Singing in Japanese

I spent the three day weekend working on a jingle for the excellent Philadelphia podcast Talkadelphia. Three days of work and 30 seconds to show for it... (more on that later). Now I'm on to the next request. It's a good one.

What is your song idea?
"Most of you may not understand what I sing because I'm singing in Japanese. But I believe music is heart and music is soul. I'm very happy if you feel my heart and soul." ~Higuchi Makiko.

describe your song in one word
No-Borders

I always enjoy the song requests that turn me on to something new. I had never heard of Higuchi Makiko before. Here she performing somewhere on June 9th, 2008.



After using the synths and uke on the Talkadelphia song I felt like going back to my guitar. I envisioned a small song in three distinct parts. I recorded a few musical ideas on the guitar with one Rhode NT5 pointed at the sound hole about a foot away. I put some shaker and bass drum under the track and improvised some vocals. The vocals are recorded with my SM7B and there's a slap (16th note) delay on the lead vocal. It's getting late and I have other work to do tonight so I can't do much more with it now. I'm hearing a simple FM synth part playing bass notes in the beginning. Maybe some ooo's and ah's in the middle section and fuzz guitar at the end.

The lyrics are very much in process. On my mind is this episode of radio lab about the music inherent in language.



Hopefully, I'll get further tomorrow night. I have no idea what to make of the one word description "No-Borders". I'll have to begin with that next time I sit down with the song. Here's where I am right now:

Selling a friend: My CP-70

D and I are moving to California at the end of July. We've decided not to take a U-Haul across the country and instead sell all of our furniture and take only what we can fit in my VW Golf. It's going to be tight and we're unloading a lot of gear. 

To be honest it's nice to have the opportunity to go through all the musical instruments I've acquired over the years and prioritize. I won't miss my Behringer mixer, or my Epiphone Valve Jr. But then there are some instruments I will miss terribly. Like my Yamaha CP-70.

My Yamaha CP-70. Still in my studio... for now.

I first heard a CP-70 playing a show on April 4th 2005 at the Iron Post in Urbana Champaign. We shared the stage with an excellent band called "The Eleanors." We had brought my Wurlitzer 200a and they had brought the CP-70. It was a monster, and sounded absolutely gorgeous. It sounded like a cross between an electric piano and a baby grand piano. Which is exactly what it is. The CP-70 is a "portable" baby grand that disassembles into two pieces. It has electric pickups under each string and no soundboard as it is meant to be played electrically. It's a very unique instrument. We asked the Eleanors if we could play their monstrous keyboard during the show and they graciously agreed. I fell in love and began a 3 year off and on search for one.

Ronnie (on the right) plays a CP-70. April 4th, 2005.

It was difficult to find one locally. I regularly searched ebay and craigslist, and one day in 2008 I saw one listed at a reasonable price. I called the seller and picked it up that day. I had it tuned by a professional tuner about a week later. It took up most of our front room. The instrument is very very heavy. Each of the two pieces weigh about 150 lbs. I can't imagine gigging with this instrument. I'm amazed the Eleanors were able to do it. 

I've used the CP-70 on a few recordings. Like the ones below. But I mostly use it to write. It's the key board I go to first when working out chords or melodies. The action is very pleasant to the touch and the tone is nice and the volume is soft when it's not amplified. It's the perfect piano for apartment dwellers.

I love the tremolo, but rarely used it.

Yes Philadelphia. Acoustic CP-70 recorded haphazardly with a single SM57 in 2008.

We should self unite. Acoustic CP-70 recorded haphazardly with a single SM57 in 2008.

Love in Philadelphia. Electric CP-70 recorded direct into a the 1/8" input of my PC in 2008.

The Invitation. Electric CP-70 recorded direct into the 1/8" input of my PC in 2008.

The lullaby. Plucked CP-70 recorded with an SM-57.


I listed the piano on craigslist about 2 weeks ago and I've made an appointment to sell the instrument. I will miss it. It was a great piece of gear, and it was a lot of fun to own. I don't think I'll buy another when I get out to California. It's time for something else. Onward and upward!

Three Instrumentals

Songs are really more my thing, but from time to time I enjoy writing instrumental music. Here are three examples of instrumental pieces that I wrote over the past year.

ONE


On April 2nd my sister asked me to write music for a short (1.30) video. She sent me a .mov file and I wrote music to compliment the mood and timing of the images. I wanted an energetic yet minimalist feel. Something that felt both mechanized but also organic. I started by noodling on my acoustic guitar. Then I took those wave files, chopped them up and looped them. It's the loop which starts at the beginning and continues throughout the song. I added drums and a little synth and sent it to my sister to get her comments. Here's what she said...

It works really well with the video. I feel it the most around 16-36 seconds, when the synth tone comes in. I feel like the ending should be more melodic swell, less drums. It should pull the audience's heartstrings

...it wasn't quite right and I couldn't see how to fix it, so I restarted...

TWO


I ignored my sister's feedback about melody and swells and instead went back to work on my original vision of hyperactive minimalism and a combination of mechanistic and organic sounds. I wanted to turn the music around quickly so I decided to work entirely in midi. I began with a pizzicato string sound and a piano patch playing arpeggios. Then I punctuated the images in video with horns and percussion from logic's asian kit. There's also a ticking clock sound and a FM synth sound.

I like this version much better. I find it much more interesting, though ultimately neither version was used.

the ideal environ for writing music

THREE


I made this piece while riding Amtrak around the country with my wife. I was working on it as we were crossing the continental divide on our way from Chicago to San Francisco. I had brought my MacBook Pro and a very small midi controller and I spent much of the day working on music while Deirdre read.

I don't think I had any particular inspiration or reason for recording this music. I may have thought I would use it for a song. I can't remember. In any case, I wrote it and forgot about it until a couple days ago when I stumbled on the file and decided to post it to TWT.

FunkySoulJazzy

I'm trying to build up my songwriting momentum after being out of it for a while. Tonight I knocked out an interesting song request that I've been meaning to write for a while now. Here's what Dona asked for:

What is your song idea? I'm looking for something really funky and jazz like. I love the piano and guitar, so I'd like those to be in the rhythm. I want a really bassy song, so something with either electric bass, or tuba or trombone or some other bass instrument playing melody.
I'd just love for you guys to try, even if you guys aren't really jazz oriented.
Thanks a bunch! 

describe your song in one word funkysouljazzy

Well as much as I wish The Wiggly Tendrils were proficient in all styles of music, we aren't. I haven't a clue how to play jazz. And that's not for a lack of interest. My love of music started with jazz.

The first albums I bought with my own money were jazz albums: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; John Coltrane, Blue Train; Chet Baker, Chet... And if I had to choose one album to listen to for the next year, I'd probably go with Stevie Wonder's Musiquarium compilation. Mr. Wonder is my favorite male vocalist. My favorite female vocalist is Nina Simone. My interest in songwriting really came after realizing I was never going to be good enough to play jazz... I mean not even close. I had so much trouble trying to learn other people's music that I just decided it would be easier to write my own.

...well jazz and the Beatles. I listened to a lot of Beatles growing up too...

In any case, for whatever reason, I never developed the chops to play anything much more complex than root position chord shapes on the guitar. So I really wasn't sure what to do with this request. Initially I planned to play the instruments myself... but then I gave up on that and worked with samples instead.

a young man learns he has no chops.

I went through the sample bank in logic and settled on an acoustic bass sample, a drum sample, a guitar sample and a piano sample. Each of the 4 samples are pretty short. No more than 16 beats. I created variety by cutting up the samples and playing them in different orders and having them come in and out at different times. You can hear clicks in some of the places where I've made edits. It's tedious work, and I tend to be a bit sloppy. After I finished the music, I threw in some crowed noises under the music on a whim.

sample collage. tedious but fun.

The request didn't ask for lyrics or mention anything about possible subject matter, so I left it as an instrumental. All in all I think the recording turned out well for a night's work. I just wish I could actually play it!

Like A Bird In A Maze

I took some time off from writing this past month. At first I was just procrastinating as usual, but then I really enjoyed the break. I feel like I have a bit of perspective now on the music I've been writing this past year.

Plus my wife, Deirdre, just defended her PhD so we've had more time to hang out together --which has been awesome!

This weekend I decided to start writing for TWT again. I browsed through the list of open song requests and picked this one:

What is your song idea?Previous request, Space Whales, was so good that I'm compelled to ask again.
My friend is writing a Metroidish 8-bit style videogame with a snail for hero, which has a maze room you have to shoot and break open the path to get to an item, which has no enemies in it.
Her bird enemies fly through all objects like Medusa heads in Castlevania, so I joked "that room with the breakable maze to the helix piece, you could have birds fly through there too. since they can already fly through the ground why not brick walls too."
Anyways can you write a song about Birds In The Maze Room. Here's the cover art:
http://i51.tinypic.com/w01hyo.png 

describe your song in one word birdsinthemazeroom

I had started this song last month, but abandoned it. Originally I was writing 8-bit style video game music... but then I looked a little closer at the request and realized I was supposed to write a song about Birds In The Maze Room, not music for Birds In The Maze Room. Doah.

screenshot of birds in the maze room

This was my original take:


Deirdre suggested that the song be in a 50s style similar to Rocking Robin. I used her idea as a starting point and came up with a simple guitar riff in a 1-4-5 progression. I recorded the riff on an acoustic guitar using my new pair of Rhode NT5 small diaphragm condensers. I wasn't wild about the sound so I ran it through an octave effect and fuzz and looped it about 4 times. I wasn't sure what to do next so I just added stuff: a second strummed acoustic, a synth bass, harpsichord, two tambourines, and two drum beats. It was a mess.

Video is glad to be songwriting again. She naps, I rock.

I spent the next couple hours muting tracks, planning when each instrument should drop in and out. I decided to start by featuring the strummed acoustic guitar, then moving to the fuzzed riff, then featuring the bass and harpsichord, then going back to the acoustic. Changing the instrumentation gave it some sense of forward motion, which it needed since the song was just verse-verse-verse-verse.  Starting and ending with the acoustic guitar at least gave it some sense of return and resolution.

I jotted down some words and recorded the vocals through my SM7. The lead vocal has a slap echo and a bit of distortion. The background vocals are dry and in three part harmony. Pretty slapdash overall, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Here's the finished song (which sounds nothing like Rocking Robin).