Originally released on March 11, 2012

In this episode, I introduce myself and my musical background, and then talk about my composition “Rue’s Whistle” inspired by the Mockingjay Call from the Hunger Games soundtrack.

You can play the podcast using the play button below, or right-click on the “Download” link to save it to your computer.

Notes from the episode:

Fireside Chat podcast talking about movie trailer Rue’s Whistle on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQP_z1jbOs)

Nate Dean Ross (2026 video is now private) talking about movie trailer Rue’s Whistle on his YouTube channel

Originally posted on August 11, 2013

In this episode, I talk about and play two songs that I creating in the iOS app Figure: Lypasi and Do Re Mi. I also talked about Jenn and my participation in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 4.

My wife Jenn and I discovered Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs, and after seeing the first 3, we wanted to participate when the next one was available. When we got notified about it, we rehearsed our parts and recorded and submitted videos. Eric and his team edited and mixed the audio and produces a great video of VC4: Fly To Paradise.

During this process, I got ideas on how to mix V’Shamru, a song I arranged for choir or quartet, and I will try to get my parts recorded in the next month.

On the Home Recording Show, episode 166, they talked about different apps that were available on iPhones and iPads. Jon Tidey mentioned a great app by Propellerhead called Figure. It’s a simple but powerful app for making music. The songs are loops that are 2, 4, or 8 measures. You can record and edit a drum part (kick, snare, cymbal + one other part), a bass part, and a lead (synth) part. You create the part by drawing a figure in a rectangle while the song is playing or recording. You can modify the timbre of the parts using Tweaks. You can modify the key and tempo of the loop as well.

My son Logan likes to use this app as well. I played a couple of his songs. I made a video of him creating a song with Figure. I decided to take two of my songs from Figure and publish them.

On the first one, Lypasi, I exported a loop, and put it into Cubase where I added electric guitar parts and a shaker part.

On the second one, Do Re Mi, I recorded myself playing the loop, and live-changing a bunch of the settings to vary and extend the loop.

Figure is only $0.99 in the iTunes store, so I encourage everyone to try it. I’d love to hear what you’ve created. Send me an email to tsnivelymusic@gmail.com.

Originally posted on July 28, 2013

In this episode, I talk about three songs that I have re-mixed and re-released since the original episodes. I talk about my upcoming move, moving my studio to a new house, and my career change to work on music full time.

I got an email from Nicholas who is a music educator in New York City. He was interested in a version of Rue’s Whistle that did not have the sax solo on it. I mixed Rue’s Whistle and Fusion without the improvised solos and sent them to him to possibly use in his music camp this summer. The new versions are on the site in the Songs section.

It’s been 7 months since my last episode of Making My Own Music. I’ve been listening to a lot of Home Studio podcasts. My favorites are:

• Home Recording Show with Ryan Canestro and Jon Tidey
• Simply Recording Podcast with Joe Gilder and Graham Cochrane
• Ask Joe – also Joe Gilder
• Home Music Studio 1 with Dave Maxey

I’ve learned a lot in the last 7 months about ways I could improve my mixes. I decided to re-mix three of my songs, and re-release them.

For Revolution Fan Podcast Theme, I basically neatened the timing, especially the woodwinds.

For Fusion, I used digital noise reduction to remove a hiss that was underneath two of the ride cymbal tracks. I used EQ to improve the sax sound, and added a short delay on the sax to give it some more depth.

For A Teenager In Love, I removed the doubled vocals, and made the crash cymbals louder. In order to get the crash cymbals at the right volume level, I had to turn all of the other tracks down. This was a new mixing technique for me, and led to a mix that was not as loud as it could be without clipping – a tip from Joe Gilder on Home Studio Corner. It’s OK for the mix to not be that loud when recording with 24 bits. The song can be made loud during the mastering phase.

I am changing my career. Starting in September 2013, I will make my living with music. You can hire me to compose music for you. You can hire me (through MyOnlineSax.com) to record a saxophone part for your song.

