Song Fu Final Challenge

The final Song Fu challenge was a showdown between Molly and Berg & Jerry. Unfortunately, Molly did not submit a song by the deadline, so Berg & Jerry won by default. All other competitors (including those from previous rounds of Song Fu) were welcome to submit a "shadow" entry which would be posted, but could not receive votes. There were only three of us who did. The challenge was to write a song about a journey involving three main characters.

As usual, I toyed with several ideas early on, and eventually settled on the idea of a journey involving animals. I had been recently playing around with photographing wildlife in the zoo, so that felt like a natural choice. Of course, an obvious type of animal journey is a migration, but why would there be only three animals migrating, instead of a whole herd?

The answer turned out to be that the animals (whatever they were) were on the brink of extinction, which suggested a tragic song. A little googling later, and I decided that the Passenger Pigeon would be my subject. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of pigeons, not least of all because they tend to leave my car in need of a good scrubbing. But passenger pigeons really do have a sad story. They were once the most abundant bird in North America, and were known for their large migrations, and then, quite suddenly they went extinct, due to a combination of massive hunting, habitat loss, and not being able to sustain a large enough communal breeding population.

The last Passenger Pigeon -- that we know about -- was a zoo specimen named Martha who died in 1914. The last confirmed wild sighting took place 14 years earlier, but unconfirmed sightings took place for some time afterward. For the purposes of my song, I imagine there were three remaining wild survivors who outlived Martha, and are taking what may be their last migration.

I especially like the way this song modulates between E and D, the sound of the DMaj7 chord, the banjo-style rolls in the chorus, and the backing vocals in the bridge. The instruments are: baritone ukulele, melodica, shaker, tambourine, and bass. I actually played the bass line on my new guitar, then pitch-shifted it down an octave in software -- I'll probably be using more of this technique in the future. The rolls were played as a second uke part, with a capo on the 7th fret, IIRC. Since I'm not quite that good at picking, the timing of some of the notes had to be fixed in software, post-recording. I wanted to add a flute part as well, but never got around to writing one.

Here's the mp3 (link to box.net): Passengers.mp3

And here are the lyrics:

Passengers

[Verse 1]
Summertime is finally gone in upper Michigan,
Leaves are changing shades of gold, and falling once again.
The weather's turning cold, and winter's moving in,
So spread your wings and fly, our migration must begin.

[Chorus]
We're migrating to sunny Florida,
We're the only three,
Just you and him and me,
We're migrating to sunny Florida,
Three birds of a feather,
Seeking better weather.

[Verse 2]
Now it's time to take a break in central Tennessee,
So we'll roost here by this lake, and high up in this tree.
A person's down below, he's watching you and me,
I think he's taking notes, he looks surprised by what he sees.

[Repeat Chorus]

[Bridge]
Every night I find I'm wishin'
That we three weren't the last passenger pigeons,
Cause the livin's pretty lonely
When you're one of the only of your kind.

[Verse 3]
Used to be when we flew by, the sight would fill the sky,
Our flock would block the sun, and stretch a mile wide.
But since the people came, a billion birds have died,
And now we're all but gone, we're the last three still alive.

[Repeat Chorus]

Song Fu Challenge 3

Another retroactive post...

The third Song Fu challenge has long been over, but I want to describe my entry anyway. The challenge was to write a "standard" song exactly one minute in length. By "standard", the implication was that it had to have a more-or-less verse/chorus structure, where the chorus has to be repeated at least once (so you hear it at least twice).

I had two conflicting ideas for this challenge. I developed both in parallel, but before I got around to recording vocals for either of them, my computer decided to eat one of them. I went to open the file, and it was all empty.

The first idea (which I lost) was a mostly-serious song where the singer spends the entire minute asking for a minute of the listener's time, and urging the listener to slow down for a bit. By the time the song is over, his minute is up. The words for the chorus were something like: "Can't you slow down for 60 seconds? / There's so much out there to see. / There's Fourteen-hundred forty minutes every single day. / Can't you spare one for me?"

The second song (which I submitted) was more of a humorous, self-referential meta-song entitled "A Standard Song". I had the idea to do a meta-song at least since I signed up for the contest, and hadn't had the oppurtunity to do so until then. Specifically, I wanted to include a self-referential bridge with the words "bridge to nowhere".

To make it a standard song, I included the standard 3 verses and choruses as well as a bridge. At the end, I used the cliche of repeating the chorus a half-step higher: the so-called "truck driver's gear change".

