Sunday, March 25, 2012

Week 13 - "Some Old Music Box"

Lyrics:

Tell me what to say, 'til I know the words by rote.
Tell me what to play. Write out ev'ry single note.
Tell me what it means, so I don't have to use my brain.
Tell me how to feel, so I know I'll feel no pain.

Just sing a melody from some old music box.
Take me back to yesterday. Just turn back the clocks.
You never change your tune. You see no reason to.
Is there something I can say, that will get through to you?

Teach me how to float, so I'll know if I'll sink or swim.
Teach me how to smile, so my life won't seem so grim.
Teach me how to cope, so I know I can survive.
Teach me how to love, so I know that I'm alive.


This one was pretty fun to play and sing. It is a rock/blues that I would love to someday hear played with a rock ensemble. I used a music box sound at the beginning and end, generated by my XV-5080. It is actually separated into three layers, two that have arpeggios, and one with a melodic line (heard only at the end). Each of the the three layers has its own location in the horizontal pan space.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Week 12 - "Feeling Like a Dump Truck"

Lyrics:
Sometimes it feels like you should have stayed in bed
With all these troubles floatin' through your head.
There's no other way to describe
This awful negative vibe.

When you're feeling like a dump truck.
Sometimes you just run out of luck.
Sometimes you just don't give a fig
When the whole wide world treats you like a pig.

Sometimes you wonder where did things go wrong?
You hope your troubles aren't gonna last too long.
But there's no better word
For when life gives you the bird.


This song was inspired by my friend Andrew Nicolette, who used this phrase the other day and challenged me to write a song based on it.  This is the first song of the year for which I have played guitar.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Week 11 - "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls"

Text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.


I wrote this piece for a composition competition. The requirements were for a piece that is a setting of a poem in the English language about water for piano and baritone voice. I chose "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls" by Longfellow, which is a rondeau, and therefore lends well to being set to music.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Week 10 - "Lonely Tonight"

Lyrics:
No one makes me feel the way that you did back when you were mine.
Ever since you left me I still think about you all the time.
I swear that my love is real.
Don't you know how I feel?

I feel lonely tonight. Come on by and keep me warm
I feel lonely tonight. Save me from the raging storm.
I need you like no one knows
And I want you to hold me close

Never in my life has anyone known me the way you do.
When you left I wonder if you ever even had a clue
how much you hurt me so.
Why did you have to go?

I feel lonely tonight. Come on by and keep me warm
I feel lonely tonight. Save me from the raging storm.
I'm longing to hold you near
And I wonder why you're not here.

Why you're not here in my arms tonight
Is it not clear that it would be so right
My only fear is that you never might
Ever see the light.

I feel lonely tonight. Come on by and keep me warm
I feel lonely tonight. Save me from the raging storm.
I need you like no one knows
And I want you to hold me close

‘cause I’m lonely tonight. Come on by and keep me warm
I feel lonely tonight. Save me from the raging storm.
I'm longing to hold you near
And I wonder why you're not here.

I feel lonely tonight.
Lonely tonight.


Here is a song that I wrote for The Solution (Stephen Embree and Adam Embree), an electronic/pop band. I gave them a chord chart and a recording of me playing and singing it at the piano and gave them complete creative freedom to record it anyway they wanted to. They produced the recording with Ableton Live and used a Moog synthesizer for some of the noisy sounds. They describe the musical style of the arrangement as "dubstep," which is an electronic dance music that originated in South London. The results of the collaboration are fantastic. Below is the piano/vocal demo for comparison.