passing tones

1&0 up to bridge vox demo

f

I just added the vox to see if the vocal melody could work…I think it can. The “female” vox parts are where Kat would come in.

vamp trio on semi-structure

After playing this idea out with the band the other day, I’m certain the time signature weirdness is the result of the vocal melody creating a sort of polyrhythmic mind-fuck over/ with the guitar line. It’s kind of cool, but I don’t know if it’s worth the effort to realize the effect with the band at this point..? This song is technically demanding enough as it is…

Anyway, I just picked up a mixer with pre’s and eventually convinced Garage Band to play nice with it. The result is a helluva huge improvement over the quality of recording I’ve been getting for quick reference takes. Plus, I get to overdub with G.B! Good bye Sound Studio/ laptop mic setup. Hello Splooge Fest!!

Enter: this sketch

f stretch gbtest

The main track on the left is my best attempt at making it thru the song up until the bridge. The other two (right) are half-hearted overdubs I patched together primarily as a test of my new and improved home studio. Then I started effing around with the keyboard plug-in. Playing E. Piano with a mouse is fun. period. If anything, this amounts to an acceptable step forward in form for this song. Much remains to be fleshed out…

bible stories - lyrics

We’re prone to evil
It says in the Bible
We come from two people
One cut from the other

It was right in the open
When one took an apple
And gave it to the other one
If evil were so simple
Then why is good so complicated?
And, tell me why
Are we so eager to bite
Your bible stories and lies?

God plays a sousaphone
In a heavenly orchestra
We’re given microphones
To ruin the Music
Beliefs aren’t that difficult
They come from good places
But as soon as they’re swallowed whole
They lose what they’re meant to be

You and I are
We’re not so different
You and me,
We’re not that different…
But we’re not the same

So believe in your fairy tales
Your parables and prophets
Some will give you nightmares
The other
Some comfort

When you give it all away
You can go back to sleep

waltz on water demo

waltz demo

I wrote this a few years back. It’s A’s fave. She helped me come up with the first line in the lyrics so I always think of her when I sing it - I like that.

This demo is a quickie I threw together since I’ve never recorded it before. I haven’t even messed with the EQ (sorry). The vocal harmonies are for the birds and I really need to get my hands on a mic pre-amp. I’d love to hear some female vox and other strings on this - maybe even sans guitar??? I’m probably going to come back to this to add some keys and clean up the recording…

waltz on the water - lyrics

Head for the high ground
It’s a busy season
We called it up by a name
We gave her a reason

We’ve stolen we’ve bribed
And we’re all
Guilty of treason

It’s a deep Hell for us
We’ll serve our time
Forever and ever and ever and ever

So come dance with me my
Accomplice-Lover
We’ll waltz on the water
And we’ll dance through the storm
Holding each other

We’ve waltzed on this lake before
And we’ve danced these steps before
When we lost our minds
Together…
Forever.

These storms and wars
That we can’t afford
We’ve built the walls
And we’ve locked our doors
From our storms and wars

lef right middle guitar demo

untitled 1 bflat 3guit demo

I think this tune would make a great gO HomE roBot song. I still have no idea what the words should be but it’s definitely no instrumental… I’m probably gonna leave the lyrics and vocals up to some one else.

Download Demo (3.6MB MP3)

lethargy lyrics

We’ve grown weary of these lonely hours
And the blisters from paging through
The black psalms in the morning papers

The rats have run wire through
Our unfinished mazes
Creating
A world without end

Buried deep
So the rot can set in
And oh! It will

Then the violins fell out of tune
And the meaning was lost on you
Now we’re all back where we started

The foundations of our ruined homes
Collapsed in your absence
Now the vagrants beg
For pity and alms

How we all
Fill our palms
And oh! we will…

Until the children sing
LOUD
Just once.

1and0 lyrics - up to 2nd chorus

So Rise up
and Make haste
We’ve entered
a strange place
They’re sentient
and feel pain
They say, Science
is their faith

With numbers
as our new gods
We’ll find peace
Absent of thought
With new eyes
Shadow becomes light
With new minds
Will Heaven suffice?

Still I won’t let go
Nothing will make me
Let go of you

Distant
Stars will explode
We’ll know
We’ll hear them up close
We’ll take shape
Inside their systems
Embrace
Like when we’re children

They’ll claim
We’ve lost asylum
Disdain
All that we had can become
Well in time
We have will evolve
All our sins
Have been Self-absolved

Yet I can’t change this
The damage has been done
The ghosts took over

we’ll hear them up close

sketch 1

As a new father, I’ve had a lot of late nights where sleep was simply not going to happen. This song started in a lost hour during one of those nights. I can remember wanting to stretch my fingers out, so I chose the low F on the guitar. In this piece, my index finger plays a pedal point with the chord’s root note on the 1st fret of the low E string (then skips up to the fifth of the d minor triad). The furthest stretch extends my pinky finger to the 5th fret, G string. The ostinato in the verse is essentially a big old F9 chord (sans the third and seventh) that walks into the d minor triad. The melody played above it suggests the vocal melody and crosses voicing at the middle and end of the ostinato. The tonal center of the piece is actually C, although it’s only referenced at the very end of the phrase.

I’m still trying to figure out what time signature(s) I’m playing in the intro and verse is/are. It seems to change once I start singing, but goes something like: three measures of 6/8 & one measure of 5/8. Once the vox comes in I think it all evens out but I don’t know yet… The chorus is good old 4/4 with a swing-version of the verse which leads to an angular reworking of the main theme.

This song is going to give me carpal tunnel syndrome…really soon.

(image was found on the Internet: scanned from an old science fiction novel. I’ve been staring at it while writing this tune- artist, unknown. if you know please let me so I can give them credit)

reason d’etre

Some songs spring from the shadows of a half-developed melody or painfully emerge from a loosely constructed chord progression. Others are born complete; the whole song seemingly precomposed and silently gifted to the vessel known as the songwriter. Still other songs never quite make it. They are abandoned, aborted, forgotten or left to mature until they are ready to become. Regardless, a process is undertaken within the composer. All of the aspects making up that person, at that moment, take shape through the act of creation and find form in the shades of silence and sound that is Music.

This site is my sketchbook. It’s a place for me to work through that process and share it with anyone who happens upon it. Some of these ideas will fizzle out while others may be realized and re-realized in time. The lyrics will change, the melodies will develop and the process will be documented. Please feel free to comment, suggest, critique, enjoy or ignore.

The idea behind this site was unconsciously inspired by the Tenseforms project, Muted Tones (hence the not-too-subtle title).

All music and words copyright V.J. Hyde. If you’d like to use anything from this site, simply ask.