July 6, 2009
Go get your free lessons from great guitarists. CBC has some great podcasts from their Guitar Gurus Week
. Grab your guitar and your internet connection and download their videos.
June 24, 2009
If you’re at all curious about the hows and whys of music then you owe it to yourself to watch The Music Instinct: Science and Song. I just caught it on PBS tonight but I’m sure you’ll be able to get it from your local library, or you could buy it from the PBS shop.
Be sure to check out the PBS site for more on The Music Instinct.
June 14, 2009
It’s time to pull out your tools. Sharpen your chisels and your mind for building your own instrument. You’ll be rewarded with more than satisfaction of a job well done, you will also get the gift of music. I’ve rounded up some links to get you started.
Musicmaker’s Kits – An awesome place for harp, dulcimer, banjo, guitar, and various other kits.
Luthiers Mercantile International – All the parts you need for making guitars, though quite applicable to other instruments. Also, they sell wood.
Liutaio Mottola’s Lutherie Information Website – Technical design information such as formulae, tables, design tools. Again, not just applicable to building guitars
From Mud to Music – A book really. It’s on instruments made from clay, their history and how to make them.
Cigar Box Nation & Scotty’s Cigar Box Guitars – A couple of great places for plans and resources for building your own cigar box guitar.
Invented Instruments – While not a “how-to” page specifically, there are a lot of great shots of instruments being built from discarded material. Should get your juices going.
The Instrument Encyclopedia – To help you decide what to build.
MFOS Sound Lab Ultimate – For those looking to build something with more electronic flair, here is a kit you can build for a classic synth.
FolkUrban Music – Simple, cheap instruments you can make from department/hardware store materials.
June 3, 2009
Former RIAA CEO Hillary Rosen has an interview out on the Billboard site where she reflects on the 10 year anniversary of Napster. Certainly an interesting read to those concerned with the business side of music.
All of a sudden, record companies started hearing from music fans in a way they never had before. The “customer” for record companies for many years were radio stations and record stores. All of a sudden record companies were on the hook from music fans.
May 25, 2009
Well, between my day job, raising the little monkeys, banging my head against contract work, and designing up Euphonic Remarks’ new home, it’s a wonder that I can get to posting at all. This is a short but good one. I’ve rounded up some solid articles on recording guitars. There is lots of in-depth information in these how-to’s, so start clicking. You’ll be a guitar recording god in the studio by the end of it.
May 20, 2009
Well I’ve gone and done it. I’ve gotten my own domain name and a place to put it. For some time now the limitations of being hosted on wordpress.com have been needling me. Don’t get me wrong, I love that wordpress offers up a place to get rolling in the blog world. I think the platform is great, and will be using it in my new space. It’s just time to stretch out of the free-hosted-blog format. My readership has grown to a substantial size, and I want to turn this blog into the music lovers destination I had always envisioned it being. It is time to leave the nest.
If I seem distracted over the next little while, it’s because I’m busy planning layouts and setting things up. Once Euphonic Remarks is all ready to go at its new home, I will post an announcement here so that you may update your links/bookmarks. The wordpress.com blog will still be available, but I will not be updating it. Instead, I will create redirects in all the content that will take users who follow old links to the same content on the new site.
I will continue to post here until the new site is ready to go, so don’t be a stranger. If you want you can go and try out the new url, though it’s will just tell you to come back here.
http://www.euphonicremarks.com/
If you have any suggestions that you would like to see implemented, you can either comment on this post, or send me and email at: oneoverphi@gmail.com
May 16, 2009
Four on the floor. How many songs are written in 4/4 time? It’s almost uncountable. Since an overwhelming majority of popular songs are written in 4/4, the casual musician whose only goal is campfire crooning need not ever come to grips with the whys and wherefores of time signature. All one must do is count “1 … 2 … 3… 4…”, and this suffices. Well today I want to look at alternate time signatures, specifically the odd ones. I’ve written a tutorial for you that is so big I had to use the ‘more’ tag. So jump right in and see how you can shake up your songwriting and make your songs jump out at people.
