Writing For Me - Part 2 — Colin Bell Music

In 2019, I was at a point I’ve never experienced before. I walked away from a 20 year stint as a composer/arranger for scholastic and university instrumental ensembles. It was the job that got me into writing music, and for the first time since I was 18 years old, I was without work.

There was this small lull before I started writing music for film between 2019-2020. I was so used to writing music for a specific project that I found myself sitting on material that was never fully realized. I spent many years teaching percussionists how to play marimba and vibraphone, and decided to make some moves to get some of my original music finished and published.

Mallet music usually becomes popular because of the virtuosity that it requires and displays. It is difficult! The musicians who master it are truly talented. After writing complex mallet music for many years, I got a bit bored of showing off chops, both playing and composing. I wanted to provide the intermediate student with something that they could enjoy playing. I didn’t care, at all, about showing off chops or flashy writing. I just wanted to write what I heard and felt, without it trying to impress the percussion community. The goal was to give some young percussionists something to play that they could enjoy, with a moderate amount of challenge.

Friends

One of the biggest hurdles for a young percussionist is to simply have a nice instrument to play. Marimbas are expensive. Many schools have one (and maybe a graveyard with parts of another). I wanted to provide a chance for a beginner level student, and intermediate student, to play a duet together, but only requiring one marimba. “Friends” was the result.

This piece has an interesting story. Some of it started as music I composed for my wedding (we had a friend play marimba as we walked down the aisle). It was reborn as a duet when actress/musician/friend/incredibly talented person Janina Gavankar hit me up and asked for a marimba duet that she could live stream with her close friend Ahmed Best (I became friends with Janina when she hired me to arrange and music direct a music video for her). You might know Ahmed as the actor who played Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Aside from that enormous role he’s played, Ahmed is also a solid drummer.

Janina and Ahmed, live streaming Friends from Janina’s place.

Janina and I choreographing her music video for “Don’t Look Down” with the Jersey Surf.

Janina’s request was certainly the spark I needed to get this marimba music set up for a duet on a shared marimba. After they had a live stream playing it together; I decided to make a move and have it published. I went to Tapspace, a publisher out of Portland that is popular in the contemporary percussion world. Jim Cassella and Murray Gusseck are a great team of guys over there (as well as percussion composers/arrangers themselves), and I had my first piece of music published. Every year, I see high school and university students play this duet, and I always get excited when I’m contacted by a professor, letting me know they are performing the piece.

One of the biggest treats of recording this piece was having two of my former students perform it. This video features Jessica Ballenilla (left), and Pam Ferrali (right). These were percussion students of mine from years ago, and the combination of their talent and youth served as the perfect choice for the piece. These two ladies were in numerous ensembles I wrote for and taught over the years. They really understand what I am looking for in music, and working with them was one of the most enjoyable experiences in my career.

I would have never done anything with this music if it hadn’t been for Janina and Ahmed. Thanks FRIENDS!

Friends - Music Video

If you would like to purchase Friends, please check it out here.

Lament for Shirley

Once I published Friends, I immediately realized that I had a vibraphone solo I wrote a long time ago….as in 2006! I composed this vibraphone solo in honor of my late grandmother, Shirley Bell, who was the matriarch of our family. We have a rich history of Celtic music and dance in our family, and she was right at the center of it. I wrote this after her passing, and right after I completed my undergrad studies. She was a huge family figure to me; the music came out naturally.

I remember writing this on a Dell laptop, while living in a pool house, in the backyard of the house I was renting it from. There was no kitchen, and the bathroom was a camp-cabin style. I was writing in Finale with a 1 octave MIDI controller. I graduated with my BA in Music Ed and decided I did not want to teach. The whole place was about 12-15 square feet. Humble beginnings…

Fast forward 13 years later, I finally decided to get this published. I dedicated it to my grandmother, and followed up with another Tapspace publication. Evan Glickman, my talented friend, offered to perform the piece for this video. Evan and I share a long history of percussion adventures, and I consider him one of my top guys for anything I write. He is one of those musicians that gets me; we are often in musical lockstep.

Lament for Shirley - Music Video

If you would like to purchase Lament for Shirley, please check it out here.

That concludes my two part blog series about writing music for myself. It’s not something I get to do often, and that’s just fine. I like writing music for big productions like film, where I get to work with others on realizing something bigger than ourselves. For the few times I have written for myself, there was always a story behind it from my life experiences, and the talented musicians I get to have in my life. See you next time!