As part of this vlog, every week I'll suggest a tip to help with your piano playing, song writing and arranging skills. This week's tip #1 is for piano players.
When playing difficult pieces, separate the hands! Learn each part separately and thoroughly, then once you have mastered each hand bring them together and play the section slowly from beginning to end, gradually speeding up which will maintain fluidity and detail. Do this on all sections of music that you are unsure of or are finding the rhythm difficult. Works every time!
Hey guys! So I know ages ago you were asking if you could download my old recordings, and I deleted my myspace account ages ago. So here you go finally I got around to uploading the original tracks for download on SoundCloud!
Feel free to listen and download away. Please keep in mind these are the very raw original recordings and were written and recorded all the way back in 2008/09.
Wow 800 page views already and it hasn't been that long. You will be pleased to know the planning is DONE! Which means that this week I'll be doing regular videos, covers, and tutorials to YouTube!
AND I have twitter! You are welcome to follow me. It's music oriented.
Hey guys,
Just came across this stunning chick who is a UK singer/songwriter. She's pretty amazing and her music and look is so pretty! Check out this song 'Primadonna' which apparently is #12 on the NZ charts atm. Cover? I think so! Soon soon soon I promise my lovelies ^_^
Pretty exciting news to tell you! I applied to be a YouTube Partner, and was accepted! This is AWESOME cause it means I will be paid for doing what I do, which means I can do more videos and more of what you like. Send any requests for topics/songs/genres/types of videos you'd like me to do to my YouTube email. I wish these assignments would disappear so I could start already!
I want to say a huge thanks to you guys for sticking by me, I remember all your names those of you who comment and leave your feedback. Keep in touch and I'll keep you posted on the haps next week! ^_^
Hey I haven't disappeared! Still here. Just finishing the last of my assignments then back into it next week after the 15th May. Feel free to message me through YouTube with requests for tutorials/covers. I am going to do quite a few but keep them simple! I will still do some crazy stuff too but all in moderation :P
Finishing my plans and finishing my assignments and I will update you guys soon, thank you for being so patient
Coming soon. Just planning some stuff for you atm, I want to play from a wide range of genres I like so just working out how to do this. Stay tuned. I'm thinking weekly album reviews of my fav artists, then a cover from each. First on the list - Blue Jeans, Lana Del Rey. Love it!
Got some old stuff and new songs too but working on the format. Whether to do it on keyboard or wait till I have finished them in Reason. We'll see... update you soon
These days most music is hardly acoustic and made from 'real' instruments. The synthetic sounds are taking over everywhere from pop to rock and blends of various genres are evident in new trends with bands like 'Skrillex' (gotta love them!) Alternative indie bands take advantage of cymbals and tambourines everywhere you go but in terms of 'love for your instrument' the focus seems to be on quantity of instruments over quality. Anyway despite this I am super keen to mix up (and always have been) a blend of real orchestral sounds with electronic and synthetic instruments especially FX. It's been my plan to produce my stuff myself since the early days in 2008 when music was my focus and my whole life but even when I got ahold of the right programs the amount of time and effort involved in putting the songs together was just... errr overwhelming and so I put it aside as I didn't see the rush. I made a few attempts to get a producer on board with my stuff, and was looking at a few studios and funding a song myself, but I found it difficult to find someone with the same vision as me.
At the moment there isn't much of a market for acoustic 'girl on piano' type of performances or the audience to support this. Not that it's what I want from my music but gone are the days when musicians wrote their own music and demonstrated their legit skills in raw form. Completely REAL. These days its all glitter and flashy fireworks with backing tracks and automated drum beats. Sigh. But as we know, not all the glitters is gold and perhaps there is still a place for my beloved piano in amongst today's modern music. I love pop, and I love all the new dance stuff out at the moment but in the context of music as art, for appreciative intelligent listeners rather than just for a good dance I am intent on blending genres.
This brings me to my most recent focus - Propellerhead's Reason. Now I am working on putting together my stuff within this program and a mixture of Ableton Live & Adobe Soundboth/Premiere Pro for YouTube. Reason is pretty much state of the art MIDI technology and it does everything you want, however I'm a bit musically frustrated at the moment trying to coerce it into creating it as fast as I'd like. If anyone knows what I mean feel free to leave me a any info on the best places to find resources for this stuff other than the obvious YouTube. But I know these things take time and despite not being able to get what I want at the snap of my fingers I will write it all down and keep track of it as I tackle my songs one layer at a time...
I'll do some experimental stuff too and post it as I go. This is gonna be a looooot of work. But it's worth it to get some feedback on the finished product. The funny thing is I never meant my songs to be 'finished' with just piano and vocals. And despite what a lot of people think they were never meant to have an acoustic backing with a basic drum kit and swooping orchestral layers. No, I was never intending to do what Tori Amos and Vanessa Carlton have already done very proficiently. I think of my potential finished music tracks as a mix between Regina Spektor, Justin Timberlake, with an element of general pop and a little Evanescence. Sounds weird in theory but in practice I'm determined to complete my mission. Here's a quote which I love love love and it pays to remember: 'Rise, and rise again, until lambs become lions'.
So it's Easter at the moment, hope everyone is enjoying their chocolate eggs and hot cross buns! It's been beautiful weather this weekend and I am making the most of it taking some time off from my projects and study. I graduate at the end of this year hopefully and am looking forward to it!
Here's a video from 'Lana Del Rey' that I am absolutely in love with at the moment. 'Blue Jeans' is the name of it and it's from her album 'Born to Die'. Google it. Go on. The rest of her album is equally awesome and I am going to do a few covers of her songs soon-ish, really excited!
In this song, she's singing about a guy she loves but who hasn't treated her the best, and the cinematography is stunning, all in black and white which is very rarely successfully pulled off. There is a parallel in the video clip between her 'lover' being a predator or in this case, an alligator and it's very well done showing her swimming with an alligator from underwater, and from above the water it's her 'lover'. The ideas of beauty and mystery are also symbolic elements. Parts of the chorus are reminiscent of Kate Bush, a singer/songwriter from the 80's who was famous for 'Wuthering Heights' Google that too.
This is an inspirational work of art both visually and musically! How we all enjoy playing with fire from time to time and this song sums it up so well. <3 Lana Del Rey.
Here you go, enjoy your Easter lovelies!
I couldn't resist writing it into music so here's the outcome of a couple of practiced attempts:
'The Gatekeeper' (Intro)
I think I may edit the solo bit after the chorus, it's a little too similar in progression to Sweetpea, just cause it's improvised and not edited at all. But bear in mind this is just a piece of the final song, which I will finish at some point. I have to say I am loving the lyrics (See previous post).
Pretty happy with the melody of this one anyway. Piano could do with some work but the structure is solid and cohesive so it makes sense. It's link only. Sorry I didn't play on the keyboard this time, I just like the feel of a real live instrument beneath my fingers and sometimes I feel that the keyboard is too static for writing on... This one is a Bechstein, it's pretty old and is actually my mother's piano. I pretty much just adopted it ^_^