May 14, 2009
Just thinking on my previous post, opinion on the relative value of Guitar Hero is quite varied among musicians. On the one hand you have some who vilify it and on the other hand you have those that praise it. While up the middle is the “Relax, it’s just a game” crowd. I used to play UmJammer Lammey in the day, which is more-or-less Guitar Hero without the fancy guitar-shaped controller. It was fun, I mashed buttons, I rocked out in the ‘Cool’ level, I improved my anticipation and timing (maybe). Now I’ve never tried Guitar Hero, so I feel I’m unfit to comment on whether or not I like it. Though I can see both the pros and the cons of virtual musicianship, I don’t have the data on how this is playing out in the real world. My question to you, dear reader, do you feel there is anything of value in Guitar Hero, or is it just a distraction from experiencing the real, tangible world of playing a guitar?
May 12, 2009
I can tell you from my own childhood experience, having to watch other people play video games was one of the worst things you could do (”Is it my turn yet?”). That experience seems to have been forgotten by some people because it appears that Activision Blizzard, the makers of Guitar Hero, are considering jumping into reality TV. Now I don’t know what sort of format it will take but none of what I’m imagining would be as interesting as playing the game for yourself.
May 11, 2009
If you haven’t noticed the link in the sidebar of the front page, I’m looking for bands/solo artists to feature on this blog. I want to help connect bands with fans so if you want to promote your music, send an email with “artist promotion” in the subject line. Include in the body of the email the following information:
You will be featured on the front page for one week, and then moved to the ‘Features Artists’ page. It’s open to everyone to submit. Those selected to be featured will be contacted within one week (probably within 3 days really, but I got to cover my bases). Get out there and promote your band!
oneoverphi@gmail.com
May 7, 2009
I’ve set up a Twitter account so I can quickly post interesting music links I come across during the day. Cheers to networks!
May 6, 2009
Just a quick note, I’m almost done building that cajon (everything takes a billion times longer with toddlers underfoot), so very soon I’ll post the how-to on that. This whole building-percussion-instruments-from-plywood made me think that the next project I should do for myself is a stompbox. Another simple project that also occurs to me is to make a guiro one day. So many folk instruments, so little time.
Also coming down the pipeline, be on the look out for an article on odd time signatures, and one on putting your lyrics to melody. In the meantime I suggest you listen to some Feeding Like Butterflies. They hail from my old stomping ground. I remember seeing them play at the Power Plant at the U of A, rocking out with an electric green cello onstage. I don’t know what they’re up to these days, if even they’re still together, but don’t let that stop you from becoming a fan.
April 29, 2009
I’m a big fan of unusual and homebrew instruments. In fact I’m making a cajon (also known as a box drum) right now, which I’ll post a walk-through and plans for when I’m done. For all of you that share this interest in the DIYers that add to the musical mayhem in the world, I’ve assembled some links for you.
For something weird and wonderful, go to Experimental Musical Instruments. Be sure to go to the Tools & Reference section to get help on making your own wonderful creation. Along the same lines, go to Oddstrument, a blog that collects examples of awesome instruments.
At Bash the Trash you can learn about making instruments from materials you might just recycle.
Got some left over PVC pipe from that construction project? Plastic Sound will show you what to do with it.
At Apollos Axes you can purchase nearly any instrument made in the world. Not weird per se, but unusual. Though a little on the weird side, you can buy a metallic pink violin. I’m not sure how it sounds, but man, you’d be pretty flashy onstage.
For the museum experience go see The Astonishing World of Musical Instruments.
Using ice to build your instrument may seem foolish, but Terje Isungset went ahead and did it anyways. Now the world has an ice harp.
Reaching back into history is some interesting musical automata. Long before MIDI there were drums with spokes or punched roll-paper. That’s how they did it old school. I like the automatic banjo.
April 27, 2009
Here are great tutorials on building your own software guitar effects with MaxMSP (Tutorial #1, Tutorial #2). For those who don’t know MaxMSP is an incarnation of Max, the multimedia development environment. Max was rolled out by Cycling ‘74. MSP is a set of modules designed for real-time audio processing, check out the overview here. MaxMSP is a bit pricy for the hobbyist but there is a 30 day demo version available for you to play with. You might find that you like it enough to shell out.
