Friday, December 31, 2021

2021 Musical Projects Review

I don't know whether I did a lot more in 2021 than I usually do or whether I was just more comprehensive in reviewing it (probably both).  Either way, this post ended up being pretty long, so I'm going to detail my 2022 projects in a separate post.

Here's how I did on my 2021 projects.
Scales
When I start playing an instrument, I start with a scale, provided it's an instrument I can play well enough to play scales on.  I change scales every week and go in the order of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.  Continuing on in my cycle, I'm on C major for the first full week of 2021, which nicely coincides with the fresh start of a new year.
I don't have anything to say about this, but I did it.
On Sundays, I post a recording of a hymn tune.  For the last few years, I've been going through The Lutheran Hymnal.  Usually, I record all four voice parts (on mandolin, guitar, and bass).  Since I entered the Easter section, there are a number of hymns with "Alleluia"s, and I want to double these on recorder as often as I'm able.

On Wednesdays, I publish a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn in The Lutheran Service Book.  In the last few months, I've been diligently working on setting up future posts, and by the time the year is over, I want to have transcribed all of the hymns in The Lutheran Service Book.  I have 120 or so left.

On Fridays, I publish a short musicological post about a hymn.  Usually, it's a minor feature along the lines of "this text about going down is sung to a descending melody."
From mid-February to the end of March, I went back to record some of the tunes I initially skipt; it would have felt wrong to continue on and record tunes for Easter hymns while it was Lent.  I did this again from late July to mid-October, at which point I caught up to where I had been.

On 5 March, I finished transcribing all of the hymn texts in The Lutheran Service Book.

In October, I started a sub-project in which I record (with three recorders [soprano, alto, and tenor] and electric bass) the tunes named after saints.
Cover Projects
Here's an updated list with links and what groups the projects cover
Ostensibly, the goal of these projects is to figure out every part to every song, but over the last few years, I've done more writing than recording.  Last year, I recorded only four audio examples.  Still, I plan to continue these explorations.

Since I started Byrd Dimension only in November, I still have a lot of old notes I need to post.  I think most of them are about Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which is my favorite Byrds album.

Last year, I got a box set of the first seven Manfred Mann EPs, and for the first few months of this year, I plan on posting notes I made while listening to those over the course of the last seven or eight months.  After that, I might turn my attention to Mighty Garvey!, which I got even before the EPs but which I haven't listened to as much (simply because it's longer).
My posts on the Manfred Mann EPs lasted from January to the end of March.  I started posts on Mighty Garvey! in May (because I first listened to it in May of the previous year), and these went until August.

From March to May, I re-watched (almost all of) season two of The Monkees and made a list of what songs they performed in "the rainbow room" and what episodes these songs appeared in.

I don't remember the specific dates now, but sometime in the summer, I pre-ordered the new, re-written version of Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story.  There was a big fiasco in the shipping.  Some blockhead in the post office assumed that since it was a book, it should go to the office of a book publisher, and after it arrived there, it got lost.  This publishing company eventually sent the book back to Beatland Books in California, and it had to be shipped to me again.  All this resulted in a two-month delay before I got the book.  Eventually, I got it on 9 December, and sadly, Mike Nesmith died the following day.

Starting on Brian Wilson's birthday, I listened to all of the Beach Boys albums and Brian Wilson solo albums I have in my collection.

In early fall, I wrote a series of posts about songs on albums that I got last year (Jeff Lynne's ELO's From out of Nowhere and the Beach Boys' 15 Big Ones and Love You).  I wanted to give myself time to become familiar with them before writing about them.

I recorded more excerpts of songs than I did last year:  ELO's "Waterfall," the Alan Parsons Project's "The Gold Bug," the Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill" and "Piggies," the Moody Blues' "House of Four Doors (Part 1)" and "Are You Sitting Comfortably," and Argent's "The Coming of Kohoutek."  Plus a few others detailed below.
FAWM and 50/90
I haven't been very productive for FAWM or 50/90 for the last few years, so I have no great hope for these, but as long as I write a couple decent songs for each challenge, I'll be satisfied.
I wrote ten songs for FAWM.  At the beginning of the month, I had a notion to use clarinet, Clavinet, and claves in all of my songs, but I ended up doing this for only three.  The first is probably the best (of all of my FAWM songs for the year):


I had my worst showing ever in 50/90.  I wrote only one song:

Bach Cantatas
I plan on continuing my cycle of listening to the Bach cantatas (going by BWV number), one every Saturday.  In early November, I'll reach the end (of what I have, anyway), but I'll probably end up restarting the sequence with BWV 1.  Many of the CMQ pieces (see below) are Bach cantatas, and I'm going to make more of an effort to follow along in the notation than I have been.  Occasionally, I make notes on these, and I plan to post them on Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals in the distant future.
By accident, I listened to BWV 199 when I should have listened to BWV 198, so I ended up listening to those two out of order.  I finished this project on 6 November.  I'd thought I started on 21 March 2018, but I'd actually started on the 31st.  I think there's some discrepancy about when Bach's birthday is according to different calendar systems, and the 21st and the 31st are both given, resulting in my confusion.  After the cantatas, I listened to six motets (BWV 225-230), which I think I'd listened to only twice before.  At this point, I also shifted the schedule from Saturday to Sunday.  On 19 December, I started the cycle of cantatas again (still going by BWV number).
I plan on continuing to learn and record pieces with the Hohner Pianet N sample on my Nord Electro 5.  For now, I'm going to continue my schedule of posting pieces on Wednesdays, but since I already have a handful of pieces I recorded last year (which will reach through most of February), I might change this later.  I'm going to continue in the Czerny 100 and in Bartók's First Term at the Piano (which I might finish by the end of the year).  I'd also like to record at least one piece by Mozart and one by Beethoven.

I might write some more posts about specific groups or songs that used the Pianet, but for now I have no definite plans for these.
Near the end of March, I reached a point in the Czerny 100 where they were just too difficult for me.  I simply couldn't play #22, so I gave up.  I finished Bartók's First Term at the Piano near the end of October, and just days before that, I started Diabelli's Die ersten 12 Lectionen am Pianoforte.

I recorded a Mozart minuet (using the Pianet T sample) on his birthday, but I didn't post it until April:


And in February, I recorded a Beethoven ecossaise (in Eb major and 2/4 - two things I usually try to avoid!), but I didn't post it until May:


In March, I found a Hohner catalogue from April 1973, and in June, I started translating some of the entries for the keyboard instruments.

In late August, I finally found some more information about one of the pieces on the Hohner Pianet demonstration record.  All I knew was that it's a menuet in C major by Michel Corrette.  While poking around on IMSLP, I found the work it comes from:  Pièces pour la Musette, Op. 5.  I started learning it immediately and posted it a couple weeks later:


Over the next few months, I learned a handful of other pieces from Pièces pour la Musette too:  a tambourin in C major (the first piece I've ever seen in 2/8), an-other menuet in C major, a fanfare in C major (the hundredth piece I recorded for this project), a menuet in C minor, and a canon in C major (the last two yet to be posted).

