I Can't Play the Piano

I sometimes have dreams that I'm playing the piano. I'm just randoming pressing any keys, and this beautiful music comes out. Playing the piano just seems too hard that I've never really bothered trying.

I would like to make use of more keyboards in the next CD, but that will probably mean more one handed pecking. A while back, I purchased one of those Creative Prodikeys keyboard. They save a lot of space, and I liked the fact that it had velocity sensitive keys. Unfortunately, when I upgraded my DAW, it no longer worked. I tried everything.

The stupid thing has a PS/2 connection. Why in the world they didn't make it USB is beyond me. Creative is pretty much a has-been company nowadays.

So I'm thinking about getting one of those small 25 key midi controllers, maybe something from M-Audio. Or maybe the new U-CONTROL UMX25 from Behringer. I have a thing against Behringer though, on account of the stanky pre's on the Eurorack MX 1604A mixer I have.

Eh, I'll probably end up doing nothing as usual seeing how I'm so lazy.

Bob Dylan

Has anyone checked out the new Bob Dylan CD? I guess many have since it's number one this past week. Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter of the twentieth century, hands down. Whenever you think of protest songs, you think of Bob Dylan. In fact, you even think of how it should be sung, that's how great his influence is.

All those guys--Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler--they all have a little bit of Bob Dylan in their voice. It's hard not to. Nobody is trying to imitate him or mimic him, but when you're singing and you're trying to make a point, it just creeps into your voice, you know? It's that Bob Dylan factor that makes you want to lean in and put some mustard in there. That's how great an influence Bob Dylan is, and how great he is that he still is making such a huge impact.

Musically, I have to admit, I'm not his biggest fan. I probably don't even like half of the stuff he's put out. Tom Petty has been my greatest musical influence. But Bob Dylan--he's made the most impact on my thinking when it comes to songwriting. That's probably true for a lot of people.

So my little side project on Chinese peasants--I keep thinking that should be a Bob Dylan album, circa 1962. I'm thinking maybe six to eight songs. And I'm trying hard as hell not to just mimic Dylan. Anyway, I'm hoping once I get this out of my system, I can continue working on the next CD.

Singing in a Foreign Langauge

Remember when the Beatles recorded those German versions of some of their early songs? Well, I've been casually listening to the Chinesepod lessons to try to learn Mandarin (my family background is actually Cantonese. It hasn't really helped...).

I got the idea (see previous post) about doing songs about the peasants in rural China, and I want to do them in Mandarin. So I thought I would practice by putting a couple of Chinesepod lessons to song. It's strange because Mandarin has these tones, and you can't really follow them in a song because it goes against a melody. I didn't try to make the melody work around them though.

1) A Walk in the Park - Chinesepod Elementary lesson #42
2) My Boss Isn't Satisfied - Chinesepod Elementary lesson #17

The song structure is not typical because I was copying the Chinesepod method of repeating each line three times.

I'm not sure if it helps me with learning Mandarin. Anyway, from time to time, I'll post some more.