Feadóg Night

The current song is not going to sound good. But it is a good project.

You'd think that such a simple tune, I could just record the parts in and fix anything that needed fixing in the mix. I hope one day I'll be able to work that way. I'm getting better at holding multiple lines and basic harmonies in my head. But the details of an arrangement still need better tools. One of these days, also, I'll be doing that on paper. This time, I'm back to the old trick of making a MIDI mock-up and problem-solving the arrangement there.

Still lots of fun wrestling transpositions around to try to fit melodic patterns of the original into the playable ranges of my chosen instruments. And more work trying to figure out underlying harmonies. I really need to arrange things so I have a full keyboard to work with. It is so much faster discovering harmonies on a piano, instead of trying to hack them out by recording one voice at a time off a 2-octave controller keyboard.

One of the pieces I've been listening to -- "Awakening" from Izetta -- does stuff with harmonic progression I can only guess at. First there's a sequence which appears to be walking down through the chords towards the root. But one step short of resolving, it does a totally unprepared leap to an apparently unrelated key. And seemingly to the V chord, because it then moves up to a Dominant VII and does a big complicated glissando ending with a fermata. And then hits you with the root of the new key just when you can't wait any longer for the resolution. Which is used for the main theme...except that there's another shift (emphasis on the IV? Another key change? I don't have enough theory to tell) that sort of leans back towards the original key/puts it into a sort of minor mode. When it finally resolves back it does so in a greater and more complete manner than the simple heroism the first progression of the main theme was pointing to.

And this hits the underlying story elements perfectly. Izetta is a wild card, something that takes the existing situation/original chord progression and throws a monkey wrench into it. But her victory march turns melancholic the same way Reality Ensues in the storyline, resolving in a plainer heroism that recognizes sacrifice and loss as well as heroics.



So, yeah, I've got a whole lot of musical theory to learn. And the related skills of reading and writing and transposition and ear training.

In addition to the instrumentation. I think I've figured it out. I never wanted to play an instrument. I wanted to play music. And I'm too impatient to get the skills to where I could join a band, so it becomes up to me to compose and arrange and perform everything.

The Bb tin whistle arrived in the mail. Fingering exactly the same as the D whistle, just a wider stance of the grip. And the Vorson. I plugged it into the all-purpose amp, and ran it through an old Boss pedal I was last using as a telephone effect on some show long ago. I like it, and not just because of the generously wide neck (compared to the JR2). Tons of sustain and the finger tremolo I learned on other instruments sounds great.

Of course I'm re-stringing it. It's strung and tuned like a tenor ukulele, and I'm going for guitar. Probably the top four but I need to think about that. Also need a hardier pick.

On the chincello side, stickier rosin at the very least (it is hard work getting the lower strings to play). Lots of chincellists use a cello or at least a viola bow for this reason (just like most Vorson owners re-tune to guitar, usually with new strings -- D'addario seems a popular choice.) Plus, like the reviews noted, the frets could use some dressing so it is worth taking the strings off and doing a little work there.

That's a ridiculous number of instruments, though. I have hopes of being able to focus on one or two at a time as projects come to me. However. The Terminator "Folk Cover" is currently using bodhran, tin whistle, folk guitar, violin, and chincello (plus crumhorn pretending to be bagpipes).

Actually, though, it isn't as bad as it seems. Most of it crosses over; the folk guitar is mostly a larger ukulele; fretting skills and many of the chords translate straight across. Electric guitar is really just new tonal options and a different focus on picking and fretting techniques out of the same box. Same for bass, really. Fingering and tonguing carry through across most of the winds, with the only real outlier being the trumpet (what with valves, slotting, and of course embouchure).

But this goes back to how I approached my first instruments. Way back on recorder, I wasn't content to play the basic tunes. I experimented with and developed (some) skill in trills, vibrato, flutter tongue, multiphonics, glissando, and even tried out "chanter" style fingering (using the pad of the finger instead of the tip). On ukulele, I learned about and tried out slides, lift off's and hammer ons, ras strumming, forefinger and thumb strum as well as finger picking and even attempted claw-hammer. So many of the special techniques asked of guitar, bass, tin whistle, even trumpet were already something I'd tried. Heck, I'd even messed around with slotting on both natural horns and pieces of pipe.

In any case. Unless I have a sudden uncontrollable urge to get a Xaphon or a Pbone, I'm done with buying instruments. Now it's all about the accessories....

Oh yeah. And next shop project? A case rack.

How low can you go

The octave strings arrived today, and they don't sound half-bad through my little Ashdown 10W bass amp. Had to open up the peg holes* and cut wider grooves in the bridge, and after trying them out went back and re-shaped the bridge to give it more curve.

The Sensicores are on the Cecilio and I'm still thinking about moving the Alphayue's to the Pfetchner...and the pellet with the poison's in the chalice from the palace.

I'll tell you this, though; even a chin-cello is a workout! You've got to really grind that bow in on the lower strings. And fret with a firmer grip, too. Good thing I've been working those muscles on the steel strings of a folk guitar.

Working on "Concerning Hobbits" now with the penny whistle. Not just because it's popular, I hasten to add. Although the plethora of samples and instructional videos doesn't hurt. But because I've got sheet music that writes out all the ornaments; every grace note, every slide. Because what I'm after here is getting into my fingers and my brain the idioms of tin whistle playing.

Terminator is going more slowly. I've been under the weather, the weather has been over the top, and as a result I've mostly been working or sleeping, not doing music. I've got a new idea on the piece, though. I'm going to give up on trying to mimic the original, and am doing a free interpretation of the basic elements.

Three reasons. One is what's the use of doing a cover on folk instrument if you are going to hide their identity with electronic processing? Another is I literally could not perform some of the parts I wanted and I decided I was against faking it with editing. Last is I want to learn more about arranging in a Celtic/Folk/pop style, more than I want to learn how to copy what Brad Fiedel could do with 80's synthesizers.



*getting down into the guts of the pegbox on the Cecilio has helped me grasp just how (relatively) cheap and shoddy the construction is, from materials to fit to final finish. My other violin is a 1970's German-made student violin constructed in vast quantities for the school trade and from $400 to $600 on the used market today. But every bit, from the fit of the pegs to the material of the bridge is almost beyond comparison.

So I'm getting new insights into the instrument-shaped object. I am still on the fence about ISO's, and there isn't a single simple answer. I can't disagree with the objections made about cheap instruments, but I also have to stick an oar in and say that there are companies like Cecilio and Roosebeck and there are people who, if not for them, wouldn't have an instrument at all.

Myself among that list.