My friend, singer and songwriter Angela Molineux and I recorded another song last night, “Casta Diva”. It’s an emotional song that blends the genres of pop and classical in the form of “classical crossover”.
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.
My friend Gio Escueta wrote an emotional pop song called Lonely Days and we recorded a performance of it in a Youtube video last night. (I’m playing piano in the video and Gio is singing).
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!!
I spent Sunday afternoon having a jam session on piano with my brother Byron (drums) and friend Jason (bass). This was the first time we had played together and it was a lot of fun. I made a recording of our jam and have made the Mp3′s freely available to download (please click here).
Of course, being a jam session, these recordings are not studio quality and are not our “best”, but they will give you an idea of the kind of energy and musical ideas that we had going during our session. The consensus among the band members was that it was really fun!!
Regarding the tracks we played, I think Voyage is the most “polished” sounding, as I know the tune quite well. The other tunes I sort-of knew but I managed to fake it most of the time. We need to work on our endings!! Blue Monk was really fun, I tried playing in a “rough” style maybe influenced a bit by Thelonious Monk. There is also a recording of a new original tune of mine, Warm Day, which I wrote while taking a composition class with New York Jazz pianist Misha Piatigorsky.
This recording was made using a consumer-model Sony Hi-MD Minidisc player/recorder and a Sony stereo condenser microphone. The total cost of the recording equipment is less than $500. Considering the low cost of the equipment, the sound quality is not bad! I have written an article that describes how I made this recording using Minidisc (please click here).
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.
