After trying many types of calendars, reminders, notebooks, and programs, I have settled on mostly a system of Google calendar and documents, to help me maintain my routine schedule activities and appointments at home and school. 

My favorite technique for sorting information and assignments due, such as when taking multiple graduate classes, or preparing for multiple performances, is to create a google spreadsheet with all of the assignments listed by due date and including the instructions for each. I like to color code the grids and it is very helpful to me. It is much easier for me to read the grid at at glance than go through a list on a typical document. 

I have separate system for classes, work, and home, but one master calendar to remind me of tasks and activities I have scheduled. Google Calendar also lets me have separate calendars color coded for each type of activity such as work, home, school, appts. And I can hide or include those on my master calendar. 

Although I still enjoy paper calendars and notebooks, I transfer all of that information to my phone calendar in addition to writing it down. It is also quick and helpful to take a photo of written notes to read later on my phone.

June 26, 2023

“Find an example of a song containing a direct audio sample of another song. I recommend using WhoSampled.com. Post links to both songs and explain how the sample was used. Does it form the basis of the beat? Is it a background texture? Does it run throughout the song or just appear once?”

Though many different pieces of the original “Country Roads” by John Denver are present throughout the entire piece, the basis of this remix by Pretty Lights uses a sample of just two guitar notes (0:09) which occur in the pause Denver takes between singing “Almost heaven,” and “West Virginia.” The clips are mixed with rhythms from a drum kit and sometimes lapse into heavier synthetic sections, along with rearranged, repeated snippets of Denver’s vocals. 

• Pretty Lights – Country Roads Remix
• Country Roads John Denver 

“Find an example of a song that contains a quotation or interpolation of another song, and post links to both of them.”

Taco’s 1982 cover of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” by Irving Berlin is a great example of quotation, since the cover contains no less than five other song quotations. Interestingly, all of the songs quoted were other hits by Irving Berlin and span several decades of his work.

• Taco – Puttin’ On The Ritz
  • 3:08 Always
  • 3:20 I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
  • 3:27 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
  • 3:41 There’s No Business Like Show Business
  • 3:59 Broadway Melody (“Gotta Dance!”)

I don’t think sampling modern songs without permission (or at the very least, without credit given) is acceptable if the sample is going to be part of something that is sold, such as a complete work by a professional artist or music company. Sampling in a shorter sense I think is fine- such as TikToks, or YouTube videos. If the sample is from an audio in the public domain, credit should still be given somehow, just for clarity’s sake.

Due to my school’s technology situation this year (a lot of our iPads and student computers were recalled and the remainder have to be shared) it appears unlikely that I could get the remaining iPads or computers to be scheduled for a music class at this time. However, I use technology during my lessons constantly through Canva and other presentations. Although I’m simply using Canva to make the visuals, I then assess students’ understanding through the games and activities done in class using those visuals. I also use Canva to create printable gameboards, composition worksheets, and other activities which are all ways of assessing students’ musical understanding.

If student computers and ipads were available, music theory and ear-tracing apps could be used to quickly assess individuals’ understanding of theory concepts, pitch identification, and aural skills. Students could create compositions using the concepts they’d learned, or notate musical examples. Additionally, identification of instruments, music history questions, and other musical concepts could be correctly assessed in a more interesting and interactive way than using pencil and paper tests.

For this post, I chose Justin Beiber’s song “Holy.”

Link to official lyric video (which inexplicably has a lot of spelling errors for an official music video?) 

• Introduction – 0:00
  • 1 measure’s worth of subdued piano chords.
• Verse 1 – 0:07
  • Bieber begins to sing on the offbeat of measure 2, which feels a bit unexpected. Each verse is about 8 measures long.
• Chorus 1 – 0:28/0:39
  • The choruses of this song have two very distinct parts- the first four measures are the more subdued “hold me/holy” chorus, while the next four are the more energetic “running’ to the altar like a track star” hook. Each chorus is 8 measures long.
• Verse 2 – 0:51
  • A rhythmic drum kit background begins, along with a bass guitar, contrasting to the previous verse’s contemplative piano chord accompaniment. There are a few fills of a woman shouting underneath Beiber’s vocals. (8 measures)
• Chorus 2 – 1:11
  • The piano resumes, but now takes on a more energetic gospel vibe along with a subtle background of male gospel singers accompanying Bieber. (8 measures)
• Bridge – 1:35
  • Bieber repeats the same line twice to make a bridge that is the same length as a regular verse. (8 measures) 
• Verse 3/Rap section – 1:56
  • Chance the Rapper starts by singing three lines of a new verse, but transitions to rap for the rest of the section. The whole section takes over twice as long as a regular verse’s length (around 20 measures)
• Drop Chorus/Outro- 2:57/3:25
  • The majority of accompaniment drops out during the “hold me/holy” section, then resumes at full force with the “track star” hook and powerful gospel choir vocals. It adds 4 additional measures of the “track star” hook, for a total of 12 measures. 
  • (‘Outro’ – 3:25. The song ends immediately at 3:32 once Bieber finishes singing the last two measures of the chorus, which are once again more subdued than the previous six.)

For this prompt, i immediately thought of several examples from the band Steam Powered Giraffe, which was one of my favorite groups during high school. 

• Realistic: Make Believe featuring guitarist and singer Michael Reed
  • This recording of “make-believe” includes all of the mistakes, voice breaks, and general sense of messiness that tends to come with a live Steam Powered Giraffe recording. I think some of the audience effects might have been filled in later, but the recording itself is accurate to the band playing live without any touching up of parts or parts being recorded separately.

