poor windy quality snippet

but imperfection,

welcome

Alison, whose taste in music I trust blindly and without exception, introduced me to Bruno Major the other week: incidentally, also to Eloise. She (Eloise) did this incredible Vulfpeck cover that I can’t get out of my head; my clumsy, lullaby version strumming can’t even begin to compare, so don’t listen to them back to back :)

You’ve got a slipping grip on fast forward

Toward an ending you wrote

Where good defeats evil

And you called yourself the villain

Working on some new songs. 

Tocar el piano es prestar más atención a la música. Thanks to Kimbra for making me think more about my music. Inspired by the Golden Echo and revved up for Primal Heart, playing around with the 18th. That resolved C though.

The king is the king.

Lalalalaa. Playing around with brooding lyrics and and hopeful melodies.

Been playing a lot lately, maybe compensating for the lack of piano. One of many reasons I should visit Aboo more often.

Odd to firmly say, "I'm a young man after all." I like the effect of the switch anyway.

My solo choice for our improbable Holiday EP.

I feel quite Brooklyn playing the ukulele.

Alex brought over his uke for me since I’ve been meaning to learn to play. It’s such instant gratification: at any time I’m four chords away from feeling like I have musical prowess! I have a long long way to go to improve my fingering and strumming. Until then, here’s one from Her that James taught me.

In my mind this (as with pretty much most songs) has a 50s jazz swing and is backed by a 21st century pop band. I’d harmonize with Ella Fitzgerald and Justin Timberlake. It all makes perfect sense.

I got carried away while cleaning the kitchen once.

Meghan Trainor is a goddess, her style makes retro relevant again, and the timbre and range of her voice is amazing. And more power to her that she can be a role-model for positive body image. I am a fan.

And when I figured out the chord progression to My Selfish Heart the other night, I wasn’t even disappointed to find out that pretty much the entirety of Title (her debut album) can be played with those same four chords. Because a) what pop song can’t? And b) I can now play all of Meghan Trainor’s songs on the piano! I recorded this discovery immediately on my phone, which is what I’ve attached above.

Stuck in my head today.

While this isn’t a new recording, the autotune is a new addition. Sifting through files, I uncovered this snapping cover from a couple of years back. The key limiting roughs out some of the edges of the old phone recording, and it only bleeps out that one ‘have’ (in the original I didn’t quite hit it…), but the effect is so overdone that I actually kinda like it. Missing my snazzy Yeti and dreaming of non-generic sound-editing software.

Zedd’s new album is catchy. This is from my favorite track.

Couldn’t quiet the clacking ivory keys.

If I think too hard about the notes I’m trying to play, I forget them. As a result, I often need to trick my hands into remembering how a song is played (like with this one that I learned back in beginner piano lessons).

Then after, I just started joking around and recorded it.

Improv-ing a edit, of sorts.

In our whirlwind three-day summer juntos, we threw together this messy, uke cover of a Young the Giant favorite of mine.

James tells me that it sounds like a “Jess song.”
I have no idea what that means.

As he drove, I sat queuing up songs to play. Although I have broad tastes in music, I have a particular affinity for top forty hits and tweeny pop. And I had a moderate case of what I’ll call ‘Jukebox Syndrome’: a kind of phobia of being in charge of putting on music for others or a crowd of people. I’d get wrapped up in trying to pick the kinds of songs that I’d think listeners would like. Plus, the more people there were, the more likely I would be at a loss for picking just the right songs (it becomes increasingly difficult to appease everyone simultaneously).

So we were sitting in the car, a wave of Jukebox Syndrome was hitting me with full-force, and I was at a loss. I explained this all to him. And my dad turned to me and said “Just play whatever music you like. And if people complain, who cares? You can like whatever music you want, and they can get over it.”

I’m now twenty years old, and I do not think I am above being a One Direction fan. Their profession is entertainment, they are vocally talented, and above all else, they harmonize.

And I’m so excited to be jamming on my brand new mic.