Soprano: C4 – G5
Alto: G3 – D5
Tenor: D3 – G4
Bass: C2 – C4

These ranges are a little flexible, as I’ve seen other sources have these ranges expanded, at the most, by a full step in one or both directions.  You can use these ranges to determine whether or not the key that you are writing in will fit with a particular singer if you know their range.

More stuff to come soon!

-mnshyn

I was thinking of good piano songs, and I remembered a ballad from Bryan Adams called “Everything I Do (I Do It For You,” which is a great love song that came out during the early 90′s for the Robin Hood soundtrack. The song itself is in Db Major for the most part, until it reaches the bridge (“There’s no love, like your love”), and everything takes an interesting turn.

I like analyzing these interesting chord changes because it deviates from what you’re used to hearing, plus the different tensions in the progression makes it very pleasing to the ear when done correctly.

Ready for some theory?

Just as a reminder, the roman numerals signify what note degree of the scale you are on. In C Major, a I is a C, a ii is a D and so forth.  Capital roman numerals signify a major chord should be played when using this particular note as a root, and lowercase numerals signify a minor chord.  For the vii-0, the “-o” signifies a diminished chord.

It’s interesting how this song moves along with cadences along roots, perfect IV’s and V’s, across a few different scales then makes its way back to the Db Major it started out in.

For those who don’t know what a cadence is, it’s basically a two chord progression.  The most common are authentic cadences with are V-I progressions (V gives you the feeling like you need to resolve and I resolves it nicely, like the song or verse can end here), half cadences which are cadences that end in a V (sounds suspended, unresolved and needs to continue to progress due to an unresolved V chord), and plagal cadences also known as the “amen” cadence because it sounds like that’s where the “Amen” should go in church.  A plagal cadence is a IV-I progression, and it sounds resolved but not as smooth as an authentic cadence.

Here’s a clip of the song, 4 bars in, which is just a Db Major, Ab Major, then Db Major (authentic cadence) for 2 bars:

and the chord progression so you can follow along:

The instrumental then hits where the first chord is a Gb, then to a Db, and we’re back to the Db Major scale for the rest of the song.

If you know the song Heaven, also by Bryan Adams (in C Major, Sammy’s version is a D Major), it has a similar drop in the middle of the verse. In the middle of the verse, he would use a Bb Major then go into an F Major and then a G Major (“.. but that’s over now, you keep me coming back for more”).

It sounds very pleasing to the ear, and these aren’t the only cases that they use this technique. On The Beatles “Let it Be,” during the descending chord progression before the instrumental, you can hear Paul play a Bb Major for the same effect.

But why does it work?Let’s take a look at the two scales (the original for this song, Db Major, and the change in the bridge to B (Cb, for clarity) Major) side by side:

Db Major: (I) Db, (ii) Eb, (iii) F, (IV) Gb, (V) Ab, (vi) Bb, (vii-0) C, Db

Cb (B) Major: (I) Cb, (ii) Db, (iii) Eb, (IV) Fb, (V) Gb, (vi) Ab, (vii-0) Bb, Cb

And for those who ask why it’s in Db and not C#, it’s easier to write in Db than C# because you deal with 5 flats in a Db, and 7 sharps in a C#. Less complicated. Since a B Major is written in sharps, I opted to write it in Cb Major so you can see the similarities in flats easier.

From a Cb(B) Major, we go to an E Major chord. The notes being played are an Eb to an E. The progression works as an authentic cadence, which for those who don’t know, is a two chord progression, V-I, B Major to an E Major for the E Major scale. It’s a common way to feel resolution.  Since we’re going to an E, we’ll write the Cb Major scale as a B Major scale so we can use sharps in the comparison:

B Major: (I) B [Cb], (ii) C# [Db], (iii) D# [Eb], (IV) E [Fb], (V) F# [Gb], (vi) G# [Ab], (vii-0) A# [Bb], B [Cb]

E Major: (I) E, (ii) F#, (iii) G#, (IV) A, (V) B, (vi) C#, (vii-0) D#, E

From the E Major, we go to a B Major, which is a half cadence, I-V (any cadence finishing on a V is a half cadence), and it sounds normal with that suspended feeling in the E Major scale; or is it a plagal cadence, IV-I, for the B Major scale? Either way, it seems fine, but we would have to continue on to see where it goes from here.

