#(i shuffle the covers with the original songs really often: for every four songs by the same prisoner i hear twelve of hers 😂)

[good-beans]

It's done aahhh 👏👏👏 Here's my edit of @astarryserenade 's English covers in the Jailbreak Mix! The covers are incredible, and she was so helpful putting it together :) I also got some necessary audio editing help from @kyanako5972, thank you so much!

I hope you enjoy ✨

[mariatellsstories]

Club 27

Hollywood, CA – 1975

Bonnie strums her guitar as she attempts to follow the sheet music scattered across the glass coffee table, stopping to tune a string or two. The morning’s mind fog refuses to lift. Freckled cheeks framed by her long red hair give her the appearance of a teenager. She is in her mid-twenties, but feels sixty.

Bonnie would often joke, Of course I like to party – that’s what I do for a living, so I can hang out with cute guys, have a good time and stay up late. That demonstrates my devotion to the music. Yet she is painfully aware of how little sense that makes.

On this particular day, she is playing music written by Joni Mitchell. Bonnie admires Joni’s talent. She’s not only a prolific songwriter, poet, and photographer, but also a really good friend. Joni is able to communicate all she sees and hears through her art. Most of all, Bonnie idolizes her originality. Bonnie has always marveled at those who can express their thoughts and ideas through music. How do they do that? Every time Bonnie tries to create her own material, she hits a wall. Long ago, she figured that her talent - her way of being authentic – was the spin she would put on other people’s works. There's no shame in that, she tells herself.

Strumming chords on her guitar, she curses at the intro because she can't quite get the rhythm right. She tilts her head as she hears the percussion in her mind. Then, as if someone opened a door, she smiles and falls into the song.

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique

And a swinging hot spot

Bonnie stops and remembers the way Joni looked at her last night. She has seen that look many times before, the look of disappointment and frustration. It's the look people give her when they realize that she has betrayed herself once again.

The phone rings. Bonnie takes a sip of last night's brandy and places it near the phone.

“Hello?” She cradles the receiver so she can still strum but instead drops the phone onto her guitar with a loud acoustic BONG!

“Oh criminy!” Bonnie says, exasperated. “Hold on! I'll be right there!” She leans the guitar against the side of the couch. She takes a deep breath as she brushes a few strands of hair from her eyes.

“Hello?” she giggles, a bit flustered. “Thanks. You still there?”

“Hey Bonnie, it’s me.” It's her agent Ted.

Bonnie relaxes. “Yeah, hi, Ted. I was just about to call you. Do you have any gigs for me? I hear the Doobies are looking for someone to open for them at the Troubadour next month. Can you look into that?”

“What?” says Ted. “No, I had a folder of cover songs sent over to you yesterday. Have you had a chance to go through it?”

Bonnie stands, reaches for a yellow file folder lying on a nearby side table, and sits back down.

Ted continues, “You've put out four albums of fantastic cover songs since '71, and so far they haven't been very successful.”

“I know, Ted. You're brutal, dude. It's all about the money,” she sighs. “That's the way the world goes 'round.” Bonnie quickly shuffles through the papers in the folder.

“If we play ball with them, maybe they'll extend your contract. But I'll be honest with you Bonnie, Warner’s feels you need to go in a different direction.”

Bonnie rolls her eyes, followed by another long pause. “Which direction is that, Ted?” She knew what was coming.

“You know this isn't coming from me, but they think it's a good idea if you would just...you know...sex it up a bit. It's just a matter of wearing a little makeup, maybe showing a little cleavage or even wearing a dress...”

Bonnie throws the folder across the room.

“Bonnie?”

Immediately after Bonnie slams the receiver onto its cradle, the phone rings again. Startled, she returns it to her ear, “Ted?”

A young female voice, with a distinct British accent, floats from the phone.

“No, luv, it's Amy.”

Amy? Amy who? Bonnie stammers, “Uh...who...”

“If you’re looking for a place that can nurture your God-given talent, ducky, come down to the Club 26.”

Bonnie searches her mind unsuccessfully as to who this nice British woman might be.

“Yes, sweetie,” Amy continues. “You are definitely an untapped quantity. Bye, luv!”

As Bonnie holds the receiver, she hears a click, followed by a dial tone. She places the receiver back on its cradle, and then stares at it for a moment.

Bonnie had heard of the Club 26, but has never been there. All she knows is that it’s an old New York style restaurant and bar on Hollywood Boulevard that has been there forever.

She grabs the thick local Yellow Pages, licks her index finger, and leafs through to the restaurant section. Where is it? Okay, here it is... the Club26 ...6667 Hollywood Blvd. She writes the phone number on a nearby notepad, picks up the receiver, and dials.

A man's voice answers. “Club 26.”

“Hi there! My name is Bonnie Raitt, and I was just talking to someone named Amy, who said she was calling from your club. Is she still there?”

“You said Amy, right?”

“Yeah. I'm a musician, and she contacted me about perhaps playing there, but she forgot to give me the details about the date and time, so I...”

“Excuse me, but there’s no Amy here,” the man interjects.

Confused, Bonnie wonders if she remembered the brief conversation correctly.

“Miss?”

“Oh, I'm sorry, my mistake. Thank you though,” Bonnie apologizes, flustered. She gives the man her name and phone number in case he runs into the mysterious Amy.

She hangs up and tries to forget about the weirdness that had just happened.

Although Bonnie is starting to become frustrated with constantly trying to keep up in the male-dominated music business, she is mostly disappointed with herself at what she sees as her own inability to be creative. She constantly tries to shake off the feeling of being a fraud, that she is taking a free ride on the music of others. Time for another drink.

Later that evening, the man from the Club 26 calls back. “Miss Raitt? There's an envelope here with your name on it,” he reports, sounding a bit confused himself. “I'll leave it here at the bar. You can come in through the back any day after 11 am.”

“Uh, okay. Thank you.” She hangs up.

The next day, Bonnie navigates her way down Hollywood Boulevard, just east of Las Palmas Avenue. She parks her Volkswagen Beetle in the almost empty back parking lot.

She approaches the heavy canopied back door, pulls it open, and steps across the well-worn black and gold doormat decorated with the Club 26 logo. As Bonnie enters, it takes a few seconds for her eyes to become accustomed to the darkness. Finding herself in a narrow hallway, she moves forward, passing two antique phone booths. She arrives at the entrance of a quintessential 1940s New York bar, with all red leather upholstery and dark mahogany walls.

A young, effeminate maître'd rushes to Bonnie.

“Are you Miss Raitt?”

“Uh...yeah.”

“Please follow me.” He gives her a fashion look-over and smiles. This is the kind of place where you could visualize a fast-talking gumshoe grabbing a dirty martini.

The maître'd shows Bonnie to a red leather barstool. On the bar in front of the stool is an envelope with the name “Bonnie Raitt” handwritten on the front. She sits on the stool and takes a deep breath. She desperately wants a shot...maybe several shots. She carefully extracts a note from the envelope.

Come to the scene! It's outta sight! We need good people.

We're in the private room behind the phones.

Amy's friend, Janis

Who the heck is Janis? Bonnie wonders. She remembers passing two vintage phone booths on her way into the bar. She retraces her steps back to the two booths. There is no entrance. She's getting frustrated now. Is this some kind of joke? Who do I know that would mess with me? This is ridiculous...

She suddenly hears a London-style double ring from one of the phones.

RING RING…RING RING

Apprehensively, Bonnie picks up the bell-shaped receiver, raises it to her ear, and in the first of many surreal moments, speaks into the phone’s mounted, funnel-shaped mouthpiece.

“Hello?”

“Darling, we’re waiting. Come, let's have a chat!” requested a familiar British accent, followed by a CLICK.

Puzzled, Bonnie hangs up. Between the two booths a wooden disk begins to pulsate with a bright, glowing green light. Bonnie takes a closer look, as the disk becomes brighter and brighter, appearing to separate from the rest of the connecting wall. She pushes on the disk, and with a thunderous rolling sound, the dark wooden wall becomes a set of double doors that open to a place of unknown origin. Bonnie isn’t sure whether to be terrified or not. Perhaps this is something all the Twenty-Six Club patrons knew about.

Bonnie enters the room as Procol Harum's “A Whiter Shade of Pale” surrounds her.

As she walks through the hallway, on her left are the framed autographed faces of Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. On her right are Brian Jones, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and Pete Ham.

Bonnie finds herself in a medieval-style lounge area as the double doors close behind her. A bit startled, she convinces herself that this is probably all just part of the club's mystique. As she walks forward, she hears the clacking of her heels on the marble floor. The room is dimly lit, the colors dark, rugged and mysterious. There are large pieces of wooden furniture, chunky and dark, with intricate carvings.

As Bonnie's vision becomes clearer, she notices the figures of two women seated in over-sized chairs. On the floor in front of them is an antique treasure chest serving as a coffee table. The women seem to be in a deep but playful conversation, laughing and drinking from big brass goblets.

“When I sang, I felt like you do when you're first in love,” shared one of the women. “It's that first point of connection. But it's gigantic, multiplied by the whole audience. I got chills. On stage, I made love to twenty-five thousand people, then I went home alone.”

Bonnie feels the blood drain from her body. It was Janis - Janis Joplin, the belle of the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test ball. She is messy and beautiful. Janis has always been Bonnie's avatar for her raw and daring side. Janis is wearing layers of bracelets and necklaces. Her layered outfit includes a tank top with a vest and two leather belts hugging a pair of purple and pink striped bell-bottoms. Janis' face beams beneath a crown of flowers.

Seated next to Janis is a woman with a dramatic, yet undefinable style. She has black hair sculpted into an exaggerated beehive, dark winged eyeliner, and a skin-tight satin and velvet dress. To complete the look, her arms were covered with tattoos.

“I wasn't a natural born performer, but I was a singer. I was quite shy, really. You know what it's like,” the woman reflects.

This must be Amy, Bonnie thinks, recognizing the British accent.

The woman continues. “I don't mean to be sentimental or sappy, but it was a little like being in love, as you say, when you can't eat, you're restless. It's like that. But the minute you get on stage and start singing, everything's okay.”

Janis responds, “Music is the only kind of love I can deal with.”

Bonnie is trying to figure out how any of this makes sense. Janis died five years ago. She remembers crying for a week after that. It was a tough year for rockers, losing Janis as well as Jimi, Tammi Terrell, and Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson.

Janis continues, “The last time a guy spoke to me about love, it was Jim Morrison. He kept following me around writing poems about me. It was all too much. I ended up hitting him over the head with a bottle of Southern Comfort!” They both lean back laughing, and Bonnie, caught up in the moment, joins in. The two women stop and turn to Bonnie - a frozen moment. Bonnie is awe-struck.

“Oh, ducky! You've made it!” squeals the beehive woman. “It's me, Amy. We talked on the phone, remember?” Bonnie nods in acknowledgment, wondering when she’s going to wake up.

Leon Russell's “A Song For You”

is now playing.

Janis says to Amy, “Looks like she's havin' a come-to-Jesus moment, don't it?” She laughs.

Janis invites Bonnie to sit in the empty chair across from them.

“Thank you,” Bonnie says nervously. “I don't quite understand...What is this place?”

“Rock ‘n’ roll purgatory, sweetheart,” declares Amy.

Bonnie’s eyes widen as she asks, “You mean I'm...”

“Hell no, darlin'. You ain't dead. You barely even got started. You haven't sacrificed enough yet, though. Ain't that right, Amy?”

Amy hoists her goblet high in approval.

Janis' bracelets jingle as she also raises her hand in the air and a small glass tumbler spontaneously materializes. She hands it to Bonnie. “Bourbon, right?”

“What? Oh yeah...sometimes.” Bonnie accepts the offering and takes a sip. She shudders as the bourbon goes down.

Thoughtfully, Janis says, “I prefer to call this place a stopover to paradise. We poor souls only come when we're needed. For some reason, you're the only one who can figure out if you need us for something. But it's a good scene, baby, so don't trip.”

...I love you in a place where there's no space or time. I love you for life, you're a friend of mine...

Bonnie wonders if it's the bourbon, but she is now feeling comfortable. These wonderfully complicated ladies are looking warmly at her. Why do they even care? she wonders. “You know...” Bonnie relates, “I often feel my loved ones that have passed on. I feel them looking over my shoulder...so yeah, this is pretty profound.”

Amy smiles, “You're so beautiful, luv. May I ask your age?”

“I'm twenty-six,” answers Bonnie.

"We're twenty-seven...as always.” Amy proclaims, rolling her eyes.

Janis examines Bonnie. “Look at that long, foxy hair! You could be a pop star, child!” she cackles.

Bonnie laughs. “I'm not that beautiful. And I sure as hell don't want to be a pop star!”

Janis continues, “As far as all the stardom stuff, I promised myself when I left Texas to always to just do what I love and never bullshit myself.”

Amy chimes in, “Ducky, most people our age spend a lot of time thinking about what they will be doing for the next ten years. The time they spend thinking about their lives, I would spend drinking.” She laughs and holds her goblet high. “I'll have another Rickstasy, please.” She lowers the goblet to her lips and takes a sip. “Mmmmm...thank you.”

“Hey, what's in that stuff anyway?” asks Janis.

“Well...it's three parts vodka, one part Southern Comfort, one part banana liqueur, and one part Bailey's.”

“That's a lot of parts,” quips Bonnie. She is feeling really comfortable now.

“Way too fancy for me,” winces Janis. “I'll take just the Southern Comfort and I'll be a happy lady! In fact...” She reaches inside a carpetbagger shoulder bag and pulls out a bottle. “Eureka!” she shouts, delighted at the vision of her favorite amber libation.

The music changes again. The sound of a demented organ announces the start of

“Strawberry Fields Forever”.

“I got into my first band because they were my friends and the scene was happening. It was all my scene and my people,” Janis recalls with obvious nostalgia. “In small towns like the one I came from, you're supposed to get married right out of high school, have a brood of children, and keep you mouth shut.”

“I wouldn't say I was a feminist, but I didn't like girls pretending to be stupid just to get along,” adds Amy.

Janis grimaces. “Yeah, I would've never quit music to become someone's old lady.”

Bonnie smiles and leans in. “You know what? We have a choice. We ain't no amoebas.” The three women share a quiet moment of solidarity.

Janis is on a roll. “I never wore cardboard eyelashes and a girdle and played Vegas, but I was always just Janis.” Her eyes open wider. “I just did it on a slightly different level!”

They laugh again.

Amy looks Bonnie up and down and declares, “You must have found religion, duck. Your voice and melodies are simply angelic.”

She heard me sing? She heard me play? Bonnie wondered.

Bonnie takes another sip of bourbon, “Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.” The other women nod in agreement.

Bonnie continues, “I feel that I was somehow brought here to be inspired."

“Who you are is what you settle for, you know,” Janis interjects.

“Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to be written, darling,” says Amy.

Bonnie sits back in her chair. She is silent for a moment, and then sighs. “It's the fear. The reason I can't write songs. The fear is paralyzing. I worry it won't be good enough. I mostly fear the naked honesty of the process.”

“I get it, sister. I always wanted to write my own stuff,” Janis confesses. “I was always a victim of my inner self. There was a time when I wanted to feel and explore everything. But what I found scared me. But Bonnie, that's where to good stuff is, where great writing comes from. Unfortunately, by the time I figured that out, I died.”

Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground” flows gently through the room. They embrace the song with reverence.

“I tried to write a song once, but when all was said and done, it turned out to be another version of ‘Stormy Monday Blues’.” Bonnie shakes her head and grins.

Janis faces Bonnie and says, “Never be frightened of being vulnerable, sweetie. There's no point in saying anything but the truth.”

Bonnie sits back and closes her eyes. The music changes again.

...just look to your soul

and open your mind

Crystal Blue Persuasion...

When Bonnie opens her eyes, she sees two very dusty chairs in front of her.

There's a knock at the door. “Miss Raitt? Are you okay? Miss Raitt? What are you doing in the storage room?” asks the maître'd.

Bonnie's head is spinning as she arrives back at her apartment. Am I inspired? Do I feel touched by a divine power? Have I gone stark raving mad? She doesn't know, but something is different. Feeling a powerful urge to write, she picks up her guitar.

Come on girl, you can do this!

Twenty minutes later, Bonnie has produced ten crumpled sheets of lyrics on the floor.

An hour later, she is pouring her second shot of Jack Daniels.

An hour after that, she is strumming a galloping rhythm on her guitar.

By midnight, she is asleep on the floor between the couch and the coffee table.

...Climb in the back with your head in the clouds

And you're gone...

Lifting her head, Bonnie realizes that her living room is filled with pot smoke. Oh crap! Did I set the place on fire? When the smoke begins to clear, she can't believe what she is seeing: John and Yoko, in bed wearing their famous white pajamas.

Bonnie: Oh my God! Am I losing my mind?

John: Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.

Bonnie: John...uh..and Yoko? You guys are having a bed-in in my living room?

John: Anything for a good cause.

Bonnie: Rumor has it that you gave up making music, is that true?

John: Bonnie, that's just about as true as the existence of “Shaved Fish”.

Bonnie: In the sixties, you wrote the truth of a generation.

John: The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities, and the responsibility we all had to pursue them. It wasn't an answer, it just gave us a glimpse of creative opportunities.

Bonnie: When I was growing up, I saw my father become a successful performer largely by staying in the lane that was provided for him. When I try to carve out my own lane, I get lost.

John: Most kids draw, write poetry, and create art. Some of us continue into our teens before someone says, “That's not good enough.” We're told that all our lives. “You don't have the talent.” or “It's not supposed to be done that way.” It happens to all of us. If somebody had told me all my life, “Yeah, you're a great artist!” I would’ve been a more secure person.

Bonnie: It just seems that the process of writing, really good writing, the kind people can really feel, is such a personal and solitary experience.

Yoko: Music and lyrics are both art forms in and of themselves. But when music is combined with a powerful, honest message that needs to be expressed, there are few things more incredible than that!

John: Bonnie, listen to me very carefully. There are two basic motivating forces in life: fear and love. When we're afraid, we withdraw from life. When we're in love, we become open to all life has to offer. All hope for a better world rests in being fearless and open enough to embrace others as well as ourselves.

Bonnie: I have to figure out what I can write that people can feel.

John: Our role in society - any artist or poet's role - is to try to explain or describe feelings we have in common. We don't tell people what to feel.

Bonnie: But I don't know when I will ever be able to achieve that.

John: There is no time but the present. Anything else is a waste of time.

Well we all shine on

Like the moon and the stars and the sun

Well we all shine on

The phone rings. Bonnie opens one eye. The phone rings again. “Hello?”

"Hi, Ted. What ya got?” Bonnie quickly stands, knocking the ashtray to the floor.

“Oh shit! You ain't shittin' me, are you, dude?"

"Okay, sure."

"You mean they want me to do those cover tunes?"

"Two of them?"

"Oh, just one."

"Sure. Well, no, of course it's good news, Ted."

"Okay. Thanks, Ted. See ya.”

