February's challenge ~ GZ's contribution ~ 'Snowflake'

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gecko zzed

gecko zzed

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I struggled mightily with this challenge, and I found having to conform to the limerick format very difficult.

After pondering on this for a while, I realised it was because my general approach to writing is to allow form and structure to follow a theme, rather than trying to work to a predetermined form. So in the challenge before this, I accidentally used a limerick format for the chorus of "Somewhere" . . . because it just suited the way things were working out.

Anyway, here is 'Snowflake'. It's a little bit tricky because it's in 5/4. It also doesn't have a real chorus; more like a different kind of verse. Nor a bridge. So ti is not what you would call a 'normal' song.

Have a listen and see what you think:http://www.box.net/shared/mlvjm331za
 
Well I enjoyed that. I'll post more after the Challenge finishes. :D
 
Hmmm...

holy sh1t, that was pretty good...

your fast home production has some professionalism to its production.

the music has a sound something like popular music fom the early seventies; by that, I mean, it has something in it from the cat stevens area. Somethng in the lyrics and delivery reminds me of popular "piano standards", just a "feel".

I suspect thats the piano doing that partly, and maybe the rhyming scheme your working around giving it that "feel". Unbidden, I now have "over the rainbow" and "looking over a 4 leaf clover" running thru my head. Thanks for that, I'll send you my therapy bill. LMAO... there's something indfineable about it making me think "show tunes" and "piano standards". (I consider that a good thing, famous melodies and famous lyrics are popping into my head now, and I don't know why...lol)

I didn't read th lyrics, I just listened to the track just now "cold", with no preparation or expectation.

Its different, its good. I'm somehow reminded of a good lounge singer doing a rendition of a "standard". (the song being your own 1-month-original, I assume thats a compliment)

I feel like if I played it for people without telling them its original, they would sit around trying to figure out where its from. "I think its from a musical." "No, I think its an old piano standard..."

your gravelly voice is growing on me. When I first heard it, I didnt know what I was hearing in your voice that made me furrow my brow. I just assumd it was some odd effect from compression, tuner, and home production... but nothing I could put my finger on...

Am I just hearing a slight oz-brit coming thru your voice? I'm on the other side of the world, so Its rare for me to hear male australian singers to be able to compare it to.

The stuff you do comes from all genres, past and present. It makes them all unique. I wouldn't think it odd if I ever heard one of these things end up on the radio.
 
What the heck is 5/4 ??? LOL - however you count this it sounds great to me. As with Dave's tune, this is so far removed from the typical limerick that it amazes me....

The flute and limerick theme seem to go together perfectly don't they?

Fabulous song GZ - I admire your writing and playing skills...
 
Hi again,

I've been having a lot of trouble connecting to the site lately, but did want to get back to comment and find out more about this intriguing song.

When the process began the lyrics looked quite bleak and seemed to be referring to a narrator who was going through quite a dark, even depressed time. I wasn't sure where the lyrics were going, but perhaps that was the point - the narrator was feeling down and directionless? So it was a real surprise to find that the music had so many upbeat qualities, almost as if he was back on the upswing by the time he wrote the tune. I don't know how it would seem to somebody who hadn't seen the words developing first, but - for me anyway - that contrast made the song more interesting than it might have been had it been all dark or all cheery.


gecko zzed said:
I struggled mightily with this challenge, and I found having to conform to the limerick format very difficult.
Click to expand...

Having just quickly listened to the other two submissions it would seem that was a common feeling. There was a sort of "I'm not really sure that I want to be here" touch to all of them. However, you seemed to have been able to use that by working it into the feel of the song.

Anyway, here is 'Snowflake'. It's a little bit tricky because it's in 5/4. It also doesn't have a real chorus; more like a different kind of verse. Nor a bridge. So ti is not what you would call a 'normal' song.

Have a listen and see what you think:http://www.box.net/shared/mlvjm331za
Click to expand...

Once again, I'm mightily impressed by the quality of the music composition and production. Is there any possibility that you might be kind enough to share some of the details of the tools that you used please?

Did you use a mixture of midi files and live audio? Which instruments do you play live yourself, and which were being played in some other way using a voice on the computer? If you prefer to keep your secrets to yourself, I do understand, but there's so much good stuff going on in that track that it would be wonderful to learn more about how it was put together.

Cheers,

Chris
 
I more comfortable responding to a 'theme' rather than to a 'format'. Having a theme placed in front of me sends creative messgaes to my brain, whereas a format just sets my brani loose and directionless.

For that reason, I decided to write something based on a moment, rather than a topic. I guess it's a bit like an emotional snapshot, a bit like a musical postcard.