B Major: (I) B [Cb], (ii) C# [Db], (iii) D# [Eb], (IV) E [Fb], (V) F# [Gb], (vi) G# [Ab], (vii-0) A# [Bb], B [Cb]

Db Major: (I) Db, (ii) Eb, (iii) F, (IV) Gb, (V) Ab, (vi) Bb, (vii-o) C, Db

Ab Major: (I) Ab, (ii) Bb, (iii) C, (IV) Db, (V) Eb, (vi) F, (vii-o) G, Ab

It then ends on an Ab Major, V-I, authentic cadence.

To start the instrumental, it goes to a Gb Major, which would help us move back to a Db Major scale via a plagal cadence (IV-I).

Db Major: (I) Db, (ii) Eb, (iii) F, (IV) Gb, (V) Ab, (vi) Bb, (vii-0) C, Db

Things could have been much simpler had the writers kept things to key, but where’s the glory in that?  The end result was a nice flowing, moving piece that sounded great to the ear.

More to come later this week with two songs due out by this weekend!  Make sure you stay tuned for that!

-mnshyn

You may or may not relate to this in the genre sense but you should be able to understand the “feeling” of it.

Without going into specifics and without thinking about it too much, think of any song that at one time or another made you feel euphoric. Take that to mean what you want – elated, energized, relaxed and happy, high… whatever. It also shouldn’t matter what song it was, what genre, how old it was, or how old were. Have you picked a song yet? Don’t try to zero in on any specific song that makes you feel good, try to focus on a time you felt good because of a song. Hope you have a song in mind because now the thinking begins.

For the next part try to separate any emotional attachment your song may have stirred up in you. This isn’t about how a song makes you feel, but rather that a song makes you feel good because of the essence of the song and not because XYZ happened while that song was playing. Understand? What was it about the song that made you feel the way you did? Was it the drum beat? Or perhaps it was some guitar riff? To some people it may be the power of the lyrics that brings out that charged, euphoric feeling; while for others (myself among them) it might be the speed of the song and how it “pumps.”

When I listen to a song that I know will give me an adrenaline rush I can easily break that song down into it’s components and listen to all the individual parts and still get that energized feeling from it. I can hear the bassline pumping and rolling along, pulling the song forward like a train. I can break down the drum beat and can feel getting charged with ever bass drum kick, while the hats give me a lifeline to hold on to as the song races along. The leads, screaming in my ear, make my hair stand on end as epinephrine is being released in my body; and that glue we call rhythm that holds the song together just makes me want to turn the volume up as high as it’ll go!

Think about the song you picked – can you listen to any of the instruments alone that make up that song and still feel unstoppable or does the song lose it’s substance? If it’s lost it’s substance, it was probably just a great song that you “loved” and made you happy. But if you can break that song down and one of those instruments can still make you feel electric then that’s the kind of euphoric song I was talking about. THAT is how songs should be felt! It’s probably one of the few times in music where emotional attachment to a song could be non-existent and it will still put a stupid grin on your face or make you walk with the flow of the beat without even realizing it.

