For Penny

Penny passed into the next world today, peacefully with the blessings of the many people who loved her. After a good cry and hugs to Justin I wrote this, For Penny.

I'm not perfect

Perfect.

A very crude demo on an out of tune piano. But it captures that "I just wrote a song!" feel; a feeling that doesn't come along often enough!

Blogged with Flock

Trombone Melody 1

Trombone Melody 1. The origin of this was to write a melody for trombone. It's recorded in garageband using a distorted electric guitar patch, which oddly enough gave me the idea to add the glissandos. Not sure if they'd actually work on a trombone.

Blogged with Flock

For Patti, Only

For Patti, only

Written and recorded for our 8th anniversary, 2006. I also created easy piano sheetmusic using Finale.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Esch

Locusts in October

My version of my bandmate Jim Esch's tune, "Locusts in October". Our band, Joe, which at the time consisted of the two of us in my basement in Broomall, PA bouncing tracks between two cassette recorders, recorded this on our second tape, Joe II - Seven Days, back in 1984. For this version I added a slight swing, which seemed to fit the lyrics really well.

22 July

22 July
First recording of my new yamaha acoustic, just some strumming in e-minor. Using Camelspace effects on the guitar, then added some Camel5000 pad and the EXS24 Yamaha Grand Piano (new with Logic 7 -- real nice).

Happy Birthday, RFM

The Beginning
This is a song by my brother, written over 30 years ago. It’s called “The Beginning”. Honestly, I think that this is the most joyous piece of music ever written.

My brother wrote a lot of great tunes, and playing drums while he played piano was one of the great joys of my childhood.

This one’s for the Unturned Stone.

Drum Fun

Drum Fun
Recorded entirely in GarageBand this time. I just set up my drums again (Roland V-Club) and had a ball realizing that you can't just pick up sticks after months and months and expect to able to keep a steady beat. So despite being only 1:22, it took a while to record! Music is a progression I came up with the go with the drums...might have potential.

Half

Half
ES1, ES2, EVOC PS, and the Roland TD-6 drum module. Not sure why it's called "half". Half way through my half life maybe. "there by the grace of God go I"

Another song by my grandmother, "Omi"

Hush-a-bye
Another from the collection of songs by my grandmother. I took one or two liberties with the chords and added an improvised modal intro and coda. It's also transposed from F to D-flat (so that I can attempt to sing it). Hush-a-bye has three verses, I only recorded one. Recorded using EXS24 samples, EVB3, and Logic effects.

December 15th

December 15th A short arranagement of a chord progression that's been hanging around for a while. EVP88 and ES2 through Camelspace effects.

Once again, with vocal

Jesus, Lover of My Soul. By popular demand...and against my better judgement :) I post a version of my grandmother, Omi's, song with a rough vocal take; this to give a better idea of where the melody fits against the accompiament.

Jesus, lover of my soul

Jesus, Lover of My Soul. About a month ago my father sent me copies of several of my grandmother's songs. My grandmother is in her mid-90's, and still sings in her church. She's written hundreds of poems and many short tunes and hymns. This is one of them. The notation of this one reads like a chant, it was hard to make out the meter and lengths of all the notes. At first it read like 5/4, but eventually it fit nicely in 3. There was no harmony written on this one, so the chords are mine -- hopefully in the spirit my grandmother would like!

I am: a veil, a bull

I am: a veil, a bull: file under "dittie".

Musical Diary

Musical Diary: In 1998 I conceived the "musical diary". It didn't last. The story is fairly dull, unless it's doctored with effects and spooky sounds. Hence this recording. It uses the Cameleon5000 and ES2 synths, plus Camelspace effects.

Awakening

Awakening: This uses some new software from Camel Audio.

Labor Day

Labor Day: a ditti recorded on Labor Day 2005