Our Drum & Piano Jams
Mar 1, 2006 at 5:37 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

ilovesocks

1000+ Head-Fier
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Posts
1,049
Likes
21
Hey all,

I'm in a casual band with a singer, guitarist, bassist/saxophonist, and pianist. We just recorded a couple tracks a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd post 'em and see what people think. We don't have a name yet, so bring on the suggestions.

These tracks are just me (on drums) and the pianist (Sam - what an awesome name for a pianist. He's probably one of the best jazz pianists my age for quite a distance). They're mono, so you'll want to use that "Convert mono to stereo" DSP.
biggrin.gif


I've got my bass drum, 8" popcorn snare, 13" hi-hats, and 19" ride cymbal. Sam's playing on my family's Kanabe & Co. upright. These were recorded using my Zen Micro. I'd say balance is damn good for the money.
biggrin.gif


The first one is called "Diesel" because it reminds me of the theme music for the diesel engine on Thomas the Tank Engine. I loved that show when I was a kid. Here's the format:


[size=medium]"Diesel"[/size]

Link: http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=36749

Key: C blues (12-bar for the solos) | Tempo: 120ish | Genre: Sort of a pop samba

Bass intro - 12 measures (on piano for now) with light piano after 4
Drums in - 12 measures
Piano solo - 12 measures
Chorus - 8 measures
Piano solo - 12 measures
Chorus - 8 measures
Drum solo w/ piano comping - 14 measures (it was supposed to be 12, but we had a little communication breakdown)
Chorus - 8 measures

The abrupt ending is a coincidence. We both magically stopped at the same time. I guess it was meant to be that way. I'm playing with Pro Mark Cool Rods.

Second one's called "Mega Mano." I'm pretty sure it's a temporary name. This one reminds me of the music from the SNES Mega Man X game. We figured that "Mega Man" would be copyrighted, so we put it in Spanish since our music tends to have a latin feel. It's mostly just a long piano solo.


[size=medium]"Mega Mano"[/size]

Link: http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=36745

Key: G minor (Sam made up the progression) | Tempo: starts at ~138, goes up to ~164, back down to ~138 | Genre: Acoustic Techno Jazz???

It's basically Sam going nuts. I'm playing with sticks now.

Intro riff - 8 measures
Piano solo - 24 measures
Accelerando - long time
Half-time - 16 measures
Gradually slow down to original tempo - even longer time
Get sparser - 8 measures
Bass only (ritardando near the end) - 8 measures
Frilly frilly - undefined


So yeah, let me know what you guys think!
 
Mar 1, 2006 at 6:16 AM Post #2 of 8
Groovy stuff. Coupla comments about the piano on piece #2, since at the time of this posting, the first song wasn't yet available.

1. The 2nd inversion chords sound inherently unstable, not sure you're going for that. I think most of the times you use them, they would probably sound better in a different inversion.

2. Occasionally you leave out the third of the chord when arpeggiating, which is a bit problematic to my ears for this style of music.

3. At :34, the note at the top isn't really setup as a descending line, so the minor scale degree 2 sounds out of place, whereas a few seconds later, it sounds fine because the motion makes it clear that the minor scale degree 2 is a passing tone. Minor scale degree 2's gotta be something funky or passing, at least for good flow and voice leading...unless you just want to break the rules, I guess.

4. Get a bassist so Sam's left hand can do something else?

Just suggestions.

No comment on the more soloish stuff. Keep up the good work.
 
Mar 1, 2006 at 6:37 AM Post #3 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo
Groovy stuff. Coupla comments about the piano on piece #2, since at the time of this posting, the first song wasn't yet available.

1. The 2nd inversion chords sound inherently unstable, not sure you're going for that. I think most of the times you use them, they would probably sound better in a different inversion.

2. Occasionally you leave out the third of the chord when arpeggiating, which is a bit problematic to my ears for this style of music.

3. At :34, the note at the top isn't really setup as a descending line, so the minor scale degree 2 sounds out of place, whereas a few seconds later, it sounds fine because the motion makes it clear that the minor scale degree 2 is a passing tone. Minor scale degree 2's gotta be something funky or passing, at least for good flow and voice leading...unless you just want to break the rules, I guess.

4. Get a bassist so Sam's left hand can do something else?

Just suggestions.

No comment on the more soloish stuff. Keep up the good work.



eek.gif
Wow! I wasn't expecting such detail .. that's amazing, heads! I'll show Sam what you wrote, since he may even be aware of his musical misdemeanors. Now I have a question - because I played piano for awhile, I actually understood some of what you said.

Would the second inversion be the one with the fifth on both top and bottom? So it would look something like

5
3
1

5
?

Or am I just in over my head?
biggrin.gif
Just academic interest, anyway.

We do have a bassist. He's actually a saxaphonist by nature, and we figure since he has a decent understanding of music, we could get him to play at least a fundamental bassline and perhaps a solo or two. This recording was made before we recruited him, though.

Thanks for listening! Glad you enjoyed it.
 
Mar 1, 2006 at 6:39 AM Post #4 of 8
Yup, you got it
tongue.gif


Actually, just chord degree 5 on the bottom, doesn't need to be on top.
 
Mar 1, 2006 at 6:42 AM Post #5 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo
Yup, you got it
tongue.gif


Actually, just chord degree 5 on the bottom, doesn't need to be on top.



Ah I see. Thanks for enlightening me. Feel free to let us know what you think of "Diesel" if you've got a few spare minutes!
 
Mar 9, 2006 at 2:15 PM Post #7 of 8
a better record manner is a must
tongue.gif

just to understand bit better the dynamics , the sound and the skill
I'd give other comments then
wink.gif


other then this it seems nice effortless moody jazz(steady) improvisation
 
Mar 9, 2006 at 2:24 PM Post #8 of 8
Hey, thanks. My friend's got a bunch of microphones, ProTools, etc. so we'll try to get in there sometime. I really thought the quality and balance was quite decent, since a Micro costs less than one microphone, practically. "Mega Mano" sounds particularly groovy when I boost the bass a little in foobar.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top