The problem is that it was way too easy to write, and that there's no substance to it. I already knew what I was doing with the bridge, and the chorus just came to me. Squeezing that all into a minute didn't leave much room for the verses, or their lyrics.

Despite having ideas for two complete songs, I was having a hard time feeling very enthusiastic about either of them (or maybe I was just having a hard time finding time to record anything), so I ended up using completely synthetic instruments, with parts notated directly into my score-writing program. No live instruments recorded here (only the vocals). It's a fairly simple piano accompaniment, with bass, drums, and synth strings to fill out the harmonies (also, some backing vocals on the bridge).

I think this song could also have benefited from a better vocal take, but unfortunately, I wasn't really feeling up to it.

Here's the mp3 (link to mediafire): A Standard Song.mp3

And here are the lyrics:

A Standard Song

Verse 1 sets up a problem,
That's outside of my control,
It shows you what my setting is,
And clearly states my goal.

Then there's a chorus, chorus, happy little chorus,
I'll sing a little chorus right now.

Verse 2 the conflict deepens,
It's like rhyming words with orange.
My problem gets expounded,
With some painful metaphors.

But there's a chorus, chorus, happy little chorus,
I'll sing a little chorus right now.

And now for something different:
Here's a bridge to nowhere.

Verse 3 begins, I'm out of hope.
There's nothing left to do.
I guess somehow I'll learn to cope,
And live my life with you.

I'll sing a chorus, chorus, happy little chorus,
I'll sing a little chorus right now.

We'll sing a chorus, chorus, happy little chorus,
I'll sing a little chorus right now.

Song Fu Challenge 2

The second Song Fu challenge is open for voting until a minute before midnight EST on Sunday night (June 14th). The challenge was to write a march. There were fewer entries this time than in the previous round, and several pieces had no lyrics. This round also produced some rather diverse entries.

My last song had ended up being too somber, and in a minor key, so before the challenge, I had decided I wanted to write something happy and funny in a major key. In the end, in order to get a happy and funny march with lyrics, I ended up turning to fantasy (though steampunk and sci-fi were alternative considerations), and writing a dwarven battle march. There's nothing here that's meant to be deep or meditative, just plain fun. The fictional setting gave me a framework that I could use to be as over-the-top as I had to be in order to get laughs, without actually addressing any real political issues. Other competitors may have had similar ideas, since there were a couple entries with marching robots, zombies and ninjas. To set up the situation, I posted the following comment with my song:

My entry, "Marching To Selador" is a traditional Dwarven Battle March, which has been translated and reconstructed by myself from the fragmentary remains of the original dwarvish runes. Little is known of dwarven music, so extensive scholarship was required to undertake the reconstruction. Due to the nature of dwarvish music, and especially the dwarven modes, which would sound quite foreign to our modern ears, certain artistic liberties were taken to convey the impression of a march to western audiences. For example, due to their stature, the dwarves would have actually used a much different tempo in their marches than what we are accustomed to. Where lyrics have been lost, they have been reconstructed based on knowledge of the Dwarves' widely-held socio-political views.

In addition to the traditional Sousa, I also listened to several Pre-Sousa marches, from the American Civil War. Marching Through Georgia was one that I specifically wanted to emulate. I also read a bit about Turkish Janissary Bands, which influenced the Turkish Marches of Mozart and Beethoven.

The name "Selador" is a reference to Tolkein's famous love for the sound of the English phrase "cellar door". Unfortunately, it made the dwarves in my song sound like they were door salesmen. The bridge modulates to the subdominant key, a technique which is common in Sousa marches, and presents a minor racial slur against elves, a dwarven "yo-mama" joke, and a reference to the fact that dwarven women are often said to have beards. The "piccolo" solo in the last chorus is, of course, deliberately reminiscent of Stars and Stripes Forever, and by extension, any traditional marches that use a fife. It was actually played on my Baroque flute, then pitch-shifted up an octave in software. Aside from that, the other instruments are 3 alto recorders, 3 melodicas, a sampled tuba, and various percussion (including two triangles). Alas, I have already sunken to the depths of using cheap sound effects and a "shout-along" chorus in an attempt to garner votes.

