LH Tribute - Let's Rock !!!!!

[Cheza]

There's actually a teacher in-service on songwriting this summer. I really want to go.

[starcrossed]

You should!

[Sharon (sdbrins)]

Well this is the first chance I have had to stop by and read some of the writing you guys have done and all I can say is, wonderful

You are doing such great stuff. I too have been really busy lately. If I come up with anything worth posting I will bring it here, but I know there is no shortage of talent here.

Keep up the great work, love it!

Sharon

[bostongirl]

Star - amazing work, keep it coming. This is fun and everyone can contribute as much and as often as they would like.

Sharon - everything is worth contributing. So give it a shot. You are with you family here

[starcrossed]

Thank you Boston. I have another one in the works...I also have a lot of random lines. I will post the lines in case they can be of any help. Just give me a little time, and I will clean them up.

[hammeredham]

And believe it or not, NancyBBE has pointed out to me that there is a "Songwriting for Dummies" book that is now out !!!! While some people tend to look down on the titles, many of these books are really quite informative and useful.

HH

[hammeredham]

Now back to "the project".......

Question: do we have any singing ladies who have singing female friends who can do an "Andrews Sisters" sort of sound? I have a concept for an opening for this which takes us back into the time frame of Chicago of the 20's/30's/40's with a touch of the prohibition era. Imagine the sounds of people walking down a street with cars going by, the usual sort of ambient street sounds........they head down an alley and towards a "speakeasy" which features not only the outlawed booze but of course, musical entertainment as well. Some ambient sounds of the "club" and the ladies take the stage to sing the intro piece before *our* performers take center stage.

Yeah - it *begs* for video. That is an incredibly intriguing idea, although one that complicates things a bit. Gotta ruminate a bit on that, and in the meantime just work on the main songs themselves although I will be spending some time with my intro concept piece.

HH

[hammeredham]

OK, here's a possibly useful utility if at any point we feel the need to do an audio real-time conference. It is called Skype; do a search on it on the web. I think the URL was just www.skype.com. I have signed up for it and will be testing it out. Don't know just how good the audio quality of it is at this point. One of the main attractions to this is that it allows for conferencing and for our project that could be useful indeed.

HH

[bostongirl]

Hi HH,

I broke down recently and purchased a book on song writing. I am an addict on learning through others and through empirical experiences. I never think there is any harm in learning. Does not mean that you have to agree or follow everything.


I like your idea about the opening with the female vocals. I think we might entertain a video after the fact. May be fun.

I will look into the conference calling. I already have a conference calling account with a major carrier. I think I have had up to 100 people on a call. We could do a "We are the world" type thing ;D ;D ;D. Not sure how the audio would come out over the phone, but worth a try (for your idea). And not sure what this technology is, but will look into it. I was also looking at software on the internet where we could overlay separate mp3 tracks. All new to me, but since I cannot hold a tune in a bucket and only know how to play the tenor sax, that sort of leaves me with writing, organizing, and technology.

I am going to invite our friends on lh.com to join us in this adventure. Plan to post that later today. Should be fun. We all have the same love for the band and since this is for the entire band, I think it is the right thing to do.

I have some more lyrics I will post this week. Not quite happy with them yet. Hope to hear from others soon. Please don't be shy. None of us are professionals at this. Just good people trying to show our appreciation and love for one extraordinary band. I promise to keep this project safe and a fun place for everyone to participate.

So let's rock everyone.
And BTW- waiting to hear from the musicians who can help create the melody when we are ready. We just need your talent, we will figure out the technology and how to integrate everything, as we go.

Boston

[hammeredham]

BG - phone lines are *lousy* for quality audio, in general. Skype is a form of VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) which in a nutshell means you're converting audio (analog) into part of the digital stream that a modem (whether it is an old 56K, or DSL or cable modem) sends/receives. As with most things, I'm guessing that the faster your connection is, the better your quality will be.........to a point; I suspect that a fast computer with plenty of memory in it will also yield the best results. Good sound card will also help, I'm sure. I may have some troubles on that score, because my motherboard (while quick and plenty of memory) was short on expansion slots. No soundcard! Using the audio stuff on the motherboard which is OK but could be a lot better.

