cyber3d
Well-known member
I don't find myself reading liner notes much anymore. But, I did just read the liner notes to Daniel Ho's Polani CD. It was released in 2009.
Really liked what he wrote.
"It's unclear to me why the passage of time seems to accelerate with age, but it surely does. I remember it felt like an eternity to graduate from kindergarten and enter the first grade. Each day after lunch, time almost stood still as I anxiously await as the loud, but welcome ring of Saint Patrick's school bell at 2:30 PM. Free at last! It was a short, three block walk to our house, we played with friends until Dad came home from work and took us to the beach.
Maybe it's the ever accumulating, grown up responsibilities that keep me squeezing minutes out of hours. Maybe it's a creative passion that doesn't know day from night. Either way, years flyby in what feels like days. I've come to realize that creativity has an inverse relationship to responsibility and I should pare life down to the absolute basics - minimizing clutter-some responsibilities to allow time and space for artistic endeavors. This has become an endless work in progress. Polani is a manifestation of this mindset. It was recorded on the simplest of instruments, one that defined my formative years in Hawaii.
In November 2008, I pushed my paperwork aside and spent most of the month with my ukulele. I wrote and arranged these pieces between the hours of 10 PM and 4 AM and recorded them during the day. In my late night musings, I developed an affinity for two intervals, half-steps, and unisons. A half-step is one of the most dissident intervals in music. However, it can be quite beautiful within the context of the surrounding harmony. I use this sonically dense interval in many of these pieces to enhance otherwise consonant chords. The harmonic opposite of a half-step is the unison, which is the most consonant music interval. On a ukulele, unisons are produced by playing the same pitch on different strings (for example the open A string and the fifth fret of the E string). Unisons provide smooth harmonic and melodic transitions because one of the notes, usually an open string, sustains as the other musical elements change.
I use ostinatos (repeating musical figures) in the arrangements to create energy, counterpoint (finer lines moving independently of the melody) to add interest, and almost always chose extended chords (chords containing color tones to enrich the harmony) over basic triads. All songs are played finger style to articulate the melody harmony and bass parts independently.
In the end, this solo ukulele project wasn't all that simple. The music making process is fairly involved, but the ultimate goal remain singular. To form an emotional connection with the audience. As it did for me, I hope these recordings offer a pleasant break from the routine and reality. It took me back to those childhood days when I used to drive my family crazy playing the only song I knew. "A song for Anna," over and over again. There was no escaping me as I incessantly plucked about our little house Kaimuki!
Really liked what he wrote.
"It's unclear to me why the passage of time seems to accelerate with age, but it surely does. I remember it felt like an eternity to graduate from kindergarten and enter the first grade. Each day after lunch, time almost stood still as I anxiously await as the loud, but welcome ring of Saint Patrick's school bell at 2:30 PM. Free at last! It was a short, three block walk to our house, we played with friends until Dad came home from work and took us to the beach.
Maybe it's the ever accumulating, grown up responsibilities that keep me squeezing minutes out of hours. Maybe it's a creative passion that doesn't know day from night. Either way, years flyby in what feels like days. I've come to realize that creativity has an inverse relationship to responsibility and I should pare life down to the absolute basics - minimizing clutter-some responsibilities to allow time and space for artistic endeavors. This has become an endless work in progress. Polani is a manifestation of this mindset. It was recorded on the simplest of instruments, one that defined my formative years in Hawaii.
In November 2008, I pushed my paperwork aside and spent most of the month with my ukulele. I wrote and arranged these pieces between the hours of 10 PM and 4 AM and recorded them during the day. In my late night musings, I developed an affinity for two intervals, half-steps, and unisons. A half-step is one of the most dissident intervals in music. However, it can be quite beautiful within the context of the surrounding harmony. I use this sonically dense interval in many of these pieces to enhance otherwise consonant chords. The harmonic opposite of a half-step is the unison, which is the most consonant music interval. On a ukulele, unisons are produced by playing the same pitch on different strings (for example the open A string and the fifth fret of the E string). Unisons provide smooth harmonic and melodic transitions because one of the notes, usually an open string, sustains as the other musical elements change.
I use ostinatos (repeating musical figures) in the arrangements to create energy, counterpoint (finer lines moving independently of the melody) to add interest, and almost always chose extended chords (chords containing color tones to enrich the harmony) over basic triads. All songs are played finger style to articulate the melody harmony and bass parts independently.
In the end, this solo ukulele project wasn't all that simple. The music making process is fairly involved, but the ultimate goal remain singular. To form an emotional connection with the audience. As it did for me, I hope these recordings offer a pleasant break from the routine and reality. It took me back to those childhood days when I used to drive my family crazy playing the only song I knew. "A song for Anna," over and over again. There was no escaping me as I incessantly plucked about our little house Kaimuki!