Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes....
Suggestions For Bonus Rounds Gladly Accepted.....
I tend to think I have “Thursday” readers and “Friday” readers with some amount of overlap between the two. Since I don’t know the amount of overlap at any given point, my audience is a sort of “Schrödinger's cat/Venn diagram” to me. Sorta like Dr. Schrödinger, both my readership’s and the cat’s exact state is unknown until observation, and since the audience or cat could be in mortal peril upon observation according to the conditions of Dr. Schrödinger’s thought experiment and I love both my audience and my cat, I shall not attempt any observations. So, good news Friday it is…
If you’re not a “Thursday” type of folk, you likely did not see yesterday’s explanation of how “the times they are a-changin’ ‘round here”….(Ed. yes, there are two different song titles in that phrase). But, if you are Thursday folk, and if you did read yesterday’s post, you can skip over the next part if you like and get straight to the disclaimer (which was also in yesterday’s post, so….).
From yesterday’s post: Format" - Style and Form (Link) -
As we approach some milestones here on Michael Acoustic, a change in how I go about writing the two weekly posts feels a little overdue.
So. On Thursdays. the format will still include links, but those along with my commentary will be aimed more at the songwriting, recording, production and release elements I often talk about, and with articles and insights about the music industry/business (the “biz”). I’ll keep the “memes and stuff” (though these may be shorter and may appear on either Thursday and/or Friday, as topical to the subject matter), and the “odds and ends” and John Prine quotes sections here (Thursday’s) as well, and we’ve certainly not seen the last of the Shameless Self Promotion section, either(!).
In the “Regular Friday Posts” I’ll include links that are more specific to the history of, and playing and performing on, guitar and I’ll probably include more content that’s related to music theory on Fridays as well - I think the intersection between theory and performance is an extremely important one and I’ll try to emphasize that connection in that context. I’m not an expert or instructor in any of those subjects, but I’ve learned a great deal from those who are, from practical experience, and from reading and listening widely to a large number of eclectic sources. I’m a little torn on the “Bonus Round” section. I originally started it to engage with my readers, and no one ever does in the comments (which is not me being whiny, just sayin’ - and I don’t really mind, since it keeps me learning new stuff), but I like doing it, and the idea of highlighting music that’s interesting and the discussion on how to play the song yourself is kinda fun for me. For now, I’m keeping it, but moving it down on the page and starting off with my commentary and observations. I’m keeping the Mika The Cat section, at least on weeks where we have new subscribers and that’s one of the milestones I’ll soon be writing more about. So, yeah.
I think these changes to the format of the two weekly Michael Acoustic posts may better fit the specific interests of my readers, but please continue to engage with both and if you’re feeling it, with me by leaving a comment (at this point I’m happy to let the steadily increasing subscriber and view counts guide me, but I don’t want to discourage comments either). I’m very interested in meeting my readers and subscribers where our interests intersect, and I’m going to continue to feature links to other Substack writer’s posts, though those may now appear on either the Thursday or Friday posts (or both!) depending on how the subject matter relates more to one or the other day’s emphasis.
Oh, and the disclaimer section’s staying too (Ed. You can take the bar membership out of the retired laywer, but the lessons of a legal education remain….).
(Ed. Questions? Comments? That’s kinda what the comment section is for, but if I had a suggestion for the greater Substack powers it would be to offer a direct message option, though I can see where that could get problematic as well. Meh.)
Disclaimer: This Substack is free, always will be, and I receive no compensation or other benefit (except the unsolicited, occasional, and much appreciated shoutout from readers and other Substackers!) from any of the people or companies or products I link to or write about. Note some images and other material may be copyrighted by the original author or composer and appear here under the “Fair Use” doctrine. Link: Fair Use Note also I do not use any form of artificial intelligence in writing Michael Acoustic. It is possible that some external sources that I link to or quote, do use or contain AI generated material.
Michael Acoustic
Last week’s “What I’m Listening2” section consisted of 4 songs nominally with a tempo of 75 Beats Per Minute, and I promised I would explain why I went with a brief playlist with a tempo theme. The reason is that’s the tempo I settled on for “Long Road Back”. I know I said above we’re going to talk about playing and performing on guitar on Fridays, with less overlap into songwriting and recording, but keeping a beat is an important part of rehearsing and playing with others, as well as recording tracks to send to others. So, if you’re learning a new song by an artist that you want to cover in a recording, or to play with others on the Acapella app or at a jam, or writing your own, then following or establishing a tempo is an important part of playing any instrument. One helpful way to do that is to find songs at or near the tempo of the song and listen to where the beat is emphasized - just the 1?, the 1 and 3? 2 and 4? You may also be able to hear strumming or picking patterns that are interesting. Remember our “calypso pattern”? The one with the “1 2& &4&” where we drop out the 3 beat completely and the “&” beats are partially syncopated? Listening to other songs at a given tempo may reveal patterns that better fit your lyrics if you’re writing, or ways to make your cover of an existing song more your own unique interpretation.
