Spectrograms and Pickups

Crossroad Practice

And here's a bit of "Crossroad" practice!

https://youtu.be/oRz80YW2duI

Robert Johnson Cairn

Great report from Bob Langley on Nationwide in 1970 about a cairn memorial to the Delta Blues maestro, ROBERT JOHNSON.
Built by 19-year-old Bruce Gardner in the Scottish Borders.

But where is it, and is it still there?

I found a "Drumelzier" on Google Maps and compared the satellite view with the black and white video view. Result!

But I can't zoom in close enough to see if the cairn is still there.

Bruce would have been born in 1951 so he would be 67 now - is he still alive and does he still live in Drumelzier?

Here's the video:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04hcfkz

Ernest Tubb

A bit of Ernest Tubb, but I needed the cowboy hat.

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

Arecibo Sound

Google had a doodle for the Arecibo Message the other day so I looked it up.

It was a message for alien life sent in 1974 to the star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away! The message had 1,679 binary bits at a frequency of 2,380 MHz with 10 Hz modulation. It was at the speed of 10 bits per second, or 600 bpm.

I played the pattern on my Yamaha keyboard using the Vox Humana voicing and frequency scaled down to A note, 220Hz, because we can't hear 2,380 MHz! I recorded that onto my Tascam recorded and edited it in Audacity. I recorded it at 100bpm, but Audacity speeded it up to 300bpm, half the speed of the actual message, because it sounded best.

I wanted a static fuzz effect so I used an English Electric Lightning jet engine sample from my Samsynth Blue Noize Project. I chose the Lightning because in it's time, it was cutting edge but it's a bit obsolete nowadays like the Arecibo Message.

That was good but not very musical so I added a "Lost In Space" woo-woo sound using the oscillator in my Blue Noize Machine.

I used some stereo panning in Audacity so wear those headphones!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/arecibo-sound

Tubb Fest!

Ernest Tubb Fest at the Ubiquitous Open Mic last week. I played 'Thanks A Lot' and 'Just A Drink Away'. It was great but I didn't have the big cowboy hat!

I was playing through an Ammoon American amp-simulator pedal into the PA system. The Ammoon is the same as the more expensive Joyo American which is a copy of the more expensive Tech 21 Blonde! It lets you get a variety of amp sounds into the clean PA without having to carry a big amp around. I dialed in a slightly dirty Fender sound, and I think it sounded pretty good and was convenient because you can power it off a 9V battery.

Here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZNoi9WF4A

Pedal:
https://www.ammoon.com/p-i1712.html

Planets Synth.

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 about rhythms, and they used the orbits of the planets as a musical rhythm, so I decided to do the same using an oscillator synthesizer.

I adapted my old synthesizer written in HTML and javascript that runs through a web browser.

Firstly I worked out a frequency for each planet proportionally scaled on their distance from the Sun. Because of the huge distances of the outer planets I had to use a different scale for them.

For the planets' beeps per minute, I worked out a proportional tempo based on the orbits. I found a good tempo for Mercury first (240bpm), then calculated the other planets based on that. Again because of the huge numbers, I have to use a separate tempo range for the outer planets, otherwise the inner ones would have been beeping too fast or the outer ones too slowly.

Once I had that sounding good I thought it would be great to add modulation based on the number of large Moons each planet had, and also some delay.

Here is the final result.

https://youtu.be/KfGFkjA1yYU

Audio track for looping through a bass amp!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/planets-synth

BBC Radio 4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bgfqx7

Junior Jazz

This week I attended the Junior Jazz Summer School at the Royal Welsh College of Music.

There were young musicians of different ages working together to present a public end-of-week performance in the college.

It was very good because you had lots of assistance from the tutors and they made it really fun, plus you could choose which jazz types you wanted to do. There were about 30 young musicians attending and they were all really nice and enthusiastic.

I played the following songs:
Dark Eyes by Django Reinhardt,
Little Sunflower by Freddie Hubbard,
Blues In The Closet by Oscar Pettiford.

Here are some tasters from the end-of-week public performance.

https://youtu.be/ILbXynZjquU
https://youtu.be/KFzmfhCRgX4
https://youtu.be/BHDPmHWnHp8

https://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/other/rwcmd_community/summer_schools__short_courses/courses/junior_jazz.aspx

John Robson Competition - The Video

I have made a cutout stop moton animation for my John Robson competition entry.
I cut out a stickman and photographed individual photos, then put them together in Adobe Premiere.
Here is the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbgqhLwHJtg

John Robson Competition

John Robson is a guitar teacher with a Youtube channel.
He has a competition at the moment where you have to play your own version of his demonstration tune.
I have entered!
Here is my entry:
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/john-robson-competition

The video about the competition is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1xSNyGSJps

TASCAM

I have a new recording device, a Tascam DR-40.
It's so easy to record. Just put it in front of the amp speaker and press 'record'!
Really good quality through the built-in condenser mics.
Previously it was a major faff to record, loads of wires into an audio input box into a PC.
Here're some test tracks using my bass guitar played through a Fender Rumble 25 amp.

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/bass-guitar-test-1-munsters
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/bass-test-2-weather-report
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/bass-test-3-bird-land

Tech Will Save Us

Experiment with "Tech Will Save Us" stutter synth kit.

https://youtu.be/kDrklCYzMUY

The Munsters

My version of 'At Home With The Munsters'.

