A return to the late night creativity...

I am partying like it's 2007. It's nearly midnight, I am awfully tired, and after far too many takes, I've managed to prepare a recording that I am ready to share.

It's crazy to think that it was over four years ago that I first started trying to learn and reinterpret The Zombie's She's Not There. Not to say that I've been working on it for four years - in fact after I figured out that small part of the vocal melody I pretty much left it alone until last week.

Reinterpreting the song has been primarily an exercise in getting back into two handed piano playing, and a bit of a challenge to myself in terms of leaving some space - not playing my chords on quarter notes for instance. While I have definitely created some space, I think my current version is too close to the original - I probably need to space the melody out a bit as well.

Of course, this is in no small part inspired by Malcolm McLaren's cover from the Kill Bill soundtrack, and is maybe too close to that version - maybe I need to revisit the whole thing?

So here it is - only the first verse - you'll see I haven't figured out the chords for the final part - still, not bad for a couple short hours from my very rusty piano hands.

She's Not There by KevinPlaysTheBlues
 
Drums courtesy of NI Maschine.
OhmBoyz delay.

Kevinplaystheblues' Space Echo Templates

I recently purchased an RE-201 space echo - what a machine! If you've come here, you probably already know what the Space Echo is,but just in case, there's great run-downs on Vintagesynth and Wikipedia.

After painstakingly getting it in sync with a track I was working on, I quickly realised I needed a template to avoid going to that trouble again.

And so, in collaboration with my lovely designer partner, in super high res and released under creative commons, I have some Space Echo Templates to present:

• JPEG - No Knobs (for printing and hand drawing)
• PSD - Rotating Knobs as layers (anyone who wants to convert these to flash/HTML5 is welcome!)
• JPEG - Knobs Zero'd

Enjoy, space echo users!

Roland RE-201 Space Echo Template by Jingston Chuarchitects is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This needs a point...

Fixing the media on those old posts has been an interesting experience.

I was a stronger piano player a couple years back, it seems. On the flipside, though, some of the stuff seems really weak - particularly in terms of typing.

Technique aside, the reading process has made me question the value of a practice/development diary. I am still not sure what I am going to use this for now. Maybe tracks I am working on. Maybe some gear reviews? I have something useful in mind...wait ten seconds...

Technical difficulties

I've imported my old wordpress stuff here. Not sure my streaming media stuff is still working - the MP3 links should still work though.

Actually, I've the streaming was working, but I couldn't stop it preloading all the Mp3s - that's sure to piss people off? Just added some links for now. Maybe I need to work on SoundCloud or something.

Enjoy the history.

Re-Invigoration

Years on I've decided to reinvigorate this blog.

I went through a serious musical lull from 2008. The acquisition of a mortgage...a dog....a growing love of gardening and cooking...music fell by the wayside. Piano lessons stopped. Composition stalled. I'd bust on the drums every now and then, but it was a far cry from my peak.

Then, last November, Crackers and Cam dragged me to Better Music. I walked up to pro keys, and set my eyes on a Moog Little Phatty. I donned the headphones and suddenly it all came back. That Moog sound!

I walked away on cloud nine.

Three weeks later I had a Minimoog Voyager. (little phatty = doing things by halves in my view).

And so it came back.  Ever since Kieran Roberts lent me Minimoog #1007 back in 2002, it's been a machine I loved. That day I worked into the music store it occured to me that this was no longer a pie in the sky dream - a 'one day' fantasy - this was something I could now make happen.

Six months later, my studio has grown exponentially. SH-101. Taurus. Tenori-In. OP-1. Maschine. X0XB0X. Moogerfoogers. Space Echo. It's all happening. I have gear addiction.

Now to do something with it...

Busted...apparently...

So someone at work discovered my blog via my email and a running joke has drifted around the office over the christmas song. It doesn't bother me too much, but saddens me that I haven't updated for almost a year, and haven't played piano much for ages either. I am not doing lessons anymore. I guess the depressing world of the public service has won over.

I'll get back into it one day soon, I am sure.

Hi Work people!

I am still here...

