Anticipation

This week's theme was anticipation, which didn't really inspire me. Everything I thought of that creates anticipation for me was either too silly, sappy, or sexy so I just kept putting this off. Eventually I got a little chord progression worked out which narrowed down my lyrical choices to silly or sexy and since some of my students (who are high schoolers) follow my soundcloud account I went with silly. So here's a very poorly written and recorded song about the anticipation that builds inside of you when you realize you can win a game of Settlers of Catan on your next turn if the game lasts that long.

The Hero of El Paso

So for the second week of the reddit songaweek challenge we were supposed to try something new. It could be basically anything. Some people wrote songs in a different way, some used new instruments, new recording techniques, there were lots of ways to approach it. I chose to try a new genre, acapella music. I'm not a huge fan of acapella but my wife is crazy for it so I have heard my fair share. I knew this would be a tough challenge to pull off in a week because before I could arrange the song for acapella I had to write it first. By the time Wednesday night rolled around I was only able to record a couple verses and a chorus. Not sure if I'll write more for this but maybe someday... In order to make this sound like a more modern acapella recording I went way overboard with the pitch correction and reverb. And I think for the most part it came out ok. Have a listen!

Resolutions

Hey everybody! What have you been up to for the past 4 years? I'm just going to imagine that I've been keeping up with this thing all along so away we go.... For my New Years resolution this year I've decided that I want to try and devote time to more creative endeavors. Specifically I've joined a subreddit (look it up Mom) that challenges me to write one song a week for the entire year. Each week they provide a theme and you have until you go to bed on Wednesday to upload a song. 52 songs seems like a lot so I'm sure I'll flake out at some point, but for right now I'm excited about it. The first week's theme was to write a song that dealt with a first. It could be anything. Since last year was a special one for me I decided to base my song around the first time I held my daughter Cadence. I knew tackling a subject like this could be a little touchy feely, but I didn't realize how sappy I would get with it. Check it out. I'm hoping to keep this up to date throughout the year so check back each week for another song!

Analysis

So the semester's winding down and that means final papers. For my music theory class, Structure, Context, and Style, I have to analyze two pieces and then compare and contrast those pieces. So in order to make things somewhat easier for us we are allowed to analyze the piece we did for our analysis presentations a couple of weeks ago. By the way in case you forgot that was this piece and yes, we did get an A on our presentation. For the presentation I analyzed the third movement but for my paper I have to choose another movement. So naturally I chose the second movement for its abundance of trombone solos!!!

Now since we have analyze two pieces for this paper we were basically allowed to choose anything we wanted for the second piece so I chose the second track from this album. I'm not really sure why I decided on this song other than it's similar in length and features a harp, which if you're familiar with Scheherazade and its violin solos, is also a similar feature. Other than that, I'm not too sure how they compare. I'll let you know.

So for the next 2+ weeks I'll be looking at Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth (movement & shape) for these two pieces and constructing a 35-45 page paper about it. I should probably get started.

Today's T: Tenacious D on black

Back with some actual music

Above is a video I made featuring my first recording project for Advanced Multitrack Production. Blogger won't let you upload mp3s, but they will let you upload videos featuring the greatest video transitions known to Windows Movie Maker. So take a look and listen.

The main jist of this project was to capture a live performance onto multitrack tape. So there are no overdubs or punch ins featured in the recording, its one continuous take. I used about 18 microphones for the recording and they went straight to 2" tape.

The other cool thing about this project is that it was mixed down onto 1/4" tape meaning that it only reached the digital domain when it was burned to CD. Up until that point it was completely analog, which is cool. That also means that the signal processing (equalization, compression, gating, and some reverb) were done with outboard gear, not on a computer.

I know I haven't been to consistent with this blog but stayed tuned because I'm comin back baby!

Today's T (Actually a polo): Maroon with white stripes

Sigh of Relief

I didn't get to blog last night because I was busy working on my mid-term paper which was due today. So here's the recap from yesterday.

We spent two hours rehearsing "Kokomo" in the studio trying to really nail down the vocal harmonies. I don't know if I ever thought that's how I'd be spending part of grad school. But that's what we did. My responsibilities for this tune are as a performer. I'll be taking the high harmonies (which is weird because I don't think my classmates know my history of being called ma'am on the phone and at drive-thrus). I'll also be playing the sax solo on my t-bone, which is the first time I've played all semester so I needs to get practicing.

Tonight in Context, Structure, and Style I had to turn in my mid-term paper which was probably eh. It wasn't my best work but the timing of the paper and our move didn't really help. Making excuses. Just as I was relieved to be done with that paper, we got homework for over spring break! So next week while I'm chillin' in Florida with my bro watchin' the Cards I'll also be busy transcribing the harmonica part to this recording.

Tomorrow's a big day as I'll be engineering my first recording session! Tune in to see how it went.

Today's T: Blue/Blue Ringer

Let there be internet!

So Emily and I are finally "moved in," moved in being in quotes because there's still a lot of unpacking to be done. We do have the internet working now so why not post? Pictures of the apartment will be up as soon we're a little more composed.

Monday was Recording Studio Ensemble. We started by discussing last week's session and I got glowing reviews for my work as the assistant engineer. I didn't have that much responsibility, but it was nice to know I handled it well. The rest of class was spent learning how to program drums. Since there's not a drummer in our class we've decided to program drums for our next song. What's the song? Here are some clues:
1. It was featured on the soundtrack of the 1988 movie "Cocktail."
2. A special performance of the song was aired on an episode of "Full House."
3. This Muppets version of the song was the reason my classmate Shauna, she'll be producing, picked it for this project.
It also helps that we have plenty of guys in our class to do all the harmonies associated with that particular group.

Tuesday was Structure, Context, and Style. Our midterms are due next week so we spent some time talking about how to best go about completing them. We have to analyze short piano pieces structurally, harmonically, melodically, and rhythmically and then write a 10-12 page paper about what we found. I'd tell you what my piece is, but I don't know. Our professor deliberately left off titles and composers so that it wouldn't influence us. Or so we wouldn't look up stuff on the internet about it.

Yesterday was Advanced Multitrack Production. I had a presentation with my classmate Brandon called FXpertise. We researched all the gear in the studio that handles this aspect of signal processing. As it turns out, some of the stuff we have is really good, and some of it not so good. Hopefully the information we shared with our class will help them out. I learned a great deal about distortion, and also a little bit about compression (I'll hear the rest of that next week).

Cards played today. Only 2 weeks until I see them live in sunny Florida!

Today's T: Kevin Garnett jersey T