Whoa! Hey, kids! When last we met, which was quite some time ago, I'd just had a song included on the "For the Dream!" bardic fundraiser project. I'd also been intending to record the rest of my songs, in the hopes that having them in a finished state somewhere would free my brain up for new compositions. But somewhere between having an awesome job and really cool friends, I became sidetracked, and the music slowed down.
So what I'm going to do is start posting a new recording of one of my works each week, in an effort to keep the momentum going. Once a week's up and a new song goes up, the old one comes down, so listen while you can. Once I've hit a critical mass, I might put them all back up or arrange them into an album, or like...something.
This week, I'll post the very song that went on the "For the Dream!" compilation album, lo those many months ago. And if you like it and would like a copy for your very own to listen to after this week is up, you can still buy it at iBards.org. But the album is only available through Labor Day - so you've got one week of joy before the song is gone from my website and the album's no longer available!
This is "Beer is for Girls," an original work by yours truly composed in the style of an Elizabethan drinking song. For my geeky brethren, you can download the documentation!
Click for a listen!
And stay tuned for more as the weeks go by. I've already got 2 original poems and a troubadour song ready for posting, and more on the way.
August 25, 2012
March 10, 2012
For the Dream! - A Bardic Fundraiser
Lady Lorelei Skye is spearheading an awesome project to benefit the SCA general fund, which as you may know has taken quite a hit lately. She's putting together a 2-volume compilation album of SCA bardic works, which will be available soon through Heather Dale's iBards.org. Each downloadable volume will be $10 a pop, and all proceeds will go straight to the recently depleted general fund.
And guess what - my beer song is on it!* I'm posting the track here as a teaser, to whet your pallets for the full album. I'm going to leave this track up for you to listen to until the album goes live on iBards, and then I'm TAKIN' IT DOWN!!! Cuz y'all gotta go buy the album, see? It's for a good cause.
Oh noes! The album's ready! No more listening for free! ;-) I'll see about posting a snippet-preview, and a big, exuberant announcement blog post later today, when I'm not...like...at work.
*Barring some technological disaster, of course. I feel compelled to point out that in the event that the file I sent to Lorelei spontaneously combusts upon uploading it to iBards, all bets are off. It's unlikely, but it is the first time I've done this. :-)
September 05, 2011
I may have found a reason to record
A lot of SCA bards cut albums. A few have asked me if I have one, and the answer has always been "Aw, HEEEEEEEELLZ naw!" I need this to be my hobby. And while I may be serious about doing it well and serious about teaching, I need to stay on this side of "serious" in general, right? I need this not to feel like a job. And producing a CD, and then trying to promote said CD in order to recoup costs, would start to feel like a job. And then it would stress me out and make me enjoy it less. I went through this years ago with acting, I learned my lesson. I love this a lot, but I don't wanna go pro - not even semi-pro, not even hemi-demi-semi-pro.
But I think I've found a reason to record my songs. I've reached the point where I have too many songs to keep reliably practiced up. So I find that I'm spending all of my time practicing the songs I haven't played in a while, rather than writing new work. I feel like I'd like to record my songs so I can have them somewhere in a practiced, finished state. I want to be able to take out a CD and say, "that's my song!" or to listen to it to remind myself when it's time to practice it up again. Mostly - I just want my songs to feel finished. Then I'll feel freer to move on to other music.
I think if I record my songs to have an album, it'll drive me nuts. But if I record them for myself, then it'll be alright. And I'll also have an album.
So Aeron and I are looking into home recording equipment now. I don't want it to be a big, studio-digitally-post-production-mastered ordeal, right? But at the same time, the idea is for my songs to feel "finished," and the lap-top mic recordings you've heard on my blog sound anything but finished. So we'll see. If anything comes of this, you'll read it here first (assuming I remember to blog before I Facebook). And it will be a digital download, because dealing with CDs and jewel-cases and album covers and whatnot are what we're trying to avoid here. :-)
But I think I've found a reason to record my songs. I've reached the point where I have too many songs to keep reliably practiced up. So I find that I'm spending all of my time practicing the songs I haven't played in a while, rather than writing new work. I feel like I'd like to record my songs so I can have them somewhere in a practiced, finished state. I want to be able to take out a CD and say, "that's my song!" or to listen to it to remind myself when it's time to practice it up again. Mostly - I just want my songs to feel finished. Then I'll feel freer to move on to other music.
I think if I record my songs to have an album, it'll drive me nuts. But if I record them for myself, then it'll be alright. And I'll also have an album.
So Aeron and I are looking into home recording equipment now. I don't want it to be a big, studio-digitally-post-production-mastered ordeal, right? But at the same time, the idea is for my songs to feel "finished," and the lap-top mic recordings you've heard on my blog sound anything but finished. So we'll see. If anything comes of this, you'll read it here first (assuming I remember to blog before I Facebook). And it will be a digital download, because dealing with CDs and jewel-cases and album covers and whatnot are what we're trying to avoid here. :-)
August 29, 2011
I just wanna bang on de drum all day!
Here's a trick I learned: if you want to learn to do something really well, find something that's even harder and teach yourself to do that instead. Then when you come back to that first thing, you'll rule at it...as if by magic.
The music I make involves isolating different parts of your body - your hands and fingers are not moving together. Adding vocals into that can be like asking someone to rub their belly and pat their heads on a pogo stick. And then there's my new favorite thing - drumming on the soundbox while I'm singing and/or playing with the other hand (probably the least period thing I do, I'll admit, but hell it's fun). You have to be able to isolate parts of your body in order for them to do their thing independently.