Bonnie is booked to be the opening act for the Doobie Brothers at the Troubadour, something she has really wanted. Her feelings are equally divided between elation and terror. She lights a joint, inhales its smoky courage, and releases it with a sigh of decisiveness. She puts out the joint and picks up her guitar. Come on girl. Cover tunes are fine but I think I have may somethin' to talk about. She takes a deep breath.

A tarnished frame traces us from long ago...

It's gig night at the Troubadour, West Hollywood's biggest little club, which is packed to capacity. The Troubadour is hallowed ground for the L.A. music scene. When the sound man gives Bonnie the two-minute warning, she gently squeezes her guitar. She now realizes that her music - all music - is communication. She has a new awareness that no one else can communicate what only she has to say.

At this moment, Bonnie remembers Janis: “Never be frightened of being vulnerable, sweetie. There's no point in saying anything but the truth.”

After Bonnie is introduced, she takes center stage. She has been through this many times over the years, starting with sharing the theater stage with her father as a child. But tonight, she feels naked. She has decided not to try to touch people through other people's words and music, but instead through her own. Bonnie waits until the club is silent. She tosses the guitar strap over her shoulder and steps up to the microphone.

“Hello, Troubadour! My name is Bonnie Raitt, and I hope you all enjoy this.”

She starts to play the intro with her eyes closed. When she gets to the verse, the melody is shimmery, clean, and crisp.

A tarnished frame traces us from long ago

It was taken the night we saw that Vegas show

Beside it is a picture of a much younger me

With shining eyes beside a Christmas tree

She takes a breath.

I'm a prisoner in my skin, unseen, unheard within

But I try to be the me I'm supposed to be

I play the part so well, you could never even tell

That the woman lying next to you isn't me.

A smattering of murmurs ripples through the audience.

An old married couple walked down the road

ahead of me

Their hands were joined together like a tangled tree

I would love to feel that kind of

authentic connection

Instead, my yearning comes from every direction

A tear falls.

But now, I've been freed from within. I'm seen.

I'm hear., I'm open.

I am no longer the me I'm told to be

I got lost and I fell. Now you can tell

The woman lying next to you is me

As the applause grows, Bonnie feels her heart lift.

One by one, and then in groups, the audience stands - clapping, whistling, and shouting. The Doobie Brothers are cheering from just offstage. From the back of the club, the spotlight envelopes her, as if it's God's official blessing. Bonnie takes her bows, waves, and leaves the stage.

As the Doobie Brothers start their set, Ted takes Bonnie aside. He looks irritated. “I thought we agreed you were going to do a cover tune.”

Bonnie was too happy to worry.

“I'm really pissed, Bonnie.” Ted breaks into a broad grin. “I'm upset that you've been keeping your talent hidden.” He holds up a stack of business cards. “Do you know what these are, Bonnie?”

Bonnie shrugs. “I dunno. People you owe money to?” she laughs.

“No. They're producers, record companies, and artists who really want to work with you.”

Bonnie is called up onto the stage to join the band on “Black Water”. The rest of the night is filled with compliments, hugs, and high fives. She is approached by old friends, old enemies, and strangers. Bonnie has received plenty of praise in her twenty-six years, but this is different. For the first time, she is being acknowledged not for the talent she brings to other people's words and music, but to her own. People are connecting to what her heart has to say.

As the club empties, Bonnie walks onto the stage to retrieve her guitar. Suddenly, the spotlight reappears. She shields her eyes and looks toward the seats in the very back of the club. There, she can barely make out the silhouettes of two women. The shape of a large beehive hairdo, surrounded by swirls of smoke, makes Bonnie smile.

“I knew you could do it, kid!” crows a familiar voice.

Bonnie picks up her guitar and walks off the stage...a songwriter.

[alecmagnuslwb]

Home Is Where the Heart Is - @doubleredweek Day 2

Read on AO3

Jason is bleeding, he’s bleeding and delirious and yet still somehow finds the time to complain as Roy pulls into the lot of a bright, nightmarish looking motel.

“We are not staying here,” Jason grumbles from the passenger seat of the, let’s call it borrowed, Honda Civic they’ve been driving in for the past twenty minutes.

Roy turns his head giving Jason a ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ look as he pulls into a spot as far away from the main lobby of the motel as he can.

Tonight had gone almost entirely tits up with what should have been a fairly routine stakeout becoming an all-out battle of them versus a crew of creepy human traffickers.

The traffickers will be spending the rest of their days either in jail or thanks to a few bullets from Jason six feet under. However, Jason had taken a bit of beating along the way, enough of one that he doesn’t get to do anything more than get better right now.

“You are bleeding from about seven places on your body that you shouldn’t be bleeding, you don’t get any say in where we lay our hats for the night,” Roy responds as puts the car in park and moves to get out. “Plus, the next motel isn’t for another fifty miles and you’ll probably get sepsis because of the blade sticking out of your shoulder before we could get there so deal with it.”

He doesn’t wait to listen to Jason’s strained arguments he just slams the door shut and heads for the trunk. He pulls the first sort of clean thing he can find in thre from one of their bags and slips it on to cover up the majority of his Arsenal costume and the few cuts and bruises he’s sporting himself. It’s an old Gotham Knights hoodie of Jason’s, for a moment Roy considers looking for something else his Star City Stags blood crawling wearing enemy colors, but decides against it considering his boyfriend is bleeding in the passenger seat.

He half jogs his way to the main lobby where the front desk sits. The electric bell on the door jingles a variation of that little boxes song that’s accompanied one too many suburban horror movie trailers over the years as Roy walks in. Roy’s eyes practically have to squint at the colors inside. The bright lurid pink paint of the exterior has nothing on the mix of greens, yellows and pinks inside.

“Welcome to the Home is Where the Heart Is Motel, how can I help you?” an old woman behind the desk says. She looks like someone’s grandmother, like she has her dinner at four in the afternoon, Jeopardy! At 7:30 and then she’s promptly off to bed. She doesn’t look like she should be working a front desk at nearly two a.m., but she definitely looks like she designed this place.

Roy puts on his best I’m a good, respectable young man smile and asks for a room without incident. The old woman just smiles not missing a beat when he asks for the room furthest away or a do not disturb sign that he tells her will be up probably their entire stay, she doesn’t give him the questionable looks or the bored disinterest that most people in her position give them. She doesn’t even bat an eye when Roy asks for just one bed for he and his boyfriend. When she tells him to have a lovely stay, he actually believes her.

The place may be atrocious to look at, but it’s not all that bad Roy decides, Jason’s just being extra judgy with his blood loss.

The next forty minutes blur past him so quickly he doesn’t really even pay attention to what their room looks like. He tosses their bags on the bed and quickly settles Jason on the closed toilet seat and gets to work stripping him of his bloodied gear and bandaging up every injury.

The bright pink garbage can and the canary yellow sink look like crime scenes by the time Roy is done cleaning every wound Jason has and removed the small blade that had been stuck in his shoulder.

Jason seems more awake once he’s been patched up and Roy’s given him a cursory wash so he settles him down on the bed while he takes care of himself. By the times he’s done washing the grime out of his hair and finishing off yet another bottle of peroxide on cleanup Jason is upright on the bed cleaning his guns his eyes scanning the room every so often.

“This place is ridiculous,” he says eyes concentration never straying from the task at hand. Now that he has the chance Roy really takes in the decor. The bathroom he’d just cleaned up is subtle with its yellow and pink tile and floral shower curtain compared to this.

This is your grandmother’s dream home. The bright pink and green walls are lined with decorative plates mostly covered in poppies, but with a few Princess Diana memorabilia pieces mixed in. The bed is covered in horridly yellow sheets with a clearly handmade quilt in a kaleidoscope of prints on top, the bed frames an elaborate wooden nightmare that Roy is truly concerned if you slipped and fell would impale you immediately. There’s even a couch in the corner covered in plastic, perfectly preserved in its original condition.

Passingly Roy thinks maybe he should have just cleaned up Jason’s wounds on that instead.

Okay, so maybe judgy blood loss Jason wasn’t totally wrong, but they’ve definitely stayed in weirder and way more unsettling places. The Elvis isn’t dead themed motel in Arkansas comes to mind.

“It’s fine,” Roy says falling onto his side of the bed jostling the components of Jason’s gun he’s yet to reassemble. Jason throws him an annoyed look that Roy just smiles cheekily back at.  

“Good thing I’m feeling better because there’s no way I’m going to be sleeping with the color of these walls,” he says swiftly piecing the last of his guns back together. “Either that or I’m going to have terrible dreams of evil suffocating plastic couches.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, the lady up front was very sweet, it’s like spending the weekend at grandmas!” Roy says with a smile.

“I never had a grandma,” Jason says with a shake of his head falling backwards onto the bed guns discarded off to the side with the safety on. “And you didn’t either for that matter.”

“Aw, Jaybird come on, this place is all about home, look at the name!” Roy defends as he leans over the bed and switches his crystal bedside lamp off.

“If this is what you consider homely you shouldn’t be allowed to own a home,” Jason says gesturing around the room in a general manner. He leans over turning off his own bedside lamp before shuffling under the covers curling up against Roy careful of his tender ribs.

“You’re welcome by the way, for not letting you bleed to death,” Roy says into the dark, that okay, isn’t fully dark he can definitely still see some pink and green even with all the lights out.

“I wouldn’t have bled to death,” Jason huffs. “But thanks.”

Roy rolls his eyes even if Jason can’t see it and pulls him close snuggling in comfortably under the ugly, but warm grandma quilt for the night.

[chilling-seavey]

based on ur post about the songs from the album and when they would have been written in ABM- ABM Daniel writing a song for Flora and she hears it for the first time?

By the time Daniel graduated with his bachelor’s degree in music production; he had an album of ten original songs under his belt. His first year was learning the basics but by the time the novel of ABM began, his classes started assigning projects in writing and producing their own songs. We all know that Daniel is incredibly creative and especially so when it comes to his music and this universe is no different, but he was also incredibly protective about his work. He showed Florence snippets of what he had been working on but never full songs because he didn’t want to admit that all his songs were about her.

His inspiration was directly stemmed from her; for every single one of his projects.

Even when Florence and Daniel started dating, he kept his previous songs locked away on his computer in near embarrassment with how lovesick and emotional they all were. They were pieces of his fragile soul from the past two or three years and he was simply a little nervous of opening that back up again.

By his final week of university, Daniel received a CD that was burned with all of his projects in order on it to hear his progression and his professor congratulated him on being one of the top students he had ever seen or taught. Daniel thanked him, went home, and hid the album in the very back of his sock drawer.

Here is the link to ABM Daniel’s University Album.

Thursday, June 16, 2022

It had been in there barely two months when Florence found it. She was doing laundry and putting the clean folded clothes in the drawers when her hand grazed something at the bottom of Daniel’s sock drawer. Curiosity got the better of her and she pushed the folded socks out of the way to reveal a CD case, the cover staring back up at her with one of Daniel’s first year headshots and the title in white across the black and white image; Firenze. ‘Florence’ in Italian.

She set the laundry basket on the floor and picked up the CD from the bottom of the drawer. She flipped it over and skimmed the track list printed on the back. Ten short titled tracks in a row down the middle. Florence figured she shouldn’t go snooping through her fiancé’s things but it wasn’t a gift since her birthday already passed and they never gave each other Christmas gifts so she carried it back out to the bedroom.

Daniel was watching the girls in the living room while Florence was doing laundry so she had a moment of privacy to close the bedroom door and bring out her laptop. She slid the CD into the disk drive and put in her earbuds to listen to the mysterious album that had been hidden from her for nearly four years. The front cover slid out like a real professional album and she flipped it open as the songs loaded into iTunes.

The first song was titled Just to See You Smile. Written and Produced by Daniel Seavey, 1st year Music Production student, March 2019.

Florence smiled at the gentle piano that led the introduction to the song and then Daniel’s youthful voice that came in next. She couldn’t believe he never showed her this song; probably too nervous since it was his first, but it was sweet and it made her smile.

The second song was titled Hard. Written and Produced by Daniel Seavey, 2nd year Music Production student, Summer 2019.

She followed along to the lyrics in the small cover booklet, her smile faltering a moment at the lyrics come the pre-chorus. It was obvious as to what it was about, especially being written in Summer of 2019 when Matt was still around and it was often that Florence truly ran crying to Daniel when he hurt her.

The third song was titled Falling. Written and Produced by Daniel Seavey, 2nd year Music Production student, September 2019.

Florence’s expression was flat, the words of the song resonating deep in her mind and the emotion behind Daniel’s voice nearly sent chills down her spine as she read along with the lyrics.

That one was followed by Perfect from November 2019, Made For from January 2020, For You from February 2020, What Am I from Summer 2020, all of which just added another weight to Florence’s heart. The angsty heartbroken songs that she was smart enough to know just who they were about, each lyric speaking right to her soul from a part of Daniel’s she hardly knew existed.

She tried not to feel heartbroken herself over the deep lyrics and soft melodies as a vision into Daniel’s own mind through their friendship. She had hurt him so much and never knew. She now sat on their shared bed in their new apartment and fought back her own tears over these songs that he tried to hide from her.

Daniel had finished making lunch for the girls and set them at their small white wooden table to eat, waiting impatiently for Florence to finish putting away the laundry so they could eat together. The minutes passed as he cleaned up the kitchen but there was no sign of her.

“Stay right here, okay?” Daniel said to his two daughters before heading down the hallway to find his fiancé. Their bedroom door was closed which was strange and he opened it and headed inside, only to find Florence sitting on their bed with her laptop open and her headphones on and tears in her eyes.

Daniel was startled by her seemingly sudden emotion but then his gaze landed on the open CD cover and the booklet in her hands and his heart literally stopped.

“Flora.” he breathed as she looked up at him.

She paused What Am I within the last minute and pulled out her earbuds with a shaky inhale, “Why didn’t you show me this?”

“I…” Daniel walked slowly over to her and glanced at her laptop to see what track she was on. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “I didn’t…I…I didn’t want you to be upset. There’s some…heavy and personal shit in these songs.”

“Yeah.” Florence laughed humourlessly, looking back to the simple black booklet in her hands.

“Are you mad at me?” Daniel asked softly.

“Mad at you? You should be mad at me for listening to something you didn’t want me to listen to.” Florence sighed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand before her tears could fall.

“They’re all for you anyway.” Daniel shrugged. “Plus it had your name on the cover.”

“You really meant all of this?” Florence asked, holding up the lyric booklet haphazardly.

“Every single word.” Daniel nodded and shuffled to sit beside her on the bed. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve been in love with you from the first moment we met.”

“I didn’t know…that I hurt you this bad all the time.”

“Not all the time.” Daniel tisked. “The hard stuff just makes for the best songs.”

Florence chuckled lightly and Daniel smiled softly and pressed a sweet kiss to her cheek before leaning his head against hers.

“I wrote What Am I the week before Penelope was born.” Daniel said quietly, staring at the song paused on the laptop screen. “And you were the only thing on my mind the whole time…you and our baby that I didn’t know was ours yet.”

“I heard you singing it to her once.”

“Yeah.” Daniel cracked a small smile at the memory.

They sat in silence together, in their own minds and memories, staring at the paused CD.

“Are you gonna listen to the last three?” Daniel asked.

“Are they gonna make me cry?” Florence mumbled.

“No. Next one was the first song I wrote after we started dating.” he flipped the booklet to Taking You, “And then one from when I knew I wanted to marry you,” he flipped to Big Plans, “And finally, my thesis project. Spent all this last year working on it from recordings to lyrics to instrumentals to production and everything in between.” he flipped to the last page to Love Song finished just that last April. “Got a shining 100%.”

Florence smiled at him and stuck her earbud back in but Daniel got up from the bed again. “Are you not going to listen with me?” she frowned.

“Gotta watch our babies so they don’t destroy the house. Come find me after, okay?”

“Okay.” Florence smiled lightly and welcomed his lingering kiss to her lips. She watched him leave before turning back to her laptop and pressed ‘play’.

The upbeat guitar of Taking You instantly made her smile and the sweet lyrics had it sticking; thinking back to the first few weeks of their romantic relationship and how fresh and new everything was. And Big Plans definitely made her cry – especially because it was made in April and he said it was when he knew he wanted to marry her, so far in advance to when he actually proposed. And Love Song. Her favourite on the whole track list, an upbeat and catch incredible song that sounded like it could be professionally made by a famous band. But it was just her Daniel and his deepest, sweetest, honest feelings for her and it only made her more excited to spend the rest of their lives together.

When the album concluded, she took it out of her laptop and put the CD safely away in its case and on Daniel’s desk across the room before heading back down the hallway. She lingered in the doorway a moment to watch Daniel set two plastic cups of apple juice down for the girls and they thanked him sweetly. He stood back up and caught glimpse of Florence in the hallway and they shared small smiles. She headed over to him and he swallowed her up into a warm embrace and peppered a few kisses to her cheek and down her neck.

“I love you so much.” Florence whispered.

“I love you more.” Daniel smiled against her neck.

“Our whole love story on one CD, huh?” she said.

Daniel pulled back from her to look at her face and their noses brushed lightly. He kissed hers before resting their foreheads together, “It is.”

“I’m proud of you. It was all truly beautiful. Can’t believe you didn’t share all that with me before.”

“I’ve shown you bits and pieces.” Daniel shrugged, his eyes falling closed as they stood together in their kitchen, arms wrapped around each other and just breathing together. “But I was too shy.”

“I know.” Florence giggled, giving his hips a small squeeze. She pulled back to look him in the eye. “But now I expect to hear all your beautiful art.”

“Okay.” Daniel leaned in to kiss her lips and they smiled into it before he pulled back just long enough to whisper, “I’ll put it in my vows.”

[rowanlagrange-blog]

Tulpa

     Do you ever get hooked on an idea? So wrapped up in something you heard that you can’t push it out of your head, like a catchy pop song you hear on the radio for just a moment. This kind of hyperfocusing can lead you to some weird places. Like binge watching youtube videos about how clams reproduce or reading articles about how whales sleep without drowning. Maybe it’s just me, insomnia can make you do weird things, but I seem to get caught up in these tangents quite often. My most recent obsession, why almost every kid has an imaginary friend as a child. It’s such a weird shared instinct we all have to create our own companions. A documentary about imaginary friends association with child development led me to an article about adults with imaginary friends which led me to a forum discussion about tulpa. From my intense reading, of the tulpa wiki page, it seems like tulpa are an imaginary friend with a catch, you can actually “will them into existence”. This isn’t some Jedi mind trick either any guy on the street can do it. 

      I searched around online a little longer, read something called the book of the dead, then got tired. So I laid down in bed and stared across the room. Opposite of my bed is a massive window that overlooks a 30 foot drop and some lovely scenery. In the morning I like to stand there and watch the ripples on my neighbors pond. I even put an end table next to the window for my morning newspapers and coffee cups to pile up on. As I lay there unable to sleep an image crept into my head. It was from a scary story I read once, a dog on its hind legs wearing a black robe and a skull as a mask. It always made me smile, I mean come on it looks like a reject Pokémon. I grew so bored that I made him do a little dance in front of the window. Lo and behold, the miracle drug I needed all along. No melatonin, no counting sheep, no therapy just this dog thing dancing in my head. I passed out and slept like a baby. This would continue for the next four months. Every night I would lay in my bed and watch my tulpa dance. It was pretty nice having something there with me at night. My therapist once told me loneliness could be the cause of my insomnia. I ignored her at the time but now it seems like she might have been right. I even gave him a name, Spot. I know not very original but it was my labradoodles name when I was a kid. 