There are various ways to look at this no one way is correct especially if you consider people’s taste in music.
Consider the following: rock ballads, trance, Canibus, the drum section of a quality marching band, and 12/8.
1. Rock ballads – some call them “power ballads” and some say they’re two different things but regardless, they are very emotional, often heavy rock songs with rich guitars and expressive lyrics that convey a message and try to arouse euphoria in you through their compelling musical composition and writing.
2. Trance – a unique genre in the way that it’s the only electronic genre which has long loops and instrument build-ups that actually make the song work! (I say electronic genre because there is looping and build-up in other forms of music but it is not their focus). Smooth basslines that pump and roll along and drums that pull you in and hypnotize you with their beats as leads and synths play their euphoric patterns over and over. This genre is the child of euphoria.
3. Canibus – lyrics. Having a large vocabulary is one thing but being a wordsmith with the ability to properly use the intricacies of the English language, layered over a beat, if probably one of the most unique ways to draw out that feeling of euphoria – though it’s more of an amazement at the complexity rather than an energy response, the feeling is still there.
4. Drum section of a quality marching band – the military, a Division-1 game, a street parade. It may not be something you have albums of on your iPod that you play while walking to work or school or driving but I bet if you’re the type of person that listens to music with their entire body and soul, and not just their ears, you know what I’m talking about. Close your eyes and picture the snares, the toms, the triplets… picture the hands of the drummers moving so fast it just looks like a time-lapse blur. Listen to that cadence and how they march along to it and tell me you wish there wasn’t more bones and joints in your own body to move in response to that beat!
5. 12/8 – a time signature consisting of 4 sets of 3 8th notes each, giving you the feeling of 4/4 but the pulsing of 6/8. 12/8 has been used for a long time in older music, especially soft rock and some oldies. Over the course of the past decade it has become increasingly popular in electronic music because it enhances that pumping feel that makes the song sound likes it’s just rolling along and conveys speed of the music much easier to the listener. This repeated “tribal” percussion can very easily give you a euphoric high.

I can “cliff” this in a few words: euphoric songs are those without emotional attachment that can trigger an adrenaline rush and/or allow you to still be excited by the song even if you listen to just one instrument in the composition. It doesn’t have to be your favorite song or even a genre you normally listen to. It can be a song that reminds of you a special time but even if it’s not, it is definitely a song that evokes a high, which, for lack of a better word, puts a “spring in your step.”

Great songs are special because of the old “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Euphoric songs are special because its parts can evoke feelings just as powerful as the whole song. The next time you’re listening to a song that literally gets you pumped, try to listen to the makeup of the song. See if the bass drum rattles you or if you feel like you want to spit the lyrics out as ferociously as the performer, and notice how you’re walking and if you’re swaying more than normal.

Music is an excellent source of mental and physical energy and you don’t have to be a musician to experience it. I hope you feel what you’re listening to and not just absorb it through the orifice on either side of your head. I hope you can experience music in such a way that nothing can bring you down. I hope you can engage music through ALL your senses.

That’s it for now………

I have to admit, I like the song Paparazzi a lot.  It’s mostly the melody though of the chorus.

I’ve heard the song played many times, and I always had deemed the song to be in C minor (relative major being Eb Major).  Usually I have a decent ear when it comes to chords, and I dismissed the whole song to be in C minor, and the chorus probably followed suit.  When the chorus comes in:

“I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me, Pappa, Papparazzi”

The sound of it seems to obviously be a very pop typical I-V-vi, or possibly a I-V(with the 3rd in the bass position)-6, in it’s relative major.

But I was wrong, and maybe next time I should actually learn a song first before judging it!  Being primarily a rap producer, you don’t go further than 2 or maybe 4 chords.  I play instruments for other genres though, and for the most part there aren’t that many key changes in the songs I play, but I usually call them when I play.  Having never played the song before, I found out, as always, assumption is the mother of all… you know the rest.

Ready for a little music theory?

==

Now before we proceed, I think we need a small review of major and minor chords.  If you’re good with basic major and minor scales, then you can move past this section.

The roman numerals above denote the chords in a particular scale, starting from the root upward.  Major chords are in capital letters and minor chords are in lowercase.  For example, assuming that the entire song was in C minor, the i chord would be C minor, the ii-o chord would be a D diminished, the v chord would be a G minor, and the VI chord would be an Ab Major.  The relative major of C minor is Eb Major  [To find the relative major of a minor, it's the iii chord in the minor scale; to find the relative minor in a major, it's the vi chord in the major scale].  So the I chord would be an Eb major, the V chord would be a Bb major (1st inversion, with the D in the bass instead of the Bb), and then the vi chord would be the C minor.

