#poetry | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#poetry’

Reels of Tape – A Few Shattered Lines

Posted: June 17, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #atari, #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #create, #creative, #creativity, #demo, #dreams, #guitar, #harmony, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #journey, #life, #love, #lyrics, #microphone, #midimike, #motivation, #music, #musicequiptment, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #Reel, #retro, #reverb, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

As I continue to dig into past songs it is easy to see one problem I have; I am not good at naming my songs. Sometimes I go for the punch line, but the punch line is not even a line in the song! Sometimes I try to highlight one phrase, but ignoring conventional songwriting wisdom, I do not use a phrase over and over in the chorus and call that the title. So here is another example where the names have changed over the years. Originally the title was “A Few Shattered Lines“. I was reading a letter from a friend of mine at college and I pulled some of his phrases into the lyrics. Below are the results.

Reels of Tape has a deep meaning for me. I spent a lot of years recording on reel to reel tape decks. I still have my original 4 track TEAC machine. The lyrics are more abstract than other songs I have written and for some reason I can still slip back to those times when I hear this song. I am using my Ovation Balladeer 12 string guitar as my standard writing/recording instrument over the years, and I just love the tone and the progression of the chords. The twelve strings just sound so full, and when using open tuning, it can make the chords sparkle. The other quick observation: I don’t get rid of equipment I buy…… I keep it forever!

The lyrics seem to create images that expand beyond the words. Familiar topics can do that sometimes when looked at with a different point of view or even a change in mood. I love – Life pours past the flags unfurled, Crack the crystal paralyzed world – and other parts, but I could not really tell you why. Another phrase that sticks with me is – Forget today and tomorrow, leave this song behind, and all it’s sorrow. a lot of my lyrics have a rather dark perspective. But behind them all is a sense of hope and a promise that things will get better and improve. I am one of the most optimistic people I know!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

Recording as an acoustic tune, I use one track for the vocals (unless there is a harmony track) and I use another track for the ‘line out’ from the acoustic/electric guitar, and then I use another track for a microphone placed in front of the 12 string (even here, it is important to place the microphone at the ‘sweet spot’ to get the best tone. Placing a microphone in front of anything without testing will more often disappoint rather than delight. As in other posts, I have had better success if I literally stick my head up to the instrument and move back and forth until I get the best sound. Doing this while playing the instrument is not practical, so I place the microphone, record, listen and compare it to other tracks that use a different microphone position. Once you have the best of the best, you can be pretty safe using it again. Live situations with full bands and instrumentation is a challenge and I still try to stick my face in there to get an idea what that instrument sounds like but also if it is close to other instruments, speakers, or unwanted noise makers. Most vocalists will stand in front of the microphone, but even in this case if they lean or tilt one way or the other it can dramatically affect the final tone or sound. Much of this is tied to the proximity effect and we will get into that later. For the most part I will pan the 12 string guitar line out to hard Left and the microphone for the 12 string hard Right. Vocals go in the center, unless you have more than one vocalist or lead singer. I use very few processors like compressors, gates, limiters, and the like. As long as you start with a solid tone a bit of EQ if needed, bring in some light reverb or delay and the mix is done.

LOVE/HATE Challenge – Getting to Know You

Posted: June 11, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #12string, #artists, #audio, #band, #biking, #books, #challenge, #creative, #creativity, #daughter, #education, #family, #friend, #friendship, #guitar, #hate, #inspiration, #inspire, #life, #love, #midimike, #motivation, #music, #musician, #nature, #observation, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #photography, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #runningsound, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #stories, #story, #studio, #truth, #writer

LOVE/HATE Challenge

I’ve been nominated to complete this challenge by several of you and after some convincing from my daughter, I’ve decided to give it a go. Instead of nominating 10 more bloggers, I would like to ask you all to post your favorite things in the comments so I can get to know you better.

I want to take this moment to thank all of you again for your very kind and encouraging comments. I have truly enjoyed reading your blogs and getting to know you better. Thank you for being a part of my journey.

Here it goes…

Love:

Writing and recording music
Biking
Photography
Nature – in all it’s glory and mystery
Family and friends
Reading great books, poetry, stories
Creative music – artists and performers
Teaching and helping others
Science, education, discovery and truth
Finding solutions to difficult problems.

