Tuesday 26 February 2013

New Beautiful Things

I had no idea what to call this piece.  The original recording was titled 'new beautiful thing' as I found it very soothing to play and listen back to so I thought I might has well call it that.  'Things' are very vague so it allows the listener to bring their own interpenetration to the piece!



I recorded a very rough version of this many years ago on my old Casio CTK-610 keyboard which was the first full sized keys keyboard I bought from the Argos catalogue back 1997 or 1998, not sure which.  It was also the first keyboard I had that was touch sensitive which I had wanted for a long time.  It was this keyboard on which I learnt to really play piano and keyboards by learning all of the chords.  The display had a handy option to show what chord was been played on the keys and I found this very helpful when working out how I would play things and understanding the signifier of each chord shape.  The poor Casio now has a couple of keys broken and taped back on by myself.  I think this reflects more on how much I used the keyboard and probably bashed it about than the quality of it.  It's a good keyboard and I still enjoy going back to it and playing those sounds again today.

But back to this piece!  Although quite a modestly priced keyboard, the Casio had some good synthesiser options allowed you to change things like the attack and release rates.  I was playing around with those settings on a lovely warm synthesiser string sound (If you listen to the album you will probably realise how much I like those kinds of textural sounds!).  Many of the pieces I had written at that point were very chord based and I wanted to try something with a more definitive melody from single notes.  I played some chords on a nice soft electronic piano sound and over the top created this simple melody that rises and falls just as the sound does itself.  I had this recording for years and finally got around to rerecording it with new sounds and adding some new elements to it as well.  This version goes into a third section were a distance synthesiser voice sound comes in to take over the melody duties before culminating with the return of the first string sounds to end the piece.  I thought it made a generated a good sense of relief and tenderness into the piece.


Saturday 23 February 2013

Under the Cherry Blossom

When I came up with the first few chords to this piece I immediately felt like it could sit well in a nice Anime soundtrack.  As such I ended up titling it 'Under the Cherry Blossom' as these are often featured all kinds of Japanese Anime both visually and thematically.



Here in the UK we also enjoy cherry blossoms from trees in the springtime.  Their time is very brief before they fall to the ground, but every year I always notice them when they appear.  I look forward to seeing them this year as they will signal the end of this cold weather!

simonwillis.bandcamp.com

Thursday 21 February 2013

February Update

Almost the end of February.  How have 2 months passed already!  I've been a bit busy with other things lately.  However, I'm trying to update the blog, the YouTube channel and Soundcloud as regularly as I can.  I'm going to be uploading some more performances soon both of more cover version and of my own songs.

Speaking of which I am currently working through the many songs I have written over the years in order to iron out some things I'm not so sure about, except this time I'm actually going to say to myself, 'OK that's good enough, it's done!' and move onto the next thing.

I have quite a few songs in a state of almost readiness and have a rough idea of what will be on my first vocal album.  I also worry I won't record the vocals well enough, but I can always rerecord!  I may also write a couple of new songs for the album too.  Either way there should be plenty of material to have a vocal album up on the simonwillis.bandcamp.com page in the near future!  I hope you enjoy what I post in the meantime as I still have a few instrumental tracks from my 'Left Behind' album to post on here and will am looking into what other covers to perform.  I may even take requests!  Drop me a message if there is anything at all you would like to hear me play and I will see what I can do with it.

Saturday 16 February 2013

She's Out of My Life

Here is my cover version of 'She's Out of my Life' made famous by Michael Jackson in 1980 and written by Tom Bahler.


This was one of the songs that, when I sung, I realised I shouldn't be afraid to sing in a higher range.  For a long time I was singing an octave lower than I probably should have for a lot of songs but I eventually came to the conclusion that I should push my limits a but more!  I love this song, it lends itself so well to being sung with a lot of feeling and fragility.  I don't think you can write a song like this without going through the emotions contained within it yourself.

Check back for more videos soon!

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Alone

This is a simple piece consisting of just four chords of synthesiser string sounds and a lonely timid synthesiser lead sound providing the melody.


I wrote this piece many years ago and would play it on a piano sound layered with synthesiser strings.  For this version I decided to strip it down to a more sparse atmosphere with the lead instrument timidly exploring the lonely landscape created by the strings.

I might yet do a piano version of this piece as well.  But I do love to experiment with different sounds and I was pleased with the way this interpretation turned out.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Liking You

Here is another piano piece that I recently wrote.  With this piece I tried to create something that mixed a warm tenderness with an gentle uncertainty.


I used made use of a minor diminished chord to create the sense of uncertainty at about 57 seconds in.  I like how this chords sits between the rest of the piece with is generally bright and warm.  The section that starts at about 2 minutes 30 seconds in is then more reflective and melancholic before returning to the main theme.  I felt that the piece reflected those feelings of yearning and uncertainty one feels at the same time as experiencing something wonderful.

Monday 4 February 2013

Your Song - Elton John - Cover

Here I am covering 'Your Song' by Elton John.  This is has always been one of my favourite songs.  Written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and released on the album 'Elton John' in 1970.


Elton John has been a big inspiration for me and is one of the reasons I learnt to play the piano and sing in the first place.  Ever since I heard the, mostly, instrumental 'Song For Guy' I was entranced with it.  This lead to me listening to more and more Elton and discovery Bernie Taupin's lyrics.  I think when I first sung I was singing to much like Elton at the expense of finding my own voice.  But that said, I have him to thank for learning to sing in the first place I think.  Since I think I have moved away from that I refined my own voice better.  I think, like any artist, I'm always developing and trying new things.  Whenever I do sing an Elton song though I'm sure some Eltonisms work their way into my voice at least a little!  I remember singing this song an entire octave lower in the past and it took me some time to realise my voice is probably a lot better singing higher.  I think my voice would often get lost trying to sing things too low and not having the confidence to sing in a higher register and putting more power behind the voice.  This might not be the best example of that, but stay tuned to see, hopefully, better examples!

I going to upload some performances of my own music soon, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some covers up first just to get used to filming myself!  The webcam I'm using isn't very good, but I might buy a camcorder soon so I can get some better footage.  I recorded the sound from the microphone and the sound of the piano sound through Cubase and synced those up with the video so it would have much better sound quality than the webcam microphone.

I will explain why there is a Chuck Norris poster for the Movie Top Dog on the back of my door another time.