superbat7

Adventures in the Drum Trade

2007-05-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

The recent arrival on the web of musical collaboration sites is heartening for an old amateur musician. I have played Solitaire on the piano lo these many decades—and I don’t mean the Carpenters’ tune of that name. An able musician has the luxury of joining groups of equally talented people, gaining their input and feedback, playing the Poker game of music. Lackluster pianists like myself must reconcile themselves to performing music that isn’t expecting an audience, usually alone in an empty room. It sounds gloomier than it is—music makes a wonderfully vivacious companion and the visceral experience of creating the sounds on one’s own keyboard helps make up for the lack of rhythm and technique.

As I stumble through a Bach prelude I can hear, inside the mangled mess, the ghost of Glenn Gould’s performance of the same piece. I don’t play the piece so much as imagine it. Another person in the room would likely hear the mangled mess that actually issues from the piano. So, in a literal sense, I’m playing for myself. Not that I choose to—it’s simply what I’m left with once the wishful thinking is swept away.

But now, fellow wishful thinkers on the web have a gathering spot, actually several—if you’re an NPR listener, you’ve heard all about it lately: drumsnpercussion.com, e-drummer.com, indaba music sessions, and so on. Some sites even allow for virtual jam sessions, such as ejamming or jamglue, but I avoid those—even on my shaky new ‘collaboration’ legs I prefer to record while alone in the room, virtually or otherwise.

The hardest part of collaboration is the click track or metronome. Obviously, other musicians can’t be expected to handle an arrhythmic piece; there has to be a steady beat and this is something a solitaire player never has to worry about. Indeed, it was a major reason for exclusion from ensemble playing from the beginning. But adjustments must be made, for it is the sine qua non of working together: to stay in time.

My very first attempt at creating a non-solo recording met with mixed success. Some drum-track suppliers refused my improvisation, entitled Bombastico, on the quite justified grounds of unsteady rhythm. Fortunately, the undaunted Mike at Drums n’Percussion.com took on the task of drumming to my meandering piano track and the result was a beautiful enhancement.
Here’s “Bombastico” by me (Xper Dunn) with synth-strings, drums and percussion by the very talented Mike:

BombasticoWDrums

2007-05-24T12:17:00.001-07:00

Chris Dunn's 'Bombastico' with Percussion & Orchestration added by Mike at Drums N' Percussion dot Com-May 13 2007

2007-05-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the same tune in its original piano-only form:

Bombastico - 2007-Apr-21

2007-05-24T12:14:00.001-07:00

Bombastico - 2007-Apr-21 by XperDunn

2007-05-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, Phil at e-drummer.com had sent me a click track to use as a metronome substitute while recording a new piece, which he then would add drums and accompaniment to. I used the occasion to re-record a song to my wife I had written a few months earlier, “Claire’s Song” (see lyrics below). This is the song, with added tracks from e-drummer:

Claire's Song (w/E-Drummer)

2007-05-24T12:11:00.001-07:00

Claire's Song (w/E-Drummer)

2007-05-24T12:10:00.001-07:00

And here it is in the original:

Claire's Song 2007-May-13

2007-05-24T12:09:00.001-07:00

'Claire's Song' 2007-May-13- Music and Lyrics by XperDunn

2007-05-24T12:04:00.001-07:00

Now, I sent this same track to Mike at Dn’P. He’s worked up some great accompaniment for it, and continues to hunt down vocalists to add back-up singing (cool, right?) and although the vocalists are out of town right now, I include Mike’s version as a work in progress:

'Claires Song' w/DrumsNPercussion.com

2007-05-24T12:03:00.001-07:00

'Claires Song' w/DrumsNPercussion.com

2007-05-24T12:01:00.001-07:00

I was pretty excited about all this, but I began to wonder about the financial aspect of things. After all, these are professional musicians working for a fee and, with my head suddenly spinning with ideas for further projects, I began to worry about the cost of making this a steady outlet.
That’s when my wife heard the second NPR radio show about the free-exchange musician’s web sites. I chose Indaba at random from the list of sites and logged in for membership. I happened upon a piece by Peter Yoon entitled “Are You Sorry Now”:

Are You Sorry Now by Peter Yoon (Original)

2007-05-24T12:00:00.001-07:00

Are You Sorry Now by Peter Yoon (Original)