On Spotify (and maybe other streaming services, I don’t know) you can search for songs with a common (more or less) tempo. I searched for “75 BPM songs” and got a fairly long list of songs. I then listened to each one (at least partially) while running an app called “liveBPM” on my iPhone. I assume the app is available for Android phones, but I don’t know. I listened to all of the songs with liveBPM and eliminated the ones that had a great variance from the purported beat or just didn’t fit my song and settled on the 4 songs on the playlist that were more or less consistent and reasonably close to the groove.
“liveBPM” listens to and tracks the tempo of songs and produces a graph while displaying the tempo in BPM. Below is a screenshot of liveBPM “listening to “Long Road Back” on my (ancient, but effective) home theater system. Note the app was “listening” to Kenny’s drum beat, which had a 75 BPM, 4/4 time beat (I know because I recorded it using the “Giant Beats Display” in Logic Pro, with the tempo at 75BPM in 4/4 time and I glanced at it often while playing and singing). liveBPM “read” the song as doubled to 150BPM from the consistent 75BPM tempo it was recorded at because Kenny’s beat, while keeping a 75 BPM, utilized a lot of 8th and 16th notes, which the app “heard” at double the actual tempo. Something to keep in mind, and a quick look at the song on Chordify can confirm the tempo (and key and time signature) by using the .pdf function.
Pretty consistent, but that’s due in large part to the app listening mostly to the drum beat, and Kenny is a very talented and consistent drummer. I did track my vocals very closely to the beat, with the caveat that I come in on vocals on the 2 beat, usually. Important safety tip: let the folks overdubbing your tracks know things like this beforehand….
Interestingly, none of the 4 songs was actually consistent at 75 BPM (again, most were doubled to above 150BPM because the app heard the instrumental/drum beats, rather than the vocal timing) and some had no drum tracks at all. The only one that was sorta close was Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy In New York” and even it was pretty inconsistent, though it may have leveled out a bit as it progressed:
So we’ll leave it at that for today - next week this section will be at the top and we’ll push the other sections down further on the page.
Thanks new subscribers! Mika, the Cat, welcomes you!!
This Week’s Conversation With Mika:
“Why the f#*& are you waking me up from my nap old man?”
There was no other communication for several hours….
Links:
A couple from Mr. Griff Hamlin at Blues Guitar Unleashed:
Soloing Without Thinking About Scales
From Acoustic Guitar Magazine":
An article from Disc Makers:
From Songtown, this is a bit of a hybrid of songwriting and playing melodies:
Bonus Round: (Ed. No more clues and guessing! Next week is me picking rando songs unless I get suggestions in the comments, just sayin’…)
Wild Rivers is a Canadian folk band from Toronto, Ontario. It consists of Devan Glover (vocals), Khalid Yassein (vocals and guitar), and Andrew Oliver (guitar and synths). The band released their self-titled debut album in 2016. Their second studio album, Sidelines, was released on February 4, 2022.[1]
History
Wild Rivers was formed at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, originally as a two piece with Devan Glover and Khalid Yassein.[2]
In April 2016, the band released their self-titled debut album.[3][4] In 2018, the group opened for Australian band The Paper Kites on the North American leg of their tour and released an EP titled Eighty-Eight.[2]
In 2019 the band released the song "I Do". The following year the band released their second EP, Songs To Break Up To, through Nettwerk Music Group.[5] Later in 2020, Wild Rivers released the single "Pink Shades".[6] The group released another single in January 2021 titled "Love Gone Wrong".[7] In June, Wild Rivers released the single "Amsterdam".[8] Their second studio album, Sidelines, was released on February 4, 2022.[1] In March 2022, their single "Thinking 'Bout Love" was certified Gold in Canada.[9] It was certified Gold in Australia in June 2023.[10]
They received a Juno Award nomination for Breakthrough Group of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2023.[11]
Key of GMaj, 4/4 time, 77 BPM tempo - 4 easy chords with one chord estension (Am7), no capo required (though you can capo to transpose to a different key that fits your vocals better). Note the GMaj chord pickup in the intro. This is a great beginner song to learn with some pretty quick chord changes despite the slower ballad tempo. Have fun!!
Shameless self promotion section
My song is out! “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options)
Looking Ahead: Working on the second single now, though a rather nasty ear infection and subsequent course of antibiotics had me dragging a bit over the past few weeks, and a resulting and irritating, though fairly minor case of tinnitus is not that much fun either….
What I’m Listening2: Fog Chaser is a Substack writer who publishes his own music - which is beautiful and chill - and often includes playlists of some of the music he listens to. Make sure to follow his Substack!! Link: Fog Chaser
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”