• Hyperealistic: Clockwork Vaudeville  
  • The “clockwork vaudeville” song sounds like it might be live due to the audience cheers, but I happen to know that this album was not made live and was created because the band needed a live album to sell at their gigs, but had not yet had an opportunity to create a live tour album (their only regular gig at the time was at an outdoor stage at a zoo) so the band recorded their songs in the studio and added the audience effects in, even recording themselves shouting extra things their typical audience might say, such as a muffled “I love you, Michael Reed!” from the ‘crowd’ when the guitarist takes the stage.
• Surrealist: Lyin’ Awake with soloist Bryan Barbarin
  • “Lyin’ awake” has what sounds like a drum kit and loops underneath it, as well as other synthetic instruments and layered vocals. I can tell that the main singer, Bryan Barbarin, is not singing ‘live’ – at one point in his rap I can hear him with other band members vocalizing fills underneath the rap. I also know that in the last few years the band lost several of their former ‘live’ instrument players, such as their drummer, their pianist, and their sound engineer, so it makes sense that they would be shifting towards a pre-recorded or digital music to help fill in the missing players’ parts.

It sounds a lot like an alarm clock, but this was actually made on Garageband from a clip of my front door creaking. I was inspired by the music of the video game series Portal and wanted to make something that reminded me of that soundtrack. I used the sampler keyboard and created an overlapping arpeggiated melody. 

Original phone recording found sound for comparison- you can here the original door creak in here a few times.

Guitar Looping: Shades of Green – Phil Keaggy

Phil Keaggy really loves these looping machines, and uses them in every one of his solo concerts. He also loves talking about what he’s doing. I had the opportunity once to attend one of his performances and I really enjoyed the music and watching him build up the song with the loop pedal. It’s often hard for me to follow the steps he is actually taking to make such elaborate loops, but it is impressive nonetheless. His playing is intricate and effortless, always light as air. 

In this piece, Keaggy is recording two solo parts in real time, and then playing a third part to those looped recordings. He is using two capos. One capo is cut so that he can play in two different tunings; standard and D. 

Drum Machine: In the Air Tonight – Phil Collins, 1981

This song uses a strong synthetic drum track made with a 1978 Roland CR78 drum machine. It was the first drum machine that was programmable so that drum patterns could be repeated instead of played live. 

In an interview for Mix Magazine, Collins, who is a drummer, talked about his unusual choice of featuring such a strong drum track on the song. 

“’In the Air Tonight’ was just a drum machine pattern that I took off that CR78 drum machine. You could eliminate certain sounds and program bass drums and snare drums, so I programmed a bass drum part into it, but basically the rest of it was already on there. I probably added an acoustic Fender piano pretty early.” (Flans, 2022)

Citation: 

Flans, R. (2022, November 11). Classic tracks: Phil Collins’ “in the air tonight.” Mixonline. https://www.mixonline.com/recording/classic-tracks-phil-collins-air-tonight-365521

Tech Blog Post 3: Loop Song Peer Review

LINK https://youtu.be/1TRkkflWpoQ 

I wanted to create something that reminded me of the atmosphere of the“morning lofi/cleaning/study/ playlist” kind of music on youtube that I enjoy while doing chores or studying. I tried to pick the instruments and loops that sounded the most like what I’d hear in one of those videos:

• Toy Celesta- the foundation, start and finish of the piece
• 70’s Rhythm Box – Percussion pattern 
• Steel Drum Synth – chord pattern 
• 80s Game Synth Bass –  bass loop
• Strummed Ukulele – chord pattern 
• synths- swapping between “north star beat” and “moving pictures synth” 
• Toy Glockenspiel – final touch 

I created the structure with an additive process. I started with the lightest sounds first and added the heaviest sounds. I reversed that process to end the piece. 

We are questioning whether looping is legitimate art since we are just pressing the button. I think it depends on how much thought you are putting into it. While it is music either way, the amount of skill and thought that you put into the process will greatly affect the quality of the piece. Although it is easy to make something sound good with looping, it is just as easy to make something that sounds terrible.

Favorite Song – Twine by Lowland Hum

“Twine” by Lowland Hum has been one of my favorite songs since 2019, so much so that I put it on my alarm clock ringer. For that reason, it may be less of a favorite by association with getting up early for lunchroom duty at work. I am not sure what my actual favorite song is since I started working as a teacher full time, but I listen to all genres and styles of music constantly. I have so much less personal time to think about songs for myself than I did before. Normally, I am thinking about songs for my students to enjoy. However, I have liked “Twine” ever since Lowland Hum gave a performance for one of my music classes at KSU. I enjoy the instrumentation, the simplicity, and the interplay of their voices. It creates a feeling of peace and it reminds me of my favorite hobby which is nature study. I especially enjoy hearing it on my way to school and work.

Least Favorite Song – The Impossible Dream

“The Impossible Dream” is probably my least favorite song. The lyrics are meant to be inspirational; about trying to do epic things, but the song itself doesn’t manage to accomplish much of anything musically. It has a sort of marching theme, but It doesn’t go anywhere. The song itself is technically challenging, and the phrase itself is pretty, but it would be a lot prettier if it was combined with a bunch of contrasting phrases. It is just the same sort of little pretty phrase over and over which ends up becoming very boring and repetitive, No fault here to Jim Nabors/Gomer Pyle, whose voice is quite lovely, but the choice of song is not great.