Sound confusing?

Here are the scales:

Eb Major Scale: Eb(I), F(ii), G(iii), Ab(IV), Bb(V), C(vi), D(vii-o), Eb(I)

C minor scale: C(i), D(ii-0), Eb(III), F(iv), G(v), Ab(VI), Bb(VII), C(i)

If you play the Eb Major scale, it will sound like a nice do-re-mi progression.  The C Minor, not so much, though that’s a conversation for another post.  As is, the C Minor scale looks exactly like the Eb Major scale if you started on C instead of Eb.  All Major and Minor (natural) scales work the same way, with their relatives.  To mix it up, composers will go between both relative scales (with some little added things) to make things sound extra good to the ear.

A lot of pop songs have a progression of I-V-vi.  Let It Be by the Beatles is a good example.   It’s in C Major, and the chord progression is C Major, G Major, Am (I,V,vi) in the first half of the progression of the verses.

==

Going back to Gaga, I assumed that the chords for the chorus would be Eb Major, Bb Major, then C Minor.

When I analyzed it, I found out it isn’t.  It’s still a I-V-vi, but not in that scale.  It’s actually in Ab Major.

But how does that work?

I’m glad you asked!  I owe it to my Music Theory I teacher who gave me this insight a few semesters back.

Here’s a clip of the song, second half of the first verse, into the chorus:

Let’s go over the chords of the song.

The intro is a C minor chord repeating.

The verses go: Cm, Ab, Cm, then Cm, Ab, Fm, leading into chorus.  It’s in C Minor Scale. (i, VI, i, i VI, iv)

The chorus goes: Ab, Eb, Fm, Db and repeats.  It’s in Ab Major. (I, V, vi, IV)

Let’s take a look at the two major scales involved here, the Eb Major (relative of C minor) and Ab Major:

Eb Major Scale: Eb(I), F(ii), G(iii), Ab(IV) | Bb(V), C(vi), D(vii-o), Eb(I)

Ab Major Scale: Ab(I), Bb(ii), C(iii), Db(IV) | Eb(V), F(vi), G(vii-o), Ab(I)

If you’ve noticed, I’ve split each scale in half, four notes on each side.  Each set of four notes is what music theorists call a tetrachord. Notice how the first half of the Eb Major scale closely resembles the Ab Major scale’s second half.

So how does this work?  Basically, if you play around in the first half of the Eb major scale, you can move to an Ab major scale progression and it will sound nice and peachy; especially if you use a G to lead into the Ab.

The composers of Paparazzi did so by using the F minor in the end, pausing the music while Gaga sings the last note, and Gaga’s last note is a hanging G note.

Why are these three things important?

1. The use of the F minor, is almost foreshadowing.  If you take a look at the Ab Major scale, what’s the relative minor?  (remember the notes above, look for the 6th, which is an F, and a minor at that).  It makes the move even more comfortable since both the Eb Major and Ab Major scales have that chord in common.
2. The G serves as a leading tone to the Ab Major.  It gives your ear the tension to want to move to the Ab Major chord because it sounds incomplete.  Try playing C,D,E,F,G,A,B in succession (a C Major scale, without going back to C).  Your ear will want to play that C because things don’t sound right without doing so.
3. Then the pause.  Why the pause?  To make the G sound even better when it leads into the Ab Major.

Play the clip above, and listen for these key things, and you’ll hear how it was done.  Pretty nifty, if you ask me.  I’m sure that this isn’t the first time the technique was used, as I’m sure it was used many times.  However, this is something current that uses it, and for composers who want to know how to move in scales, well here’s one good way to do it. =]

That does it for today’s music theory lesson.  More music coming your way, very soon!

-mnshyn

Some notes on the type of music, from what I’ve heard and studied:

1. The music feels like what should be played in a fashion show in Paris
2. Speed should be around 120bpm give or take a few beats per minute
3. Pads preferred as opposed to real sounding strings
4. Kick drum should be hard, same formula as the Guetta kick (see this previous post for the formula), but using a different kick drum to start that is less hard than the K034, on every beat
5. 303 type of bass going at every eighth after each kick drum to give more pump
6. Dance clubby saws with slides, if possible, are desired
7. Hard snares with the right touch of reverb, standard pattern at the 2nd and 4th beats
8. Percs are okay to use; nothing over the top; and they break the beat in different spots to allow for variety
9. Did not notice hats being used; at least not heavily
10. Song format would be pop like, possible use of a middle 8, and something repetitive and catchy for also about 8 bars to get in people’s heads.

This, like the others, if used by Speaks, will go on the Roll Call ’10 album.  Below you can find a lo-fi version with tags [for security reasons. ;o) ]  for your streaming pleasure.

More to come soon!

-mnshyn

The FoRcE oNe project has some interesting tidbits.  First off, the beat for this one as selected was a custom I made specifically for him in his interests.  He’s a big Lil’ Wayne and Young Money fan, so this beat follows that new southern sound with an MsP twist.   The drum pattern and bassline are akin to those found on their recent work, but the instrumentation and sampling is more MsP style.  Once some recording is done, I will post up a tidbit so you guys can get an idea of what we’re aiming for.  The second thing about this that I like is that FoRcE oNe will be spearheading the project, and I will just be trying to bring out the vision he’s got.  I’m trying to get him to let his creativity loose while increasing my producing experience in the sense of producing for other people.  Most of my producer work has been for myself, so getting a chance to produce for others (especially for uno because he’s only done one song on his own, this will be his second) is always exciting.

The beat is in Bb minor, and utilizes samples from a rare old school soul song called “Why,” as well as the use of the Hypersonic plugin by Steinberg.  Drums used were from the Sounds in HD kits that Boy Gnyus supplied me with, and of course the beat was created in FL Studio.  It clocks in at 140bpm, but will mostly sound more like 70bpm with that Young Money style flow that’s been coming from the South.

The second project that was worked on this weekend was the impromptu MooN ShynE/ADM/K-Maculate project that started earlier this evening. What we’re looking to do is something in the vein of what David Guetta has been doing these days as well as other non-hip-hop club hits.  So far, we’ve nailed down a decent club beat akin to Guetta’s recent hits such as “Sexy B*tch” and “Memories” with Kid Cudi, but once again, putting an MsP spin on it.  It’s a good mesh of styles as ADM’s electronic work comes into play here production wise in a big way, K comes in with some creativity as far as concepts, lyrics and vocals, and I come in with my lyrics/vocals and production work.  We’ve already recorded a small piece of the song that will fit as one of those catchy 8 bar loops that DJ’s should have fun with in the clubs.

The song is in Ebm, using a mixture of different drum kits we have here at Lunar Base.  We used Native Instruments’ FM8 for some synth work, as well as Vanguard for a gate.  We were using Cakewalk Studio Instruments String Section, but we may opt for a different set of strings (Hypersonic being a very likely candidate) as I’ve overused String Section to death lol.  We layered the kicks and included 808 bass drums to give it that extra push.  We’re also using the Izotope plugin called Trash (the plugin used to achieve Justin Timberlake’s voice in Sexy Back) to give it that real gritty club feeling.  Next week, we’re looking to do some more work on this, and I hope to have a sample for you guys to hear after that session.

All in all, a very productive weekend, and with other projects also in the wings, there will be more fun coming!  Stay tuned.

-mnshyn

ProTools M-Powered 7.4, Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7 Fix

As I’m sure many people will be wanting that first. I don’t want people to think I actually don’t have the fix and I’m just leading them to my blog as a deception. For more info, read further down below about the fix because I did make some notes on it.

As a short note, this is the fix for the 0xc0000005 error you get when starting Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 on Windows 7 32-bit, with or without Internet Explorer 8.  My guess is that you can probably apply this fix on older versions of Windows and it will allow you to keep IE8.