So rather than just practice this over and over again until I got really good at it, I've decided to learn to play the drums! My husband's a drummer and is teaching me on his drum kit in the basement. We've started really simple, but it's still a bit of a mind-trip. I'll have my rhythm going, and then my mind will wander for a second and suddenly my foot and right hand have switched places...or have synched up...or my left hand goes "Whut???" and starts flailing randomly.
The really interesting thing is, I have to really clear my mind in order to get into a groove. Now, I've always found this to be true with harp as well - as soon as I start thinking about how my day was, or this section coming up that I always mess up, or how amazingly I'm rocking this section I always mess up on...I mess up. My mind has to be blank, filled with nothing but music and sensation in my fingers, in order to do really well. The same is true with the drums, only it's WAY harder! You get into a groove, it gets repetitive, your mind starts to wander and BAM - suddenly you're playing unison quarter notes in each limb, which is not what you were going for. You basically have to meditate in order to play well. No wonder my husband does it for stress relief (and here I thought bangin' real hard on stuff was enough).
Anyway, it's fun and I think in the long run learning to play the drums will make me a better harper. I love it when life works like that!
The music I make involves isolating different parts of your body - your hands and fingers are not moving together. Adding vocals into that can be like asking someone to rub their belly and pat their heads on a pogo stick. And then there's my new favorite thing - drumming on the soundbox while I'm singing and/or playing with the other hand (probably the least period thing I do, I'll admit, but hell it's fun). You have to be able to isolate parts of your body in order for them to do their thing independently.
So rather than just practice this over and over again until I got really good at it, I've decided to learn to play the drums! My husband's a drummer and is teaching me on his drum kit in the basement. We've started really simple, but it's still a bit of a mind-trip. I'll have my rhythm going, and then my mind will wander for a second and suddenly my foot and right hand have switched places...or have synched up...or my left hand goes "Whut???" and starts flailing randomly.
The really interesting thing is, I have to really clear my mind in order to get into a groove. Now, I've always found this to be true with harp as well - as soon as I start thinking about how my day was, or this section coming up that I always mess up, or how amazingly I'm rocking this section I always mess up on...I mess up. My mind has to be blank, filled with nothing but music and sensation in my fingers, in order to do really well. The same is true with the drums, only it's WAY harder! You get into a groove, it gets repetitive, your mind starts to wander and BAM - suddenly you're playing unison quarter notes in each limb, which is not what you were going for. You basically have to meditate in order to play well. No wonder my husband does it for stress relief (and here I thought bangin' real hard on stuff was enough).
Anyway, it's fun and I think in the long run learning to play the drums will make me a better harper. I love it when life works like that!
July 04, 2011
ATTENTION: This guy is awesome.
My harp-making husband and I have spent the last day or so drooling over this site: http://crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/instrum.html
Paul Butler, aka Master Arden of Icombe, is a laurel in the East Kingdom who's dabbled quite successfully in medieval lutherie. He's made a number of stringed instruments, chiefly from the medieval period although he's got one super-ancient lyre and one ren/baroque pochette. He has detailed descriptions and pictures of the process he went through to make the instruments, which is obviously awesome. Perhaps even more awesome - most of his pages include recordings of the instruments being played, and he's achieved some really nice sounds. No recording of the Anglo Saxon lyre, though, which makes me sad, but it's pretty enough and in good enough company that I'm still overall quite happy. :-D (Mostly I just want one. Hearing one is the next best thing. Seeing how one was made is a close third).
No harps, but that's ok because he plays them! Check out the second mp3 - that's his gothic harp with the brays on. Neat, huh? Waaaaaaaaaant.
So nooooooooooow I want a rebec and a citole and an Anglo Saxon lyre (ok, I already wanted an Anglo Saxon lyre, but his site didn't exactly dissuade me). Harps first. Harps. Harpsharpsharps. Actually bookshelves first. :-P Then new folk harps, then a gothic harp and that's all if I'm reeeeeeeeally nice to my super-sexy-talented husband. :-D LOVE YOU HONEY!!!! (harps)
Paul Butler, aka Master Arden of Icombe, is a laurel in the East Kingdom who's dabbled quite successfully in medieval lutherie. He's made a number of stringed instruments, chiefly from the medieval period although he's got one super-ancient lyre and one ren/baroque pochette. He has detailed descriptions and pictures of the process he went through to make the instruments, which is obviously awesome. Perhaps even more awesome - most of his pages include recordings of the instruments being played, and he's achieved some really nice sounds. No recording of the Anglo Saxon lyre, though, which makes me sad, but it's pretty enough and in good enough company that I'm still overall quite happy. :-D (Mostly I just want one. Hearing one is the next best thing. Seeing how one was made is a close third).
No harps, but that's ok because he plays them! Check out the second mp3 - that's his gothic harp with the brays on. Neat, huh? Waaaaaaaaaant.
So nooooooooooow I want a rebec and a citole and an Anglo Saxon lyre (ok, I already wanted an Anglo Saxon lyre, but his site didn't exactly dissuade me). Harps first. Harps. Harpsharpsharps. Actually bookshelves first. :-P Then new folk harps, then a gothic harp and that's all if I'm reeeeeeeeally nice to my super-sexy-talented husband. :-D LOVE YOU HONEY!!!! (harps)
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