Busking Moody Blues

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neverfoundthetime
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 5:24 pm

MY version of Melancholy Man

Well I'm really happy to kick off the Moody Blues Busking thread. My favourite band with some of the really great songs of the 60's and 70's
I started looking at Melancholy Man about 3 days ago. I was surprised that the chords were easy for such a seemingly complicated song. I must have listened to this song hundreds of times as a student and since but I'd never tried to play it as it didn't seem like one that would work with just a guitar. It does and I enjoyed playing it but wanted to lay down a few vocal tracks in Audacity to fill it out and ended up adding a bass solo with guitar and keyboard. So it was a little Audacity project really rather than a simple busking video. I spent more time on the sound track than the video which was giving problems with the mixing so I just added one pip rather than spend hours adding lots of pips.

I have an odd story to tell about this song too, but I'll leave that for later... hope you like it!



THE MAKING OF:
I'm playing with the guitar tuned down a half step and with capo at 5.
Chords are Am, Dm7, E and I'm alternating with adding the 7th on the Am and E too. So I am in the same key as the original.
But that's it , 3 chords going around in a cicrle which allows the counter singing in the second half of the song. Surprisingly simple.
I made the basic strumming track first (after throwing out the idea of playing it arpeggio, which i was doing on day 1) by following the original.
Added the intro picking.
Added the guitar solo.
Added Ohs and Ahs and then the counter singing in segments using echo effect on the main vocals.
On the ohs and ahs I duplicated or triplicated (can you say that?) a segment and then off-set them by about 0.07 seconds to get a bit of depth.
Added Synth solo and a bass line.
I used my Dell Inspiron laptop to record, no fancy mic or gear.
I passed this on to Daryl and Bill to get feedback. At this point I thought I had a sort of working track which had shown me what I need to do but the feedback was good so I used what I already had and just refined things a little... reducing the volume repeatedly on the synth and vocals to get the right balance.
After publishing the Audacity files to a .wav track I used AVS Audio editor to cut and fade out and used the equalizer function to brighten the mid tones a little to better hear the 12 string (suggested by Daryl).
Then I recorded the video tracks but decided against doing more on that as it was time consuming converting the .Mov files from the Kodak Zi8 to .avi which I normally use. Used AVS Video editor to mix sound and video.

If that sounds at all like I know what I'm doing, it's an illusion! I was just tinkering around to see how I could get what I wanted.
Fun! And I learned a lot. ;-)


ffsooo3
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 5:37 pm

Chris, You know what I think of this one. It seems that TG has done a quantum leap this year! Wow.


TGMatt
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:14 pm

Best song they did in my humble opinion, and one I have discussed a number of times with Neil. this is just a super performance Chris..thx


reiver
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:27 pm

This brought back some memories!

Great performance, Chris. An interesting choice of song.......I'd have put money on something penned by Justin Hayward, but you did a great job on this one. Congratulations.

Stuart


takhak
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:45 pm

This one really stands out. Exellent job!!


suziko
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:50 pm

Chris,

I've been wondering when you would start a busking thread for the Moody Blues! Nice job on this performance. I really enjoyed it!

Suzi


suziko
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:13 pm

Wauw Chris, just WAUW!

I also liked that you threw in this keyboard-part, since I also like playing keys (didn't know that you play those), really another great video all around!!


Lavallee
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:58 pm

Fantastic video Chris, excellent production, I did not know you were playing keyboard (well maybe I do not remember). Outstanding job on the back voice and the bass line. I am looking forward to the next ones.

Marc


michelew
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:06 pm

Chris,

OUTSTANDING!! What a production. You sure have been busy.

That was just awesome and sounded professional. You been hanging out with Al??

2011 is sure going to be interesting here at TG.

Loved it!!

Michele


cosmicmechanic
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Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:54 pm

Wow, layer upon layer creates such a vibrant sound and atmosphere ! A great choice among the many splendid tunes by the Moodies.

Chris, I expect you have managed to create another monster here (in a good sense, as you did when you suggested busking threads). Just watch how other experimental TG videos pop up in the very near future ...

Of course, AcousticAl and fsooo3, not to mention others, have (dramatically) opened the door to what can be done technically. Methinks this video is also a sign of things to come.

Just a note ... at first I was a bit concerned seeing such a "melancholy man" so close to an upper story window, but then I was relieved to learn that he's "going to keep growing", so we'll "wait and see" (expectantly).

Very NICE !

Pierre


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