__Creating this Refrain__

Every so often during one of my piano jams, I’ll start playing songs from my childhood.  Ducktales, Who are the People in Your Neighborhood, Gummi Bears.  It’s one those things that really gives endless pleasure.  There’s nothing better than revisiting favorite music from the past with about 10 year’s of musician’s perspective.  There’s this interplay between recreating a favorite melody, and seeing what else you can do with it now that you’re not just stuck with trying to plunk out the notes.

One of the things I’ve been returning to more and more recently is the Super Mario Bros 3 level 1-4 theme.  I remember being frustrated and captivated with that level.  It was the first one where the screen scrolled automatically and you were forced to jump ahead to avoid getting squished or pushed off the ledge.  The first time the screen warped little mario into the platform and the first dissonant pitches started playing through the TV,  I was like “Oh my gosh, what the heck!” (I had yet to add swear words to my vocabulary).  It was heartracing.  After we beat that level, my brother and I somehow got a hold of a Nintendo Power Guide and started trying to get the White Toadhouse to appear.  It required you to run through the level with near perfection, capturing almost all of the coins in the level.  The first time that little whitehouse appeared somewhere near the Hammer Brothers I think we did a little dance.  It was a pretty wild celebration, I don’t quite remember what happened.

With that spirit, I thought I’d record a little jam session.  Aside from a few takes, what you’re hearing is a completely unedited version of me trying to jam on my MotifES6.  You’ll hear mistakes all over the place, that’s what I get for trying to play a fairly fast piano piece on a keyboard with no hammer action.  The Motif’s keys are like playing the organ, so I don’t have the resistance of a real piano keyboard to prevent me from accidentally nicking the note right next to the I’m actually meaning to play.   But that’s what makes it fun and a more realistic jam session.

I’ll probably eventually rerecord this with a digital piano (with real graded hammer action) or touch up the MIDI.  So laugh at my fat fingers now before I upload a new version, haha!

Mario Nostalgia by Jared Ong

p.s.  I’m using a new software synth, Pianoteq 3, I’ll write my comments about the software in a future blog post.

So for the past year or so I’ve been the unofficial branch pianist.  Unofficial because I have another calling, and I’m the default pianist in the branch.  Not the only one, but the most convenient one for the branch because I just show up and play.  They just called a new pianist last week, and I am a little sad to no longer be playing prelude and postlude music.  That’s usually where I experiment and try add some twists to the hymns.

Occasionally, I’ll try and spice up the hymns a little bit during the congregational singing portions of sacrament meeting.  Called to Serve is a fun one, that hymn is meant to be a rousing call to service and should be played as such.  But generally, I try and stay true to the reverence of the hymn.  Every so often I’m tempted to bust out, but I try to be a good little pianist.

However, a couple of weeks ago, we were singing O My Father, and the song ended up being this internal tug of war emotionally and musically between what’s right and what’s wrung*.  I was happily playing the hymn in 3/4 time.  Tri-pl-et, Quarter Quarter, tri-pl-et, quarter quarter, tri-pl-et, quarter quarter.  You get the picture.

Unfortunately, the rest of the congregation was singing the song as if the whole thing was 6/8.  I went through one complete verse of the hymn before I succumbed to rhythmic peer pressure and ended up playing the poor song at full lilt.  The whole time, I kept thinking “This is all wrung, dang it! Should I force 3/4? I should force 3/4.  Come on people, read the music.”  But finally, I was just too tired of fighting against years, nay, centuries, of tradition.  Ok, only one century, but still!

*Wrung: When something is sung completely wrong.  Example: W. Hung sings “Mary had a little ram, little ram, little ram.”

So about a month ago, a good friend of mine sent me an interesting text, “Can you call me, I have a music question.”  Turns out he had a request for rates for a 30 spot.

We’ve gone through a different versions.  In the future, I’m going to be more of a stickler for a final (or close to final) video cut.  Most of the time, the producers request different “hits” at specific spots within the commercial.  Without a final version of what you’re scoring, it’s a bit more difficult to determine where the right instrument hits should be, or even the musical direction that should be taken.

My first version I sent out is drastically different from the last version.  And that’s to be expected.  But where things really came together was once I had the final cut, complete with animatic effects.  That version of the video gave me a better understanding of what the producer and director were shooting for.  The commercial itself reflects a mood change or two, but it was only with the effects that I knew how dark or light I needed to score each section.