The lyrics were written by Munsters scriptwriter Bob Mosher, but they weren't sung on the TV programme. They were on the 1964 concept album called 'At Home With The Munsters'.

I used my Yamaha PSRE333 keyboard, Vintage Mick Abrahams SG guitar and my home-made synthesizer.

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/at-home-with-the-munsters

Cool Posters!!!

 A Christmas present.
12 homemade posters.
My version of the 'Cool Wall'.

You can check out the artists on Youtube and buy their LP/CDs if you like them.

The Allman Brothers Band, Andre Brasseur, The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, Billy Bragg, Bix Beiderbecke, Datblygu, Delia Derbyshire, The Groundhogs, Jimmy Smith, Johnny Cash, Son House and Townes Van Zandt.

http://www.datblygu.com/
http://www.billybragg.co.uk/
http://www.andrebrasseur.org/

Lazy Moon

I was watching the Laurel & Hardy film 'Pardon Us' (1931) and I liked it so I had an idea which was to play a piano track in time to Oliver Hardy singing 'Lazy Moon'.

I did it by finding the 'Lazy Moon' video clip on Youtube (see link below) and then playing along to it and recording it on my keyboard before mixing them together in Audacity.

J. Rosamond Johnson wrote the music and Bob Cole wrote the lyrics to 'Lazy Moon', published in 1903. In 'Pardon Us' Oliver Norvell "Babe" Hardy was backed by the Hall Johnson Choir.

Here it is:
https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/lazy-moon

(Film clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZo8gllKsmI)

Wanted Man and The A13!

Everyone has heard of Route 66 but I've been playing Johnny Cash's 'Wanted Man' a lot recently and I thought it would be great to have a Wanted Man Route!

This is what I produced. From looking at the route, Johnny Cash must have been a busy man!

Maybe I will actually travel the route one day?

Incidentally, Billy Bragg did a homage to Route 66, 'A13, Trunk Road to the Sea'! Here it is on his Peel Session.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_CT3mcKrM

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi

My version of Big Yellow Taxi at the New Crystal Folk Club.
Played on a Chord 3/4-size acoustic guitar, purchased from RockStar Guitars.

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/big-yellow-taxi

http://newcrystalfolkclub.webs.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RockStar-Guitars-134547713278833/

Bach - Prelude in C Minor

Prelude in C minor by Bach.
Not easy!
It's tricky because I get used to playing the bass D note in the middle section and then it suddenly changes to Eb. There's also a lot of big stretches and I only have small hands.

Keyboard is Yamaha PSR-E333. Same 'three tuning forks' logo as on the motorbikes!

https://youtu.be/D9DKkRIfct0

Merle Travis - Dark As A Dungeon

I was working out the chords to Dark As A Dungeon by Merle Travis.

It's a great song and a great video.

Look at how he barres his chords with the index finger and thumb!

Merle plays this in A, but Johnny Cash plays it in Eb and Tennessee Ernie Ford in F. He's playing E shape open chords barred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FPmSLzsbdM

Samsynth Blue Noize Synthesizer Demo

https://youtu.be/B8RqRAbhnt0

Samsynth Blue Noize Synthesizer

Showing how I have used engine sound sample files to create a 'white noise' drone effect.
https://youtu.be/7zLE-E3cPAM

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi

I was working out the chords for Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi'.

On the album, the song is in the key of E, but on a BBC live recording she is playing in F#; she's actually playing D shape open chords, with a capo on the 4th fret to make it F# key.

But in a 1983 concert at Wembley she's playing in E with open and barred E shapes!

And in an official DVD she's playing in D with a open D and barred other chords!

So there are lots of keys and chording styles that you could play the song in and it would still be in the style of how Joni played it!

BBC 1970:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFB-d-8_bvY

Wembley 1983:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FOqJq2GK_4

DVD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agB7jriyUU

CD - Color Me Blue by John Langford

On my first visit to the New Crystal Folk Club I won the raffle and chose this CD - Color Me Blue by John Langford. I was pleased I did because it sounded really nice.

There are 10 songs, all written by John. They're a gentle acoustic singer-songwriter style with good guitar work, and a common theme of relationships.

The CD was produced by Pete Kelly and it does justice to John's songs.

The CD comes in a plastic sleeve and looks attractive and professional.

The CD's not expensive (£3?) and I would definitely recommend it.

You can find John's music at:
http://www.johnlangfordmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/John-Langford-278944315479064/

John Langford CD - Color Me Blue

As I said in my last post, last night I went to the New Crystal Folk Club and I won the raffle by picking out my own ticket!

There were a choice of prizes and I chose this CD - Color Me Blue by John Langford.

I played it this morning and I thought it was great! Review soon!

https://www.facebook.com/John-Langford-278944315479064/

SONG OF THE WEEK! Billy Bragg - A New England (1983)

I like this song because I like Billy's percussive strumming style.

Hear are two versions, about two decades apart, and you can learn a lot from them.

He's playing two different chord shape styles - barre chords on the electric and open chords on the acoustic.

He knows where the chords are by learning where the main notes are on the fretboard.

He's also detuned his guitar one tone on the acoustic, which yuo can use to make your finger positions easier.

Electric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgwU4zCEJtY
Acoustic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTZfZQCtuew