Tag Archives: music video

Odds and Ends for the Week

14 Replies

Just a few random things I wanted to put out.

Did you see the cover reveal for my upcoming book of short stories, It’s Cold Outside? Take a look here if you haven’t.

Why am I bringing it up?

I had started with a drawing I had made in an art class that I thought was perfect, but I couldn’t get it to work, so I started over with a different image, a drawing I had made from a photo, one I have used many times on the blog. I really liked how it come out :) But then, the day before my cover reveal, I went back tot he original drawing of the first image and played with it. Darn, I actually liked what I came up with! After passing it by several people, we all decided that I need to stick with what I used. It fits better. Anyway, a few changes in format, here is the alternate version:

Continue reading →

She Talks Each Night to Ariel – Music Video

23 Replies

On Friday I post a new song onto Youtube. This was a pop/rock tune, which might be good after posting several classical pieces in a row.  A quick comment – in this song “Ariel” refers to the moon of Uranus (in a way), not a person of that name – just wanted to point that out since I do know some Ariels and this song is not about any of them.  OK, here it is:

(Click here if you don’t see the video below)

Continue reading →

Piano Sonata in c# minor 1st Movement

12 Replies

A couple of weeks back I posted a video for the 3rd movement of my Piano Sonata in c# minor. After thinking about it, I have decided to put up the entire sonata, one movement at a time. So, without further ado, here is the first:

(Click here if you don’t see video below)

A little background. Well, a very little, since I already wrote about this piece of music, here. Anyway, long story short(er), As I was working my series of 24 piano preludes, I was posting them to a music forum. A lot of people told me to make a longer version of the prelude in c# minor, so I did. I wasn’t quite satisfied with ending there, so I renamed it “1st movement” and went on from there, not calling it complete until I had the four movement piano sonata completely written.

At the time, late 2007, I was very much in a learning stage and every piece of music I wrote served a purpose in my musical education. Until this piece. Yes, I was still learning, and tried to push my boundaries, putting new ideas into practice, but the big thing here was that this was the first piece of music that I wrote in my “classical phase” “just because”. It was the first piece of this time period that was written because I was inspired to write.

Because this was something composed because i was inspired instead of because i was learning something new, it has a special place in my heart. Of course I also like it better than most of what I wrote in that time frame.

Anyway, I hope you like it too!

Briseis: That was Yesterday – Video (Reprise)

15 Replies

You may have noticed that with my new start/emphasis in music, I have been digging through old things I have written and recorded. Here is one I just listened to and want to bring up again. Yes, “again”:  I have posted this twice before!  I am going to combine those two posts into one here.

Real quick (I’ll go into depth later ;)), this is part of a song cycle about Acilleus that I planned on writing when I was doing “classical” music.  It never happened, but I later did a “light-prog-rock” version. The song, “Brisies: That was Yesterday”, takes place just after Agamemnon, in the ultimate political slap down, takes the woman Brisies away from Achilleus by force.  Achilleus knows he can’t fight the whole Greek army who he has sworn allegiance to, so he stands by and lets the Trojans kick some Greek butt.  In this song he realizes that he is in love with the woman who started out as a spoil of war. 

Here it is:

(Click here if you don’t see video below)

Continue reading →

Viral Video! (For Me) House of the Rising Sun Repeat

18 Replies

Back in July of 2017 I posted a cover of The House of the Rising Sun on Youtube. My vocals were awful, so I redid it as an instrumental and posted that. This second video did OK (for me) but soon drop off the radar as most of my videos do.

Last year I started to see some views on this video. Not a lot, but they trickled in. And then I started see at least one a day, and sometimes four or five. And then I started seeing four or five, and occasional a dozen! By the end of 2021 I was averaging about 10 views a day of this video. I received more views of this the last 90 days of 2021 than all other videos combined.

But the numbers kept growing!

In the last 48 hours I have had almost 120 views of this video.

Continue reading →

If We Were Having Coffee on the 22nd of January, 2022 #weekendcoffeeshare

21 Replies

Hello and Welcome! Come on in (close the door quickly!) and I’ll get you a nice large mug of steaming dark roast, a piping cuppa tea or a (very) hot cocoa. By my adjectives you may understand that it is a wee bit chilly out there. I think it was -8 F/ -22 C when I got up this morning. But don’t worry, it has warmed up significantly! Yep it is now a balmy -1F/ -18 C! OK, it is early and it might hit 22 F/-5.5 C later in the day. So, yeah, come on in and warm up a little. Oh, where are we? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as being from New Hampshire.

I drove back to New Hampshire Saturday evening, cutting my trip to Cape Cod a little shorter than usual. I had a few things to do Sunday, so…. We had snow on Sunday night into Monday, but it rained all Monday morning. Yuck. Several inches of slush. It was wet and nasty to clean up, and then it all froze. So, yeah, it’s pretty icy out there.

My wife took the dogs up to Maine for the week, but I still did a few walks a day on my own. That being said, I didn’t get as much exercise as I would have liked. I had an appointment Tuesday morning. Work was super busy. The cats needed a lot of cuddle and play time.

Continue reading →

For Her Heartbreak – Music Video

20 Replies

And wait, there is more…

Back when I was chatting with Resa, I had a few ideas for music running around in my brain. I did do the recording of The Great Blue’s Blues, but the other blues based song I had thought of was still in my head. Last night I finally had a chance to go back and play with it. I don’t know if I’d call the results “the blues”, but I like it a lot. I hope you do too:

(Click here if you don’t see the video)

Continue reading →

The Great Blue’s Blues (Video)

29 Replies

So Resa posted some photos of a great mural of a Great Blue Heron. Now, I love me those great blues, so I had to comment about it. And, of course, talking about “those blues”, the subject of The Blues came up. So, after some discussion, I knew I had to play Resa some blues.

Without further discussion, here is The Great Blue’s Blues:

(If you don’t see video below, click here)

Continue reading →

Covering The Sparks – Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth (Video)

27 Replies

In early December I watched a documentary on the band The Sparks. Don’t know them? They have been around for about 50 years and have helped change music several times. The band is really two brothers, Ron and Russell Mael. They have a distinctive look (Paul McCartney did an impression of Ron on his Coming Up video. Russell sported a new hair cut in the late 70s that was copied by everyone, from Duran Duran to Depeche Mode) and a distinct sound (usually odd!). All of their songs have a twist or a joke to them. I would say that they are much easier to enjoy if you get the joke…

I have always known about the band but rarely heard them. In fact, I think I heard their Propaganda album twice when I was a teen and based most of my knowledge of the band on that, even though they are the truest musical chameleons of all time.

Continue reading →

Song Writing Part 2

15 Replies

In a post last week I said that I was working on a new song.  Well, I finished it over the weekend.  It started with a little part I wanted to record so that I would remember it.  From there it turned into a real pop song. Yeah, with words and everything!

A few quick comments before I turn you lose with this.  Although parts of this recording are “finished”, this is very much just a quick demo, or, if this were one of my stories, this is a rough, first draft (don’t worry – if you have read a story on my blog, it was a rough draft….).  I can hear many things I will change if I decided do this a little more seriously. And I might.

Continue reading →