Scoring films, on the other hand, is a bit different.  I think an early copy of the film is important in other to sketch out ideas and come up with general themes.  The earlier, the better.  But realistically, in that industry, you’re probably always going to running up to deadlines and madly racing to get things finished in time.

I’ll see if I can get permission to upload a copy of the music in a later post.

Just a quick update on what’s going on musically.

I’ve had a few calls in the recent weeks requesting permission to be added to my studio.  I’m open to teaching any age and skill level, as long as it’s a good fit between the student and the teacher.  However, at this rate, I might not have any personal time to do writing.

I finished up a short film in December.  The director wanted a little more music, so I wrote a piano piece or two for him.  I also got to play the role of music director, as there were a couple of places in the film that necessitated a classical piece based on the actresses actions.  Chopin ended up winning out.

I also have some other potential projects lined up, including producing a demo CD and some more media composition.  Definitely keeping busy.

The latest thing I’m working on is an Asian Knight Riderish theme.  It’s cheesy, but sometimes that’s what you feel like writing.  I’ll upload it when it’s finished.

-J

I originally tried creating an arrangement of this piece about two years ago at my aunt’s house in the bay area.  The source material is one of Jay Chou’s most famous songs, Simple Love (Jiandan Ai). Most of what I came up back then was the syncopation between the left and right hands.  It ended up sounding a bit too repetitive.

Anyway, this Saturday evening, I decided to take a new approach.  I enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture the syncopation and drums of the original but decided in the end to write the piano in the spirit of the song.  The chords sound a bit more classical.  I also bring out the ballad aspect of the song, and less of the rhythmic hip-hop influence from the drums.  I found if I tried to capture the verse melody too much, it just felt robotic.  You’ll hear that I did recreate the syncopation in the second verse, but less in the melody and more in the chords.  I also smoothed out the verse melody in order to allow the song to flow a bit better.   And yes, some of the tinkly pretty stuff is me emulating the chinese pop ballad style Jay Chou is famous for.

I recorded this on my MotifES6.  I’m interested in playing this on a full grand to see if, when improvising, I’ll add a little bit more to the range of the arrangement.  Only having 61 keys is kind of annoying.  I really need to save up for that baby grand and a couple of AKG 414s.

Simple Love (JianDan Ai) – Arranged by Jared Ong

So, I spent my Sunday evening trying to catalogue some of my most favorite classical pieces for a random post request I found on the internet. Doing so brought back memories of four semesters of music history. I have fond and not so fond memories of trying to memorize scores and pieces late into the night. So much fun when a piece is 30 minutes long and the professor can ask you to identify any section of the piece using a score or mp3. Once you get into 20th century music, it’s hard to tell between the different pieces because they are not nearly as melodic. I think our teachers were trying to force us to like Schoenberg. Well it didn’t work, but I do have an appreciation for his twelve-tone practices. Oh, the horrors of studying Hexachordal inversional combinatorialism.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites that I’ve collected over the years (either from my classes, or just listening in general). It was fun trying to pull melodies and movement names from the recesses of my mind. Youtube and iTunes were a big help.

Classical Period
Mozart – Symphony No. 41 in C Major K 551 (All movements. Known as the “Jupiter” symphony)
Mozart – Piano Concerto in D Major K107 (especially like the 1st movement, Allegro)
Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G minor K550 (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, one of his most famous)
Mozart – Piano Concerto in E-flat Major K. 271 (all movements)
Beethoven – Symphony No.3 (Known as “Eroica”. All movements are fabulous, this might be my favorite Beethoven Symphony)
Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F Major (known as the “Pastoral” symphony)
Beethoven – Sonata No. 8 Pathetique (all movements. Movement no.2 is one of the most beautiful melodies ever composed, in my opinion)

Romantic Period
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E Minor op. 64 (all movements!)
Brahms – Symphony #3 (especially Movement 3, it’s one of my favorites)
Chopin – Nocturne in C Minor op. 48 no.1
Chopin – Nocturne in E flat Major Op.9 No.2 (one of Chopin’s most famous pieces. I remember hearing it in The Incredible Machine software game)
Chopin – Prelude in E minor Op. 28 No 4.
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 in B Minor op.74 Pathetique (all movements)
Dvorak – Symphony No.9 (known as “From the New World” You might be familiar with the 4th movement)
Mahler – Symphony No. 2 (known as the “Resurrection” symphony. The movements are quite transcendental in nature.)

