diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'lyrics')
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/allozipper.txt | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/e.txt | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/falling.txt | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/gentle.txt | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/hickory.txt | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/lumber-over.txt | 62 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/lumber.txt | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/rapid.txt | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/roll-and-stop-and-roll.txt | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/sink.txt | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/softening.txt | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/sonny-daisy.txt | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lyrics/sustained-equilibrium.txt | 3 |
13 files changed, 90 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/lyrics/allozipper.txt b/lyrics/allozipper.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d014c50 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/allozipper.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Stutter. diff --git a/lyrics/e.txt b/lyrics/e.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14e5cc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/e.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +A new leaf. diff --git a/lyrics/falling.txt b/lyrics/falling.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e21adb --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/falling.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +Scrunched bundle. +It is all mine. +Nobody else really wants it. +Enjoying it is disturbing. diff --git a/lyrics/gentle.txt b/lyrics/gentle.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5036e04 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/gentle.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +I riff gently on the piano. +I am gently treated by the piano. +Gentle are those who have comfort. diff --git a/lyrics/hickory.txt b/lyrics/hickory.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf1ced8 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/hickory.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +You might. diff --git a/lyrics/lumber-over.txt b/lyrics/lumber-over.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4be507 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/lumber-over.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +I spent a long while forgetting about music. A Good 13½ months. +I was in a voice chat yesterday with a good friend, +who asked me when I would be making music again. +He reminded me how sad it would be to have played my last song. +And so I decided to play again. + +I dedicated the rest of my day to making music again. +I left the chat and spent some time tinkering at the electric piano. +I mostly just warmed up, rather than getting anything good. +I found that I had a new confidence. +Since the last time I had attempted to make music, +I had become comfortable and confident, in a general sense. +I realized a few things: +* I need to have something to say. + What good is a mode of expression with nothing worth expressing? +* I had become dexterous enough to use two hands at once. + I can thank the tax office for that. +* I had to stop trying to play piano and to start trying to make good music. +* The electric piano has two ports for 3.5mm headphone jacks. +I took a good nap. I woke up in the late afternoon, +and watched the third Harry Potter with my sister, +then watched a surprisingly good movie on Netflix with my mother, +called “First Knight”. +It was then a little past midnight. +I sat at the electric piano in our living room with headphones plugged in, +and did a little more fiddling. I realized one more thing: +* I really don't work well with verbatim instructions such as sheet music. + Instead of writing which notes I should play, + I may write what tone and what kind of progression I want. +So, I grabbed a pen and paper from my room, and as I fiddled, +wrote what kind of song I wanted, in vague terms. +It's not entirely coherent, but here it is: + +The first revision: + +Fast and rapid, but light. +This is where the piano excels. +Move from C minor to F minor [I'm pretty sure I got the scales wrong. +C'est la vie.]. +Lumber around a bit first. +Move to intermediate pace in your own time. + +Second revision: + +Lumber near C3 first in C minor. +Navigate an octave up. Let the pitch carry the acceleration. +Move to F minor [in retrospect, I'm certain that this wasn't F minor. +I realized this before the final recording, but went with it anyway.]. +In C5, dance. +Return to C minor. + +During the recording, I was remembering loneliness, then friendship, +then losing a friend. +On a technical level, the recording involved me connecting to the piano +via a MIDI to USB Type A cable, and using ALSA's `arecordmidi`. +I cropped the failed starts from the MIDI using `lmms`. +From there, I rendered to FLAC via `fluidsynth`, using the Yamaha C5 +Grand Piano soundfont provided here: +https://sites.google.com/site/soundfonts4u/. +I then encoded to 320kbps MP3 via `ffmpeg`. + +Thanks for asking, Alice. diff --git a/lyrics/lumber.txt b/lyrics/lumber.txt index 38c3727..055afea 100644 --- a/lyrics/lumber.txt +++ b/lyrics/lumber.txt @@ -1,3 +1,6 @@ I spent a while forgetting about music. Then a friend reminded me how sad it would be to have played my last song. And so I play again. + +A friend asked for a detailed explanation of how I made this. +Here's a copy of my response: https://mesacsclub.com/kaa/lumber-over.txt diff --git a/lyrics/rapid.txt b/lyrics/rapid.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2fcae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/rapid.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +. .. .. .. . .. .. . . ... .. .. .... ... . .. .. .... ... ..... .. .. . ... .. .... .... .. . ..... ..... ... . .. . . . . . ..... ... .. . ... . . ... . .. . ... .. . . ... . .. . .. ... ... ..... ... . .. . . . .. .... ... .. . .. ... .. . . . .. . . . .... . .. . . . . . . ............ +It simply is. diff --git a/lyrics/roll-and-stop-and-roll.txt b/lyrics/roll-and-stop-and-roll.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6da50d --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/roll-and-stop-and-roll.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +All the right things in all the right places is good enough to be considered original. But being original has nothing to do with having fun. diff --git a/lyrics/sink.txt b/lyrics/sink.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..603ecf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/sink.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +Spicy piano. +The left hand doesn't do quite enough. The song starts nicely and +ends with boredom. diff --git a/lyrics/softening.txt b/lyrics/softening.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3abd995 --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/softening.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +Negative velocity. +Positive position. +Untangling, ordering strands. +This is real. diff --git a/lyrics/sonny-daisy.txt b/lyrics/sonny-daisy.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d2bc2c --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/sonny-daisy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +I went through my catalogue of previous photos, and decided that I'd like to make a song about one. I took this photo a little over a year ago, on a walk somewhere. +This time, I let myself have some fun. diff --git a/lyrics/sustained-equilibrium.txt b/lyrics/sustained-equilibrium.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23b9b4d --- /dev/null +++ b/lyrics/sustained-equilibrium.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +Sustained equilibrium: +prevent overstimulation; +dispel understiumulation. |