April 25, 2009
These are all great tools that you can use from your browser, and they are free. Go, enjoy, be creative!
guitaristhelp.com – They say “guitarist help”, but really these tools are useful for any musician. Chiefly of use are the tools for finding scales from lists of notes or chords, and the tool to find chords for given scales.
rhymer.com & thesaurus.reference.com – Your best friends in the lyrics department. I like rhymer particularly for the ability to choose the type of rhyme I’m looking for.
get-tuned.com – Online tuners for a variety of instruments such as the guitar, violin, banjo, mandolin, etc … It also includes articles on different methods of tuning.
findsounds.com – For when you want to add atmosphere to your recordings. I used it to find CB chirps to use in a song. You can specify format, sample rate, minimum size, resolution, and number of channels.
Monkey Machine – I’ve suggested this online drum machine before, but I’m bringing it up again now. It’s really great for practicing. It lets you edit drum patterns and tempo. Here’s what I use when offline.
webmetronome.com – If you just want a straight-up metronome then this is it. I love the simplicity of this metronome. No clutter, intuitive, easy!
noteflight.com – Browser based score editor with midi playback and export.
Visit my front page to see more great music posts!
April 22, 2009
The Burning Hell. They’ve popped up on my radar and it’s wonderful. Their music is fun and witty. The narratives in Mathias Kom’s lyrics are a madcap romp through a world gone gleefully wrong … or right, depending on your view. Glockenspiel and ukulele, trumpet and cello are among the ensemble, giving a playful sound to music. The Burning Hell is on the weewerk label. Go to their website at wearetheburninghell.com, or their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/mathiaskom, or listen to them on CBC Radio 3.
April 20, 2009
Like many musicians today, I have a modest home studio that I record in. Always keen to improve my recording skills, I was glad to stumble upon HomeTracked.com. It is a great blog maintained by Des McKinney which has lots of tips and tricks for getting the most out of your equipment, performance, and time. When the novice first embarks on the long trek of cutting demos, mastering the bewildering array of tools and techniques seems insurmountable.
It’s nice to know there’s help to get you recording on the right track (he-he), and HomeTracked does an admirable job of this. Even if you’re an old hat at home studio recording you could pick up a new tip or two. Remember: Learning is a lifelong process.
Get some great deals on recording equipment.
April 18, 2009
You may have heard about modal interchange in passing, but never had it explained. If you want to know what it is then you have come to the right place. I’m going to quickly break down for you what modal interchange is all about and what it can do for you in songwriting. In short Modal Interchange is the act of replacing chords in a harmonic progression with other chords belonging to parallel modes or scales to the key in which the song is written. Quite a mouthful, but don’t worry, it’s really easy. So if we’re replacing chords with ones that don’t belong in the key, aren’t we adding wrong notes? Why would we want to do that? Well, by using notes that don’t belong to the key that the song is written in you are adding what is known as “chromatic interest”, which is just a fancy way of saying that you’re adding the unexpected. To put it another way, you are ‘jazzing up’ your piece.
There are two ways in which the major and minor keys (which are two classes of modes in the diatonic system) are related to each other, they can be relative or parallel to one another. Say we’re starting with a major key, the relative minor has a different tonic note than its major counterpart yet has the same key signature ( the pattern of sharps or flats). To start with the simplest example the key of C major has no sharps or flats, the key of A minor also has no sharps or flats. This makes A minor the relative minor of C major. In this diagram of the circle of fifths, the inner circle shows the relative minors of the outer circle.
Click to learn more about the Circle of Fifths.
Now as you can see if we were to try to use a relative key to borrow chords from it wouldn’t add any chromatic interest as you would not be introducing notes into your piece that aren’t already in the key in which it was written. In contrast, the parallel minor has the same tonic note yet different key signatures. In this case C minor is the parallel minor of C major. They both start on C, but the C minor scale has three flats (A-flat, B-flat, E-flat). On a quick side note: I’ve been speaking of parallel and relative minors, but the inverse relationship applies as well. C major is the parallel major of C minor and the relative major of A minor. Parallel and relative just describe the type of relationship two keys have. So remember: parallel – same tonic note, relative – same key signature.
