NaNoUkeMo

4.10 - Caribou Hey, it’s been a while but I just thou—OH...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:02:00 -0400

4.10 - Caribou

Hey, it’s been a while but I just thou—OH MY GOD look how short my hair used to be.

Whoa. Okay, I guess I have gone a little feral. We’ll see how long I put up with it, probably until the first warm day. Anyway, it’s another Pixies song! My (ukulele-playing) friend Bill tweeted “Caribooooooou, Caribooooou!” the other day and I told him I’d send the chords. And I figgered I’d make a video while I was at it. For old time’s sake. (But really just to show off my luxurious, manly sideburns.)

12.26: Break My Body The Pixies! Fun to play, and the songs are...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:25:10 -0500

12.26: Break My Body

The Pixies! Fun to play, and the songs are all mercifully short. I may do more of their stuff in the very near future—I have the week off.

According to The Goog, I’m the first person to do this on ukulele. (!) I flubbed it a bit in the middle, so I did another take where I missed the very last chord, then Molly got home right as I was about to do another. I’ll just post this first one instead of worrying about her making noise.

12.10: Down Today Second request was for Jonathan...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:39:40 -0500

12.10: Down Today

Second request was for Jonathan Coulton’s “Down Today”, a jaunty little tune about hot air ballooning. (Those indie kids and their crazy hobbies!) There are some fun licks in the original and I’ve been practicing the fingerpicking all week, but I realized tonight there’s no way in hell I’ll ever be able to pull that off while trying to sing at the same time. So here’s my take on it, stripped down and sped up. I started on the concert uke but it was a little out of my register so I switched to the barry. (I did also spend a few minutes trying for a thrash metal version, but it just wasn’t gonna happen. Damn.)

Alright, what next? Anyone?

l12.02: Here Comes the Sun I hope if I ever get asked who my...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 03:15:00 -0500

l12.02: Here Comes the Sun

I hope if I ever get asked who my favorite Beatle is I’ll remember to say “uhh… Joey?”

The Beatles and The Ramones are two bands I never really “got”, probably because I heard and absorbed the music they inspired long before making my way back to the source, which seemed simple or primitive (or, ironically, derivative) in comparison. It’s hard now to put musicians (okay, anyone in history) in their original context and see just how revolutionary they were.

So what I’m saying is I just didn’t grow up listening to The Beatles. Unlike everybody else, it seems. I thought they were just guys who made some kinda-cheesy rock’n’roll hits then turned into hippies. Also, I grew up in Texas.

But I did get a request for Here Comes the Sun, so here it is. I first recorded it on the laptop mic but the uke didn’t come through so I switched to a USB mic on the desk. Then the uke was better but the vocals kind of dim. Between the two, I’ll go with uke—it’s a good song for fingerpicking, and I’m happy the singing didn’t seem to discombobulate the fingerwork. I’d probably do better in a different key; high G is just verging on falsetto for me, and I can’t quite do an octave down. Also my timing is sloppy as hell, but hey, I just learned the song.

And one more thing! Here’s the absolute best version of this song ever:

http://littlehexes.bandcamp.com/track/here-comes-the-sunshine-when-shes-gone

11.30: Goin All Veggies And there goes November. So let’s...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 03:29:38 -0500

11.30: Goin All Veggies

And there goes November. So let’s see, I managed to do… with this one, 15 songs of the 30 I’d aimed for. Only half of the goal, but better than nothing. But then, what was the goal? The point of NaNoWhateverMo isn’t the product but the process—the journey, not the destination, to be all hippie about it. My take on the franchise was to get me spending more time playing ukulele and not being self-critical. So in that light, can I call it a success?

No, I don’t think so. It was a chore, and it took the fun out of playing. I never felt terribly inspired. I had so many other things going on this month I don’t feel like I was ever able to spend enough time to come up with new ideas. So here’s my new plan: instead of making new songs, I’ll learn some old ones. I’ve got lots of uke songbooks I’ve barely even touched, and the idea of recording myself singing a real song is terrifying enough it’ll feel like an accomplishment. (And it might just get me to finally go and take voice lessons.)

