Be a kid for 60 seconds

Jump! by Cuellar

I recorded this tune today just before Sunday Lunch.

Being a kid is a lot of fun, and sometimes you enjoy music more when you suspend your "grown up" mind and just be a child again - even if its only for sixty seconds.

This is a three-part tune I did on the WX5, using Trombone (8), Clarinet (99) and Trumpet (5). If you can pick the tune before the trumpet comes in at 35 seconds, you're truly a kid at heart!

Enjoy!

Music to Cruise To

Wine With Sunset by Adam Dawson

Sunset Behemoth by Evan Leeson

Here's a Reggae style piece I did recently that was inspired by my love of being on the ocean, aboard a ship.

One of my favourite places / times is at sunset at the back of the ship, where there's usually a bar overlooking the stern. You can't beat watching the sun go down over the ocean while you sail away from all your cares.

Front Porch Blues

"trio" by chacabuco

Here's a really simple 12 bar blues piece I did in about 30 minutes on the WX5 with MixPad.

I can imagine three different versions of me sitting on a front porch somewhere in the Autumn sun drinking a few cold beers, and playing this.

The voices are Trumpet (#5), Clarinet (#99) and Air Sax (#10).

Bach Fugure in G Minor (BWV 578)- my jazzy attempt

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on this rendition of Bach's Fugue in G Minor "The Little" (BWV 578).

I've driven our entire house crazy with it, and now my poor wife, Liz, can't get the tune out of her head. And I can't stop whistling it and humming it as I walk around.

I think I could do better than this, but I'm sharing this with you because if I know someone listens to it, I'll try harder next time. Despite my clumsy attempts and the slow pace I took it at, I love this piece. Bach is a genius. This music is just as enjoyable now as it was hundreds of years ago when he wrote it. I love the way the different phrases echo from each part.

This arrangement is in four parts, for four saxophones. I recorded each track separately on my WX5 using the Floboe for Soprano and Alto parts, Trumpet for Tenor part, and Baritone sax for Baritone part. At one place, when the trumpet had a two bar sustained note, I was really tempted to throw in an improvised jazz lick, but in the end I decided not to because I need to play it better before trying something like that.

It's hard to play this on a wind instrument because you have bars and bars of semi-quavers, and no room to breathe.

Anyway, if you listen to it, please let me know. I'll try hard to play better next time!

Lullaby

Here's a simple lullaby.

I picked out the simplest chord progression I could find, (I IV V) threw in a simple bridge (ii I ii V) and played a few different parts on different tracks. (Air Sax, Floboe, Bass Clarinet). The piano accompaniment is a what I got when I plugged the chords into Band in Box).

It's amazing how something beautiful can come out of something so simple.

The pics are of my sister, brother and me as babies.

Hope you like it

Music - Live and Raw

Here's some more live music from our jam session this morning.

As with previous sessions, Brian picks the chords on the guitar, and I improvise on the WX5 playing whatever music seems to fit.

The end result has plenty of mistakes. We could have tidied it up post-mix, but the aim of the exercise is to create something fresh, and real, rather than make something tidy and manufactured.

Life, Friends and Music mean more when they're real - when you can see the flaws, but you know that what you see is what you get, and you like it anyway.

I hope you like them

1. Happy Day (Floboe and Guitar)
We just started warming up with this song at the start and didn't intend to record it, but we were having fun with it, so we decided to record it. Every Saturday is a happy day for me - it's a lot of fun to sit down for an hour and make music.

2. Almost Knockin' (Floboe & Guitar)
This one was an exercise on a known chord progression. The chords on this song are the same as "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" except we've thrown a bridge in the middle. The hard thing is NOT to play the tune you're used to hearing, but to create something new.

3. Little Boy Blues (Clarinet & Guitar).
I love what Brian does on the guitar on this one. It's a delight to learn with such a talented musician. I don't know how he can do so much on one instrument.
This one's cheeky. I think the blues teach you not to take yourself, or life too seriously. Kids teach you this too, so perhaps Kids and the Blues are related some way?

4. Minor Tears (Air Sax & Guitar)
The Air Sax has a haunting quality about it. It's ideal for slow minor blues. You might notice it "squeaks" a bit in the high register. That's not through bad fingering. The tone generator is programmed to "break" when it goes up high. I suppose whoever created that voice thought that something so sad should have a few cracks in it.

5. Evensong (Trumpet & Guitar)
When I close my eyes playing this, I'm sitting on a hillside, playing a smooth trumpet, watching the sun go down.

Three of me

Dammit! I have a cold, I'm as contagious as the plague, my voice is so deep I sound like I have three gonads, and I can't go to music tomorrow.

So I did the next best thing and played a classical clarinet trio with two people I know pretty well - me and myself.

The piece is Rondo (from Divertimento IV) by Mozart.

