The Wagtunes Corner

[wagtunes]

wagtunes,
Now listening to "Time To Share": it wasn't obviously a wagtunes song for me until your vocals started; not a bad thing to mix things up a bit. Vocals are working well. All melodies are very good per usual. I like the 80's vibe! Nice synths and song!

It takes a while but eventually becomes a Wagtune. The key to this one was not overproducing it, which I was tempted to do, especially at the finale. But I kept it slightly understated. I think it works but you never know.

Anyway, thanks for the listen and the feedback. I know this means there's new stuff from you to listen to. Yay!

Will check it out ASAP.

[Allomerus]

Nice track Wags. Reminds me of STYX, especially the Pomp of it and the lead synths. I like the ping pong ending. Lots of great elements there, including the aah vocals.
Well done!

[Bansaw]

Loved the setup at 1:30 , and at 2:35. Nice sound choices in this one. 3:58 cool arp - seems to bounce from side to side and add movement. Great job Wags.

[aaron aardvark]

wagtunes,
Just listened to "Growing Pains". This was a signature wagtunes song with the nice piano chords and sound right off the bat. Yes, I can hear how you keep bringing in more tracks, and it seems to get more orchestral towards the end. What's that lead synth around 1:50? Cool sound. The audio quality was excellent all around. Good vocals. Very nice melodies per usual. I could picture this is in a Broadway production. Great job!

[wagtunes]

Nice track Wags. Reminds me of STYX, especially the Pomp of it and the lead synths. I like the ping pong ending. Lots of great elements there, including the aah vocals.
Well done!

Ah Styx. Another one of my influences growing up. I'm sure they all pop into my music eventually. Really enjoyed doing this one. Anyway, thanks for the listen and feedback. It is much appreciated.

[wagtunes]

Loved the setup at 1:30 , and at 2:35. Nice sound choices in this one. 3:58 cool arp - seems to bounce from side to side and add movement. Great job Wags.

I really worked hard on the structure and arrangement on this one. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm taking a lot longer to do a track these days. I'll even put it aside and come back to it to see if anything is out of my place. I think it's made a big improvement on this current album.

Anyway, thanks for the listen and the feedback. It is much appreciated as always.

[wagtunes]

wagtunes,
Just listened to "Growing Pains". This was a signature wagtunes song with the nice piano chords and sound right off the bat. Yes, I can hear how you keep bringing in more tracks, and it seems to get more orchestral towards the end. What's that lead synth around 1:50? Cool sound. The audio quality was excellent all around. Good vocals. Very nice melodies per usual. I could picture this is in a Broadway production. Great job!

Hey Aaron, thanks for the listen. Yeah, this one was quite a production at 40 tracks. The lead at 1:50 was the Cherry Audio Mercury-4 which is I guess an emulation of the Jupiter-4. I really love that sound.

FWIW, I've been listening to these tracks and thinking to myself, where was this attention to detail years ago? Oh well, we all grow in our own time.

[wagtunes]

11th track from my upcoming CD "Journey To The Other Side"

Took 44 days to do this song.

Here's the, I hope, interesting story.

So I'm just goofing around one day away from the computer and keyboard and I start singing this tune. Then I start putting some lyrics to it. Suddenly. it was all done from start to finish. That's how simple it was. I figured it'll take me a day at most to do this.

What I didn't count on is the rhythm tripping me up. When I write songs in my head with no restrictions (whether or not I can actually play it) that's when I get into trouble. This was no exception.

Listen to most of my songs. They're pretty much a steady 4/4 beat. Not this one. This is syncopated all the way through. I guess it has kind of a jazz feel but I'm not sure.

Well, I tried to play this and quantize it but it wouldn't quantize without sounding like total garbage. Too many off beats. So I was stuck. I had no choice but to play this live and hope I can make it sound good. Given my limited playing skills, this was a huge challenge.

Needless to say, it's not my best performance but I think it's at least adequate. I'll let you decide. All I know is it's going to be a long time before I do anything like this again because 44 days is just way too long to spend on something basically this short (2:45) and simple.

****************************************
Crash And Burn

You live your life...doin all the dances
And you live your life...takin all the chances
And then you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And then you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)

Your momma said...don't go near the water
Your momma said...you don't do what you oughta
And so you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And so you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)

You never learn
The worm it turns
And then you crash and burn
Every time

Repeat Verse 1

And then you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And then you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And then you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And then you crash and burn (yeah, yeah, yeah)

Outro

***********************************************
https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/crash-and-burn

[Liquid lino]

It's 4/4 with swung triplet feel, to my counting. At the start, there was some sections where it potentially felt like alternately 3/4 and 2/4 bars, but that's probably overcomplicating it. The meter sort of reminds me of radiohead pyramid song, which is 4/4 as well but doesn't feel like it due to the odd note lengths and the chord changes keep moving around.

Nice tune!

[wagtunes]

It's 4/4 with swung triplet feel, to my counting. At the start, there was some sections where it potentially felt like alternately 3/4 and 2/4 bars, but that's probably overcomplicating it. The meter sort of reminds me of radiohead pyramid song, which is 4/4 as well but doesn't feel like it due to the odd note lengths and the chord changes keep moving around.

Nice tune!

Thanks for the listen and the feedback. Yeah, all I know is that the rhythm isn't straight. Whenever I attempt stuff like that, it's always tough for me.

[Allomerus]

Now you are getting into Prog time signatures. Beatles style vocals with King Crimson rhythms!
Cool sax.
Well done.

[wagtunes]

Now you are getting into Prog time signatures. Beatles style vocals with King Crimson rhythms!
Cool sax.
Well done.

And let me tell you, that was rough. LOL

Thanks for the listen and the feedback. Much appreciated as always.

[aaron aardvark]

wagtunes,
"Crash and Burn": This is an unusual beat for you. Nice to mix it up a bit once in a while, right? It has an 80's vibe, which is fine by me. Audio quality is very good. Vocals fit nicely. Hey, nice sax! Very nice melodies per usual. Everything instrumentally sound very good too! Nice song!

[wagtunes]

wagtunes,
"Crash and Burn": This is an unusual beat for you. Nice to mix it up a bit once in a while, right? It has an 80's vibe, which is fine by me. Audio quality is very good. Vocals fit nicely. Hey, nice sax! Very nice melodies per usual. Everything instrumentally sound very good too! Nice song!

Hey Aaron, is it that time again? Wil check out your new stuff ASAP. Thanks for the listen and feedback. Much appreciated. This song was a real challenge for me.

Catch you in a bit on your thread.

[aaron aardvark]

wagtunes,
Now listening to "Yellow Brick Road": very cool intro with sitar. I own Native Instruments "India", but I have lots of trouble making NI stuff work in Kontakt. I have the sheet music book for the entire "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album(s), but I never mastered any of the songs. I have played "Funeral For a Friend" a million times starting in the 70's, but only play a fraction of it decently. Never was very good at reading sheet music, even with 5 years of piano lessons. Haven't read sheet music or played real piano in years. Without your vocals (real or synthetic) and your piano you often use, I'd never think, "that's clearly a wagtunes song!" But it doesn't matter because it sounds really good! Very nice melodies (per usual) and excellent audio quality.