On May 3rd, 2007 I began my quest to upload a new piece of music on every Monday for a year. Last week, I finished that year successfully. Today, I'm looking back at some of the highlights of my year of new music.

The piece that started it all is one of my favorite compositions. I wrote it back in 2004, during the time when I was still discovering electronic music. It probably signifies the moment that I found my voice. In other words, this is probably my first composition as a mature musician. It's called Inevitable, and it's in 11/8.

Going into this project, I knew that I would have to rely on some of my alread-finished compositions. After all, the goal was to release a new mp3 every week, not write and record a new piece every week. Thankfully, I had a giant back-catalog of music. Unfortunately, I have outgrown a lot of it, so only a few pieces were right for inclusion in this year of music. I ended up uploading two songs by my former band, 6 Feet Under Sound. The first was Yellow, performed live on WPTS. The second was Drowning, a tune off our demo.

By far, the hardest part of this project was the new and original music. The tunes that I wrote and recorded one week, then uploaded just a few days, or hours, later.

There is a lot of variety in the pieces that I wrote from week to week. I wrote some solo piano pieces, some pop-oriented stuff, some more typical electronic wierdness, and some videogame-related music.

The solo piano work is probably best represented by a tune called She Said.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite pop-oriented tune that I recorded during this year. I love my version of Bluebird, a song that I wrote with my brother. I also like the ideas in Seven. Still, my favorite is probably One, a song that I wrote for Erin.

The majority of my new compositions fall into the category of 'my typical electronic wierdness'. These compositions tend to combine improvisation and electronics in some sort of interesting and unusual way. My favorite of this group is Love, but there's so much here that it's impossible to pick one piece. I certainly can't leave out the two electronic, non-videogame-related suites that I wrote this year. The most recent is called Proposal, and I wrote it to propose to Erin. I also arranged a suite of electronic christmas carols. This is something that I have always wanted to do, and I am quite proud of the results. This is my 12-bar version of Carol of the Bells.

The final category of music that I wrote during this year is videogame-related music. I have enjoyed exploring the crossover territory between the two forms. Most recently, this included a fan-made radio station for GTA games. Before that I also recorded two improvisations on Bioshock. My most successful videogame-related music, however, has to be my suite for AudioSurf, which got picked up by the game, and featured in a PC Gamer article.

Things didn't always go so smoothly over this year. When I was first getting the hang of things, I definitely had a few misfires. Afterwards is still only half finished, and is only half of a musical idea. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have uploaded it.

I started a big fractal suite called Vive, but I only finished the first two parts. It was designed to be five parts.

That's the main problem with uploading a piece every week. You have a very strict deadline. Early on, this was tough for me, but as the year progressed, it became easier and easier.

Over this year, I refined my process to a degree that was unimaginable when I started. When I started this, I didn't even have a 'process' to speak of. I wrote music as it came to me, and hoped that I was inspired enough to complete all the ideas that came to me. Of course, this is a very haphazard way of approaching things, and many projects are still left unfinished.

Today my process has distinct steps that allow me to plan and finish most of my pieces, even the more ambitious ones. And I should note that this process isn't something that I forced myself to do, rather, it's something that I was forced into while under such strict deadlines.

First, I come up with a concept for the overall piece or suite. Then I think about it. Seriously, I spend a few hours, quietly, during my daily commute, thinking about the concept. What is the best way to realize the concept? What instrumentation would work? How can I make the piece both intellectual AND beautiful?

Then I try to imagine the melodies and harmonies in my head. I don't write anything down immediately either. I hum it to myself for awhile, then if I remember it the next day, I develop it some more, and if it still sticks, then I start implementing it.

The first part of implementation is documenting my plan. I write down exactly what I want to do, from concept, to instrumentation, to melodic/harmonic sketches.

Then I sketch each piece out in my DAW. The most important part of this step is honest reflection on what I am doing. I learned that I need to be able to realize when something I am writing is crap. For most of the music that I wrote later in the year, I did a draft or two before arriving at what finally became the output. This ability to trash what I am doing and start over, with the same concept, is the biggest time saver that I learned. Avoiding red herrings is vital when you are facing deadlines.

Finally, I just refine, refine, refine. MIDI parts can never be over-edited. Mixes can never be tested on too many systems.

Overall, it was a rewarding, challenging and educational experience for me. I am proud that I got through it, and I am a better musician for it.

Will I go for two years? Not a chance!

But I am continuing in another vein. Starting in about two months, I will start a year of new source material every Friday. This will be called Free Loop Friday, and with it, I aim to create a comprehensive library of samples that is worth more than I charge for it.

So check back soon and often, because things are just getting started.