#recording | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#recording’

His Simon to My Garfunkel

Posted: September 28, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #acoustic, #audio, #create, #creativity, #guitar, #harmony, #music, #musician, #personal, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer, #writing

Years ago when I was still learning to play guitar; I know, we are always learning! In this piece, my great friend and musical soul mate Tom Robinson is playing guitar and singing. I play around with the harmony, not knowing exactly where this song is going as we play off each other’s ideas as the song ends. This is another very basic living room recording but I simply love the song and the textures we created around the basic outline of the song. I hope you enjoy it as well. There are a number of inside jokes and references people might not totally understand, but I don’t think that will interfere too much.When I contacted them recently for correct song credits the answers were definite with options available for future adjustments. Tom Gorman and Tom Robinson [for all intents and purposes…] wrote the lyrics. Music by Tom Robinson. For a little more history I will include a portion of the conversation for historic kicks and giggles.

(Co-authors) Tom Gorman to Tom Robinson:

It was I July or Aug of 77 at your apartment. ….. Your stereo wasn’t working, and you were tinkering with it. You began to make progress and said “We got the capability . . .” For whatever reason, that inspired me, and I wrote most of the words to the song, including most of the refrain. ….. You came up with the lines about (mutual friends). I had written “We’ve got to feed our habits now” but couldn’t think of anything else. You changed “habits” to “rabbits” and added the line about rounding up the steer. At a later point, you put it to music and added “Thinkin’ about our doodely doom” and “weekend in the womb.” You also gave it the title “The Round-up.” The illegal beer was the Millers that (we) managed to score on a Sunday when it was illegal to sell it on Sunday.

Naming the Mysterious 12

Posted: September 18, 2015 in Music Theory
Tags: #band, #guitar, #keyboard, #logical, #motivation, #music, #musician, #musictheory, #note, #notes, #piano, #recording, #songwriter, #sound, #theory, #tips

Up = (#/Sharp). Down = (b/Flat).

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
C	C# Db	D	D# Eb	E	F	F# Gb	G	G# Ab	A	A# Bb	B

There are a number of discussions possible here. My point is the rose is a rose experience from my own limited understanding. Music theory is not my strong point. I know players that are very specific in the reference of notes or the progression used when naming them. It does make it easier to communicate – – – – – – To set up this conversation let it be understood that any note can be raised or lowered in increments of half-steps. Take your Root note and play the next highest note and you have ‘sharped’ the note. If you play the next lowest note you have ‘flatted’ that note. Up = Sharp. Down = Flat.

Any note. Any instrument. Any Western scale. Similar to the reference in Tuning; if pitch is too high it is Sharp, and if it is too low it is Flat.

We agree on common ground for the Titles of the Twelve. Looking at the piano as my standard example we need to notice the color of the keys not as a place on a musical staff or its place in a scale but as a compact representation of DISTANCE. The chart above uses the shading to mimic the keyboard and is not compressed or compact like the real piano is but if you play notes to the right they get higher by half-notes. Color means nothing to this reference. We rarely call the C note a B#, and we rarely call the F note an E# but this is a similar relationship.

Above you see the black notes have alternate names assigned to them. One way to help easy translation is to keep with one designator in the project. Give the notes names that are one system and not the other. Various way to think of it – a rose;

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, Bb, B, C is a rose:

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C

is a rose;

C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C

Along those lines I want to copy a recent comment from a great friend of mine and frequent commenter on this blog:

The math is easier if you name the root “zero.” 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 (the major scale). You can add 12 and get the same notes, just an octave higher. Subtract 12 and get the original keys. There are only 12 tones on a piano: 0, 1, 2, …, 11 After that, it just repeats.

The Mysterious Twelve is represented this way in the chart above. Starting with zero would change the Safe Seven representation to look like this:

C D E F G A B C

0 2 4 5 7 9 11 12

This is true and practical to use when considering the relationships of notes especially when working with musical scores where you are talking multiple octaves and keeping the relationships common. For many musicians, songs can be described as patterns. For example, if you are beginning a Jam and following previous examples in the key of C, you could say ‘lets start out with C for a few measures, then go to F and then go to G and repeat. Ready, set go!’. The Safe Seven shows us this relationship as a number starting with the Root equaling 1.

