What Tuna Day is about…
More than just a daily tune
After retiring from my job in education about 10 years ago I decided it would be a good use of my time to pursue getting a DMA in composition, so I applied to the University of Missouri at Kansas City, which has an excellent program and, as luck would have it, is not far from where I live.
When I was accepted into the program I had about a year to get ready for what I expected would be a lot of work - and it was. Also, though I hate to admit it, I was a little out of practice in composition. I was accepted on the basis of numerous works which were all at least ten years old if not older.
So, in order to get back into the habit of composing I embarked upon a project that after a few months became labeled as “Tuna Day” - some pun huh?
The “Tuna Day” regime consisted of composing one lead sheet style composition a day without the assistance of any instruments - only pencil, paper and imagination. By “Lead Sheet” I meant melody and chord symbols, which, by necessity, usually meant each piece would stick fairly close to traditional western harmony. Upon completion I would allow myself the option to make minor tweaks in the music, but if it took too much to make it work, I had to start over. The goal wasn’t to create great music, just something plausible that would work in a pinch.
I kept this up from January 2012 to January 2013. Because some days I would compose MORE than one tune I ended up with 428 compositions in the original archive. This collection provided quite a bit of source material for when I was working towards my DMA.
Because I was dealing with a simple melody with chord changes I settled upon using the ABC format to document this project. I am fluid with the notation program Finale, but for this ABC was the best option..
ABC files are short text based files that when compiled will create decent notation, and, they will play them back in a primitive fashion, which, if you’re careful with your programming, is really more than sufficient to get the job done. ABC playback is never as good as an arranged performance, but it will give you the melody and chord changes in a way that is more than sufficient. ABC is used heavily online for archiving collections of folk music, but it is capable of much more.
Here’s an example of ABC code from the original Tuna Day of 2012:
X:306
T:Dance 6
C:10/05
M:5/8
L:1/8
Q:3/8=80
K:D
%%MIDI gchord f4czH2Iz
"D"FGF A2|cdc A>_A|"Em"G=AGB2|"A"EFE A>G|"D"FGF A2|"D"fed =c>e|
"Gm"d=c_B A>G|1"D"F=FE Dz/G/:|2"D"F3-Fz[I: MIDI = gchord f2ihgzH2Iz]|:"A"FGA Bd|c>BA GE|
FGA Bd|c^B/c/d ^^A/B/c|fga bd'|c'>ba ge|fga bd'|c'a/g/e c/A/G[I: MIDI = gchord f4czH2Iz]|
"D"FGF A2|cdc A>_A|"Em"G=AGB2|"A"EFE A>G|"D"FGF A2|"D"fed =c>e|
"Gm"d=c_B A>G|1"D"F=FE Dz/G/[I: MIDI = gchord f2hgIzgIHz]:|2[I: MIDI = gchord f2I2gzf2cz]"D"F3-Fzx|]
%%sep
When compiled the resulting score looks like this:
And sounds like this:
Yes, it’s not an overly sophisticated performance, but, it gets the idea across.
In terms of form most Tuna Day compositions adhere to this structure. Generally 8 measure phrases, ABA song form with repeats. Occasionally it’s varied but this is typical.
One further advantage of using ABC is the ability to keep the entire collection in one archive. In fact all 428 pieces of the original Tuna Day barely take up 350K, less size than a single one of these would be if created in Finale.
There aren’t a lot of options for ABC programming software these days. What I use on my Mac is EasyABC. When opened in that program, the Tuna Day archive looks like this:
On the left is the list of compositions, in the center is the notation and on the bottom is the code typed in to create each piece. Click on any item on the left and that composition pops up and plays. It couldn’t be better for a project such as this.
As if that wasn’t enough, EasyABC will output the entire archive as a single PDF and even generate incipits for each item in the archive. This is why it’s so popular for folk song collections.
After finishing this project I completed my degree work and then went on with my retirement, composing here and there, founding the Mandolin Orchestra of Kansas City and generally keeping busy.
Exactly one year ago today, on July 18 2021 I resumed the Tuna Day project with some minor changes. As today marks the one year anniversary since I’ve restarted it I’ve decided to start posting these pieces online daily for anyone that might find them interesting or useful. Starting tomorrow will be the first piece of year 2, whatever that ends up being. I’ll compose it tonight.
My system is, using a fountain pen and ink only on manuscript paper I settle on a key and then I put down a note and I follow it. I have no idea what’s going to happen but I just write it down anyway. I use ink instead of pencil because it looks nicer. Most of these pieces are composed in about the same amount of time it would take to just copy them down as dictation - less than 10 minutes. In fact, typically less time is spent composing them than is needed to code them in ABC.
Sometimes I take the finished piece to the piano and tweak it a little, sometimes I just input it and do a little tweaking after, sometimes I don’t tweak at all. Rarely do I have to do much work on any of these to fix them to my satisfaction and since starting a year ago I have not thrown out and re-composed a single piece.
I have a system whereby I mix keys and modes daily. If you follow this blog after a while you’ll see what that is. Some of you will want to have fun with these. I hope so. They are free for anyone to use non-commercially as long as I’m given credit as the composer, however if you want to use any of these for commercial purposes we will have to come to an agreement ahead of time.
All the Tuna Day pieces are provided as-is, if you want one or more of them in any other key, or transposed, I will provide those free of charge but only to my paid subscribers.
Over the course of time I will occasionally post additional pieces from both the original Tuna Day as well as some from the first year of resuming this project, but for the most part I’ll begin with year two.
Thanks for reading. Look for the first Tuna Day, year two, to arrive tomorrow!
Philip DeWalt