General Music Chat

This song is what I'm all about, musically.
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I just finished mixing this version of "Half-Jazzed Blues."
As with all my songs here, I do all the parts.
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This is the first song I've ever posted here with me singing.
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So, ok, sharks - 'have at' it.

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By the way, I removed 'Spring Song.' I'll work on that when I'm in the mood for that kind of song.
Right now its gotta be jazz . . .
. . . or maybe the 'Blues . . ."

Tad long and a bit repetitive but a nicely done song just the same.
Thank you sir! May I have another?

Too long and repetitive?
Ahhh, here we go again . . .

. . . I know it's not your style of music, Sans. There's a method to my madness . . .
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You've got to remember that I perform this song for audiences . . .
Everytime I've played this song in public, people were disappointed because it was too short!! It ended too soon.
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Maybe it's too long if you want to hear hard rock or metal, or something.
Hey, when I hear loud distorted heavy metal, anything over 15 seconds is too long for me!

So - I'm going to have to beg to disagree with you, and go with the general concensus . . .
It can't be too long, if people asked me to add a verse!
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Also, this song is meant to get the audience singing along - so I purposefully wrote lyrics that are easy to learn.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of seeing and hearing an audience singing a song you wrote.
People can't sing along if they can't remember the lyrics, eh?

Really like that walkin' bass on there. Some smooth falsetto ya got there too.

This is the 1st time I ever heard your singing, RM. Nice honest voice with no frills, & that's quite fine. I'd like a "bassier" tone on the bass, personally. (I know that you want the individual notes to ring through - I have the same problem, sometimes, with my own tones on bass, cuz I do some nice lil riffs & triplets & such, & want you to be able to hear them clearly. Still, I need to work on this, myself, too, so perhaps I should shut up about it now...LOL) I like your chord progressions, but this one seems to cry out for a nice little lead with the bass line running under it, instead of just chords. But that, too is just a matter of personal taste. It's really okay as it stands.

Actually it is "one" of my styles of music Alan.
I also like a lot of Classical music as well. Particularly the composers of the Russian or Germanic flair.
Just because I prefer to play punk metal does not mean I cant appreciate other forms.
As a live song with audience participation I,m sure it would be a gas.
I probably would pay no attention to its length if I was watching you play it live.
As a rule, when people are being entertained they dont want it to end.

The song has a nice feel, reminded me of "San Tropez" by Pink Floyd. That said, I must concur with Phil and George's points: it's a tad repetitve (a bridge?) and the bass needs a lower timbre (bassier tones). This alone would help a lot; the percussive attack of the bass gets in the way of the guitar (since acoustic guitar has its own percussive attack) and regular percussion. I would turn the tone control off and re-record the bass, I guarantee it would help. But I still liked it, nice job.

Thanks for the suggestions, people.

You're all right about the bass - it doesn't sound like that when we play live.
. . . that's what happens when you spend too much time working on one song - after a while you don't notice some of the (usually) obvious things.
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Anyway, I deleted the old version and put up a newly-mixed version.
Alan

I think I'll ask a friend of mine to do a harmonica track for this song.
That should add a bit of variety, eh?

He was over tonight, and he does good with this song.
I'll probably set something up w/him to record it next week . . .

Much better! The bass is now distinct and the song flows.

At the risk of looking like a dorkasaurus. I dont hear anything different.
Perhaps too much time has passed between my listenings.

Alan, I dont suppose I could trouble you to put both mixes up when you have some time. Just for my musical edification of course.

Beginning reminds me of a Jane's Addiction segue.

Hey your a pretty good singer Allen! I'd love to do some harmonies on that with you. would sound big band jazzy... cool sh*t bro!


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"putting your head in a hole means you left your ass is in the air"

The bass track on the mix is nearly twice as loud as before.
And - for me to post the old version would mean that I would have to delete not one, but two other songs.
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I'll be adding harmonica to this song in a day or three.
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Also, I rehearsed this song with Jill, my singer. I'm going to have her to replace my falsettos.
She got some pretty cruel comments here, on a different song.
Anyway, she does R & B, Jazz, and soul stuff pretty good - I'll have her add some harmonies and some counterpoints, especially at the end.

the bass is a lil cleaner in this, though I'm not totally sold on the piece there is certainly more room to add an instrument or two like you are talking about, a good piano line would fill the missing space nicely