New Original Song

mocachapeau

mocachapeau

Dagobah Resident
Hi everyone,

I finished a recording of one of my compositions and wanted to share it with you all, as always. It's not particularly Work oriented but I came up with the idea a number of years ago, around the time I began to realise how much of a jerk I could be. So it does represent a certain moment in the timeline of my beginning to wake up. I hope you like it.


http://youtu.be/x_L8_MF_XFg


Here are the lyrics:


Sweet Melody

Sometimes it’ hard to believe
When you feel so much grief
And sometimes it’s hard to succeed
At what you want to achieve
You called my name for a reason (x2)

Sometimes it ain’t so plain
‘Cause we’re all playin’ the game
And sometimes it’s hard to accept
That you might feel the same
You called my name for a reason (x2)

I look behind your eyes
To see if I can see
What kind of soul would want to
Spend their days with someone like me

Sweet melody of mine
Yeah I guess you had a reason
Sweet melody of mine
Some reason to be
Sweet melody of mine
My sweet sweet melody

Are people bein’ kind
When they say love is blind
I’m just waitin’ round for the day
That you up and change your mind
You called my name for a reason (x2)

No matter how hard I try
I can’t keep myself from wonderin’ why
Why you made me such a lucky man
Will you be with me ‘til the day I die
You called my name for a reason (x2)

I look behind your eyes
To see if I can see
What kind of soul would want to
Spend their days with someone like me

Sweet melody of mine
Yeah I guess you had a reason
Sweet melody of mine
A reason to be
Sweet melody of mine
My sweet sweet melody
Etc.
 
Great stuff mocachapeau. I really enjoyed it.

My musical mind has been quite creative lately, so I've been hearing possible arrangements when I listen to some songs lately. For example, while listening to your Sweet Melody, the first thing I heard was bass with a subtle funk sound, just enough to drive a light groove. Kind of like a faster and punchier version of the bass at the beginning of your I've been Lied To. Then, since you had horns, it made me think about accent horns that just do shots dat ... dada dat ober top of the other horns. Don't know if they would improve, be neutral or take away. They just are things I started hearing.

I'm kind of enjoying this phase of my musical life, hearing things I never heard before in my head, just wish I could get the sounds from my head onto the paper.

The guitar reminded me a bit of Gerry Garcia. Great piece, man.

How long did it take to produce?

Sure would be nice if we could get enough technology together so we could have regular jams and writing workshops. There's a lot of talent and skill on this forum, you included.

Gonzo
 
Nice song mocachapeau, thanks for sharing!

Gonzo said:
My musical mind has been quite creative lately, so I've been hearing possible arrangements when I listen to some songs lately.
Click to expand...

I do that too. It's like mixing songs in my head. :P
 
Gonzo said:
Great stuff mocachapeau. I really enjoyed it.

My musical mind has been quite creative lately, so I've been hearing possible arrangements when I listen to some songs lately. For example, while listening to your Sweet Melody, the first thing I heard was bass with a subtle funk sound, just enough to drive a light groove. Kind of like a faster and punchier version of the bass at the beginning of your I've been Lied To. Then, since you had horns, it made me think about accent horns that just do shots dat ... dada dat ober top of the other horns. Don't know if they would improve, be neutral or take away. They just are things I started hearing.

I'm kind of enjoying this phase of my musical life, hearing things I never heard before in my head, just wish I could get the sounds from my head onto the paper.

The guitar reminded me a bit of Gerry Garcia. Great piece, man.

How long did it take to produce?

Sure would be nice if we could get enough technology together so we could have regular jams and writing workshops. There's a lot of talent and skill on this forum, you included.

Gonzo
Click to expand...

Hi Gonzo! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I had some similar thoughts to your own about this song when I was writing it. I was really feeling it a little more funky than it turned out. But I never know what's going to happen when I send it to the guitarist. When I first heard the country-ish chords with the slide that he put in I wasn't sure what to think - it was pretty far from what I had in my head. I ended up putting my own rhythm track in the background to keep a bit of the flavour I wanted but it's really not even close. But I think it's more interesting this way.

I used to tell him exactly what I wanted when I sent him something but now I'm enjoying the joint creation where I don't impose my view and I let him create openly. It's made me think a lot about the idea of finding someone to colaborate with whose ideas, or energy, blend with mine to produce something really phenominal, and original, that neither one of us could have come up with alone. Could this happen with us, or would it have happened already?

I think a lot of us hear those arrangement ideas when we listen to music, and I think it's the same principle as the blending of energies I'm talking about. You listen to someone's idea and you hear what your input would be. It makes me think of Jimi Hendrix's version od Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, or Joe Cocker's version of the Beatle's A Little Help From My Friends - taking someone else'S idea and adding what you hear.

I agree, it could be amazing if we could do some kind of colaborating here. I don't know how exactly we could go about it, but I do know that the guitarist I'm working with lives across the country and we function by email. So the writing possibility is definitely there.

