Wishfull Thinking

You are a young pimple faced teenage nerd boy who is in love with the head cheerleader. You dream about her, work up your nerve, then ask her out, only to find out she is a real, well it rhymes with witch but starts with a capital B. She hates nerds. You fade away with your shattered dreams.

Now before anyone thinks this is based on my experiences I will tell you it is not. If you want to see the wife and my dating story just watch the original Grease movie. Yep I was a greaser with a leather jacket back then!

BiaB Style = Pop Ballad at T60 - Slow EV.16
Tempo - 60 BPM

I deleted the drums and replaced them with GrooveMonkee MIDI drum loops and I used Steven Slates SSD5 drum VSTi. I added a touch of Raum reverb on all but the kick drum.
Piano - keystone classic - preset piano - FX - PSP piano reverb
Strings - Kontakt - Artic Strings - FX Raum reverb
Guitar - Kontakt - Hybrid Keys - FX Raum reverb

I am playing the Swan Tenor sax via my wind controller. FX - Presonus Saturation Knob & Raum reverb,
my fake Tele through Amplitube preset Ambience SR,
my fretless bass through Amplitube preset SVX - pop chorus,
and the tambourine via my keyboard MIDI controller using Kontakt preset Brio Ensemble tambourine.

As usual all comments, good or bad, are welcomed.

Mario

Nice pleasant track. Always enjoy your sax parts and the guitar was a nice addition.
The backing was good and the repeated sax melody was nice.

Peter

Thanx Peter for listening and these very nice comments.

Hi Mario.

I assume the sax is the young man dreaming/desiring and suddenly at 1.55 the angry guitar (cleverly supported by piano stabs) represents his crushed ego. Then at 3.15 the sax returns to assure the young man that all is well with the world. At least that's how I interpreted this fine piece.

That sounds good to me. I had the lower sax as the teenager dreaming about the cheerleader, the higher sax telling her of his desires, the guitar as the B(itch) cheerleader, and the ending as him fading his dream into the sunset.

But your interpretation is very good also.

I find it very interesting how different people interpret instrumentals in different ways. All ways are good, just different.

Thanx for listening and the comments. I greatly appreciate them.

The title captures the mood of the music perfectly. Well done. Pleasant listen.

Hi Mario,

Yeah, the story-line certainly resonated with me - I was hopelessly shy until
playing in a band changed my confidence level and consequently my life.

No one captures a mood any better than you do and this is well up to the
standard I've come to expect from you. Nice playing and phrasing throughout.

Cheers,
ROG.

Mario,

Well done.

Nice job on the sax AND the guitar. They both tell a story...

Good mix. A very cinematic piece. Very much enjoyed the listen.

fj

Hi Mario,

Sax sounds great! Amazing that you are able to do that via a wind controller.

I also really like the drum sound you are getting, I'll need to check out that Slates drum VSTi (I use EZD2 here).

Also like the guitar work of course

Good instrumental!

In my ears the guitar sounds wounding, like a fight with the football player boyfriend I really enjoyed the sound of the dreaming sax, so smooth and wistful, well played. Nice to hear an instrumental which tells a story, even without your description.

Janne

Well, if you had been a guitar player in a band in high school, you would have had all the girls.... sadly, I was never in a band in school. That came later.

Cool interpretation of the work.

Nicely done.

Thanx for listening and commenting.

Thanx so much Rog for those outstanding comments.

Thanx so much Floyd.

Thanx Dave. A word of warning Slates SSD-5 in not a GM drum map. You will have to move drums around to get the right sound.

Thanx Janne. Your wounding comment is interesting. It never occurred to me until your message. Maybe she felt "wounded" when a nerd asked her out?

Herb, I was a guitar player in high school! I was also a greaser, l.e. leather jacket or a t-shirt with a pack of cigs rolled up in the sleeve! I had no trouble getting the girls!

I'm glad you liked the song.

PS - I forgot to mention those horseshoe taps I had on my boots!

Very cool evocative ballad. I especially enjoy your sax tone and melodic lines. Nice job!

hi mariod love the horn great job thanks eric

Mario, you never fail to amaze me with your abilities on the wind controller. Midi has always been and continues to be above my comprehension level. I am in awe of your knowledge of the subject. Your sax and guitar playing are a pleasure to listen to! Tom

Another great mood composition with your superb playing.
The guitar and sax combo work together so well.

There's a current thread on the songwriting forum about what constitutes an instrumental and what makes certain ones stand out. I suggest folks listen to a series of your posts for some excellent examples of the power of instrumentals.

Well done!

J&B

Thanx for listening and commenting.

Thanx Eric. I am trying to improve the sax sound as well as improve my technique.

Thanx so much for this rave review Tom. Thanx for the guitar comment because I am green with envy of your excellent chops.

Thanx for this wonderful review. I am very grateful for these outstanding comments.

I think you mean SWAM sax, unless you're playing a "swan song" ...

Nice storytelling - the guitar makes a nice contrast to the sax, and they're both well played and a sustain interest - even without the written explanation.

Love the wistful feel of the sax here.

You wind controller work is always a treat. Nice samples too.
Good work Mario - I still wear a leather jacket when I ride my motorcycle - went for a 30km ride yesterday. Although I've been riding since 1979 I didn't own a leather jacket until my wife bought me one in 87.
Nothing wrong with a Tele clone.
Lovely stuff.

Little bit of Acker Bilk going on melodically, nice job with this one. Sax tone is excellent. A few ornaments in your playing here and there will up the bar a lot. Keep it going!

I took a swan dive and that typo didn't I

Dave, that for the typo correction and these very nice comments.

Yes, one should wear leather when riding a motorcycle. Thanx for listening and commenting.

Thanx, I have been experimenting with the tenor sax tone. I'm glad that you noticed it. I am still trying to learn that wind controller.

Thanx for the nice comments.