I’ve been thinking about doing this type of recurring post for quite a while. But Saturday or Sunday always passes and by then it’s too late. So, today’s the day when I’m actually going to start the recurring blog post, “Sunday Sounds.”
I have a lot of random hymn arrangements floating in my head, but this is the first one I’ve recorded in many months. This is a rough cut of an arrangement I’m writing for Jolie. We’re planning to do another demo recording, and this was a favorite hymn of hers. Unfortunately, she’s pretty busy, so she’s not recorded the vocals yet. So, for this initial Sunday Sounds post, you’ll only get to hear the arrangement as the initial piano accompaniment scratch track to Be Still My Soul. And honestly, probably a lot of the tracks you’ll hear in my Sunday Sounds blog posts are going to be quick piano things because those are the easiest to record quickly.
The arrangement actually has four passes of the verse/chorus. The fourth verse will consist of a piano solo, with the final chorus containing the following lines:
“Be still my soul, Thy best thy heavenly Friend, thru thorny ways, leads to a joyful end.”
“Be Still my soul, when change and tears are past, All safe and blessed, we then shall meet at last (I added the word “then” to make it easier to sing).”
In general, the arrangement is supposed to be sad, sweet, contemplative, peaceful. That is the way the hymn speaks to me.
Other writing notes you might be interested in. These will be more “music theory” based, for those of you who eat that type of stuff up:
Some of you will notice that around 0:42, the arpeggio sounds like something out of Prelude in C. Yes, I did that on purpose. It’s a tribute to Bach.
I hit the low C during the third verse to give that feeling of spiritual resolve as the hour is “hast’ning on”.
I don’t hit that distinct Major III chord (chord sung at “remain”,” at last”, “restored”) that totally makes Be Still My Soul until the last chorus. My purpose for resolving with that chord until the very end is to help people take notice of the music and lyric (”leads to a joyful end”) at that point of the song. I’m trying to be subtle in the way I draw people’s attention. I’m curious if this catches your attention in the way I intended.
I do use the major 3rd at 2:26, but since it’s not expected to be heard in that part of the song, it adds a certain mysteriousness to the lyric. It also leads nicely into the obligato melody I use for the end of the 2nd chorus.
Speaking of that slightly changed melody, those of you who have listened to some of my other arrangements might have noticed that I do this quite a bit. I guess it’s one of my signatures (play the end of the chorus melody a third above the original).
I use deceptive cadences throughout the piece, because, well, I like deceptive cadences.
I’ve yet to write out the sheet music, but if this is something you’d like to play for yourself, please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment so I can gauge the demand for this type of thing (writing out sheet music in Sibelius takes a while!)
As promised in my earlier post, here’s the video that we took during our vocal recording session. This take is actually the last take of the night. And now that I think about it, I like this take quite a bit, so I might actually just use the audio from this clip when distributing the mp3 online. Some other things you might pick up out of the video.
Mr. Ironing Board, the perfect way to lay sheet music flat without any ruffling noises.
The double keyboard setup (Yamaha Motif ES6 and Casio PX-310).
My headphones of choice being Sony MDR-V6s. In my opinion, these are the best sub $80 headphones you can buy on the market. They just sound great.
My friend StevO’s microphone that he so kindly let me borrow.
Lastly, I have a confession to make. My room usually isn’t this clean.
Comments (0) Posted by Jared on Sunday, October 4th, 2009
I know this little blog hasn’t been updated in quite a while. I have been writing music in the interim. Unfortunately, my stubborn Chinese self keeps insisting that I have projects completed before I do a new post, and so that’s to the blog’s detriment.
So today, I finished one of the projects in my queue, a remix of Give Said the Little Stream. I really do love the original version that my friend Stephanie Bennett recorded for me. It captures the innocent and cheerful nature of the song, and her voice is just wonderful. However, I wanted to attempt to make the recording a bit more full and radio friendly, and that necessitated re-recording the vocals to fix a couple of the EQ problems I ran into during the original recording.
Since Stephanie is now in Utah, I asked a favor from another friend, Jolie to do the vocals. She definitely has a different texture to her voice, and I had to work with that a bit. Oh the joys of recording in a home studio. I’ll have to post a video we did, there’s a standing joke related to ironing boards and such. One thing I noticed when comparing the two versions is that Jolie smoothed out the rhythms and sang them a little bit looser with more legato. Anyway, in the midst of remixing the vocals I started playing around with some new string patches. One thing led to another, and I ended doing a string/flute arrangement. Emotionally, the piece sounds and feels quite different with this type of orchestration. More mature perhaps.
