PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase DNA

Background:
We watch Finding Your Roots on PBS from time to time and this was inspired by that program. The instrumental uses a minimum of BiaB (drums only) and I’m not sure how many chords it has. I’m thinking two. There is no chorus or bridge and my goal was to invoke a sense of ants marching in a line.

Technicals:
90 BPM and mixed in Studio One

BiaB:
RealDrums in style:BluesRockFunky16ths^3-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Busy Snare, Ride

Me:
Electric Bass
Studio One Drum Sequencer (Hi Hat)
Korg Keyboard
1. Flute
2. Nylon Guitar
3. Grand Piano
4. Synth
5. Bells
6. Choir Voices

DNA

Poem:
Deoxyribonucleic acid, much better known as DNA
Affects you as a person, every year and every day

In 1869 a Swiss doctor first isolated it from surgical bandages
After deductive reasoning, much hard work and scientific practices

Then Watson, Crick, Gosling and Franklin came along in ‘51
Establishing microbiology with a Nobel Prize they had won

The double helix, so beautiful and unique
Fundamental to life, so intelligent, so sleek

Common in every cell you will ever grow
Hair and muscle and the blood that flows

Far more than just a polymer or chemistry on a shelf
It’s smart enough to replicate and even repair itself

Not entirely perfect and it can make mistakes
But it does its best on land in rivers, oceans and lakes

It wants to live and strives to survive
Yet I wonder if it knows it’s alive

Some from your parents and relatives you never knew
A family heritage and bio-chemical brew

Like a column of ants marching straight in a line
DNA moves backward and forward thru space and time

We can trace it back thousands of years from a very small sample
From people and reptiles and plants for example

Letters and words and finally your biography
Much more elegant than simple photography

Tweaking it could cure cancer or cause great harm
Let’s proceed carefully and not bet the farm

Is it thriving elsewhere in our galaxy we can’t yet say
But if it is, I’d bet it’s made of T’s, C’s, G’s and A’s

I like the simplicity of your song, it's kind of mesmerizing.

After the math song, you could offer online courses to get people interested in science who wouldn't otherwise be interested.

The obvious chords for your song would be C, G, A, and T, but that last one is really hard to play. Most musicians don't even know it!

Hi Bass Thumper,

I like the constant drone you have happening underneath with the changing elements on top to keep things interesting.

Bass sounds great, and I like the melody on the flute.

Your poem would work well as a spoken word thing happening on top of the music I think.

I enjoy listening to your work, keep them coming!

A terrific bed of bass drums and that blowing synth.
Everything on top belongs becasue the bed is well made.
COOL.

Hey BD, thanks for the listen and comment. I'm flattered by the online course idea but I'm having too much fun making music with BiaB. However, I do hope that somehow and by chance that somewhere young people will decide to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) as a career in large numbers. At least here in the States young folk (generally speaking) are not interested. The number of very large global problems continue to grow, including the potential for WWIII. We need a full pipeline of young, sharp minds to solve today's and tomorrow's problems.

And I like your sense of humor, that "T" chord might be a tad hard to play

"Marching Ants" is a term in Photoshop. hehe. Very cool, Steve. This tune develops much like I'd imagine a strand of DNA would, always building to that wonderful potential. Sounds like a factory of life, not the corporate kind; for them the music would be much faster. This tune very cool indeed!


HAHAHAHAHAHAH

Hey Dave, I really appreciate your kind comments. It's funny how you and others describe my work in terms that make total sense but that I don't realize while producing it. "Constant drone" is a good example. I just try to communicate musically in ways that make sense to me and hope that something I do might make sense to others.

Maybe Vic will volunteer to speak some of the poem . . . he has a great voice.

Hey Ray, thanks so much for the listen and analysis. "Blowing synth" is another great descriptor.
It's fun to think about all the struggles, triumpths, random happenings and ancestors that contributed to the DNA you now have.

Hey Marty, I wasn't aware of the Photoshop connection, I'll have to look that up.

A developing strand of DNA is a wonderful thing indeed.

Thanks as always for your listen and articulate replies. You have a skill in descibing the works of others that I wish I had.

I like the idea to combine science, poetry and music. This instrumental has organized structure and sounds organic. Clever usage of instruments, hypnotic bass and nice mood created with synths, the flute fits well. You surely have captured the marching ants. I like your beautiful and thought-provoking poem. "It wants to live and strives to survive/Yet I wonder if it knows it’s alive", very profound, I once read about DNA being a conscious living entity, but I haven't thought about its implications yet, maybe I'll write my own DNA song when I have figured it out

Janne

Bass Thumper.
Tastefully, simplistic Cool idea and execution.
I double Dave on:
"Your poem would work well as a spoken word thing happening on top of the music"

Actually that what I was expecting to happen before I read Dave's comment. Good mix. Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Neat bit of music!

