A short primer on one (my) method of songwriting. [more inside]

posted by Doleful Creature at 10:55 PM PST - 4 comments

Anyone using an iPad in their live setup? [more inside] posted by sleepy pete at 7:13 PM PST - 5 comments

Apropos of this recent FPP, February's challenge is to record a version of a song, changing it from a major key to a minor one, or vice versa, turning (say) a murder ballad into a jolly polka, or a sunny pop song into a grinding death metal dirge. And hopefully improve it in the process. [more inside] posted by unSane at 1:08 PM PST - 15 comments

Someone gave me an electric guitar. I only know how to play acoustic. Anyone have amplifier recommendations and/or advice? [more inside] posted by topoisomerase at 1:49 PM PST - 11 comments

We've done it before (more than once), but maybe we can talk acoustic guitars again. [more inside] posted by uncleozzy at 7:46 AM PST - 13 comments

Here's my cover of Lucinda William's song Passionate Kisses. [more inside]

posted by roboton666 at 10:26 AM PST - 3 comments

Short, jazzy instrumental song. Just two parts that felt right together. The song is named after the final chord. And STTNG. [more inside]

posted by erikgrande at 12:12 AM PST - 1 comments

Another midnight noodling session before bed. [more inside]

posted by Doleful Creature at 11:54 PM PST - 9 comments

the trip ends on a freeway to the moon and everything gets very strange [more inside]

posted by pyramid termite at 5:06 PM PST - 0 comments

This is a song I wrote for my nephew. It seems the poor kid is just going to have to grow up to like power-ballads...

posted by howfar at 2:05 PM PST - 2 comments

He was a radical dude. An architect with an attitude [more inside]

posted by stargell at 7:14 PM PST - 2 comments

The Yardbirds: I'm Waiting For My Man [more inside] posted by Sailormom at 7:05 PM PST - 7 comments

the trip continues ... [more inside]

posted by pyramid termite at 3:52 PM PST - 0 comments

A shapeshifting instrumental.

posted by mubba at 2:29 PM PST - 1 comments

more trippiness ... [more inside]

posted by pyramid termite at 2:32 PM PST - 0 comments

sheer space-assed craziness - first of 4 suites, all old and new stuff smushed together - it gets trippier as it goes on [more inside]

posted by pyramid termite at 1:06 PM PST - 1 comments

C/2012 S1 (ISON) is a comet headed into the inner solar system for the first time. Coming from trillions of miles away to make a parabolic orbit around the Sun, accelerating to ~500,000mph, it could be the most spectacular in modern history. This song tributes it. It starts off with its dark, lonely, dusty origins, to the chaos of the Sun pulling it in and it raging into the inner solar system (represented by some chaotic American dubstep-styling), to the majestic beauty of the sight of it on Earth (with soaring strings and piano underpinned by the bassline from before but now moving in chords).

posted by dacre at 6:22 AM PST - 2 comments

Looks like someone did some random raiding of our content back in Fall 2010 for a (now seemingly abandoned) free radio site... [more inside] posted by frecklefaerie at 4:52 PM PST - 1 comments

This is a "synth wave" cover of a song I like by the band Stickers. [more inside]

posted by l2p at 2:06 AM PST - 3 comments

I wrote the music for this last summer, and I eventually intend to re-record it with lyrics once I finish them but for now I'm putting it up here as an instrumental and looking for feedback from the MeFi community.

posted by MattMangels at 9:54 PM PST - 1 comments

Final version of the song I posted a few days ago. Also my New Year's challenge entry. The usual 70s-tinged nonsense. [more inside]

posted by unSane at 11:32 AM PST - 6 comments

Song from 2010. I think this was the peak of my abilities in trying to make my whistling sound like some sort of saw/e-bow/loon combo. Identical guitar part to the end of my song Apfel Augen. Whistling with stairwell reverb, guitar, and a couple pulsing effects I added in a just-now-at-3am-we'll-see-what-it-sounds-like-in-the-morning fever.