I chose this piece because although it looks easy, the timing is a bit of a challenge. And I need to improve my timing.

Hope you enjoy it!

"My name is legion, for we are many"

Here's a piece Brian and I did a couple of weeks ago as part of my lesson.

It's "C Jam Blues" by Duke Ellington.

The Drums, Bass and Piano are on a backing track.

I'm playing the brass quartet at the start, plus the clarinet, trombone and trumpet, all on the WX5.

Brian's playing guitar.

This is one of the reasons the WX5 is so much fun to play - there are so many different instruments available. the challenging part is that when you play a "trumpet" it's important to think like a trumpet. When you play like a trombone, imagine you're playing a trombone, and how you'd like it to sound. I have to adjust my playing technique depending on the type of instrument I'm trying to mimic, otherwise it doesnt sound convincing.

With this piece, although we in front of us the chord progression that Ellington used, we improvised all of what we played.

One thing Brian has taught me about improvisation is that it's not about trying to play every riff and lick in your repertoire. It's all about fitting in with your fellow players, and with the ideas that the composer originally had.

It's real music, and it's a lot of fun.

Warts and All (Live, Unrehearsed and Unedited)

One of the highlights of my week is my jazz music lessons with a fantastic musician named Brian Hayes.

Each week I bring my WX5 and he teaches me as he plays along on Guitar, Sax, Flute or Clarinet. I find it really enjoyable, and am continually amazed at his wonderful musicianship.

Late last year, Brian suggested we record our session. He played some tunes on his guitar, and got me to improvise on the WX5, playing whatever I wanted. I made lots of mistakes, but we decided to record it "as is", and these songs are the result. We called the collection "Warts and All".

Thinking of Lizzie / Elephant Blues / Cheeky Liquorice / Black Brassy Blues / Frightfully Flugel
Laid Back Fanfare / Morning Reed / Not Quite Danny / Saxsquito / Sunset Blue

For each song, I chose a different voice on the VL-70m synthesizer - the challenge being to select the most appropriate voice, and to play it in such a way that my style suites it. I find brass, clarinet and flute voices fairly easy. Sax voices are difficult to do well.

If you can look beyond my mistakes in these songs, I hope you can get an idea of how much fun this is!

I love this music

I recently bought a book of Jazz Duets by Richard Jasinski.

A lot of them are pretty simple, but I really liked this piece.

The book doesn't contain any backing track music, so I entered the chords into "Band in a Box", and created my own backing track thru my secondary Yahama MU50R synthesizer.

The solo instrument is a "Pan Picolo" (number 57) voice from my VL70M synth that I played on my beloved Wx5.

I had a lot of fun playing it, and hope you like it :)

Emma and Mark

Congratulations, Emma and Mark on your wonderful wedding last Sunday.
It was an honour to be able to share in the ceremony by playing some songs
for you.
Here are recordings of some of those songs.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
I Love You Just The Way You Are
Unforgettable
Until The Real Thing Comes Along Till There Was You
Petite Fleur
As Time Goes By
Georgia
Stardust
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
At Last
Prelude - Don't Believe
Entry - Don't Believe
When I Fall In Love
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
What A Wonderful World
Beyond The Sea
Just The Way You Look Tonight

You must remember this...

I love the song "As time goes by" by Herman Hupfeld.

Here's my rendition of it on the Wx5.

I couple of months ago I upgraded my synthesizer to a VL-70m so I could get some more realistic voices, and this is the result.

The backing track is a lovely arrangement from Ameritz in the UK.

No pun intended, but as time goes by I find myself increasingly enjoying the slow, sensual, simple, beautiful melodies of previous eras.

They're timeless.

This is just so much fun!

I wanted to share this with you, not because I think I'm great, but because I had so much fun making it.

Friends and family will know I've bought myself a Yamaha WX5 Wind Midi Controller for my 44th birthday. It looks like a clarinet, but it is more like a synthesizer keyboard that you play like a wind instrument. You can see a picture of it here.

I thought you might like an idea of what it sounds like, so I've uploaded some of my own recordings to give you an idea.

Some of them I just played from memory by ear because they're tunes I love (Like the Dark Isle, The Parting Glass, and Basin Street Blues). Some of them are from a "Play along" music book I recently bought which has the backing tracks that you can play along to. For one of them (Beauty and the Beast) I took a midi of the the tune, removed the melody line, and dubbed my own melody line over the top. (I'll promise to explain how to do this in my technical blog soon).

"Beauty and the Beast" is a very pretty melody. If you only listen to one of these tunes, I hope you listen to this one.

Anyway - here they are - the sounds of me having fun.

Piccolo voice:
The Dark Isle
The Parting Glass
Sway
Beauty and the Beast

Tromboe voice:
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free

Trumpet voice:
Basin Street Blues

Clarinet voice:
God Bless The Child

Tenor Saxophone voice:
Hit The Road Jack