I still have to do some experimenting on Skype but I have already been able to connect to the test "phone" they have on line with no troubles. Sounded pretty good. So if I can get sound OUT that is decent, that will be more good. ;D

You can talk Skype-to-Skype for free; if you want to go off to connect to regular phones you pay........obviously, with computers we probably all have the capability to avoid regular phones. For those who don't have mixing boards and sound gear, companies like Logitech make USB enabled headsets that are marked Skype compatible for not a huge amount of cash (looks like you can get one for 30 to 50 bucks, model and quality dependant) at a number of large retailers. Ya download the Skype software, plug-n-play the headset and you're pretty much ready to go.......barring "issues" that is. The website has a fair amount of material on how to set things up so it looks like it oughta work for most people.

IFFFFF the quality is good enough, those of us with outboard sound gear may indeed be able to do some live musical work - won't know until we try.

So at the very minimum, planning via conference is there and if audio quality isn't great, demo-quality stuff might be workable. For real-time work, it's hard to beat the price.

HH

[LMC]

bostongirl i think i have a software that lets me overlay mp3's...let me mess around with it & i'll let you know

[hammeredham]

lmc said:

bostongirl i think i have a software that lets me overlay mp3's...let me mess around with it & i'll let you know

Entirely possible - there are some nifty little DJ stations out there that let you plug in a pair of mp3 players (like old vinyl turntables) and then mix from there. Would not at all surprise me to see software to do the same thing on a computer. Let us know what you've got............

HH

[hammeredham]

It occurs to me that when I wrote earlier about looking for female singers to do an "Andrews Sisters" kind of thing that possibly not everyone here gets the reference. They were a popular act in the WW2 era. Check out www.cmgww.com/music/andrews/ for more info. There are some clips there that you can play that will give you an idea of the kind of harmony work they were famous for.......they are analterably linked with popular music of that era just like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and others. What I wouldn't give to be able to travel back in time with a modern digital recorder to get some really great recordings of some of those folks......

HH

[Treed]

HH - you are definitely taking this tribute to the next level - How awesome !

that you are mixing in that great 40's sound - should be a great sound when it's combined. Hmmm, maybe Kyle that did the Christmas video could put a 40's spin on it - in sepia maybe.

Once again the Hammerheads are putting it all together - so incredibly cool!

[starcrossed]

Thank you HH! I googled the Andrew Sisters late last night...I love that era.

[bostongirl]

HH - thanks for the explanation.
LMC - Thanks, let me know what you find out.
Since we are going to create 4 songs, and i am hoping we have 4 groups/teams working on it, I am sure that we will be using different technology. I am still in the process of gathering the 4 musical groups. I do love the idea of the Andrew Sisters. This thing is going to be awesome.
We need more lyrics input for our 4 friends. Let's get those ideas rolling.
I did not have time today to post to lh.com. Definitely will make time to do that tomorrow. I know there are more musicians over there.
This is going to be fun.

Boston

[starcrossed]

Great work Boston!!!

[starcrossed]

Just cleaning up a few more things...I think I feel more comfortable with my Marty lyrics. I should study the other guys more...lol.

Sure my husband would love to hear that. "Honey, don't mind me. Just watching the dvd once more to check out the guys.".....lol

[starcrossed]

Boston, do you also want random lines? Can you use them? or is it best to make a complete song for you?...I know that they are going to be pieced together. Just trying to make this easy for you.

[bostongirl]

Hi Star - If you have random lines, please post. I am not expecting for folks to feel like they need to write a complete song.

I think that time we will be able to better harmonize the words and melody, so it will be more cohesive. I am sure that we will use pieces and make changes to make it all work together.

Hoping to see others post also. We are just getting started