The Jam could also be started by saying ‘key of C, let’s play a 1,4,5 progression. Ready, set, Go!’. In this relationship, 1 = the Root or C, the 4th = F, and the 5th of the scale = G. The next jam session might be in the key of Bb, but we can still state this as 1,4,5 and the musicians that know the Safe Seven in each key will easily translate. You would be surprised how many popular songs follow the 1 – 4 – 5 and similar patterns! Starting with 1 as the Root, allows this pattern to more easily translate to the Root, 3rd, 5th – as this matches the common chord progression associations.

The point being there are a number of names for our ‘rose’, depending on the need or project at hand. If we call C “C”, “B#”, “0” or “1”, we are still describing the relationship between the 12 notes. As with the sharps and flats naming structure, once we start with a system, use the system through the entire project to avoid confusion!

Peddle Down, Let’s Burn This Town

Posted: September 1, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #atari, #audio, #creativity, #digital, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

“Rainy Day”

Cruisin’ down the avenue

Raining in the lightning.

Listening to the radio

Cruisin’ in the darkness.

Peddle down, let’s burn this town

Fire from my tires.

Reflections in my rear view mirror,

I will find tomorrow.

Comin’ down the avenue

Raining and the lightning.

Reflections in my rear view mirror

I will find tomorrow.

Go for ride real late at night

Rain comin’ down like it usually does.

So I turn the radio to the right

Playin’ the same songs as the other night.

So I slammed the door and I left for good

Now you find me driving in your neighborhood.

Don’t explain it to me, it’s well understood

Everything you do for me is for my own good.

Turn ‘round the corner I’m still losing my mind

So I punched it down and left it all behind.

Tryin’ not to cry I push it all back

Racing fast to nowhere on a one way track.

No colors at all, just the burning headlights

And the crackling of lightning tearing into the night.

People ask me what I do at night

I tell them only one thing makes me feel all right.

It makes me feel all right.

Lyrics by Michael & Ellen Kennedy

Music by Michael Kennedy

A Small Token…

Posted: August 25, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #appreciation, #audio, #create, #creative, #creativity, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #life, #love, #lyrics, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #thank you, #thanks, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

Thank you, thank you, thank you! For the next few days I’ll be offering all of my blog friends a free download of my song “Miracles In Your Hand“ off of my upcoming EP, “Before The Chase.” I have been struggling to find a proper way to thank you all for your support and encouragement over the past year. I was very close to throwing in the towel, but I started this blog and thanks to all of you and your kind words, I’ve been motivated to keep pushing forward. As I watch this year’s calendar fill with major events and milestones, there are usually small celebrations here and there. At each one I am not only surprised at the positive response and friendships created, but also by the amazing amount of talent and creativity this community produces. Please stop by and add this original song (Click here – Miracles in Your Hand) to your personal libraries as part of my continued appreciation for all you have done to support and spread my works.

After a break-up some of these lyrics just poured out. Seeing the same thing and coming to opposite conclusions. Having an early exposure to poetry first, I try to keep those ideas reflected in many of the songs I write. The chorus was an idea I had been playing with lyrically for a while and it seemed to immediately fit with the loss described in the verses. What would you do if you held a miracle in YOUR hand? What if that couldn’t save you?

“Miracles In Your Hand” (c) MSK

A reason is such a small thing,

Can’t you give me one?

Seems to me you were holding out,

Were you really just holding on?

The things we did won’t mean a thing,

The memories drift away.

The things you said hang in the air,

Like a light that will not fade.

CH: You’re alive one day with miracles in your hand,

Then you’re heading for a wall, drivin’ fast as you can.

I settled down uneasy, I’m just waiting for tomorrow to come.

When the answers seem so distant,

Questions lose their fun.

You thought that I was shutting up,

I was really just shutting down.

It’s time we found the meaning,

In the games we have made.

And a reason makes the difference,

When the last trick must be played.

CH: You’re alive one day with miracles in your hand,

Then you’re heading for a wall, drivin’ fast as you can.

I settled down uneasy, I’m just waiting for tomorrow to come.