Near the end of September, I made a video about how to play the Pianet part in the Beatles' "Savoy Truffle."  I posted it in mid-October:

Cembalet Records
In August, I acquired five EPs by the Mag'net Quartet that feature the Hohner Cembalet.  I plan on listening to one of these every week day in February.
  • Cembalet Party, Vol. 1 on Mondays
  • Cembalet Party, Vol. 2 on Tuesdays
  • Boom sur le Cembalet! on Wednesdays 
  • Chansons immortelles de Marguerite Monnot on Thursdays
  • Cembalet variétés on Fridays
Nothing much to say about this, but I did do it.
CMQ
I skipt it last time (I used to do it every other year), but I'm going to attempt doing the Classical Music Queue again this year.  Every time I hear a classical piece mentioned, I add it to a list (provided I have it in my collection), and then I listen to them one a day.  I severely underestimated the number of pieces I would hear mentioned, and/so I'll start the year by making my way through pieces I added back in July 2015.  At the time, I was reading a book about Bach, so - like I mentioned above - many of the CMQ pieces are Bach cantatas.
A few times, I considered taking a break from this project, but I did listen to a piece every day.  Admittedly, sometimes I listened to excerpts rather than a whole piece (especially for Beethoven's Leonore and Wagner's Ring Cycle).  I made it through the pieces I'd heard mentioned from July to the beginning of October 2015, so I still have a long way to go before I'm caught up.
I got the multi-track stems for Fleet Foxes' Shore in December (even before I'd heard the album), and I reasoned that since I'd made so much progress in my cover projects (where I'm trying to figure out parts by listening to a finished mix), learning parts from isolated tracks should be fairly straight forward.  I'm going to wait until July to start that part of this project (so I can simply enjoy listening to the album first), and in the meantime, I'll be posting old notes I made about the first three Fleet Foxes albums (but mostly Helplessness Blues, which is my favorite).  I plan on listening to Shore on the 21st of every month, at least from January to June; I don't know if I'll continue this into July and beyond.
I did listen to Shore on 21 July.  In fact, this was the first time I listened to it on vinyl.  I was supposed to have gotten it for my birthday in March, but there were delays.

I started figuring out parts in July, and I knew at least a bit of each song by early October.  (I might have done this sooner, but somehow I'd accidentally skipt over "Featherweight.")  Shortly after this, however, I sort of abandoned this project.  It seems that a lot of the songs have odd rhythms or guitar tunings, and/so it was frustrating trying to figure out not only the parts but also how to write them down.
Booker T. & the MGs
During my family's virtual Thanksgiving party, my cousin mentioned Booker T. & the MG's, specifically how he was trying to learn to play organ like that.  Consequently, I listened to the sole Booker T. & the MG's album I have every week for the remainder of 2020.  For Christmas, I got a box set of the first five albums, and I plan on listening to one every Friday (but because fifty-three Fridays don't divide equally by five albums, I'll also listen to The Best of Booker T. & the MG's a few times).
In March, I got a copy of McLemore Avenue, which is basically a cover album of the Beatles' Abbey Road (a few songs are left out), and I added this to the cycle in April.  This evened out the schedule, and I ended up having to listen to The Best of Booker T. & the MG's only once.
Learning Parts
As in previous years, I aim to figure out a part (cycling through my cover projects) for every time I see posts that old classmates make about their creative endeavors.  Starting in July, I'm going to figure out two:  one for a cover project and one for Vulpine Vox.

Sometimes, I figure out a part as a "toll" for listening to an album.  Although I don't hold myself to this very strictly (especially for live albums and certainly for albums I'm not very familiar with yet), I'd like to continue doing it.  The same goes for figuring out a part to songs I hear mentioned (although I usually pass if it's a song I've already figured out a part to).
Figuring out two parts for each of these "creative catalysts" proved to be too much.  By September, I was consistently a month behind, and/so in mid-October, I got rid of that requirement.

According to my spreadsheet, I figured out 263 parts, although in reality, this may not be an accurate count (for example, I know I figured out sections of the vocal melody of the Monkees' "I Wanna Be Free" on two different occasions, but I don't remember if I counted these as separate instances; I'm sure there are also parts I figured out but didn't write down and have since forgotten).  I didn't hold too strictly to figuring out parts as tolls or because I'd heard the song mentioned somewhere, although I did do this occasionally (much more for the former than the latter).

I added five albums to my list of albums for which I know at least a bit of every song:  a compilation of Hank Williams titled Icon (for which I figured out the chord progressions for every song), Manfred Mann's As Was EP, Fleet Foxes' Shore, Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline, and Peter & Gordon's Hurtin' 'n' Lovin'.  Before the year started, I already knew parts for some of these, but everything I learned from As Was and Shore I figured out this year.
Organ and Moog
I'm going to continue to save for a Hammond SKX and a Moog Subsequent 37.  I'd like to get both at the same time (in order to avoid a second trip to the music store, which is a few hours away), but - going by the combined total of what I have saved for each - I'd like to have enough to afford the Moog alone by 2 July (the mid-point of the year) and enough to afford the organ alone by the end of the year.  The first of these goals seems much more realistic than the second, however.

In the extremely unlikely event that I'm able to afford both instruments by the time the year is over, saving for college will become my new priority, but I'll also start saving for a digital Mellotron, which is the next instrument on my list.
I got all three installments of the coronavirus stimulus money, but I'm not sure whether I really should have (I may not qualify for it).  Before this doubt arose, however, my dad ordered both of the instruments for me (he has an account with the music store).

The organ was ordered in May, but because of shipping delays, it still hasn't arrived.  The organ itself is in the warehouse now, but apparently, the stand is lost somewhere.  The current estimate of arrival is mid-January, but I'm not that optimistic about it.

I got the Moog (through the mail, so I avoided having to go to the music store!) in late November, and the first thing I did was try to replicate a little tune that Mike Vickers played on the BBC in September 1969:


Because I may not be able to keep the coronavirus stimulus money (which I would use to pay for these instruments), I'm unsure about what to do about my finance situation.  For now, as I was before, I'm just trying to save as much as I can.  The Moog, at least, is on a payment plan, so paying for that is a bit more manageable.

I also made a couple smaller purchases.  In January, I got a volume pedal for my guitar (mostly so I could play the solo in the Moody Blues' "And My Baby's Gone"), and in July, I got a güiro (mostly because there's one in the Beatles' "Tell Me What You See").

Other Things to Note

The Everly Brothers

I must not have had the idea to do this until after I wrote my post of 2021 projects (otherwise, I would have mentioned it), but I listened to the Everly Brothers regularly every month.  Near the end of 2020, my cousin had posted that he'd listened to a lot of Everly Brothers, so I felt I should become more familiar with them.  From January to August, I listened to The Essential Everly Brothers (disc 1 on the 10th, disc 2 on the 20th, although I shifted this to the 5th and 15th just for July in order to accommodate a trip to Kansas that lasted from the 8th to the 12th).  After Don Everly died in August, I felt I should be doing more, so I started listening to a four-disc set titled Cathy's Clown: The Best of the Everly Brothers.  I also changed my schedule and listened on Thursdays rather than on a specific day of the month.  I skipt the first Thursday in September and the last Thursday in December, though, because those two months had five Thursdays each and wouldn't easily accommodate listening to a four-CD set.  I didn't always figure out a part as a toll for listening to these albums, but I did figure out quite a few parts.  Here are the bass parts (with the chords written in) for "Cathy's Clown" and "Take a Message to Mary" (with the disclaimer - as always - that I may have something wrong).



Mandolin Monday

In mid-January, I discovered the #mandolinmonday hashtag on Instagram.  I'd already been learning some Irish reels and other traditional pieces on mandolin (I get a lot from flutetunes.com), and I would occasionally post some on YouTube.  I'd recorded those with my DSLR, but doing them on my phone proved to be much easier, if a bit less professional.

Letters

In late winter and spring, I read two e-books of composers' letters.  Years ago, I'd gotten an e-book of Mendelssohn's letters for free on Amazon, and I read this from 2 February to 22 May.  I found a digitized book of Schumann's letters on Internet Archive, and I read this from 6 February to 1 April.

Telemann

In March, I started two projects focusing on Georg Philipp Telemann.  The previous summer, I'd gotten Telemann for Mandolin by John Goodin, a collection of Telemann's pieces that are suitable for (but not originally written for) mandolin.  I made it a goal to record one a week for six months (mid-March to mid-September).  At first, I posted these on Instagram (these were what I did for #mandolinmonday), and in June, I started uploading them to YouTube too.  (I did a bit of editing so that the sound is a bit more centered, although for some reason, this lowered the video quality.)

