Music

As the child of two professional musicians, it was inevitable that music would be an integral part of my life. These are all of my posts related to music: my own, other artists, production and studio technique, synthesizers and music tech, and more.

Snow Globe

We had a rare day where it snowed continuously from sunup to sundown. It was a lazy Sunday, and Mary and I enjoyed watching the snowfall through the front windows while drinking coffee, reading, and chatting. Periodically, the wind would kick up and snow would blow in multiple directions simultaneously. At one point, Mary said, “now that’s perfect snow globe snow!” The peacefulness of the day definitely comes through in Snow Globe. I initially sat down thinking I’d be writing a solo piano piece, but the melodic line headed squarely into music box territory. I do have some more realistic … Continue reading

Paging Mr. Greenberg

One of the most amazing things about Song-A-Day is the overwhelming volume and quality of the music, with the equivalent of a full album posted almost every single day. The styles vary wildly, and even if it’s not a style you enjoy, there’s always something to enjoy or learn. It’s the learning that’s been the most unexpected benefit of participation for me. There are some truly monster talents putting up radio-ready tunes, and every day there are useful production, arrangement, and writing techniques to learn. Even better, everyone happily answers questions ranging from “what pedal did you use?” to “how … Continue reading

Deferential Drift

The beginning of week three, and the first time this month that I’ve actually hit a wall. I’ve thought I was about to on a couple of occasions, but something always showed up when I got into the studio. For this track, though, I was in rapid-fire, ADD noodle mode for about an hour. My hands kept going for default chord patterns, things I played in high school, I think I even played about half of Bach’s Minuet in G Major. I spun through sounds. I tried different synths. I threw a drum beat on. Nothing. That’s not to say … Continue reading

I Find the Strength

This turned into an accidental love song. Mary and spontaneously decided to go out for Valentines Day and had a lovely evening. She’d had a long week of business travel, so after she headed to bed, I headed to the studio, getting a very late start. Only about two hours for songwriting, and this after dinner and drinks. I was headed into instrumental territory again, given the short time frame, my general sleepiness, and total lack of ideas. All I had initially was the guitar and bass riff in the verse, and I was grooving along with that looking for … Continue reading

The Old Zerp and Flerp

It’s tempting to call this a “contractual obligation” track. The evening started with an attempt at a much simpler, downtempo electronic piece. I’ve been fascinated with this skydiving video’s soundtrack by Sidewalks and Skeletons, and wanted to learn more about how I might go about producing something similar. Unfortunately, many times when I’m trying to dissect something and rebuild, I end up rewriting the exact song I’m listening to. In this case, I couldn’t get away from the bass line and chord structure. I was also having difficulty finding any other melody. Part of the issue in this case is … Continue reading