     Flash forward to about five nights ago. I get home, jump into bed, and start watching Spot dance. He twirled and swayed around in front of my window. His black fur danced in the air as he frolicked about. I watched him for maybe ten minutes before I began to drift off. The warm comfort of my memory foam mattress pulled me in. The room grew black as my eyelids fluttered shut, then I heard it. “Did my dance please you, father?” My blood curdled and I shot up in bed. Spot was standing at my feet gazing at me. I tried to force him to stop but I couldn’t. “You wish to see more” he asked. The color drained from my face. I dove under the covers and began reciting a prayer my mother used to say with me at night. When I came out he was gone, I didn’t sleep well that night.  

     I laid in bed, not moving a muscle, until the sun was well in the sky. I went and got my newspaper and coffee in the morning. The headline that day was something about a terrorist attack in Europe. Not really the kind of thing I look for in the news. I watched my reflection in the window that morning. I stood in the same spot Spot had last night. Except surely he didn’t, Spot wasn’t real. I just hallucinated him speaking like that, or maybe it was sleep paralysis, or a vivid dream but definitely not real. I threw the newspaper down on the end table and readied myself for work.

     That night I decided not to watch Spot dance. I guess I thought a night or two off would help calm my nerves. I laid in bed wrestling with myself trying to find sleep. Even after months of restful nights insomnia was still a bitch. Around 2 in the morning he spoke again. “It’s continued on the next page” Spot bellowed. My eyes burst open but I dare not move. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He was taller now, when I first imagined him he was three foot flat but now he had to be at least seven. “The story, it is continued on the next page, Father” he echoed. His voice, it hadn’t been like that last night, it was more childlike, now it was powerful. “Father, I cannot turn the page myself, please do it for me” he asked. I closed my eyes tight and began reciting the prayer again. The more I focused on those words the less present he seemed. After a half hour of praying the dog away, he was completely gone. 

     Another restless night gave way to another agonizing day. I leaned against my window that morning. No newspaper just coffee with an energy drink mixed in. I was fixated on my stack of newspapers. They sat a foot tall on top of the end table. They were still undisturbed from yesterday when I threw the newest paper on top. When I got home from work that night I went immediately to bed. I laid there watching the sun go down through my window. It was serene, truly worth every penny I didn’t have to spend on this overpriced house. As I fell away into peace he shattered my tranquility once more. “Why do you hate me Father?” Spot sighed. I slowly rose up, I had never imagined Spot while the sun was still up. Now in its light I could see his mask was no longer the bleach white plastic looking thing I had given him. It has been replaced with a cracked yellowing bulls skull. His silky fur that twirled with him when he danced was matted and growing mold. He had sprung gnarly brown fangs from his twisted jaws. “You brought me into this world just to ignore me is that it” he wondered. When Spot spoke his jaw flapped from its hiding place under the skull like a bird's wings. He put a finger on top of the newspaper he was looking at. It began to move with his hand but then suddenly his hand just fell through the stack. That wasn’t right though Spot didn’t have hands or fingers, I gave him paws. I stared at him for hours reciting the prayer in my head, but nothing ever happened. I guess at some point I finally did pass out. I awoke the next evening at dusk. I clambered out of bed and landed on the shaggy floor. Looking down at my feet I could see my hardwood floors had been covered in black dog hair. I shuffled out to get a cup of coffee but a howling in my room drew right back. “Why do you hate me Father?” Spot whimpered. I was frozen in my doorway. Spot picked up the top newspaper, he got a few inches off the stack before it fell through his hand. “I wish to see the next page Father” Spot sobbed. My breaths were short and sharp. My vision began to strain and turn white. “Why did you create me if you’re just going to ignore me?” Spot howled. Right then and there I made the worst mistake of my life. “I don’t know,” I replied. Spots shining yellow eyes darted towards me. He swiped the newspaper from the top of the stack once more. This time he turned to the second page. “Hate is the cocaine of emotions, so addictive” Spot began. ”And like cocaine it destroys whatever it touches” Spot cackled. “I may be born of hate but I won’t let that be all I am, I will cut it out” Spot whispered. Spot then jumped out the window and ran off into the night. I don’t know what Spot meant by what he said but I do know that I created a monster bent on cutting out hate. I can hear him scratching at the walls below my window. I think he’s come back to cut me out, whatever that entails. 

[whatisdereklisteningto]

The week between Xmas and New Year’s 1976, Frank Zappa played 4 sold-out shows at the Palladium in NYC, with a special lineup assembled just for the occasion : FZ and his current touring band (Ray White on guitar/vocals, Eddie Jobson on keyboards/violin, Patrick O’Hearn on bass [often fretless] and Terry Bozzio on drums) bolstered by Ruth Underwood (percussion/synthesizer), Dave Samuels (more percussion) and a five-piece horn section (some of whom were in the Saturday Night Live band at the time and / or were in-demand session musician types) featuring Tom Malone, Lou Marini, Ronnie Cuber, Mike Brecker and Randy Brecker. These shows / this band featured on the Zappa in New York live album, here given deluxe treatment with four discs of additional material and a nice booklet featuring a lot more photos from the concerts by Gail Zappa and informative liner notes by Joe Travers and Jen Jewel Brown, Ruth Underwood, and Ray White.

Disc one contains the 1977 LP mix of Zappa in New York on CD for the first time, which is cool, but the thing about it that annoys me to no end is that it’s the common “censored” version of the album, with “Punky’s Whips” removed (”Titties ‘n Beer” is also slightly shorter and “Punky’s” absence shuffled around the track sequence of the first two sides a bit), rather than replicating the “uncensored” first pressing version. On one hand, it’s possible no one could locate the “uncensored” LP master (it only snuck out on a couple European pressings, and may not exist as such in the Zappa Vault), but on the other hand, Zappa was so annoyed about (as is my understanding) being forced to edit the LP and the fact that it’s not the “real” / intended version of the record... in all seriousness, I feel like “they” (meaning Joe Travers, I guess) could’ve spliced together an “original version replicate / duplicate” master and just lied about it or whatever, I know I would have been happier / less annoyed. But it is what it is.

Discs two, three and four contain “bonus concert performances” in new you-are-there-sounding mixes with none of the overdubs or enthusiastic overuse of Eventide Harmonizer heard on the live album. It wasn’t possible to present all four shows intact, but this is pretty much just as good, with one version of every song played during the run of shows, including a few more spoken introductions from FZ and guest announcer Don Pardo to give you more of the flavor of what the concerts were like. Discs two and three are sequenced kinda like whole concerts. Forgoing highlights, the songs contained are Peaches en Regalia, The Torture Never Stops, The Black Page #2, Punky’s Whips, I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth, Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?, The Illinois Enema Bandit, Penis Dimension, Montana, America Drinks, Sofa #2, I’m the Slime, Pound For A Brown, The Black Page (Drum Solo), The Black Page #1, Big Leg Emma, The Purple Lagoon (with trumpet, percussion, baritone sax and bass solos [the latter two being unedited versions of ones used on the live album] and a fascinating part where Ruth plays “The Be-Bop Tango” against a spooky 7/4 vamp full of bass harmonics and other percussion interplay), Find Her Finer, Manx Needs Women, Chrissy Puked Twice (aka Titties n’ Beer) and Cruisin’ For Burgers. Disc four feels slightly skimpy track-wise, but it’s kinda like a 45-minute encore that includes an amazing 28-minute version of “Black Napkins” with trumpet, violin, and saxophone solos in addition to a long, expressive guitar solo, plus a different version of “The Purple Lagoon” which contains a really early version of “Any Kind of Pain” in lieu of a bunch of jazz-type soloing, and a crowd-pleasing “Dinah-Moe Humm” finale (at least there’s only one.)

Disc five is an interesting little compilation of “bonus vault content”, containing some of Zappa’s alternate mixes / edits / versions of stuff, sammiched by two solo piano renditions of “The Black Page” (one by Tommy Mars from 1978 and one by Ruth Underwood from a couple years ago.) Between those there’s a different version of “I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth”, and “Chrissy Puked Twice” and “Cruisin’ For Burgers” are the same full-length performances as on the CD version of Zappa in New York, heard here in non-overdubbed analog mixes from 1977. There’s also an 11-minute version of “Black Napkins” heard in a 1990 mix you could kinda call an outtake from the aforementioned CD version -- some of the beginning and the sax solo was used on You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6, but this is, thankfully, a more complete (albeit still edited) version entirely from the 1976 concerts. TO MY ANNOYANCE, the last of these Vault cuts is the, quote, “(Unused Version)” of “Punky’s Whips”, which is THE VERY SAME mix and edit of the song that should be on / was “censored” from disc one, but at least it’s on here somewhere. 

Anyway, I’ve listened to the entire thing a few times over the last few weekends, and a little bit in the car here and there. It’s pretty good. Also, the box set contains a replica ticket and the disc sleeves and booklet go inside a round tin resembling a manhole cover, which is kinda neat. Thanks for reading this far.

[gloss-glass-ash]

Super Shifty: The Origin Story

Request: no 

Summary: the origin story of Super Shifty 

Warnings: smidge of angst

From the moment Michael was born, his parents knew something was different. It was painfully obvious when he turned blue. Not "can't breathe" blue but sports team blue, royal blue, ocean blue. He screamed and wriggled with life, healthy as could be. But blue. Then, as quick as he did turned greened, and then a normal infant pink.

His father fainted, his mother cried, and the nurse almost screamed. No one could believe it, no one could explain it. Karen tried calling the obgyn, but he  had moved to the big city. Daryl tried calling a lawyer, but no one wanted the case and no one believed them.

So Mikey grew up different. He was taught to be like Rudolph, not Rudolph who saved the day but the one with the covered nose. At first, it was a struggle to cover his abilities. Every emotion remained transparent on his skin. The temptation for mischief was hard to resist, copying everyone for a laugh.

By high school, he was allowed to change his hair color which gave him a fair amount of attention. Not friends necessarily, he didn't really have those. But positive attention nonetheless. It was in high school when he met Calum, who he learned was a little different too.

Calum Hood was the cool guy, definitely not the type of a person to hang out with Michael. He was athletic, charming, but strong and silent. It was during gym class when he walked in the showers and saw Michael's body lose the soft edges and harden into muscle. Cal didn't think Michael should give a fuck about these losers seeing him naked, but that would have to take a backseat to the pressing matter of another mutant.

Michael ate lunch alone in the library his senior year. He should get used to eating alone. Needless to say, Calum Hood walking in and plopping down beside him shocked the fuck out of him. "Hey."

"Hi." Michael grunted between bites of his sandwich.

"I'm just going to cut to the chase. I saw you in the showers last week." Calum's cheeks were a soft pink with embarrassment.

"That's impossible, I shower when no one else does." Michael tried not to imagine Calum-I'm basically a model- Hood in the showers, hands on his tan skin, and oh my god Mikey needed a relationship.  

"I also know you have a Pokemon ice pack in your lunch box, a note from your mom, an orange, and some form of drink bottle."

Michael and Calum held a long gaze, a deep understanding passing between them. Shuffling his stuff around to make room, Michael nodded toward the chair. "Wanna share by orange?"

So they got through school and moved to the city for work. They found an apartment, quickly realizing rent would be better split between four roommates. In the way that things can only happen in comics, the other two flat mates who joined them were different too.

Ashton's power  was obvious, his muscles bulging out of his sleeves as he single handedly carried all his boxes up the stairs without breaking a sweat. He was a gentle giant, a nice roommate, and even better friend. Luke's was harder to place, but eventually revealed itself when he would cross a room in a fraction of a second.

The four knew that something more than coincidence was at play. They learned rather quickly they had come from the same small town, been born at the same hospital, and-as life in small town happens- their mothers all had the same Doctor.

Doctor Feel Good became his name. At least that's what the boys called him. None of their parents seemed able to remember, almost as if that part of their lives was erased away. Revenge settled in, consuming the boys free time. They explored the city, set up computer programming, did everything they could to find this doctor and make him pay.

But vengeance didn't pay the bills. Vengeance could only happen after shifts and undercover of the night. Eventually vengeance became something more, something heroic. Doctor Feel Good was still going to pay for changing them, for swindling their families, but at least they could help people.

Mikey often fantasied about helping people during his shift at a coffee shop on the corner of Fifth and Vine . Work wasn't fun and the boys decided that if Doctor Feel Good was one for coffee and should ever arrive, he needed to be in disguise. That was fun though, being someone else.

Overall, he liked the coffee shop just fine, the same business people always stopped in. He liked the pattern, especially once he noticed the same girl rushing in every morning. Mikey always served you, well, Mick always served you. Mick was his undercover, named and created to look like the God of rock himself. You liked it, he could tell, especially when he smiled.

"Mick" learned a lot about you. You were up and coming at a publishing company, you lived in his apartment building, and your boyfriend was a tool. Michael never learned his name-it was probably a tool name too, like Brad- because you paid every time a date occurred there.

You started coming in on the weekends, Michael started working extra shifts. You'd pick a booth by the counter, he'd linger just a little longer. There was desire there, desire that he'd never thought someone would have for him (and he knew you didn't like him, you liked Mick, but he was fine living a lie for the rest of his life).

Eventually you and Tool Brad broke up. You weren't devastated, a little bitter, but the heart ache that used to clench you after break ups was gone. Fascination and adoration tool its place. You dried your tears, put on a smile, and went to get a cup of tea.

Only Mick wasn't working. The barista on shift spelled your name wrong and most certainly did not doodle little hearts or song lyrics like Mick. He was just gone. But Michael Clifford was at a table, waving at you. At least he still was around. His companionship was welcomed, warm, and as easy as Mick's was. They were a lot a like now that you thought about.

Every day certainly wasn't that great. Especially the one where your boss was a dick and your rent was due. Your day had sucked and it certainly wasn't over yet. Because you still had to walk home, and little did you know what would happen then.

Cut to now, as you trembled in shock on a couch in their apartment. The questions tumbling out before the boys could answer. "So, you're not human?"

Ashton shrugged. "I think we're just highly evolved." He cracked a dimply smile.

"How does Michael do that? He was him and now he's me."

"We don't know, the doctor does." Calum brought you a drink, sitting on the coffee table in front of you.

You're not sure when you fell asleep, but you woke up when Michael's gruff voice eased you up. "Sorry princess, really I am, but I want to talk."

With a whine, you rubbed your eyes and eased up on the couch. "You got a lot of talking to do before you take me out, Mick."

His eyes widened, his smile turned sheepish. He started his story, holding you closer to him. Maybe his adrenalin pumped a little strong when he blurted his proposal for a date, or maybe he felt it was just right. You didn't seem to mind and that's all that matters.

[myaekingheart]

All of them for the writing asks 😁😁😁

HOLY CRAP HONESTLY THANK YOU xD

Writer Asks

Was being a writer a dream of yours when you were little? Or did it spring up when your older? Or is it just a hobby? I’ve always been a writer, regardless of whether I necessarily knew it at the time. I’ve shuffled through some other career ideas– when I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian, and then in middle school I liked the idea of modeling– but at the end of the day, writing is what I always came back to. I used to come up with elaborate storylines when I played with my Barbies and hog the computer on Microsoft Word making shitty stories that I’d print out and staple together and draw covers for. I don’t think I really considered it a viable career at the time, but now I know that writing is what I’m meant to with my life above all else and that if I lose every other opportunity that comes my way, I’ll be fine so long as I can still write.

Overall, would you say you are more driven by plot or characters in writing? (What makes you more excited about an idea?)  I think, truthfully, a little of both. I love thinking of cool ideas and ways that my characters will fit into them. It’s exciting to think of their lives and the things that can happen to them that will make or break them. I love seeing my characters happy and getting what they want, but I also love when things don’t go their way and when something completely breaks them. The torture is fun to see. I am sadistic.

Give an overview/description of some of your past stories. (Only if you are willing, of course!) Oh god, okay, so I have a couple. There was this one story when I was a little kid that I came up with, I forget the name of it, but the basic premise was that there was this disease and you turned every color of the rainbow ROYGBIV style and then when you reached violet, you died. I had another one I was working on fifth grade called “The War of Sacawragi” that I cannot for the life of me remember what it was about, but I remember rambling about it to my friends one day at lunch and being all hyped about it. Maybe it had to do with a refugee woman fleeing a war-torn country with her baby, or to protect her unborn baby, or something like that? I never finished it, and I lost what I did write when my computer at the time broke, but I don’t know. I don’t think I totally care that it’s gone? Maybe one day I’ll revisit the idea, but for now I don’t really care.

INSPIRATION. What inspires you the most?Images, music, movies. Sometimes history and mythology. A plethora of things.

Do you have an idea for a story you don’t feel you can write at this current time? (Whether it be because life is busy right now, you need to do more research, etc.) I have a couple ideas for stuff I want to write, but I just don’t feel the motivation to quite yet. It’s tough, because I’m deep into writing From Upon the Golden Thrones (my Narnia fanfic) and focusing so much on the following sequels of that that I feel like I don’t want to start anything original until I finish that. Which sucks because I know original work is what’s going to bring home the bacon and shit but I just care so much about this goddamn fucking fanfiction that I cannot get it out of my head. Plus, I feel like I’m at a spot in my life right now where pouring more energy into writing fanfiction is acceptable because I’m in college rather than out in the working world depending on churning out original stories to earn a living. Once I graduate college, I’m terrified I won’t be finished with these Narnia stories and will have to give them up for the sake of focusing on my career, which makes me incredibly sad because as stupid as it may sound, I have never cared about any of the other stories I’ve written (original or otherwise) as much as I care about this fucking fanfic.

Favorite POV to write in? (As in First, Third, or maybe a specific character?)I really like third person omniscient. I used to write almost exclusively in first person but I felt like that was really restrictive to me. I like the way third person omniscient feels like playing God– you know exactly what everyone is doing, where they are, how they are feeling, but the characters don’t know shit and it’s kind of fun to fuck them up like that. It’s fun to know stuff they don’t. Plus, I really like paying attention to everyone’s take on a situation. I like delving into their internal monologues when something happens, good or bad, and how they interpret those situations. I like my readers to know what’s going on in my character’s heads and how they view the world compared to one another.

Favorite writers? Have they influenced you at all? Obviously CS Lewis is a fave. I just love the way he was able to interpolate scripture into fantasy. I’m not a wildly religious person but Narnia is the closest thing I’ve felt I’ve come to religion in my adult life, like Narnia makes me feel a particular way that nothing has ever made me feel before. I think that is also in part to my Irish heritage, and knowing much of Lewis’s inspiration for the landscapes of his book was inspired by his homeland. I actually wrote an entire essay about this for one of my classes last semester. I’ve never really been as big a fanatic of any other writers as I am with CS Lewis, much in the same way as I approach my music tastes-- I more often than not like particular songs rather than whole bands. Much like Nirvana and Beartooth is to my music taste, CS Lewis is the one artist whose work I am a wild fan of (even if the only other work of his that I’ve read outside of Narnia is Out of the Silent Planet).

