|
DATE |
TITLE |
NOTES |
| 5.24.13 |
Piece052413
|
Another R-05 inside the upright piano
Sound-In
improv. Another one-take improv with a bit of delay. This is
for the victims of the recent tornadoes. |
| 5.17.13 |
Piece051713
|
Due to some busy days ahead, I'm
going back to the R-05 inside the upright piano for my
Sound-In
improvs for a bit. This is a quick one-take improv with no
processing. |
| 5.10.13 |
Piece051013
|
There is a flock of parrots that
show up on my street each evening and I finally had a chance
to go out and record them the other day. I decided to
include them in my
Sound-In
improv this week, along with two tracks on the ukulele (some
processing on each track, but no edits). |
| 5.3.13 |
Piece050313
|
Having limited time (after
coming home today after a few days in the mountains with a
bunch of 5th graders), and inspired by the theme of
"dancing" over at Sound-In,
I made this very quick improv on the ukulele. |
| 4.26.13 |
Piece042613
|
Another quick Sound-In
improv with the Telecaster, recorded live on the R-05. |
| 4.19.13 |
Piece041913
|
I made my Sound-In
improv this week with a heavy heart from the events of this
week (particularly in Boston). However, my desire was to
make something with a feeling of hope. This was made with
the Alchemy app on my iPad and electric guitar (with the
track doubled, panned and delayed a bit). |
| 4.12.13 |
Piece041213
|
I had a real harpsichord in my
theatre this past weekend, so on Saturday night (after the
real musicians left), I made this quick improv for my Sound-In
improv this week. Thankfully I thought ahead to bring my
R-05 to work with me that day. There is no processing at
all. |
| 4.5.13 |
Piece040513
|
The theme at Sound-In
improv this week is "dreams," so I made this improv with
some voice and the Animoog app on the iPad. |
| 3.29.13 |
Piece032913
|
And now back to the Tele for my Sound-In
improv this week. This is two tracks (first takes, no edits)
panned hard left and right, and each processed the same way
(with 2 delays). I had Good Friday in mind when I made this,
but it's not programmatic in any way. |
| 3.22.13 |
Piece032213
|
Back to the bass for my Sound-In
improv this week. This is two tracks (first takes, no edits)
panned hard left and right. On the left side you hear the
bass clean, played with a pick. On the right side it is
played with the fingers, processed with fuzztone, flanger
and delay. |
| 3.15.13 |
Piece031513
|
Some acoustic guitar and tenor
uke for my Sound-In
improv this week. A little compression on each track, some
delay and reverb on the uke, and panned hard left and right.
Simple as that. |
| 3.8.13 |
Piece030813
|
The theme this week at
Sound-In
is "future technology," so I decided to make a piece with
the iPad. This is three tracks improvised using the Alchemy
synth app. |
| 3.1.13 |
Piece030113
|
This
Sound-In
improv is a unintentional companion piece to the one made
two weeks ago, made in the same way (with the inclusion of a
Boss OS-2 pedal). |
| 2.22.13 |
Piece022213
|
It's the 3rd annual
Sound-In
Film Festival this week, so like I did last time, I made an
audio improv and then dropped it into a public domain video
that I found (this one is of the Lincoln Memorial). Once
again, this was made with the Telecaster into Pod into looper (RC-20XL),
but this time direct into the board. This is two tracks,
with one duplicated and delayed slightly and each hard left
and right. The solo is in the middle. Also, you can see the
video by clicking on the "Videos" link on the left. |
| 2.15.13 |
Piece021513
|
Another very quick
Sound-In
improv this week. Telecaster into Pod into looper (RC-20XL)
into Vibro Champ and recorded with the R-05. Again, one take, no edits, no post-processing. |
| 2.8.13 |
Piece020813
|
Another busy
week, so here's another quick one for my
Sound-In
piece. This is the Telecaster played through a Pod and my
Fender Vibro Champ and recorded with the R-05. One take, no edits, no post-processing.
I like the old-school hiss on this one. |
| 2.1.13 |
Piece020113
|
I'm in the middle of a busy
week, so it's back to the R-05 inside my old upright piano
for my Sound-In
piece. One take, no edits or processing, and a couple of
random computer noises from my laptop to round it off. |
| 1.25.13 |
Piece012513
|
This week's theme at
Sound-In
is "elements," so I decided to do something with air (being
a wind player and all). However, none of my wind instruments
were doing it for me, so I just started "singing." What you
hear here is a single take (with one little part cut out
because I didn't like it) doubled, panned to the sides and
processed. I think it sounds very "elemental." |
| 1.18.13 |
Piece011813
|
There's no theme this week at
Sound-In,
so I decided to go back to the Telecaster. I improvised the
track on the left first, with no processing on it. For the
track on the right, I dialed in the delay I wanted, and then
improvised over the first track. These were both the only
takes, with no edits. |
| 1.11.13 |
Piece011113
|
The theme this week at
Sound-In
is "dusk." I didn't have much time, so I picked an app on my iPad (the Animoog
synth), found a sound that evoked dusk to
me, and made a quick stereo track improv in real time. There
is no processing. Soup to nuts in just a few minutes. |
| 1.4.13 |
Piece010413
|
Along with a variety of
unknowns, 2013 will bring a new year of
Sound-In
improvs, so it's time to get started. This one is two tracks
of electric guitar. I duplicated one, then did some
processing and panning. |
| 12.28.12 |
Piece122812
|
This week at
Sound-In
is our "Year-End" event, so I made an
improv for it. With the exception of the guitar part, all
parts were recorded on the Loopy HD app on my iPad. The
piece speaks for itself. Happy New Year! |
| 12.21.12 |
Piece122112
|
I made this
Sound-In
improv as a memorial for the victims in Newtown. While it's
a bit more "produced" than normal, it all comes from just
two improvised tracks. |
| 12.14.12 |
Piece121412
|
Here's a little homage to Ravi
Shankar for my
Sound-In
improv, featuring the sruti box app on my iTouch for the
drone, and a ukulele improv (with some delay) on top. |
| 12.7.12 |
Piece120712
|
Since we're having a Hawaiian
show at my theatre tomorrow, I decided to go back to the
ukulele this week for my
Sound-In
improv. Just two tracks again, with a bit of processing. |
| 11.30.12 |
Piece113012
|
Decided to go back to the SH-101
this week for my
Sound-In
improv. Just two tracks and some processing. Inspired by my
friend Gary Stroutsos, but I didn't realize it until after
the fact. |
| 11.23.12 |
Piece112312
|
The theme this week at
Sound-In
is "planes, trains, and automobiles," which didn't speak to
me. However, "Black Friday" was another story. Here are
three tracks of electric guitar improv. |
| 11.16.12 |
Piece111612
|
It's been a busy week, so I
decided to use my iPad for my
Sound-In
piece. This was made with a modified sound in the SoloSynth
app, recording both tracks live, one right after the other,
then panned and mixed. The only post-recording processing
was a bit of EQ adjustment on the track on the left channel
to bring out the bass a bit more. |
| 11.9.12 |
Piece110912
|
The theme this week at Sound-In
is "wood," so I made this clave duet. I recorded the left
side first, and then the right side side against it (and
then added some reverb at the end). Nice and simple. |
| 11.2.12 |
Piece110212
|
Back to the R-05 and the old
upright piano for
my Sound-In
piece this week. Recorded it live in one take and then
processed it with some reverb. Ok, a lot of reverb. |
| 10.26.12 |
Piece102612
|
To conclude
my Sound-In
percussion month, I took the improvs from the previous three
weeks, and then improvised a rabana (Sri Lankan hand drum)
part over them (with the delay added to the channel before
recording). A little bit of mixing and here you go. |
| 10.19.12 |
Piece101912
|
Percussion month continues for
my Sound-In
improvs. This one is a solo improv on kalimba. I added a
delay to the channel before recording, and played
with/against the rhythm of the delay while recording. I then
duplicated the track, panned each one hard left and right,
and took out the delay on the left side to add more
dimension to the overall piece. |
| 10.12.12 |
Piece101212
Piece101212_reverb |
My
Sound-In
improv this week is a solo improv on concert wind chimes
(again in one take). I made two versions: the first one is
dry, and the second one has reverb added. |
| 10.5.12 |
Piece100512
|
My
Sound-In
improv this week was made from a solo cymbal improvisation
(one cymbal and one take). |
| 9.28.12 |
Piece092812
|
For my
Sound-In
improv this week, I decided to go with clarinet. What you
hear here are two tracks (one take each, no edits), one
panned hard right, the other panned hard left, and each
processed with different delays. |
| 9.21.12 |
Piece092112
|
A busy week with a new season
starting at my job, so here's a quick two-track
Sound-In
improv made with the BeBot app on my iTouch. |
| 9.14.12 |
Piece091412
|
Due to time and technological
constraints, it's back to the old upright for my
Sound-In
piece this week. |
| 9.7.12 |
Piece090712
|
ImprovFriday has had a name
change, and is now called
Sound-In.
