A song I completed, with help from ccMixter and the generosity of the ccMixter community - "Ballad of Jane":
This is Jane.
Who tells, to no one in particular, that the sky is blue. That she’s cold.
She has no one — but herself — to assure herself that she’s fine.
This is her story.
Listen/ download at ccMixter | Odeo.comBallad Of Jane (narva9 mix) by Ivan Chew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Singapore License. Based on a work at ccmixter.org. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://myrightbrain.wordpress.com.
[More details at MyRightBrain]
After I’d completed my instrumental track, I felt it lacked something. So I searched ccMixter for female vocals.
I was hopeful but also mentally prepared not to find anything. It's easier to work the song around a set of vocal tracks, rather than the other way around (i.e. the vocal tracks may not match my instrumental track's key and tempo).
I must have gone through all available vocal tracks when I found a fellow ccMixter track - narva9’s “I’m Fine”!
Her pell (i.e. what ccMixters often use as the short-form for acapella) had about 10 over remixes by then. I didn’t care. It was a jaw-dropping moment for me. To have found a pell — whose key and tempo and lyrics — so snugly fitted this idea I had in mind.
My loose idea was that Jane is telling the world her story. But I didn’t really know what was her story yet.
narva9’s lyrics completed my original idea.
ccMIXTER
I've mentioned ccMixter.org a few times. Some day soon, I'll find time to blog about it in greater details.
The simple explanation is that ccMixter allows people to share/ upload their original musical samples and/ or works. Or to legally download and reuse (it's not a must to upload your tracks). All works come under a Creative Commons license.
Personally, it's the next best thing to discovering GarageBand (I'd like to use a non-music analogy but... ah well)
I get the feeling those who don't create music don't quite appreciate how amazing ccMixter is as a resource.
Or appreciate the fact that people now have the opportunity to find someone to collaborate (at least the song, if not the actual person) across geography and time.
I'm not exaggerating when I say "across time". I'm a late-comer to using ccMixter. Most tracks I've used were shared by people one to two years ago.
People whom I've not met and probably will not. But I can communicate with them via email, if I choose to (which I've done so a few).
It's likely that some people may hesitate to share their stuff on sites like ccMixter (though I think it's more that relatively fewer create music as compared to people who take photos or videos).
I'd say that's besides the point.
The best judge of that what share isn't yourself. It's other people.
One of Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science comes to mind.
If "every book has its reader", then "every music-sample has its listener or user".
This is great. I love music and now I have a new tool. Thanks so much for passing on this information.
ReplyDelete