This also was good practice for me to try and get the strings to sound as realistic as possible. I originally started with some string sounds from Omnisphere, a virtual instrument, which was what got my muse going initially. Although it sounded great, I had the problem of trying to bring out specific melody lines, and the patch sounded too homogenous for that. Then, I had the idea of also adding other string sounds from Kontakt (a sampler), but that still didn’t sound quite right. So, I decided to stop being lazy and ended up splitting all the chords into separate parts: Violins, Violas, and Cello/Bass. Then each part was tweaked by drawing volumes and velocities to simulate string motion. The last step was to pan and add reverb (Altiverb) to each part to simulate the string section. The sound isn’t perfect, but its miles better than what I was able to do in college. Of course I have much better tools now, so that helps.
The flute was added some time in the middle of my work on the string stuff and was the easiest to emulate. I just stuck some nice reverb on it, panned, and did some quick editing. Originally in some earlier mixes the flute was quite prominent, but I’ve ended up pulling it back into the mix to kind of meld it with the string sounds. I like it when its more subtle.
Anyway, I haven’t heard any LDS pieces written in this style (a hybrid of Classical, New Age, perhaps?) so I’ll be interested to hear everyone’s comments. I plan on submitting this to a couple places too, so we’ll see if people connect with this style of arrangment. Here’s hoping !
Here’s a little something for Sunday. This is a quick two minute demo piece that I put together to practice my mockup abilities. The arrangement is based on some ideas that I had while playing prelude music about a month ago. I’m looking at getting some killer string and orchestra sounds, but for now these will have to do.
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. I took a hiatus to recharge my batteries sometime during the summer/fall and I didn’t take the effort to update my blog. I started tackling a couple of other new song ideas in the recent weeks but I don’t quite have anything ready for preview. I’m finding that I am definitely a lot more prolific when I have a songwriting companion. I guess that’s just the way I work. Writing with someone else allows myself to think and compose out loud and get immediate feedback. I guess I need that as additional motivation. In any case, I guess I should start looking for a writing partner (e.g. Elise, if you ever decide to come back to California…).
Anyway, today’s post is my first example of arranging for four part SATB harmony. Although much of the music core at the Y was classical choral theory, I’m wasn’t one one to usually write in that style. Silent Night came about because the institute choir wanted something to sing for a last year’s fireside and I needed to work on my choral chops. This explains why the piece itself is not too taxing. I kept things fairly straightforward to cater to the level of musicians in the choir. Unfortunately, since I was accompanying the choir, I didn’t get a chance to hear whether the harmonies blended correctly. I need to find a good choir to test the arrangement with and tweak any notes. It sounds good in Sibelius (my notation software), but midi oohs and aahs aren’t very useful in helping me find me find any enunciation trouble spots. If one of my readers wants to use the arrangement, let me know. I’m curious for feedback.
A couple of my favorite spots: The sus2 to sus4 chords to start out the piece. The sus chords are scattered all throughout to give an ethereal sound. I’ve always thought of Silent Night as being an international hymn of mystery (hehe), what with it’s Germanic origins. Contrast the tune with the happy bright melodies of Angles We Have Heard On High. The sus2 and sus4 ’s are meant modernize that choral aura a bit.
I enjoyed playing around with the repetition of the last line and making things a little different. Sleep in heavenly peace becomes sleep, sleep, sleep in peace (measures 18-21). There’s that essence of a baby’s lullaby in the original hymn, and I wanted to bring that out more.
The sus2 (accompaniment) and sus4 chord (choir) combination in measure 52. The choir is supposed to just hit that chord and let it ring and reverberate around the room to give us pause at the spiritual wonder of the birth of our Savior. And then measure 56 where the sopranos get to shine, like angels. There the sopranos have to be careful or else it just turns into pure cheese. But, if done right, it’s pretty.
The ending by the piano. It’s peaceful.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the arrangement. Constructive comments are much appreciated. I’ll try and upload a recording of the accompaniment in the next week or so. And, if I can kind some kind choir to let me record them, I’ll upload an mp3 of how everything sounds together.
The first thing that I changed when I got back from San Diego was the outtro. When recording the original piano scratch track, I ended up playing the 4th chorus and improvising the ending. In the process of rewriting the song, I’d actually never mapped out how to end the thing. My follow-up listens showed that the ending was too abrupt. Outtros should be an extension of the verse or chorus and let the listener ease out of the mood created by song.