If one cliche could be eradicated from writing, which one would you pick?The idea that everything has to be romance, and that every romance has to be a certain way. I like the stereotypical chick flicks as much as the next woman but I like complicated love that waxes and wanes. I like love that has a purpose, that at it’s core is hopeful but that rips your insides apart and makes you realize things about your life you never knew before. I like love that is based on more than just the superficial things. Situational love, childish love, war-torn love, all of that good shit. I prefer love that is real and raw and it hurts because it pays no mind to caution in the literary sense. I’m tired of the love we always see in YA lit where everything is meant to be poetic and flowery. Give me blood and sweat and tears. Give me something that’s real. That’s the kind of love I enjoy reading.

Favorite cliche or trope? I like the comedic stuff a lot, like funny misunderstandings. I wrote one into the last posted chapter on my fanfic that I was pretty disgustingly pleased with. I’m really bad at writing comedy but I try. I don’t know if this is necessarily a cliche or a trope, either, but I adore bildungsromans. I live for character development.

Do you have to force yourself to write, or is it something you want to do? Half and half. I feel like my will to write exists on a spectrum. On one end, there is the idealistic mix of motivation and inspiration where I sit down and the words just flow out of my fingertips and when I look back at these chapters, I typically have to do very little editing because I was so deep in the zone and so focused on what I wanted to write and I did that. On the opposite end is the numbness of feeling zero motivation and zero inspiration. It’s like sex-- I’m just not turned on and not thinking about sex whatsoever. And that’s fine. You don’t need to write 24/7. The worst is when I fall somewhere in the middle, which is where I am most often. I either have all the inspiration and no motivation or all the motivation and no inspiration. Most frequently it’s the former. I think about my current story constantly and yet more often than not, I never have the strength to open up the word document and actually work on it. This has been especially true this past month, when I went on a three day writing binge and wrote eight chapters only to find on day four that the file got corrupted and I lost all of my work.

Share a passage from one of your works and tell us why you liked it so much. Oh god, this is dangerous. One of my favorites is a scene in Chapter 12 of From Upon the Golden Thrones, but it’s too long to copy and paste here so instead I’m going to use a passage from Chapter 9 instead:     As night swept across Narnia, the bad dreams took hold once again. Eilonwy’s breath hitched, tossing and turning as fearful visions paraded through her head. Peter snapped awake the moment he heard so much as a whimper, climbing onto the edge of her bed to try and soothe her awake. Her eyes fluttered open, brimming with tears, hands trembling wildly. “It’s okay, Ellie, everything’s alright. It was just a bad dream” he whispered, petting her hair. She shook her head and burst into tears.     “It never ends…” she whined, burying her face beneath a mountain of pillows. “I want to go home!”     “Ellie, shh, you are home” Peter replied but the huntress shook her head in great protest.     “This isn’t home, this is hell!” she screamed. With a sudden jolt, she sat upright and began throwing pillows left and right.     “Eilonwy, stop! Please!” Peter begged but she refused. She launched pillow after pillow into the wall, toward the window, knocking things off her vanity and even cracking it’s glass. She kept going until the entire room was drenched in a blizzard of feathers. It wasn’t until the window creaked open and a soft breeze blew through that Eilonwy finally began to calm down. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the mattress and wept softly, tears staining her cheeks. Peter swatted at the downy rain, climbing into her bed and wrapping his arms around her tightly. She sighed and fell into him, far too tired to fight him off, and deeply inhaled the sweet smell of his skin.     “It’s alright now…everything’s alright” he whispered, gently rocking her back and forth like an infant.     “It never ends…” she repeated softly, her hot breath grazing Peter’s collarbone. Not knowing what else to say, he sat there in silence continuing to rock her and hug her tight in hopes that perhaps he could glue all of her broken pieces back together. As she slowly drifted back to sleep, however, a quiet murmur caught his attention and sent his heart soaring. In the softest tone imaginable, she breathed a quiet “I love you…” And finally, Peter received the confirmation he had been searching for. She officially loved him back just like he knew she did. I love this scene so much because it’s finally this breakthrough with the relationship between these two characters. In the entire first installment, they’re getting to know one another and learning about each other and experiencing these scary, foreign feelings and they’ve come so far since then at this point, and Peter wants nothing more than for her to reciprocate his feelings for her, and this is the scene where he finally gets it and he’s over the moon. As for Eilonwy, she really struggles with the whole concept of attachment and affection and so this is a really pivotal scene for her, as well, and one that affects both of them heavily long after it’s happened, both for better and for worse.

What is the worst writing advice in your opinion? I’m not sure this is even really advice but the worst, in my opinion, is the pressure to write literary fiction rather than genre fiction. Stick literary fiction up your ass and smoke it. I don’t give a shit. I’ve noticed more than anything that in my college writing classes thus far, there’s this desperation to drill literary fiction into our heads, to convince us that it is the only fiction of quality and that genre fiction is trash. I completely disagree. Genre fiction is so much more liberating. Shit actually happens in genre fiction. Yeah, some of it is cheesy and commercialized but to say genre fiction, especially genre fiction of today, is worthless is to completely disregard the amazing, accessible commentary it’s providing to people of all ages, socioeconomic statuses, races, genders, etc. Genre fiction is giving us characters we can relate to, characters that we see ourselves in whether they’re transgender or of color or struggle with the same mental illnesses we do. It can give us both an escape from reality and a comfort within it by showing us that we are not alone and that we can fight our demons just like the characters in these books do. So I say fuck your literary fiction. Genre fiction has given me far more than literary ever has.

What is the best writing advice? The best writing advice I can think of is to write what you feel. I’m a firm believer in the idea that our best writing comes from our emotions. We kind of have to keep them reigned in to a certain degree, I think, in order to keep control over the language and the emotion but if your words aren’t fueled with some sort of feeling, then to me it’s like staring at a plain piece of cardboard. There’s no meat in the message.

Character names. How do you come up with them? It depends. Sometimes I see a name or even a word somewhere and a character shows up in my head. Sometimes I just pin random names to people. Sometimes I go onto those baby name websites and look up something meaningful that fits the character both in sound and in definition. And sometimes things just come together, like with my original character in my Narnia fanfiction. Her name is Eilonwy like the character in The Chronicles of Prydain. I’ve never actually read the books, but I like the long-forgotten Disney movie inspired by them. The name was just really interesting and pretty to me, and I really wanted to use it. At first, that was all it was: just a superficial reason. I was fourteen when I first came up with the initial idea for the story, so of course I didn’t have any deeper reasoning behind “It sounds pretty!” Now that I’m older and more thoughtful about my writing and shit, though, I’ve come to find that the name holds much deeper meaning to the story than I ever could’ve imagined which feels great. I love when things just randomly work out like that.

Do you tell friends/family about your writing, or do you keep it a secret?They know I write and some know what I write about but I don’t make too big a fuss about it. If I’m deep in a writing binge, I’ll post my pride on facebook like “I’ve written such-and-such word count so far!” or whatever. For the most part, though, I keep pretty quiet. I’ll share when I have to, like in writing workshops, but in regards to my fanfiction, the only person I really ramble to about it is my best friend. She’s heard all the spoilers and given me feedback on paragraphs I was either proud or unsure of. I’m really grateful for her feedback, and that she lets me fangirl over my own work when I need to!

What are some of your favorite words to use in writing? I don’t know if I have any favorite words. I have overused words, but I don’t know if I have any favorites.

Opinions on smut? Good if done right. I’ve tried my hand at my fair share of smut and when I look back at the stuff I tried to write for my last finished fanfiction, a Jack Frost x Violet Parr American Horror Story AU, I cannot help but cringe. I had the hot and heavy shit down pat but situational appropriateness was not entirely grasped. But then again, I was sixteen and a virgin when I wrote that so of course I didn’t have any realistic handle on it. Looking back, I’m just proud of myself for even writing something of that length because as problematic and cringey as it is to me now, that was the story that really confirmed I had the stamina to write novels. Up until that point, I had never written a full-fleshed, novel-length work. Now I’ve written two more and am working on a fourth. But anyways, about smut, my approach has shifted since then. Nowadays, my guidelines are to do it only when it’s appropriate to and to do it tastefully. Less is more. I care more about the emotion in it now than I do the physical act.

Is there anything you have found that you cannot, under any circumstance, write about?I’m not sure. I can’t think of anything right now off the top of my head, because refusing to write about something and finding difficulty in writing about something are two completely different things. There’s lots of things that are difficult for me to write whether it’s because they’re not my strong points (like humor) or because I feel inexperienced, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to do as much research as I can to write them. If I care about a situation or idea enough, I will go that distance. I don’t know if there’s anything I would shy away from writing, including triggering material. I’ve already done stuff regarding rape. I write a lot about anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, even some PTSD. I don’t think there’s anything I’d shy away from writing.

Creative nonfiction. Have you dabbled with it? Do you like writing about your own life?I honestly love writing about my own life. That makes me sound really narcissistic but I mean, I’m telling the truth. There’s this one quote from a movie called Stuck in Love that I absolutely adore, it says “A writer is the sum of their experiences.” So much of my writing is inspired by my own experiences, and while I certainly don’t think you have to have experience in something to successfully write about it, having that extra layer of knowledge on a subject really adds realism and meaning to something. I can fake it, sure. I did that a lot in stories I wrote for my community college creative writing class. I wrote one story called Princess about a girl auditioning to be a face character at Disney World. I’ve never done that, though I’ve done a lot of research because I desperately want to. People thought I had actually experienced it. I wrote another about a young woman in the hospital for an eating disorder who desperately wanted a baby. While I’ve never been hospitalized for an eating disorder, I do struggle with one and my greatest fear is losing the ability to have a baby because of it so even though it wasn’t something I directly experienced, I channeled my fears and feelings into it. At the end of the day, I think so long as you’re passionate about something, you can successfully write about it and make it believable. But back to the question, one of the experiences I look to for inspiration most often is my love life and what I’ve been through with that. I’ve never been abused or cheated on or any of that bullshit, but I’ve had a very interesting history with my boyfriend that hinges on not only romance and compatibility like in all relationships but also in self esteem, grief, family, and the past. I’ve written quite a handful of short stories based around it, and some of the not-so-lovely feelings that have come from it. (Disclaimer: This is not to say my boyfriend and I are unhappy or in an unhealthy relationship. We just haven’t always had it easy and early on, I had a really tough time coming to terms with some things that I’m not going to go into detail with right now).

Allusions and references to other works. Thoughts? Do you like to use them?As a fanfiction writer, I feel like I’m obligated to say yes since that writing mainly takes place in other people’s works. At it’s foundation, though, I love allusion. I’m a big fan of fairytales and I have some interest in Greek mythology, as well, so I like taking inspiration from those and alluding to them in my stories. It’s easy to do in my Narnia fanfiction, especially, because it already alludes mythology and also religion which can tie into fairytales. Eilonwy, my OC, is a very heavy reference to the story of Snow White, as well as to Adam and Eve and Joan of Arc. I think it’s fun to tie certain things into shit like that, and I love when everything connects and makes sense.

What do you think characterizes your writing?My style and approach. I command the language a certain way where I try to sound cohesive and intelligent but also pump those big words with emotion and meaning. I don’t really know how else to describe it; my best writing comes when I’m in that zone and the words are just flowing out of me. I like trying to express abstract concepts in ways that feel tangible, too. I think tangibility is a big aspect, too. As an adjective here it probably doesn’t make much sense, but there’s something about my writing that I feel gives it this kind of tangible quality, almost. I like being able to feel the emotions and words in the air around me like oxygen. I also think the fact that I don’t like to shy away from anything helps to characterize my writing, too. I like to pull out all the stops. I don’t like censoring myself for the sake of comfort or digestibility. Maybe that makes my work kind of hard to get through but still. I feel like you have to have a stronger stomach for my work because I will not resist uncomfortable topics or scenes. Rape, gore, anxiety, whatever. I don’t shy away from any of it.

Do you control your characters, or do they control you? For the most part, I have pretty decent control over my characters but sometimes they like to go their own way and screw up the plan. Sometimes it’s for the best, but I’m the kind of person who likes to strictly stay to the path I’ve mapped out so more often than not it’s a nuisance. That resistance can be a real struggle, too, because sometimes where my characters take me flows nicely but it would mean reworking everything so I have to go back and try and channel that flow into the right direction.

Are there any misconceptions people have about your writing? I don’t really know. I try to be as clear as possible about what is happening and what I mean when I say certain things. If anything, they’d probably mistake me for a psychopath.

Best compliment someone has given you about your writing.I think the best compliments are honestly the ones where people are just straight-up fangirling. I love reading people’s reactions to my works, especially when they love it and want more of it and are screaming at their computer screens because of choices the characters have made. I had one person even send me a message telling me that they love my story so much, it’s all they can think about and gives them motivation to live (in a non-suicidal manner) and implored me to keep writing. That’s the kind of feedback that really motivates me to keep doing what I do.

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer? In five years, I hope to be a published author with at least a small repertoire of original work under my belt and out in the open. I know it might take longer than five years to get there but I’ve come so far already and I think if I have the passion and the will to do it, I can get there. The end goal is to just get my stories out there and accessible to the public in hopes that someone may find something in them that they relate to, that helps them feel less alone, or that they just enjoy reading. The day I find my name on a bookstore shelf is the day I will feel as if I’ve truly made it (which brings me to another point about my opinions on paper versus digital publishing but I think that’s a rant for another post-- I’ve already made this one long enough!)

[gokailyger84]

Dan/Brian prompt - Brian plays piano in a bar, Danny is a singer looking for work. One of them hears the other perform for the first time and is captivated, wanting the meet the other. Can be any time period, historically. (This is based on a trope you mentioned liking.)

I kinda changed this a bit.  Hope that’s alright.

Brian’s fingers lightly glided across the pearl keys, with the gentle touch of a lover.  

He closed his eyes, letting the music flow over him.  This was his favorite thing to do.  Playing music.  Losing himself in the soothing notes.  

He was currently at the local bar near his apartment.  A little side job he picked up.  Playing music for atmosphere and sometimes karaoke.  

He only worked on the weekends, and on days the bar didn’t have a DJ or band scheduled.  Those days were dubbed the ‘Chill’ days and that suited Brian just fine.  

He hadn’t managed to get the music teacher job along with physics at the university he taught at.  So, these couple of days every other weekend, were the only times he could play.  

Brian finished playing another piece on the old Studio Piano.  It was kind of weird they had that type in a bar, of all places, but Brian wasn’t complaining.  

He walked over to the stage and turned on his keyboard.  The night crowd was flowing in, meaning it was time to play something to get them in the mood for dancing.  

“Excuse me.”  

Brian looked up from his keyboard.  

A tall, lanky man with a mess of curls atop his head was standing before him.  

Typical band shirt, covered with a leather jacket and washed out jeans with holes in them.  All the looks of a dropout stoner.  

He had wide smile spread across his face.  The smile reminded Brian of the sun.  

Brian remembered seeing him a few times at the bar.  Usually on karaoke nights.  

He tended to take the mic whenever possible.  He had a pleasant voice.  A little raw, as if he was still learning but Brian could see a lot of future potential for him.  

Well, despite his looks, Brian always gave others the benefit of a doubt.  

“Can I help you?”  

“My name’s Danny.”  He said sticking out his hand, his smile widening as Brian took it.

“Brian.”  He greeted back.  

Danny pulled his hand back, stuffing them into his jacket pockets.  He gestured at the keyboard.  

“I was wondering if you took requests?”  

Brian shrugged.  He didn’t do it often.  Mostly letting people use the karaoke machine.

“It depends on the request.”  

Danny’s smile turned into a grin.

“How about that 80s jam, you played a while back?”  

Brian looked up in thought.  80s jam?  He had a few of those.  He could only think of one he had played at the bar, though.  

He looked at Danny in confusion.  

“You just want me to play it?”

He watched as Danny’s cheeks began to redden.  He shrugged, looking down shly.  

Brian found himself smiling.  He had to admit, the kid was cute.

“I mean, I kinda-I want to sing to it.”

Brian raised an eyebrow.  He definitely didn’t expect that.

“You know, that music isn’t a cover of anything, right?”  

Danny looked up.  His eyes were sparkling.  

“Yeah.  I know it’s original and that you wrote it. Which is fucking amazing!”

Brian could feel his own cheeks heating up.  He couldn’t remember the last time someone genuinely recognized and like his original compositions.  

“I wrote a song to go with it.” Danny continued on, digging into his pocket and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.  

Brian took it from him, looking over the lyrics.  He read over them as he played his music in his head.  From what he could tell, it really looked like it could work.  

He looked up to see Danny staring at him with barely restrained anxiety.  Brian wondered if he had been in the same shoes as Brian, when it came to his creativity.

“Have you shown anyone else this?”  He carefully asked.

Danny shook his head, biting his bottom lip.

“No.  People, they uh, tend to not take me seriously.”  Danny lowered his head, shuffling his shoe across the wooden floor.  

Brian had the sudden urge to pull the man into his arms and tell him those people didn’t know what they were talking about.  

Brian paused.  

Where did that come from?  

Shaking his head, Brian handed the paper back to Danny.  

“Well, let’s give it a shot.”

Danny’s eyes widened, his lips breaking out into a wide smile.  Brian felt like he could get used to seeing that.

“Really?  You-you’re serious?”  

Brian nodded, turning on his keyboard.  He started his custom drum beat and gestured over to the mic in the center of the stage.  He then turned to his laptop on the stand and brought up the raw, keyboardless digital scratch.  

Brian watched as Danny walked slowly over to the mic. He adjusted the height of the mic and tapped on it.  The patrons turned towards the stage.  

Brian could see Danny swallow.  His nerves getting to him.  

He glanced over to see Brian smiling and giving him a thumbs up.  Danny grinned back before turning back to the crowd.  

Brian sat down on his seat and counted off. Loud enough for Danny to hear.  

“One, two, three, four.”  

He began to play and Danny began to sing.  

It was amazing.  Much better than what he heard in his head.  

Brian’s head began bobbing in beat with the music.  

And Danny.  

Danny was really getting into it.  Having pulled the mic from the stand and prancing around the small stage.  

The crowd was clapping along, dancing and just having a great time.  

It felt like a concert.  

Something Brian used to dream about, before reality kept slapping him in the face.  

He looked over to see Danny, shaking his hips in rhythm with the music.  The crowd screaming in appreciation.  

It was obvious.  

Danny was meant to be on stage.  Entertaining the people.  

Even though, they had only met a few minutes ago, Brian felt like together they could do it.  Succeed where he and Brian was sure Danny, had failed.  

He wanted to see Danny succeed.  Wanted to succeed with him.  

Danny’s lyrics with Brian’s music.  