Any requests?

11.28: of a million dollars a year! I’m just… tired. I...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:34:00 -0500

11.28: of a million dollars a year!

I’m just… tired. I haven’t been swimming for the last couple weeks because of travel and sickness and working on that mystery project I still haven’t shown you and now lethargy is winning the battle. It’s always night outside, and soon the ice weasels come.

11.27: power is and how it can (instrumental) Here’s what...

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 03:01:39 -0500

11.27: power is and how it can (instrumental)

Here’s what came out tonight (other than a whole lot of phlegm, not pictured) but I couldn’t match it to any Horse words. Too bad, because the remnants of the cold could only improve my singing voice. This wasn’t, alas, the cold where I get to sound like Tom Waits. (I had that once and it was so much fun.) Instead, it’s a slightly mathy instru-metalish thing. No wonder I couldn’t fit the words in.

Excuses, excuses

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:19:14 -0500

We went to Santa Fe. I spent most of the trip working on code for the thing. We got back, I showed off the (sort-of-working) thing, people were impressed, I got a cold. Then I spent the next two days on the couch feeling like my head was being crushed from the inside out.

But now I’m finally squeezing out the backside of this ick and I can think about doing something other than blowing my nose or writing code or playing !@(*ing Skyward Sword. My promise was a song a day so I’ve got about a week’s backlog now—I won’t catch up on that by the end of the month, but I’ll try not to fall farther behind. And I’ll file for an extension.

11.15: awesome methods to help you When all else fails,...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:53:00 -0500

11.15: awesome methods to help you

When all else fails, there’s always the power chord.

I had a tune developing, sounded pretty good, was coming together nicely. Then I realized it was the same as a few days ago, the one with the… uh… faces? All that I can remember right now is OVER THE OVER THE OVER THE OVER THE OCEAN. I like that one. I keep singing it when I’m on my bike. This one, however, isn’t going to stick (probably’d be better plugged in, but I’ve got a low throbbing headache) and that’s okay. At least I got something up.

But the big (Horse-unrelated, sorry) news is the hardware on my mystery project is working and now I can do the rest in code, much more forgiving. We’re off to Santa Fe for early Thanksgiving but I’ll see what I can do to keep this going. Expect another guest appearance from the (possibly drunk) family.

11.13: In Winter. In Summer. OVER THE OVER THE OVER THE OVER THE...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:27:00 -0500

11.13: In Winter. In Summer. OVER THE OVER THE OVER THE OVER THE OCEan. CONTINENTS. OCEaN. CONTINENTS. 0˚ 0.20 O.24 0.20

Some days the Horse gives you spam links, some days the Horse gives you the perfectly-formed chorus to a folk rock ballad. (Never mind the OCR drool at the end.) I was going to record this last night, but Molly lodged a complaint about having the amp cranked up at midnight and my endless noodling trying to get it to sustain like I wanted, so I did a quick acoustic jam version this morning. Man, I love that IV-I transition.

11.12: WORLD WORLD YOU VE SEEN THEIR FACES,...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:57:00 -0500

11.12: WORLD WORLD YOU VE SEEN THEIR FACES, perfectly

Here’s a quick one. I’m crazy busy with a fun music hardware/software project. I’ll show you when it’s finished, promise!

11.11: Build Huge I went back and looked at the last week of...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:19:00 -0500

11.11: Build Huge

I went back and looked at the last week of songs, and… actually, I’m pretty happy with it. I mean, there’s nothing groundbreaking, but in pretty much every song I hear some new idea I had. I thought they would all be more or less the same song but there’s a good variety—for ukulele music, anyway. (But I definitely need to do metal uke again, and soon.)

NaNoUkeMo is back in business, y’all!

Reexamining the 'UkeMo

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:40:28 -0500

I got home tonight, tooled around on the uke, put together some chords in a mildly amusing arrangement and tacked some mostly meaningless words onto it. I could have recorded it, checked off another day… But it wasn’t covering any new ground and, yeah, I’m getting bored with it. So I have to assume you’re bored too. If you’re still there.

