Tuesday 31 December 2019

BOSS ME-25 Xmas Present

This year, Father Christmas brought me an ME-25 multi-effect box of magic.

My guitar teacher also has an ME-25 and being a BOSS, you know the quality will be good.

It's got a solid metal casing and is packed full with fancy features, including ring modulator sounds.

I'll need to get a feel for it first, then I can set up some favourite custom patches.


Tuesday 24 December 2019

School Band Carol Concert

I am in the school band at school and to finish the term we performed in the Carol Concert at the local church. I played my 5-string bass guitar. It was all off sheet music so no improvisation but the church had some good acoustics.


Birthday CDs

I got these CDs for my birthday. They're really good.

The two jazz albums are debut albums and you wouldn't think they were recorded in 1959 & 1971, they could have been recorded yesterday.

The Dick Dale album is also his debut and is great surf rock and roll. It's amazing he was still performing live up to his death this year, aged 81.

The B.B. King is my first B.B. album and it really shows his skill as a live performer.


Sunday 17 November 2019

Yamaha P-125 Piano

For my birthday, I've got a new digital piano, a Yamaha P-125, to replace my Yamaha PSR-E333 keyboard.

I like it because it has a 'piano feel'. For instance, the keys are weighted and cover a full octave span.

The speakers are better as well - plus there's four of them!

It also has a variety of reverbs.

One drawback over a keyboard is that it doesn't have the vast range of voices, but the ones it does have are really good.

https://youtu.be/DMLClqPkzzc

Friday 1 November 2019

Thunderbirds Are Finished!

This is the (finished!) version of my Thunderbirds Project.

I did the outro's drum roll and fanfare parts on my Yamaha keyboard; then I did the explosions using the airplane and drumulele sounds on my home-coded synthesiser. I tweaked the track volume and panning levels in Audacity.

For the accompanying image I turned myself into a Thunderbird complete with 'Thunderbird eyebrows'!

Here it is! FAB!
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-theme-project







https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-theme-project

Sunday 27 October 2019

Thunderbirds Project - Main Section (2) - Added Frantone Thunderhead!

I wanted a bassy melody to follow on from the jazz organ.

I was going to play it on my 5-string bass but the melody isn't suited for playing on bass! So I switched to my Harley Benton Les Paul guitar. I used the neck pickup, rolled off the tone pot and cranked the Frantone Thunderhead bass boost to 11! And a drippy spring reverb.

Next up will be the banjo ukulele melody! Turned out FAB again!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-project-added-frantone

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-project-added-frantone

Thunderbirds Project - Main Section (1)

This is the (work in progress) countdown, spoiler and main sections of the Thunderbirds theme.

To do this I began with using a drum kit on my Yamaha keyboard and also my drumulele to create a stereo-based drum track.

Then I used a violin voice on my keyboard that had a tremolo effect, before doing the trombone backing.

Then for the (first - there will be more to come!) main section, I chose a jazz organ voice on my keyboard, because the Tracys were always into their jazz. Nice.

Here it is! FAB!
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-main-section


Tuesday 22 October 2019

French Homework

My French homework was to do a verb 'to have' (avoir) rap. But I don't like rap and wanted to 'push the envelope' of the spec to try and get a house point!

I was listening to Datblygu today so I thought I'd do something in their vein. So...

I played a rhythmic dyad track on my Les Paul guitar through my Frantone Thunderhead bass boost pedal and my spring reverb pedal into my Orange 20W amp and into my Tascam.

Then I recorded the vocals direct into the Tascam and put it into Audacity, before adding a Sopwith Camel drone sound from my home-coded synthesizer!

I'm NOT too happy with the vocals, since there was clipping and breathing sounds but I don't have time to re-record it. It's not too bad as it stands.

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/french-homework


Sunday 13 October 2019

Thunderbirds Project - Countdown and Spoiler Sections

This is the countdown and spoiler sections of my 'Thunderbirds' theme.

I recorded the melody part on my Yamaha keyboard with a trombone section voice.

Then I got the thunderclap from the intro of 'The Prisoner' theme.

Then I mixed it into Audacity and tacked it on to the countdown section I had done previously.

Here it is. Next up will be the main section. FAB!
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-countdown-spoiler-sections


Friday 11 October 2019

Thunderbirds Project - 'Spoiler' Percussion Sample

I was trying to get the percussion for the 'spoiler' part of the theme (the bit just after the countdown).