Influence Me – One Song at a Time

Posted: August 7, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #audio, #band, #creativity, #genres, #guitar, #inspiration, #list, #love, #music, #musician, #performers, #personal, #recording, #review, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #vocalist, #writer

I finally completed my response to Who Do You Love? Thank you all for your suggestions. I really enjoyed getting to know each of you a little bit better through your favorite tunes.

It was really hard to narrow this list down to a reasonable size. I have been influenced by many musical artists in my early childhood. Even if I split them into separate decades there would be quite a list. I would like to mention a number of artists – ones that might not be in the well-known categories.

I will get started by saying that Peter Gabriel including his days with Genesis is probably the first on my list of influences. You can pretty much pick any of his stuff up and enjoy even if it is not your normal style.

Eric Burden and The Animals – San Franciscan Nights

Jimi Hendrix and The Experience – Little Wing, especially if you do not like Hendrix

Crosby Still and Nash – Almost Cut My Hair, I feel I owe this to someone

Aphrodite’s Child – The Four Horseman – this one just rocks but not sure what it means.

Simon and Garfunkel – At the Zoo. I often feel like I am living in that zoo.

Bjork- Human Behavior. I am going to cheat and mention her earlier works later, but she continues to put out a ton of diverse and outward looking music. I do not like everything she does, but many of her songs are on my must have with me on the deserted island play list.

Black Sabbath – Fairies Wear Boots – again, you just had to be there LOL

Curved Air – Second Album, a bit low quality by today’s standards but this is some great prog-rock and the vocalist is pretty good. Try Back Street Love, Piece of Mind for the darker side of the group and Puppets and wrap it up with Young Mother for a sampling of pro-rock history.

King Crimson has been a big influence for many years. I could get you to the early years, but try anything since Adrian Belew joined. There are too many to list but Three of a Perfect Pair, Elephant Talk, Frame by Frame, Walking on Air, One Time, and Dinosaur are hard for me not to list.

The Beatles – A Fool On the Hill, ’cause I have to.

En Vogue – Free Your Mind, this is a test to see if your mind is free

Gentle Giant – So Sincere, Working All Day, Three Friends, Funny Ways or one of my favorite tunes of all time – Nothing at All.

Missing Persons – Give, this song and video have been playing in the background in my head every day of my life…… non-stop…… and I enjoy it every time I hear it.

Chaka Khan – I Feel for You, or Tell Me Something Good her vocals have just the purest power and emotion. Give me the chills.

James Brown – I Feel Good, for so many reasons, this is a great tune

Beach Boys – Good Vibrations, sorry, I just had to do that

Jefferson Airplane – Today, one of my favorite depressing love ballads of all time

Paul Revere and the Raiders – Kicks, we still hear this theme being played every day.

Procol Harem – try Whiskey Train and the live version of A Salty Dog

Steppenwolf – Rock Me and Carpet Ride are pretty popular and rockin

Tear for Fears – Love to Rule the World, c’mon, doesn’t everybody?

Tom Waits – The Piano has Been Drinking, Nighthawks at the Diner and I think one called Step Right Up are killer tunes for the cynical crowd and a good laugh.

Zombies – Time of the Season is a classic song I often wonder how it got any air play at all.

The Sugarcubes – A Leash Called Love and Chihuahua should get you started in the morning. I also recommend Gold as a great first dive. Yes, this is the band Bjork was involved in prior to going solo. For one more if I dare, try the spooky tune called I’m Hungry. I have spent many long drives with this song.

As many have said, you could go on and on and so could I. This was more difficult than I though and I have no doubt that I will think of a ton more later! I have not mentioned a number of other styles of music as you would be cross-eyed by the time you got to the end. Thank you all again for giving me new ideas and artists to enjoy. A number of them I have no doubt will end up influencing me as much as the ones from my library.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job!

Posted: August 3, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #bass, #create, #drums, #guitar, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

Like many songs or projects do, this song combines a number of events in my life with observations I make as an observer on the planet Earth. I was outside and looked up in the sky one afternoon for no real reason and noticed there was a bright full moon. I know they happen, it just seemed unusual and weird. Do werewolves come out on a full moon In the Middle of the Day? I digress. So I thought that is weird, and how would most people notice there was a full moon? When you’re looking up from the ground. I worked in a call center for a number of years. Some of those years get boiled down into a verse or two. It expresses frustration with the extreme customer and how difficult it can be to ‘act professionally’ when under duress. But there is also recognition of the people I have worked with. It feels natural. We work as a team with no agenda. I have worked with some great teams of people, some very smart and some very dedicated and some very efficient. All working together and helping each other. If only we could get big business and politicians to work like that. On this song I programmed the drums and played bass guitar behind the 12 string and vocals. It was just a quick little ditty about work. I like the arrangement of the song and it has a few twists to it. It is fun to play and I hope you enjoy!