However, everything else behind it is the same. And here's
another one patch, one stereo track, one take improv played
on my Triton. |
| 8.31.12 |
Piece083112
|
The theme this week at
ImprovFriday
is "clocks." What you hear here isn't actually a clock, but
close. It's an old Seth Thomas metronome that used to be my
grandpa's, and happens to be slightly bent. I recorded it at
60 bpm, and then duplicated the track, panned them far left
and right, and added delay on one side. I then played
another one patch, one
track, one take improv on the Triton. In case anyone's
wondering how I choose the sound each week, I just play
different ones until something inspires me. Then it's time
to lay it down. |
| 8.24.12 |
Piece082412
|
Another quick one patch, one
track, one take
ImprovFriday
piece played on the Triton. |
| 8.17.12 |
Piece081712
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece is a one patch, one stereo track, one take improv
played on my Korg Triton. |
| 8.10.12 |
Piece081012
|
For "curious" reasons, the theme this week at
ImprovFriday
is "Mars." This one was made with me playing my
Fender bass guitar (two tracks, one doubled, all processed). |
| 8.3.12 |
Piece080312
|
The theme this week over at
ImprovFriday
is "bugs." While there are many ways to go with this, I took
the first thing that came to mind. This is made with three
different sounds (and apps) on my iPad. |
| 7.27.12 |
Piece072712
|
I decided to use the Loopy HD
app on my iPad again for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week. I recorded the percussion loops live into
the app, and then improvised a guitar solo on top in Cubase
(which I then duplicated and processed). |
| 7.20.12 |
Piece072012
|
The theme this week at
ImprovFriday
is "loopy," so I made most of this improv using
the Loopy HD app on my iPad (for the ambient sounds and the
ukulele accompaniment parts), and then recorded the solo
improv directly into Cubase using a delay for more "loops"
(and some reverb). |
| 7.13.12 |
Piece071312
|
This week the theme at
ImprovFriday
is "heat." It's hot and humid here in SoCal, so for some
reason the electric guitar seemed like the right instrument
for my improv. This is two tracks (first and only, with no
edits), processed and panned to each side. |
| 7.6.12 |
Piece070612
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week is a duet by the campfire. Simple as that. |
| 6.29.12 |
Piece062912_dry
Piece062912_reverb
Piece062912_delay
|
I had another chance to sit down
at the Steinway D at my theatre today, so it was a perfect
chance for a quick
ImprovFriday
piece. This was recorded with my R-05 and the binaural
earbud microphones - one take with no edits. In fact, you
can kind of hear the AC on, and you can hear me getting a
text at one point. That will teach me to not put my phone on
silent before recording. Also, I made three versions - one
as recorded (dry), one with reverb, and one with a stereo
delay. I put them all here for you to hear. |
| 6.22.12 |
Piece062212
|
A quick
ImprovFriday
piece this week, just voice and ukulele (both processed). |
| 6.15.12 |
Piece061512
|
The theme this week at
ImprovFriday
is "the internet." I'm not sure what the internet "sounds"
like, but here's one attempt at an impression of it. |
| 6.8.12 |
Piece060812
|
An
ImprovFriday
piece for 2 4-string instruments. Made me realize how much I
miss playing bass. |
| 6.2.12 |
Piece060212
|
Managed to squeeze an
ImprovFriday
piece into a busy weekend. This one features voice and uke. |
| 5.25.12 |
Piece052512
|
A simple
ImprovFriday
piece using two iTouch/iPad apps (and a bit of processing). |
| 5.18.12 |
Piece051812
|
When I found some time to make
my
ImprovFriday
piece for the week, my oldest son was playing drums out in
the garage (while listening to his ipod) . Instead of making
him stop, I went out and recorded a bit with my R-05 to use
for my piece. I took what I recorded into my studio, copied
and pasted it to double the length, and then added two
ukulele parts on top. The melody is the one and only take. I
processed the tracks and here you have it. Can you tell what
song he was playing along with? |
| 5.11.12 |
Piece051112
|
In the middle of another busy
week, so it's back to my upright piano for a quick (but
slow)
ImprovFriday
piece. The theme at IF this week is "space" - a common
element in my music already. |
| 5.4.12 |
Piece050412
|
Still using the uke for my
ImprovFriday
pieces. This one is a trio. I recorded the main rhythmic
part first, and then recorded the other two on top of it
(all live, with no edits), then added some processing. I
know that some of the melody notes are "out" a bit, but in
the age of auto-tune, I decided to keep them that way to
make is sound "authentic." |
| 4.27.12 |
Piece042712
|
The theme this week at
ImprovFriday
is "ppp,"
meaning as quietly as possible. This improv is made of of
two tracks. The first is a stereo piano track, recorded
using my R-05 and my upright piano, which I then processed
with delay and reverb. Then I recorded a processed uke solo
over it. I'm not sure if it is as quiet as possible, but it
feels "quiet" to me. |
| 4.20.12 |
Piece042012
|
Yet another ukulele
ImprovFriday
piece. This one has two tracks (played in realtime with no
edits), each doubled, panned, and delayed slightly, and some
reverb on the top. |
| 4.13.12 |
Piece041312
|
I had a plan in mind for my
ImprovFriday
piece, but then the storm came, so I took my R-05 recorder
and uke on to the front porch and made this. There is no
additional processing and no edits. |
| 4.6.12 |
Piece040612
|
A solo uke Good Friday
lamentation for my
ImprovFriday
piece. |
| 3.30.12 |
Piece033012
|
All uke for my
ImprovFriday
piece. Three tracks with delay. Simple as that. |
| 3.23.12 |
Piece032312
|
I couldn't decide on electronic
or acoustic for my
ImprovFriday
piece, so I went with electro-acoustic. This is a quick one
made with the Alchemy iPad app and solo ukulele (with a
little processing). Again, one take and no edits. |
| 3.16.12 |
Piece031612
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece is a simple elegy for a dear friend and colleague who
died unexpectedly last week. Grace, you will be missed. |
| 3.09.12 |
Piece030912
|
Back home from Hawaii, this
ImprovFriday
piece uses a couple of recordings I made there (some birds,
and the Oli Kāhea that we would chant asking permission to
enter certain locations), along with a ukulele improv made
tonight with a tenor uke I bought in Kona. |
| 3.2.12 |
See link to the right.
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece was made while I was in Hilo, HI. Because I didn't
have my usual set-up, I had to resort to using the Souncloud
App on my iPad. What you hear here is really a field
recording of
coqui frogs and other sounds, with me playing bits on
the harmonica. Nothing fancy, but I didn't want to
miss a week! Here's the link:
http://soundcloud.com/swcadman/improvinhilo030112-at-hilo-hi
|
| 2.24.12 |
Piece022412
|
Another
ImprovFriday
piece using my piano. I recorded this improv in the usual
manner, and then made an edit to lengthen it for a video and
added some processing. You can click on the "Videos" link to
the left to watch the video. |
| 2.17.12 |
Piece021712
|
Back to my upright piano for my
ImprovFriday
piece. Like usual, I recorded this piano improv by putting
my R-05 recorder inside the piano. For this one I added some
processing after the fact. This was the one and only improv
this week, with no editing. |
| 2.10.12 |
Piece021012
|
So my plan was to use my upright
piano this month for my
ImprovFriday
pieces, but then the theme was announced of "voice." Being
flexible is always fun, so I switched to voice for this one.
