PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Helping Hands

Hello,

My name is Al, I'm from California, and this is my first submission to the group: Helping Hands.

I should warn you that, until very recently, I was a total beginner when it comes to producing songs. I had just a little idea of what recording a song on a computer was. I bought Reaper last year but, but being a just-mediocre rhythm guitar player and a truly horrendous singer, I had not been able to put together any music that anybody, except my dogs, could even tolerate. Being a total newbie to recording, the whole process was way above my pay grade (MIDI, VSTs, mixing? What the heck was all that?).

But then I purchased BIAB a few months ago, and it's has been nothing short of a dream-come-true to me. For years and years (decades, actually), I have always had these melodies lurking somewhere inside my brain, with no real way of communicating them. Literally, BIAB has enabled me to play music that before I could only dream about. I had this thing called life happening to me (wife, kids, grandkids, work...) and for too long I didn't have the time, means and resources to dedicate to my music. But after more than 40 years of work, I have now retired, finally (finally!!) have some time to dedicate to my music, and BIAB has been a marvelous tool to put it into reality. And I'm loving it!!!

The song I'm submitting today is my latest; my song creation process had been put off for the last 2-3 months while I was helping my son with his new business, but I dreamed of this song one night a couple of weeks ago, and decided to breathe life into it. If you feel adventurous enough, I have about 25 other songs on my Soundcloud Page which I created once I came acquainted with BIAB. My musical tastes are wide and broad, so there are Country, Blues, Rock, Classical and even Latin melodies there.

All my songs have been created entirely within BIAB, using my keyboard (my computer keyboard, that is) as my instrument. Since I can't play a piano keyboard (yep, I suck at that too), BIAB's piano roll has become my best musical friend. :o)

I have only shared my songs with my family and small circle of friends so far, but I've been following these forums for a while and developed a great deal of respect for you guys and gals as musicians, so I feel you'll be great judges of my efforts. As a matter of fact, I waited until now to submit any of my songs because I felt a little intimidated by your level of expertise, like a freshman entering a room full of seniors for the first time. But I also noticed that you are most polite and understanding with each other, so I finally took the courage to jump-in.

I would really love to receive your comments and feedback. Sorry for the long rant, and thank you very much for your time.
Al

Al,

We apparently crossed paths (I posted in your post in Off Topics).

I enjoyed your song. It is nicely done. The lead (melody) is quite well done - did you input that manually? Excellent mix...

Welcome to the Showcase! I'm sure you'll have a great time here...

floyd

Thank you, Floyd.
Yes, the melody was manually input via my PC keyboard on the piano roll screen.
Best regards,
Al

Pretty music!! The program has been a dream come true for me as well. Amazing what you can put together with all the great tracks. Keep posting! Take care. Greg

Hi Al,

welcome to the forum and congrats on your
retirement. I liked the way you introduced yourself.
A really nice first submission.
Enjoyable listen.

Guenter

Welcome aboard. We enjoyed the introduction also.
Inputing that via the keyboard is impressive but it
really stands on it's own. A very pretty melody.

We enjoyed it.

J&B

Nice work indeed, Al.

I'm relatively new here myself, but I think the gang here is more than welcoming.

Thanks for the music,
Dan

Hello Al,

welcome to the forum! A good thing you took the trouble to introducing yourself that's appreciated.
The song is nicely done, we like both the arrangement and the lead Melodies.
We are sure you'll find lots and lots of inspiration in this beautiful program.

Rob & Anne-Marie

Musico,

Welcome to the forum and to the User Showcase. Enjoyed reading your back story and feel a kinship through it. I'm glad you're enjoying BiaB so much. You are a quick learner.

I've listened to six or seven of your songs so far and enjoyed them all. I would appreciate you elaborating some of how you use the QWERTY keyboard and piano roll to create your melodies.

Hello Musico.
We have two things in common.
I also am a mediocre rhythm guitar player and I also use Reaper.
However I don't have a dog to torment.
Think my chickens are tone deaf.
You have done a wonderful job here for a beginner.
The only way is up.
Would love to hear this with some vocals added.
Plenty of light and shade in the mix.
Very well done and welcome.
Rob.

Floyd, Rob & Anne-Marie, Janice & Bud, Rob, Dan, Guenter, Trev, Greg and Danny,

Thank you very much for your warm welcomes and kind comments. You can't imagine how much I appreciate your words.

Jim,
Answering your question on how I use my computer keyboard to create my melodies in BIAB:
I find the notes for the tune on my acoustic guitar and "transport" them, one by one, to the piano roll. I use ctrl-shift-leftclick to insert the notes one after another, and then I alter them as required by the tune, using the options that appear when you hover your mouse over the notes; for example, I make them longer (i.e., wider) or shorter, or move them up or down as necessary. I also left-click on the notes to verify that they sound as expected.
After I've completed a few bars, I usually copy and paste (duplicate) the segment into the following bars, so I don't need to start from scratch creating notes every time (I just need to move them around). When I have at least 8 or 16 bars done, I start searching for a BIAB style that most closely resembles the melody that I have in my head, and adjust the notes as necessary.
Then, I continue creating the rest of the bars until I have a complete draft of my song. And finally, I go back and adjust the individual notes, over and over again, until it all sounds as I envisioned it. It's not a complex process per-se, but labor intensive indeed. A true labor of love.
I do this for all melody parts, and sometime for other instruments as well. For example, that's how I create the bass part in Love It Or Leave It, where I needed the bass to play a determined part.
Hope I knew how to explain myself, Jim. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.

Thanks again to you guys and gals, and to everyone else who kindly took their time to listening to my songs.
Al

Welcome to the forum. I read the comments first, from last to first so by the time I reached your introduction post and first submission, I was pretty anxious to both read your story and hear your song. Neither disappointed.

Your story is familiar to a good many of us on the forum so you are definitely in friendly, understanding company.

You did a good job on your mix, arrangement and production of your song and the melody performance was quite nice.

Hopefully retirement will grant you the time to get all of those suppressed melodies out of your head and onto the forum here.

Enjoyed your song and looking to hear more soon.

Charlie