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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Blog to be postponed for two weeks

I am going to Utah for a couple weeks to help do some fixin' up at my cousin's new farm, so I will be postponing the recording challenge for a bit. Since I kind of dropped the ball on yesterday's song, I decided the 10th day was a good one-third-of-the-way stopping point for now anyway.

Might try and record a song or two while I am out there with just my laptop and USB keyboard, but I am not going to count these as part of the challenge. I will pick up with days 11 & 12 when I get back.

Thanks to everyone who has been checking this out and following! It has been real fun so far. Feel free to share this page with your friends and family, cause I want to get as many people as possible to see it. 

I made a short video that will hopefully clarify the situation (actually I don't think it will haha). 

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Days 9 & 10: Space Sonata Mvt. II: The Solitude and the Space

A few months ago, my cello teacher, Karen Terbeek (who is an amazing cellist), asked me to write her a piece for cello and piano for her to perform at a recital she is playing in October of 2011. I was honored to have been asked, but I knew it would be hard to write something unless I had some inspiration. After thinking about it, I came up with a vague sci-fi story that the music would depict. As the story started to come together, I thought it would be awesome to have images and words go along with the music, so I asked my cousin Jonathan Wiley (who is an artist) and my friend Aaron Plasek (who is a poet)  if they would be interested in doing a series of drawings and poetry to be projected on a screen alongside the live music performance. They were both down, so we talked about it and came up with a full story based on my initial idea.

Without going into too much detail, it is going to be a three movement work, and today's song happens to be a rough draft of the second movement. In the video, I split the cello part into two parts, but she will be playing it as one (I just couldn't play the double notes in tune well enough together). If you like what you hear and happen to be in Denver in October, you should come see the performance of the complete work. It is going to be epic.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Days 7 & 8: Dinosaurs and Lollipops

So for this one I started with a ragtimey piano song I have been working on and then added the drums. My friend Troy Crowley came up with the words and melody for the chorus, but I didn't have any vocals for the rest of the song. So, I decided to make up some random stuff and then just go for it haha. Not much else to say I guess. dan

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Days 5 & 6: The Ebb and Flow

First off, sorry for the late-ish post, but technically I'm only 5 minutes late haha. I had the recording done on time but the video took forever to render and upload. I had some issues today--a headphone cord that started shorting out, a camera battery that died and took forever to recharge, and a computer that decided to stop recording when I was in the middle of the song (multiple times). But I got through it and I'm pretty happy with the result. I decided to record a piano song I had written a couple years ago but never really made a recording of. It's a bit more complicated compositionally than the last song since I didn't compose it the day of haha. I used to play this piece with my friend Simon Larson on drums, so I want to give him credit cause I'm pretty sure I used or was inspired by the beats he came up with. I pretty much improvised the cello part (which you will probably notice). I think it works for the most part but there are definitely some rough spots. enjoy! dan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB1VI-nECqg

Friday, May 20, 2011

Days 3 & 4: Penn Street Prattle

Song number two! I had a lot of fun with this one. Not sure about the name but it's all I could think of haha. My computer didn't want to render the final video cause there was so much going on, but I sweet-talked it into cooperating. If you like it, become a follower and link it to your wall so your friends can check it out! (just trying to get as much exposure as I can haha). dan

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Days 1 & 2: It Begins.

Finished my first recording yesterday. It turns out trying to make up and record a song in one day is kind of a bitch. But here it is, and I am mostly happy with it. The cello part is kind of wonky but in my defense the take I was happiest with somehow glitched out during recording so I went with this one. I name this piece "It Begins." Now that I have started, expect a new song every two days (if I succeed haha).

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Dolcelli videos!

Just posted a couple of videos from the school cello group I play in called Dolcelli. One is a Beatles tune I arranged (from a year ago) and one is an original (from this year). Still haven't started any recordings yet because I am lazy. SMILEY FACES!!!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Countdown to day 1

Hey ya'll, dan here. Decided to challenge myself to recording a song every two days for a month. I think I finally have my recording gear all set up so stay tuned for the first posting soon! I recorded my good friend schuyler dean the other day as a practice run, so check out the video! Also, I recently performed one of my piano pieces, which you can check out as well. <3. SMILEY FACE!