This is made from one quick vocal improv, with a tiny bit of
editing and some processing. |
| 2.3.12 |
Piece020312-forRodgerVaughan
|
For the month of February, I'm
going back to my old upright piano for my
ImprovFriday
pieces. This one is dedicated to my college theory
professor, Rodger Vaughan, who died a few days back. He
would get a kick out of what I did here (in more ways than
one). |
| 1.27.12 |
Piece012712
|
Yet another iPad
ImprovFriday
piece using the
Alchemy app. The theme over at IF this week is "clouds," so
I improvised a solo piece with that in mind. What you hear
is two tracks of the improv, one delayed slightly and EQ'd a
bit differently form the original one. |
| 1.20.12 |
Piece012012
|
Another iPad
ImprovFriday
piece. This improv is made up of two tracks using the
Alchemy app (with no additional processing). |
| 1.13.12 |
Piece011312
|
Back to the iPad for my
ImprovFriday
piece (and a bit of processing in Cubase). |
| 1.6.12 |
Piece010612- In Memory of Richard Lainhart
|
On December 30th, we lost a
member of the
ImprovFriday
community.
Richard
Lainhart died unexpectedly and was an important person
to us, as well as to the world of electronic music in
general. This memorial to Richard was made in real time with
just my Roland SH-101 and delay. |
| 12.30.11 |
Piece123011
|
For my last December
ImprovFriday
piece (and the last one for 2011), sax seemed appropriate. I
used the same effects settings as my piece from last week. |
| 12.23.11 |
Piece122311
|
I decided to play clarinet (two
tracks and some delay) for my fourth December
ImprovFriday
piece. |
| 12.16.11 |
Piece121611
|
I'm in the middle of a busy
holiday performance week, so for my third December
ImprovFriday
piece, here's a quick piano improv (and again, a bit of voice). |
| 12.9.11 |
Piece120911
|
For my second December
ImprovFriday
piece, I'm using melodica (and a bit of voice). |
| 12.2.11 |
Piece120211
|
After a bunch of electronic
ImprovFriday
pieces, I've decided to switch gears for a bit. For my
December pieces, I'm going to use acoustic instruments only,
and use the music of the season as my starting point. This
one features acoustic guitar (and a bit of voice). |
| 11.24.11 |
Piece112411
|
Another Animoog
ImprovFriday
piece, made using three different sounds. I'm putting this
up on Thursday this week as a Thanksgiving offering. |
| 11.18.11 |
Piece111811
Piece111811-solo
|
At this point, I think I'll
continue to use the Animoog for my November
ImprovFriday
pieces. This one started off with just a solo line
improvised, and then I added a drone-type part underneath
it. I'm not sure if I like it better with the drone part or
without it, so I decided to put both up here. There is no
additional processing beyond the Animoog. |
| 11.11.11 |
Piece111111
|
Another Animoog
ImprovFriday
piece. This one features two sounds, both played live, and a
smidge of reverb on the top. |
| 11.4.11 |
Piece110411
|
Again, the Animoog
synth app for my
ImprovFriday
piece. This is a solo improv with only one stereo sound
(recorded in one take with no additional editing or
processing). |
| 10.28.11 |
Piece102811
|
As promised, I'm using the
Animoog
synth app (playing 5 different sounds) again for my
ImprovFriday
piece. The theme over at IF this week is Halloween, so I
thought I'd make something that fit. I'll let you be the
judge. |
| 10.21.11 |
Piece102111
|
This week Moog released the
Animoog synth app for the iPad (which I quickly purchased),
and I must say that it's very cool. As soon as I heard it, I
knew I would be using it for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week (and probably for some time to come). This
improv uses four of the preset "sounds." |
| 10.14.11 |
Piece101411
|
Lately there have been different
themes each week over at
ImprovFriday,
and most of the time I start work on my piece before the
theme has been announced. That was the case again this week.
However, once I saw that the theme was "Peter Gunn," I
decided to crank out a quick improv on the guitar. This
piece is a meditation of sorts on the Peter Gunn Theme. |
| 10.7.11 |
Piece100711
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece uses some ambient crowd noise I recorded with my R-05
(and then heavily processed) along with a soft synth improv
over it. |
| 9.30.11 |
Piece093011
|
For my
ImprovFriday
piece, I recorded a quick stereo improv with my R-05. I then
put it into Cubase, copied it four times (for a total of 5
tracks), staggered the entrances by one second, and then
panned and processed each one differently. Nice piano
grunge. |
| 9.23.11 |
Piece092311
|
I came across this soft synth
sound while working on a project and was intrigued by all
the facets of it. I realized it would be perfect for a quick
ImprovFriday
piece. There is no additional processing. |
| 9.16.11 |
Piece091611
|
Another busy week makes for
another quick
ImprovFriday
piece. For this one, I recorded two tracks using my SH-101.
I then duplicated each one and panned and processed to
taste. |
| 9.9.11 |
Piece090911
|
I've had an insanely busy week,
but managed to find time for a quick
ImprovFriday
piece on acoustic guitar. |
| 9.3.11 |
Piece090311
|
A very quick
ImprovFriday
piano piece this time. I'm dealing with some technical
issues in my recording set up, so I used my R-05 recorder.
Grateful that it records in both WAV & MP3! |
| 8.26.11 |
Piece082611
|
The theme this time for
ImprovFriday
is "voice." Because I'm not a singer, I went where
inspiration lead. Once again, me, my piano, and a bit of
processing. |
| 8.19.11 |
Piece081911
|
The theme for this week at
ImprovFriday
is "soft" or "fragile." Because of the theme, and very
limited time, I decided to once again sit down at my upright
piano and record a quick improv with my R-05. Once I was
done, I thought about several different ways of processing
it, but ended up leaving it alone. It is deliberately
mastered a bit lower than usual. |
| 8.12.11 |
Piece081211
|
This
week's
ImprovFriday
piece features my son Henry on processed guitar (played with
drum sticks and recorded with my R-05) and me on processed
vocals. |
| 8.5.11 |
Piece080511
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece features a recording I made of a backyard fire and an
SH-101 improv (with some processing). |
| 7.29.11 |
Piece072911-Elegy
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week is an elegy for victims of the massacre in
Norway last Friday. This was made using my Korg Triton and
field recordings I made at the beach this past week (without
on planning on doing this specifically). |
| 7.22.11 |
Piece072211
|
An "OC Fair"
ImprovFriday
piece this week. What you hear is a binaural recording made
in the midway on Wednesday afternoon at the fair, with an
electric guitar improv that was no doubt inspired by the
Chris Isaak concert I was at later that night (at least in
terms of the guitar sound). |
| 7.15.11 |
Piece071511
|
A super quick
ImprovFriday
piece this week. Two mono tracks of acoustic guitar recorded
with the delay and then panned left and right. |
| 7.8.11 |
Piece070811
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week features two stereo tracks of guitar and
fireworks recorded binaurally at La Mirada Regional Park.
The music didn't go where I thought it would before I
started, but that's the fun of improvisation. |
| 7.1.11 |
Piece070111_1
Piece070111_2
Piece070111_3
|
The first two pieces are
straight improvs played on the Steinway D at work. Both were
recorded with my R-05; the first one with the binaural
earbuds, the second one with the built-in stereo mic.
Neither of these have any additional processing. For the
third piece, I was intrigued by some of the rhythms I heard
in the first improv, so I did some editing (and processing)
with it just for fun. I couldn't decide which to use for my
ImprovFriday
piece, so I put them all up. |
| 6.24.11 |
Piece062411
|
The junior high band and
clarinet (as threatened) make their appearance again for my
ImprovFriday
piece. This time I took a different section of the recording
of the band (tuning mostly) along with a processed
duplication of the track, and panned them to the sides. I
then recorded a clarinet improv on top (with the delay and
reverb on the track while recording). |
| 6.17.11 |
Piece061711
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece features a clarinet solo (played on the clarinet I got
when I was nine years old) with junior high band
accompaniment (and a bit of editing and processing). I think
this is the first IF piece I've done with clarinet. It
certainly won't be the last. |
| 6.10.11 |
Piece061011
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week features a piano improvisation with some
cricket accompaniment (both in real-time and stretched). |
| 6.3.11 |
Piece060311
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week features more sounds from the aviary at the
San Diego Zoo (recorded last week) along with a doumbek
improvisation. |
| 5.27.11 |
Piece052711
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week is a piano improvisation combined with a
binaural recording made while walking around in the aviary
at the San Diego Zoo this past Tuesday.
|
| 5.20.11 |
Piece052011
|
A simple
ImprovFriday
piece using an evening field recording outside of my house
and instrumental music created by playing the NLogFree and
Bebot apps on my iTouch (with no additional processing).