To contact me, send an email to tsnivelymusic@gmail.com.

Originally posted on October 24, 2012

In this episode, I talk about my punk rock cover version of “A Teenager In Love” that I recorded in October 2012. I sing and play the electric guitar, and used synthesizers for the bass and drums.

I’ve been busy with the Revolution Fan Podcast about NBC’s show Revolution. For that podcast, I created a short bumper called “Scientific Revolution.” It is in a similar punk rock bumper where I sing the lead. It inspired me to record my version of “A Teenager In Love.” Around 1995 when I was in the original Philadelphia-base rock bank “They Eat Their Young” we did this punk rock “A Teenager In Love” cover where I sang lead vocals. Now that I have an electric guitar and good amp simulators I decided to record this myself.

I used the Steven Slate Drums for all the drum parts. I used Halion One for the bass, and also made a second softer copy of the bass with some distortion.

I talk a little bit and play “power chords.” On sheet music and on the piano it sounds odd, but on electric guitar with distortion it sounds great.

As I am still a beginner on guitar, I recorded the guitar in 4 tracks. I play the C power chord in one track, the A power chord in another track, and so on. In this way I didn’t have to move my left hand chords during the song. :-) I also tuned the guitar for each power chord so it was easier to play. :-) I also recorded the drums, bass, and guitar at slower speeds and sped them up to the 200 beats per minute. :-) I say that I “cheated” but my wife Jenn was proud of me for understanding it enough to take it apart and put it back together.

I recorded two versions of my vocal and mixed them together.

I used compression, EQ, and reverb on some of the drums, bass, and guitar parts to make each instrument sound a little better.

I still plan on doing a re-mix episode where I play re-mixes of some of the songs I’ve already talked about.

Originally posted on August 19, 2012

In this episode, I talk about a classical song for orchestra that I composed in August 2012 called “Revolution Fan Podcast Theme.” This will be used as the theme song for the Revolution Fan Podcast starting soon about the new NBC show “Revolution.”

I started reading a comment from Bill Sullivan about the Untitled Pop Rock Song 1 from episode 9. I talked about how I would like to re-mix a couple of my pieces like Fusion and Funk (for solo piano). When they are complete I will post them in the Songs section.

I re-mixed the Logan Ow song, and published it here for download. I used new drum samples from Steven Slate Drums (the Essentials version I picked up for $20 – thanks to Jon Tidey for tweeting and blogging about this no-brainer purchase.).

I talked about how in the past I did not think about recording music and recording podcasts together when I purchased gear. I did use my Shure SM57 for both. In order to have an in-studio co-host for the upcoming Revolution Fan Podcast, I needed to buy another microphone. I bought a Shure SM58 which I can use for podcasts and also use for singing vocals.

I then talked about the Revolution Fan Podcast Theme. I decided to compose my own theme song for the Revolution Fan Podcast that also I would be able to talk about in this episode. It is only about 2 minutes, so I played it, talked about it, and played it again.

The song is in B minor. It has an A-B-A form. The A section includes all instruments but features the violins. The B section consists of a unison melody that starts with the cellos, but has joins and drops as the melody goes through the violas, 2nd violins, and 1st violins.

Orchestras use all 4 categories of musical instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. I used 17 parts. 1st violin section, 2nd violin section, viola section, cello section, bass section, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 3 trumpets on 1 channel, French horn section, 3 trombones on 1 channel, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, and crash cymbals. Larger orchestras have additional parts, but I wanted to keep this simple.

I talked about the 4 categories, and what I did for each section. I played the A section with just strings, then just woodwinds, just brass, and then just percussion. I talked about how I panned different parts from the left or the center or to the right. I talked about how I did not fully quantize the parts, so they are a little bit out of time, but it maybe makes it sound more human and less like a computer.

For the French horns, I had them play a counter-melody to the strings that is high in their register. I got this idea from The Turn of a Friendly Card, Part 2 by the Alan Parsons Project. I played a clip at the end of the song where the French horns and/or the trombones play very high.