Hate:

Wasting natural resources
Thinking that money makes you special
Personal and corporate greed
Things that should, but do not work
Violence
Thieves, scammers and swindlers
Demanding people
Bigots
Liars
Corporate and government politics

Quiet Night Lyrics

Posted: May 24, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #creative, #dreams, #family, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #journey, #life, #love, #lucky, #lyrics, #midimike, #motivation, #music, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #vocalist, #vocals

INTRO: Quiet Nights, I sit without lights,

Then what I play, accompanies me.

Accompanies me.

I’m a man of refined habits,

But not refined too much.

I’m searching for the spirit

While I find the touch.

Locked inside no prison

But can not call your name.

Outside your rock tree garden

Where silent lovers came.

Mourning come and shed no tears

For those they should have saved

While rocks beneath the water

Become tombstones for the grave.

INTRO: Quiet Nights, I sit without lights,

Then what I play, accompanies me.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

Quiet Nights – Reflect and Create

Posted: May 22, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #create, #creative, #daughter, #demo, #dreams, #family, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #journey, #life, #love, #lucky, #lyrics, #Midi, #midimike, #motivation, #music, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #stage, #story, #studio, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

Much of my early years I had tons of energy. Like most people my age, I got up early and stayed up through the evening. Unlike most, I got a bit extreme with this and as I started working I seemed to be able to handle the after hour and evening shifts quite well. Staying awake for 24 to 48 hours at a time was almost normal. I obviously was not! As most of the household was quiet and recharging their internal batteries, I would pull out my 12 string guitar. In the very late and dark hours, I would reflect on the day(s) past and go over experiences I or friends had. The fullness of the 12 strings (when I could afford to replace the old strings with new ones…) for me is just an amazingly soothing and inspiring environment. The guitar noodling started to reflect a mood and the experiences would turn into words, phrases or thoughts that I would repeat and refine until they started to gel into lyrics.

I would use this method over and over. Alone at night, lights out and everyone quiet or sleeping. Even now, decades later, this is still my favorite time to reflect and create. If you can, find your own time and environment that you can settle into quickly. If you cannot find the time – MAKE it. It does not have to be hours at a time. Rarely do we write a masterpiece or complete a painting or poem in an hour or so. The important thing is to set aside time – even little bits – and noodle, sketch, sing, or even think. Build your stage for creativity and perform there as often as you can. The masterpieces will create themselves…

Quiet Nights – An original tune I wrote based on this idea.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

Oceans of Oil Lyrics

Posted: May 15, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #atari, #audio, #cdbaby, #creative, #demo, #digital, #family, #guitar, #itunes, #keyboard, #life, #lyrics, #Midi, #midimike, #mother earth, #motivation, #music, #musician, #nature, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #reverb, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studioengineer, #vocalist, #vocals

“Oceans of Oil” (@) MSK 1989

You go through life,

And I don’t complain.

Good things die

The rest stays the same.

Politics and money

Garbage is king.

The Liberty Bell

Doesn’t even ring.

Oceans of Oil, tinsel stars

Clouds are dark – the air is sick.

Swarms of people like killer bees

Mother Earth is on her knees.

You believe what you feel is right

And now you are going to make a fight.

You have no idea what we’re going through

If it’s your choice, nothing else will do.

Oceans of Oil, tinsel stars

Clouds are dark – the air is thick.

Swirling with pain and lost emotion

Mother Earth may soon need that abortion.

You believe that what you feel is right.

Clouds are dark.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/retrograde/id962542260

Oceans of Oil – Mother Earth is on Her Knees

Posted: May 15, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #American, #atari, #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #creative, #demo, #digital, #environmental, #family, #guitar, #itunes, #keyboard, #life, #love, #lyrics, #Midi, #midimike, #mother earth, #music, #musician, #nature, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #stage, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals

As someone who truly loves the outdoors and nature (for a city guy!) I sometimes think there is no end to the way we have devastated the natural resources we were blessed with. Environmental tragedy after another, corporate greed and individual apathy seem to be everywhere at once. This is a disturbing and dark look (from my perspective) at what we are doing to our planet.

The music is rich with textures and soundscapes. One of the tricks I used was on the sound of the ‘toms’ as they repeat, the tuning changes and gets lower and lower. This is a simple MIDI trick. there are ways of doing this that can take a bit of time and planning, but what I did was very simple. As in the past, I use the keyboard to trigger the drum sounds when recording drum tracks. I recorded the simple beat with the tom sound. Then when I played it back, I started recording on the same track and used the keyboard ‘pitch bend’ stick to slowly lower the pitch as it played. That took about two seconds and once that was done during playback the drum toms would sound like they were being de-tuned in real time. Depending on how quickly the stick was moved, you could change the rate of pitch change.