|
| 5.13.11 |
Piece051311
|
With litle time yet again, I
returned to my upright piano for a quick
ImprovFriday
piece recorded with my R-05 and the binaural earbuds (and
with no processing at all). |
| 5.6.11 |
Piece050611
|
Another super busy week, so for
my ImprovFriday
piece I recorded a solo on my melodica (which I then
duplicated and manually delayed) and improvised some spoken
word. |
| 4.29.11 |
Piece042911
|
I decided to use my Roland
SH-101 monophonic synth again for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week. Three tracks with some reverb on the
melody. |
| 4.22.11 |
Piece042211
|
I have had (and continue to
have) an insanely busy week, but managed to squeeze in a
quick
ImprovFriday
piece on my old upright piano (with reverb added). |
| 4.15.11 |
Piece041511
|
My son bought his first Fender
guitar yesterday (a brand new HH Blacktop Jaguar), so of
course I had to use it for my
ImprovFriday
piece. The guitar was running through a DD-20 delay and a
Digitech Whammy pedal, and I just put my R-05 recorder in
front of the amp and played. This was made out of one
improv, but I cut part of it and looped it for the drone
part. |
| 4.8.11 |
Piece040811
|
For my
ImprovFriday
piece this week, I give you a piano improvisation (with some
processing) inspired by and mixed with a field recording
made on April 7th while at the local arcade with my youngest
son. |
| 4.1.11 |
Piece040111
|
Ambient sounds and some ambient
piano for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week. |
| 3.25.11 |
Piece032511
|
Shortly after the earthquake and
tsunami in Japan, I contacted my friend Jerry Gordon, who
lives in Osaka, and asked him if he would record and send me
some spoken word pieces, as I wanted to use something by him
on a piece of mine for a benefit CD (which
you can only find here). He sent me four pieces. I used
one of them in the benefit piece, and two in my
ImprovFriday
piece last week. This piece uses the fourth one (with a bit
of processing) along with me improvising two separate tracks
using the NLogFree synth app on my iTouch as I listened to
his spoken word piece (recorded in real time with no edits). |
| 3.18.11 |
Piece031811
|
I recorded and am releasing my
ImprovFriday
piece on Thursday in California this week because it is
Friday in Japan. Why? Well, because IF this week is running
a charity event in order to raise money for relief for Japan
(click on the IF link above to get there). Also because this
work features the spoken word of my good friend Jerry
Gordon, who lives in Osaka, Japan. This piece features Jerry
on voice and me on harmonica. |
| 3.11.11 |
Piece031111
|
My
9-year-old son was messing around on the piano (showing his
father's minimalist leanings), so I decided to record him
for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week. I then played a harmonica part over it
(with a delay on while recording). I put a bit of reverb on
the harmonica part after the fact, and here you have it. |
| 3.4.11 |
Piece030411
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week was actually recorded on Thursday night (it
was Friday somewhere over the Atlantic). Anyway, there was a
bunch of early activity on the IF site, and I could hear my
son practicing his electric guitar, so I decided to grab my
R-05 and take it over for a little bit. I put the recorder
in front of the amp and jammed for a little while (with
delay and distortion on). I then found two sections that I
liked, cut them and put them on separate tracks (with no
editing), and panned them left and right. Simple as that. |
| 2.25.11 |
Piece022511
|
For my
ImprovFriday
piece this week, I used my Korg Triton for two tracks and
played some live rabana (a hand drum from Sri Lanka). |
| 2.18.11 |
Piece021811
|
It's been quite a while since I
last played my bass, so I decided to play it for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week. A mono bass solo with a delay on the stereo
out. |
| 2.11.11 |
Piece021111
|
Didn't think I was going to be
able to make my
ImprovFriday
piece this week, but managed to find a couple of minutes to
turn on the R-05 and play my kalimba and then piano. You
hear what I played (with some silence cut out as I moved
from one instrument to the other). |
| 2.4.11 |
Piece020411
|
Another super busy week, so I
grabbed the electric guitar for my
ImprovFriday
piece and recorded two different stereo tracks through my
Line 6 pod (with different speed tremolos). I then used a
bit of processing in Cubase to finish it up. This one has a
little more edge than some of my recent improvs - probably
to balance all the wonderful classical music I've been
listening to lately by hanging out with the Felici Trio this
week. |
| 1.28.11 |
Piece012811
|
Another short and sweet explanation for
my
ImprovFriday
piece. I recorded a solo with my SH-101 synth (mono, of
course). I then duplicated the track, panned them left and
right, added some processing on the duplicated track, reverb
on the master and there you have it. |
| 1.21.11 |
Piece012111-1
Piece012111-2
|
Short and sweet explanation for
ImprovFriday
piece
this week. I sat down at my upright piano with my R-05 and
the earbud mics and recorded two improvs - one right after
the other. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to use, so I
decided to put them both up. There is no processing and no
edits. You hear what I heard. |
| 1.14.11 |
Piece011411
|
I'm a bit under the weather and
very busy, so I had to make my
ImprovFriday
piece quickly, without much thinking involved. For this
reason, I grabbed my acoustic guitar, swung the mic around,
and recorded a quick improv with some delay. I then
duplicated the track, took off the delay and then added some
chorus and reverb on it, panned the two tracks a bit, and
here you have it. |
| 1.7.11 |
Piece010711
|
My first ImprovFriday
piece of 2011. This is two tracks from my SH-101 (which I
forgot to tune before recording), panned hard left and
right. I then duplicated each track, put reverb on both
(which is all you hear - no original signal) and moved them
each slightly off center. I've found that I like using the
whopping 100 note sequencer in the SH-101 to make rhythmic
drones on the fly to improvise over. Also, this synth is
monophonic, which means I can only play one note at at time.
Sometimes limitations are the best inspiration. |
| 12.31.10 |
Piece123110
|
Here's my last ImprovFriday
piece for the year. I really couldn't decide what I wanted
to do, but knew I wanted something that sounded "hopeful." I
ended up once again having the SrutiBox app on my iTouch and
my SH-101 playing live behind me while I improvised on my
upright piano (and once again recorded with the earbud mics
plugged into the R-05). This is one live take, and you'll
know it when you hear the random click (from one of the
pieces of equipment in my studio) that shows up in the
middle of it. I liked what I played, so I decided to leave
it in and not try to edit it out or record another one. I
then added a bit of reverb and here it is. Here's to a
hopeful Happy New Year! |
| 12.24.10 |
Piece122410-1
Piece122410-2
|
I'm going to keep my explanation
short and sweet for
my ImprovFriday
pieces (yes, pieces) this week. It's been raining quite a
bit here lately, and the shed in back of my garage leaks - a
lot. So I took my R-05 and recorded it. I realized that the
dripping had a rhythm to it, so I took a bit of what I
recorded, looped it, and then improvised a guitar part over
that. However, since I had the whole recording I made of the
dripping, I decided to make a second piece using that, again
improvising a guitar part over it. There is quite a bit of
processing going on too, but both guitar parts are the one
and only takes, with no editing. |
| 12.17.10 |
Piece121710
|
I got a bit of an early start on
my ImprovFriday
piece this week. A few days ago, I had a chance to get into
the theater I work at while no one was around and sit down
for a few minutes at the Steinway. I literally plugged the
earbud mics into my R-05, hit record, and played for about
three minutes (exactly what you hear). When I listened back,
I liked what I played but realized that the mics picked up a
bunch of noise from the fans from the moving lights. So,
along with doubling the original track and processing that
track for some "atmosphere," I added in the rain I
recorded last week to make the sound of the fans go away.
Once again, relax and enjoy. |
| 12.10.10 |
Piece121010
|
It was raining here earlier this
week, so I went out on my front porch and recorded it (along
with the other sounds that came along with it) with my R-05
specifically to be used for this
ImprovFriday
piece. Later I sat down and recorded the piano part (using
the CS-10EM binaural earbuds) in one shot, pre-planning that
I would add some delay and reverb to fill it out, which is
what I did. Relax and enjoy! By the way, this piece puts my
ImprovFriday output at just over the four hour mark. That's
a lot of music (for me anyway). |
| 12.3.10 |
Piece120310
|
A pretty straightforward
ImprovFriday
piece this week. I placed my R-05 pointing inside my upright
piano and improvised on the piano over a rhythmic drone
coming from my SH-101 out from the monitors. Added a smidge
of reverb when I was done and that's all there is to it. |
| 11.26.10 |
Piece112610
|
A Thanksgiving
ImprovFriday
piece. What you're hearing is my brother-in-law Johnny
saying the Lord's Prayer in Russian before eating dinner
last night (hence the noise), processed through a delay, and
me improvising on the piano this morning. |
| 11.19.10 |
Piece111910
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece is once again recorded with the R-05, both in regular
stereo (for the birds, etc. outside my bathroom window) and
with the CS-10EM binaural earbuds (for the kalimba part).