2007-05-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

It struck me as simple enough for someone like me, yet still evocative enough to make a good piece. The next day, I was inspired to write a poem by way of lyrics (see lyrics below), and sang it into my recorder. I uploaded the track to Peter’s audition submission site and sent the written lyrics as my Request To Join Session. Peter Yoon very kindly accepted my participation and I quickly sent a follow-up Piano track. Peter recently added drums and, while it isn’t finished yet, our working session is already sounding pretty good:

Are You Sorry Now (Session in Progress May 23rd '07)

2007-05-24T11:52:00.001-07:00

Are You Sorry Now -Music and Lyrics by Peter Yoon and Xper Dunn (Session in Progress - May 23rd '07)

2007-05-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

All this music-making got me ‘het-up’ so I decided to go back to Somers Manor, a seniors residence at which I volunteer (OK, so the room isn’t completely empty all the time) and came home with a recording (see Concert Menu on right), one track of which is now one of my own ‘Sessions’ on Indaba:

Tk27-Improv

2007-05-24T11:49:00.001-07:00

S.Manor Concert Track 27-Improvisation by Xper Dunn - 2007 May 14 (Used as 'OpenSrcSession2' on Indaba)

2007-05-24T11:46:00.001-07:00

With any luck, I will be working soon with an Italian soundtrack composer and a Parisian harpist! Anyway, with all these resources for music collaboration out there, I foresee a very busy and enjoyable summer….
In addition, I have been scanning slides saved by my in-laws from the 1950s through the 1980s, a visual record of my wife’s family and childhood. I compile these graphics into a movie for burning onto DVD. My nephew, Joshua Loucka, offered to help by providing a soundtrack for the DVD, a portion of which is included here:

Joshua Loucka DVD Theme Part I

2007-05-24T11:44:00.001-07:00

Joshua Loucka - DVD Theme Part I

2007-05-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

So my life right now is full of music and pictures, an admirable condition which I recommend to anyone who feels life is wasted when it isn’t being enjoyed to its fullest.
As promised, here are the lyrics:

"Song to Claire" (Feb 2007)

2007-05-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

No one walked with me
In the falling snow
Your smile kept me warm
At seven below.

Silent my snowprints
And no wind blew.
As the dusk came on
I thought of you.

Gray clouds turned red,
Then charcoal instead,
The sun’s ember in bed
And cold. Then
The darkness fell
And the stars came out
And the moon rose full
And golden-
And th’beauty made
An ache in my chest
And it made my heart
Feel shattered.
Splendor and starlight,
Magic at midnight,
This was the night
That mattered.

My longing for you
Has made me a fool
And my heart has become
Your token-
And th’beauty made
An ache in my chest
And it made my heart
Feel broken.

"Are You Sorry Now?"

2007-05-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Music & Lyrics by Peter Yoon & Chris Dunn May 16, 2007

C G7
Time can't change and the future's frozen
C/E C
All the past leads to where we are
C G7
We regret, 'tho we cannot change it
C/E C
'Tho our hearts may receive a scar.
C G7
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.
C/E C
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.
C G7
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.
C/E C
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.

(And Tommy* sez:)
G F
Time present and Time past
C4 G6
Are both, perhaps, in Time future, too.
G F
So Time future is in the past Time
C4 G6
And is frozen for me and you.

C G7
When we planned to be forever
C/E C
We were babies and didn't know
C G7
When forever becomes a lifetime
C/E C
Times moves faster when life is slow.
C G7
In the breeze with the scent of flowers
C/E C
Is the smell of the Earth in Spring
C G7
Green exploding and mothers birthing

C/E G7
Warm and golden, the Sun is king.

G F
Time present and Time past
C4 G6
Are both, perhaps, in Time future, too.
G F
So Time future is in the past Time
C4 G6
And is frozen for me and you.
G F
And if Time can't be redeem-ed
C4 G6
We'll be sorry for all or none
G F
If we only keep on trying
C4 G6
In the end we will know we've won.

C G7
Time can't change and the future's frozen
C/E C
All the past leads to where we are
C G7
We regret, 'tho we cannot change it
C/E C
'Tho our hearts may receive a scar.
C G7
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.
C/E C
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.
C G7
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.
C/E C
Are you sorry now? Don't be sorry now.

*( see T.S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton")