This is my submission for the jazz category in the PAK5-contest.

https://soundcloud.com/user-656274325/happiness-in-the-key-of-g

Instead of playing the melody on top of the backing I have tried to imply the melody through the voicing of the chords. After many, many experiments with the voicing of chords and regenerations of tracks, this is what I ended up with.


Style is _SMOOTHY

RealTracks used:

908: Bass, Electric, SmoothBallad
2808: Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm, SoulfulPop
1072: Guitar, Electric, Rhythm, SmoothJazzBallad
1543: Synth Pad, PopBelieve

RealDrums: SmoothCoolBrushes

I hope some of you will the enjoy the tune!
Will

Will this is fantastic. I really like the way you wove the chord voicings into leads. This was an excellent idea that was executed to perfection. Great work!

Hi Will, thanks for sharing! I really enjoyed the overall vibe of this and enjoyed the overall chord progression. The piano is a great touch. Well done!

Thank you very much, Mario.

Perfection is a big word - I am sure that other and more talented people than me could have done it better.

I got inspired - or maybe challenged is a better word - from a post from somebody (I don't remember who) who said that it is not possible to use chords (or voicing of chords) in BiaB in this way, so I of course decided to try it myself. It takes a lot of work to do it, but I think it is possible.

Thanks for listening,
Will

Thank you very much, Joe!

Beautiful piece did you play the guitar ?.

This could so easily be on one of those instrumental cd discs.

Nice one.

I echo Mario! Excellent execution of your concept. I've thought about doing this also, but with bossa guitar tracks. The more I thought about it, the more I considered how many iterations would be necessary to get just the right sequence of background guitar phrases to be satisfying. Kudo's to you for putting in the work, being patient, and having good discrimination and judgement about how to "knit" together all the iterative phrases to get to this. Really shows that, hidden in BIAB's RT"s there is real gold!

I think that the 'piano' portion of the track shows how difficult this concept can be to execute--I don't think that the piano RT's gave you as much of what you were looking for compared to the guitar.

The slow building up of the track is an example of understanding the 'architecture' of the track as it moves through time.

Thanks for this contribution, loved it!

Thanks, beatmaster. No, I didn't play anything myself - just wrote the piece and BiaB did all the hard work.

Hi Tano.

You are right. The piano wouldn't have worked standalone but I think it sounds okay together with the guitar and the synth.

Thank you for listening!
Will

This a lovely piece of music. Excellent style and instrument choices. Well done

Can't tell you how many times I've tried and abandoned what you are doing here coaxing a complete melody through chord changes. Not only have you succeeded, but you're coaxed out a lovely and well-structured melody. Also enjoyed the changes in dynamics throughout. Really enjoyed listening to this.

Thank you very much, Scott!

I really appreciate that you are taking time to listen to my music.

Will

Hi Tangmo,

Thank you for your kind words!

It was a fun experience, but also very frustrating at times. I was talking a lot to my computer "why do you go up an octave there... I didn't tell you do that" ...things like that.

I think it helps that I play guitar myself so I have a relatively good idea what the musician will do when I write a certain chord progression, but I don't think I could do it for other instruments (without using the piano roll).

Have a nice weekend!
Will

Now that's funny, Will.

Try this next time. "Computer, find chords with notes contained in the melody that's in my head. Arrange found chords into a musically pleasing progression. Adjust volume, length, and other metrics of said notes to match mental parameters."

One fine Star-Date, it will be possible. Until then, I greatly admire your dedication and experimentalism.

Lol "Adjust volume and length of said notes to match mental parameters" ... I love that!

Will try that on a certain star-date!

Ditto!! This tune really sings!! I'm going to have to play with that "band". Excellent!! Take care. Greg

Thank you Greg Johnson,

Much appreciated!
Will