Jazz Ballad

[Fred Winterling (harbor1)]

Hi Guys,

I haven't had the motivation to compose much of anything lately, but I have been playing around with some of my favorite songs and thought I would submit this arrangement of "You Must Believe In Spring". It is my all time favorite song written by Michel Legrand. In fact my top four favorite songs were written by this great French composer. My piano teacher wrote charts for me of this song as well as "The Summer Knows" ( Theme from the movie, Summer of '42 ), "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?", "How Do You Keep The Music Playing" and "Pieces Of Dreams". Michel Legrand's compositions are probably the most beautiful melodies ever written. My teacher always played this song strictly as a ballad, but my trumpet player used to do a fantastic jazzed up version with his muted trumpet. I decided to do it his way (This is for you, Mike). I hope you like it!

Cheers,
Fred
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You Must Believe In Spring.mid (http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/35939/You_Must_Believe_In_Spring-33850.mid) (37.4 k)</td></tr></table></center>

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Fred,

Great piece! I really like the contrasting lead-in with just the piano and occasional bass.

I had some problems with stuck notes for the acoustic bass, though, so I tried using the pizzicato strings, and that sounded really nice and "woody" (I'm using my Chaos soundfont bank), which I thought went particularly well.

Dare I ask? .... Have you worked this up with JABB or GPO? I might give it a try with GPO and see what that sounds like - the muted trumpet on my Chaos (while much better than my soundcard's FM sounds) doesn't do the part justice by a mile, I'm sure.

I'm sure this piece is powerful for you in more ways than one right now. Hang in there, guy, and know that lots of folks are praying for Patsy and you.

glr,
Sherry

[Fred Winterling (harbor1)]

Hi Sherry,

Thank you! You see right through me, don't you? Whenever I want to just mellow out, I always play this piece on my acoustic grand (as a ballad). That is what prompted me to do this piece. I've always loved this song. "Send In The Clowns" puts me into the same kind of mood as well as "The Summer knows". I can remember riding my three wheel bike in the summer of '42. Wow! That makes me ancient.

quote: "Dare I ask? .... Have you worked this up with JABB or GPO? I might give it a try with GPO and see what that sounds like - the muted trumpet on my Chaos"

I didn't do it with JABB. I kind of struggled with that but I wanted to use the modulation wheel for the vibrato for the trumpet and could not use that with JABB. I may try it with JABB later and remove the mod wheel vibrato. I had trouble with the stuck notes too, I did a ton of editing throughout and I got tired. The pizzicato strings takes that out, but it doesn't ring long enough and is a little choppy. I did so much volume changing that I completely forgot about the drum staff, and it is a little too loud. I'll have to play with that, too.
I wish my old trumpet player could hear it. I lost touch with him about 15 years ago. I last saw him in Vegas. He had a group called "Dixie Six" at The Four Seasons in the old section of Las Vegas. He was there for about 25 years. I understand he finally left Vegas and bought a home on a lake in some mid western city. He should be right at home there. We once sat on a hill overlooking a lake in Baltimore and played our horns listening to the echo bouncing off the big marble homes and coming back across the lake. You could actually stop playing and hear yourself. But it was 3:00 a.m. and the police chased us, so that ended that.http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

Cheers,
Fred

[M G Jacobs (mgj32)]

Hi Fred,

This is nice, really nice. I had it playing in Win Med Player with repeat while I read mail, but before that I had to check it out in Composer to make sure it was a .mid file. Midi just doesn't have such living presence, as RCA used to say about Orthophonic High Fidelity. I still don't know how you did it, entirely. You've done a lot of work with the pedal and must have spent hours working on note velocity, attack and release. But it was worth it. This is a lovely arrangement and it does, indeed, sound very live. I still can't figure out how you got vibrato from the GM muted trumpet. Did you edit the preset in Vienna or something? Nice going, anyhow. Ditto on the pitch bends, with which I've still had nothing but disaster.

Why does "it was 3:00 a.m. and the police chased us" ring such a bell?

best to you and Patsy,
mgj

[Fred Winterling (harbor1)]

Hi MG,
Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

quote: I still don't know how you did it, entirely. You've done a lot of work with the pedal and must have spent hours working on note velocity, attack and release.