==

So Black and Blue Ink. has officially started work on “The Lyricist Manifesto,” the new album slated for this coming Fall 2010. Since you can count on BBI coming through with nothing but hard lyrics and hard beats, that’s what you will pretty much get out of this. No hooks, no fancy intros, no nonsense. Just straight up in your face lyrics with creativity and imagery, pushing the limits of rap lyrics. As soon as the beats hit, we’re off taking turns spittin a 16, 24, or even 32. If you’re a fan of metaphors, imagery, punchlines, and literary devices, and other rap/poetry/prose techniques, this is the album for you, combined with hardcore beats.

This is a bit of a departure for me, because I am more of a song/track oriented rapper than a lyrical rapper (though I used to be back in the days), and that’s because as of late I’ve been really pushing for my musicianism to materialize in my music in terms of the way beats are made, usage of music theory, different techniques in song form, etc.  However, the fact that it is a departure, also presents itself and a challenge, and a challenge I definitely want to take up.

The challenge now, involves a couple of things.

First off, for example, we just finished recording a song called “Left Hook.”  It’s called as such because we “left hook” out.  No hook.  Also, for some odd reason (though commonplace if you’ve ever had the experience of watching K-Maculate record), K-Maculate alludes to not being lefty but bringing it to you.  I don’t know why, he just did (it brought many a laugh between me, ADM, Harmony Speaks and Boy Gnyus who were all present at the time).  The song itself is 1:45.  Yes, not even two minutes.  We both spit 16 bars, and that was it.  As K wanted it, he wanted no hooks, no intros, no nonsense, spit and continue on.

It just seems a bit short to me.  However, we agreed that we could maybe spit 24s on future beats, just to try to at least make the 2 minute mark.  So that was resolved.

The next challenge, is making the entire album not sound repetitive, and giving each song a character.  Normally, every song has some kind of character to the beat, to your lyrics, some character by topic, and by the chorus you put in or other characteristics.  With this project, you’re confined to the beat and lyrics only.

The good thing about this is that it hones in my writing, and maybe it will make me more creative lyrically.

As a producer, I have to make the marriage between the vocals and the beat in a way that even if we are spittin our usual bravado for every song, I can make it so that each song still carries a character.

I’ll know I’ve succeeded if by the end of this project, the vocals and beat are so intertwined that mixing the acapellas and instrumentals would be blasphemous (tempo not withstanding).

This may not seem like a challenge, but when you’re dealing with these type of lyrics, those vocals can easily be moved to a different instrumental and it would be perfectly fine.  I feel that in order for this album to be stronger, the beats and vocals must be 100% complementary, and that may only be possible if the beat is tailored perfectly to the vocals.  I don’t want loose vocals that could go on any beat.  This means a lot more post-production work rather than pre.  Once K and I record our verses, I will go through the track, take notes on the vocals, then go back and add to the beat so that the beat fits the vocals as completely as possible.  I guess you can say it’s like a movie score.

Now that I’ve written all that, I feel I have a better grasp on what I need to do with these tracks as we move forward.  Let’s see what happens.  Watch our main home page here, as well as the BBI Facebook as I will be posting up “Left Hook” in the next few days.

Also, as indicated by the title, I’ve stumbled upon (no pun intended, I didn’t use stumbleupon) a fix for Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 to work on Windows 7.  It drove me bananas for months since I got Windows 7 that my Pro Tools does not work, but now with this fix, it works perfectly on 7.  The original fix though had a lot of URL’s in it, most of which I remember as spyware related sites, so I deleted all of those (they were in the site zone entries and history entries written into the .reg file), and left the more appropriate registry entries.  Please feel free to delete any other suspicious registry entries and let me know so I can update this patch as well.

