Thursday Links and "It's Odds and Ends" And Something Completely Different!
All over the place
Links and stuff from all over the map this week, though if there’s a theme it’s sort of “not the mainstream”.
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Michael Acoustic
Today’s John Prine quote:
“The lonesome friends of science say
"The world will end most any day"
Well, if it does, then that's okay
'Cause I don't live here anyway”
“The Lonesome Friends Of Science”, Written by John Prine
Some Links for today:
From Mr. Graham English of “Speed Songwtiting” (though as we’ve noted before, he’s also the author of the very helpful “Logic Pro For Dummies” book):
Lofi Girl is a favorite of mine when I just want to chill out. If you’re unfamiliar, this Substack post is a great place to start, and then check out Spotify: Lofi Girl
Mr. Tony Van Veen is a pretty serious guy, but the image made me laugh, and the content is enlightening.
I get religious and contemporary Christian worship music isn’t everyone’s thing, but for a lot of folks it’s a place to start, learn and grow as musicians and songwriters:
See the link below “Live Mixing” - Contemporary worship service performance is a good way to play live and learn how to interact with the audio person in a productive way.
Even if you’re a pretty diehard acoustic player, there are a lot of good reasons to know your way around and to play electrics:
If you get a song “out there” you may find yourself playing live. It’s a different experience and you may end up being the “sound guy”. If the venue you’re playing at has an audio engineer or just somebody’s cousin who volunteered, it’s good to be able to speak the language a bit…
From Mr. Griff Hamlin of Blues Guitar Unleashed, this video covers in visual and spoken terms a great deal of the music theory topics we covered in the early posts of Michael Acoustic. You can check those out in the the archive: Archive. I understand people learn and retain information in different ways - through reading, or visual presentations and aural listening. Here’s an alternative path:
We’ve talked before about song structures and the role each of the common structures (intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, tag, outro) play (or don’t play) if you choose to alter them or not to include them at all. The bridge, or “middle eight” can add important dynamics to a song, and convey meaning in a distinct way from the the other structures:
The title says it all - something to consider:
Why Solo Artists May Wish To Record A Solo Album
Previously we talked about the reference frequency of A4=440Hz (or sometimes A4=432Hz) because the “math” of music requires a constant to calculate from. You’re probably never going to need to do those calculations, but some background on the “why” is always helpful:
Some memes and stuff:
You can open each image in the gallery separately in a new window by shift-clicking on it, though it may work differently on different devices:
Some funny stuff and some useful things. Tomorrow I’m going to talk about a very useful way to employ the chart showing the chords of Major keys, beyond just “Hmm, that’s nice”…
The little fuzzball thing is not a real cat, but it’s a reasonable facsimile made up of my cat’s hair from last fall when her winter coat was coming in. The roomba-like thing has it’s work cut out for it….
It’s Odds And Ends!
Today’s underrated or obscure artist: Denison Witmer
Background information: Birth name: Denison Stuart Witmer[1]
Origin: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S. Genres: Acoustic, folk, folk rock, folk pop, alternative, singer–songwriter Occupation(s): Songwriter, musician
Instrument(s): Guitar Years active: 1995–present
Labels: (numerous) Asthmatic Kitty Records (2012–present)
Website: Denisonwitmer.com
Denison Witmer is an American singer-songwriter from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. His first release, in 1995, was a cassette titled My Luck, My Love. He has since released six studio LPs; two live albums, a cover album (Recovered); three EPs; and an LP with The River Bends—a side project consisting of members of the Philadelphia-based alt-country band One Star Hotel. Witmer's 2005 album, Are You a Dreamer?, produced by Don Peris of The Innocence Mission and featuring Sufjan Stevens, received acclaim, including positive reviews from Pitchfork Media[2] and Entertainment Weekly.[3]
Witmer's style has been described as "neo-folk."[4] He has also been compared to 1970s-era singer-songerwriters, including Cat Stevens[5] and Nick Drake.[6] Witmer's lyrics are poetic and thoughtful; his guitar work, while simple-sounding, relies on complex fingerpicking.
(Ed. There’s about a minute of an interview with Mr. Witmer before he plays the song. Note the capo on the 3rd fret and the familiar “claw” fingerpicking method, though it appears only his little finger is secured to the pickguard and he occasionally uses his ring finger to pick as well. I have the chord chart around here somewhere, and I think it’s not an Ultimate Guitar chart, though maybe. As I recall I played it capoed on 2, or just left the capo off and played/sang it using the cowboy chords, which were reasonably simple. I assume without knowing he’s using the capo to sing in the key that fits his voice without having to transpose the key from more difficult chord shapes. The lyrics contain several references to St. Francis of Assisi, but I seem to recall reading that it in some way also referenced child soldiers forced into militias in Africa, but I’m not sure if that wasn’t just someone’s random opinion. Fun song to play.)
Regular post tomorrow!
Cheers, and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic