029 a choice

SONG

The music for today’s song was written a really long time ago, but I could never get the right melody for it. Fortunately, recently, I have found a melody that I think suits the song well. The chords by the way are Bm, A, G, F#/D, Em, F#/D, G, F#/D for the verse, A and G for the pre-chorus, and a Bm, G, D, A progression for the chorus. The tuning is one whole step down.

LYRICS

The theme of this song is another common theme in my music: vampires. This time it’s about someone becoming a vampire; actually, the lyrics I have so far sort of remind me of the scene in the movie Interview With The Vampire where Lestat turns Louis into a vampire. If I remember correctly (I really should watch the movie again, or actually, I should really read the series, because I really liked the movie), Louis somewhat regrets being turned into a vampire, and in my song the lyrics have that feeling as well, so perhaps unconsciously, this song was inspired by that story.

TREASURE CHEST

In keeping with today’s theme, here is another song called Sunlight that is about vampires, but this one is about a vampire who has lost his love and wants to commit suicide, so is waiting for the sun to rise. This song was recorded last year (I really must keep a better record), but I think I will re-record it soon.

CHECK THIS OUT – THE NATIONAL

I first heard about these guys through the Rolling Stone website, but had forgotten about them until I came across another article about them. I really like the singer’s voice, and although I need to listen to more of their material, I really like their song Fake Empire.

COLLABORATION?

With today's technology, I know it's not impossible to collaborate with someone so far away, so it would be great if someone out there wanted to put a bass track down or a drum track down for this song or any of my songs. Of course, I probably would have to re-record some or most of them, but leave me comment, and I will get back to you.

Cheers,
alexander

028 by your side

SONG

The song consists of 6 chords altogether. The verse is Emaj, A(maj7)/F#, B7sus4, Asus2(maj7), and the chorus – if that’s what you can call it – is B7sus4, Asus2(maj7), Amaj, Bmaj/A. As you can hear, the song sounds kind of like a country song; for some reason, Johnny Cash comes to mind, but I haven't really listened to him, so I’m probably way off in saying that, and besides I’m not really a country music fan, which begs the question – Why would I write such a song? I guess the answer is that it was spontaneous and unlike most of my spontaneous songs, this one had a really nice vibe to it, so I kept it.

LYRICS

I have to be honest – although my music can be very upbeat, my lyrics are usually not and this is a good example. It’s about someone’s last words to a loved one.

TREASURE CHEST

Here is another one of my songs that may interest you. It has a similar theme to today’s song. It’s called ‘Look out the door’ and I wrote this a long time ago. This is the song that really made me want to be a musician because it was the first song that I played live (in front of 200 people actually) and the reaction I got was overwhelming – people cried. I’m not joking; people actually cried when they heard it, well not everyone, of course, but quite a few did, and the feeling I got from that cannot be explained in writing.

COLLABORATION?

With today's technology, I know it's not impossible to collaborate with someone so far away, so it would be great if someone out there wanted to put a bass track down or a drum track down for this song or any of my songs. Of course, I probably would have to re-record some or most of them, but leave me comment, and I will get back to you.

Cheers,
alexander

027 a dream

SONG

This was the second last song I wrote with only 4 strings. The progression is Dm, Am, Gm, Dm, A maj. I haven’t played it since this recording, so it’s bound to sound different, but I liked the rawness/bluesiness of this take.

LYRICS

I’m sure there are possible interpretations, but the obvious one that comes to mind for me would be about not letting go of a dream. I believe that we all have dreams, both small and large, and that it’s important not to give up on them and strive toward them. What’s my dream? Music, of course, and that’s something I don’t ever want to give up on.

TREASURE CHEST

I was reading recently about Linking In and Linking Out, where Linking In is about linking to older posts within your own blog, so I thought I would start linking to some of my other songs. If you’re interested, here is a song I wrote a while ago called ‘Boarding Call'.

CHECK THIS OUT - COLD WAR KIDS

When you’ve been away for so long, you tend to fall behind on what’s out there. I had heard of this group before, but for some reason, I only got around to hearing them today. Here is a link to one of their songs, 'We Used to Vacation'.

COLLABORATION?

With today's technology, I know it's not impossible to collaborate with someone so far away, so it would be great if someone out there wanted to put a bass track down or a drum track down for this song or any of my songs. Of course, I probably would have to re-record some or most of them, but leave me comment, and I will get back to you.