ProTools M-Powered 7.4, Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7 Fix

Mind you, I don’t deal in warez, so that is just the fix, not the program itself.  Click the link if you’re having that problem with M-Powered 7.4 with either IE8 and/or Windows 7.  On prior versions of Windows, uninstalling IE8 would do the trick, but disabling it on Windows 7 (uninstalling IE8 is not permitted on Win7, just disabling) would not work.  This will get you around that.

As I said above, I’ve deleted the questionable entries (that I’ve noticed).  You may want to give the .reg file a once-over first before merging it with yours in case you have a better eye.

I’ll have more soon!  More projects, and this weekend I am excited for a FoRcE oNe beat selection/recording session, as he is taking the initiative to make a song and be a big part of the creative process.  I’m a fan of artist evolution, so this will be a very fulfilling project for me.  He has only one solo song under his belt completed, so we’ll see what the young gunna has to say.   Be on the lookout for that one.

Also, Cocoa has some demos she is looking to have me hear and work on, and Destiny and I have a few projects on deck as well.  You can’t forget projeCt inhalOr with ADM, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing a bunch from Brian Bullion soon as far as production is concerned.  The entire fam has got at least one project waiting in the wings, so as I’ve always said, 2010 is our year.  Watch!

-mnshyn

I was just playing around, trying to come up with some different sounds.  I ended up with this little catchy thing at 130bpm.  The second half of the 16 bar loop sounds like House to me, and the first half sounds like… pop maybe?  Not too sure.

Anyway, I’m still trying to find a fresh sound for Phase 4, while keeping to my roots.  I’ve still got the Jazz/Swing stuff on tap, as well as some other ideas I want to try.  Nothing solidified yet.

I’m guessing part of this is influenced by my visit to Ultra (club in Teaneck, NJ) this past Friday for a birthday party, the fistpumping nature of the Jersey Shore (which I’ve only watched once, and since people make fun of the fistpumping I thought I’d try the music out), and going through some of mine and ADM’s old music in the Chamber[303] days.

It’s nice to not be limited by anything.  Hopefully I’ll get some traction, and maybe record a track or two that would be the foundation for my next opus.  I don’t want to release anything though until Phase 3 has gotten around for a bit.  Remember, it’s coming out March 1, 2010 on iTunes!

Drop comments with your thoughts.  ADM might have something to say about this because if that one half isn’t house, I’m sure he’ll let me know. =]

Project inhalOr and Wind Beneath My Wings with Destiny Soprano are both on deck, as well as a few songs from Cocoa.

More to come!

-mnshyn

If you have been following this blog, you’ll notice that the first ten blogs were about this particular song which took almost 2 years to create when you include all the delays (no pun intended) and the different versions and iterations.

Well here is the final song, in all its splendor and glory, [at 96k though, CD quality available from iTunes on March 1, 2010 ;o) ] and I hope you guys like it.  Considering it’s the first song where every active MsP member’s voice is on it, this is a very important song to me and one of the ones I’m most proud of. =]

Order of performers:

0. GnP’s Takewun on the prologue.

1. Cocoa
2. DiMpLeZ (MooN ShynE and ADM in the background)
3. K-Maculate
4. Less with a cameo by GNP’s Boy Gnyus yelling “Aiyyo back the f*ck up!”
5. Harmony Speaks (on the walkie-talkie, talking to MooN ShynE)
6. FoRcE oNe
7. Brian Bullion
8. ADM (with MooN ShynE)
9. Destiny Soprano
10. MooN ShynE

Some blog posts of importance to this song, for anyone wanting to ask about production techniques:
History of the song
Robot voice used for DiMpLeZ
Vocal notes for Harmony Speaks
Comp’ing Destiny Soprano’s vocals

Hope you guys like it. =] Remember, to get the CD Quality version, get it on iTunes when it comes out on March 1, 2010 when “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear” makes its debut.

-mnshyn

A couple of semesters ago, Fall 08 to be exact, I signed up for Jazz Ensemble I, which was the intro class where you would play Jazz music and learn whatever you could in the process.  It was a great experience, because since I was used to playing pop/rock or making beats, being introduced to jazz was overwhelming at first.  I thought I was pretty good at guitar solos until I took this class.  I ‘m used to just following the scale that my ear picked up, and going with it.

