I recently added vocals to the instrumental “It Only Takes One‘. This is just a fun song in my opinion. It has a toe-tapping beat with a fast pace to it. I like the simple chord changes and the way it just sticks in your head after you have heard it a few times.
I sent this to my band mates from ‘The Merchants’. We may have a real version at some point in the future. This version is just me and my toys lol.
I have been preoccupied lately with family and life style challenges, though I have still managed to be productive. It is just difficult for me to put things together in a post. Hopefully in the future I will catch you all up, and visit my amazing followers again. I hope you are all having a great New Year.
I think I originally titled this I promise, until a real song from a real singer released one. That has happened to me before so on we go. But now I am positive about it. A simple pledge of better times when there is nothing left to hold you back. A point of no return.
Again using Dolby Atmos for the spatial audio mix, I have another song for you to listen to. Using headphones will give you the best dimensional effect, though the speakers will also reflect some clarity and each instrument or vocalist will be heard a bit easier and clearer – more distinct.
I imagine this to be similar to being in a small crowded room with lots of people talking. It is hard to make out any of the conversations going on around you. Now, Imagine the room much bigger and everyone spaced further away from each other and you. Now you can hear conversations and know who is laughing or singing. Something like that. Instead of mixing so all the instruments are ‘sitting on top of each other’ in the stereo field, the listener can be part of – or completely removed from the sound scape. We can now give the listener the illusion of sound coming from anywhere in the ‘room’ we create.
Here is another song I wrote and recorded recently called “The Dream”. The spatial effects in Atmos do indeed, give a new dreamy sound to the mix.
I wrote lyrics for Take Away One based on the idea of removing a particular note from a 4-note-chord. This leaves you with a specific 3-note-chord. Hence the name of the song and also the foundation for the original poem. I had to add a verse to the poem converting them to lyrics because for a few weeks one band member or the other could’t make a scheduled music jam. Often three members would drop out one by one leaving me as the only bandmate that made it for the jam! Sometimes we travel and jam in person, but more often we use a program for on-line musicians and connect from our homes. That is how we survived the Covid-19 lock-down.
You will notice the difference right away. This is another example of a song that came together really fast because it was based on a mathematical theme or idea. The chord pairs were based on the idea above, but the progression was completely random. The arrangement was pretty basic so it wrote itself. Once I had the title it was easy to think of examples in life where things get taken away. You’re probably doing it right now.
If you get writers block, try starting from a different point. I’ve never had writers block in my 50 years of writing and recording songs, so maybe I’m on to something.
I had fun with the ending and the arrangement has a few twists as usual. Enjoy Take Away One.
I posted a poem called “Take Away One” recently. I knew this one was a song in the making so I started working on writing music around the theme. I tell my friends that I ‘feel’ music theory more than I know or understand it. Sometimes I look at the patterns and rhythms, often I get fascinated by melodies that twist within the chords. Often I get distracted by simple mathmetical relationships in music – ’cause that’s what it is.
There are many tonal relationships between chords in any arrangement. For background, two notes played simultaneously is an interval. With three or more individual notes you can form a chord. The more notes within the chord the greater the potential for complex tones. Some combinations sound calm, delightful and inspiring. Other combinations are uncomfortable or have a lot of dissonence. Some are downright ugly by themselves if truth be told.
Not to get too deep here, because I can’t swim in these waters, but the arrangement uses the relationship when you have a 4 note chord (of any root note you prefer). Start with a G Major 7th chord as my example. It consistes of 4 individual notes: G (the root here by definition of the chord name), B, D and F#.
If you Take Away One – the G in this example as root note of the chord – you have a 3 note chord called B Minor. The arrangement consists of alternating between pairs of Major 7th chords and their relative minor 2nd chord. (or is it its 2nd relative minor?). Then I pick another random pair of Major 7th/2nd Minor chords and continue. Hence the name of the song.
I am working on the melody line and recording the vocals but here is the instrumental version of “Take Away One“.
MidiMike 