You're right about the editing hours. I can put a song down in minutes and then spend weeks trying to make it right. I play as much as I can on the keyboard, which establishes the velocities, attacks and releases at least close to what I want to hear. Then when I add other instruments, I use a lot of those attack and release locations with the "as performed" control in piano roll to put the new notes added in the same location. For instance, if you are adding a bass line, you need to make sure to place the attack at the same location as the bass note of the piano or the drum ( or other instrument ) so that the meter is perfect. Sometimes, I might copy the entire left hand of the piano and paste it into the bass staff, then delete the 100 notes I don't want just to get the meter right, then change the notes where necessary and drop them down an octave (maybe)

quote: I still can't figure out how you got vibrato from the GM muted trumpet. Did you edit the preset in Vienna or something? Nice going, anyhow. Ditto on the pitch bends, with which I've still had nothing but disaster.

The vibrato conrol (mod wheel) is much easier to contend with than the pitch bends. You just have to feel where the vibrato would start if you were playing it and then how much vibrato to use in that instance. It's pretty easy. I used to spend an hour on one pitch bend, but then I would copy it and use it wherever it came up again in the piece. I have a file with dozens of pitch bends but when I need a different one, I just spend another hour on that one.

quote: Why does "it was 3:00 a.m. and the police chased us" ring such a bell?

Because you were probably the guy sitting on the opposite hill playing the flute and laughing your --- off!http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

P.S. The trumpet is the GM preset as is. The "life" comes from selecting that insrument on the keyboard for that part. You'll notice the velocities are all over the place which is the case in 'real time' playing.

Cheers,
Fred

[M G Jacobs (mgj32)]

Hi Fred,

I should have known that your keyboard was involved in "Spring." It is a powerful argument for getting one and hooking it up to my computer...once I have figured how to do it without moving it to the basement and re-wiring everything or adding a room to keep it within hailing distance of the machine.

Regarding vibrato: Do you do that from your keyboard, too? It is pretty hard to envision playing and handling a mod wheel too, so thinking you might have done it in Composer with the graph over notes palette, I experimented a bit. I was surprised and delighted to find that I could get vibrato from a GM violin. I also tried a flute and clarinet and horn. Really nice. I guess I was surprised because I had experimented with this feature before and didn't find any of the controls that made a difference. I guess I just tried the wrong ones.

Middle of the night and police chasing rang a bell because of a literary, rather than musical, session in and through the town adjoining the college campus, 46 years ago. It was mostly declaiming Shakespeare as we, my roomate and I, dragged a long chain borrowed from a construction site through sleeping neighborhoods, pausing now and again to revisit a condensed Thunderbird. There was also some music, as I now recall--written by Oscar Brand, and never sung so badly by him or anyone else. (Even the thought of that Thunderbird, now, requires a Zantac.)

I suspect your wee hours jam session didn't deserve being chased by police. Quite the opposite of mine.

all best,
mgj

[Fred Winterling (harbor1)]

Hi MG,

quote/ Regarding vibrato: Do you do that from your keyboard, too? It is pretty hard to envision playing and handling a mod wheel too.

NO, I don't have a mod wheel on my keyboard. You found the right way to use it! You will have fun with that. Hooking a keyboard up to your computer doesn't require much. Most are a simple USB connection. Mine sits on an "L" shaped shelf the same height as my desk and is within arms reach. All I have to do is spin around in the chair, or, I can play right hand parts and watch the monitor at the same time.

quote:/ pausing now and again to revisit a condensed Thunderbird.

I think that same "Thunderbird" inspired my early morning performance.http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

Cheers,
Fred

[Fred Winterling (harbor1)]

Hi Sherry,

quote: "I had some problems with stuck notes for the acoustic bass, though, so I tried using the pizzicato strings, and that sounded really nice and "woody" (I'm using my Chaos soundfont bank), which I thought went particularly well."

Omigosh!!! I just realized why the stuck notes. For about the 1st half the song, I just copied the LH piano part for the bass and deleted the notes that interfered. However, in my absent minded desire for speed, I neglected to erase the pedal. That has been corrected. If you are trying it with GPO, you will need to erase the pedal graphs in the bass line. Sorry, that was pretty dumb.http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

Cheers,
Fred