I was taken aback though by these jazz guitar soloists, and when I was asked to solo, I was pretty much embarrassed. =]

For those who don’t know, Jazz for the most part follows this format (at least this is how it was in the class I took with the songs we played, and I only took 1 semester out of the 4 possible):

1. Head (the introduction, some kind of melody with the chord structure) once or twice
2. You go to each soloist where they would improvise their solo on top of the chord structure that was prototyped in the “head.”  You may hear the chord structure quite a few times dependent on the soloist, but because each soloist will play the parts different (either because of the different instruments or just different playing style), the song is very dynamic even though the chords repeat.
3. Play the Head again with some kind of ending

A few reasons why it took me a bit  to get used to playing jazz:

1. Although I know how to play all the majors, minors, 7′s (majors, minors, and dominants), I couldn’t think of how to play diminished and dminished 7 chords on the fly (though I knew what they were in theory).
2. I also didn’t know what a minor 7 flat 5 was until I took Music Theory I during the Fall 09 semester.
3. I had no idea that there were Blues scales, so there were many times I played where I was either sharp or flat on a note because I was following regular scales.

So every time we’d go around the room and it was my turn to play a guitar solo, I’d shake my head letting Professor Krikun know that I wanted him to skip me.

The last few times I played though I started to get the hang of  it just by practice.  My solos just became based on the chord rather than the scale.  If the chord changed to an Eb minor then I would play in Eb minor, for example, rather than trying to guess what the overall key is and play to that.

I ended up shifting to bass almost halfway through the semester, and had a blast doing that.  What made it even better was that I bought a bass specifically for it: The Epiphone Viola Bass.

The Epiphone Viola Bass is in the same shape as Paul McCartney’s Hofner bass.  It’s hollow body, so it has a nice round tone to it that is usually absent from solid body basses.  I’m a big Beatles fan, so playing a bass that had that look and feel to it was great.

At that point, I started really grasping the basic rhythmic points to a bossa, a 12-bar blues, and so on.  I learned how to properly do a walking bassline.  A walking bassline is a bassline that you hear in blues songs and other jazzy tracks where you can hear the bassline consistently throughout the song, giving it a nice little thump that keeps the rhythm moving every eighth note or so.

The only successful song I ever did a solo for in that class was a bass solo, and it was for a jazz rendition of Sam Cooke’s Summertime in D minor.  The song’ll be forever embedded in me because it was the first time I felt like an actual jazz player playing that walking bassline then performing a cohesive solo that fit and sounded decent.

Now that the history lesson has been given, let’s bring it back to today for some relevance.

With Phase 3 completely done, it was time to, as Jay-Z and Swiss would put it, go “On to the Next One.”

I see Phases 1 to 3 as a trilogy, and I want to start Phase 4 with some new ideas.  Plus, I started to find the track listing format that I followed for three albums to become limiting, so I felt it’s time to start with a clean slate.  Maybe Phase 4 could even start a new trilogy.

So what I want to do, is somehow make a jazzy rap track, with the rhythm of that Summertime rendition.  Even something like Ray Charles’s “Hit the Road Jack.”  The basic points being that the drums are fast and the bassline walks.

The drums play in double time what most rap songs are at.  Figure a good range for rap (NY style) would be somewhere between 80 and 100bpm give or take a few beats.

I did some experiments, and I found that the tempo for this particular project would sit well around 180bpm.

I did a quick a rendition in FLStudio of that version of Summertime, and using that as a template, I will morph it into something original with the same type of rhythm.  I’ll post the results in the next few days. =]

This is just the beginning of course, so let’s see how far I can push the envelope before it breaks.  I don’t want it to stray TOO far off; as I want to stay faithful to the hip-hop roots.

Stay tuned!  And remember, March 1, 2010.. Phase 3 will be on iTunes!

-mnshyn