Impressionist Period
Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (one of my favorite pieces)
Debussy – Claire de Lune (famous piece. Played at the end of Ocean’s Eleven)

20th Century
Gershwin – Piano Prelude No. 1 (nice and short but so awesome. Even though Gershwin is more of a Jazz composer, who cares, it deserves to be on this list)
Stravinsky – Petrushka (all movements, although I’m partial to movement 1)
Stravinsky – Rite of Spring (all movements, although most people know it for it’s dissonance in the Sacrifice movement)
Copland – Appalchian Spring (One of his most famous works, a ballet score)

Hope you guys enjoy. What are some of your favorite pieces?

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.

Happy Holidays!

Jared

PDF: Silent Night – Arranged by Jared Ong

The other day, I was surfing my favorite tech site, www.arstechnica.com, when I stumbled upon an article of particular interest.  It was a feature story on how a group of music hobbyists with a penchant for video game music formed a website to house fan-made arrangements.  The website was so successful that Capcom, a video game company, took notice.  Impressed with the arrangements, they enlisted the fan community to create new mixes for their new Streetfighter 2 remake coming soon to Xbox Live.

This might not seem like much for those of you unfamiliar with the workings of the video game industry.  But to put this into perspective, it would be like Spielberg asking a bunch of amateur filmmakers to assist on a major motion picture (hmm, maybe that’s what happened with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull).

Incidentally, I visited the website cited in the article a few years ago.  At the time, I thought OCRemix was just a bunch of cheesy MIDI arrangements, but I really didn’t do a good listen to all the stuff on the site.  Based on the mp3s available now, I actually wish I’d joined the community from the very beginning.  Oh well, live and learn I guess.

The piece I’m uploading today is something inspired from my OCRemix visit.  It’s an arrangement of a theme from Final Fantasy VI (or Final Fantasy III as we know it here in the States).  When playing the game way back when, I remember enjoying the “in town” theme that played.  I knew it would make a pretty piano piece.   So, here is Kids Run Through the City Corner (originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu) arranged as a piano lullaby.

City Corner Lullaby, by Jared Ong

p.s. I sent the submission to OCRemix, so we’ll see if it makes it past the judges and on to the site.

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:

I Know It’s You

Words and Music by Jared Ong

Copyright 2008

Verse 1

I find some days I’m lost

On lonely roads

And then by chance it seems

I’m heading home

And I see more clearly

Verse 2

And in my life I’ve felt

I’m on my own

But without words it seems

That someone knows

And I see more clearly

Chorus

I know enough to say

When life just goes my way

It’s not from what I do

I know enough

To know it’s you

Verse 3

Then there are times I ask

To know you care

And when I turn the page

The answer’s there

Then I see so clearly

Chorus

Bridge

Ooh

I know it’s you

Ooh

Verse 4

At night I close my eyes

To say I’m grateful

My heart just overflows

And I’m unable

To freely sing to thee

Chorus

I know enough to say

When life just goes my way

I know it’s all from You

I know enough

To know it’s you

Repeat Chorus

Bridge

Ooh

I know it’s you

Ooh

Outtro

I know enough to say

When life just goes my way

It’s not from what I do

I know enough

I know enough it’s you

Here’s the final mp3: I Know It’s You Jared Ong Final Demo

And here’s the final mp3 minus track (i.e. instrumental track): I Know It’s You Jared Ong Minus Track

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 know your 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.

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.

Here’s the mp3: I Know It’s You v1

And here are the lyrics:

Verse 1

I’ll find some days I’m lost

Out on my own

And then by chance it seems

I’m heading home

And then I see

More clearly

Verse 2

And In my life there’s been

That lonely road

And without words it seems

That someone knows

Then I see

So clearly

Chorus

I know enough to say

That when life just goes way

It’s not from what I do

I know enough

To know it’s you

Verse 3

Then there are the times

I need some answers

And when I flip the page

It’s staring there

And I see

So clearly

Chorus

I know enough to say

When life just goes my way

I know it’s all from You

I know enough

To know it’s you

Bridge (solo)

Verse 4

And when I kneel to say

I feel so grateful

My heart just overflows

And I’m unable

To freely

Sing to thee

Chorus

I know enough to say

When life just goes my way

It’s not from what I do

I know enough

To know it’s you

Repeat Chorus

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.