstand.
* Playing outside has nothing to do with the weather.
* It’s a mistake to leave your ax onstage between sets, because
it could be in the pawnshop before you get back.
Having absorbed too much information in Boston, Russ returned to Reno,
where he performed as a sideman in Reno nightspots, working with well-
known entertainers including George Benson; John Denver; Sammy Davis, Jr.;
and Dean Martin. For several years he played electric bass and was an
orchestrator for Hello, Hollywood, Hello,at the MGM Grand.
Russ also worked in small towns throughout Nevada as an artist in residence
for the National Endowment for the Arts. The “residence” part sometimes
consisted of an elderly single-wide situated between a town’s legal brothel
and its liquor store.
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He has composed and arranged hundreds of pieces of jazz and contemporary
music that were recorded and performed by his own big band and others;
founded and managed a scholastic music publishing company; and adjudi-
cated performances at student festivals.
Always interested in digital music, Russ was able to put theory into practice
when he taught himself to use a New England Digital Synclavier II, owned by
Swami Kriyananda. His compositions on the Synclavier, as well as pieces writ-
ten for more traditional instruments, are captured on the 1983 album Gemini,
by Russ Vines and the Contemporary Music Ensemble. The recording was
chosen as an Album of Exceptional Merit by Billboardmagazine.
After moving to New York, Russ worked as a systems consultant for Sony
BMG Music Entertainment, CBS/Fox Video, and others. He holds a gaggle of
computer certifications and is now an internationally recognized authority on
computer security. He is the author of ten best-selling information system
security texts, including the top-selling The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the
Ten Domains of Computer Security(Wiley), which reached #25 on
Amazon.com and was on the site’s Hot 100 list for four months.
Russ in now chief security advisor to Gotham Technology Group and writes
frequently for online technical magazines, such as The Wall Street Journal
Online,TechTarget.com, and SearchSecurity.com. He also writes on a
variety of subjects, including fast cars and fun gadgets, for Jim Cramer’s
TheStreet.com.
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Dedication
To Elzy. Forever.
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