Another thing that I ended up fixing was the “C” sections of the song (i.e. the bridge). The improvisation of the early demo was just too distracting. I opted instead for some simple ooh’s and a restatement of the chorus. This worked much better with the general groove of the bridge.
The lyrics also were tweaked a bit.
I’ll find some days I’m lost
Out on my own
was changed to
I’ll find some days I’m lost
On lonely roads.
This seemed much more appropriate for the metaphor. Other similar lyric changes were made.
After I felt comfortable with both the lyrics and structure of the song, I decided to try and add a couple of instruments. I originally heard strings. But after playing them in, my creative side got really excited and I started adding more instruments that I’d anticipated. First it was the nylon guitar. But that seemed a bit boring without the bass. Then I heard congo’s and shaker. But when that was added, they seemed lonely without the rest of the drum kit. So I added the kick, snare, hi-hat, crash, and cymbal swells to build the song properly. Adding the rest of instruments consisted of about 2 or 3 marathon 8 hour sessions of recording and MIDI editing (e.g. I’m not yet efficient in using ProTools to do my arranging) plus mixing and tweaking over a period of a few weeks.
As my internal deadline started approaching, I had to stop with the MIDI and work on rerecording the vocals. This ended up being one of the more frustrating aspects of tracking. I’m not a singer, and trying to recreate the vocals in my head just makes me hear all the flaws in my voice. However, since I didn’t really have time to go and find a good vocalist, I ended up recording myself and editing out the bad sounding bits. There was also that blasted dog that decided to bark for 20 minutes straight right when I was ready to record the main vocal track. Anyway, the vocals sound a bit rough, but what can I say, it’s a demo.
The last thing I added were a couple of vocal comps. At one point, I had this Imogen Heap Hide N Seek sound going on but decided that might be a little much for an EFY track. The harmonies ended up mostly hidden underneath the main track.
Here are the final lyrics:
One thing I forgot to mention is that when recording, I transposed the song from the key it was originally written in (F major) to Ab major. I hear the song being sung by a tenor, although I’d like to see what female vocalist could do.
I definitely still get annoyed by the limitations and flaws in the mp3, even with all the edits and rewrites of the songwriting process. Fortunately, I know that demo submissions don’t need to be perfect and am comfortable with the current result. Of course, I still would like to find a good vocalist to rerecord the vocals, but I’ll get to that in due time.
Going through this demo submission process really helped re-emphasize past lessons learned from when I was studying Media Music at BYU. Each songwriter/composer works differently, however here are a few common things: The first is to leave nothing sacred. Don’t avoid rewriting just because you’re tired or afraid something better won’t come along. Time crunches are a different matter, but even then at least make the attempt.
It’s important to follow your instinct on what works. This is of course assuming that your instinct is properly aligned. I’ve heard some really, uh, interesting music at some LDS open mic nights when I was in Utah. If you’re unsure of your instinct, get feedback from trusted peers. Have them tell you the bad stuff, as well as the good stuff.
It’s also important to knowyour audience. I don’t write strictly in one style, but for this demo submission I had to do a rewrite to make sure the song fit the target audience (there’s that instinct thing again).
Lastly, identify the parts of your music/lyric that you feel standout. My professor at BYU, Ron Simpson, always reminded us to build our music with golden bricks. If you can’t hear the golden bricks in the song, do the rewrite.
Who knows what will come out of this demo, now that I’ve sent it into the Internet void. However, I do hope you’ve enjoyed being a part of my creative process as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about it.
Comments (1) Posted by Jared on Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Sometimes as a writer you hang on to an idea, afraid to let go because you fear there’s a chance you won’t find a better alternative. This was the case with I Close My Eyes. I felt reluctant to do a rewrite. It’s hard to make a lot of headway and then have to start over. I hate feeling like I just wasted time on something that will never see the light of day. I know, of course, that this is all part of the creative process. Still the perfectionist side of me sighs every time I have to make major changes.
When I approached the project on the second day, I was pretty focused. My goal was to rework the chorus to make it less generic and a little bit more interesting. By changing up the bass line in the left hand, I was able to use a lot of the original chorus’ chord progression to create a greater emotional lift. What was once F, Gm, F/A, Bb became F/A, Bb, Gm7, C. I found that ending each phrase on the V (C) instead of the IV (Bb) just seemed a lot more pleasant.
Happy with the chorus, I resumed work on the verse. I was slightly horrified to find that my existing lyric didn’t work. The modified chorus created more energy, which necessitated an increase of tempo. With the song a little faster, the verse of I Close My Eyes was just too wordy. I remember singing through it a couple of times and feeling like I was writing something from The Music Man. Ugh.