The other project will take considerably longer.  I explained it more fully in my introductory post, but basically, I'm going through Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch.  I'm modernizing the notation (apparently, it exists only in Telemann's autograph in which the melodies are in soprano clef) and recording the tunes.  Here's the first one:


Holst: Brook Green Suite

In February, the music department of the university I want to attend posted that one of the ensembles was practicing Holst's Brook Green Suite.  I'd never even heard of this, but with the irrational notion that learning this would somehow help me get back to college (where studying music isn't even my aim), I found a copy of the score and spent almost all of March working on just the first movement (I even learned alto clef!).  Aside from the bass, I learned every instrument part on my keyboard and used Mellotron sounds wherever possible.  I don't know if recording a classical piece using Mellotron sounds has ever been done before.


Currently, I have no plans to do the other movements.  It seems like they would be more work even than this was.

In December, using the same idea but on a far simpler level, I recorded an English madrigal:


"Theme from a Filleted Place"

In January, I learned the bass part and most of the guitar parts for the Shadows' "Theme from a Filleted Place" (I got the rest of the lead guitar in April), and in May, I did a cover of it.  I did it with acoustic guitars, though, partially because I was interested to hear what it would sound like and partially because I was having tuning problems with my electric guitar.


Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1779

I recorded a couple movements from Ignatius Sancho's Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1779 (which I found on flutetunes.com):  Ruffs and Rhees, All of One Mind (which I recorded the day after flutetunes posted the notation), and Lady Mary Montagu's Reel.

Bach Organ Works

Like I did last year, starting on the anniversary of Bach's death (28 July), I listened to the seventeen-disc box set of Peter Hurford's recordings of Bach's organ works at the rate of a disc a week (on Wednesdays).  For the remaining six Wednesdays of the year, I listened to a six-disc set of Buxtehude's organ works.

Corrette: Pièces pour la Musette, Op. 5

As I mentioned above, I recorded a menuet from Corrette's Pièces pour la Musette for my Hohner Pianet project.  Most of the pieces, however, are two parts in treble clef.  In September, I started learning and recording some of these.  Normally, I probably would have used mandolin, but after my Telemann for Mandolin project, I wanted a break from it, so I used guitar instead.

Here's the first piece I did, an-other menuet:



After these, I started learning pieces from Corrette's Divertissements.  I have a handful yet to be posted, but I don't plan on recording any more.

"The Holly and the Ivy"

As with the Holst piece above, because the university music department had (back in December of 2020) posted a video of "The Holly and the Ivy" arranged for two oboes, I felt I should learn this too.  I found a two-part arrangement on flutetunes.com, recorded it (on alto recorder) near the end of September, and posted it in December:


Keyboard Videos

I didn't have any particular plans for this at the beginning of the year, but I made a number of videos where I demonstrated keyboard parts, showing both the notation and my hands playing the part.  All of these were for songs by bands in my cover projects.

Harpsichord in the Moody Blues' "Procession"


Organ solo in Manfred Mann's "I Can't Believe What You Say"


Electric piano solo in the Monkees' "I'm a Believer"


Ultimately unused Mellotron in the Zombies' "A Rose for Emily"


With a slightly different format, I also made a video about the Mellotron part in Manfred Mann's "Everyday Another Hair Turns Grey":


---&---

Overall, I think I workt on musical projects with more diligence and intensity than I have any other year so far.  Since March, I've recorded at least four tunes a week.  And yet for all of this work, it seems like I'm not making much progress.

Friday, January 1, 2021

2021 Musical Projects and Goals

An-other year means an-other post about my musical projects and goals for the next year.  But first, here's a rundown of how well I did on last year's projects and goals.
Scales

Carrying on from October, I have a designated scale each week (it's Bb major this week) that I play on whatever instrument I start playing (provided I can play the instrument well enough to be able to play scales).
 I did this.
Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals
I'm going to stick to the schedule I have going now - a recording of a hymn tune on Sunday, a re-post of old comments on sacred classical music on Monday (I should finish Handel's Messiah this year, and then I'll move on to Saint-Säens' Christmas Oratorio), a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn on Wednesday, and a post commenting on a (usually small) point in a hymn on Friday.
I continued with this.  If I recall correctly, my initial plan was to post the notes on Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio immediately after those on Handel's Messiah.  Eventually, I decided to wait until it was closer to Christmastime.  I'd forgotten about it, but in early December I lookt back at my post of projects and goals and was reminded of it.  Fortunately, there were just enough Mondays left in the year to accommodate one post for each movement I had notes about.
Cover Projects

Here's the updated list and what band(s) the projects cover:
I have a few old notes I need to get around to writing about (some as old as 2018), but my only quantifiable goal is to learn a part (or a bit of a part) to every song on Manfred Mann's As Is.  I got the album in late October and immediately loved it (which I suppose is part of the reason I started the Manfred Mann cover project).  There are twelve songs, so it works out to one song a month.  I already figured out a few bits in "Trouble and Tea," including the alto recorder part (so getting an alto recorder in July was worth it).

Because it's 2020, I'm going to listen to the Beach Boys' 20/20 on the 20th day of the month, but only from January to June and excepting February.  I'm hoping that this will give me more time and motivation to work on FAWM (in February) and 50/90 (from July to September).  I do NaNoWriMo in November, and December is usually busy with holiday things, so it doesn't seem worth it to pick it up again for those months (or October).
I didn't get around to writing about some notes I have on the Monkees' Justus album, but otherwise, I accomplished these goals.  I listened to 20/20 in February anyway.  Twice, actually:  on the 20th to continue my pattern and on the 10th because it was the anniversary of its release.

Earlier this week, I made my first recording for the Ecco Mann project:  two guitar parts and the bass part in "Since I Don't Have You."

Because apparently I'm not doing enough of these sorts of projects, I started one on the Byrds in November.  For now, I'm focusing just on posting my old notes (weekly on Tuesdays).  I'm not sure if I'll place as much emphasis on figuring out parts for that project.
FAWM and 50/90

When I set goals about using specific instruments for these projects, they usually don't end up going very well, but I would like to use trombone more, especially in FAWM.  I have a cousin who's in a band that uses brass instruments, and they're releasing a single on 31 January, so I'm sure that at least at the beginning of FAWM, I'll feel something along the lines of "he's in a band with brass, so I should be able to use my trombone again!"

As a general comment:  I've noticed that since I got my Nord Electro 5, I haven't been as particular as I used to be about using sampled sounds.  I always felt that that was cheating a bit, but the mellotron sounds especially have changed my thinking.
I had only slightly more success in FAWM and 50/90 than I did the previous year.  I wrote ten songs for FAWM and fourteen for 50/90.  Of those twenty-four, I like only about seven.

I didn't play my trombone all year, partially because I simply don't have enough space in my room to extend the slide without hitting anything.
Bach Cantatas

I'm going to continue listening to a Bach cantata every Saturday and occasionally print out the notation and take notes.  This year, it'll be BWV 96 to BWV 150, but the box set I have doesn't include BWV 118, 141, or 142.
I did this.
Clarinet
I've been saving up for a clarinet since June, and according to my spreadsheet, I'm about 78% of the way there.  As I mentioned a year ago, I want to have one by February 2021, but because I'm wary of shipping in the wintertime, my goal is to have it by October.

The other instrument I'd like to get this year is the Hammond XPK-130G - a bass pedal unit to use with my keyboard.  The music store that I got my Nord Electro 5 from also offers a financing deal on the XPK, and - after I get a clarinet - my plan is to save half of my money for the bass pedals and half of my money for a college education.

I never liked the university I graduated from, and over the past few years, that dislike has swelled to disgust and loathing.  I transferred universities in a moment of desperation so I wouldn't have to live in a dorm anymore, but this turned out to be the worst mistake of my life.  Among other failings, the university I graduated from was two steps backwards academically, and part of me feels that had I stayed where I was, I would be much better off now (at least I would have a quality education, and I wouldn't be embarrassed and ashamed by the university I graduated from).  I've been unemployed since I graduated almost six years ago, and I've been rejected for every job I've applied for.  Now, I desperately want to go back to university to overwrite my stupid and useless degree, but I don't know if I'll have the courage, mental capacity, or the finances to be able to do it within a year.