Here's the mp3 (link to mediafire): Marching To Selador (Traditional Dwarven March).mp3

And here are the lyrics:

Marching To Selador
(Traditional Dwarven March)

(Verse 1)
Fly the ancient banner, and sound the battle drum,
Sharpen up yer battle-axe, and put yer chain-mail on,
Line up in formation, boys, it's time to have some fun,
We're marching to Selador!

(Chorus)
Raise a shout, shout, shout, (HUZZAH!)
Shout for the dwarves!
Raise a louder shout for yer gold!
Watch the elves turn tail,
As the dwarves prevail,
We're marching to Selador!

Raise a shout, shout, shout, (HUZZAH!)
Shout for yer homes!
Raise a louder shout for yer ale!
And your axe will hew,
Every elf in two,
We're marching to Selador!

(Bridge)
We all know elves look pretty weird,
Their facial hair has all been cleared,
Even elven men,
Have a hairless chin,
There's more hair in yer mother's beard!

(Verse 2)
Burn the elven countryside, and chop down all their trees,
Watch the elven arrows all get caught up in the breeze,
When they come in melee we'll just bite off all their knees,
We're marching to Selador!

(Repeat Chorus with piccolo solo)

Song Fu Challenge 1

I'm posting this retroactively because I haven't finished building my time machine yet. But as soon as I do, I'll go post this when it actually happened. I've written and recorded my first Song Fu entry, and voting has closed. I collected a whole 35 votes, placing me in 20th place (out of 30) -- which really isn't all that bad for some random hack who has no followers, who has never publicly presented a recording of their music, and who is pretty clueless about modern pop music.

The challenge was basically to write a song from the perspective of an inanimate object (with a bunch of additional restrictions). My first idea was to write about a pen (being mightier than the sword), but I realized I was thinking about the class of all pen objects through history, not a single instance of the pen class. I needed a single unique object -- a Singleton if you will -- and preferably something that had been around for a while (not sure why). So I went to one of the oldest and most unique objects I could think of -- the Great Pyramid.

As I wrote the song, I found the Pyramid was taking on a life of it's own. It didn't really want to be funny, instead, it wanted to impart some kind of wisdom. Only I wasn't sure exactly what, until just before the deadline. The last line of the second verse was originally recorded with different lyrics, and then after days of listening, I literally re-recorded that single line with the new lyrics mere hours before submission.

Even though this wasn't written as an overtly Christian song, I like the Biblical allusions here as well, about the shortness of human life, and the vanity of worldly treasures. But it may have been too deep for a fun songwriting contest. Or maybe I just didn't express the idea well enough. I'm not very good with lyrics yet.

This piece also decided that it wanted to be written in the D harmonic minor scale, which wasn't what I had expected to write at all. I do love the little sopranino recorder riffs that I was able to add though. Those were fun to play. I even almost got through the middle solo in one take. I also used two ukuleles (soprano and baritone), a synth bass, an egg shaker, and a tambourine.

Here's the mp3 (link to mediafire): Ancient Wonder.mp3

And here are the lyrics:

Ancient Wonder

(Intro with recorder solo to set atmosphere)

(Verse 1)
Many long millennia have not been very kind,
But my weathered structure is still perfectly aligned.
I watch in silence as the ages come and go,
And humans live and die below.

Some say I was made by slaves, who labored day by day.
Some say maybe space invaders came and paved the way.
And while I might reveal a little of my history,
That riddle's better left a mystery.

(Chorus)
For here amid the shifting sands,
The Pyramid of Giza stands,
Unchanging, and watching over you.

(Insert mad recorder solo here!)

(Verse 2)
Come explore my passageways, what treasures lie inside?
A king who tried to never die, but now is mummified.
All his prized possessions -- his impressive stash of gold --
Were found and stolen long ago.

Your humans lives are far too short, at least compared to mine,
So why chase after things that don't endure the test of time?
You aren't defined by what you have, but rather what you do,
What treasures lie inside of you?

(Chorus)
And here amid the shifting sands,
The Pyramid of Giza stands,
Unchanging, and watching over you.

(Outro, Fade out)

Song Fu

I have entered an online songwriting competition called Masters of Song Fu (this is the 4th such competition). It's a fun little outlet for amateur (and professional) musicians, many of whom have a geek streak like myself. My aim is to increase my experience writing songs and have a fun time doing it. The contest is broken into a number of rounds, and voting is open to the general public. While I appreciate votes, I don't expect that I'll win -- but that's not my goal. I'm just seeing what I'm able to do with music (and learning how to do it better as I go).