saturday, february 2, 2008 So I've learned a lot about different types of dance music over the past 2 years, I dated a guy who liked drum and bass, and his roommate played house and drum and bass on technics turntables in the living room at their place. So instead of just knowing that I vaguely like house music, I have vocabulary for several different types of dance music now. I learned that drum and bass is mmmm chh... mm ch, and house is doof doof doof doof. Well there's more to it than that, but it was a clear way to start learning. The kinds of music I like are clubby house, because you can dance to it, and electro, because it reminds me of Depeche Mode. I gotta say, I like for example what MSTRKRFT are doing. I rented a keyboard that has half decent drum kits, and I went to town today. Fuchsia is a bit of electro fun that I made today, check it out.
thursday, september 14, 2006 here is some music that I made last night.
It's 12 min of random piano playing... I think a summer of trying to wade through Ulysses, and buying a Brian Eno CD this week have taken its toll.
Seriously though, I heard a thing on Ideas about 4 years ago on the connection between brain waves and music, and I thought if Brian Eno can make 60 min of the same chords, lemme see what I can do.
What I heard on Ideas, was about a researcher who was able to translate brain waves into MIDI data, and the resulting music sounded to me very much like random noodling - random playing, but within a particular key. They discovered that when they played back the music generated by an individual's brain waves, it made them relax. I figured that a musician's original music will reflect the state of their brain waves at the time they played, and will evoke similar brain waves in the listener, possibly passing along the mood of the musician to the listener.
Yes, I was in a terrible mood when I played the above music, but it was interesting to vent.
sunday, july 22, 2006 Here's a rough recording of something I'm calling The Crush.
saturday, july 22, 2006 I just watched my 24 Hour Party People DVD. I bought it awhile ago but only now just got around to watching it. I like New Order and I like Steve Coogan so I liked it. But it has made me realize that for me, there is no point in making music unless you can dance to it, or at least tap your foot. I was fiddling with some stupid 5/4 loopy beat loop, but I think I'd rather make something you can dance to.
wednesday, july 12, 2006 Today I uploaded a new version of this website. Much of the content is still the same, but I got sick of the pristine white and green, and this present one is a grittier 70's look, with browns and oranges, featuring a terrazo background that is a photo of a windowsill in my apartment. I might add some more subtle touches but I just uploaded it today because I was tired of waiting; it's basically done. I had fun blending the edges of the background so that it tiles seamlessly. I played the Cat Song at the open mic this week, it went over okay. I have a few more songs half-written, hopefully I'll record some rough versions soon just to see how many have accumulated. Oh, and I heard of this guy Antoine Gratton, I heard his one song somewhere, I forget where, then I heard it again, along with his name, on CBC Radio One. Check him out.
sunday, june 4, 2006 Yesterday I dusted off my mirage sampler, and everything seems to work still, which is cool. I've written 3 songs maybe, since I last updated here, that is, three whole, viable songs. There is one about visiting my boyfriend, who is now my ex; it's really kind of an ode to Spadina and the streetcar that runs on it. I wrote one about my cats, and whether they might go to heaven. :/ There is another one about when people are nasty, but karma comes to visit them after anyhow. I went out to an open mic a total of one time since I last wrote here. I'm stuck in the downward spiral of not practicing my guitar, and so not going out to play at open mics... the time I did go out recently, I was caught out because I still had to look at my left hand to play one of the songs.
tuesday, january 17, 2006 hmmm... been a bit busy lately, doing I forget what actually. I'm writing some more songs, I bought a Casio mini keyboard at Goodwill, dusted off my JX3P, and I want to see how cheesy the harpsichord sound will sound on my Clavinova. Wahhh... my open mic night died. So I have to find a new one. Trouble is, my guitar playing still sucks. And I have Audacity for my PC, and I have my Mac Quadra from my parents' house, so the music might skew quite a bit more in the electronic direction, but still with guitar, don't worry. :D I am so excited, the Casio is like the Da Da Da drums.
wednesday, october 5, 2005 CDs were sent out to about 20 community radio stations last week. Tonight I go see the John Mayer Trio! :D
wednesday, august 30, 2005 Well the songs are done. Yay! I put some scratches on my pickguard for Plan B. And broke a string. I am planning to send out a bunch of CDs to Ontario and Quebec community radio stations, I'm aiming to have them sent by mid-September.
wednesday, august 3, 2005 What happened? Where are the new songs? Well several things have happened this summer: I went to the Montreal Jazz fest and had a great time, I saw Medeski Martin & Wood and they put on an awesome show. I bought some new Quebec music (Les Cowboys Fringant, couple others). It's been too hot to record... for the peace and quiet required for recording, I would have to shut off the fans, and possibly melt. However I went out to an open mic last night and I'm feeling a bit more motivated than recently.
friday, june 24, 2005 I have written 2 new songs... I had been getting everything ready for a CD mailout to various campus-community radio stations... and wrote 2 new songs. Ha ha. I am going to try to record them soon, and put them on the CD... they are better than the other songs... no use putting out a CD without the better songs, hmm? I might aim for an August mailout to catch the college & university kids as they gear up for September, dunno if that's good or not, but it seems to be working out that way nonetheless.
saturday, april 2, 2005 The songs are done and up on the website. Some things changed of course from how I had planned, but I had no real difficulties. I didn't rent a snare drum & brushes like I had planned, but I got more rhythmic value out of the acoustic guitar so all was well. I raised the key Impatiens is in simply because it sounded better, I wanted to put piano on it too, but I just kind of stopped adding stuff cause it sounded good. I had to really give 110% while singing Happy Mondays because the song has gone lukewarm for me compared to the others, and because I cannot play a C major chord reliably when the red Record light is on. The Reading Song is fairly straightforward, it is short, a minute and 30 sec! I double up the verses and sing fewer choruses to save time at open mics. Who wants a song to go on forever in case it bombs?
wednesday, march 30, 2005 Well I am working on some more songs, three of them. The Thing You Want The Most is renamed Impatiens. So I've been recording that one, and The Reading Song, and Happy Mondays.