At the end of 2018, I applied to and was accepted by a different university from the same university system as the one I originally attended, but I had to decline because I couldn't even afford the tuition deposit.  One of my goals is to have at least that amount by the end of the year, whether I apply or not.  I'm going to get a good college education or die trying.  In the meantime - because no one wants to hire me - I do these music projects.
I could afford a clarinet by the end of March; I ordered one on 1 October; and I got it in the mail on 8 October.


Unfortunately, I haven't had much opportunity to practice and haven't learned more than a few notes.  But I can (roughly) play what I believe is the only clarinet phrase in the entire Electric Light Orchestra discography:


I actually got the pedal board before the clarinet.  The financing deal disappeared but then reappeared early in summer, so I got one in July.  This also meant that I could (and did) use it on some of my 50/90 songs.  Here's an example:


Here are my "liner notes" on the song:
There's a claim on multiple websites that Electric Light Orchestra's Richard Tandy "was often seen on stage playing the stereotypical 1970s prog-rock stack of keyboards, with bass pedals under his feet."  As far as I can tell, the bass pedal part is unfounded.  The only pedals I've seen in pictures of Tandy's keyboard rig are expression and sustain pedals, not bass pedals.  In any case, I liked the idea of an ELO-type song with bass pedals, which is where this started (but probably not where it ended up).
This is the first time I used the MIDI function on my Hammond XPK-130G (for recording, anyway).  I split my keyboard so that there was a synth trombone sound on the left (played with the pedal board) and Wurlitzer electric piano on the right, and I played the parts simultaneously.  I split the output (lower voice on left out, upper voice on right out), so I had more control for mixing.
Instruments:
Nord Electro 5 (synth trombone sound played via MIDI on my Hammond XPK-130G, Wurlitzer)
Electric guitar (with fuzz effect, recorded via line-in)
I didn't know if I'd be able to figure out the MIDI functionality, but it was much easier than I expected, and now I use that more often than the built-in sounds.

For a few months, I followed through on putting half of my money into a college fund, but I got a bit discouraged and was lured away by the siren song of more instruments.  For the last half of the year or so, I've been saving most of my money for a Hammond SKX and a Moog Subsequent 37.  While acquiring these is also quite a lofty goal, it's much more achievable than moving to an-other state in order to go back to college.

In a blog post a few months ago, the university I want to go back to said that aside from fall 2016, the new student population has risen every year since 2010 (the year I entered).  It seems unlikely, then, that the university will unexpectedly close any time soon, but I'm a bit concerned that the instruments I want to get will suddenly become unavailable.  This almost happened with my Nord Electro 5 (I got it shortly after the Electro 6 was announced, but the Hohner Pianet sample doesn't work on the 6).

Even though I've been putting most of my money toward instruments, I do put some towards my college fund every month.  Between those savings and a windfall last January, I can now afford the tuition deposit three times over, so while things didn't go the way I'd anticipated, I'm still counting this as accomplished.

As I noted above, I started a project/blog dedicated to the Hohner Pianet in September.  So far, it's mostly been recordings I made with the Pianet sample on my Nord Electro 5.  In August, I got a book of excerpts from Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena, and in practicing and learning those, I've become a better keyboard player (although I'm still not as good as I want to be).  I'd like to continue learning and recording those, along with some other pieces (I've done a couple from James Bastien's The Older Beginner Piano Course Level 2, and I'm currently working on a Gavotte by Handel).

I'd like to work more on the other aspects I mentioned in my introduction:  "showcas[ing] Pianet parts from other songs, like the Lovin' Spoonful's 'Summer in the City,' the Buckinghams' 'Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song),' and the Beatles' 'Tell Me What You See'" and "transcrib[ing] and translat[ing] the text from the demonstration record."  I have a start, at least:  I made a video on "Tell Me What You See" that I plan on posting this week, and I have one section of the text from the demonstration record transcribed and (mostly) translated.
On Piano Day (which fell on 28 March last year), I started learning the Czerny 100 exercises, and by the end of the year, I'd made it through the first seventeen.  In May, I started putting a lot of effort into learning those and other keyboard pieces (from various books I have and from online sources, notably IMSLP), and I think I've posted one a week since June.  I started going through Bartók's First Term at the Piano in the middle of September and was halfway through by the end of the year.  At the end of November, I had so many recorded pieces in reserve that I moved to a Monday/Wednesday/Friday posting schedule for December.

Although I didn't do much work on specific songs that feature Pianet, I did transcribe and translate the demonstration record.  To complement this, I transcribed and translated the demonstration record for the Clavinet too.  I also wrote a number of posts about particular groups who used the Pianet, and research for some of those took quite a bit of time.
Haydn

Partially because there's an excerpt from his F major sonata (Hob. XVI:23) on the Hohner Pianet demonstration record, I listened to a fair bit of Haydn last year.  I have a CD of three keyboard concerti (Nos. 3, 4, and 11) that I'm quite fond of (as far as I know, it's the only recording in my collection that uses pianoforte), and for Easter, I got a 5-CD set of his London symphonies (which I'll admit I didn't listen to until December).  I want to listen to at least one Haydn piece every Thursday (Thursday because it's the only day of the week that has an H).
I did listen to Haydn every Thursday.  For the Thursdays in Lent, I listened to Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze.

This overlapped a little with my Hohner Pianet project in that I learned and recorded three of Haydn's German Dances, Hob. IX:22, No. 2; Hob. IX:12, No. 7; and Hob. IX:12, No. 1 (yet to be posted).

I also discovered that those keyboard concerti are not the only pieces in my music collection played on fortepiano.  I have a five-CD set of C.P.E. Bach's keyboard works, and some of those are played on pianoforte too.
Summer Breeze

In 2015, in my introduction to Beatle Audit, I wrote, "I started wondering what would happen if I tried regularly listening to an album while also trying to learn all of the parts to it."  I did this for a while with A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale before giving up on that aspect of Beatle Audit, but when I wrote that, I was actually thinking about Seals & Crofts' Summer Breeze.  This year, I'm going to do it.  The original idea was to listen to it every week, but I'm changing that.  My goal now is to listen to it on the 10th of every month, but - as with the Beach Boys' 20/20 - only from January to June and excepting February.
I didn't plan this project very well.  I followed the listening schedule, and I figured out a part (or a bit of a part) after each listen, but because I listened to it only six times (I listened to it on 10 February too) and there are ten songs on the album, I ended up having to figure out more parts in November and December to reach my goal.
Parts

I'm going to continue figuring out parts but not with the fervor of last year.  For the last few years, I've figured out a part for one of my cover projects every time I see an old high school classmate post about his or her creative endeavors, and I'll be continuing that.  I also aim to learn a part to any song I hear mentioned.
I learned 294 parts (or bits of parts), which is considerably lower than the last few years (865 in 2017, 722 in 2018, and 1020 in 2019).  Either I forgot about learning a part to any song I hear mentioned or I wasn't paying enough attention.  I think the only part that falls into this category is the marimba in the Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb," which was specifically mentioned in a Jeopardy! clue and which I figured out that night.

I added four albums to the list of albums to which I know at least a bit of each song:  Electric Light Orchestra's Discovery and Face the Music, Manfred Mann's As Is, and Seals & Crofts' Summer Breeze.

Other Notable 2020 Events
In early July, I got a book of Telemann pieces set for mandolin, and while I've practiced a few of those and want to record them (along with some pieces from flutetunes.com), I haven't had the house to myself long enough to do it.  I did only one mandolin video all year:


Starting on 28 July (his death date), I listened to a disc of Bach's organ works every Tuesday (Peter Hurford's seventeen-CD set).  For the remaining six Tuesdays of the year, I listened to a disc of a six-CD set of Buxtehude's organ music.

From Beethoven's (probable) birthday on 16 December until 27 December, I listened to at least one of his pieces every day.

On 21 December, I reached 20 subscribers on YouTube.  Although this is a paltry figure (and most of my subscribers don't even watch my videos), I wanted to reach it by end of the year, partially because it's 2020 and partially because I was twenty when I started my channel eight years ago.

Since July 2019, I've been printing out the notation for Bach's St. Matthew Passion a few pages at a time.  On 29 December, I finally finished printing Part I.

2021 Musical Projects and Goals

Scales
When I start playing an instrument, I start with a scale, provided it's an instrument I can play well enough to play scales on.  I change scales every week and go in the order of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.  Continuing on in my cycle, I'm on C major for the first full week of 2021, which nicely coincides with the fresh start of a new year.

On Sundays, I post a recording of a hymn tune.  For the last few years, I've been going through The Lutheran Hymnal.  Usually, I record all four voice parts (on mandolin, guitar, and bass).  Since I entered the Easter section, there are a number of hymns with "Alleluia"s, and I want to double these on recorder as often as I'm able.

On Wednesdays, I publish a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn in The Lutheran Service Book.  In the last few months, I've been diligently working on setting up future posts, and by the time the year is over, I want to have transcribed all of the hymns in The Lutheran Service Book.  I have 120 or so left.

On Fridays, I publish a short musicological post about a hymn.  Usually, it's a minor feature along the lines of "this text about going down is sung to a descending melody."

Cover Projects
Here's an updated list with links and what groups the projects cover
Ostensibly, the goal of these projects is to figure out every part to every song, but over the last few years, I've done more writing than recording.  Last year, I recorded only four audio examples.  Still, I plan to continue these explorations.

Since I started Byrd Dimension only in November, I still have a lot of old notes I need to post.  I think most of them are about Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which is my favorite Byrds album.

Last year, I got a box set of the first seven Manfred Mann EPs, and for the first few months of this year, I plan on posting notes I made while listening to those over the course of the last seven or eight months.  After that, I might turn my attention to Mighty Garvey!, which I got even before the EPs but which I haven't listened to as much (simply because it's longer).

I haven't been very productive for FAWM or 50/90 for the last few years, so I have no great hope for these, but as long as I write a couple decent songs for each challenge, I'll be satisfied.

Bach Cantatas
I plan on continuing my cycle of listening to the Bach cantatas (going by BWV number), one every Saturday.  In early November, I'll reach the end (of what I have, anyway), but I'll probably end up restarting the sequence with BWV 1.  Many of the CMQ pieces (see below) are Bach cantatas, and I'm going to make more of an effort to follow along in the notation than I have been.  Occasionally, I make notes on these, and I plan to post them on Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals in the distant future.

I plan on continuing to learn and record pieces with the Hohner Pianet N sample on my Nord Electro 5.  For now, I'm going to continue my schedule of posting pieces on Wednesdays, but since I already have a handful of pieces I recorded last year (which will reach through most of February), I might change this later.  I'm going to continue in the Czerny 100 and in Bartók's First Term at the Piano (which I might finish by the end of the year).  I'd also like to record at least one piece by Mozart and one by Beethoven.

I might write some more posts about specific groups or songs that used the Pianet, but for now I have no definite plans for these.

Cembalet Records
In August, I acquired five EPs by the Mag'net Quartet that feature the Hohner Cembalet.  I plan on listening to one of these every week day in February.
  • Cembalet Party, Vol. 1 on Mondays
  • Cembalet Party, Vol. 2 on Tuesdays
  • Boom sur le Cembalet! on Wednesdays 
  • Chansons immortelles de Marguerite Monnot on Thursdays
  • Cembalet variétés on Fridays

CMQ
I skipt it last time (I used to do it every other year), but I'm going to attempt doing the Classical Music Queue again this year.  Every time I hear a classical piece mentioned, I add it to a list (provided I have it in my collection), and then I listen to them one a day.  I severely underestimated the number of pieces I would hear mentioned, and/so I'll start the year by making my way through pieces I added back in July 2015.  At the time, I was reading a book about Bach, so - like I mentioned above - many of the CMQ pieces are Bach cantatas.

I got the multi-track stems for Fleet Foxes' Shore in December (even before I'd heard the album), and I reasoned that since I'd made so much progress in my cover projects (where I'm trying to figure out parts by listening to a finished mix), learning parts from isolated tracks should be fairly straight forward.  I'm going to wait until July to start that part of this project (so I can simply enjoy listening to the album first), and in the meantime, I'll be posting old notes I made about the first three Fleet Foxes albums (but mostly Helplessness Blues, which is my favorite).  I plan on listening to Shore on the 21st of every month, at least from January to June; I don't know if I'll continue this into July and beyond.

Booker T. & the MGs
During my family's virtual Thanksgiving party, my cousin mentioned Booker T. & the MG's, specifically how he was trying to learn to play organ like that.  Consequently, I listened to the sole Booker T. & the MG's album I have every week for the remainder of 2020.  For Christmas, I got a box set of the first five albums, and I plan on listening to one every Friday (but because fifty-three Fridays don't divide equally by five albums, I'll also listen to The Best of Booker T. & the MG's a few times).

Learning Parts
As in previous years, I aim to figure out a part (cycling through my cover projects) for every time I see posts that old classmates make about their creative endeavors.  Starting in July, I'm going to figure out two:  one for a cover project and one for Vulpine Vox.

Sometimes, I figure out a part as a "toll" for listening to an album.  Although I don't hold myself to this very strictly (especially for live albums and certainly for albums I'm not very familiar with yet), I'd like to continue doing it.  The same goes for figuring out a part to songs I hear mentioned (although I usually pass if it's a song I've already figured out a part to).

Organ and Moog
I'm going to continue to save for a Hammond SKX and a Moog Subsequent 37.  I'd like to get both at the same time (in order to avoid a second trip to the music store, which is a few hours away), but - going by the combined total of what I have saved for each - I'd like to have enough to afford the Moog alone by 2 July (the mid-point of the year) and enough to afford the organ alone by the end of the year.  The first of these goals seems much more realistic than the second, however.

In the extremely unlikely event that I'm able to afford both instruments by the time the year is over, saving for college will become my new priority, but I'll also start saving for a digital Mellotron, which is the next instrument on my list.

Monday, January 6, 2020

2020 Projects/Goals

An-other year means an-other post detailing how well (or how poorly) I did on my musical goals from last year and what my goals for the present year are.

2019 Projects/Goals


 Scales
I'm going to continue in my cycle of scales.  I stick with one scale for five days, practicing it on piano, bass, guitar in open D tuning, mandolin, and guitar in standard tuning.  I follow the order of the scales in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and every time I complete a cycle, I move up a fret on the stringed instruments (save for mandolin).
Somewhere along the way, I jettisoned moving up a fret.  In early/mid October, I shuffled the premise a bit:  instead of having the schedule dictated by instruments, it's now dictated by the scale.  Every week, I move on to the next scale and play it on whatever instrument I happen to pick up.  This saves me from having to catch up four or five days at a time.

Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals
I'm going to continue with the schedule I've been doing for two years:  a recording of a hymn tune on Sunday (I've been going through The Lutheran Hymnal, although I occasionally skip a tune, and recently, I started doing all four voices [played on two mandolins, guitar, and bass] rather than just three), a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn on Wednesday, and a post about a musicological feature (usually just a small point) on Friday.
I did this, although in June I took a hiatus from recording hymn tunes because I travelled to two weddings.  In July, I also started re-posting commentary on Handel's Messiah that I originally wrote on this blog.