My wife sings the melody and I add some vocal phrases and back up. To get her vocals to punch through the mix even though her vocals are smooth, I took a direct out (really it was an insert cable and we will get into that later) and fed her vocals into one channel of a stereo compressor/limiter to compress or ‘squash’ the levels, then I took the out put and ran it into the other (stereo side) side and used the limiter function. This allowed me to get a good signal by lowering the hot portions of the vocal track, and then pump it up to the point that the limiter would stop extreme levels from getting past a threshold point I set. I got a very clean vocal signal and smoothed out the peaks and valleys of the volume levels, allowing me to turn up the over all volume in the mix without distortion.

The Personal Touch does “The Pleasure Tax” – Rare Release

Posted: May 11, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #12string, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #cdbaby, #creative, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #itunes, #keyboard, #life, #Liveband, #love, #lyrics, #microphone, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #touch, #vocalist, #vocals

Recently I was asked in comments (The Observer) if a song I posted was recorded at home or in a studio. I replied but thought I might expand on that a bit and also introduce another version of “The Pleasure Tax”. As my brother and I got older we kept writing poems that were now almost always designed to be lyrics. We got better. Instead of playing the bongos, I played the toy organ I mentioned and everything else from there. Here is where I get to also blame my parents again. For Christmas we all got cool toys, but many of mine seemed to be music makers; recorders, tiny piano ‘tinkley’ toys, little ukuleles and eventually guitars with plastic strings and a drum set that was made for a three year old, but you get the point. So we got better and we played instruments and my brother started playing guitar as well. We had more toys to create music so when we wanted to record them (I was probably fourteen or fifteen by the time recording was a possibility) we wanted to add the various instruments and record them all together.

Through the years, we met other musicians and became great friend – or as I seem to recall – we met great friends that were also musicians. Eventually there was a central core of serious song writers. Sometimes there would be around eight or ten core writing members. It would seem there was a competition going (and there always was!) to write the coolest or most clever or the most groovy song. And we would have friends that would stop by and jam once in a while or would write lyrics and were willing to turn them over to a group of people that would fit them , with force if necessary, with a musical arrangement, melody line and harmonies.

The rambling link to all this is when we often played a collection of each other’s songs, we more than likely played with different performers supporting a few core members. Those were exciting days! One time you would sing the song and the lead vocalist was not there. So you let an ‘orbiting member’ do the vocal melody and you sing the harmony part. Most of us played instruments and sang – especially if we wrote the song as you can guess – so if the lead vocalist also played guitar, we filled in as a ‘core member’. On one visit or jam session you performed and sang your song all by yourself to the group. In other visits you were surrounded by full instrumentation and a choir of vocalists! So here is an example of all that tied into a version of this song by a full band I toured with. You heard us play live to an audience in Texas when we played the original song “Our Bodies Move” posted earlier. We also played other original songs and snuck them into our sets. One of them was “The Pleasure Tax”. We called ourselves The Personal Touch. Ric and I were a duo and when we decided to add a female vocalist as recommended by a booking agency they decided to sign us up for out of state gigs. We got some studio time when signing up and we performed some original tunes and some cover stuff…. done The Personal Touch way. “TPT” by TPT!

So this is rare original song of mine that was recorded in an actual studio. We are a trio and there was a studio drummer. Everything else is The Personal Touch with a very new vocalist.

Pleasure Tax – Sell Us Water, Sell Us Air!

Posted: May 7, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #creative, #demo, #family, #guitar, #itunes, #life, #lyrics, #midimike, #music, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals

Having written songs with my older brother from the beginning, I often bounce ideas at him to see what comes back. I remember (and take all of this with a grain of salt as I am not the best at chronology or details!) going up to him and saying something like… “I have this idea for a song and not sure where it goes, but I keep thinking get out of here leave me alone take it away, and that they want to charge us for anything. Soon they will sell us air and water”. Below is the result. I called it The Pleasure Tax, and it is more relative today. And yes, they do sell us air and water now!

I am very picky about tuning and tones used. Putting new strings on your guitar was sometimes a luxury. When I finally did it is like turning on a light bulb in a dim room. Yes, you could see before but now you can even read! Music can be like that. Things are not inspiring or do not sound very good and you change the strings (or reed, drum head, pads) and BAM! You want to go out and play it hard!

The tax is still out there, so be careful when you want to relax.?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

Music by Michael S Kennedy Lyrics by Michael S and Charles D Kennedy

Intro:

Take it away………… The Pleasure Tax 4x

Verse 1

Take it out, or take it home.