I thought it might be a complex polyrhythm at first but after listening to it carefully, it seems to be a (much simpler!) crazy beat!

So for my version I decided to bang out a crazy beat on my drumulele; firstly with pencils, then with fingers!

Then I mixed the two tracks together in Audacity with the compressor and amplify functions, and making it slightly out of phase!

Here it is. FAB!
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-spoiler-section-percussion

(I will try to do the melody part on my keyboard over the weekend.)

Tuesday 8 October 2019

Thunderbirds Project - Countdown Sample

This is the countdown section of my Thunderbirds theme homage.

I used my Yamaha keyboard to get the trumpet sound and recorded it into my Tascam recorder.

Then I recorded the countdown vocals into my Tascam

Then, I created the Thunderbird launch noise using the English Electric Canberra jet engine sample in my home-coded 'blue noize' synthesizer.

Finally I mixed them together in Audacity.

Here it is! FAB!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-project-countdown-section

Friday 27 September 2019

Thunderbirds Project - Percussion Sample

This is the main percussive layer for the main section of the Thunderbirds theme.
To do this I started by dusting off my old drumulele!
Then I slowed down the theme and worked out a simple rhythm that could be repeated.
So I tapped it on the drumulele and recorded it into my Tascam.
Then, in Audacity, I selected the 4 best repeats and compressed it to make the peaks even, before speeding it up to 120bpm.
Later I can 'copy and paste' repeat the sample to form a percussive layer.

Here it is! FAB!
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/thunderbirds-section-c-percussion-1


Tuesday 24 September 2019

Thunderbirds Project - The Score

Thunderbirds Project - The Score.

This started with the school band that I have joined! 'Thunderbirds Are Go' is one of the songs we will be practicing but the first week the music teacher didn't let us take the music home to practice and the second week he forgot my bass music so I had to just "sit and listen" for an hour!

So I thought it would be a good idea to do my own Thunderbirds project at home using my keyboard, guitar, bass, home-coded syntesizer and anything else I can think of.

I could have played the melody from memory but thought that it would be good to have a music score to use as a guide. So I had a look on the Internet but the ones I found didn't seem right so I created my own by listening to the theme tune and creating a score in Musescore.

Here it is!

P.S. This is a long term project so watch this space, FAB!


Tuesday 27 August 2019

Rumble with bass


This is 'Rumble' on a keyboard track with added Frantone bass.

I played my 5-string bass through a Frantone Brooklyn overdrive and Thunderhead bass boost into a Fender amp.

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/rumble-v2


Monday 26 August 2019

Nervous Twitch @ Kirkstapalooza 2019

I saw Nervous Twitch supporting Shonen Knife at Halifax and I liked them so I followed them on Facebook and I found they were actually playing at Kirkstapalooza, at Kirkstall Bridge, Leeds and it's a child-friendly venue!

So I travelled up the M1 and then had a delicious beef burger in the pub, and was lucky enough to meet the band and have a photo with them. hey were really friendly and we had a good chat.

I stood by the sound man outside and had a good chat with him about his mixing desk before Nervous Twitch came on.

Their set was really good. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

https://youtu.be/siJEoauGjpk




https://www.facebook.com/KirkstallBridge/

https://www.facebook.com/nervoustwitchband/

Yamaha HR-2000 Amplifier

This is my new amp, but there is no information about it on the Internet! It seems to be quite rare. I eventually found information for the amp on a Japanese catalogue archive.

I took some photos to show the details and a couple of demo videos.

The amp is a 20W solid state combo amp, with a 10" speaker, delay, chorus and compressor effects, and a Yamaha EAS-25P181A 8ohm speaker.

I really like it, it has a great sound, perfect for home.

https://youtu.be/C6KqcjNj61U

https://youtu.be/4vpyqCcsJV4







Sunday 18 August 2019

Rumble

When I was at the Junior Jazz Festival, I bought a Link Wray CD. I thought I would have a go at his 'Rumble'.

I created a music score of it using Musescore and then played it on my Yamaha keyboard, before adding two different types of reverb with Audacity.