As, the song ended, Danny thanked the crowd.  His chest was rising and falling rapidly as he tried to catch his breath. He then turned towards Brian.

“And a special thank you to my musical partner, Brian.”  He said, in between breaths.  

His eyes were bright, smile impossibly wide.  

Brian couldn’t help but return the smile, as he joined Danny at the center of the stage.  Danny wrapped an arm around his shoulders, waving out to the crowd.  

Brian looked up at Danny.  Seeing the way his skin glowed under the stage lights.  The positive energy practically radiating from him.  

Brian couldn’t help but feel that this is where he belonged.  

By Danny’s side.  

Creating and performing music.

Brian was sure of it.

[404fmdminjung]

idol headcanon ; days 1-30 

summary: i decided to just do all 30 days of this at once and post it under the cut.

+ Day One: Introduce your muse. Are they solo or in a group? What is their position in the group? Consider this day the day for writing the basics.

seo minjung is the lead vocal/rapper of fuse. she was the original maknae, until gold star decided to add another member shortly after. she was born in 1996, making her 25, half of fifty. maturity comes in slow increments and she’s slowly getting adjusted to the age although often times she finds herself a bit too immature when she gets caught up in a fit of feelings. 

+ Day Two: Talk about your muse’s childhood. Where did they grow up? Did they have any dream jobs besides being an idol? When did they realize they wanted to be an idol?

minjung was born in boston, usa. however, she shortly uprooted back to seoul as her father was a diplomat. she doesn’t have a place where she grew up, since the majority of her childhood consisted of moving around and shuffling between boston and seoul her whole life. she didn’t have any dreams, nor did she have the passion to do anything since every time she got complacent, her parents uprooted her. however, she did find a hobby in singing and dancing. this in turn allowed her father to suggest becoming an idol because she obviously had no future in getting into an ivy league or SKY in seoul. that sealed the deal, meaning that she wouldn’t have to move around anymore and she somehow managed to get into gold star. the rest was history.

+ Day Three: Take us back to when your muse was either recruited or auditioned to become an idol. How did that go? How did they feel getting up on stage for recruiters? If your muse could give their younger selves advice before the audition, what would they say?

she auditioned to become an idol, but she wasn’t really nervous. she’s always been the dreamer type so she pretended as if she were dancing across her bedroom floors and singing in the shower. her vocals were not bad, and they had a very unique tone, which really wrapped up the recruiters’ interests. her dancing, was tragic and she still to this day doesn’t see much enjoyment in dancing/learning how to dance. she manages to get by, following the footsteps of the choreography but still doesn’t excel. it was really her visuals that got her into the company as her face had this pretty twist that the judges really adored. if she could give any advice, it would be to find some interest in dancing because she’s going to be doing a lot of it in the future.

+ Day Four: Remember the trainee days? What are some of your muse’s memories of being a trainee? How long were they a trainee? Were they worried about potentially not making a debut? Talk about any challenges they might have encountered.

the trainee days were hard, but she managed to get by. she had a lot of trouble adjusting and finding friends because they would find her weird and frustrating to talk to as she always spoke in an odd tone of voice. it seemed like everyone around her was getting along and she was the loner. still, she used that time to scribble down lyrics and practice on her downtime really putting in the effort to debut. this went on for a span of three years. she wasn’t really nervous about debuting, seeing as how she always thought that she’d debut and that gold star would manage to put her into a group they deemed fitting. the most difficult part? probably the dancing and adjusting with new people - finding a home in something so transient.

+ Day Five: Recall your muse’s debut. What was the song they debuted with? How did it feel performing for the first time on stage as an idol? Feel free to bring up their thoughts about the concept, choreography, lyrics, music video, or other components. 

happiness - she wasn’t a fan of the song. minjung believed that it was a pit of misery, and feigned smiles as the girls had to put in so much time and effort - blood sweat tears - to making this debut somewhat successful. it was all a lie to her, but she managed to get through it with a smile on her face. the first time on stage, was an odd feeling but she had no issues adjusting, fixing the golden smile she was known for. they put her in an awful green ensemble, and it was one of the worst memories of her life. the music video itself was weird, and even made the queen of weirdos shocked at how distracting the entirety of it was. this is a portion that she erases from her memory, no wonder it was considered somewhat of a flop.

+ Day Six: What concept does your muse think they can pull off best? Cutesy? Manly? Sexy? What concept do they have a hard time pulling off? What kind of concept would they want to do at some point?

she knows that her face is made for the pretty, cute comebacks the ones that are more aligned with red flavor and power up. it’s the cheeriness in her smile and small high tones of her voice. it’s harder for her to pull off the almost erratic concepts like zimzalabim - the quirkiness of it doesn’t really suit her own physicality's - plus, the vomit of colors make her nauseus. however,  she does think she’s semi-decent at pulling off the sexier bad girl concepts such as bad boy, and peekaboo, which now correlate more with her age. she wants to do a very odd aura, mystical concept that doesn’t really consist of colors but touches more on the ethereal portion of the cinematography. instead of slopping together the oddities, she thinks a subtle message and an oozing dark aura would suit their group.

+ Day Seven: Which era is your muse’s favorite in their career? Why is it their favorite (think concept, promotions, choreography, etc.)? If your muse has recently debuted, talk about what they would want to do for their next comeback.

she has two, it’s between peekaboo and bad boy. it’s her favorite because of the dark, sexy matureness it radiates. the concept for that was different than their past, and the weird almost scary-like aura really suited her own artistic tastes the best. she thought the outfits were a bit too short for her liking, triggering the gist of her only wearing body con dresses every comeback. however, she liked how the songs weren’t overly peppy and the choreography was subtle. this might have been considered her era, making her a ‘sex symbol’ but in reality, she doesn’t really pay much attention to the details of the comeback just that the songs were catchy enough to have her listening for a long period of time.

+ Day Eight: Talk about your muse’s strengths and weaknesses as an idol. Feel free to discuss their own personal thoughts regarding these components. Think of qualities such as vocals, dancing, visuals, acting skills, and variety show skills, for example.

she’s talented in her vocals - there’s a very unique tone, almost a scratchy whiny tone about her voice that she doesn’t get to brag about often. gold star has subdued that tones in fuse’s songs, stating that it sticks out too much. so, she opts for a more natural tone when she sings in her group. however, when she’s around her house singing alone, she has some tone that radiates sadness bringing in the applause of those that have heard it. rapping, she’s getting better at. although not the best, she can still carry a flow and one day she would like to upgrade her rap skills to be able to release a rap album - after all, her alter ego is asap rocky. dancing, has never been a strong suit, always a weakness. she can’t seem to keep up with the tricky choreography nor does she have a passion of it. where others point out her sloppy faults, she can’t pick them up always thinking it’s fine enough. acting skills? she can’t act to save her life. if she’s not playing the happy go-lucky child, she can’t do it because that’s the only mask she can front. variety, she’s decent at? she’s known for her odd remarks that do not make much sense and a smile that covers it all up. she would never dare to go on variety alone unless forced to because she knows that she can only keep up that ‘eyes open mouth gaped front’ for so long. visuals? the reason she got into gold star. it’s said that she’s one of the top visuals in the industry, but she doesn’t really believe that finding the makeup and hair a lot of the reason why people have labeled her that nor does she care. she just does her.

+ Day Nine: What is your muse’s fashion style? Talk about what kind of clothes they love to wear. To them, what is the essential thing to have in their closet? What is their favorite outfit?

she wears a lot of baggy clothes, the oversized denim strung with a loose cardigan or oversized hoodie. because gold star has her dressing up in so many short skirts, she feels that her body has already been revealed to the public enough so she opts for something that covers her up + remains comfortable. she loves to wear bottega, old celine and currently nanushka. the minimalism brands providing the baggy and chic fit she knows and loves. in terms of essentials? she pegs baggy sweatpants, hoodies and a nice handbag because everything looks polished in a nice handbag. her favourite outfit consists of her artist jeans, paint splattered tied together with a shoelace around her waist, a plain white t-shirt and a pair of ugly shoes from acne studios.

+ Day Ten: Talk about your muse’s three closest friends. How did they meet? How long have they known each other? What do they love most about their friends?

see this headcanon!

+ Day Eleven: Has your muse had any scandals? How have these scandals affected your muse as an idol or as a person? If your muse has not had any scandals, talk about their views on scandals. Is all publicity good publicity?

not a severe scandal, but she’s hit the brunt of the public reputation due to the weird art she posts on her instagram. this has led netizens to believe she’s on drugs, or something is seriously wrong with her tarnishing her pretty pure image that is known on stage. she doesn’t think of it much, and doesn’t really care what they think. however, gold star has taken note and now has to approve everything to a T that she posts. it’s also affected who she can and cannot be seen with, considering they don’t want her current negative image to affect any other artists. she thinks scandals are full of shit, made from comments about insecure people. however, she can’t do anything about it since she’s under the control of gold star. currently, gold star has her under their watch - perhaps they might push her to the ‘brooding artist’ image.

+ Day Twelve: If your muse is in a group, what are the fun things about promoting with other members? What do they love about being in a group? What do they love about their members? If your muse is a solo artist, what are their thoughts on promoting alone? What do they love about being solo?

she likes the stability of permanency. for not knowing what permanency feels like, she’s had her group to lean on for the past five years. there are times where the communication isn’t clear between them, leading for a few rifts but she still manages to love her group regardless. she loves how she doesn’t have to talk all the time, since her members are there alongside with her and she likes the flavor they radiate as a whole. they give her the blunt truth and nothing but the truth, whipping her into shape for comebacks. they’re supportive despite their differences.

+ Day Thirteen: For the muses in a group, what are the challenges of being one of several people in a group? Have there been any troubles that have come along with being in a group environment and times they wish they were alone? For the solo artist muses, have you ever felt lonely promoting alone? Do you ever wish that you were in a group instead?

the bad part is clashing - there are times where minjung’s distorted words rub her members the wrong way, leaving her alone in the group. she has times where she wants to runaway and disregard it as a whole but that’s only when she’s wrapped up in emotions. sometimes, her words don’t get across the way she wanted, and that ends in a really bad argument. plus, the stability of a group gets rocked with the solo activities making her retract her steps as she feels dissociated from the group when her members are off doing busy things. it’s overall a difficult feat for her, but she’s managed to handle her own emotions herself.

+ Day Fourteen: If your muse is in a group, how do you think they would have fared had they had a solo career instead? What kind of concept would they have? If your muse is a solo artist, how do you think they would have fared if they were in an idol group? What position of the group do you think they would have? 

she’d be the starving indie artist making rounds at itaewon pubs. she doesn’t think she’d do much hype work, like the stages that fuse gets to do today. she wouldn’t have the success or the wealth associated either, but she’d be creating music that she really connects to. she’d sit up with her piano, singing whiny love songs about her past and then getting shit drunk after the show. it’d be the remains of a struggling artist, barefaced in all its rawness. there would be no concepts as there would only be her on the stage. 

+ Day Fifteen: Who does your muse look up to in the industry? Why do they look up to this person?

she looks up to indie bands, not so much artists in the industry itself. she thinks a lot of the idol groups are all repetitive patterns of habits, and thus everyone steps foot the same way and continues on their journey lined up like animals. instead, she looks up to artists that are up-and-coming on the indie scene. this is because they are more raw? in terms of how they dress, and how they connect with their music production. it doesn’t matter the numbers of albums sold, they’re just happy to be doing what they’re doing - enjoying the pure bliss of music.

+ Day Sixteen: If your muse could do a special stage with another artist or idol group, who would it be and why? What song would they perform?

it would have to be gold star soloist one or wish, mainly because she finds both musics captivating - plus, she wouldn’t mind doing a special stage with those close to her. she thinks having a special stage with byul would be fun, except it would never be allowed due to gold star’s grasp on both of them - because they connect musically, writing experimental beats and lyrics together. their music beats what charts the radio, but it’s never left the confines of their apartments. for wish, she’d want to do a cute girl group stage, standing alongside korea’s girl group. it’d be fun dancing alongside arabella, despite how badly she’d compare. plus, she admits that feel special is one of her favorite idol tracks and she can’t help dancing and singing along to the chorus in the shower.

+ Day Seventeen: How would your muse fare in a variety show? If your muse could appear on any variety show, which variety would it be and why? If you don’t have a lot of knowledge of variety shows, talk about what kind of variety show they would go on.

she would do well, knowing how to milk the cameras with the occasional sarcastic remark. however, she doesn’t have the confidence to go up alone afraid that her scathing tongue would get the best of her. however, she doesn’t mind standing there and looking pretty, as the hosts gawk at her beauty and her oddities. she would probably want to go on knowing brothers, seeing as how she keeps up with that show religiously, tuning in each week for a good whole-hearted laugh. the cast members are her favorite gagmen in the industry, leading to a cocktail of a chaotic episode if she were to guest.

+ Day Eighteen: What entertainment agency is your muse a part of? What do they think of other groups and artists that are in the same agency as them? Which labelmates do they get along with the most, excluding group members?

gold star. she appreciates gold star for taking a chance on her, although their current hold is a bit too strong for her liking. the artists there also fare well, and she enjoys listening to their music. she likes how experimental it can often get, despite not having any creative control herself. her favorite groups are probably the soloist 1, femme fatale, and impulse - of course, her own group fuse is added to the mix. she gets along with the soloist 1, byul the most out of goldstar and youngjoo, because those two are childhood friends. she thinks labelmates is a funny term for a friendship that spans deeper than that. 

+ Day Nineteen: Is there anything besides idol activities that your muse would want to do? Would they want to take their hand at hosting a variety show or act in a television show or drama? Would they want to try out modeling or a musical? If they have done things such as these, talk about their thoughts toward these things.

she wants to release her own music, but not the sprinkled kind that is made by the in-house producers of the company. she wants to grab a bunch of friends in a room, and create experimental sounds that aren’t so saturated in the market. the indie music that makes people feel something in their hearts rather than bob their heads aimlessly - the music that transpires passion, and makes someone want to go out and do something creative. she doesn’t have any other greed besides that, and she’s hoping that perhaps listening to gold star’s orders will allow her to have a solo debut and pursue the music she wants to someday. 

+ Day Twenty: If your muse was able to be a part of a supergroup that comprised of current idols, who would they want to be in the same group and why? What kind of concept would this group have? How do you think the group would do in terms of popularity?

as mentioned before, she doesn’t really have a lot of greed thus doesn’t really want to become part of a supergroup. instead, she wants to just be herself comfortable collaborating with random artists that she’s inspired by. perhaps, if she could have a fun group consisting of arabella, byul, joo and hajin - it would be the ultimate feminist inspired group full of powered individuals. however, that’s bias and she’s just a fan of all of them individually as they are her closest friends in the industry. it’s too much to dream for her, as dreams rarely have a way of coming to life and she sees no point in dreaming for only her hopes to get crushed.

+ Day Twenty-One: How does your muse feel about their fans? How do they feel about sasaeng fans? How would they handle a situation in which they were faced with obsessive fans that followed them or invaded their privacy? If they’ve had problems with sasaeng fans before, how did they feel about it?

she thanks her fans for liking her, but she can’t help but feel sorry that they’ve fallen in love with a feigned smile and a feigned persona. it’s not much she can do about it except continue on with charades, but she shows her gratitude towards fan service and happy smiles each time she steps on stage. sasaengs are a different story, and she finds them terrifying - there’s a reason why they act the way they do, but the obsession crosses a clear boundary that makes her skin crawl. if she were ever to interact with a sasaeng, she’d call the police and then alert gold star in hopes that her company could shelter her or do something about the dire situation. luckily, that’s not an experience she has come across yet.

+ Day Twenty-Two: Talk about your muse’s goals that they have for their group or themselves if they are a solo artist. Where would they want to promote if given the chance? Do they want to do a solo album at one point? This can be any sort of professional goal.

she wants to do a small tour around seoul, hopping from pub to pub hoping to do guerilla style concerts. surprise, excitement of the people who see her apart from fuse and as her individual self. however, she doesn’t want to leave fuse ever - she loves being a member and wants to promote for them as long as she can. if she could venture off and do some solo projects, she would be grateful / wouldn’t protest. as a group, she wants to continue to raise fuse’s success and hopefully do more dark concepts - if gold star has that in mind. she would love to promote overseas, perhaps in europe or america as those two continents are the ones she’s always awestruck as. 

+ Day Twenty-Three: What is your muse’s thoughts on being an idol and dating? Are they against dating? Have they ever been in a relationship after debuting? If so, talk about the challenges that have come along with dating. If they aren’t dating, would they want to date?

she thinks idols should be able to date freely because at the end of the day, they’re just humans too. she finds herself in love with many people, for brief seconds or for spanning over long periods of time. she doesn’t mind the pain love brings, because it gives her something to grip onto and feel. she’s been in one official relationship after debuting, and it only lasted half a year due to the constant fights. he was her idea of permanency and he walked away, leaving a hole in heart. there were difficult times to conceal and hide the relationship but she’s managed to do that under the radar. the other tumultuous relationship was one filled with passion and angst, the physical fights and the verbal fights that make her cry every night. she’s still embroiled with these two people, can’t seem to shake off the feelings associated with how they left footprints in her battered heart. 

+ Day Twenty-Four: Who is your muse’s ideal type? Why is this person their ideal type? 

her ideal type is jo in sung, hyun bin and lee dongwook - aka: old handsome men. she likes the maturity they possess, and how their strong facial features resemble that of greek gods. she loves their voices and the characters they play in the dramas. maybe it’s lust, but she’s enamored with them and will be the first to get into a fist fight with any girl that stands in her way. they might be too old for her, but a girl can dream.

+ Day Twenty-Five: What does your muse want to be remembered for in the idol world? Do they want to be remembered for their vocal prowess? Their image? Their dancing skills? Their scandals?

she wants to be known for her - the individuality she possesses. she wants to write music that makes the heart ache and make people connect with it on a deeper level. rather than a pretty face, she hopes that the music will bring people joy and happiness, and even comfort on their loneliest days. she doesn’t want to be another face that’s been washed over with the oversaturation in the industry.

+ Day Twenty-Six: Does your muse ever regret becoming an idol? Do they ever think about what they would be doing instead if they lived a normal life? If they could go back in time, would they do everything all over again? Or would they end up doing something else?

she doesn’t regret being an idol because she had no future beforehand. it was the only thing she had known, so she can’t look back now. she had chosen this life, so she is going to continue to live in it. if she lived a normal life, she’d probably be at some college studying law or medicine, badgered by the teachers assigned to her hoping to excel and make something out of her life. she’d be happily single, with her two dogs and never one to overstep her boundaries. if she had another chance, perhaps she’d be an indie artist hoping to touch upon people’s lonely hearts in the underground pubs.

+ Day Twenty-Seven: After working hard on promotions, your muse is given the chance to take a two week vacation anywhere in the world at any time they want, with nobody bothering them. Where would they go and when? Why would they want to take their vacation there? If they had the opportunity to bring three other people, who would they bring?

she would go alone to prague, or central europe. she thinks western europe is overrated, filled with the romanticism that plagues the idea of the country whereas the art and architecture of central europe is unique and untouched. she’d possibly bring her closest friends, or use the time as an excuse to really step away from the world and think to herself for a few good minutes. overall, she’d go to museums and exhibits, capturing the daily life of the people. people watching, reading a book and drinking good coffee - the three things needed for a happy happy joy joy life.