Added delay to the kalimba part, and there you have it. |
| 11.12.10 |
Piece111210
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece is acoustic guitar recorded with the R-05 and CS-10EM binaural earbuds
in my partially tiled bathroom while the next door neighbor
was doing some work. I then put it into Cubase and processed
it with some delay and reverb. |
| 11.5.10 |
Piece110510
|
Using the R-05 yet again for my
ImprovFriday
piece.
What you're hearing is one live stereo take recorded with
the Roland CS-10EM binaural earbuds (with built-in
microphones). I ran the Srutibox app for my iTouch and my
SH-101 through the mixing board and out my monitors (playing
behind me) while I played my upright piano. This is the
first and only take, with no edits. On a side note, I will
be starting a new job next week, and am not sure how this
will affect my output for ImprovFriday. Hopefully not at
all, but I guess we'll see what happens. |
| 10.29.10 |
Piece102910
|
More fun with the R-05 for
ImprovFriday.
The Santa Ana winds are blowing, so I thought that would be
a good place to start - by recording underneath a big tree
in front of my house to hear the wind through the leaves. Of
course, you'll hear other sounds as well. I then went back
inside the house and recorded a sax solo (again, on the
R-05). I duplicated the track and applied different
processing on each (delay on one, reverb on the other),
mixed it in with the wind, and there you have it. |
| 10.22.10 |
Piece102210
|
Another
ImprovFriday
piece made a bit differently than usual. I'm still having
fun with my R-05 - it's nice to have a portable digital
recorder. On another note (in case you've ever wondered),
there are reasons why I don't give descriptive titles to my
IF pieces. First of all, since they're made in one day
(usually in less than an hour from start to finish), the
title reflects that. Secondly, because they are truly
improvisations, with very little forethought (if any at all,
other than deciding what instrument to play), I really never
know what's going to come out. Finally, I don't want to
bring any extra-musical content to the piece. When I create
music, I'm usually not trying to depict a person, place,
scene, emotion, etc. It's just music for music's sake (we
call it "absolute music"). All that being said, I suppose
you could call this piece "Tea and Drums." |
| 10.15.10 |
Piece101510
|
This
ImprovFriday
piece was made a bit differently than usual. I recently got
a Roland R-05 digital recorder and the Roland CS-10EM
binaural earbuds (with microphones on the actual earbuds
-pointing out, of course). I won't go into an explanation of
binaural recording here, but suffice it to say that it makes
the listening environment three-dimensional. So what you
hear are two tracks. One is me in my front yard on a fall
day (with a breeze and lots of crunchy leaves), and the
second is a regular stereo track of me playing my upright
piano. Once again, the first and only take, with no editing
or additional processing. |
| 10.8.10 |
Piece100810
|
And now back to the iTouch and
the Bebot app for my
ImprovFriday
piece. Two stereo tracks: the first one is just a few
musical motives with a delay to loop/layer them and slowly
fade-out (and processed in Cubase with a panning plug-in);
the second track is simply a one-take improv over the loop. |
| 10.1.10 |
Piece100110
|
Back to the upright piano for my
ImprovFriday
piece today. This one's pretty straightforward: two tracks,
panned hard left and right, processed with some delay and
reverb. Once again, first and only takes for each. |
| 9.24.10 |
Piece092410
|
Here's the lowdown on my
ImprovFriday
piece for today. The first sound you hear is my voice, which
has been stretched and processed. Then you hear me playing
my Xaphoon. I recorded one track, duplicated it, processed
each one a bit differently and then panned them hard left
and hard right. |
| 9.16.10 |
Piece091610
|
Another busy Friday this week,
so I got my
ImprovFriday
piece posted on Thursday once again (which is fair game by
IF rules, as it's Friday somewhere). This is one mono track
of me playing my old upright piano. I put the mic up in
front of the piano, hit record and played. You hear the one
and only take, with no editing. I then duplicated the track
twice (for a total of three tracks), panned one hard left,
one center, and one hard right, each processed differently,
put some compression and reverb on the output, and here you
go. |
| 9.9.10 |
Piece090910
|
Something came up for tomorrow,
so I had to do my
ImprovFriday
piece on a Thursday this week. One stereo track (one take)
of me playing my Fender American Deluxe Jazz bass through my
Boss ME-50B multi-effects pedalboard, then EQ'd a smidge in
Cubase. |
| 9.3.10 |
Piece090310
|
Keeping things relatively simple for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week. Two tracks of me playing acoustic guitar,
each duplicated and processed. Rock on! |
| 8.27.10 |
Piece082710
|
Sadly, the Gaia is gone (for
now), so it's back to the Triton for my
ImprovFriday
piece. I went through a few sounds before I came across the
organ sound. After as couple of minutes, I came up with the
organ part (then copied and pasted it a few times). The I
came across the bell sound and added the bell part,
overlapping the organ part. Finally, I grabbed the electric
guitar, brought up a preset in Cubase and came up with the
guitar part you hear. Again, one take with no clean-up. I
then panned it hard left, doubled it, and panned that hard
right, while placing it a bit behind the original part, with
the delay increased. Sounds a bit like film music to me. |
| 8.20.10 |
Piece082010
|
Well, I've managed to hang on to
the Roland Gaia for a bit longer than expected, and I have
to give it back soon, so I figured I should use it for another
ImprovFriday
piece before it's gone. What you hear is a single stereo
track using a three-layer sound that I created. I played the
keys on the synth with my right hand while "playing" the
D-Beam on the Gaia (kind of like playing a Theremin) with my
left hand. This is the only take, and all processing comes
from within the Gaia (flanger, delay, reverb). |
| 8.13.10 |
Piece081310
|
Time for another
ImprovFriday
piece. This piece was made with an iTouch, a wooden frog and
some slide guitar. Here's what I did: First, I recorded a
drone using the Sruti Box app for the iTouch with no
additional processing. The I recorded a wooden frog - the
kind with the stick and the ridges on the back - split it
into two tracks, cut the parts into alternating pieces,
panned the tracks hard left and right and processed them
with some delay and reverb. Then I recorded a slide guitar
part (first and only take), with the delay already in place
so I could play with/against it, and then added some plate
reverb. I panned it a bit to the left, duplicated the track,
processed it differently, and panned it a bit to the right.
That's all there is to it. |
| 8.6.10 |
Piece080610
|
There has been more tragedy
since my
ImprovFriday
piece last week, even closer to home. I don't want to go
into it, so let this piece be my prayer for those who have
left us, and for those of us still here, left to deal with
the pain. This piece is
a bit personal, so I don't really want to go into how it was
made. Suffice it to say that everything you're hearing is
either my voice or me playing slide on a resonator guitar. A
little old, a little new, a little church, a little blues.
On a side note, this marks a
year of uninterrupted ImprovFriday pieces. Thanks to IF for
keeping me making music! |
| 7.30.10 |
Piece073010
|
There's a story behind my
ImprovFriday
piece for this week. Last Friday I found out that a student
of mine from last semester was shot and killed on June 30th.
It's a sad story (that I won't go into), so my piece this
week is for Julian Collender, his friends and family.
Sometimes there are no words that can be said to those who
have lost a loved one.
As for how it came together, it goes like this . . . I first
recorded a short vocal drone (using my fake kargyraa, as I
don't know how it's really done). I then stretched it out
x10. At the very end of the piece, the original version
fades in in order to hear the exhale (mixed with the
stretched version). Then I recorded myself saying "Sometimes
there are no words" a few times and spaced them throughout
the piece, processed with a delay. At that point, I knew I
wanted to add something else, but wasn't sure what. At
that time, my 8-year-old son came in to my studio and started playing my kalimba. I swung the microphone around and recorded him
playing. Cut it to fit (with no other edits), threw some heavy reverb on it to
give it a ethereal sound, and there it is. |
| 7.23.10 |
Piece072310
|
Turns out I ended up with the
Gaia for one more week, so figured I should use it for my
ImprovFriday
piece again. For the past few weeks I've wanted to do
something with a bit more "energy" but it never went where I
planned. This time around I decided that I would stick with
the plan of having an up-tempo track to start off with
(which I did). However something else came into play.