Take it back, it hasn’t grown

Take it away or leave it alone.

Say what you want, or hang up the phone.

Chorus

Put new strings on your damn guitar.

Make it simple, but play it hard.

He says he likes it I don’t know why.

We don’t understand but we’ll give it a try.

Verse 2

Hit the road or face the facts.

There’s something that your system lacks.

The very next time you go to relax,

You’ll go down from the Pleasure Tax

Late Potato – Simple Beauty

Posted: April 29, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #creative, #demo, #guitar, #itunes, #life, #lyrics, #microphone, #midimike, #music, #musician, #observation, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #vocalist, #vocals

In another acoustic song of mine, you can tell that I was clearly influenced by my surroundings. In another career a long time ago in a galaxy….. never mind, but it was a long time ago I was working for a company that had a huge manufacturing plant in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I am teasing a little, but there was nothing around for miles that stayed up later than the cows in the fields all around. I was not used to that and I was going a little crazy in a bored sort of way, as I rented a place to stay until I got settled in the new job and town.

I have heard people talk about watching the grass grow but I had no idea they meant it literally. So there are fields and corn. More fields and soy. Other fields with potatoes. Cows and other live stock and then more corn. I was interested to find out that some farmers hedge their bets a little and not plant everything right away. Farmers in the next field over were planting late potatoes. I couldn’t resist. It sounded so ‘like me’. I often feel like a late potato. (Sagittarius – figured that one out already did you?) Can’t keep up. Everyone is ahead of you. Get knocked down but you still help those in need. Excited by the simple beauty of life all around. You might feel like a Late Potato too.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

Couldn’t keep up when the rest of the world was running,

Couldn’t sit down until the fireworks were over.

Now, I have no need.

For things that take great speed.

CHORUS: They call me Late Potato

Late Potato

Late Potato.

Tried not to scream when the Earth spent all it’s money,

Tried not to laugh while the ax was getting sharpened.

Now, I have no need.

For things that take great speed.

CHORUS: They call me Late Potato

Late Potato

Late Potato.

Takes no time to lose, when I think that I am losing,

Gave my last dime when I was begging on the street.

Now, I have no need.

For things that take great speed.

CHORUS: They call me Late Potato

Late Potato

Late Potato.

My Original Tunes on ITunes and a Heartfelt Thank You to My Followers

Posted: April 21, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #creative, #daughter, #dreams, #family, #genres, #itunes, #keyboard, #life, #Liveband, #love, #lyrics, #midimike, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #stage, #studio, #vocalist, #vocals

As demonstrated in the past, I have shared my compositions and songs with friends and family. When asked by a blogger (and now a good friend) in a comment on my blog if my songs were available on i-Tunes, I replied that I believed they are but have not checked. I know this sounds strange and it is! Of the number of things I have learned and accomplished over the decades, I have not learned how (or desired…..) to promote my own work. That is one of the reasons why my daughter had to give me a big KICK to start this blog and get my songs out there.

It appears I need another big KICK! I placed my songs on CD Baby as I am an independent songwriter/performer and I do not have the backing of a major label (Yet???!!). Thank all of you for checking out this blog and for comments I truly feel are precious and thoughtful. Many of you are encouraging and supportive and I very much appreciate it. I want to help others understand the music environment and cut to the root of many systems or procedures we use that seem too mysterious or challenging to beginners.

I did check and I want to make sure you know that my songs (individually and as CD’s) are available on i-Tunes, and they can be found in streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, X-box and many other channels. If plans go well I will also be releasing more songs this year and early 2016. My daughter posted the i-Tunes links on the midimike blog recently, and I wanted to let you know if you are not familiar with CD Baby that the songs are available in other channels. Deep down, maybe everyone wants to be a famous rock star, but I simply want to create original music, help others do the same and share them with people that are as passionate about life as I am.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/retrograde/id962542260

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-energy/id962943592

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/touch-down/id962542289

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#poetry’

Reels of Tape – A Few Shattered Lines

LOVE/HATE Challenge – Getting to Know You

Quiet Night Lyrics

Quiet Nights – Reflect and Create

Oceans of Oil Lyrics

Oceans of Oil – Mother Earth is on Her Knees

The Personal Touch does “The Pleasure Tax” – Rare Release

Pleasure Tax – Sell Us Water, Sell Us Air!

Late Potato – Simple Beauty

My Original Tunes on ITunes and a Heartfelt Thank You to My Followers

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#poetry’

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