“In the Middle of the Day”

Muscle machine; glorified drama queen,

Held together by something in between.

There’s a full moon in the middle of the day,

Sometimes you just can’t get out of the way.

All the crazies, calling you on the phone

Never get the time to be on your own.

There’s a full moon in the middle of the day

Tell ‘em the Truth; Lies, they won’t believe you anyway.

But it feels natural like this

Everything works the way it’s supposed to be.

Know it with every kiss:
I’ll take care of you, if you‘ll take care of me.

It’s one thing, until you turn around

That’s when you notice, looking up from the ground.

There’s a full moon, in the middle of the day,

Gets to where black and white blurs into gray.

The dumb ones really get on your nerves,

And This One thinks everyone’s here just to serve.

There’s a full moon, in the middle of the day,

Don’t you ever wish you could say what you want to say?

It feels natural like this

Watch out for each other, learn from what you see.

Know it with every kiss

I’ll take care of you, will you share your life with me.

*It feels natural like this. It feels natural like this….

There’s a Full Moon in the Middle of the Day,

There’s a Full Moon in the Middle of the Day

It’s A Good Thing He Wasn’t Home That Night

Posted: July 26, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #create, #creativity, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #harmony, #inspiration, #inspire, #loss, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #thanks, #thankyou, #writer

With your help and a lot of other social groups and individuals, we have helped raise money to help my friend John try to recover from the house fire that happened while he was away. He still has not been able to get home to see the damage and to make plans for the immediate future. I really want to thank all of you for great comments, spreading the word and financial support. My guess is a number of people that do not know him offered support in a number of different ways. I am frankly proud and grateful of the way this blog community responded. Thank you again!

As many of you know I have been a musician for many years and met John when he was hired to work at the same music store I worked in. It is kind of funny as you get older you can talk of personal experiences in terms of DECADES!! Just saying.

Back on track, I wanted to give you an idea of the damage from the fire and the amazing group of local friends that organized without instruction and worked extremely hard to recover as many personal belongings as we could – and the restoration work that continues; and frankly, is really just at the beginning of that phase. I wanted to give you a picture. But we all know that is impossible. You cannot describe the lobbies in Las Vegas hotels or what it feels like in the middle of the ocean to someone that has never been there. We try. We get close. They get the idea, but until you have similar experiences it can be hard to know what those and many other things in life are truly like.

I have been to his house but I still do not have the big picture. The closest I can get is reliving the feeling I had when I came home from one of those rescue missions….. I walked up to my front door and as I started to put the key in the lock I thought; what if all of this is gone? In the difference of a day……. Memories gone. Pictures gone. Music gone. Furniture gone. Everything. Gone.

With those thoughts in mind and my keys in my hand, I wrote this song. I thank all of you for sharing, in so many ways. And while I am at it, thank you for allowing us to share with you.

http://www.gofundme.com/johnvaneaton

https://midimike.com/2015/07/11/please-help-spread-the-word/

It’s Easy To Die – It Doesn’t Get Much Darker Than This

Posted: July 23, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #creativity, #death, #digital, #effects, #harmony, #inspiration, #itunes, #keyboard, #lyrics, #Midi, #music, #musician, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

It may take a few times through listening to this one. A number of my songs might seem quite alien at first. I hope you let them grow on you. (OK, that sounded kinda creepy LOL!) This is a textured song where I did all the sequencing and drum programming. There are no guitars on this song. Most of this is Atari days using the Proteus 1 tone generator an the RX 15 drum machine. I also use sounds straight from the keyboard(s) I use as controllers. In this case it is the Korg Trinity V3. Other than the vocals, everything is recorded via MIDI and plays back live sounds from the keyboards and tone generators (along with effects and other goodies). From start to finish this is a dark piece. Sparse percussion with a rolling sequenced bass line. You have heard my wife before on “All Night Long” and “What I do at Night” and this is another one of her gems. The intro and break vocals are from Phyllis Ann, who toured with The Personal Touch and sang on “The Touch” and “Our Bodies Move.” As the song begins I try to use multiple melody lines in various instrument voicings to lay the chordal structure. Plucky guitar sounds come from the Korg. Slow trance – lulling you closer. Then the message; “Who’s Following You?”. But the subject quickly settles on the main issue; death. Too many of us are waiting for that dream.