So out went the existing verse. I struggled with keeping the existing theme with the new lyric. In the end, the verses became a little bit more generalized. I felt this was necessary in order to help listeners better relate to the song’s subject matter. I hated scaling back the details. At one point, I had a verse about being lost in San Francisco, and trying to catch my plane in time. It would have made a really good story song. It would also have made a really awkward musical number for a fireside.
What was funny about the whole rewrite was that it came pretty quickly. I had a self imposed deadline of Saturday at 7pm in order to head down to San Diego for Father’s Day. I’d also promised a friend that I’d send her the current version of the song. Everything was a rush in order to finish the thing before leaving for the weekend. I laid the piano tracks in one shot, and sang once or twice to comp the vocals. Then it was a quick bounce to disk and upload.
I listened to this version all the way down to San Diego. Part 3 will detail the issues I heard during those listens and the changes made to the song upon my return.
Comments (0) Posted by Jared on Friday, June 27th, 2008
I know it seems like I’ve been neglecting my blog, since my last post was at the beginning of month. In reality, I’ve been been working on writing something to submit to EFY 2009. Throughout all of this, I’ve been careful to keep notes of my song and lyric versions; I thought some of you would be interested in seeing a glimpse into my creative process.
My first crack at writing was around June 8th. The original lyric idea came pretty quickly. I decided to describe how life’s experiences help us understand that He cares about the details. Elder Bednar’s classic tender mercies talk served as the concept. However as I started writing, the lyrics kind of took an interesting turn. There were a lot of rewrites to try and tighten up the concept before I ended up recording a demo. Here’s what came about:
After I finished the demo, I was quite pleased with how everything turned out. I wasn’t sure what to do next, but I figured I’d come back to it a few days later and figure it out.
Well that Tuesday or Wednesday when I sat down to revisit the demo, it just didn’t sound right at all. I liked the groove and the general chord progression, but the arrangement itself was too repetitive (lots of block chords). I kept imagining what the sheet music would look like; if I had to play it myself I would have been incredibly bored. One other thing that bothered me about the arrangement was that the vocal range was just too low. When I first wrote it, I liked having the verses melody in the lower registers because I thought it sounded indie-ish. Well, on my revisit, it didn’t hold up so well.
Another issue I found was the the chorus’ chord progression. Even though I found the chorus catchy, it just seemed a little generic. As a songwriter, one of my greatest fears is that I will subconsciously regurgitate a song that I’ve heard in some previous setting.
The third thing that bored me was that the tempo was a little slow. The emotion of the song was prevalent in the first verse and chorus, but since the tempo and arrangement didn’t vary much it started feeling monotonous. I also had a hard time envisioning the tempo of the song working with my intended audience.
The last thing that I struggled with was that the lyrics weren’t focused enough even after all the rewrites. Verse 1 is more metaphoric while verse 2 talks about the spiritual experience from a general perspective. Finally, verse 3 can be intepreted both metaphorically and literally (I originally envisioned a stalled car at night, with the driver trying to find help). This was one of the major problems.
I tried rewriting the lyrics a couple times, but the rewrites didn’t match with the imagery of the chorus. After a while I got frustrated and just went to bed. In part two, I’ll detail my second revision attempts.
A final note: In preparation for this post, I listened to the mp3, and still found it catchy. I think I’ll keep it in my catalogue, although I probably won’t work on adding any additional instrumentation.
Comments (2) Posted by Jared on Monday, June 23rd, 2008
As promised, here is the vocal/piano version of the score and a mp3 demo. Much thanks to my friend Stephanie Bennett, who lent her voice to this project.
This arrangement came about after listening to various musical numbers that sounded way too solemn for my tastes. Why is it that hymns or musical numbers sound like funeral dirges? Perhaps it’s the organ and the tendency to conduct under tempo. Anyway, I believe that the gospel makes you happy, and should be expressed as such.
I finished this arrangement of Give Said the Little Stream about a year ago, but only just finished transcribing it this evening. One of the reasons for my procrastination is I didn’t have a good notation tool until a few months ago.
Based on my estimates, it takes about 6 to 8 hours to transcribe one of these things. The below attachment is the piano solo of the piece, although in actuality the accompaniment and piano solo are exactly the same. I’ll post the full sheet music (vocal line plus accompaniment) later, along with a recorded version of the piece. I wanted to get something up now, since it’s been a few days since there has been any updates to the blog. Of course, that’s because I’ve been spending my nights transcribing.
!