I enjoyed the poem as well, although I'm sure you know that neither Gosling nor Franklin received a Nobel prize.

Bass Thumper,

It's quite a courageous choice to stick through the whole with only two chords, D and Gm.
I listened to it until the end without getting tired of it.
There are clever tricks here and there to keep the audience from getting bored.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Hey Jannne, many thanks for the listen and kind words.

I haven't heard about any theory that says DNA is conscious, I thought I conceived that idea (from an artistic/poetic perspective). Oh well, such is life

Hmmmm, here is an equation that you prompted: science + poetry + music = ? . . . . hopefuly not noise!

Thanks Rusty. I wish my DNA allowed me to have a pleasing voice
--Thump

Steve, IMHO this is your best to date.
Your ability to compose has risen extremely fast as you are composing some fantastic music lately which each song better than the previous song.

I love the groove and feel of this one..brilliant work!
Super dynamics also.

You wrote "However, I do hope that somehow and by chance that somewhere young people will decide to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) as a career in large numbers. At least here in the States young folk (generally speaking) are not interested. The number of very large global problems continue to grow, including the potential for WWIII. We need a full pipeline of young, sharp minds to solve today's and tomorrow's problems.

And I like your sense of humor, that "T" chord might be a tad hard to play"

They are not required to take science or engineering and do not have to pass math. When I went to school many many years ago we had to take and pass some math and some science classes. If you failed you had to take it over again and pass in order to graduate. THAT is what is missing in our schools today.

Also a lot and thankfully not all of young people are not self starters and are lazy. They are used to getting trophies for just participating.

BTW, the T chord isn't that hard. All it takes is three bagpipe players all playing in different keys! Of course you never know what key a bagpipe is playing in in the first place - ducking and running for cover

Thanks David, I sort of knew Gosling and Franklin didn't win the Nobel. Don't know the details but I understand it is/was a controversy.

I guess I took some artistic liberty in including them in the same phrase as Watson and Crick to at least show they participated. You are right.

Hey Shigeki, many thanks for the listen and comments.

I'm relatively new to music and until 10 minutes ago I didn't know the chords I played on the keyboard (Nylon Guitar). I just hunted and pecked until something sounded good to me. You can hear this most clearly in the intro after the flute.

Here is what I played. I looked up the chords from here

https://www.scales-chords.com/chord-namer/?notes=D;A;A%23&key=&bass=

D F# A - Dmaj
D G A - Dsus4
D A A# - A#maj7

Thanks for triggering me to look these up.

Hey Mario, as usual you've given me much to respond to.

First, thanks so much for the listen and kind words. You may not know this but I have learned SO much just from listening to your compositions; not to mention your insights.

Second, You are spot on regarding US education. I too had to take and PASS mandatory courses in high school and college. If you flunked, you repeated, and if you don't repeat you didn't graduate. Pretty simple and appropriate but not so today.

The good news for us is that we have and can rely on technically educated and highly motivated young folk from other countries to design our next generation medical devices, transportation systems, weapons, etc. For example, with world events as they are we need smart "youngsters" to develop high-engery particle weapons capable of destroying ICBMs in their boost phase. This way Putin has got very little to threaten the world with. That said, we need hundreds and hundreds more engineers and scientists to enter the workforce every year than we currently have. Babyboomers are retiring left and right.

I happen to be born here but have worked with brilliant engineers and scientists from Israel, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Austraila, Germany, Bangledesh, India and elsewhere. And often their English is better that the "home-growns". Our K-12 system is amoung the worst worldwide but thankfully our College and University system is amoung the best. Go figure. 40 or so years ago, the crem de la crem would come here, get their college degrees and then go back home. Iran is a good example. I had many Iranian classmates in college, many if not all have gone back home with their degrees to support Iranian technology. The Iranian drones that are now killing Ukranians is only one result. Another is their nuclear program. But now, for a variety of reasons, more and more are choosing to stay here, plant roots and contribute to our tech economy. I just hope we can remain an attractive place for such people going forward. My primary doctor was not born here and he is top shelf and a hell of a nice guy.

Third, you gave me a good laugh about the 3 "deaf and blind" bagpipe players playing a T chord . . . Just a joke. For you bag players we love ya !

BassThumper:

Really interesting listen . . . I wasn’t sure what to make of it as I began listening . . . and to be honest, three minutes in, I’m still not. But it is, as BD said above, mesmerizing . . . you just kind of keep listening to it. And the subtle changes in new introduced sounds keeps the listener intrigued to hear what comes next . . . or me at least. Not sure if it’s quite my thing ultimately, but I’m glad I listened to it. Very creative work!

All my best to you,

Deej