“It’s Easy to Die” (@) MSK 1990

I wonder, I wonder who

Who, is following you.

It’s easy to die

You just close your eyes.

And then once the dream begins

It will never end. My friend.

Don’t put up a fight

Just follow the light.

It’s not too hard

And once the dream begins

It will never end.

Chorus:

It’s easy to turn

Your life into lies. My friend

And once the dream begins

It will never end.

Update and Appreciation

Posted: July 16, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #charity, #create, #creative, #creativity, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #inspiration, #loss, #love, #lucky, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performer, #performers, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #thanks, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

I wanted to give everyone an update on my musician friend John (whose house was damaged in a fire). Lots of effort and a lot of good news, even in this sad event. John will be in town soon and will be able to look over the damage and take inventory of the surviving furniture and gear. Until then Alisa has organized the gofundme project http://www.gofundme.com/johnvaneaton which has raised $10,000 so far in less than a week. I think that is going to make a big difference in the next few days and weeks.

There are a number of people still working on cleaning and restoring items that were rescued in the search and recovery phase. Once John gets to look at the various projects, he will have a better idea of how to get back on his feet. We hope to have information from the team that is working on organizing a benefit soon.

https://midimike.com/2015/07/11/please-help-spread-the-word/ this is the original post about these events.

I’m also in the process of writing a song about the events using some guitar chords my wife was playing with recently and a little jam I was working on. Thank you all for getting the word out and helping as much as you can. I have come home from those salvage missions and realize everything that I have could be gone in moments. I am not rich, but the music and memorabilia would be irreplaceable. I will need them when memory loss really kicks in!

This song is for John, everyone who donated money and time to help him and all of you really cool bloggers. I’m going to post the lyrics first while I polish the song, but it will be up shortly.

Traveling for business

He is often out of town

From country to country

One city becomes the next

It wasn’t until he got the text

With pictures from the news

That he knew this was the beginning

Of a Very Long Night

He wasn’t home when the fire started

Everyone says it could have been worse

As we watched, broken hearted

Each tear became another verse

Unable to return any time soon

All my friend could do was watch

Phone calls and e-mail

The news from home was grim.

Some say it was best for him

Being out of town.

Some say it was best for him

He didn’t see it burn down.

Some say it was best for him

Not to see the damage from the flames

Some say it was best for him

As all that water did the same

It was a good thing he wasn’t home that night

It was a good thing he wasn’t home all right

It was just the beginning of a Very Long Night.

Your Heartbeat Mimics the Music You Listen To

Posted: July 10, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #audio, #band, #cdbaby, #creativity, #genres, #guitar, #inspiration, #inspire, #itunes, #love, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performers, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #Song review, #songwriter, #sound, #vocalist, #vocals

Hey everyone! While the question is open and I still hope people continue to post their most influential artists and bands at https://midimike.com/2015/06/29/who-do-you-love-influential-musicianbands/ , I want to thank everyone for participating. I have listened to a ton of new music. With some I was familiar with the artist and others I was not aware of at all! Even the bands I knew of, the suggestions were songs I had not heard before but were probably the best the artist recorded. I would like to summarize the lists you posted and make a condensed suggestion article once I have listened to each suggestion a few times. What music and band we like tells a lot about us in many ways. This is a good community and we share a number of qualities and talents. We have our own pulse. A common foundation that is very cool.

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

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MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#recording’

His Simon to My Garfunkel

Naming the Mysterious 12

Peddle Down, Let’s Burn This Town

A Small Token…

Don’t Quit Your Day Job!

It’s A Good Thing He Wasn’t Home That Night

It’s Easy To Die – It Doesn’t Get Much Darker Than This

Update and Appreciation

Your Heartbeat Mimics the Music You Listen To

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#recording’

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