.
Next new piece, which is outside my comfort zone for a few reasons:
1. I’m not comfortable writing for guitar, so I tend to avoid it. But here it is.
2. Lately I’ve tended to avoid wide-open pieces with simple instrumentation. But this has just three instruments: Acoustic guitar, Electric bass, and Piano.
3. It has almost a country/western feel, which is definitely NOT my favorite genre.
4. It’s peaceful and calm, which is an odd thing for me to write these days. Lately I’d gravitated more toward things which reflected angst and panic.
It’s called “Singularity”.
52 comments
Well that’s interesting. I like it, it flows well, but feels like something is missing. I’m not sure what, maybe it’s just the robotic tones. I don’t hear country or western either. I hear Zelda. Lol.
Maybe it’s the angst I’m missing.
That’s it exactly!
It’s missing the important ingredient of ANGST and stress and anxiety and god-dammit-ness.
I know what you mean.
P.S. I think “God-dammit-ness” is my new favorite word.
Cordless, how funny! you read my mind! 🙂 That’s beautiful!!! could make something out of that!
ROFL!!
“You could make something out of that!”
I laughed.
Because, you know, this IS what I made out of it.
I know it doesn’t sound like most of my stuff because you aren’t used to hearing peaceful calm stuff. Believe me, it sounds non-Cordlessy to me too in a way.
Cordless, doesn’t matter, you see i heard something different something new, it gave me ideas. to bad i’m not set up to do anything at the moment. but whats important is you have talent.
I love it. 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
It does have a Zelda-ish quality to it, but that works in favor of me liking it. Ha. I like the layering. Reminds me of a minimalist Suni McGrath song, for some reason.
Sooner or later I’m going to have to guiltily admit that I don’t know anything about Zelda.
I hope we can all still be friends. 😉
I think the guitar is a very hard instrument to compose for, unless it’s popular song, but a beautiful one to work with. I wrote a whole score a few years ago called Piracy for guitar, was a lot trickier then I expected it would be.
This is a really nice tune, I think I prefer it to the other composition The Heart Begs.
Thank you.
It’s hard to describe why I don’t like guitar.
My usual reason is that I can’t play it (I’ve tried and just didn’t like it, and preferred to spend my practice time on other instruments instead).
But I realize that doesn’t really explain things, since I don’t mind writing for other instruments I can’t play. I’m working on something right now which features oboe. I’ve never played oboe in my life. But somehow that doesn’t bother me.
I’ve written for trombone and tuba, which I also can’t play.
Flute, piccolo, clarinet, alto/tenor/bari sax…
No problem. (Or at least the problems are manageable).
So I don’t know why I don’t enjoy writing for guitar.
It’s a beautiful instrument when played properly.
Even someone who only knows three chords can play it better than I can.
I’ve played harp, dulcimer, french horn, organ, piano, trumpet, and some mallet percussion, so I have a little more insight about the ranges and uses of those particular “voices”.
I guess I am just musically eccentric.
Let’s pretend that’s a good thing. 🙂
Bless you lol, well there are plenty to write for so you don’t have to love the Guitar, least you can say you have composed for it though. I only learnt to play Guitar a bit later in my life after a few popular albums that wasn’t great written on Piano, I thought I’d learn Guitar and for some reason I do seem to be better for popular writing with it.
From a composition point of view you really can’t beat the Piano though, it allows you to compose for everything really.
Maybe it’s the tablature of the Guitar that puts you off it, at least with everything else it’s standard notation but it is funny how some instruments we just don’t enjoy writing for but not really knowing why. I’m a bit like that with anything Tuba, Bassoon ish… I only see them good for sustaining a root really, I think most bass players would find my piece very boring to play, I try and give them something with a bit of interest now and then just to keep them happy lol.
I can’t believe how many instruments you can play 😮 wow such talent!!! I look forward to hearing your new piece, have a listen to a piece called Whispering Winds from The Land Before Time by James Horner… that has mostly a Oboe solo, absolutely gorgeous!!! might give you some inspiration :0)
I imagine John Philip Sousa must have felt that way about french horn, since all he EVER gives us are afterbeats. 😉 Horn is such a beautiful instrument and he wastes us completely. John Williams, on the other hand, writes magnificently for french horn, whether it’s a march or not.
I love writing for tuba. It is great for holding the root, but I also like giving them solos and countermelodies beneath everything else. Such fun! Deep rumbly goodness.
I’m listening to the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack right now and there are some awesome deep rumbly bits with tuba and double bass and “basement” percussion. 😉
Takes my breath away.
I’m not to familiar with Sousa I know he was known for writing lots of march’s but I never liked anything by him really, what I have heard from him anyway. Must be frustrating for players when they are not really being wrote for properly but just given a few notes here and there as an after thought. As for Williams he really can’t be faulted on anything!! being a composer is one thing but orchestration is a whole other thing in itself… he is a master of both!! His orchestrations are like wizardry, I love his Horn section for his “Flying Theme” from E.T it’s just amazing!!!
Not really a fan of anything Howard Shore has wrote tbh apart from his LOTRs scores, they are for sure his stand out works. I love Concerning Hobbits from the first score.
Horner was offered LOTs and Harry Potter but turned them both down to do Ron Howards A Beautiful Mind but, I would have loved to hear what he would have done for LOTs would have been awesome!! ^_^
Very very nice, I don’t hear the country western thing but I like, so relaxing, another great job.