That you use a parallel key to borrow from is the secret behind modal interchange. The pattern of intervals that make up a key is termed its mode. Of the seven modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian) in common use in tonal music, the major scale corresponds to the Ionian mode and the natural minor scale corresponds to the Aeolian. So what you are doing by substituting chords and notes with those from a parallel key is literally interchanging the chords and notes between modes.
I think that I should be clear on something here. So far the discussion has limited itself to borrowing between two specific modes, the Ionian and the Aeolian. To be certain, there is no rule that you must limit yourself so in modal interchange. Indeed you can borrow from any mode you please with varying degrees of success. I suggest trying the Phrygian next.
Let’s run through a quick example of what simple modal interchange might look like. Here is an easy progression in C major (Ionian mode):
C (I) / G (V) / F (IV) / Am (VI)
Play it through to see how it sounds. Now we’re going to make a slight alteration by replacing the G chord with it’s counterpart in the C minor scale (Aeolian mode). Play this one through and listen to how the tone of the progression changes.
C (I) / Gm (v) / F (IV) / Am (VI)
Notice how the progression becomes more ’serious’ and less ‘light’, yet we don’t have to leave the major key to obtain this effect (completely leaving one key for another would be modulation). By just including the B-flat in the Gm chord temporarily, we can avoid wandering into the ’sad’ sound of a full-on minor key. In a sense we are making the key less distinct without abandoning it completely. Thus modal interchange is a great way to spice up your song’s harmony; it becomes less predictable and more expressive than it would be if you stuck completely to one mode. In its own right, the natural experimentation with modal interchange will shake you out of the rut you’ve made for yourself of using the same chords over and over again. Think of it as a way to squeeze the creative juice out of your brain.
If you need some reference as to what chords go with what scales check out my chord transposition chart, and here is a great post on building progressions and charting the chords that belong to certain modes.
April 8, 2009
If you’re serious about recording your masterpieces in the comfort of your own home studio, then you might want to look into the finer points of room treatment. Ethan Winer has a comprehensive article on acoustic treatment for your studio spaces. It goes into great detail about the whys and wherefores of preping a room for audio recording. He also has a few more interesting articles he wrote for various magazines posted on his site. Also Sound on Sound has a series of great articles on acoustical treatment too (Practical Acoustic Treatment: Part 1, Practical Acoustic Treatment: Part 2, Practical Acoustic Treatment: Part 3, Practical Acoustic Treatment: Part 4, Practical Acoustic Treatment: Part 5, A Guide To DIY Studio Acoustics, How To Keep Sound In & Out Of Your Studio) .
Don’t forget to pick up those accessories.
April 4, 2009
Traditional Music Library is this huge repository of folk and traditional sheet music. I found it whilst looking for the music to “Rolling Down to Old Maui” (by-and-by, they also have an excellent primer on sea shanties). Songs are catagorised in sections such as:
They even have a section on Musical Education. Within it are all sorts of articles on playing instruments, writing songs, and musical theory. Hell, there are even instructions on making your own Spanish guitar. This site is well worth a poke around, even if traditional and folk music are not up your alley.
Includes musical scores from which you can print sheet music, song sheets with lyrics and chords, tablature, chord diagrams, instrument info and music education and academic research resources including many secondary source books. There are also MIDI files for many of the songs.
April 2, 2009
I don’t know what to say, but I do know that when I watched this I died a little inside. You best see for yourself.
March 24, 2009
The New York Times back in the summer reported on a new piece of software that promises to bring pitch correction to polyphonic recordings. Direct Note Access has the ability to reach into a chord and manipulate the individual notes in isolation. Direct Note Access is created by Celemony (the boys that brought you Melodyne). You can watch an interview with the inventor Peter Neubäcker here.
When doubling vocals to achieve a fuller sound, don't pan both tracks to the center. Having both tracks on center will make the vocals sit back more in the mix than if you separated them a bit. It's the slight timing variations in the two takes that makes the vocals sound more full. If they are both panned to the same spot those variations are not as prominent.
Blog Search Engine
| Blog: |
| Euphonic Remarks |
Topics: |
| music, song writing, culture |