+ Day Twenty-Eight: Talk about your muse’s low point in life. Why was this a low point in their life? What kind of challenges did they face and how did they feel about this? Were they able to overcome it? If it is still ongoing, are they working on overcoming these challenges? 

she thinks that her low life is currently, where she feels more numb than she has ever. the numbness fills her another way, making it harder to breathe and harder to wake up and bring herself out of bed. she wants to feel something, physically viscerally or even intrinsically, but can’t seem to manage that - she’s stuck in a rut. a creative rut, where the music she writes can’t be released and the music she releases doesn’t coincide with her the right way. she feels hurt by everyone around her, often wandering for another soul to listen to her troubles. alone and stranded - the two words describing her state of mind currently. 

+ Day Twenty-Nine: Talk about your muse’s most meaningful moment as an idol. This is what they feel so far is the highest point in their life and where they’ve never been happier. Recall the memory and describe it; what happened and how did they feel?

she doesn’t really have a highest point? she thinks the acclaim from red flavor might have been the tipping point marking them as a success, washing out any talks of them being a failure idol group. the idea of their music playing in all the cafes, all the summer time parties - was an unexplainable feeling, surrealism at its finest. she could no longer step food alone, without a mask or hat to disguise. she was under watch from all angles, love calls from brands coming in. the new found fame was probably the most ‘meaningful’ as it was a hard concept to grasp.

+ Day Thirty: Think about your muse’s life down the road. Where would they be and what would they be doing? Would they still be in the entertainment industry? Would they settle down and have a family?

she would probably not be in the entertainment industry, but retired. she’d be divorced from her husband, a man her father had introduced her to. she’d instead spend her time writing books and painting, allowing the rest of her life for relaxation as she had spent the youth working so hard. she doesn’t know if she’ll get married, seeing as how her relationships always end in toxic flames thus it would also leave question to whether she would have kids. instead, she’d probably be happiest in solitude with a glass of wine.

[alive-drumming]

Alive Drumming's favourite Frequently  Asked  Questions  (FAQ)

We have hand-picked some of our favourite  F.A.Q.s about Alive Drumming and Song Rhythm Tracks.

Why do these Song Rhythm Tracks sound so great?

They do, don’t they! And for a number of reasons:

Great Recordings of Great Drummers – Song Rhythm Tracks are arranged from careful studio recordings of excellent drummers.  They are not constructed from midi files fitting together “samples” from single drum hits to form a mechanical style but rather multiple longer-form full recordings by top studio drummers, lasting from up to 8 bars at a time where you hear subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills and more.  The rhythmic style comes from talented drummers that are very experienced in that particular style be it Reggae, Salsa, Bossa, Rumba, Tango, Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Celtic, Praise & Worship, Blues, and lots more!

There is natural variety promoted over the repeats.  That is a number of recordings of, say, a fill or shot are taken and selectively chosen while sequencing and engineering the final audio.  This provides the natural variety one gets with drummers.  It helps prevent the drumming becoming monotonous and repetitive.

The drummer is spelling out many aspects of the song’s form as (s)he plays.  This might have a larger contributor than one might imagine.  It is what real drummers do, but drumming software rarely does.   The drumming is indicating

When you are returning to the ‘top of the form’ again

When your sections are ending and starting again

When you are starting or finishing a bridge section

Whether you are playing a middle chorus or, alternatively, the first or last chorus.   This not only helps you keep place while you are playing but it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable to listen to, or play along with.

All this takes a lot of careful preparation and curation, huge storage, and sophisticated algorithms.   We feel this cannot be achieved on mobile devices themselves which is why our solution involves our cloud servicesworking with the mobile App.

Could you give me some examples of Song Forms?

Song Forms for a number of songs are here

Your drumming audio is dry! Will Alive Drumming, or can I, add reverb?

Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks  are supplied without  reverb (aka “dry”). We are endeavouring to make our iOS app Apple inter-app audio (IAA) compliant.  When it is, you will be able to use other, 3rd party app’s to add reverb to the audio.  See this youtube video for some of them in action.

Is Alive Drumming supporting my country or region?

globe

Alive Drumming aims to cover all regions, countries, languages, and cultures, embracing a wide diversity of rhythms is what we are all about.  If we haven’t adopted yours yet, we almost certainly aim to in the future.  If you want yours to be supported now, why not contact us at marketing@alive-dumming.org

What song forms does Alive Drumming support?

We support all the popular, essential song forms by name – 12 bar blues, 16 bar tunes, 32-bar A1A2 and 32-bar AABA, and about 30 other less common also by name.    The list is increasing!  We also support selecting these same song forms using stick notation instead of names.  This simply specifies section lengths in bars, for example, ‘8|8/8|8’, where ‘bridge‘ sections are preceded by a ‘/’ instead of ‘|’. Additionally, we support users defining their own forms via stick notation, including repeats, and concatenation of up to four (4) parts.  This allows for a truly huge flexibility, enough to describe any song’s form.   See this user guide for more information,  Song Rhythm Tracks.

What rhythms are available for Song Rhythm Tracks?

The app currently supports about 60 different distinct rhythm categories, which includes about 250 distinct rhythms.  Of these, most are available with differing instrumentation such as ‘rim’ shots or, say, wooden blocks, and many at multiple tempos.  In all over 3,700 different rhythm track recordings are available that can be applied to a song form.   The app makes selection of one of these 3,700+ recordings easy by providing filtering on a musical meter (say 4/4 or 3/4 time), and feel (even or straight, 8th or 16th notes). Here is a tiny sample of the styles represented:

Jazz, swing, straight 8th, modern, sophisticated, old-time

American Country styles, including Nashville

American Blues, shuffles, hard shuffles, old-time, slow, fast

Salsa, Samba

Bossa, Jazz Bossa Brushes, Latin Bossa, bongos, percussion

Techno, various forms

Rock, hard rock, heavy

Pop, straight 8th, straight 16th, slow, medium, fast

For a full list of all rhythms and sub-rhythms see the page catalog-rhythmic-styles.

How can I use the Song Rhythm Tracks? What’s my licence?

Alive Drumming grants license to remix its tracks.  That is, you can take the Song Rhythm Tracks audio, mix with your own content, and sell that mix as your own work without paying a fee to Alive Drumming. Alive Drumming prohibits resale or redistribution of its un-mixed, original Song Rhythm Tracks.  You cannot sell or give away these tracks unless you mix them into a new creative piece of work. Alive Drumming appreciates artistic attribution but does not require attribution in your remixed works.  You do not need to attribute Alive Drumming for the rhythm track in your remixed original work but if you wish to please add, “rhythm track supplied by Alive Drumming (c)” and include a reference to this website.

How can I get these Song Rhythm Tracks? Are they available on Amazon or iTunes?

The tracks are available via Apple iOS mobile App and will later be available via an Android mobile app. The huge permutations of song forms and rhythms available means the traditional audio file distribution channels of iTunes and Amazon do not fit this new medium of Song Rhythm Tracks. In particular, Amazon and iTunes do not accommodate the additional assistance that is required for musician’s to select the appropriate track. Alive Drumming has no plans to market these tracks on legacy media such as Audio CDs or DAT tape.

Who is Song Rhythm Tracks for?

All Musicians!   New Musicians;    Experienced Musicians;     Great Musicians; Really, any musician including Pianists, Guitarists, Horn Players, Singers and even Drummers. The tracks can be used for practice, performance and cutting a release. To learn more about their benefit in practice, using the Song Rhythm Tracks app, see the news articles, “When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Would Alive Drumming include this extra rhythm?

If we don’t already include a particular rhythm, we would like to work with a drummer to include it.  This involves making high-quality audio recordings of the drumming at multiple tempos including multiple shots and fills used in turnarounds.   The audio recording will be analysed to identify where the various aspects occur and the preference level of each occurrence.   This is the basis for Alive Drumming to incorporate additional rhythms into their Song Rhythm Tracks.    If you are a drummer and have a rhythm you’d like to be represented please email feedback@alive-drumming.org

What’s Alive Drumming’s policy on privacy?

Alive Drumming takes personal privacy very seriously.  We are committed to proactively protecting the privacy of our customers by not storing any personal information unless it is absolutely required, and should that be the case, it will always be protected by strong encryption.  We will never sell or otherwise disclose any personal, private or confidential information we hold on others.

How can I learn about song form?

Song form is based on the concept that every song has been composed around a musical form or structure.   Popular song often chooses simple forms as a basis for a song but forms can be more complex as well. A good reference on song form (structure) is the Wikipedia article,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_structure

Alive Drumming wants to provide you with the easiest and most reliable methods to describe song form. Song Form may be selected using both (i) traditional names such as ’16-bar Tune’, or (ii) the  ‘stick notation’ equivalent of ‘4|4|4|4’ if that is what you prefer. For full information on Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks mobile app and it’s flexibility in identifying Song Forms see the page, Song Rhythm Tracks

You may describe any Song Form with “user-defined” Song Forms in the mobile app, and for popular tunes, searching for a user-contributed Song Form for that song, again within the mobile app.   There are now tens of thousands of these being shared.

Song Rhythm Tracks

are a new type of backing track composed entirely of rhythmic backing (no melody or harmony) arranged to the musical form of the song — it’s “songform”. These tracks are complete performances like one gets from a professional drummer. They have a count-in, introduction section, choruses and characteristic endings, framed by fills showing where sections start and end. Even musical bridges and middle choruses have higher intensity where appropriate to the style. All this without a typical arranger’s interface thereby keeping it simple. One can select a track in under 30 seconds — under 15 seconds once one gets the hang of it.

The App’s player has tempo adjustment and a facility to sequence the tracks for your gig or jam session. It is for musicians of all abilities. New musicians use the App to provide an accompaniment to songs. They get a rhythm that is sympathetic so they learn to keep time, get into the groove and internalise the song’s musical structure – All this while enjoying engaging and inspiring rhythms. Gigging musicians catalogue their backing into setlists and use it to guide performance. Having quality rhythmic backing, with a setlist facility and a musician’s player, all in the one App is so convenient one finds oneself using this rhythmic backing more and more.

Song Rhythm Tracks are truly high-quality rhythmic backing that is convenient to select and play. You are not going to get tired of these backing tracks. You are not going to have to sequence anything. You will find that the player and setlist’s user-interface encourages continued use. You will get to appreciate the form of your songs more and you might include these tracks into your own single and album releases.

Whether you are learning a new tune, jamming, gigging or cutting your latest album, this Song Rhythm Tracks provides a solution.

Check out samples of the audio at Alive Drumming’s Samples page

Check out these articles from Alive Drumming that give further insights into the thinking behind the product –

“When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Download the Song Rhythm Tracks App on the Apple App Store

Try Alive Drumming’s sampler apps to sample previously arranged tracks of popular tunes. It is then easy to use the app to adjust these to your practice and performance requirements. All the sampler apps are the same Song Rhythm Tracks app but with the included sample tracks.

Jazz and Blues Sampler

Afro-Cuban Sampler

Country Music Sampler

  First Published on http://alive-drumming.org/our-favourite-frequently-asked-questions-f-a-q/

[alive-drumming]

Alive Drumming's favourite Frequently  Asked  Questions  (FAQ)

We have hand-picked some of our favourite  F.A.Q.s about Alive Drumming and Song Rhythm Tracks.

Why do these Song Rhythm Tracks sound so great?

They do, don’t they! And for a number of reasons:

Great Recordings of Great Drummers – Song Rhythm Tracks are arranged from careful studio recordings of excellent drummers.  They are not constructed from midi files fitting together “samples” from single drum hits to form a mechanical style but rather multiple longer-form full recordings by top studio drummers, lasting from up to 8 bars at a time where you hear subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills and more.  The rhythmic style comes from talented drummers that are very experienced in that particular style be it Reggae, Salsa, Bossa, Rumba, Tango, Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Celtic, Praise & Worship, Blues, and lots more!

There is natural variety promoted over the repeats.  That is a number of recordings of, say, a fill or shot are taken and selectively chosen while sequencing and engineering the final audio.  This provides the natural variety one gets with drummers.  It helps prevent the drumming becoming monotonous and repetitive.

The drummer is spelling out many aspects of the song’s form as (s)he plays.  This might have a larger contributor than one might imagine.  It is what real drummers do, but drumming software rarely does.   The drumming is indicating

When you are returning to the ‘top of the form’ again

When your sections are ending and starting again

When you are starting or finishing a bridge section

Whether you are playing a middle chorus or, alternatively, the first or last chorus.   This not only helps you keep place while you are playing but it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable to listen to, or play along with.

All this takes a lot of careful preparation and curation, huge storage, and sophisticated algorithms.   We feel this cannot be achieved on mobile devices themselves which is why our solution involves our cloud servicesworking with the mobile App.

Could you give me some examples of Song Forms?

Song Forms for a number of songs are here

Your drumming audio is dry! Will Alive Drumming, or can I, add reverb?

Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks  are supplied without  reverb (aka “dry”). We are endeavouring to make our iOS app Apple inter-app audio (IAA) compliant.  When it is, you will be able to use other, 3rd party app’s to add reverb to the audio.  See this youtube video for some of them in action.

Is Alive Drumming supporting my country or region?

globe

Alive Drumming aims to cover all regions, countries, languages, and cultures, embracing a wide diversity of rhythms is what we are all about.  If we haven’t adopted yours yet, we almost certainly aim to in the future.  If you want yours to be supported now, why not contact us at marketing@alive-dumming.org

What song forms does Alive Drumming support?

We support all the popular, essential song forms by name – 12 bar blues, 16 bar tunes, 32-bar A1A2 and 32-bar AABA, and about 30 other less common also by name.    The list is increasing!  We also support selecting these same song forms using stick notation instead of names.  This simply specifies section lengths in bars, for example, ‘8|8/8|8’, where ‘bridge‘ sections are preceded by a ‘/’ instead of ‘|’. Additionally, we support users defining their own forms via stick notation, including repeats, and concatenation of up to four (4) parts.  This allows for a truly huge flexibility, enough to describe any song’s form.   See this user guide for more information,  Song Rhythm Tracks.

What rhythms are available for Song Rhythm Tracks?

The app currently supports about 60 different distinct rhythm categories, which includes about 250 distinct rhythms.  Of these, most are available with differing instrumentation such as ‘rim’ shots or, say, wooden blocks, and many at multiple tempos.  In all over 3,700 different rhythm track recordings are available that can be applied to a song form.   The app makes selection of one of these 3,700+ recordings easy by providing filtering on a musical meter (say 4/4 or 3/4 time), and feel (even or straight, 8th or 16th notes). Here is a tiny sample of the styles represented:

Jazz, swing, straight 8th, modern, sophisticated, old-time

American Country styles, including Nashville

American Blues, shuffles, hard shuffles, old-time, slow, fast

Salsa, Samba

Bossa, Jazz Bossa Brushes, Latin Bossa, bongos, percussion

Techno, various forms

Rock, hard rock, heavy

Pop, straight 8th, straight 16th, slow, medium, fast

For a full list of all rhythms and sub-rhythms see the page catalog-rhythmic-styles.

How can I use the Song Rhythm Tracks? What’s my licence?

Alive Drumming grants license to remix its tracks.  That is, you can take the Song Rhythm Tracks audio, mix with your own content, and sell that mix as your own work without paying a fee to Alive Drumming. Alive Drumming prohibits resale or redistribution of its un-mixed, original Song Rhythm Tracks.  You cannot sell or give away these tracks unless you mix them into a new creative piece of work. Alive Drumming appreciates artistic attribution but does not require attribution in your remixed works.  You do not need to attribute Alive Drumming for the rhythm track in your remixed original work but if you wish to please add, “rhythm track supplied by Alive Drumming (c)” and include a reference to this website.

How can I get these Song Rhythm Tracks? Are they available on Amazon or iTunes?

The tracks are available via Apple iOS mobile App and will later be available via an Android mobile app. The huge permutations of song forms and rhythms available means the traditional audio file distribution channels of iTunes and Amazon do not fit this new medium of Song Rhythm Tracks. In particular, Amazon and iTunes do not accommodate the additional assistance that is required for musician’s to select the appropriate track. Alive Drumming has no plans to market these tracks on legacy media such as Audio CDs or DAT tape.

Who is Song Rhythm Tracks for?

All Musicians!   New Musicians;    Experienced Musicians;     Great Musicians; Really, any musician including Pianists, Guitarists, Horn Players, Singers and even Drummers. The tracks can be used for practice, performance and cutting a release. To learn more about their benefit in practice, using the Song Rhythm Tracks app, see the news articles, “When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Would Alive Drumming include this extra rhythm?

If we don’t already include a particular rhythm, we would like to work with a drummer to include it.  This involves making high-quality audio recordings of the drumming at multiple tempos including multiple shots and fills used in turnarounds.   The audio recording will be analysed to identify where the various aspects occur and the preference level of each occurrence.   This is the basis for Alive Drumming to incorporate additional rhythms into their Song Rhythm Tracks.    If you are a drummer and have a rhythm you’d like to be represented please email feedback@alive-drumming.org

What’s Alive Drumming’s policy on privacy?

Alive Drumming takes personal privacy very seriously.  We are committed to proactively protecting the privacy of our customers by not storing any personal information unless it is absolutely required, and should that be the case, it will always be protected by strong encryption.  We will never sell or otherwise disclose any personal, private or confidential information we hold on others.

How can I learn about song form?

Song form is based on the concept that every song has been composed around a musical form or structure.   Popular song often chooses simple forms as a basis for a song but forms can be more complex as well. A good reference on song form (structure) is the Wikipedia article,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_structure

Alive Drumming wants to provide you with the easiest and most reliable methods to describe song form. Song Form may be selected using both (i) traditional names such as ’16-bar Tune’, or (ii) the  ‘stick notation’ equivalent of ‘4|4|4|4’ if that is what you prefer. For full information on Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks mobile app and it’s flexibility in identifying Song Forms see the page, Song Rhythm Tracks

You may describe any Song Form with “user-defined” Song Forms in the mobile app, and for popular tunes, searching for a user-contributed Song Form for that song, again within the mobile app.   There are now tens of thousands of these being shared.

Song Rhythm Tracks

are a new type of backing track composed entirely of rhythmic backing (no melody or harmony) arranged to the musical form of the song — it’s “songform”. These tracks are complete performances like one gets from a professional drummer. They have a count-in, introduction section, choruses and characteristic endings, framed by fills showing where sections start and end. Even musical bridges and middle choruses have higher intensity where appropriate to the style. All this without a typical arranger’s interface thereby keeping it simple. One can select a track in under 30 seconds — under 15 seconds once one gets the hang of it.