First, thank you. 🙂
Second, I’m fascinated by the fact that so far I’m the only one who hears country/western elements in it. Nobody else hears it. I played it for my mother today when we had our usual lunch downtown, and she didn’t think it was countryish either.
Fascinating.
The part that seems to scream “WESTERN” to me is when it switches from the F chord to the D chord. I’ve repeated that a lot throughout the piece, and each time I hear it, I picture some cowboy movie where the cowboys are realllllyy melllllow, drinking tea or smoking something noteworthy.
Drinking tea ??? Can we at least say rock gut ??? Lol. I listen to alot of different music, music is in my soul and keeps me grounded. I love rock, classic rock, metal r&b, rap. Sorry, old rap. I listen to alot of the artist from strange music, tech n9ne’s label. But if you go to you tube look up Krizz Kalico, the song is called. ” stop the world ” ( and let me off ) it’s not a rap song but one of this guys parents suffered from mental illness, he even has a song called bipolar, but anyways listen to the whole song. The part at the end where he talks is pretty cool
Well, I said “drinking tea” because of how mellow the piece is.
If they were drinking rotgut whiskey, the piece would sound a lot more drunken and obnoxious. 😉
Krizz Kaliko….
This?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqu1xWchSog
It was so weird listening to this while I was committing mass murder and blowing people’s head’s off…
In call of duty advanced warfare.
Pure insanity. Like something out of a maniac’s dreams.
Nice work btw, as always.
LOL!
Glad to hear you hadn’t snapped for real. 😉
Thank you for listening. 🙂
Wow, your are TOPS when it comes to piano!!!! Sing much??
I can sing, in the sense that I can accurately hit the pitches and I have a good sense of tonality. I had to take a semester of vocal training in college, many years ago, and I remember I had to participate in a voice recital, singing in front of an audience.
However, my voice is usually so soft and timid that I can’t project very well. I probably am not the ideal soloist.
I was once in an international choir that toured Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden for a month in the late 1980’s. But that worked out fine because my voice was just one of many, and we all blended in with one another.
I remember the song I had to do for my college recital was called “The Trees They Do Grow High.”
I searched on YouTube and there are a few versions of it.
This one comes the closest to what I remember.
(Mentally add some piano accompaniment). 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IET5Oia9I6s
Lol I have the same problem. I’m a little person, so I’m not very loud.
I’m a soloist in the since that I play all instruments.
But when it comes to singing, I use the Jim Morrison approach….. Get drunk and yell!!!
And that’s groovy that you actually got to travel and preform. The only traveling I do is to dive bars passing out cd’s
I was the only tenor in my high school chorus so I had to do lots of solos… And acapellas, and I had to project and be loud….
My gosh, the pressure…
I’m so out of practice though… :/
You must have been awesome!
I bet you still are. 🙂
It does have a country sound which I like. Great piece.. How about some lyrics?!!
Yay! Thank you Tbone.
You and I are the only two so far who hear country in that. 🙂
I’m glad to know I’m not completely off my rocker,
(Or at least if I am, so are you. It’s ok. 😉 )
I think I’ve got Bob Dylan doing The Trees on a record!!!! It’s a gorgeous song!!!
Lol I don’t know if it’s your cup of tea, but I usually stick to punk/country/alt/…… But I must admit, my largest number of records I own are Doo-wop ^.^
I love Irish/Celtic folk music,
also Classical,
New age,
Punk/alternative (anything that reminds me of R.E.M.).
I also have my heavy metal moods where Metallica reigns.
I really liked this. For some reason I am thinking that a flute would be a good addition to it.
Thank you! 🙂
I can imagine a celtic flute, where the pitches bend… yes. 🙂
That’s the song, I’m not real good with the internet so I don’t know how to pull up links or anything, I can post on this site and order pizza that’s all I got lmao, let me know what you think of the song, talking to you, it just struck me as something that you would like.
So you have SP and pizza AND peanut butter cups.
You’re already a step ahead of me; I had SP and pizza but no PB cups.
I have SP, beer and cats. I am content with my night. Watching The Simpsons too.
Another good combination!
Yeah, I agree. I watch a few more shows before crashing, How I Met Your Mother and Friends. Usually by 2 I’m ready to crash.
Last night I got sucked into watching Lassie at 4 am. Fell asleep during the second episode. Really was into it, but was dozing off during the commercials. I hope the meercats were ok in the end.
I suggest you go get some pb cups, don’t deny yourself life’s little pleasures.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll do that. 🙂
I used to play air guitar for Black Sabbath from 1982 – present. Just sayin .
Iron Man!
Of course, that was my first choice for a user name, but I think the one I got works better lol
Favorite Black Sabbath Song.
“Black Sabbath”
What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quick, and start to run
Find out I’m the chosen one
Oh no
Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan’s sitting there, he’s smiling
Watches those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please God help me
Is it the end, my friend?
Satan’s coming ’round the bend
people running ’cause they’re scared
The people better go and beware
No, no, please, no
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lVdMbUx1_k
What a great song, I’ve seen Ozzy, I’ve seen Sabbath with Dio, Ian Gillian, never with Ozzy together. Bummed
Still, it had to have been an awesome time. 😮
The next time I hear Ozzy sing sometihng, I’m going to remember your story about the aqua net.
Master of reality is one of my favorite albums, but one of their albums that alot of people say is obscure, ( I never thought so ) but VOL.4 is a monster album
Fuck Yeah masters and the ultimate coke album, Vol.4!!!! Good times in an old Volkswagen ^.^
Oh oh oh what about Sabbath Bloody Sabbath!!! Fire up a J and put on Killing Yourself To Live