Yesterday I was listening to "Who's Next" and have long
admired the hard panning on that record (and other Who
albums). So in addition to deciding that I would make a
piece with some energy to it, I also decided that I would
make a piece that only had two tracks, one panned hard left
and the other hard right.So here's what I did: I made the
left track first, messing with the cutoff knob a bit while
recording. Then I muted it, picked a different sound, and
recorded the right track, messing with the rate knob while
recording (without listening to the first track at all). I
intentionally wanted to second track to feel that it was
moving at a slower speed. Then I brought the left track back
in, adjusted the levels a bit, and there you have it.
Probably more than you wanted to you know, but there it is. |
| 7.16.10 |
Piece071610
|
Probably my last
ImprovFriday
piece made with the Gaia synth (for now), as I have to give
it back. Once again, three tracks played live, and once
again, not what I was originally thinking of doing. That's
the fun of it, right? |
| 7.9.10 |
Piece070910
|
Another
ImprovFriday
piece made with the Gaia. Three tracks played live. I came
up with the rhythm part first by messing around with one of
the presets. I had no idea what I was going to put down over
it, but I didn't think I would end up where I did. Maybe I
should have known better. Like in life, the beauty is often
found in the dichotomy of things. |
| 7.2.10 |
Piece070210
|
Got my hands on a new Roland
Gaia SH-01 synth to mess around with, so what better way to
start off than using it for an
ImprovFriday
piece. What you're hearing is three monophonic tracks (it
does do polyphonic though) with some knob twisting while
playing. Nothing is sequenced - all first takes played live.
Just scratching the surface with this thing. Can't wait to
find some real time to dig into it. |
| 6.25.10 |
Piece062510
|
Feeling electronic again for my
ImprovFriday
piece. I recorded two monophonic tracks with my SH-101
(which is all you can do with it in the first place),
duplicated one of them and added some different processing
to each track. |
| 6.18.10 |
Piece061810
|
I guess because I've been so
busy lately, I've focused on acoustic music using just one
instrument for my
ImprovFriday
pieces lately, and once again, I did the actual recording on Thursday night
in anticipation of a busy Friday. I decided to use the
Melodica again, so that's all your hear on the three tracks.
The first track is actually a ten-second drone I recorded,
then stretched out 16x (with adding some partials). I then
processed it with a chopper plug-in to add some rhythm to
it. The second track is a short harmonic thing that I
recorded, then copied and pasted 5 times (with some silence
in between) and added some reverb. The melody track is the
first and only take, with a bit of delay and reverb. |
| 6.11.10 |
Piece061110
|
I knew I was going to have a
busy day today, so I decided that I would at least start
recording my
ImprovFriday
piece on Thursday night. It was warm in my studio, so I had
the window open. While thinking about what I wanted to do, I
popped on to the IF site to see what was going on and saw
that Paul Muller did a piece for piano, so I figured I would
do the same, on my somewhat out-of-tune upright. I used the
same MO as last week, improvising one mono track and then
improvising two more tracks over it. While recording, I
realized that I could hear a cricket outside my window.
While it didn't really show up on the piano parts, I thought
you should hear what I was hearing, so I put the mic by the
window for the fourth track. You're hearing all first takes,
with a smidge of reverb on the piano parts. |
| 6.4.10 |
Piece060410
|
I have a busy day ahead, so when
I started thinking about my
ImprovFriday
piece, I thought that I should do something quick and
acoustic. I'm in an "acoustic guitar" mood today (probably
from listening to the Swell Season yesterday), so I grabbed
the acoustic, fired up the mic and recorded some tracks in
Cubase. What you hear are four tracks, first and only takes,
with some reverb on the top. |
| 5.28.10 |
Piece052810
|
This past week I was doing some
voice-over recording for Roland and had the microphone still
set up. When it came time to do my
ImprovFriday
piece, I figured I would record something "real." For
a while now I've realized that one of the few musical things
I hadn't yet tackled here was doing something with my voice.
That's probably because I'm not much of a vocalist. However,
today I figured what the heck, so here you go: 3 tracks of
my voice (with delays, reverb, etc.). Again trying to
balance the chaos. |
| 5.21.10 |
Piece052110
|
I was recording a sax part for the modern dance piece
I'm working on, so since I had it out, I figured I would use it for my
ImprovFriday
piece. There are three tracks here, all me playing the tenor
sax. The first part you hear is a rhythm created by key
clicks run through a delay. The second part is also run
through a delay and processed with ring modulation. The
"melody" is sax again, with distortion and reverb. |
| 5.14.10 |
Piece051410
|
Had to do another quick
ImprovFriday
piece this week, so I decided to do something I've wanted to
do for a while. Loaded up Cubase, put a mic up in front of
my old upright piano and played. I recorded this in mono,
panned it hard left, copied the track, processed that a bit
and panned it hard right. Here it is - enjoy! |
| 5.7.10 |
Piece050710
Piece050710_NoMelody
|
Once again, not a lot of time for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week (and with possible things coming up in the
future, maybe even less and less time). Anyway, this time I
was feeling like using a "real" instrument, so I busted out
one I don't think I've used yet on IF - my Melodica. This
was a quick one. I recorded the first track and then put
some delay on it. Then I played a melody on top (again with
some delay). Put some reverb on it to give it a nice "feel"
and there it is. Both tracks were first takes, with no
edits. The reason I have two versions here (one with just
the first track) is that I like them both and think they
both work in their own way. |
| 4.30.10 |
Piece043010
|
Not a lot of time for my
ImprovFriday
piece this week, so I made another two-track improv with the
Bebot app on my iTouch. Sort of a companion piece to last
week's piece, I suppose. |
| 4.23.10 |
Piece042310
|
So last week I saw a video on
YouTube with Jordan Rudess (from Dream Theater, among other
things) talking about this iTouch/iPhone synth called Bebot.
It looked like fun so I got it. Needless to say, my
ImprovFriday
piece this week is a two-track improv using the Bebot. The
only processing outside of the app is a smidge of reverb in
Cubase. |
| 4.16.10 |
Piece041610
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week has its beginnings in a modern dance piece
I'm working on. I took a couple of bits from it (the water &
the drums) and then improvised a one-take part over it using
a VST plug-in. Well, there it is. |
| 4.9.10 |
Piece040910
|
I'm sure that my
ImprovFriday
piece this week materialized as a reaction to the crazy week
I've had running out to the Imperial Valley three times (all
the way to Mexicali twice). I spent a lot of time driving
through the desert by the Salton Sea. Once again, testing my
theory of opposites - do I make music that attempts to keep
balance in my life? This is all from the Korg Triton with a
delay inside Cubase. |
| 4.2.10 |
Piece040210
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece this week is inspired by the day. The "environmental"
sounds are created by my SH-101 and the melody is (once
again) a Korg Triton patch with a little bit of processing
in Cubase. |
| 3.25.10 |
Piece032510
|
Due to illnesses and crazy
schedules, I did my
ImprovFriday
piece on Thursday this week (which counts in IF world).
I'm continuing my exploration through my Triton. Here's
another drone piece using a bell-type sound, with an
improvised part on top. |
| 3.19.10 |
Piece031910
|
Must be another
ImprovFriday.
So last week, a good friend of mine gave me his Korg Triton
ProX (which was perfect timing, as my faithful Roland U20
was giving out). It's an amazing instruments with lots of
sounds. I figured that this would be a perfect way to start
learning the instrument and discovering the sounds. I'll
probably be using just this for a while to come. Anyway,
this piece is pretty straightforward. I'm using an organ
patch with just two tracks. The first one is a drone-y
thing, and the second one is the "melody" (ran through a
stereo delay). The tracks were each done in one take, and
there are no overdubs or edits. I've had a chaotic week, so
here's a little peace. |
| 3.12.10 |
Piece031210
|
I've been thinking of doing this
one day for
ImprovFriday
and I guess today's the day. I have a few percussion
instruments lying around in my studio so I thought I would
use them. What you're hearing is a doumbek, rebana,
gonkogui (agogo), Navajo rattle
and a kalimba. The rhythm parts were recorded in small units
and then copied and pasted. The kalimba part is completely
improvised in one take. |
| 3.5.10 |
Piece030510
|
Well,
ImprovFriday
is a year old. I wasn't in on it right from the
beginning, but have been a regular participant for quite a
while now (as you can see by the pieces below). Now, about
this piece. So this week I was talking to a good friend of
mine and he was saying that he didn't "get" a lot of my IF
pieces (which I assured him is ok), but that he really liked
the last one (from 2/26) and he appreciated the explanation
of how is was made. As a result, I thought I would start
including a brief explanation of each piece from now on.