Cheers,
alexander

026 this island is your home

The reason for not posting earlier can be summed up in five words - THE END OF THE SEMESTER.



The Song

Here is the last song I wrote with only four strings because shortly after writing this, another string broke, so I decided it was time to replace them (Actually, I still have one more that I wrote before this one with only four strings, but I will post it next time). However, the tuning I'm going with now is 2 steps down, so it is sounds very gritty. I like it! Anyway, this song has three chords - D Gmaj and Em/D played in that order, well pretty much in that order; you can tell what I'm doing once you listen to it.

The Lyrics

Another theme I use from time to time - home, and the idea that no matter where you go, you'll always have a place to go back to. Actually, come to think of it, that's not particularly true for everyone, but for most people I would think it to be true. The lyrics of the song are really straightforward in conveying this theme as you will understand when you listen to it.

Collaboration?

With today's technology, I know it's not impossible to collaborate with someone so far away, so it would be great if someone out there wanted to put a bass track down or a drum track down for this song or any of my songs. Of course, I probably would have to re-record some or most of them, but leave me comment, and I will get back to you.

Cheers,
alexander

025 wait up

The Song

Here is yet another song written on a four-string guitar. I should just mention the strings I am using are the A, G, B and high E strings. I wrote and recorded this bit yesterday if I remember correctly.

The Music

The song uses a standard tuning, and is a two chord progression, F to C. However, and I am not sure what you would call this (I am pretty sure there is a name though), I am not using the standard F and C chords, but only two notes of each: the F-chord's F-note is played on the A-string, and the A-note on the B-string, and the C-chord consists of the C-note on the A-string and the E-note on the B-string. For the first part, I am plucking those two quickly, then in the second part, I am playing more complete F and C chords, and finally for the third part I revert to the original pattern, but this time pluck the strings one at a time.

The Lyrics

I am not sure, but I think that there could be several interpretations of the lyrics, one of course being love, but I also get the feeling that the lyrics could also be about the inability of keeping up with technology in general or the information being supplied by the Internet. Of course, that would bring up a question - Would technology personified be a man or a woman? How about the Internet?

Collaboration?

Would you like to add drums or bass to this? If so, please leave and comment, and I'll get back to you.

Cheers,
alexander

024 by the sea

Still playing with 4 strings

Tonight's song is yet another that I wrote this week with only four strings. I think that makes about four so far, but until I get around to changing my strings, that number will probably increase.

Music

The song is a two-chord progression, Em to Am, but due to my limited knowledge of the music theory, that's the extent of my description. I apologize, but I've always been on the artistic side of the fence, never really studying music in any detail. What I do like about the song is that despite its simplicity, with the right bass and drums accompanying it, I think this song could be great live. I imagine the intro simply the guitar, very sad, very lonely, but then slowly the drums come in, maybe just a pounding bass, I can't really explain what I'm thinking, because it would just be a bunch of don's, then at some point it just builds and builds into an explosion of distortion (ah, maybe no distortion), heavy bass guitar, like thunder and a hard attack on the drums, almost depicting a storm, and finally, a very quite, soothing outro as if the storm has come to pass.

Lyrics

Moving on to the lyrics, although the words came out of nowhere, as they most often do, there is definitely a feeling of losing someone here. I picture fishermen out to see when a storm hits, and a wife of one of the fisherman standing on the shore hoping that all is not lost, waiting for some message that he is in fact OK, when chances are, she will never see him again. Yes, I know, dark, dark and more dark, but I can't help feel that this could be a really cool mood song.

Online Collaboration

If anyone is interested in adding drums or bass to this, leave a comment and I will get in touch with you, or if you just want to leave a comment about the song, I would love to hear from you.

Cheers,
alexander

023 on empty

The Song

Tonight's song was created last night, without E and D strings if you can believe it. I really have to change my strings don't I? Or maybe I could have a contest to see how many songs I can create with as few strings as possible. Anyway, the song is in standard tuning and is quite simple, just a B, D, E7 progression. The lyrics I think are really straightforward - drugs, crooks and cops; I do remember thinking of Reservoir Dogs by Tarantino, although I don't remember much of what happened in the movie anymore. Were there drugs? I'll have to see it again, although I do remember the famous 'ear' scene. Well, I have to go, but I hope you like the song. Also, if anyone out there would like to add drums or bass to any of the songs on here, let me know.

Cheers,
alexander

PS Tonight's blog is short because I really want to keep my academic life/work separate from my music, so probably many of the blogs to come will just be about the music, as it should be.