Cover Projects
For the record, here are links to the blogs and what band(s) they cover:
For all of these, I'm going to continue learning parts for the songs, and I'll probably end up writing some posts about various musicological features I notice.  I also have a few specific plans for some projects:

For Beatle Audit, I'm going to listen to one of the Live at the BBC albums every month, alternating between Live at the BBC and On Air - Live at the BBC, Volume 2 and listening to disc one on the 10th and disc two on the 20th.  Since 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road,  I'm going to make a concentrated effort to learn parts from that album.

Since I started House of Four Doors only in March, I haven't done as much work on that project as on the others.  In order to "catch up," I'm going to listen to a Moody Blues album every Tuesday (because the year started on a Tuesday and ends on a Tuesday and because one of the most well-known Moody Blues songs is "Tuesday Afternoon").  I don't yet have all of the Moody Blues albums, but I'm going to cycle through what albums I have:
  • The Magnificent Moodies
  • Days of Future Passed
  • In Search of the Lost Chord
  • On the Threshold of a Dream
  • To Our Children's Children's Children
  • A Question of Balance
  • Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
  • Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
  • Caught Live + 5
  • Long Distance Voyager
  • Sur la Mer
  • Keys of the Kingdom
In the event that I acquire more Moody Blues albums during the year, I'll include those in the cycle.

This isn't so much of a concrete plan, but I'd also like to listen to the Zombies' Into the Afterlife with some regularity since most of the songs on that compilation were recorded in 1968 and 1969.
Aside from listening to Into the Afterlife regularly (I listened to it four times in January and twice in October, and I think most if not all of these markt 50th anniversaries of releases of certain tracks that appear on the album), I did all of these.  I learned parts for Abbey Road and now know at least a little bit of each track (although, admittedly, what I know of "Her Majesty" probably isn't very accurate).

In November, I started yet an-other of these projects, this one focusing on Manfred Mann and Manfred Mann's Earth Band (although, as I explained in the introduction, I have only seven albums for the project).

FAWM and 50/90
I'm going to attempt both of these again.  I'd had the notion to use only piano and flute for FAWM in an attempt to get better at those instruments, but I think I'll have a better chance at completing the projects if I don't put any restrictions on them.
I completed FAWM (although only five songs turned out very well), but 50/90 was something of a disaster.  I ran out of ideas and motivation at the end of July and wrote only eight songs, only two of which (maybe three and possibly four) are any good.

Classical Music Queue
I'm starting up the Classical Music Queue again.  Whenever I hear a classical piece mentioned, I add it to a list, and then I listen to the pieces one a day.  I still have three years' worth of pieces to listen to, so there's no chance I'll get caught up during the year, but I'll make some progress, at least.
I did this from January to February.  I gave up in March, but then, feeling inadequate and thinking that familiarity with classical music would help (?), I started it again in July and kept to it until the end of the year, so this was mostly a success.

Bach Cantatas
Since March (specifically since Bach's birthday on the 21st), I've been listening to a Bach cantata every Saturday, going in order by BWV number.  I'm going to continue that throughout the year, going from BWV 43 to BWV 95 (some cantatas aren't included in that range; I have a box set of the sacred cantatas only).  Occasionally, I print out the scores (from IMSLP) and write notes about the music or Biblical references with plans to write about the cantatas on Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals at some point in the distant future.
I kept to this schedule, and I did write some notes.  Sometimes, when a Bach cantata was a CMQ piece, I followed along in the notation (if I had it printed out) and made a few notes then too.

 Nord Electro 5D
This is probably my most boring goal, but it's also the most essential:  I want to have earned enough money by the end of the year to be able to pay off my keyboard.  I'm still technically unemployed, but I make some money by transcribing receipts over the internet.  Lately, the availability of work has been more capricious than ever, and the work itself is becoming a drag, so I want to be rid of it as soon as possible.
In the event that I do have enough to pay off my keyboard, I'm going to start saving for a clarinet, which I'd like to get before February 2021.  I'm constantly thinking of more instruments I want to get, but clarinet is at the top of my list, followed by a Moog synthesizer and then a violin.
I achieved this by June, and since then I've been saving for a clarinet.  In early July, I got an alto recorder and a glockenspiel (but I bought them by redeeming gift cards, not spending money).  My "job" of receipt transcription abruptly ended in August when the receipts to be transcribed suddenly vanished, so since then I've been scraping together funds by doing online surveys and other such menial tasks.

Piano Practice
Every time I see something about piano, I'm going to practice for eight minutes (8 minutes because 88 keys).  I'm putting some restrictions on this, though:  I'm not going to practice at nighttime, and I'm not going to count online posts from piano companies and that sort of thing.
I did this in January, but I took a break in February, reasoning that I'd be practicing enough as I write and record parts for FAWM.  I think I did it a couple times in March, but I guess after that I wasn't really paying attention.  I'm not that concerned about it though, because I've practiced daily since the end of October.

1,000 Parts
This might be a bit too ambitious, but I want to try to figure out 1,000 parts this year (it averages to less than three a day!).  Maybe "bits of parts" is a more accurate wording of my goal.  In 2017, I figured out a part (or a bit of a part) every day, with a total of around 860.  In 2018, I purposely didn't figure out a part every day (I didn't want the pressure of trying to continue my streak), but I still figured out around 720.
Part of this goal includes learning a bit of any song I happened to run across a reference to, provided I have it in my collection.  Already, I've had to venture into the dustier corners of my music library and learn some parts to songs that were mentioned in clues on Jeopardy!  I'm still not exactly sure what I'm doing to do in the event that I run across a reference to a song for which I already know a part.  That's happened twice already; for one song, I learned a bit of a second part, but I don't intend to do that for the second song.  I'm also exempting the Beatles songs I read about in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (which I aim to finish reading by the end of the month); I'm already trying to figure out parts for all of those, and I don't need the extra pressure from this project.
I actually did this.  I learned 1,020 parts (or bits of parts), but I sort of cheated on three.  I figured out the chords for the Yardbirds' "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl" in August, but when I finally got around to writing them down a month or two later, I discovered that I'd already figured them out in December 2017.  I figured out the guitar phrase at the beginning of Les Paul & Mary Ford's "Mockin' Bird Hill" on 18 July, but by the time I finally went to write it down, I'd forgotten it, so I re-learned it on 22 August.  I learned half of the bass part for the Monkees' "The Day We Fall in Love" on 30 September, and then I learned the rest of it on 16 November.  It's only one part, but because I learned it in halves on two different days, it's counted twice.  As it stands now, there are fourteen parts I learned that I haven't either written down or filmed, so I may have forgotten some of those too.

I did fairly well with figuring out parts to songs I heard mentioned; there are only nine that I didn't get around to.  I failed to note this in my original post, but I also wanted to figure out parts to the albums I listened to, as a sort of toll.  I didn't always do that, but I usually did.  (I was pretty lax on the live albums.)

Other Things from 2019 to Mention


I added ten albums to the list of albums for which I know at least a little bit of every song:
  1. The Monkees - More of the Monkees
  2. Sam Cooke - The Best of Sam Cooke [not counting bonus tracks]
  3. The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
  4. The Beatles - Abbey Road
  5. Electric Light Orchestra - On the Third Day
  6. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Hi, We're the Miracles
  7. The Mamas & the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
  8. The Drifters - All-Time Greatest Hits
  9. The Drifters - An Introduction to the Drifters
  10. The Moody Blues - Caught Live + 5 (albeit only the + 5 part)
I didn't know any parts for Hi, We're the Miracles when the year started.

In September, I started a project/blog dedicated to the Hohner Pianet.  In some ways, it's a reason for me to maintain and develop my keyboard skills.  My main goal with the project is simply to record pieces with the Hohner Pianet sample on my Nord Electro 5, sort of as an extension of the first side of the Pianet demonstration record.  Including a Telemann minuet I recorded back in March (before I even started the project), I've done seven (one is yet to be posted).

2020 Projects/Goals


Many of these are just repeats from last year.

