Well, I have been writing many pieces, not so much recording, but trying to make some transcriptions with my improvisation, and make movies with it too. Hopefully I can put them on here eventually.

Richard

This is a short-code activated mp4 player, Ipods and pads should be able to open;

This is a cross-platform mp3 player with xml playlist enabled.
(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

I might have a lot of shortcode change in the coming of days; rest assured they would be done eventually. My goal is to make my page cross platform-an idea that started long time ago but finally managed to put into action. I realized many smartphone or apple users can’t access my site due to my heavily used flash media player. In spite of the fact that I don’t really mind from what platform my music can be played, I supposed after all it wouldn’t be bad to include everyone’s gadgets, or at least make a conscientious effort trying to.

I also have some other toys planning to be implemented, but that would be started after this is done. More to update soon.

Richard

[Below should be a powerpress automated podcast player.]

Cool, I suppose I can embed videos from facebook up to here, but youtube embeds should serve the same purpose-just an extra tool.

Richard

All that I can say right now is between the last post and the present time I was [and still am] thoroughly engaged in various fields of work and consequently unable to commit as much effort nor time onto this site as much as I have wished. Such is the fate, or I suppose, the unfolding of the series of events inevitable. I cannot specify the nature of the delay but the work that I have been still doing, in progress or completed, would be released eventually.

As I have mentioned before, its near useless and furthermore reputation-tarnishing that I broadcast a more precise date that my work would be resumed, lest I break my promise yet again. Many say its fortitude and character that carries the day-lately, I have found out its actually apathy—only when you cease to mind about your own shortcomings you can move on to things more valuable and worthwhile to pursue.

Richard

Well as soon as I hear the distortion after the work was done couple hours ago first I assumed something went wrong in the rendering, but most likely is because I was opening multipule programs that causes the interference that I heard in the videos, which disappeared as I shut the programs down.

As you can see (depending on your connection) the quality is superb, ultra smooth with very little jagged lines. The minimal stuttering are most likely caused by the MAM player that I use to generate these moving midi bars. The encoder took about one fifth of the time I needed for my previous computer to do the job that was at least 2 times superior the quality.

I have plans to do more today, but then its my first time working with this rig and I have to reset many things. This would have to do. The track was used because of its quick moving gestures and I put this behind my past work schedule precisely because how with my older computer you wouldn’t even see those quick embellishments in the video.

Richard

…armed with a 6 core 3.20 Ghz processor and 6 GB of RAM, I am sure I can run most things that I can lay my hands on. The only thing that is lacking right now is time, which as I might have explained before, is the one single most sorely missed quality of life that was traded for livelihood. Meanwhile I will get to the more serious work soon-and I will give you all a heads up as it would be loaded onto this site.

Richard

I was meant to type a short update sometime in June when everything is settled and done-yet lately I have come to a more serious review of my performance and realized I have slacked far behind schedule again. There would be things I have planned to release but never got further from inside my computer drive, and notions, ideas and plans that had barely executed started to trouble me enough to interrupt my creative process, however meager and scarce it might now seem.

Therefore instead of announcing what I wished to do, I would just post them online and notify once its done. let’s leave it at that.

Richard

1. So much things that needed to finish, too little time: two concerts coming up, various works. and meanwhile got sick, how nice. Perhaps I should prioritize? spreading the meager effort out so thin seemed to be an unwise idea.

2. have been recording still-Just didn’t have the spare time to upload and comment. Will do eventually. most can be found in my YouTube channel. Just moving on though, commenting on my improvisations-my fingers can’t move as quickly as before, as my joints are strengthened (?) by the endless tearing of cardboards, ha-ha. So either I need to take longer (to play) or perhaps I would just speed up the midi recording on my propeller reason.

Richard

…or perhaps not.

Nevertheless please enjoy these videos:

The dance & dancers

3rd person view

Reference

Source

What happens when the dancers meet the source

Richard

Well, long story short, skipping all the cultural topics and interests, I have stumbled upon (yeah.) a dance-along video, and meanwhile watching Okai Chisato moving her limbs the intro of this particular piece of music caught my attention. Which sort of surprised me as Tsunku always have some nice cadencing work. Something must done right, I thought. So I did some transcribing:

that tonicized Neapolitan two going back to the standard 2-5-1 minor run is cool because due to its tritone substitution, try sing the top line (implied melody) out: the challenge is trying to keep both F sharp (beginning and end) the same pitch.

TK once asked Tsunku (He is the composer-lyricist, by the way) on a generic talk show how many chords does he use for his works, and he showed three fingers to him, which very technically is not a lie. Primary chords (I, IV, V) are most essential while its relative minor (vi) equivalent gives you the rest of the sounds. Plus a leading note diminished triad (vii)you are good to go.

It’s a good key selection, too: 3 black key minor has this “sophisticated” sound (few know its correct name F sharp minor, and even less knew its enharmonic  G flat minor (its relative key is B double flat major with a whopping 9 flats!) meanwhile its Neapolitan, in most cases a flattened second, here is actually some simple D and G positions, (as Neapolitan means lowered semitone-in the case of sharps, you natural them) which are very finger friendly.

Another trend that caught my attention is instead of "conventional" chord accompanying unique/catchy melodies, the current generic, cookie-cutter pop music becomes works of catchy harmonic cadences garnishing a generic melody. Makes one wonder who’s carrying the brunt of the work, the composer or his teams of editors & arrangers. I suppose it makes the learning of the singing easier—which always would be appreciated by these children.

Richard