My friend, vocalist Angela Molineux, dropped by my place in between her trips to New York and London, and we recorded an original song called I Need More.
We wrote this song around three years ago, and it has been good to let time pass and see how we grew musically since then. I would describe this song as jazz/pop – listen closely for the “Pretty Bunny” line!
Last weekend I wrote a new song, it’s called I Spy, and it starts off with a “haunting minor” mysterious opening, builds some tension, and then has a cool major-7 bridge section which I really like.
I made a recording of it which you can view in the Youtube video player below or view on Youtube directly by clicking here. At the end of the video I pick up the microphone and give a short musical discussion about the melody and chords.
I got a Macbook and am trying to learn how to use the audio software on it. So far I am pretty much a newbie. Here is my first “track” that I created using the Macbook. It’s a very quickly put together version of a cool original tune “Surprise Peas” which I would like to record properly someday! Please excuse the cheesy midi instruments. Mmm cheese.
> Surprise Peas – MP3 time 1:43. Original song by Geoff Peters 2008.
Last summer I attended the Victoria Conservatory’s jazz workshop and one of the highlights was taking some classes with New York jazz pianist Misha Piatigorsky. One of the exercises of the composition class involved making up some chords to a melody, and can you believe it, the song from that exercise is still stuck in my head (or at least it decided to pop into my musical consciousness again tonight).
So here is what I remember, and I’ll call the tune “Misha’s Song”. I made a little recording and you can listen to it by clicking below. Comments are always appreciated!!
Here are a couple new recordings that I made on my keyboard, that I’d like to share with you!
The first one is an original composition I wrote a couple weeks ago called “Happy Song for You” (click here to listen). It’s an uplifting pop ballad with some “triumphant” chords.
Tonight I wrote a new piece, called “A Horrible Accident”. Thankfully no horrible accident actually happened for me lately. This melody really jumped out at me (it’s kind of classical), and I’m sure I’ve heard it before. I put some mysterious chords underneath and a simple major bridge to tie things together.
Please click below to listen, and let me know what you think!
I wrote a classical-sounding piano piece, Lament, that is quite moody and reminds me a little bit of Beethoven and Chopin. (Click here to listen.)
Wikipedia says, “A lament is a song or poem expressing grief, regret or mourning.” I sat down and thought I would try to write something jazzy, maybe inspired by some of the great jazz I saw in the Vancouver Jazz Festival, but for some reason I was attracted to the sounds of minor and diminished chords. Some classical piano pieces which have had an influence on my music are the Beethoven piano Sonatas (especially the Appassionata) and the Chopin Ballades.
Please click below to listen to my piece, Lament, and let me know what you think! It’s recorded in stereo for your listening pleasure.