Scales

Carrying on from October, I have a designated scale each week (it's Bb major this week) that I play on whatever instrument I start playing (provided I can play the instrument well enough to be able to play scales).

Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals

I'm going to stick to the schedule I have going now - a recording of a hymn tune on Sunday, a re-post of old comments on sacred classical music on Monday (I should finish Handel's Messiah this year, and then I'll move on to Saint-Säens' Christmas Oratorio), a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn on Wednesday, and a post commenting on a (usually small) point in a hymn on Friday.

Cover Projects

Here's the updated list and what band(s) the projects cover:
I have a few old notes I need to get around to writing about (some as old as 2018), but my only quantifiable goal is to learn a part (or a bit of a part) to every song on Manfred Mann's As Is.  I got the album in late October and immediately loved it (which I suppose is part of the reason I started the Manfred Mann cover project).  There are twelve songs, so it works out to one song a month.  I already figured out a few bits in "Trouble and Tea," including the alto recorder part (so getting an alto recorder in July was worth it).

Because it's 2020, I'm going to listen to the Beach Boys' 20/20 on the 20th day of the month, but only from January to June and excepting February.  I'm hoping that this will give me more time and motivation to work on FAWM (in February) and 50/90 (from July to September).  I do NaNoWriMo in November, and December is usually busy with holiday things, so it doesn't seem worth it to pick it up again for those months (or October).

FAWM and 50/90

When I set goals about using specific instruments for these projects, they usually don't end up going very well, but I would like to use trombone more, especially in FAWM.  I have a cousin who's in a band that uses brass instruments, and they're releasing a single on 31 January, so I'm sure that at least at the beginning of FAWM, I'll feel something along the lines of "he's in a band with brass, so I should be able to use my trombone again!"

As a general comment:  I've noticed that since I got my Nord Electro 5, I haven't been as particular as I used to be about using sampled sounds.  I always felt that that was cheating a bit, but the mellotron sounds especially have changed my thinking.

Bach Cantatas

I'm going to continue listening to a Bach cantata every Saturday and occasionally print out the notation and take notes.  This year, it'll be BWV 96 to BWV 150, but the box set I have doesn't include BWV 118, 141, or 142.

Clarinet

I've been saving up for a clarinet since June, and according to my spreadsheet, I'm about 78% of the way there.  As I mentioned a year ago, I want to have one by February 2021, but because I'm wary of shipping in the wintertime, my goal is to have it by October.

The other instrument I'd like to get this year is the Hammond XPK-130G - a bass pedal unit to use with my keyboard.  The music store that I got my Nord Electro 5 from also offers a financing deal on the XPK, and - after I get a clarinet - my plan is to save half of my money for the bass pedals and half of my money for a college education.

I never liked the university I graduated from, and over the past few years, that dislike has swelled to disgust and loathing.  I transferred universities in a moment of desperation so I wouldn't have to live in a dorm anymore, but this turned out to be the worst mistake of my life.  Among other failings, the university I graduated from was two steps backwards academically, and part of me feels that had I stayed where I was, I would be much better off now (at least I would have a quality education, and I wouldn't be embarrassed and ashamed by the university I graduated from).  I've been unemployed since I graduated almost six years ago, and I've been rejected for every job I've applied for.  Now, I desperately want to go back to university to overwrite my stupid and useless degree, but I don't know if I'll have the courage, mental capacity, or the finances to be able to do it within a year.

At the end of 2018, I applied to and was accepted by a different university from the same university system as the one I originally attended, but I had to decline because I couldn't even afford the tuition deposit.  One of my goals is to have at least that amount by the end of the year, whether I apply or not.  I'm going to get a good college education or die trying.  In the meantime - because no one wants to hire me - I do these music projects.


As I noted above, I started a project/blog dedicated to the Hohner Pianet in September.  So far, it's mostly been recordings I made with the Pianet sample on my Nord Electro 5.  In August, I got a book of excerpts from Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena, and in practicing and learning those, I've become a better keyboard player (although I'm still not as good as I want to be).  I'd like to continue learning and recording those, along with some other pieces (I've done a couple from James Bastien's The Older Beginner Piano Course Level 2, and I'm currently working on a Gavotte by Handel).

I'd like to work more on the other aspects I mentioned in my introduction:  "showcas[ing] Pianet parts from other songs, like the Lovin' Spoonful's 'Summer in the City,' the Buckinghams' 'Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song),' and the Beatles' 'Tell Me What You See'" and "transcrib[ing] and translat[ing] the text from the demonstration record."  I have a start, at least:  I made a video on "Tell Me What You See" that I plan on posting this week, and I have one section of the text from the demonstration record transcribed and (mostly) translated.

Haydn

Partially because there's an excerpt from his F major sonata (Hob. XVI:23) on the Hohner Pianet demonstration record, I listened to a fair bit of Haydn last year.  I have a CD of three keyboard concerti (Nos. 3, 4, and 11) that I'm quite fond of (as far as I know, it's the only recording in my collection that uses pianoforte), and for Easter, I got a 5-CD set of his London symphonies (which I'll admit I didn't listen to until December).  I want to listen to at least one Haydn piece every Thursday (Thursday because it's the only day of the week that has an H).

Summer Breeze

In 2015, in my introduction to Beatle Audit, I wrote, "I started wondering what would happen if I tried regularly listening to an album while also trying to learn all of the parts to it."  I did this for a while with A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale before giving up on that aspect of Beatle Audit, but when I wrote that, I was actually thinking about Seals & Crofts' Summer Breeze.  This year, I'm going to do it.  The original idea was to listen to it every week, but I'm changing that.  My goal now is to listen to it on the 10th of every month, but - as with the Beach Boys' 20/20 - only from January to June and excepting February.

Parts

I'm going to continue figuring out parts but not with the fervor of last year.  For the last few years, I've figured out a part for one of my cover projects every time I see an old high school classmate post about his or her creative endeavors, and I'll be continuing that.  I also aim to learn a part to any song I hear mentioned.

Monday, January 7, 2019

2019 Musical Projects and Goals

First, here's how I did on my 2018 musical projects (indented).
Scales - I quite like practicing a scale every day, even if it's sometimes a bit tedious, so I'm going to continue doing that.
As I did last year, I occasionally fell behind a couple days, but I did continue in my cycle of scale practicing.  Near the end of the year, I abandoned doing it for a two-minute period though.
Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals - I'm going to continue with the schedule I've established: a recording of a hymn tune on Sunday, a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn on Wednesday, and a musicological post about a hymn on Friday.  I have a back-log of musicological posts to write, but I recently started prioritizing posts about hymns for the current season of the church year.
I maintained this schedule.  "Behind the scenes," as it were, I've also been working on transcribing hymn texts and Biblical passages for future posts.
Cover Projects
Like I mentioned above, I'm discontinuing my Cover Project Listening Schedule for this year.  In some ways, that determined which project I workt on during the week.  I'm sure I'll still do some work on the projects, but I don't expect it'll be as much as I did last year.
This was kind of a failure; in March, I started an-other cover project for the Moody Blues, and I don't think I did any less work on these than in the previous year (in fact, I might have done more work in some).  Of course, as I expected, I was more active in some projects than others.  Over the course of the year, I got to the point where I now know at least a little bit for every song on:
  • The Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid
  • The Alan Parsons Project - Eve
  • Electric Light Orchestra - Balance of Power
  • The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
  • Electric Light Orchestra - No Answer
  • The Alan Parsons Project - The Turn of a Friendly Card
  • The Monkees - The Monkees
  • Jeff Lynne's ELO - Alone in the Universe
  • Colin Blunstone - Ennismore
  • The Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky
I did much less recording for these projects than I have in previous years, so in that regard at least, I did step back a bit.
Instrument Practice - I don't have a set schedule (I probably should), but I'd like to practice piano and flute with at least some regularity this year.  I'm never as good at piano as I'd like to be, and since I just started learning flute last year, I'm not very good at it yet.
I did some practice, but because I didn't have a schedule, it wasn't very organized.  I made some progress in my piano book; a month or two ago, I learned a Telemann minuet, and - even though it's almost certainly a simplified version - I love playing it.

