Ok here goes. First ever (part) song posted here, so please be gentle!

Song to Mum

Note: This is a couple of excerpts from the song adding up to about 5 mins. The second excerpts starts at around 3 min 55 seconds. See details below for an explanation why the whole song isn’t here.

I had the tune ready pretty quickly but have been writing the lyrics for a couple of months. I decided to bring in BIAB to help with the backing track and speed that side of things up. I have written a few songs over the years but nothing major. In the last year I have been recording lots of covers in Sonar to get up to speed with using it. The question was - what to write for my first major song?

So I decided to write a song about and dedicated to my Mum who is 88 and still going strong. I captured many of my own memories and ideas and also from my three sisters and, of course, from Mum. I decided to write it in chronological order so the song progresses from her birth through to current times.

It starts with a small extract of Chopin (Nocturne No9) as this was a piece that she used to play on piano and practice ballet to. I took the first 15 bars of a MIDI file of this and transposed it up a semitone from Eb to E to match the rest of the song. I have not included it here in case of copyright problems (does anyone know if it would be ok?).

I haven’t posted the whole song here for a number of reasons:-
- It isn’t finished and is already 15 minutes long but will be close to 20 minutes when finished. I guess there are a lot of memories for someone who is 88!
- It is obviously quite a personal song and many of the memories won’t mean much to anyone other than me, my Mum and close family.
- Because of the above it might become boring to other listeners so an excerpt seemed more appropriate. I have posted the first 4 minutes and the break later on in the song.

It’s a rough mix as I am still deaf in my left ear after getting an infection at Christmas.

Here’s the info about the song:
****** Song Summary *************
Key=E , Tempo 68 bpm
No Melody
No Soloist track.
Style is =BAL85_F.STY (Ctry Bal., fpk guit. (85 RT))
BassCustom Synth is Hi-Q 034 01 Bass, Electric, 61 Classic SampleTank.tgs
PianoCustom Synth is Hi-Q 001 01 Piano, Acoustic, Grand SampleTank.tgs
StringsCustom Synth is Hi-Q 050 01 Strings, Ensemble, Movie SampleTank.tgs
Style MIDI Instruments are : Finger Electric Bass (34), Acoustic Piano (1), Slow Strings (50),
RealTracks in style: ~~364:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 065
RealDrums in style: NashvilleEven8^2-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat
*******************

****** Other tracks added in Sonar ***********
- Chopin Intro from MIDI file (not present in excerpt)
- Vocals – need some rework in places due to having a cold
- Electric Guitar solo (around 3m 40s)
- Electric Guitar backing (from 3m 24s)
- French Horns backing (from 3m 24s)
- Piccolo between verse and chorus
- SFX – Air raid noises, speech, bombing
*******************

BIAB 2022 UltraPAK, CbB, Studio One 5 Pro, Fender USA Tele, Harley Benton Fusion & others.