Category: Music

Here it is, folks, the last post for our music class. It’s been a rocky road getting here, especially with the pandemic on everyone’s mind. Still, I would like to imagine that everyone is choosing to be kind and practicing distancing. For me, distancing meant lots of more time to spend playing my ukulele, maybe I will also have time to pick up the piano again.

Although, for this class, I am happy to report I have finished both songs on my ukuleles. My original song took longer than expected, and my cover didn’t take as long as I thought. As I originally expected, I wrote a love song. Although, not a very happy love song. Here is a video:

For my next song, here is Birds by Thomas Sanders:

Thank you for joining me on this journey, I hope you enjoyed my singing and playing. I loved getting the chance to practice my instruments and fine-tune my skills.

Until next time!

For a lot of people, myself included, the past few weeks have been crazy. Which is probably the reason why I haven’t been posting as much as I should. With school being moved online, my mystery illness (probably the flu), and general panic about the pandemic, it’s been hard to focus on music and songwriting.

Quote from “The Good Place” picture created by Yeekonline on Redbubble.

Songwriting, I have come to realize, is incredibly difficult and very vulnerable. Personally, I believe that the best songs tell a story. Which is why I want to tell a story with my song, a love story.

As I posted in my last blog, I want these lines to act as a chorus, “Together they lived, together they died, together they departed this life. They say that death is the crown of life. But this is the story of how they died.” Yes, I’m aware that I am rhyming the same words but, who cares?

I’d like there to be a circular narrative in the story, starting and ending with the idea of the permanence of death. Starting with a graveyard, the graveyard I went to visit. On a sunny day, with no other sounds but birds.

1.

Birds, the only sound.

Sun creeping through trees and clouds.

People dead, tucked safe in the ground.

There’s no way they’re coming back now.

2.

The rainy day dampened the mood,

But still, the girl began to swoon.

She knew that they’d meet again soon,

She didn’t know that the world was cruel.

For my Leap Day, my mum and I decided to visit a local cemetery to walk our dog. While I was there, I took photos of some tombstone engravings. The youngest person buried that I saw was four years old. However, looking at online records from the church, the youngest buried was a still-born from the late 1800s. For more information about the churchyard and cemetery, visit their website here. Below is a panoramic picture of the churchyard and I will include more in a photoset following this post.

All of the tombstones I will be posting in the gallery will have the names blocked, out of respect for the deceased. One of the tombstones I saw had a really beautiful engraving. If the picture is too blurry, the engraving says “together they lived and loved and together they departed this life” as well as “there is a green hill far away.” I think that would be a good idea for the chorus.

Together they lived, together they died, together they departed this life. They say that death is the crown of life. But this is the story of how they died.

Here is the video update of my ukulele playing, along with some explanations on my choices for the songs. Cheers until next time!

Hello friends!

It has been less than one week since my last post but, I thought I would give you an update after working with my partner on a guitar/ukulele duet. Today during our work block during music class, I met up with Maddie to practice our song together, a song called Birds by Thomas Sanders.

Both Maddie and I have experience playing our respective instruments so, the song was not difficult for us to learn. The tricky part today was learning how to play the song alongside another musician. Although we managed to pick it up rather quickly. We struggled a bit with transitions from the verses, to the chorus, to the bridge. However, with a bit of repetition, we polished up the transitions and the song in general.

One thing Maddie pointed out was that the chord before the chorus was an added 9th chord. Which I originally played out in the strumming pattern before moving on to the chorus. Although this made the beginning of the chorus sound a bit off, so we decided to leave the beginning with no chord.

Overall, this block was very productive, and I think with a bit more practice, we will be well ahead of schedule for my music plan.

Following all that success with my partnered song, I would like to talk briefly about my song-writing adventures. Although I will post more in about two weeks for my video midterm update. For now, I am liking the progression of G, Em, G, Em, C, G, B7 for the verse. I like the mix of a major chord and a minor chord in quick succession.

I also wanted to include a B7 in my song, as I said last week; putting the B7 at the end of the verse will provide a clear transition between the verse and the chorus. I am still working on the chords for the chorus, but that will all be included in the next blog.

Check back in next time for a special video of myself playing my original song and maybe a little snippet of the duet (played as a solo).

This week has been a little crazy with schoolwork. So, to distract myself, I picked up my ukulele more than usual. This playing has lead to a slight loss of feeling on my left hand (which I’m used to but, I haven’t gotten used to the metal strings of the baritone yet).

I decided this would be a good time to revisit some old songs that I never quite mastered and to my surprise, I could actually play them. One song that I managed to master was Everything Stays from Steven Universe. It uses seven chords plus a bar chord that I don’t like playing. Although I think I managed quite well.

Here is a memo of me playing one part of the song:

I also took this time to revisit some songs I adore playing. Here is a list of some of my favourites that I practiced this week:

My Anthem by Christina Grimmie

All is Found from Frozen II

Edelweiss from the Sound of Music

Send this to Your Sad Friend by Blanks

and

A Non-Love Song From Nashville and Dear Happy by dodie

There are still some chords I find rather difficult, this includes the E chord. Although I will not give up just yet, I will keep trying to master it throughout the term.

As for my own song, I would like to include a B7 and an Em somewhere because I think they both have a melancholy sound that I would like to include in my song.

Hello, musical friends. For our music class this semester, I have decided to continue in my ongoing adventure of pretending to be good at the ukulele (that’s only a little bit of a joke). I picked up the ukulele about three or four years ago after falling in love with the Youtube musician dodie, her music tugged at my heartstrings and made me want to start playing music again.

I had a little background in playing music before playing the ukulele. I played the baritone, which is basically a small tuba, for two years in middle school. I also learned how to read sheet music in bass clef instead of the treble clef, because I played a brass instrument. Although looking back on my time playing in my middle school band, I was not very good. I hope for everyone’s sake that I at least have a bit more rhythm.

Pictured above are my two ukuleles. The top is a tenor/concert ukulele (I can never remember which it is) and the bottom is a baritone ukulele. The main difference between the two is the tuning of the strings.

Back to the ukulele, the very first song I learned on the ukulele was a song called down by dodie. It was difficult at first, but after a while of practicing, the chords became subconscious. I performed that song at an open mic (my first time singing in front of a crowd since I was 11 years old), and I kept returning to that event to perform more songs, both solos and duets with my friends.

For now, my goal is to work on relearning the scale and practicing a few songs before endeavouring to write my own.