The App’s player has tempo adjustment and a facility to sequence the tracks for your gig or jam session. It is for musicians of all abilities. New musicians use the App to provide an accompaniment to songs. They get a rhythm that is sympathetic so they learn to keep time, get into the groove and internalise the song’s musical structure – All this while enjoying engaging and inspiring rhythms. Gigging musicians catalogue their backing into setlists and use it to guide performance. Having quality rhythmic backing, with a setlist facility and a musician’s player, all in the one App is so convenient one finds oneself using this rhythmic backing more and more.

Song Rhythm Tracks are truly high-quality rhythmic backing that is convenient to select and play. You are not going to get tired of these backing tracks. You are not going to have to sequence anything. You will find that the player and setlist’s user-interface encourages continued use. You will get to appreciate the form of your songs more and you might include these tracks into your own single and album releases.

Whether you are learning a new tune, jamming, gigging or cutting your latest album, this Song Rhythm Tracks provides a solution.

Check out samples of the audio at Alive Drumming’s Samples page

Check out these articles from Alive Drumming that give further insights into the thinking behind the product –

“When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Download the Song Rhythm Tracks App on the Apple App Store

Try Alive Drumming’s sampler apps to sample previously arranged tracks of popular tunes. It is then easy to use the app to adjust these to your practice and performance requirements. All the sampler apps are the same Song Rhythm Tracks app but with the included sample tracks.

Jazz and Blues Sampler

Afro-Cuban Sampler

Country Music Sampler

  First Published on http://alive-drumming.org/our-favourite-frequently-asked-questions-f-a-q/

[alive-drumming]

Alive Drumming's favourite Frequently  Asked  Questions  (FAQ)

We have hand-picked some of our favourite  F.A.Q.s about Alive Drumming and Song Rhythm Tracks.

Why do these Song Rhythm Tracks sound so great?

They do, don’t they! And for a number of reasons:

Great Recordings of Great Drummers – Song Rhythm Tracks are arranged from careful studio recordings of excellent drummers.  They are not constructed from midi files fitting together “samples” from single drum hits to form a mechanical style but rather multiple longer-form full recordings by top studio drummers, lasting from up to 8 bars at a time where you hear subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills and more.  The rhythmic style comes from talented drummers that are very experienced in that particular style be it Reggae, Salsa, Bossa, Rumba, Tango, Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Celtic, Praise & Worship, Blues, and lots more!

There is natural variety promoted over the repeats.  That is a number of recordings of, say, a fill or shot are taken and selectively chosen while sequencing and engineering the final audio.  This provides the natural variety one gets with drummers.  It helps prevent the drumming becoming monotonous and repetitive.

The drummer is spelling out many aspects of the song’s form as (s)he plays.  This might have a larger contributor than one might imagine.  It is what real drummers do, but drumming software rarely does.   The drumming is indicating

When you are returning to the ‘top of the form’ again

When your sections are ending and starting again

When you are starting or finishing a bridge section

Whether you are playing a middle chorus or, alternatively, the first or last chorus.   This not only helps you keep place while you are playing but it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable to listen to, or play along with.

All this takes a lot of careful preparation and curation, huge storage, and sophisticated algorithms.   We feel this cannot be achieved on mobile devices themselves which is why our solution involves our cloud servicesworking with the mobile App.

Could you give me some examples of Song Forms?

Song Forms for a number of songs are here

Your drumming audio is dry! Will Alive Drumming, or can I, add reverb?

Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks  are supplied without  reverb (aka “dry”). We are endeavouring to make our iOS app Apple inter-app audio (IAA) compliant.  When it is, you will be able to use other, 3rd party app’s to add reverb to the audio.  See this youtube video for some of them in action.

Is Alive Drumming supporting my country or region?

globe

Alive Drumming aims to cover all regions, countries, languages, and cultures, embracing a wide diversity of rhythms is what we are all about.  If we haven’t adopted yours yet, we almost certainly aim to in the future.  If you want yours to be supported now, why not contact us at marketing@alive-dumming.org

What song forms does Alive Drumming support?

We support all the popular, essential song forms by name – 12 bar blues, 16 bar tunes, 32-bar A1A2 and 32-bar AABA, and about 30 other less common also by name.    The list is increasing!  We also support selecting these same song forms using stick notation instead of names.  This simply specifies section lengths in bars, for example, ‘8|8/8|8’, where ‘bridge‘ sections are preceded by a ‘/’ instead of ‘|’. Additionally, we support users defining their own forms via stick notation, including repeats, and concatenation of up to four (4) parts.  This allows for a truly huge flexibility, enough to describe any song’s form.   See this user guide for more information,  Song Rhythm Tracks.

What rhythms are available for Song Rhythm Tracks?

The app currently supports about 60 different distinct rhythm categories, which includes about 250 distinct rhythms.  Of these, most are available with differing instrumentation such as ‘rim’ shots or, say, wooden blocks, and many at multiple tempos.  In all over 3,700 different rhythm track recordings are available that can be applied to a song form.   The app makes selection of one of these 3,700+ recordings easy by providing filtering on a musical meter (say 4/4 or 3/4 time), and feel (even or straight, 8th or 16th notes). Here is a tiny sample of the styles represented:

Jazz, swing, straight 8th, modern, sophisticated, old-time

American Country styles, including Nashville

American Blues, shuffles, hard shuffles, old-time, slow, fast

Salsa, Samba

Bossa, Jazz Bossa Brushes, Latin Bossa, bongos, percussion

Techno, various forms

Rock, hard rock, heavy

Pop, straight 8th, straight 16th, slow, medium, fast

For a full list of all rhythms and sub-rhythms see the page catalog-rhythmic-styles.

How can I use the Song Rhythm Tracks? What’s my licence?

Alive Drumming grants license to remix its tracks.  That is, you can take the Song Rhythm Tracks audio, mix with your own content, and sell that mix as your own work without paying a fee to Alive Drumming. Alive Drumming prohibits resale or redistribution of its un-mixed, original Song Rhythm Tracks.  You cannot sell or give away these tracks unless you mix them into a new creative piece of work. Alive Drumming appreciates artistic attribution but does not require attribution in your remixed works.  You do not need to attribute Alive Drumming for the rhythm track in your remixed original work but if you wish to please add, “rhythm track supplied by Alive Drumming (c)” and include a reference to this website.

How can I get these Song Rhythm Tracks? Are they available on Amazon or iTunes?

The tracks are available via Apple iOS mobile App and will later be available via an Android mobile app. The huge permutations of song forms and rhythms available means the traditional audio file distribution channels of iTunes and Amazon do not fit this new medium of Song Rhythm Tracks. In particular, Amazon and iTunes do not accommodate the additional assistance that is required for musician’s to select the appropriate track. Alive Drumming has no plans to market these tracks on legacy media such as Audio CDs or DAT tape.

Who is Song Rhythm Tracks for?

All Musicians!   New Musicians;    Experienced Musicians;     Great Musicians; Really, any musician including Pianists, Guitarists, Horn Players, Singers and even Drummers. The tracks can be used for practice, performance and cutting a release. To learn more about their benefit in practice, using the Song Rhythm Tracks app, see the news articles, “When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Would Alive Drumming include this extra rhythm?

If we don’t already include a particular rhythm, we would like to work with a drummer to include it.  This involves making high-quality audio recordings of the drumming at multiple tempos including multiple shots and fills used in turnarounds.   The audio recording will be analysed to identify where the various aspects occur and the preference level of each occurrence.   This is the basis for Alive Drumming to incorporate additional rhythms into their Song Rhythm Tracks.    If you are a drummer and have a rhythm you’d like to be represented please email feedback@alive-drumming.org

What’s Alive Drumming’s policy on privacy?

Alive Drumming takes personal privacy very seriously.  We are committed to proactively protecting the privacy of our customers by not storing any personal information unless it is absolutely required, and should that be the case, it will always be protected by strong encryption.  We will never sell or otherwise disclose any personal, private or confidential information we hold on others.

How can I learn about song form?

Song form is based on the concept that every song has been composed around a musical form or structure.   Popular song often chooses simple forms as a basis for a song but forms can be more complex as well. A good reference on song form (structure) is the Wikipedia article,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_structure

Alive Drumming wants to provide you with the easiest and most reliable methods to describe song form. Song Form may be selected using both (i) traditional names such as ’16-bar Tune’, or (ii) the  ‘stick notation’ equivalent of ‘4|4|4|4’ if that is what you prefer. For full information on Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks mobile app and it’s flexibility in identifying Song Forms see the page, Song Rhythm Tracks

You may describe any Song Form with “user-defined” Song Forms in the mobile app, and for popular tunes, searching for a user-contributed Song Form for that song, again within the mobile app.   There are now tens of thousands of these being shared.

Song Rhythm Tracks

are a new type of backing track composed entirely of rhythmic backing (no melody or harmony) arranged to the musical form of the song — it’s “songform”. These tracks are complete performances like one gets from a professional drummer. They have a count-in, introduction section, choruses and characteristic endings, framed by fills showing where sections start and end. Even musical bridges and middle choruses have higher intensity where appropriate to the style. All this without a typical arranger’s interface thereby keeping it simple. One can select a track in under 30 seconds — under 15 seconds once one gets the hang of it.

The App’s player has tempo adjustment and a facility to sequence the tracks for your gig or jam session. It is for musicians of all abilities. New musicians use the App to provide an accompaniment to songs. They get a rhythm that is sympathetic so they learn to keep time, get into the groove and internalise the song’s musical structure – All this while enjoying engaging and inspiring rhythms. Gigging musicians catalogue their backing into setlists and use it to guide performance. Having quality rhythmic backing, with a setlist facility and a musician’s player, all in the one App is so convenient one finds oneself using this rhythmic backing more and more.

Song Rhythm Tracks are truly high-quality rhythmic backing that is convenient to select and play. You are not going to get tired of these backing tracks. You are not going to have to sequence anything. You will find that the player and setlist’s user-interface encourages continued use. You will get to appreciate the form of your songs more and you might include these tracks into your own single and album releases.

Whether you are learning a new tune, jamming, gigging or cutting your latest album, this Song Rhythm Tracks provides a solution.

Check out samples of the audio at Alive Drumming’s Samples page

Check out these articles from Alive Drumming that give further insights into the thinking behind the product –

“When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Download the Song Rhythm Tracks App on the Apple App Store

Try Alive Drumming’s sampler apps to sample previously arranged tracks of popular tunes. It is then easy to use the app to adjust these to your practice and performance requirements. All the sampler apps are the same Song Rhythm Tracks app but with the included sample tracks.

Jazz and Blues Sampler

Afro-Cuban Sampler

Country Music Sampler

  First Published on http://alive-drumming.org/our-favourite-frequently-asked-questions-f-a-q/

First Published on http://alive-drumming.org/alive-drummings-favourite-frequently-asked-questions-faq/

[alive-drumming]

Alive Drumming's favourite Frequently  Asked  Questions  (FAQ)

We have hand-picked some of our favourite  F.A.Q.s about Alive Drumming and Song Rhythm Tracks.

Why do these Song Rhythm Tracks sound so great?

They do, don’t they! And for a number of reasons:

Great Recordings of Great Drummers – Song Rhythm Tracks are arranged from careful studio recordings of excellent drummers.  They are not constructed from midi files fitting together “samples” from single drum hits to form a mechanical style but rather multiple longer-form full recordings by top studio drummers, lasting from up to 8 bars at a time where you hear subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills and more.  The rhythmic style comes from talented drummers that are very experienced in that particular style be it Reggae, Salsa, Bossa, Rumba, Tango, Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Celtic, Praise & Worship, Blues, and lots more!

There is natural variety promoted over the repeats.  That is a number of recordings of, say, a fill or shot are taken and selectively chosen while sequencing and engineering the final audio.  This provides the natural variety one gets with drummers.  It helps prevent the drumming becoming monotonous and repetitive.

The drummer is spelling out many aspects of the song’s form as (s)he plays.  This might have a larger contributor than one might imagine.  It is what real drummers do, but drumming software rarely does.   The drumming is indicating

When you are returning to the ‘top of the form’ again

When your sections are ending and starting again

When you are starting or finishing a bridge section

Whether you are playing a middle chorus or, alternatively, the first or last chorus.   This not only helps you keep place while you are playing but it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable to listen to, or play along with.

All this takes a lot of careful preparation and curation, huge storage, and sophisticated algorithms.   We feel this cannot be achieved on mobile devices themselves which is why our solution involves our cloud servicesworking with the mobile App.

Could you give me some examples of Song Forms?

Song Forms for a number of songs are here

Your drumming audio is dry! Will Alive Drumming, or can I, add reverb?

Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks  are supplied without  reverb (aka “dry”). We are endeavouring to make our iOS app Apple inter-app audio (IAA) compliant.  When it is, you will be able to use other, 3rd party app’s to add reverb to the audio.  See this youtube video for some of them in action.

Is Alive Drumming supporting my country or region?

globe

Alive Drumming aims to cover all regions, countries, languages, and cultures, embracing a wide diversity of rhythms is what we are all about.  If we haven’t adopted yours yet, we almost certainly aim to in the future.  If you want yours to be supported now, why not contact us at marketing@alive-dumming.org

What song forms does Alive Drumming support?

We support all the popular, essential song forms by name – 12 bar blues, 16 bar tunes, 32-bar A1A2 and 32-bar AABA, and about 30 other less common also by name.    The list is increasing!  We also support selecting these same song forms using stick notation instead of names.  This simply specifies section lengths in bars, for example, ‘8|8/8|8’, where ‘bridge‘ sections are preceded by a ‘/’ instead of ‘|’. Additionally, we support users defining their own forms via stick notation, including repeats, and concatenation of up to four (4) parts.  This allows for a truly huge flexibility, enough to describe any song’s form.   See this user guide for more information,  Song Rhythm Tracks.

What rhythms are available for Song Rhythm Tracks?

The app currently supports about 60 different distinct rhythm categories, which includes about 250 distinct rhythms.  Of these, most are available with differing instrumentation such as ‘rim’ shots or, say, wooden blocks, and many at multiple tempos.  In all over 3,700 different rhythm track recordings are available that can be applied to a song form.   The app makes selection of one of these 3,700+ recordings easy by providing filtering on a musical meter (say 4/4 or 3/4 time), and feel (even or straight, 8th or 16th notes). Here is a tiny sample of the styles represented:

Jazz, swing, straight 8th, modern, sophisticated, old-time

American Country styles, including Nashville

American Blues, shuffles, hard shuffles, old-time, slow, fast

Salsa, Samba

Bossa, Jazz Bossa Brushes, Latin Bossa, bongos, percussion

Techno, various forms

Rock, hard rock, heavy

Pop, straight 8th, straight 16th, slow, medium, fast

For a full list of all rhythms and sub-rhythms see the page catalog-rhythmic-styles.

How can I use the Song Rhythm Tracks? What’s my licence?

Alive Drumming grants license to remix its tracks.  That is, you can take the Song Rhythm Tracks audio, mix with your own content, and sell that mix as your own work without paying a fee to Alive Drumming. Alive Drumming prohibits resale or redistribution of its un-mixed, original Song Rhythm Tracks.  You cannot sell or give away these tracks unless you mix them into a new creative piece of work. Alive Drumming appreciates artistic attribution but does not require attribution in your remixed works.  You do not need to attribute Alive Drumming for the rhythm track in your remixed original work but if you wish to please add, “rhythm track supplied by Alive Drumming (c)” and include a reference to this website.

How can I get these Song Rhythm Tracks? Are they available on Amazon or iTunes?

The tracks are available via Apple iOS mobile App and will later be available via an Android mobile app. The huge permutations of song forms and rhythms available means the traditional audio file distribution channels of iTunes and Amazon do not fit this new medium of Song Rhythm Tracks. In particular, Amazon and iTunes do not accommodate the additional assistance that is required for musician’s to select the appropriate track. Alive Drumming has no plans to market these tracks on legacy media such as Audio CDs or DAT tape.

Who is Song Rhythm Tracks for?

All Musicians!   New Musicians;    Experienced Musicians;     Great Musicians; Really, any musician including Pianists, Guitarists, Horn Players, Singers and even Drummers. The tracks can be used for practice, performance and cutting a release. To learn more about their benefit in practice, using the Song Rhythm Tracks app, see the news articles, “When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Would Alive Drumming include this extra rhythm?

If we don’t already include a particular rhythm, we would like to work with a drummer to include it.  This involves making high-quality audio recordings of the drumming at multiple tempos including multiple shots and fills used in turnarounds.   The audio recording will be analysed to identify where the various aspects occur and the preference level of each occurrence.   This is the basis for Alive Drumming to incorporate additional rhythms into their Song Rhythm Tracks.    If you are a drummer and have a rhythm you’d like to be represented please email feedback@alive-drumming.org

What’s Alive Drumming’s policy on privacy?

Alive Drumming takes personal privacy very seriously.  We are committed to proactively protecting the privacy of our customers by not storing any personal information unless it is absolutely required, and should that be the case, it will always be protected by strong encryption.  We will never sell or otherwise disclose any personal, private or confidential information we hold on others.

How can I learn about song form?

Song form is based on the concept that every song has been composed around a musical form or structure.   Popular song often chooses simple forms as a basis for a song but forms can be more complex as well. A good reference on song form (structure) is the Wikipedia article,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_structure

Alive Drumming wants to provide you with the easiest and most reliable methods to describe song form. Song Form may be selected using both (i) traditional names such as ’16-bar Tune’, or (ii) the  ‘stick notation’ equivalent of ‘4|4|4|4’ if that is what you prefer. For full information on Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks mobile app and it’s flexibility in identifying Song Forms see the page, Song Rhythm Tracks

You may describe any Song Form with “user-defined” Song Forms in the mobile app, and for popular tunes, searching for a user-contributed Song Form for that song, again within the mobile app.   There are now tens of thousands of these being shared.

Song Rhythm Tracks

are a new type of backing track composed entirely of rhythmic backing (no melody or harmony) arranged to the musical form of the song — it’s “songform”. These tracks are complete performances like one gets from a professional drummer. They have a count-in, introduction section, choruses and characteristic endings, framed by fills showing where sections start and end. Even musical bridges and middle choruses have higher intensity where appropriate to the style. All this without a typical arranger’s interface thereby keeping it simple. One can select a track in under 30 seconds — under 15 seconds once one gets the hang of it.

The App’s player has tempo adjustment and a facility to sequence the tracks for your gig or jam session. It is for musicians of all abilities. New musicians use the App to provide an accompaniment to songs. They get a rhythm that is sympathetic so they learn to keep time, get into the groove and internalise the song’s musical structure – All this while enjoying engaging and inspiring rhythms. Gigging musicians catalogue their backing into setlists and use it to guide performance. Having quality rhythmic backing, with a setlist facility and a musician’s player, all in the one App is so convenient one finds oneself using this rhythmic backing more and more.

Song Rhythm Tracks are truly high-quality rhythmic backing that is convenient to select and play. You are not going to get tired of these backing tracks. You are not going to have to sequence anything. You will find that the player and setlist’s user-interface encourages continued use. You will get to appreciate the form of your songs more and you might include these tracks into your own single and album releases.