In fact, I am probably doing more than ever. Writing lots of songs in both the ballady and post rocky electronic spaces. I originally came here to try and keep track of progression of songs and development, but its just a time thing. Time on the piano is rare and I suppose its better spent playing than writing about playing.

I might try and get some of the songs up, but we'll see.

Trying to work in a few different places - continuing to write the KPTB style songs but also trying to work up my speed and reading and inversions and progressions and such.

I hit a point where some of my songs need guitar, but guitarists seem to all be unreliable pricks by nature. I am currently investigating Ableton as a looper to allow me to perform solo. We'll see..

It hasn't been a hugely productive January. Have a few years banging around. I'd really like to get past the first two bars of 'Karma Police' That power is in my hands.

Went to the National Museum today. Ended up walking past the theatre just as a show was starting...a musical satire of 'the howard years' that went for about an hour. It was good - the best was 'there's never been a leader called kevin'. The guy was really good at piano. Maybe he wasn't even that good, but he was good enough that he could just play songs and impress you. It made me feel bad almost.

I could practice a lot more, I suppose. I really should. I want to just be 'good enough for me' - that has always been my goal, but what does that mean? Like I am really proud of my CD, but half of that was either sequenced, or sped up or retouched. And all the songs I've learnt to play in the past...even my own...I haven;t really committed them to memory...and I haven't become disciplined enough to sight read yet.

Anyways, my goal now I think for a while is to play some old timey stuff - learn the types of chords and progressions to get that vibe.

All of your presents are in my house...all of your dinner is in mymouth...

Far too long, yet again, but for once I am truly proud of what I have achieved.

Some weeks ago I set myself the goal of having a CD of my music complete by Christmas. Its been a hard and long ride...too hard to even stop and blog about, but I've done it. 9 Tracks coming in at around 40 minutes. Some are tighter than others and perhaps a little better, but that's OK.

I suppose a lot of this has been more of an exercise in editing and fixing and ideas than real piano playing, at least in the later stages, but that comes with the territory.

So here is kevinplaystheblues:cloudedmelody



Intro Song.

Anthony & Alf.

Insensibility - Stupor VS Coma.

Clouded Melody for the Ocean.

Clouded Melody for Microelectronics.

Forest Feet.

Ballad for an Australian Vampire.

You're Top 12.

Ok, so maybe ambient isn't the best way to describe this stuff after all, Warwick.

Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without a finally mixed and mastered version of my Christmas single going up as well!



So there you have it!

Now of course I need some ideas for the new year...maybe work on being actually able to play this stuff live?

Guess who's coming soon?

Pretty busy here and there. The band is taking up a fair bit of my time, but I have been working on a few things:

This is a little pop thing I came up with. Needs a lot more work. I've got some lyrics, but I doubt its something I'll run with.

This is a little jazz thing I came up with. Did the lead first and then tried to figure out chords. Paul has helped me with a more appropriate progression, and I'll work on that this weekend.

This is just me double tracking a fuck around on my synth. I like some bits there. Its pretty grating, but I should work on this to play live.

Finally Thelonius Monk's 'Blue Monk'. Only worked out the first bit, and then solo'd over it. I need to work it out in full, but I quite like some of my soloing here.

Kevin's Gonna Ruin Christmas!

Ok, so tonight I was talking to the missus on the phone and I started singing her a song as I played the piano. I am a pretty bad singer at the best of times, and tonight I was told that I sounded like a villain in an xmas film. So I ended up with this.

Haha.

It kind of reminds me of The Streets playing Elton John's Your Song. Cept I am not that good.

Month?

Wow. Almost a month. That's quite inexcusable, I suppose. The new band has been taking up a bit of my time, I suppose.

Still, I haven't totally neglected the playing. While I haven't been composing much, still working on covers a bit. As part of my lessons I have been working on Miles Davis'.
All Blues. Without going into it too much, here's something I sequenced in and did a bit of soloing/arranging on. Nothing too elaborate, but a bit of fun. I tried playing some of this organ stuff on non-weighted keys. I am trying to get back into that style of playing to at least some extent. Also, the finishing drums were played entirely by me. Can't say the same for the ones during the song. Ha.

