Season 312 - Contrast

ElenaDuff

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Am I late posting this? Sorry! I looked up Hawaiian time and thought I had all day today too to post...confused!




Anyway...

For 312th Season it’s all about CONtrast or conTRAST : )

While arranging a song I want you to figure out a way to have an obvious contrast within it.

Some examples:

— You could have a contrast in genre - add country/rock/blues/jazz style choruses to a pop song.

- You could change the mood of a song, arranging a sad song to have happy verses but then very angry chorus.

- The contrast can the tempo within a song, going from really fast to really slow.

- Or change the strums/playing style, starting a song with e.g. Formby style strumming and fingerpicking other parts of it.

- Using whatever bag of tricks you have in terms of strumming patterns, fingerpicking, drumming on the uke, is encouraged - so long as you don’t use the same strum throughout - remember! Contrast is the key


EDIT** You can also, if you want, mash two different songs together to create the contrast!


Note: It’s not enough to find for example, an upbeat pop song and record it in its entirety as a blues number, you still need a contrast within the arrangement. So, you’d have to have the (now bluesy) pop song, and still add a contrasting element e.g. hip hop choruses

This is all about stretching yourselves out of your comfort zones, so do try mess around and try to learn something new

But most of all have fun!!

RULES

1: THREE SONG LIMIT - sorry, but I won't have time to look at more than that, so pick your three best if you've more

2: Can be any song you like or originals

3: Can use multi-tracking, other instruments added vocals, but uke front and centre.

4: Finishes on Sunday night, February 11th Midnight Hawaaian time.

I don't know what the prizes are yet, some small tokens to be decided. I'll choose a couple of my favourites and a couple at random to give everyone a chance at being a winner!

PLAYLIST
 
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Cool. So something like Bjork's 'It's Oh So Quiet' would fit the bill exactly? :)
 
Cool. So something like Bjork's 'It's Oh So Quiet' would fit the bill exactly? :)

Well...kind of...the point was that you'd pick a song and add the contrast, rather than doing a song already with a massive contrast, but yes, that song is an ideal example! :D :)
 
And boom! It's all started. Delighted with the videos so far. Pa's soft and then appropriately more upbeat to match the lyrics hymn. Lumpywafflesquirt doing a cracking job of not playing fast when it's normally required, Wee Ginga with a subtle yet noticeable strumming and tempo change and Xommen with a boppily strummed U2 song becoming a melancholic tearjerker.

Keep 'em coming folks. This is great fun for me to listen to what you've come up with and trying to guess what the contrast within the song might be : )

x Elena
 
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Am I late posting this? Sorry! I looked up Hawaiian time and thought I had all day today too to post...confused!

I usually post just before going to bed on Saturday night. That means our friends across the pond see it late afternoon to early evening (depending how far west they are) and can be ready to go Sunday Morning. It suits the down under brigade too as they have all day to think about what to post for their first as Midnight Hawaii for them is early evening (I'm sure Pa or Rustyy will tell you what time for them).

Midnight Hawaii is 10am GMT (I assume Ireland uses the same time zone as the UK) so you can still get away with posting first thing Sunday morning. I did that once when I was visiting my daughter in London but there were lots of heavy hints on the 'anticipation' thread. :)
 
I've long threatened to try some System of a Down on the uke. Here's the song that put them on the map. It was later covered by parody lounge jazz artist Richard Cheese.

I take inspiration from both versions and capture neither. But I do switch between slow tempo and 'Nice' singing and very fast tempo and shouting. Also there's a contrast between the lyrics and everything else happening in the video.


 
This season would have been perfect for Lynda' s season years ago where we got about a dozen covers of Hit Me Baby One More Time, each in a different style.
 
Season 312. Submission 1. "Dona, Dona" (Written by Sholom Secunda and Aaron Zeitlin (1941)) Notably recorded by Joan Baez (1960) and
Donovan (1965).


Elena, thank you for hosting and your super theme. In this one you'll find a couple different picking patterns and audio mixes and a recording that sounds nothing like the Baez and Donovan recordings with which I've been familiar. I hope you enjoy it!


 
Found this theme a bit hard to get a handle on so apologies if I've missed the objet de l'exercise here.

I had a stab at it though, and tried to write an original song for the season called Independent Adult.

Attempting to be about the contrasts of adulthood, you know, strength /vulnerability, independence / longing, everyday life/ nostalgia. That kind of thing.



Sparky
 
Not sure if this is any good or not, but it definitely has contrast! I got a mountain dulcimer 4 days ago, brand spanking new on it, and this is my debut for trying to play it on a video. I thought of this arrangement as I was walking my dog this morning, and this was my first take at trying to put it together.

 
This season would have been perfect for Lynda' s season years ago where we got about a dozen covers of Hit Me Baby One More Time, each in a different style.

yes, that was really amazing! everyone brought it in a different way, i loved all those covers! if anyone fancies checking them out again the playlist for those songs is here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeOoTkKV5j7LULGkTMLi10V7wpzdcldQy the silly dave started it all, his vid is pure gold, with mrs silly dave slapping him at the relevant bits in the lyrics :biglaugh: :bowdown: and wonderfully too there is a vid by our old dear friend ukey dave at the end of the list. an inspirational and fun "how to bring a song in 10 different ways" list!
 
So my main source of inspiration this week is songs that have already been covered in a wildly different style, and trying to mash the two together. Probably cheating.

Here's one I wanted to do for Rick' s week a few months ago about songs that were made more famous by another artist, but never got round to it.

This was originally by the Zutons and then covered by Amy Winehouse, although for some reason Mark Ronson gets the credit because be produced it. I start off with the Zutons arrangement, then pick up the pace and add the 7th and maj7 chords that makes the Ronson production so distinctive. And then I just short of did my own thing at the end.


 
I tried to do one verse with a modified reggae beat, but that didn't work. At all. So I did it a cappella instead. Some Man in Black.

 
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