I would like to have added a 'fuzz' but my keyboard doesn't have that technology!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/rumble


Sunday 11 August 2019

Brecon Jazz Festival Videos - final number

The final number - applause and bow!

https://youtu.be/WfLRAizg-r0

Brecon Jazz Festival Videos - bass solo

My bass solo from the song, 'Handmaiden'.
The camera didn't pick up the bass frequencies too well but you can just about hear it.

https://youtu.be/zzMGbYZvLDM

Brecon Jazz Festival


The end of course performance was at St Mary's Church at the Brecon Jazz Festival.

I was in 3 ensembles and the whole-class ending performance.

I played my 5-string electric bass that I bought some time back from Rockstar Guitars. It's not a flashy Fender but Dameon had set it up really well and it sounds good.

I played these songs:
Handmaiden;
Yuca Con Mojo;
A 12 bar blues;
Someone You Loved.






Junior Jazz


This week I attended the Junior Jazz Summer School at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff!

There were young children of varying ages grouped together in different small ensembles and also a whole-course group to play an end-of-week performance at the Brecon Jazz Festival!

It was really good since you had plenty of assistance from the many tutors there and you could choose what jazz types you fancied. There were 30 nice, enthusiastic children attending.

I stayed in the Premier Inn and ate pizzas and Beefeater food.








Sunday 28 July 2019

Nervous Twitch

Shonen Knife's support band were Nervous Twitch and they put on a good act with a great surfy-rock sound.

The lead singer was playing a really good-looking Danelectro Longhorn bass through an Orange amp.

I was running out of money, so I only bought a badge from the merch stand.

I would like to see them again.

You can find them here:
https://www.facebook.com/nervoustwitchband
https://nervoustwitch.bandcamp.com/


Shonen Knife official blog

This is Shonen Knife's official blog, where you can see some photos of the gig. Can you see me in one of the photos?

http://www.shonenknife.net/blog/

Shonen Knife @ Square Chapel, Halifax

Halifax looked a nice town with a big Caffe Nero. The Square Chapel arts centre is convenient to get to and for parking. The staff were friendly and there was no age restriction for the concert. I also had an ice cream in their café which was delicious but it was more filling than I expected because it was made from proper cream!


Shonen Knife Merch!

I bought some merchandise: 3 T-shirts, their latest signed CD and a Naoko pick. And the good thing was, because it was the last date of the UK tour, everything was discounted!




Shonen Knife Pick

At the end of the concert, Atsuko (the bass player) gave me the pick she was using for the concert itself! Thanks, Atsuko; I shall treasure it.


Shonen Knife Signing & Photo



The band came out after the concert so I had my photo taken with them!

(Sorry the photo was a bit flashy; my camera was still soggy from the rain.)



Shonen Knife Concert

Great concert. I gave it 9 out of 10; I would have given it 10 out of 10 but I got soaked in the torrential rain earlier!

It was in a small room, packed with roughly 100 people, making the atmosphere better. I stood near the front to get a better view!

They played very well together. Risa, the drummer, was going really mad!

Thanks to Shonen Knife for coming to the UK and a venue where under-18s can attend!




Saturday 20 July 2019

Link Wray Rumble FUZZ!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHEmDLQKrrk

I like the huge fuzz, the way he grabs attention from the start and how the band works together.

The guitar is a '66/67 Japan Yamaha SG-2 twin single-coil he called, "Screaming Red".
He'd added an onboard distortion in case his valve amp wouldn’t distort.
His Boss Compression Sustainer pedal was on permanently, all knobs at 'max'.

Bass player Hutch Hutchinson, drummer David Weber, from John Cipollina's Copperhead.

Full Concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVb9jtxnTQA

A red Yamaha SG-2.
https://www.guitar-list.com/sites/default/files/styles/model_display/public/gearpics/yamaha-sg-2.jpg

Friday 19 April 2019

Fender CD-60CE

This is my new acoustic guitar and my first Fender - a Fender CD-60CE.
I bought it from Damian at Rockstar Guitars.
With a laminated nato body and spruce top, it looks great and sounds great acoustic or plugged in.
Here it is:
https://youtu.be/m32qdNZcooE


Sunday 10 March 2019

El Lissitzky

I had to do a poster for school so I decided to do an avant-garde design influenced by El Lissitzky.

The poster's message is, "Keep going! Never give up! Always try your best!", which applies to music - you have to practice!

Unlike one of my favourite composers, Shostakovitch, El Lissitzky didn't fall foul of Stalin - lucky for him!