What else? Tascam finally released the drivers for my recorder! That means I am actually able to record things on my computer. This is good. I've also got the right amount of midi ports now, so I can play in and out of all of my instruments without re-rigging. Getting a bit more out of the synth now, which is nice. Talking to this guy I met about a synth band, too. Could be interesting. I wish I still had that moog. :(

Before this dance is through, I think I'll love you too.

Until Saturday...or maybe it was Sunday, it had been an unproductive few weeks. Paul has me working on 16ths in my jazz tunes, as they've been neglected of late in favour of triplets and swung eighths. Its significantly harder to play 16ths, and that's been a good challenge.

Compositionally, its been pretty dead. I really need to sit and work on my existing tracks. I had a pretty good run a few weeks ago, but I haven't had much time, or perhaps interest since. Started a new band with me on drums, and we've got shows planned pretty soon, so that's taken up a bit of my time and musical thoughts.

Being off piano for two weeks, though, I didn't want to sleep into stagnation. I've been meaning to learn Damien Rice's 9 Crimes for a while now, and on Sunday I finally figured it out after some heavy wrestling.

Its quite simple when you figure it out - there is almost always only one note, and its just eighths, but it took a while to get my head around it. I am not sure if its quite right, but its pretty close. I think some weird timing things are happening when the vocals come in, but I am pretty sure the piano line stays the same. Its hard to tell for sure though.

Tonight I tried another one that I've been meaning to tackle - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's Falling Slowly, from the soundtrack to the film Once. I had the soundtrack before I saw the film, but when we did go see it, I realised that it was in C major, (or is that a Minor) so I had no excuse.

I am pretty sure its a bit off, but I'll get there. I am working out the vocal melodies, too, but didn't record that yet.

These songs make me really wish I could sing though. It's painful.

The Spiral Architect...

Its been disgracefully long since I put anything here. Disgracefully long since I started this blog to have so little to show for it. At least this time though, I haven't been really slack.

Lessons have been going well with some good progress on the Ben Kweller and the Jazz side of things. At home, I've been working on a few ideas and had a jam with Emmet the other day trying to get some guitar on board. I am not sure it all grabbed him that much, but we'll see what comes of it all...

Tune Up.

So I've been working on a Miles Davis song called Tune Up - fast bop, I am told. Anyway, its fraught with odd timings and weird notes that were really messing with me. It should have been a really good challenge to my sight reading, but I couldn't even get to that stage - it was just going nowhere.

I relented and sequenced the track, putting note names down where I needed them...which, funnily enough, was everywhere. I was a little embarrassed taking them to the lesson, but I think its worked out well in the long run. On that note, jamming with Emmet was interesting - he wasn't actually able to tell me what notes he was playing when I wanted to play along - self taught and all in his ear. For those of us without such fine aural skills though, I think there's something to be said for decent practise and reading.

So here's a run through of tuneup at about 155BPM, breaking down into a jam after 16 bars. Paul showed me how it progresses across a few scales - I need to find out if its actually changing keys or what.

And then here I am trying it at about 200 or 220BPM. Its a bit harder to hold it at such a tempo, but it introduces some fairly interesting ideas that don't really come at the lower tempos.

In both cases, changing instruments was the death of my. Probably should have cut that crap off? Listening to the originals is a real ear opener though - they must be up at about 300bpm...or maybe 150 at double time. Still, it sounds completely different to what I've come up with. I did try it at such high tempos, but it was a ridiculous mess.

Top12

This track is operating under the working title of Top12 (actually I think its top12_piano version III at this stage, but that's academic at this point). It was inspired not by, but while watching Australian Idol. In fact, I worked on the last iteration during the footy on Friday - volume down of course. Maybe I should rename it to TV.

It was born out of the electric koto sound you can now hear a little less, and has developed from there. I was really conscious of my tendency to rush through the ideas very quickly so I've worked hard on drawing out the intro - Jing thinks to much so, but Emmett thinks I should stay on it further. Either way the rest of the song needs to be drawn out to some extent. My only concern is perhaps that the song contains too many disparate ideas. How will I bring these hooks together? Time will tell I suppose...

Skipping points include:

• 1:20 Intro develops
• 2:00 Piano is introduced
• 2:20 New melody ( should be piano only - I think that synh is too waily)
• 3:20 Introduction of new, angular line...new drum beat...piano ostinato...

Anthony and Alf

So I have named this song
after a friend's paternal issues. I'll admit it started more in a search for a name for names sake, but I am now working to have the feel follow my perception of events. Maybe I should just change the name. I only started working on this track on Saturday, but its actually a rehash of an idea that's been floating around for a while. I think I initially came up with it playing piano during lunch when I worked at UC.

I've gone for a bit more of an ambient feel now, but the piano is still quite dominant. The MIDI fucks out for a couple bars at some point...2 minutesish I think, and its live recording at about the time of the positive change, so timing is a bit off - made evident by the delay.

So I haven't been slack in playing. Just blogging. I wish I had more time for both, though.

"Owen was found with a nearly empty bottle of pills next to him."

So I recorded some blues stuff tonight, but I am not happy with it. Not at all. Though I never am happy, eh.

I've finally got a recording of 'in other words' up. I tried tempo matching and doing the sheet music, but they slow down after about 25 bars or so. There's also this 2/4 change that messes with me if I actually endeavor to count. Who does that though?

So here it is, pan balanced. I could keep learning more, but I think I'd do better to figure out the bassline rythms and lead licks for the progressions I already know:

Jeez, between watching Australian Idol [ha] and playing this stuff, I am hardly listening to any music. Loving this 'Buddy Rich VS Max Roach' LP.

Saturday looks good to me!

So I posted a blues here a week or so ago, but it seems to have completely disappeared. Some people had trouble viewing it, so who knows what happened there.

Here it is, anyways.

Not sure what I had to say about it. I was sick at the time. Paul is giving me heaps of techniques to try on bluesy jazzy things.

Ben Kweller's 'In Other Words' is coming along quite well. I can play about half of it in terms of chord progressions now. There's some melody shit that I haven't gotten down yet, but its coming along. I'll post a play along later. Not quite there yet. I should also repost Death Cab's 'Passenger Seat' That was like the first song I learnt. I need to relearn it though, I think.

The main point of all this is to put some songs up so that I can convince a guitarist to come put some structure to my ideas. Its pretty similar stuff to what we were doing in TDN!S, but its not really getting anywhere just by myself. Actually some of those songs are alright, hey.

Anyways, as for these songs:

Clouded

Something

Intro

Hard.

I have been playing even less than I've been typing of late, if that makes sense?

Tonight's lesson was a bit more productive, and I am not going to fourty gigs this week, so I should be able to present a few things.

I am to get some Gotye, some Ben Kweller, some random melody stuff up.

In fact...I'll do that now..

Still none of the new songs though. I want something more in them yet.

Yes, yes. Slack in playing, slacker in blogging.

No sound examples today, I am afraid. I've been looking through a lot of my previous compositions this week, sorting them into three categories 'electronic' 'jazz/blues' and 'pianoy'

I want to turn the short electronic ideas into proper songs, maybe get some people singing and set that shit up on a myspace. For now I want to re-image my computer. Anything to procrastinate.

On the piano itself, I was just playing some string 7th chords, playing C7- F7 on the quarters and just practising different melodies on the right hand. Hardly challenging, but it makes me feel like I can actually play something decent.

I also dug up a couple compositions I made in the old lunchtimes when working at uni - trying to teach myself to play them fluently again. I think I said this last time.

I don't quite know what I am doing at the moment. I am very undisciplined. I don't think the drum kit is helping.

I've been doing a bit of practice - naughtily not in the area of bass clef reading, though.

I've been spreading myself between replaying compositions I used to play fluently that I have now forgotten, and working on a few new 'song' ideas I have going. Three great intros that I can't seem to break out of. Story of my life. Do I have a songwriting partner yet?

I had a witty subject line earlier...

I did a bit of old school practise today. Dug up some old songs I wrote while at uni and tried playing them again - reading them off the notation. Played some older blues, too.

My goal tonight was not to do anything knew, just to get my hands really in time.

I was going to record and reflect, but I realised that when I do that I practise significantly less.

Maybe on Thursday.