Ah, so back to talking about making music and art and stuff. You probably thought I\u2019d forgotten about that. But no, I\u2019ve been making steady progress the whole time.<\/p>\n
First, an aside. Tonight was the spring band concert at the Kids\u2019 school. Lizzy is in 8th grade, so this may be her last one. Certainly then end with this school. Her band director, Mr. A., is a really great guy and excellent teacher. He was Lizzy\u2019s band director at the old school too, so we\u2019ve known him quite a few years and under his guidance Lizzy has grown to be one of the star performers. He gave a special call out to all the graduating kids in the band, and invited Lizzy to come back for Honor Band next year and thru high school. They\u2019re trying to get a band program going at Lizzy\u2019s new high school, so you never know, this may not be the end. And of course, not to be overlooked, Michelle is coming along nicely on clarinet.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, I\u2019ve been working on Black Swan, the eight-minute epic for my next album. The bass, drums, piano and vocals are tracked and sounding really smokin\u2019. Now it’s up to the solos and the finishing instruments. I jammed out a sax part for the rest of the song, but decided I want to work out a real horn arrangement. Probably tenor and bari. I’m also gonna add either a clav or rhythm guitar, or maybe both. This’ll give me a chance to finally plug in some of those effects boxes Martin left me and try and get a sound. Might also motivate me to go out guitar shopping.<\/p>\n
I find it\u2019s best to work on songs in pairs, so the other song I\u2019ve been working on is Is It Safe to Go Outside? This was written by Martin, and I found it in a pile of demos a few weeks back. It\u2019s not a horror story, but an ode to that feeling you get that first day of spring when the weather finally turns mild. It\u2019s really a great song, and at first I just wanted to learn it to play on piano, but it\u2019s really worthy of a full production recording. Martin\u2019s demo features a click track and rhythm guitar, and then the vocals, bass, and sax form three interlocking melodies, almost like a fugue. On top of that, he has this really clever way of turning the time around every few bars.<\/p>\n
First I learned the bass and sax parts. My piano part will feature ideas from both of these as well as the guitar. Next I added a drum part. This was fun, to create a beat that grooves and yet follows all the intricacies of the arrangement. The kick drum cleaves pretty close to the bass, while the hihat holds down the backbeat. Everything else takes off from there.<\/p>\n
The sax part needs to be retracked because it’s out of tune. When I went to learn the part I could see why: Martin plays it on tenor and it’s really high in the range. Those high E’s and F#\u2019s are tough. If I can’t get a good take on tenor I\u2019ll try it on alto to see how that sounds. I may also put in a bari line for some extra bottom.<\/p>\n
Neither song has a ready rough mix yet, but soon, soon. Meanwhile, Is It Safe has great lyrics too. Here they are.<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
Is It Safe to Go Outside?<\/strong> Is it safe to go outside? Is it safe to go outside, you know I try to be strong Is it safe to take myself to the park? Is it safe to go outside, you know I try to be strong Ah, so back to talking about making music and art and stuff. You probably thought I\u2019d forgotten about that. But no, I\u2019ve been making steady progress the whole time. First, an aside. Tonight was the spring band concert at the Kids\u2019 school. Lizzy is in 8th grade, so this may be her last one. Certainly … Continue reading “New Song: Is It Safe?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zingman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nby Martin Szinger<\/p>\n
\nIs it time to count up all the flowers growing?
\nIs it safe to feel the sunshine
\nLike a long-lost friend returning?
\nIs it OK to roll the windows down?
\nTake a ride, I want to feel the wind in my face
\nBlood flowing in my veins<\/p>\n
\nBut the winter’s been too long
\nIs it safe to go outside, I hope the forecast isn’t wrong
\nYou know this has to be the day<\/p>\n
\nBlame it on my alter-ego
\nIt’s a game of bocce for my soul
\nKnock ’em down and keep them rolling
\nWhat a shame it would have been
\nTo pass you by and not to see the smile on your
\nFace… shine… wait…
\nThere’s blood flowing in my veins<\/p>\n
\nBut the winter’s been too long
\nIs it safe to go outside, I hope the forecast isn’t wrong
\nYou know this has to be the day
\nThere’s blood flowing in my veins
\nThere’s blood flowing in my veins
\nThere’s blood flowing in my veins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"