Archive for October, 2010
Song of the Week
Mèla Mèla Sèyfu Yohannès Ethiopiques Vol. 1 The way this song is one long vamp is typical of Ethiopian music. If you want to hear some grooving 6/8 music, Ethiopiques (a collection of Ethiopian and Eritrean music) Volumes 1&3 is what you want to get.
My string quartet is finished. I’m not happy with the third movement though. While the musical statement it makes is interesting and very me, it doesn’t fit well with the other two. Comment if you’d like a copy of the score.
Song of the Week
Bach: Violin Partita #3 In E, BWV 1006 Andrés Segovia The Art of Segovia [Compilation] As fond as I am of most recordings of Maestro Segovia, I am not a fan of his baroque playing. There’s nothing wrong with the way he plays these pieces, just things I wish had been done differently.
I spent this week successfully putting off finishing my string quartet. I’ve grown to hate the third movement. I don’t care for measure 188 in the first movement either. Rather, I’ve spent my time listening to Steve Poltz and Yes and playing the Jerry Garcia tune Deal. Despite my avoidance of all things musically important, I do have a few things [...]
Song of the Week
Sludge Factory Alice In Chains Alice In Chains I’m a big AIC fan, but this track is not for me. I think the extra vocal parts weigh the track down, the guitar solo is boring, and everything is too compressed. If you want to hear this song, go get their MTV Unplugged album.
Lenny
Coincidentally, for the past couple of days I’ve been amusing myself with excerpts from the 2004 performance of Candide. Bernstein was one of my favorite composers and has had a large influence on my music. “Dance at the Gym” from West Side Story is (in my mind) one of the greatest compositions of all time and his ’66 [...]
Song of the Week
G-Spot Tornado Frank Zappa Jazz From Hell Written for computers, Zappa (from what I’ve heard) thought that this piece could never be played by humans. One of his Synclavier (an early digital music studio) works, this piece takes some getting used to but can be very rewarding to listeners. A more accessible version is on his Yellow [...]
Formerly the Warlocks
As some of you may know, I was quite excited when I first heard this would be released.Why wouldn’t I be? The previous Complete Run box sets had been great and the Dead were often at their best around album release time. And Built to Last is pretty damn great, right? As you hopefully can [...]
A little bit on Theory
Over on the bass forum I frequent, one of the common ‘noob’ questions is ‘What’s theory for?’ or one of its many variations. This is invariably asked by someone new to the forum and almost invariably misinformed about music theory. To preface, music theory, as Victor Wooten so aptly explains in his great book The Music [...]
You’re welcome, Reason users
Just because I’m such a nice guy, I decided to put together a nice filter effect to use in Reason. For everyone! Filter Patch