The chord progression of the A section is Bm, A, Gmaj7. There are other tonal notes passing through so there are minor 9th and major 9th with #11s like I talked about in episode 7.

I talked about how the new podcast may keep me a little busy, but I will try to create composing songs and creating these podcasts. I’ll try to get another episode out in the next 4 weeks.

I’ve been thinking about using Creative Commons license. I’ve been inspired by Wil Wheaton’s podcasts where he announces his “Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike license” at the end of each episode. I believe this would allow anyone to use clips from my podcasts or use my songs, as long as the attribute it to me, don’t use it to make money, and they have the same license. I’m not sure though, I have to look into it some more.

Originally posted July 15, 2012

In this episode, I discuss a rock song I originally wrote in 1996 that still has no lyrics, along with some recording techniques and new tools I’ve been exploring. I also briefly cover Apple’s new Podcasts app and announce a new podcast about NBC’s upcoming show Revolution.

I open with a short, fun drum piece created with my son Logan, ending with his voice saying “Ow!”

Most music I’ve shared so far has been jazz or new age, so this is my first rock track. It’s currently titled Untitled Pop Rock Song 1 since it has no lyrics. I wrote it in late 1996 while playing in a modern rock/punk band, They Eat Their Young. After gaining studio experience with that band, I wanted to try writing my own rock material and pursue my long-time goal of charting on the Billboard Hot 100.

I tend to focus more on music than lyrics when listening, which has made lyric writing a challenge for me. For now, I’m releasing this as an instrumental demo and inviting collaboration—if you’re a lyricist and like the track, feel free to reach out.

I was able to import the original 1996 sequence into Cubase and rebuild the arrangement using Halion One. Because of that, I didn’t apply a newer technique I learned—using partial quantization (around 50%) to keep performances more natural instead of perfectly mechanical.

I’ve also been studying songwriting and production through Gary Ewer’s Essential Secrets of Songwriting and The Home Recording Show podcast. From that, I applied a song structure tweak—doubling the first verse and shortening the first chorus.

On the production side, I experimented with several plugins:

• AmpSimulator (included with Cubase) to shape guitar tones. I layered two guitar tracks with different amp settings and panned them left and right for a fuller sound.
• Auto-Tune, not for the “Cher effect,” but for subtle pitch correction. I tested it on both vocals and sax and found it made a slight but noticeable improvement.
• Compression, applied to vocals, sax, and the final mix to reduce dynamic range and make the track more consistent in volume.

The arrangement features piano and clean guitar in the verse, adds distorted guitar in the chorus, and shifts to heavier guitars in the bridge. I used a “Voice Pad” sound for vocals and added background harmonies in the chorus—one of my favorite elements in pop/rock. I also recorded alto sax for the intro and later sections.

Since this is a demo, the final direction could change depending on lyrics—leaning more pop (less distortion) or more rock (possibly replacing sax with a guitar solo).

I then play the track.

I also discuss Apple’s new Podcasts app, which aims to simplify podcast discovery but is currently slow and buggy. I recommend subscribing to the show regardless of platform to stay updated, as my release schedule varies.

Finally, I announce a new project: the Revolution Fan Podcast, based on NBC’s upcoming series Revolution created by J.J. Abrams. Set 15 years after a global blackout, the show looks promising. I’m currently looking for co-hosts interested in discussing the series weekly.

Originally posted on June 24, 2012

In this episode, I interview Steve Lanciano about producing, composing, arranging, and recording his Christian & Gospel CD “Modern Day Psalms – My Heart Is Fixed” and play a track, The Unity Song (Psalm 133).

I start by announcing that I will occasionally write a text-only blog post on MakingMyOwnMusic.com. I also announce that I launched a new website, MyOnlineSax.com where I can be hired to record a saxophone part for other producers and artists for their recordings.

I read some feedback I received from Pattie in South Carolina.

I then played my interview with Steve Lanciano.

Steve Lanciano’s composition, The Unity Song (Psalm 133), performed by Leah Smith (featuring Caleb Barnaby, Jurysellis Colon, Chris Degonia, Joe Williams, Kevin Jones & Angelica Bonilla) can be purchased from Amazon.com or from cdbaby.com.

Steve’s full project is an audio CD and a book of inspirations. Each track on the CD is inspired by a Psalm of David. Steve funded the project himself, budgeting for the artists and for the duplication.

Steve paid $100 to the artists for each track. He researched and wrote his own contracts which include further payments to the artists for digital downloads and if a song is used on a movie soundtrack.

Steve talked about his process for recording the synthesizers, the vocalists and sax player, as well as recording a special organ. He talked about creating demos with his voice so the vocalists could rehearse, and then recording them.

Steve talked about getting the CD published on cdbaby.com, and then getting on Amazon.com or from and iTunes.

Steve used Digital Performer on the Mac to record the CD. He talked about Logic and how well it does changing rhythms in recorded audio.

Note: You can find some of Steve’s songs and his video work at realitychristianity.net and the YouTube channel.

I then play The Unity Song.

I briefly talked about 4 projects that I want to work on, but they will each take some time to complete.

Originally posted on June 3, 2012

In this episode, I talk about my jazz fusion piece “Fusion” composed in 1994. I also talk about extended major and extended minor chords.

I started by reading an email from Steve Snively and a comment from Viv Black.

My favorite chords are the extended major and minor chords that are built by stacking alternative major and minor thirds.

For major:

• C-E-G is a major chord
• C-E-G-B is a major 7th. This is a melancholy sound. I play short clips from Tin Man and Ventura Highway by America that use a lot of major 7th chords. Late Day Storm uses 2 major 7th chords for the second half of the chord progression.
• C-E-G-B-D is a major 9th. It sounds like the major 7th, with the addition of the 9th which is a color note.
• C-E-G-B-D-F# is C maj9#11. I played Tell Me A Bedtime Story by Herbie Hancock that starts with the major 9th, and has a nice sequence ending with a maj9#11. (Bmaj7, Gmaj7, Emaj9, Cmaj9#11 – all the F# in the melody)
• C-E-G-B-D-F#-A is Cmaj13#11
• C-E-G-B-D-F#-A-C# is actually Dmaj7 / Cmaj7. This is used at the end of Colour My World by Chicago

For minor:

• A-C-E is a minor chord
• A-C-E-G is a minor 7th
• A-C-E-G-B is a minor 9th – my favorite chord. Zanzibar by Billy Joel uses this chord. My song Fusion uses only minor 9th chords.
• A-C-E-G-B-D is a minor 11th. Funk (for solo piano) and Sleepy use minor 11th chords.
• A-C-E-G-B-D-F# is a minor 13th

The chord progression is simple: Dm9 for 2 measures, and Gm9 for 2 measures.

When I created this in 1994, I was only using MIDI and the sounds that were built in to the PC. I didn’t have any good way to record and mix audio.

I use layering, where each time through the chord progression, a new part comes in, while all the other parts repeat their part from before.

• The first time is just the bass guitar and the cymbals
• The second time is the high electric piano part
• The third time is an electric guitar
• The fourth time is the mid-range electric piano and the bass drum and snare drum
• The fifth time is two shaker parts
• The sixth time is where the saxophone comes in

I played the 1994 version of Fusion.

I then talked about how I re-sequenced the piece in Cubase in 2011. I was able to get better synthesizer sounds, and record myself on the saxophone. I then played the 2011 version.

I came up with an idea of how I can get a better recording of my jazz band arrangements. I can try to play all the saxophone parts, and try to get a trumpet and trombone player to play all the trumpet and trombone parts. Then I can mix the whole jazz band from my computer. If this works, I will publish my arrangement of Miles Davis’s Four, as well as re-recording Powerhouse.