Gregory Johnson - Music Directory
Music 2007
Heart Songs
Each month I review many songs and select the best music for the month. After a year, I produce a compilation of the best songs selected for that year. The Heart Songs selections for 2007 are now available. More about past Heart Songs selections can be found here.
Background
My interest in music dates back to the late 1960s. At the time, my mother initiated piano lessons for me. Eventually, I fell in love with piano and continued taking lessons into the mid-1970s.
By the mid-1970s, as a teenager, I had created my own multi-track recording system. By connecting two cassette decks together, I would record a track on one deck, then play it back on another deck mixing the first track and an additional recorded track by using a mixer and connecting the cassette deck inputs with RCA “Y” adapters from Radio Shack. In this way, I could build one track upon another. However, the quality wasn’t very good since each subsequent recording would be one generation away from the original.
In the early 1980s, I purchased digital pro-grade equipment including a Yamaha DX5 keyboard and a Tascam 4-track recording system. By 1986, I had assembled a digital recording studio in Iowa City called Oakland Sound Studios. It was given this name because soon I would be moving to Oakland, California.
Once in California, by 1987, I had an opportunity to see George Winston play live and sometime later visited Different Fur recording studio where George Winston recorded many of his albums. Other artists who have recorded at Different Fur include: Bobby Brown, Will Ackerman, David Byrne, Phil Collins, Danny Glover, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, Shadowfax, Liz Story, James Taylor, The Cranberries, Robin Williams, and Stevie Wonder, to name a few. So, it was an amazing experience to visit the studio and see it first hand. The entrance to the studio, at that time, was accessible down a back alley where there was an unmarked, but unusual looking service entrance.
During the 18 years from 1988 to 2006, I continued to play sporadically whenever I had access to a piano or keyboard.
On August 8 of 2007, I purchased the 2008 version of Apple Garageband which took my music production and recording abilities to an entirely new level. What had previously cost thousands of dollars was now available from Apple as part of their iLife software for about $80 (included for free on new Apple computers). Although the software arrived on August 10, I didn’t get around to using the music production software until August 22. One of my first recordings using the new software, a song called Zanzibar, was done using a computer keyboard rather than a music keyboard. Within a few days, I ordered the M-Audio Keystation 61es midi controller music keyboard -- it cost about 5% of what I paid for my original digital keyboard back in the 1980s. Since the new keyboard arrived, I’ve been composing and producing new songs every few days.
Music Production Methods
There are several general categories of music production methods:
-
✤Live. Live recording with real musical instruments is the most basic method of music production.
-
✤Multi-Track. Playing separate tracks and recording them using a multi-track recorder allows one person to be their own band or vocal group.
-
✤Using Loops. The third method is to use a variety of royalty free loops. By combining loops, it’s possible to quickly assemble a song from various components. Once the basic song is assembled from these pre-recorded loops or tracks, the final step is to play live with this created band.
-
✤Performance Tracks. Electronic keyboards and organs often include a variety of preprogrammed song accompaniment tracks or performance tracks. By pressing a button, it is possible to have a simulated “band” play a blues, Reggae, Jazz, or other genre of song that you can play along with. Garageband has a feature called Magic Garageband that lets you choose what member of the band you will be -- drums, bass, lead guitar, keyboards, horns, wind instrument, vocals, or some other instrument. Then you can generate a multi-track recording session as if those members of the band had actually recorded live. You need only add your own performance to the mix to produce the song. Garageband offers limitless editing of these performance tracks. So, it’s possible to get really creative with them -- much more so than what an electric keyboard might allow.
Because I am a keyboard player, I can “play” many different instruments in the band without learning the actual technique required to play a flute, guitar, base, or other instrument. Sometimes it is fun to simply throw a song together quickly using the computer automated system. I’ve played around with this a bit. Yet, the greatest creativity for me is to begin from scratch with a blank canvas and begin laying down music as an artist might begin putting paint on a blank canvas. You’ll find my music offers a variety of these approaches.
My Band: The Wooden Llamas
My band is called The Wooden Llamas. Please don’t request an interview with any of the band members, because they actually don’t exist. The Wooden Llamas is the name I give to the computer generated instrumental accompaniment tracks created by the Apple Garageband software. In addition to using prerecorded loops, I also will record an entire song one track at a time playing each instrument myself. In this way I am playing all the instruments in the final recording. So, sometimes I am The Wooden Llamas. The name of the band was created using the name Llamas and a random word generator at the BandNameMaker.com website.
Creative Commons Open Source Music
Much of the intellectual property in the world is increasingly being owned by corporations. That includes photos, music, video, and even the news. I’m trying to create original content that can be owned “by the people” rather than just a few. So, my writings, photography, music, and other work are protected by a Creative Commons Copyright that ensures the public can enjoy and use them. As much as possible, I try to create Open Source content, which to me means that I share how I created it. For photography, that involves describing my photography methods. For music, I explain how I created a recording. So, the content delivery also includes education about how the content was made. In the future, I hope to offer training videos that show how I produce music using Garageband.