We could always try running a little experiment that could include a number of people who have the tools needed to record at home. One person makes an mp3 of a bass line, or a melody, or a guitar line - anything but drums 'cause it's tough to hear the form with just that. They send it to the next person who adds the next part and sends it on to the next person. When it's finished, if we like the result, each person can send the original wave files (via direct download) to the person who will mix it. That could yield some very interesting music, indeed!

It took me over a month to get this one together but that's partly because I don't have an isolated recording space, and I share the computer with the whole family. I'm presently working on ways to speed up the process.

I must run - I'm at work! But maybe this is an idea worth persuing?
 
Nice production! Vocals harmonics are clean and the layering gives it a modern blues feeling that makes me want to drive a truck.
 
Hey, mocachapeau and Gonzo, the collaboration idea sounds great. It could really do wonders in reaching people as well, especially if those that have lyrics are about the concepts here, and all music/music videos promote the SOTT and cass related websites. I think this idea has great potential.

I play a little guitar, but I don't have a great recording situation; I may be able to pull something off though (I have 2 ways of recording, but in both cases it should be inline recording because I don't have a soundproof room, and in that case I'd have to borrow either an electric guitar or an acoustic with a pickup on it).

One other thing, there's a grand piano in my apartment. Only two drawbacks with that: I can't really play piano that well and the very low and very high ends of the piano are out of tune. Well, actually the third is the same problem of recording with a microphone -- lots of city noise to contend with. Anyway, lets see what others think (and there's sure to be better musicians on the forum even on guitar which I play MUCH better than piano).
 
Well, when I was younger, I never heard alternate arrangements. I created my own sounds and was always surprised with what other band members would add, rarely disappointed. I was always impressed with how people would interpret someone else's songs. And when I learned that several classical composers actually heard all of the instruments in their hear while composing a symphony, I was simply blown away. So, I'm a little late to the game, I guess.

Perhaps others on the forum are aware of collaborative tools for musicians? I'm a little behind the times in terms of newer technologies (heck, I have gear people now refer to as vintage, and it was new when I got it!!!).

It would be pretty cool if there was a way for real time collaboration, and I wonder about using technologies based on voice over IP like Skype (probably wouldn't be the best for audio, but certainly would work for talking while working together). I assume we would have to convert our signals to digital, but have no idea what would be involved in that, let alone how to get the signals together and their levels mixed, but surely by now we have the technology.

Gonzo
 
I like the vocals a lot! The singing reminded me a bit of Bob Weir, the other singer in the Grateful Dead. Very good!

:)
 
Gonzo said:
It would be pretty cool if there was a way for real time collaboration, and I wonder about using technologies based on voice over IP like Skype (probably wouldn't be the best for audio, but certainly would work for talking while working together). I assume we would have to convert our signals to digital, but have no idea what would be involved in that, let alone how to get the signals together and their levels mixed, but surely by now we have the technology.

Gonzo
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how to go about any kind of real time interaction, but I am going to put a little thought into how we might be able to make group creations. I think it's a darned good idea. The way I see it, there are at least two separate projects here. First, the creation of music by those who play instruments and have the means to record them - that would be easiest. Second - and this one really intrigues me - a way to get ideas from non-musicians who don't know how to do any of this. For example, if someone has an mp3 player with a voice recorder, they could sing their bass line into the mp3 player, transfer the file to their computer, and then email it to someone who could turn it into a recording of an actual, or virtual, bass. I'd have to work out the rest of the process.

There are so many people out there who have no musical experience but have an undeveloped musician inside of them. Their ideas, much like punk musicians, can be very original or innovative because they haven't been corrupted by years of learning "the rules". And as long as they can sing in tune, they would be able sing a melody or a line of some kind. It would be up to the players to develop it.

I also really like Seekin Truth's idea about getting lyrics. I'd love to try to put someone else's lyrics to music. That would be fun.

SeekinTruth said:
Hey, mocachapeau and Gonzo, the collaboration idea sounds great. It could really do wonders in reaching people as well, especially if those that have lyrics are about the concepts here, and all music/music videos promote the SOTT and cass related websites. I think this idea has great potential.

I play a little guitar, but I don't have a great recording situation; I may be able to pull something off though (I have 2 ways of recording, but in both cases it should be inline recording because I don't have a soundproof room, and in that case I'd have to borrow either an electric guitar or an acoustic with a pickup on it).

One other thing, there's a grand piano in my apartment. Only two drawbacks with that: I can't really play piano that well and the very low and very high ends of the piano are out of tune. Well, actually the third is the same problem of recording with a microphone -- lots of city noise to contend with. Anyway, lets see what others think (and there's sure to be better musicians on the forum even on guitar which I play MUCH better than piano).
Click to expand...

I do think this idea has been suggested here before, but I don't know if it ever got off the ground. One thing I remember that Perceval wrote was that often the recordings that people send to SOTT are not of high enough quality to use in their promotional material. There is often two much background noise, or hissing, or not enough compression. Unfortunately, I'm no recording expert and I think my recordings would fall into that category. But I agree there is great potential here, and it would at least be worth a try.

As I said, I'm going to give this some thought and see what I can come up with.

And by the way, thank you everyone for your appreciative comments about my song. It's always nice to know that people have enjoyed something I've put together.
 
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