Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Bloggers Block

Stuck for an idea for a blog post?

Don't feel like there's anything swimming in your brain worthy of being extracting and shared through the written word? You're not alone.

Swing

I have discovered the "swing" function on the "rhythm track generator" in Audacity.

This is a setting which is so subjective, and dependent upon the "feel" of the composer, that there aren't even any guidelines; no instructions, that come with it.

An almost fully swung beat is what is heard on "Blueberry Hill," by Fats Domino.
The lazy ONE-two-three, TWO-two-three, THREE-two-three beat ("I found my THRILL-two-three, TWO-two-three, THREE-two-three, FOUR-two-three, ONE-two-"on Blueberry Hill...") fits the tempo, and has a swing feel to it.

Less so "Color My World," by Chicago, which is the same tempo, but more strict and plodding.

Even less so, on faster songs like "Return To Sender," by Elvis Presley, which is of the more "driving" variety, called a "shuffle."
And I would probably have to put the swing setting close to zero in order to reproduce "Tush," by ZZ Top, which is even more driving. Right up there with "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B," by Bette Midler.

I have spent a couple nights experimenting with the "swing amount," and applying it to a lot of my own songs with interesting results. And the thought of people doing the Twist to "The Carcass Song" is intriguing.

One producer, I just read, will always put some degree of swing into his eighth notes. "The audience might not hear the swing, but they will notice if it is taken out."

"Your Perfect Imperfections."

This is just another example of making concessions behind the theory that nothing is ever going to be perfect, and so why not design some slight imperfection in, that can be worked around?

It's like the golfer who "draws" the ball by imparting a certain amount of right-to-left rotation to it, so he can intentionally start it out headed a bit to the right, trying to draw it back to the target.

The theory is that, he may be able to master the art of controlling the amount of correction needed to bring the ball back to the target, rather than just aim straight at the 4 inch hole 220 yards away and hope that he hits it perfectly straight.

It is a matter of taste.

Do you like to aim your Frisbee to the right of your friend and try to curve it to him, or do you aim it straight at his head, and try to throw it perfectly, with no curve at all?

I'm kicking myself for not having an example ready now to post here, but I was up until sunlight working on stuff, and haven't sorted it out and organized it yet.

I got some very good results putting some "swing" into a song of mine about a roommate who I once had, who (at least in the song anyway) I had to kill.
"It being Florida, I gagged him with an orange and fed him to the gators..." being one humorous (I think) line from it.

Hey, I told you I didn't have anything really interesting to blog about.

It's Tuesday night. I'm going to work on some stuff at home; and might sell plasma tomorrow for a lousy 15 bucks.

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