Was going to make this track for the Christmas album, but carpal tunnel and real life had something to say about that. So the deadline came and went and it is still unfinished but as a snipet it deserves to be what it is.

The idea was also perhaps a bit ambitious, since I don't really know enough about eastern music to know if it is even done right. Also, it is not a good idea to not play your instruments seriously for years and then think you are going to just them up and everything will be as it was.

I cut the track short - missing the last 2 verses, but am not going to work on it anymore since the purpose of its creation is now no longer in play.

The hardest part is finding good eastern percussion, it is a world of poo and more poo. I guess the market must be small, so nobody is interested. If you are of that part of the world and I messed up something, sorry, was all I could do just to get this far before the KFKIT pressure and elbow and shoulder pain got to be too much.

 

I like it. I'm not an expert in the style but it sounds pretty neat to me.
you should have sent it in as a short piece

 

There is always next winter. A bit here, a little there and before you know it...shazam...your in Byzness.

 

Thanks guys.

I am not broken down about it at all, it was a miscalculation and it is what it is.

Just waited too long, then by the time I did the research, finished reading a book on it and got to actually doing it it just wasn't going to work out. I also lost a lot of time because an oud is not a guitar, all the noodling I did in solo didn't help one bit when I needed to be on pitch and in time. Then came the elbow pain, and the viola didn't help with that cause it added shoulder pain to the equation. Overall it was a time management fail.

I was considering buying one of those flat drums (bandir) since I have a derbouka I bought on a trip a while back and doing the drums as well... if I had had 2 more month might have worked out. After the scramble to find some eastern percussion that didn't sound like it came from a Casio CZ, I kind of lost more time, even the ones in Kronos just don't sound that nice (shame on you KORG.) Then it was just procrastination when it came to mixing it.

It's all for fun and for a change of scene, I got a book about ancient instruments and ancient music for my birthday from the wife at the end October and that is kind of what spawned the idea. It seemed pretty simple, but then again nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

 

Last edited: Dec 15, 2017

@mozee Hey mate, this is very good, especially melodically, congrats.
May i quote the market for middle eastern percussion isn't exactly small? I dunno where you are from mate, but all mid east and north (arabic) africa music is very much related and "circles" around similar modes and scales mostly coming from the Byzantine era, also using similar percussion. In example, everybody uses a darbuka or a slight variation of it. The thing is even now, most people who record/produce eastern music (we call it "common music" here, it should have the meaning of folk), and its the vast majority of "domestic" recording artists, they all use real percussionists and there is an abundace of them really. The "modern common" genre may even have programmed drums or loops but the percussion is 99% of the times live recordings. The demand for this kind of music is spanned across those countries that play it and very rarely crosses over to non eastern countries.
Again, great job

 

What I didn't say, and in all seriousness, I think that what I heard sounded rather fantastic and would love to hear it when you feel it finished.

 

@taskforce

Thank you, glad I didn't cock it up to bad. I guess the percussion is so tonal that it makes sense to have it done by live players. Didn't know much of that, thank you for the information.

@superliquidsunshine

Thank you, I might finish it as some point after the "holiday grind" is behind us and it is too cold to even think of going outside. Thank you for the kind words.

 

Hello, this is a more oriental version, but still well composed

 

i am a big fun of this style! like egypt/bellydance music.. i understand is something is just programmed on pc and not real live instruments player.. thats a pity, but that mean wow what a job!! good on rythm articulation and melody return on them. (sorry my complicate way of english).. i will try to add some more instrument to give more varition between parts to the pluk instrument. also some more work on the percussion to make then sound better in the mix..it should suond more present i think! in my taste i will give it a slowly growing up of tempo during all the song.. by the way thanks for sharing you too! i love it

 

Thank you.

I was just following along with the mode and scale notes in the book, can you elaborate. The only references for style for double harmonic scales I found were some clips by some Israeli orchestra. If you can expand on the differences I would appreciate it as I still lack the ear to differentiate between what sounds like what.

Thanks.

The drums are the only thing that is programed on the computer. I don't know if that is a compliment or a dig. It did take quite a bit of time, many attempts, and some fudging with some part with audio quantize to get the timing that tight. The missing verses do have a tempo and time slide down and back up and programing the drums for that is kind of what killed it for me, since I didn't like the sound and was getting frustrated with both Samp and Logic on that part.

About adding more instruments, the only other instrument I have that I can play reasonably well is a mandolin, I might try to add that in but it will create the complexity of clashing with the viola... not sure I want to spend that much time on it TBH. I'm already shifting down an octave in some places on the oud and the guitar.

Meh who knows ... will see what time and interest brings out. Like I said earlier it is turning out to be a bit more complex than I anticipated.