Around August, I started following the daily pieces posted on flutetunes.com.  Most of the pieces markt "easy" are still well beyond my current flute abilities, but I've been playing many of the pieces on mandolin.  Since a fair number are originally Irish fiddle tunes, playing them on mandolin is actually less of a stretch than playing them on flute.
FAWM and 50/90 - I do these every year.  Lately, it seems that FAWM goes fairly well, but I give up on 50/90 after about a month.
I completed FAWM, and - for the first time ever - I actually completed 50/90 too.  Of course, a lot of the songs I wrote ended up being not all that great, but some turned out nicely.
Alone in the Universe - As part of my 10538 Orchestra project, I want to figure out at least one part to every song on Jeff Lynne's ELO's Alone in the Universe.  I have the deluxe edition, which is twelve tracks, so I'm going to focus on one track every month.
and
The Village Green Preservation Society - It'd been on my wishlist for years, and last August, I finally got a copy of the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society.  I got the three-disc deluxe edition, and I plan on listening to the first disc on the 10th of every month, the second disc on the 20th, and the third on the 30th (since February doesn't have thirty days, I'll listen to the third disc on 1 March).  I want to figure out parts for each of the songs too.
I accomplished this, although for some tracks, I did just the bare minimum of learning a bit of a part.  For instance, for Jeff Lynne's ELO's "I'm Leaving You," all I learned was a single guitar phrase and for the Kinks' "Johnny Thunder," all I learned was a backing vocal phrase.

I don't think I really had a plan in mind for this, but I even learned some parts to some of the extra songs on the deluxe edition of Village Green Preservation Society.  In November, I made a video about how to play the mellotron part in "Mr. Songbird."


I stuck to my listening schedule for Village Green Preservation Society, although I substituted 22 November for 20 November because 22 November 1968 is the day the album was released.  I wanted to listen to it on the 50th anniversary.

As a far-off eventuality, I commented at the beginning of the year that I wanted to "continue slowly earning money so I can eventually buy a Nord Electro 5D."  This happened much sooner than I expected (15 February).  The Electo 6 was announced, but the specific sound I wanted (the Hohner Pianet) isn't compatible with the Electro 6.  This put something of a rush on my getting an Electro 5 before they all disappeared in favor of the newer model.  Haply, the music store I bought mine from also had a special financing plan that was available for only a week.  I paid a down payment and have three years to pay off the remaining balance.  I spent a good deal of time last year trying to scrap together funds to pay my monthly keyboard bill, and I currently have a little over a year's worth of payments saved up.  By the end of the year, I want to have enough to pay it off.

I hadn't planned on doing this, but between the middle of March and the middle of April, I figured out the chords to every Buck Owens song (a total of 40) on the two-disc compilation album I have.

---&---

2019 Projects


Scales - I'm going to continue in my cycle of scales.  I stick with one scale for five days, practicing it on piano, bass, guitar in open D tuning, mandolin, and guitar in standard tuning.  I follow the order of the scales in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and every time I complete a cycle, I move up a fret on the stringed instruments (save for mandolin).

Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals - I'm going to continue with the schedule I've been doing for two years:  a recording of a hymn tune on Sunday (I've been going through The Lutheran Hymnal, although I occasionally skip a tune, and recently, I started doing all four voices [played on two mandolins, guitar, and bass] rather than just three), a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn on Wednesday, and a post about a musicological feature (usually just a small point) on Friday.

Cover Projects - For the record, here are links to the blogs and what band(s) they cover:
For all of these, I'm going to continue learning parts for the songs, and I'll probably end up writing some posts about various musicological features I notice.  I also have a few specific plans for some projects:

For Beatle Audit, I'm going to listen to one of the Live at the BBC albums every month, alternating between Live at the BBC and On Air - Live at the BBC, Volume 2 and listening to disc one on the 10th and disc two on the 20th.  Since 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road,  I'm going to make a concentrated effort to learn parts from that album.

Since I started House of Four Doors only in March, I haven't done as much work on that project as on the others.  In order to "catch up," I'm going to listen to a Moody Blues album every Tuesday (because the year started on a Tuesday and ends on a Tuesday and because one of the most well-known Moody Blues songs is "Tuesday Afternoon").  I don't yet have all of the Moody Blues albums, but I'm going to cycle through what albums I have:
  • The Magnificent Moodies
  • Days of Future Passed
  • In Search of the Lost Chord
  • On the Threshold of a Dream
  • To Our Children's Children's Children
  • A Question of Balance
  • Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
  • Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
  • Caught Live + 5
  • Long Distance Voyager
  • Sur la Mer
  • Keys of the Kingdom
In the event that I acquire more Moody Blues albums during the year, I'll include those in the cycle.

This isn't so much of a concrete plan, but I'd also like to listen to the Zombies' Into the Afterlife with some regularity since most of the songs on that compilation were recorded in 1968 and 1969.

FAWM and 50/90 - I'm going to attempt both of these again.  I'd had the notion to use only piano and flute for FAWM in an attempt to get better at those instruments, but I think I'll have a better chance at completing the projects if I don't put any restrictions on them.

Classical Music Queue - I'm starting up the Classical Music Queue again.  Whenever I hear a classical piece mentioned, I add it to a list, and then I listen to the pieces one a day.  I still have three years' worth of pieces to listen to, so there's no chance I'll get caught up during the year, but I'll make some progress, at least.

Bach Cantatas - Since March (specifically since Bach's birthday on the 21st), I've been listening to a Bach cantata every Saturday, going in order by BWV number.  I'm going to continue that throughout the year, going from BWV 43 to BWV 95 (some cantatas aren't included in that range; I have a box set of the sacred cantatas only).  Occasionally, I print out the scores (from IMSLP) and write notes about the music or Biblical references with plans to write about the cantatas on Lyres, Harps, and Cymbals at some point in the distant future.

Nord Electro 5D - This is probably my most boring goal, but it's also the most essential:  I want to have earned enough money by the end of the year to be able to pay off my keyboard.  I'm still technically unemployed, but I make some money by transcribing receipts over the internet.  Lately, the availability of work has been more capricious than ever, and the work itself is becoming a drag, so I want to be rid of it as soon as possible.

In the event that I do have enough to pay off my keyboard, I'm going to start saving for a clarinet, which I'd like to get before February 2021.  I'm constantly thinking of more instruments I want to get, but clarinet is at the top of my list, followed by a Moog synthesizer and then a violin.

Piano Practice - Every time I see something about piano, I'm going to practice for eight minutes (8 minutes because 88 keys).  I'm putting some restrictions on this, though:  I'm not going to practice at nighttime, and I'm not going to count online posts from piano companies and that sort of thing.

1,000 Parts - This might be a bit too ambitious, but I want to try to figure out 1,000 parts this year (it averages to less than three a day!).  Maybe "bits of parts" is a more accurate wording of my goal.  In 2017, I figured out a part (or a bit of a part) every day, with a total of around 860.  In 2018, I purposely didn't figure out a part every day (I didn't want the pressure of trying to continue my streak), but I still figured out around 720.

Part of this goal includes learning a bit of any song I happened to run across a reference to, provided I have it in my collection.  Already, I've had to venture into the dustier corners of my music library and learn some parts to songs that were mentioned in clues on Jeopardy!  I'm still not exactly sure what I'm doing to do in the event that I run across a reference to a song for which I already know a part.  That's happened twice already; for one song, I learned a bit of a second part, but I don't intend to do that for the second song.  I'm also exempting the Beatles songs I read about in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (which I aim to finish reading by the end of the month); I'm already trying to figure out parts for all of those, and I don't need the extra pressure from this project.
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