So the project’s on hold—for the weekend, anyway. If I can’t find a new goal by then I’ll go back to grinding out I mean lovingly crafting little cheesy songs every day through the end of the month. But if I do… well, we’ll just see what happens.

11.08: choose the best food We made it through the first week!...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:25:00 -0500

11.08: choose the best food

We made it through the first week! Let’s take a step back now for a moment and talk about what we’re feeling. Deep breath. Inhale, exhale… Good. So. How are you doing so far? Do you think you’ll make it to the end of the month? Or is it all too much? It’s okay, I understand: ukulele every day, it’s a lot to deal with. It’s not something we’re accustomed to, in our daily life, in the society we live in.

For my part, I feel like I’m just rushing these out to get them done with. On one hand, I wish I could spend more time on them, maybe make them better; on the other, I wonder if it’s worth doing in the first place. I don’t remember it being so tedious last year, but that might be because I was terrified.

Well at the very least, it’s got me playing ukulele more than I have been lately, so that can’t be a bad thing.

11.07: You ll Never Hear What I Am Going It took a number of...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 02:08:00 -0500

11.07: You ll Never Hear What I Am Going

It took a number of tries, but I got a good take. …And then I realized I was saying “saying” instead of going “going”. So it took a few more after that. Now that I’m looking at it, I realize I should have worked in a joke about the horse not finishing sentences is why you’ll never hear. Instead I went with a semi-nonsensical throwaway line. Oh well. I’m feeling pretty constrained for time so I’m just happy I got something up and didn’t fall behind again.

11.06: (Instrumental) I’m taking a solo on this...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:14:00 -0500

11.06: (Instrumental)

I’m taking a solo on this one—@horse_ebooks seems to be at a loss for words, believe it or not. Maybe he’s just upset his speech didn’t swing the vote his way.

With this, I’m officially caught up! Living in the now! Expect the next post to come from a coffee shop just across the river, in Vancouver, Washington’s Little Amsterdam.

11.05: the gurus have been hiding from you all this time. Oh, so...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:03:00 -0500

11.05: the gurus have been hiding from you all this time.

Oh, so THAT’S where they’ve been! Silly gurus.

11.04: You Think Do You Think Do You Think...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:37:00 -0500

11.04: You Think Do You Think Do You Think Restaurants Restaurants Restaurants Do You Should Do You Should Should Provide? Provide?

Ugh. For kind of phoning it in, I sure had to do a bunch of takes. I’m still not very good at singing and fingerpicking together. (Or separately, come to think of it.) But if I half-ass this one now I can maybe get another one out later tonight and be caught up. I’ll give you the whole ass next time, I promise.

I made that joke last year, didn’t I?

11.03: Fair Potato So, technically, the Horse didn’t post...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:01:00 -0500

11.03: Fair Potato

So, technically, the Horse didn’t post this one until today, the 4th, so it’s maybe kind of cheating to use it for yesterday’s song. But I’ll do what I have to to get back in the game. The song came out pretty much like it sounded in my head when I was in the shower, mutated a little bit once I got out and picked up the uke (I need to get a waterproof one so I can do both at the same time) but start to finish only took a couple takes and half an hour or so. At this rate, I think I can catch up tonight or tomorrow.

11.02: ARE THESE Oh man, this is not looking good. Day two and...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:45:00 -0400

11.02: ARE THESE

Oh man, this is not looking good. Day two and I’m already behind? What would last year me think? What would @horse_ebooks think!?

Here’s a quick one, treading water so I don’t drown. If I hadn’t spent most of the evening drinking beer with friends (it’s their fault!) I’d try and get some other words in, but humming and mumbling will have to do for this one. I think the melody is well accommodating, but “are these” didn’t really bring forth any deep fountain of, uh… word… things.

(And no, I still haven’t painted that wall. Maybe I like it that way, okay?)