Impatiens is my hopefully only oblique reference ever; it is the name of a flower, that is also called Touch-Me-Not, and I thought it went with the theme of the song. Along with the title change, it gained two verses.
The Reading Song started off as a joke. I wrote it really quickly and it was great; didn't need any revisions. The music is largely a distillation of every Buddy Wasisname and Irish Rovers humour song that I have ever heard. I sang it twice at open mic nights, and got a good response. The first time I sang it, I gave a big preamble on the meaning of the lyrics, and got compliments. The second time, I just launched into it, and it got a number of laughs from people which was cool. They must not have expected it, because I have a kind of school-marm librarian-like stage presence.
Happy Mondays I am not liking right now. I tried singing on it this morning, and I just couldn't get it right. I can't get the C chord just right either.
wednesday, january 20, 2005 heh. Some progress on what is now called Thing You Want The Most. Check out the Music page, down at the bottom, for the lyrics to that, and Happy Mondays. Thing You Want benefits a lot now from two bridges I gave it today. It was really coming up short in the verses, so it's nice to finish off with a sucker punchy ending.
wednesday, january 12, 2005 Well I have been getting some encouragement to go out to the Oasis lately but I am declining for the moment, I am feeling the need to brush up on my guitar skills. And I have, in fact. I have gone from sitting, peering at my own written down words, to standing, playing, not looking so much at the fretboard, and I have almost memorized the lyrics to my own songs. The next thing I want to do is learn some covers, to take the pressure of the few songs I have written so far. I am going to try to learn some Jane Siberry and Teitur songs, don't quote me though.
I have finally realized what stuff goes in what journal, ie this one versus my LiveJournal. I was reading David Ryan Harris's, and I got all inspired. He seems like a cool guy. He said how he starts typing and kind of doesn't stop, I can totally relate to that. However for me, typing is second nature, I did not-so-bad in typing class in grade 9, and when email came about while I was at university, well that sealed the deal, cause I got a LOT of practice typing from then on. Good thing because I work with computers & typing etc. at my job.
I have written a couple of songs, Happy Mondays is indeed happy and pretty much finished. There is another one, "who's gonna stand in the way of the thing you want the most, is it me? is it me?" and I am so not happy with the verses. It is in a kind of 3/4 time, but not like a waltz, more like a breakbeat waltz if there is such a thing, or a shuffly waltz. No! Stop! It's not a waltz at all, call it 12/16 and that will be much better. But I am dealing with some weirdo subject matter with this song, and it's delicate: men-women relating together, the tension that results from 2 people wanting to achieve completely different goals. I know what I want to say with the song, I keep second-guessing myself; it simply hasn't settled where it's gonna go, not yet. I'm trying to say something serious and not very nice, really, so I'm trying to get it JUST right before I go any further with it. I also quickly wrote a Buddy Wasisname style one about reading four books at once. :)
I had a moment a couple of times where I went through my notebook (well, sheaf of papers, really) and found a song half-finished that I had started before. Like finding money in a pocket of a jacket you haven't worn in awhile. Unfortunately I had forgotten how I wanted it to go. I had lotsa little notes, ie I write down the note names over the words, and my cuneiform rhythm notation, but nothing clicked. However Big Quiet Sunrise's melody went through a couple of mutations before I settled on what is on the MP3. And when it came together, it was like riding a bike. So I am not afraid. As long as I have a good lyric, I am okay. Lyrics are like deciding who should come to the party. Melody is what happens when the party is going on. For me, anyhow. Well, I do tweak or prune the melody a lot so that it is not too repetitive/cliched, but for the most part I just let it kind of happen.
I am not sure who would buy a home-made CD that I made. Well, home-recorded; I am looking into duplicating costs, just to feel out how much for what. I think no one really wants to pay for a burned CDR. I have done a bit of looking into festivals for the summer, and I am going to send off a CD soon to a festival organizer. Yay.
wednesday, nov. 24 Last night I went to my third open mic night at the Oasis. I played a song I finished only on the weekend, which was kind of fun because the song was still pretty shiny and new... it's called Happy Mondays so far. Shoutouts to the Oasis regulars, it's a good atmosphere there.
saturday, nov. 13 Maybe about a week ago I finished recording and uploading four songs. They were recorded on a Boss multitrack recorder, a little machine I rented that uses flash memory. My guitar skills are still very new, so please excuse the odd buzzy fret noise here and there. I'm a piano player, but I'm using the acoustic guitar because i need a change!! That, and I think that it just sounds better with the songs I happened to write. I've sat down to play with a couple of more song ideas, so I'm letting those percolate, and I'm going to try to get ready for some open mic/open stage nights around town.