Whether you are learning a new tune, jamming, gigging or cutting your latest album, this Song Rhythm Tracks provides a solution.

Check out samples of the audio at Alive Drumming’s Samples page

Check out these articles from Alive Drumming that give further insights into the thinking behind the product –

“When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Download the Song Rhythm Tracks App on the Apple App Store

Try Alive Drumming’s sampler apps to sample previously arranged tracks of popular tunes. It is then easy to use the app to adjust these to your practice and performance requirements. All the sampler apps are the same Song Rhythm Tracks app but with the included sample tracks.

Jazz and Blues Sampler

Afro-Cuban Sampler

Country Music Sampler

  First Published on http://alive-drumming.org/our-favourite-frequently-asked-questions-f-a-q/

[alive-drumming]

Alive Drumming's favourite Frequently  Asked  Questions  (FAQ)

We have hand-picked some of our favourite  F.A.Q.s about Alive Drumming and Song Rhythm Tracks.

Why do these Song Rhythm Tracks sound so great?

They do, don’t they! And for a number of reasons:

Great Recordings of Great Drummers – Song Rhythm Tracks are arranged from careful studio recordings of excellent drummers.  They are not constructed from midi files fitting together “samples” from single drum hits to form a mechanical style but rather multiple longer-form full recordings by top studio drummers, lasting from up to 8 bars at a time where you hear subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills and more.  The rhythmic style comes from talented drummers that are very experienced in that particular style be it Reggae, Salsa, Bossa, Rumba, Tango, Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Celtic, Praise & Worship, Blues, and lots more!

There is natural variety promoted over the repeats.  That is a number of recordings of, say, a fill or shot are taken and selectively chosen while sequencing and engineering the final audio.  This provides the natural variety one gets with drummers.  It helps prevent the drumming becoming monotonous and repetitive.

The drummer is spelling out many aspects of the song’s form as (s)he plays.  This might have a larger contributor than one might imagine.  It is what real drummers do, but drumming software rarely does.   The drumming is indicating

When you are returning to the ‘top of the form’ again

When your sections are ending and starting again

When you are starting or finishing a bridge section

Whether you are playing a middle chorus or, alternatively, the first or last chorus.   This not only helps you keep place while you are playing but it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable to listen to, or play along with.

All this takes a lot of careful preparation and curation, huge storage, and sophisticated algorithms.   We feel this cannot be achieved on mobile devices themselves which is why our solution involves our cloud servicesworking with the mobile App.

Could you give me some examples of Song Forms?

Song Forms for a number of songs are here

Your drumming audio is dry! Will Alive Drumming, or can I, add reverb?

Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks  are supplied without  reverb (aka “dry”). We are endeavouring to make our iOS app Apple inter-app audio (IAA) compliant.  When it is, you will be able to use other, 3rd party app’s to add reverb to the audio.  See this youtube video for some of them in action.

Is Alive Drumming supporting my country or region?

globe

Alive Drumming aims to cover all regions, countries, languages, and cultures, embracing a wide diversity of rhythms is what we are all about.  If we haven’t adopted yours yet, we almost certainly aim to in the future.  If you want yours to be supported now, why not contact us at marketing@alive-dumming.org

What song forms does Alive Drumming support?

We support all the popular, essential song forms by name – 12 bar blues, 16 bar tunes, 32-bar A1A2 and 32-bar AABA, and about 30 other less common also by name.    The list is increasing!  We also support selecting these same song forms using stick notation instead of names.  This simply specifies section lengths in bars, for example, ‘8|8/8|8’, where ‘bridge‘ sections are preceded by a ‘/’ instead of ‘|’. Additionally, we support users defining their own forms via stick notation, including repeats, and concatenation of up to four (4) parts.  This allows for a truly huge flexibility, enough to describe any song’s form.   See this user guide for more information,  Song Rhythm Tracks.

What rhythms are available for Song Rhythm Tracks?

The app currently supports about 60 different distinct rhythm categories, which includes about 250 distinct rhythms.  Of these, most are available with differing instrumentation such as ‘rim’ shots or, say, wooden blocks, and many at multiple tempos.  In all over 3,700 different rhythm track recordings are available that can be applied to a song form.   The app makes selection of one of these 3,700+ recordings easy by providing filtering on a musical meter (say 4/4 or 3/4 time), and feel (even or straight, 8th or 16th notes). Here is a tiny sample of the styles represented:

Jazz, swing, straight 8th, modern, sophisticated, old-time

American Country styles, including Nashville

American Blues, shuffles, hard shuffles, old-time, slow, fast

Salsa, Samba

Bossa, Jazz Bossa Brushes, Latin Bossa, bongos, percussion

Techno, various forms

Rock, hard rock, heavy

Pop, straight 8th, straight 16th, slow, medium, fast

For a full list of all rhythms and sub-rhythms see the page catalog-rhythmic-styles.

How can I use the Song Rhythm Tracks? What’s my licence?

Alive Drumming grants license to remix its tracks.  That is, you can take the Song Rhythm Tracks audio, mix with your own content, and sell that mix as your own work without paying a fee to Alive Drumming. Alive Drumming prohibits resale or redistribution of its un-mixed, original Song Rhythm Tracks.  You cannot sell or give away these tracks unless you mix them into a new creative piece of work. Alive Drumming appreciates artistic attribution but does not require attribution in your remixed works.  You do not need to attribute Alive Drumming for the rhythm track in your remixed original work but if you wish to please add, “rhythm track supplied by Alive Drumming (c)” and include a reference to this website.

How can I get these Song Rhythm Tracks? Are they available on Amazon or iTunes?

The tracks are available via Apple iOS mobile App and will later be available via an Android mobile app. The huge permutations of song forms and rhythms available means the traditional audio file distribution channels of iTunes and Amazon do not fit this new medium of Song Rhythm Tracks. In particular, Amazon and iTunes do not accommodate the additional assistance that is required for musician’s to select the appropriate track. Alive Drumming has no plans to market these tracks on legacy media such as Audio CDs or DAT tape.

Who is Song Rhythm Tracks for?

All Musicians!   New Musicians;    Experienced Musicians;     Great Musicians; Really, any musician including Pianists, Guitarists, Horn Players, Singers and even Drummers. The tracks can be used for practice, performance and cutting a release. To learn more about their benefit in practice, using the Song Rhythm Tracks app, see the news articles, “When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Would Alive Drumming include this extra rhythm?

If we don’t already include a particular rhythm, we would like to work with a drummer to include it.  This involves making high-quality audio recordings of the drumming at multiple tempos including multiple shots and fills used in turnarounds.   The audio recording will be analysed to identify where the various aspects occur and the preference level of each occurrence.   This is the basis for Alive Drumming to incorporate additional rhythms into their Song Rhythm Tracks.    If you are a drummer and have a rhythm you’d like to be represented please email feedback@alive-drumming.org

What’s Alive Drumming’s policy on privacy?

Alive Drumming takes personal privacy very seriously.  We are committed to proactively protecting the privacy of our customers by not storing any personal information unless it is absolutely required, and should that be the case, it will always be protected by strong encryption.  We will never sell or otherwise disclose any personal, private or confidential information we hold on others.

How can I learn about song form?

Song form is based on the concept that every song has been composed around a musical form or structure.   Popular song often chooses simple forms as a basis for a song but forms can be more complex as well. A good reference on song form (structure) is the Wikipedia article,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_structure

Alive Drumming wants to provide you with the easiest and most reliable methods to describe song form. Song Form may be selected using both (i) traditional names such as ’16-bar Tune’, or (ii) the  ‘stick notation’ equivalent of ‘4|4|4|4’ if that is what you prefer. For full information on Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks mobile app and it’s flexibility in identifying Song Forms see the page, Song Rhythm Tracks

You may describe any Song Form with “user-defined” Song Forms in the mobile app, and for popular tunes, searching for a user-contributed Song Form for that song, again within the mobile app.   There are now tens of thousands of these being shared.

Song Rhythm Tracks

are a new type of backing track composed entirely of rhythmic backing (no melody or harmony) arranged to the musical form of the song — it’s “songform”. These tracks are complete performances like one gets from a professional drummer. They have a count-in, introduction section, choruses and characteristic endings, framed by fills showing where sections start and end. Even musical bridges and middle choruses have higher intensity where appropriate to the style. All this without a typical arranger’s interface thereby keeping it simple. One can select a track in under 30 seconds — under 15 seconds once one gets the hang of it.

The App’s player has tempo adjustment and a facility to sequence the tracks for your gig or jam session. It is for musicians of all abilities. New musicians use the App to provide an accompaniment to songs. They get a rhythm that is sympathetic so they learn to keep time, get into the groove and internalise the song’s musical structure – All this while enjoying engaging and inspiring rhythms. Gigging musicians catalogue their backing into setlists and use it to guide performance. Having quality rhythmic backing, with a setlist facility and a musician’s player, all in the one App is so convenient one finds oneself using this rhythmic backing more and more.

Song Rhythm Tracks are truly high-quality rhythmic backing that is convenient to select and play. You are not going to get tired of these backing tracks. You are not going to have to sequence anything. You will find that the player and setlist’s user-interface encourages continued use. You will get to appreciate the form of your songs more and you might include these tracks into your own single and album releases.

Whether you are learning a new tune, jamming, gigging or cutting your latest album, this Song Rhythm Tracks provides a solution.

Check out samples of the audio at Alive Drumming’s Samples page

Check out these articles from Alive Drumming that give further insights into the thinking behind the product –

“When to work on your rhythm?”

“How to practice, then how to jam”

“Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Download the Song Rhythm Tracks App on the Apple App Store

Try Alive Drumming’s sampler apps to sample previously arranged tracks of popular tunes. It is then easy to use the app to adjust these to your practice and performance requirements. All the sampler apps are the same Song Rhythm Tracks app but with the included sample tracks.

Jazz and Blues Sampler

Afro-Cuban Sampler

Country Music Sampler

[alive-drumming]

Alive Drumming's favourite Frequently  Asked  Questions  (FAQ)

We have hand-picked some of our favourite  F.A.Q.s about Alive Drumming and Song Rhythm Tracks.

Why do these Song Rhythm Tracks sound so great?

They do, don’t they! And for a number of reasons:

Great Recordings of Great Drummers – Song Rhythm Tracks are arranged from careful studio recordings of excellent drummers.  They are not constructed from midi files fitting together “samples” from single drum hits to form a mechanical style but rather multiple longer-form full recordings by top studio drummers, lasting from up to 8 bars at a time where you hear subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills and more.  The rhythmic style comes from talented drummers that are very experienced in that particular style be it Reggae, Salsa, Bossa, Rumba, Tango, Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Celtic, Praise & Worship, Blues, and lots more!

There is natural variety promoted over the repeats.  That is a number of recordings of, say, a fill or shot are taken and selectively chosen while sequencing and engineering the final audio.  This provides the natural variety one gets with drummers.  It helps prevent the drumming becoming monotonous and repetitive.

The drummer is spelling out many aspects of the song’s form as (s)he plays.  This might have a larger contributor than one might imagine.  It is what real drummers do, but drumming software rarely does.   The drumming is indicating

When you are returning to the ‘top of the form’ again

When your sections are ending and starting again

When you are starting or finishing a bridge section

Whether you are playing a middle chorus or, alternatively, the first or last chorus.   This not only helps you keep place while you are playing but it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable to listen to or play along with.

All this takes a lot of careful preparation and curation, huge storage, and sophisticated algorithms.   We feel this cannot be achieved on mobile devices themselves which is why our solution involves our cloud services working with the mobile App.

Could you give me some examples of Song Forms?

Song Forms for a number of songs are here

Your drumming audio is dry! Will Alive Drumming, or can I, add reverb?

Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks  are supplied without reverb (aka “dry”). We are endeavouring to make our iOS app Apple inter-app audio (IAA) compliant.  When it is, you will be able to use other, 3rd party app’s to add reverb to the audio.  See this youtube video for some of them in action.

Is Alive Drumming supporting my country or region?

[caption id="attachment_31246" align="alignleft" width="300"] globe[/caption] Alive Drumming aims to cover all regions, countries, languages, and cultures, embracing a wide diversity of rhythms is what we are all about.  If we haven’t adopted yours yet, we almost certainly aim to in the future.  If you want yours to be supported now, why not contact us at marketing@alive-dumming.org

What song forms does Alive Drumming support?

We support all the popular, essential song forms by name – 12 bar blues, 16 bar tunes, 32-bar A1A2 and 32-bar AABA, and about 30 other less common also by name.    The list is increasing!  We also support selecting these same song forms using stick notation instead of names.  This simply specifies section lengths in bars, for example, ‘8|8/8|8’, where ‘bridge‘ sections are preceded by a ‘/’ instead of ‘|’. Additionally, we support users defining their own forms via stick notation, including repeats, and concatenation of up to four (4) parts.  This allows for a truly huge flexibility, enough to describe any song’s form.   See this user guide for more information,  Song Rhythm Tracks.

What rhythms are available for Song Rhythm Tracks?

The app currently supports about 60 different distinct rhythm categories, which includes about 250 distinct rhythms.  Of these, most are available with differing instrumentation such as ‘rim’ shots or, say, wooden blocks, and many at multiple tempos.  In all over 3,700 different rhythm track recordings are available that can be applied to a song form.   The app makes the selection of one of these 3,700+ recordings easy by providing filtering on a musical meter (say 4/4 or 3/4 time) and feel (even or straight, 8th or 16th notes). Here is a tiny sample of the styles represented:

Jazz, swing, straight 8th, modern, sophisticated, old-time

American Country styles, including Nashville

American Blues, shuffles, hard shuffles, old-time, slow, fast

Salsa, Samba

Bossa, Jazz Bossa Brushes, Latin Bossa, bongos, percussion

Techno, various forms

Rock, hard rock, heavy

Pop, straight 8th, straight 16th, slow, medium, fast

For a full list of all rhythms and sub-rhythms see the page catalog-rhythmic-styles.

How can I use the Song Rhythm Tracks? What’s my licence?

Alive Drumming grants license to remix its tracks.  That is, you can take the Song Rhythm Tracks audio, mix with your own content, and sell that mix as your own work without paying a fee to Alive Drumming. Alive Drumming prohibits resale or redistribution of its un-mixed, original Song Rhythm Tracks.  You cannot sell or give away these tracks unless you mix them into a new creative piece of work. Alive Drumming appreciates artistic attribution but does not require attribution in your remixed works.  You do not need to attribute Alive Drumming for the rhythm track in your remixed original work but if you wish to please add, “rhythm track supplied by Alive Drumming (c)” and include a reference to this website.

How can I get these Song Rhythm Tracks? Are they available on Amazon or iTunes?

The tracks are available via Apple iOS mobile App and will later be available via an Android mobile app. The huge permutations of song forms and rhythms available means the traditional audio file distribution channels of iTunes and Amazon do not fit this new medium of Song Rhythm Tracks. In particular, Amazon and iTunes do not accommodate the additional assistance that is required for musician’s to select the appropriate track. Alive Drumming has no plans to market these tracks on legacy media such as Audio CDs or DAT tape.

Who is Song Rhythm Tracks for?

All Musicians!   New Musicians;    Experienced Musicians;     Great Musicians; Really, any musician including Pianists, Guitarists, Horn Players, Singers and even Drummers. The tracks can be used for practice, performance and cutting a release. To learn more about their benefit in practice, using the Song Rhythm Tracks app, see the news articles, “When to work on your rhythm?” “How to practice, then how to jam” “Why songform with rhythm tracks?”

Would Alive Drumming include this extra rhythm?

If we don’t already include a particular rhythm, we would like to work with a drummer to include it.  This involves making high-quality audio recordings of the drumming at multiple tempos including multiple shots and fills used in turnarounds.   The audio recording will be analysed to identify where the various aspects occur and the preference level of each occurrence.   This is the basis for Alive Drumming to incorporate additional rhythms into their Song Rhythm Tracks.    If you are a drummer and have a rhythm you’d like to be represented please email feedback@alive-drumming.org

What’s Alive Drumming’s policy on privacy?

Alive Drumming takes personal privacy very seriously.  We are committed to proactively protecting the privacy of our customers by not storing any personal information unless it is absolutely required, and should that be the case, it will always be protected by strong encryption.  We will never sell or otherwise disclose any personal, private or confidential information we hold on others.

How can I learn about song form?

Song form is based on the concept that every song has been composed around a musical form or structure.   Popular song often chooses simple forms as a basis for a song but forms can be more complex as well. A good reference on song form (structure) is the Wikipedia article,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_structure Alive Drumming wants to provide you with the easiest and most reliable methods to describe song form. Song Form may be selected using both (i) traditional names such as ’16-bar Tune’, or (ii) the  ‘stick notation’ equivalent of ‘4|4|4|4’ if that is what you prefer. For full information on Alive Drumming’s Song Rhythm Tracks mobile app and it’s flexibility in identifying Song Forms see the page, Song Rhythm Tracks You may describe any Song Form with “user-defined” Song Forms in the mobile app, and for popular tunes, searching for a user-contributed Song Form for that song, again within the mobile app.   There are now tens of thousands of these being shared.

Song Rhythm Tracks

are a new type of backing track composed entirely of rhythmic backing (no melody or harmony) arranged to the musical form of the song — it’s “songform”. These tracks are complete performances like one gets from a professional drummer. They have a count-in, introduction section, choruses and characteristic endings, framed by fills showing where sections start and end. Even musical bridges and middle choruses have higher intensity where appropriate to the style. All this without a typical arranger’s interface thereby keeping it simple. One can select a track in under 30 seconds — under 15 seconds once one gets the hang of it. The App’s player has tempo adjustment and a facility to sequence the tracks for your gig or jam session. It is for musicians of all abilities. New musicians use the App to provide an accompaniment to songs. They get a rhythm that is sympathetic so they learn to keep time, get into the groove and internalise the song’s musical structure – All this while enjoying engaging and inspiring rhythms. Gigging musicians catalogue their backing into setlists and use it to guide performance. Having quality rhythmic backing, with a setlist facility and a musician’s player, all in the one App is so convenient one finds oneself using this rhythmic backing more and more. Song Rhythm Tracks are truly high-quality rhythmic backing that is convenient to select and play. You are not going to get tired of these backing tracks. You are not going to have to sequence anything. You will find that the player and setlist’s user-interface encourages continued use. You will get to appreciate the form of your songs more and you might include these tracks into your own single and album releases. Whether you are learning a new tune, jamming, gigging or cutting your latest album, this Song Rhythm Tracks provides a solution. Check out samples of the audio at Alive Drumming’s Samples page Check out these articles from Alive Drumming that give further insights into the thinking behind the product – “When to work on your rhythm?” “How to practice, then how to jam” “Why songform with rhythm tracks?” Download the Song Rhythm Tracks App on the Apple App Store Try Alive Drumming’s sampler apps to sample previously arranged tracks of popular tunes. It is then easy to use the app to adjust these to your practice and performance requirements. All the sampler apps are the same Song Rhythm Tracks app but with the included sample tracks.

Jazz and Blues Sampler

Afro-Cuban Sampler

Country Music Sampler