posted by Corduroy at 2:57 AM PST - 2 comments

Would a thread of introductions be useful? I was thinking about unSane's soundcloud-pony and the Balkan kingdom of Music (or MeFiMu), and realized that I don't have a very good idea of who all is reading/listening here, whether regularly or not, except for a few posters, and even then I don't know much about them apart from a few tunes. [more inside] posted by dubold at 1:31 AM PST - 23 comments

A song about the lovely location called Anglesey.

posted by haines at 2:23 PM PST - 6 comments

So I have another instrumental piece of pop to share with everyone. This one has lyrics but I don't like the way my vocals sound with it. It basically expresses remorse for a Wet Reckless (reduced DUI) in a roundabout way all while using a 1-5-6-4 progression that avoids total cliché by way of a treble synth playing altered tones and keeping it fresh. [more inside]

posted by dacre at 7:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Carbon 7 again -- This was the opening salvo at our Solstice show last month. 10 minutes-worth of us making it up as we go. Recorded live at the Carousel Lounge. [more inside]

posted by Devils Rancher at 5:21 PM PST - 5 comments

You're turning into someone else. [more inside]

posted by chococat at 4:03 PM PST - 5 comments

I was driving around one night a couple of months ago in S.F.'s Mission District, trying to figure out directions to pick up a friend at a book club reading, when the "revolves" variant of the lightbulb joke went through my head and left this lyric [more inside]

posted by allaboutgeorge at 1:17 PM PST - 4 comments

I wrote this song on New Year's Day. There are some things I love about it and some things I don't entirely. Help me figure out what to do with it. [more inside]

posted by unSane at 9:56 PM PST - 19 comments

Aside from the basic physics of the speed of sound would there be practical upper limits to the number of musicians, assuming an infinite supply with the necessary talent and disposition, who could jam spontaneously to produce a united song without generating discord? [more inside] posted by Blasdelb at 9:06 AM PST - 26 comments

A sort of sixties-ish jangly folk-pop demo with a couple of synthy touches.

posted by howfar at 4:26 PM PST - 1 comments

7/8 is usually thought of as an aggressive time signature — for the likes of harder jazz, metalcore, and Stravinsky. But here I'm using it in a ballad. The melody playfully bounces and trips over itself in 7/8, blushing and giggling around its crush while trying to be smooth with racing thoughts and too much to say. Still trying to find the right words and vocalist.

posted by dacre at 2:31 PM PST - 5 comments

Remix of this. Rather more....umm....lively sounding now I reckon.

posted by MajorDundee at 1:04 PM PST - 6 comments

here's a mixing question ... [more inside] posted by Rube R. Nekker at 6:39 PM PST - 8 comments

A sort of call to arms. I well remember posting stuff here and getting zip response. A pretty disheartening experience for a newbie and one, I guess, shared by many toe-in-the-water freshers to MeFiMu (or as unSane apty describes it the kitchen*). So - let's all make the effort to listen to at least two or three new posts per week and give some feedback to all our colleagues earnestly entreating thier muses..... Waddyasay?? * I'm well up for renaming this part of MeFi the "Utility Muffin Research Kitchen" in honour of the late Frank Zappa. I never liked his music much, but his attitude - particularly in terms of his resounding "f*ck you" to the music biz establishment - was inspiring. posted by MajorDundee at 4:21 PM PST - 16 comments

From a new album of songs adapted from an old Baptist hymnal written by my great-great grandfather, who was deacon of a church in Weatherford, Texas many years ago.

posted by swift at 11:45 AM PST - 6 comments

New and much improved mix of a song from a few years ago. Kinda rock-metal-electronic fun with a pretty good helping of vocal harmonies. Critique away!

posted by Wolfdog at 5:49 AM PST - 5 comments

A very short bluegrass banjo piece I multi-tracked in 2005 and just now unearthed on my hard drive. [more inside]

posted by usonian at 8:43 PM PST - 6 comments

January is a split challenge - do either or both or none. Option A: Write a simple, catchy, singable ditty to replace Happy Birthday. Option B: Record a piece of music on the theme of the year turning. [more inside] posted by unSane at 6:55 AM PST - 3 comments