This one's pretty straight-forward. It's a one-track sonic
meditation played on the electric guitar (tuned to
E-A-E-A-B-E) loosely based on "Happy Birthday" for IF. One
take, no fixes (which I think is quite apparent once you
hear it). Play it loud! |
| 2.26.10 |
Piece022610
|
So here's the story behind my
latest
ImprovFriday
piece. Last week I made my ImprovFriday piece. Last Friday
night I took my son to a friend's house for a blues jam
(which I did ended jamming in at the end). An old
friend from school posted on Facebook that I should do a
"blues improvfriday" piece (thanks Chuck!). Well, if you're
reading this, you should know by now that my ImprovFriday
pieces don't exactly fit in the blues/rock/pop world.
However, being one for a challenge, I figured out a way to
incorporate the blues into the piece. The drone that your
hear is actually one 12-bar blues progression, played on my
sax, then stretched out (approx 11.5x) and then adding some
upper and lower harmonics (which makes it sound like more
than just 1 tenor sax). Then I played a solo over it, copied
the solo to a second track and processed both tracks
differently. Probably more than you cared to know, but there
it is. |
| 2.19.10 |
Piece021910
(feat. Steve Layton)
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece.
Steve Layton is one of the members of ImprovFriday, and
quite well-known an respected in new music circles. A lot of
his IF activity is taking pieces by the rest of us and
mashing them together (with some amazing results I night
add). It is his birthday today, so I suggested that for fun,
he put up a piece of us and we could do something with it.
For this piece, I took the last 30 seconds or so of his
piece and stretched it out approx. 5x (while adding some
upper and lower harmonics). Then I put some tubular bells on
the top. Celebratory icing on the cake if you will. |
| 2.12.10 |
Piece021210
|
My
ImprovFriday
piece. After I made it I started wondering if there's any
connection between my moods and the music I make each
Friday. Maybe they're opposites? It's all about
balance.
|
| 2.5.10 |
Piece020510
|
My
ImprovFriday piece
- inspired by a rainy SoCal day and a couple of sounds.
|
| 1.29.10 |
Piece012910
|
Here's my
ImprovFriday piece.
There's been all sorts of analog synth stuff around me
lately, so I felt inspired to use my SH-101 again. It's the
only instrument used, and the only processing on this piece
is a bit of reverb on the "melody" track. |
| 1.22.10 |
Piece012210
|
Got my
ImprovFriday piece
done on a Friday again, which somehow feels "right.". While
I saw many cool toys at the NAMM show last week (including
one or two that are now on my "hope to get some day" list),
I'm working with what I got. In this case, it's all NLogFree,
a synth for the iPhone/iTouch. That's all you hear, with no
additional processing. |
|
1.14.10 |
Piece011410
|
I have a busy couple of days
ahead, so I figured I better get my
ImprovFriday piece
done today. While it is Thursday here, it's already Friday
in Australia, so I'm going with that. Anyway, here you go. |
|
1.8.10 |
Piece010810
|
Well, it's that time again -
time for my
ImprovFriday piece.
I have been anxiously awaiting today, as I had some unused
sounds from last week that I was saving for today's piece.
This piece uses those sounds plus a new free VST synth for
the melody(ies). |
|
1.1.10 |
Piece010110
|
My first ImprovFriday piece of the year.
The other day I downloaded a bunch of
free samples
with the hope that I could find something to use for today's piece,
and that's pretty much what I did. I found a few that I liked and then threw down a little guitar over the top. |
|
12.25.09 |
Piece122509
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
I "cheated" and started this one on 12/23, anticipating a couple of busy days ahead.
The only thing I didn't do was the solo Xaphoon part, which I recorded this afternoon.
It's a piece for the day (and the last one of the year for IF!). |
|
12.18.09 |
Piece121809
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
It's interesting how things work out sometimes (well, to me anyway). I started this one using a
hurdy gurdy VST but I had issues when it came time to exporting it to audio. Not one
for throwing in the towel right away, I used the same MIDI file but switched to a VST that
emulates the Commodore 64 chip (which, btw, was my first computer).
I then added a couple of voices to beef it up and some
reverb and here you have it. |
|
12.12.09 |
Piece121209
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
Well, I didn't make it on Friday (hence 121209 and not
121109), but better late than not at all, right? Also, I had
some tech issues today, so couldn't work in my usual
fashion. Not one for giving up too quickly, I ended up doing
this one in Finale - super fast and nothing fancy. The piece
feels like a rainy December day to me. That's a good thing. |
|
12.04.09 |
Piece120409
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
Last week I was telling folks at the site that I never listen to other people's
compositions first, as I don't want to get unduly influenced (or discouraged) by what I hear.
Well, for the heck of it, I checked in early and listened to the first entry, by J.C. Combs,
which is a found sound collage. For the fun of it, I decided that I would use his piece as a
my starting point. A little cutting, reversing, stretching and adding a purposefully out of tune piano
(with delay and reverb) later, here it is. Don't turn the volume up too loud. |
|
11.27.09 |
Piece112709
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
I heard the opening drum beat in my head a few days back and planned on using it
for this piece. Everything else showed up today. |
|
11.20.09 |
Piece112009
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
Definitely electro-acoustic (or vice versa). |
|
11.13.09 |
Piece111309
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
An electronic meditation made with only my Roland SH-101 (and a
little reverb on two tracks). |
|
11.6.09 |
Piece110609
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
This piece is made entirely with instruments on my iTouch (SrutiBox, Steel Guitar and NLogFree). |
|
10.30.09 |
Piece103009
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
Not at all what I was originally planning, but I guess the
time of year had an effect on me. |
|
10.23.09 |
Piece102309
|
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
Last night I was thinking about seeing what I would come up with using three mallet instruments. Here it is.
As a side note, This is the first piece that I am posting
from this new site. Hopefully there will be more
activity here in the future (from both me and people looking
for my music). |
|
10.16.09 |
Piece101609 |
My weekly ImprovFriday piece.
I guess I'm feeling industrial today. Percussion (sampled) + 2 tracks of me on my Fender Jazz bass.
|
|
10.9.09 |
Piece100909 - for the Mighty Noah Bailey Dowell |
Another ImprovFriday piece.
I know Noah Bailey Dowell and his family from a church we all used to go to.
He is known as "The Mighty" and he died on 10.3.09 after a battle with a rare form of cancer.
He was 8 years old. He and his family are an inspiration. They are all mighty indeed!.
This piece is for Noah. I don't know what else to say.
|
|
10.3.09 |
Piece100209 |
Yet Another ImprovFriday+1 piece for NetNewMusic.
I'm grateful for the +1, as I didn't get this finished until today. All sounds come from the same
softsynth (Mystic) that comes with Cubase 5. The melody you hear is the first and only take.
|
|
9.25.09 |
Piece092509
|
Another ImprovFriday+1 piece for NetNewMusic.
My most improvised one yet. No forethought. Just played few a through sounds
until I found this one. Once I found it, I messed around for a minute or two and
then hit record. No click track. Just played by feel, based somewhat on the
silences.
|
|
9.18.09 |
Piece091809 |
Another ImprovFriday+1 (people are now free to put them up on Saturday too,
but everybody liked the "sound" of ImprovFriday) piece for NetNewMusic.
Two weeks ago I was wanting to do something with bells, but "it" just wasn't there. Today I decided
that I was going to limit myself to one sound. I went hunting through a few options of mine and the
sound that inspired me today was . . . bells. Tibetan bells to be exact. Well, samples of them anyway.
When I do these things, I try to go in with no musical ideas (hence improv) and get inspired by the sound(s).
Well, here's what the inspiration was for today. With bells, I can't decide which I like most - the attack or the decay.
I think it's the decay (and the harmonics you hear from it).
|
|
9.11.09 |
Piece091109 - In Memoriam |
Another ImprovFriday piece for NetNewMusic.
The date says it all.
|
|
9.4.09 |
Piece090409 |
Another ImprovFriday piece for NetNewMusic.
Another real improv. I wanted to do something with a bell sound but nothing was jumping out at me.
I ran across this sound on my Proteus 2000, which I've been messing with since it can do a variety
of tunings. The sound you hear is exactly as it sounds originally, including the delay. I purposefully
left off a click and played with/against the delay of the drone (which
functions like a tambura part). This one uses a Just Minor tuning.
|
|
8.28.09 |
Piece082809 |
Another ImprovFriday piece for NetNewMusic.
This piece truly is an improv. Here's my day today: Wake up - find out water heater is leaking bad -
go buy new water - start replacing water heater - do a quick improv while water heater starts draining -
go coach saxophones at band camp at my son's high school - come home and finish installing water heater.
For what it's worth, the improv is in Just intonation. I like it. It reflects the peace I need right now.
|
|
8.21.09 |
Piece082109 |
Another ImprovFriday piece for
NetNewMusic. How can you go
wrong with a toy piano?
|
|
8.14.09 |
Piece081409 |
Another ImprovFriday piece for
NetNewMusic. I had this bass
line written down on a piece of scratch paper on my drafting table, so I grabbed it and a little
while later ended up with this little piece.
|
|
8.7.09 |
Piece080709 |
So I belong to this group called
NetNewMusic, and they do this cool thing called ImprovFriday. This
is where members improvise a new piece on Friday and put it up for all to hear. I've wanted to
participate since it started,
but the "day job" got in the way. Well, seeing as I am still unemployed, I thought I would give it a go.
The skinny on this piece is that I've been working with my son on an industrial song. He's 14 and it's our first go
at really trying to make something (mostly him, with help from me on the
technical side). I have a sample cd of all sorts of
sounds and loops, and that was our jumping off point. Well, the other night I was up editing samples to load into Halion
for him to mess with. As I sat down today, I thought I would use those sounds to get started. Once I
had the "rhythm track" going, it took on it's own life. I put down a couple more tracks, but
realized it was still missing something. So I pulled out the tenor, with my new Otto Link mouthpiece (which I love),
and laid down the melody track. I limited myself to one take, with no fixes. A little processing and viola!
Once I was done mixing and just listened back, I came to the conclusion
that I ended up with some sort of tango. Sometimes it's fun to just follow
things where they go. |
|
4.12.09 |
Piece041009 &
Piece 041009 Version 2 |
So this past week I upgraded to Cubase 5 (thanks Steve!), so of course I had to check it out.
There are many wonderful things about the program that I have yet to mess around with, but
I wanted to at least make something to get started. Using my usual MO for these things (3 tracks, approx.
2 minutes long), I wanted to start to work with some of the VSTs. There are some great sounding
synths in here, and the way the sounds are organized makes life much easier. Anyway, I found some
sounds I liked and laid it down real quick. I felt that something was missing, so I added the drums,
which I think was a good call. As for Version 2, there's a little more to the story. I got some money
for my recent birthday and decided to spend it on something musical. I had read about a wind instrument
called a Xaphoon and it intrigued me. If you're interested in seeing what it is, you can read about
it here: www.xaphoon.com. I bought the green plastic one from
Lark in the Morning (a great music store!).
When I was reading about the xaphoon, I read mixed reviews. It's called a pocket sax, but it sounds more
like a clarinet, so some people were not happy about that. My hope is that it would sound more like
a duduk, which is an Armenian instrument. If you don't know what it is, hunt it down. While
you're at it, check out Djivan Gasparyan - he's the man! Well, I got it, and while it's a challenge to play,
mostly in terms of intonation, I think it's close enough to what I wanted to
stick with it. Version 2 includes me playing the Xaphoon.
|
|
12.7.08 |
Harbor Pearls |
This one is a little outside my usual MO, but I had fun making it. There's a little story behind it.
A talented student in my world music class at Santiago Canyon College would periodically give me
copies of music he made. When I heard the opening of one of them, I heard it go in a different direction.
I asked him if he would e-mail me the opening organ and synth bits so I could mess around with an idea I had.
He was cool with it, and here it is. It's all soft synths except for the guitar. I made it in two nights.
Oh yeah, the little part that comes in at 1:16 was composed and performed by my 7 year-old. He
jammed over the basic tracks and then I cut this part out and put it in (but did not alter it
in any way). |
|
4.9.08 |
Piece010608 / 040908 |
So how's this for depressing - I was originally hoping to put something up once a month, and I haven't put
anything up in a year and eight months. Time sure flies by and I sure have been busy with life. I'll
have to figure out a way to revisit this more often. Anyway, back in January I started a little piano and
melody idea that I liked, but had to stop as it was getting late. My plan was to finish it the next day.
Nice plan, but I finally had a chance to get back to it tonight. Seeing as I challenged my song writing
students to get something done this week (Spring break), I figured I could do the same. As usual, here's
something short, simple and (I think) beautiful. With life the way it is these days (2 jobs, 3 kids -
2 of them teenagers, etc.), simple and beautiful is what I need. I hope you feel the same way.
|
|
3.19.06 |
The Haunted Boy - Cue 1 Rough Demo 1
The Haunted Boy - Cue 6 Rough Demo 1 |
OK, so I know it's been a while, but what can I say? Anyway, I'm finishing up the score (just mixing
left!) to a short film being produced at Chapman University and I thought it would be fun to put up the
rough demos of 2 cues that didn't make it.
The first one is the first thing I came up with for the opening and the feeling was that it
wasn't "haunting" enough. I agreed, wrote a second cue, and got it right. The second cue was the first
try for a cue near the end of the film, and the feeling was that it was beautiful, but too "jubilatory."
I was a bit taken back at first, as I thought I hit the mood right, but in retrospect, it was too
sentimental sounding and I hit the moment too soon. Since I wasn't sure where to go next, musically, I
started two different cues and sent them in for feedback. Fortunately for me, both cues were well like and
they became cues 6 and 7 (of 7 cues).
Regarding the procees of writing for this film, I had a copy of the
film (without the temp score, of course) loaded into Cubase SX, and I would start cues at my upright piano,
and then work between pencil and paper and writing right into the software (from my head). I had already
decided on the "ensemble," which is violin, viola, cello, clarinet, guitar, celesta and piano,
so I set up a program in my JV-1080 (using the Orchestral module) to give me a quick, rough mock-up of the
group (which is what you hear in these demos). Once I finished (I hoped) a cue, I would save them in mp3
format and e-mail them to the man in charge. I would usually get the thumbs-up or thumbs-down (which
only happened twice) within a day, and then get back to it as time permitted. |
|
10.7.05 |
Piece100705 |
Wow, that took a long time to get another piece done. I finally got around to tuning (well, sort of)
the kalimba I bought earlier this year in Sacramento. An African shop in Old Town Sacramento - go figure!
Anyway, I'm going to be talking about African music in my world music class, so I thought that I
would get the Kalimba ready to bring in to show and tell and play. I started messing around on the
piano and then went from there. Just a couple of takes to get something down for fun. Oh yeah, the
"drum" is the kalimba as well. |
|
3.10.05 |
Piece031605 |
Although this piece took only 4-5 hours to write, record & mix, the process
was spread out over two nights. I started it on the 16th, so that's where the
title came from. I had all sorts of possible titles for this one (much more
interesting ones than what I ended up with), but one of the reasons I love instrumental
music so much is that you can say so much without using any words. |
|
1.23.05 |
Piece012305 |
Wow, two in one month. Crazy! The reason I got around to a new piece so fast is that I wanted to show off my new guitars.
What you're hearing is a Gibson Les Paul, a '57 Strat, and a Godin Artisan. OK, so they're not "my" guitars, but really nice samples
of real guitars from Vint Audio. |
|
1.9.05 |
Piece010905 |
Music from a rainy Sunday. That's my three-year-old son Joshua on the piano. |
|
10.24.04 |
Piece102804 |
What can I say? Another 2 minute 3-track synth piece. I just felt like making something. Besides, I just got DSL
last night and I was dying to upload something new. Dial-up never again! |
