Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
Hi! Me again.
My third blog of the apocalypse. As the world adjusts to this strange new routine of life, (who knew Armageddon would include so many daily runs) it seems like loads of people are turning to creativity to keep themselves sane. And quite right too.
Many silly videos are appearing all over social media (I'd never do such a trivial, basic thing... especially not humming and whistling at the same time, with Rosie to make four-part harmony, for example), and people are making music in whatever way they can.
Obviously this is brilliant. What makes it all the more challenging is trying to be creative using the tools to hand. Last week I (sadly) went to my Uncle's funeral. It was (thankfully) a great occasion. The service was nearly at capacity (eight people of the 10 allowed by the crematorium), but it was important for us all that there was some live music included. Of that thronging crowd, my four sisters and I were the keenest musicians.
My sibling clan are a bit von-Trappe-esque; four sisters, all brilliant singers, in the renaissance music group Stile Antico. As good as they may be, there aren't many arrangements out there for the unusual scoring of Soprano, Soprano, Soprano, Alto, Bass. So as the youngest, it fell upon me to try and come up with some arrangements of our Uncle's favourite songs, for SSSAB.
Various problems present themselves when writing for an odd combo of voices or instruments. Who does the tune? How can we make sure chords aren't dramatically weighted either to the top voices or the bottom? When will the singers be able to breathe? Will any of the musicians be bored with their parts? etc. etc.
This was a fun challenge for me. I like being presented with limited parameters, and have to try and make something work. One song, Close Your Eyes, a gorgeous jazz standard sung by Doris Day and many others, had to be arranged in a Bossa Nova style. So I set about checking the range of the song and choosing one of the singers (the Sop 3 if you must know) to sing the solo all the way through. Then the remaining Sops and the Alto formed a groovy Bossa Nova rhythm section on some funky, jazzy triads, and I did a silly bass part.
Though in this arrangement I was aware that the solo tune was often singing the same pitches as the "rhythm section", it didn't affect the balance too much as the backing singers were just singing "dm dm"s rather than words.
Anyway, this is all very nerdy. However if you're bored in Lockdown and want to do some music-making with friends or family, but all you have are your brother on banjo, your Grandma on nose-flute, and a keenly barking dog, then I suggest the following:
In no time you'll have a social media sensation on your hands (which you've been washing for 20secs).
I've also really enjoyed getting to grips with GarageBand on my Mac. Ableton is a good alternative for PC-folk. There are so many amazing features for editing audio, whether it's making notes longer, shorter, a little bit higher or lower, reverb, panning, and a whole lot more I haven't even discovered yet. I spent a lovely afternoon editing together 23 audio tracks from Rosie's school kids singing and playing Build Me Up Buttercup, which now haunts my dreams. It was awesome trying to make them well balanced, and sound like they were standing in some sort of band/choir formation, even when they were just singing at home by themselves.
NB. lots of software are providing free downloads at the moment. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, there's no excuse!
Right. End of rambling blog. Time for my daily jog.
Happy music making!
Nick x