Here is some info on the making of the track.

The foundation is piano, which I played in realtime to a click track (in 5/4). I used a midi keyboard to drive a Roland sound module for the piano sound.

The next layer was the bass. Again I played this realtime, going straight into the desk.

Here and there there are some atmospheric synth bits that I did using Absynth, a VSTi, just playing very simple lines that roughly followed the melody.

The guitar part is just a double-tracked lead bit, again playing straight into the desk, using an amp simulator on the desk. I cloned about four bars of this lead, reversed it, and used that for the first guitar break in the intro. There was also a long tail note on the lead which I copied, reversed, and added onto that tail. (That's the waily long note in the third verse.) I also copied the very last note of the last guitar lead break, and pasted it over two tracks to get that final delay ping-pong effect.

The strings are courtesy of midi and Roland, and they sit well in the background because I am not that keen on the Roland string sounds.

The real flute is courtesy of an acquaintance who came to do some jazz recording. I said "while you are here, can you do anything with this?" I said I wanted a snowflakey sound. He did two takes. The second I used in the intro, while the first went to the outro. He also did some fills in the first two verses.

The percussion is a mixture of midi (an assortment of vaguely ethnic sounding drums) and drum samples using Battery (a VSTi). They were programmed bar-by bar.

That's about it really. I did three vocal takes. The first was a try out, after which I had to revise line lengths and get the syllable count right. The second included the revisions, but wasn't very good. I kept the third, having a feeling it wasn't going to get much better.
 
Thanks very much for posting all that information about how it was made. :)

I had the feeling that, one way or another, a fair percentage had possibly been played in through the board rather than a mic. But the flute did sound so much 'in the room' that I couldn't see how it could have all the qualities that it did if it been done through a plug in instrument. But that was only guesswork. I'm still only taking the first steps at training my ear to pick up all the nuances in music, so it's extremely useful to be able to listen to tracks that are so thoughtfully structured, and to have some idea how it was all done.

I don't think that my own live playing will ever be good enough to do good straight takes of anything, but at least the software now does offer a number of ways to either clean up or replace unvarnished audio. After having a lot of fun with the Garage Band program that came with the Mac I bought a few months ago, I took the plunge yesterday and bought Logic Studio. I'll never use all the potential power it has, but it's been a most enjoyable 24 hours happily playing through the orchestra, and some amazing synths, using my Yamaha keyboard as a USB midi controller.

Logic also came with a huge library of sounds, both samples and midi loops, which I initially dismissed as Lego blocks for kids to pretend to write songs with, but which I'm beginning to see as extremely useful education tools. I can learn a lot about both structure and dynamics by listening to the various instruments in isolation, rather than trying to mentally extract them from a mix on a CD. And the editors are good enough to be able to study the loops (in both notation and midi) and see just how each 'feel' has been achieved. I can then re-write all the pitches - or any other aspect - and come up with something that's original, but does have the character that I wanted.

At least that's the theory... :D ... time will tell. The vital ingredient is alway the skill, and that doesn't seem to come in a box or on disc.... However, a couple of years ago I didn't think I'd ever play with others in any kind of group situation, and now I do it quite regularly. So who knows...

Thanks again for some very good insights and another great song. It's been both an entertainment and an education. What more could one ask.

Cheers,

Chris
 
Hi GZ, I particularly liked the long instrumental intro. Your craggy vocal then conjures up images of a mediaeval-type World that the protagonist is travelling through on his unknown quest. Very atmospheric. It would be interesting to see how this song would have developed if "structure" had not been a specific of the Challenge.
Fx:D
P.S. My contribution never made it to recording, so don't go looking for it!
 
I echo the sentiments of everyone else who stated the song is very enjoyable. The music and production were great in my opinion. The entire song is very dynamic and engaging. It held my interest the whole way through.

The lyrics reminded me a bit of Sting's writing at times. Good stuff.

Of the three enties I've heard thus far, yours is the best effort.

Good work, Gecko.

Cheers,
Joseph :)
 
I like the progression of lyrics. It transitions smoothly from something simple like shoveling your drive to watching moths and thinking more introspectively; connecting the outside world and nature to your own life. This is something romantic poets loved to do (I've recently taken a few lit classes) but the beginning transition is actually sometimes quite difficult to pull off (and I think it's even more difficult to do within the confines of a song) but you did a real good job.

btw where is everybody reading these lyrics? I didn't see them posted so I listened to the song a few times instead.
 
I love the backward guitar.
This is very nice - there area couple of occasions where you seem to force the note on last syllable of a line. Not often though.
Good flute - congratulate the bloke/bird.
a really nice little journey to take us one Gecko - thanks!
 
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