Years ago we had toyed around with creating a Youtube channel though the idea of using this channel by itself seemed lacking and the effort (other than a few test videos) really did not go anywhere (and was left abandoned and rather hidden). The example video shown above is from 2011, and the music is from years prior. Creating videos is new to us, though the idea of creating original compositions (with guitar and/or piano) has been an ongoing interest decades in the making. The idea of taking this interest to the point of also creating songs with lyrics, well that has been a bit more challenging.
Years prior to trying out Youtube, when we first tried to cover this topic of music online, our options were rather limited. At that time learning how to create webpages seemed our only avenue. The site did include an ancient attempt at writing about "sound and vibrations" (which includes squiggly lines from when creating animated GIFs was also new for me; one visitor questioning why once clicked they did not make a sound! I guess my writing, and presentation, needs some work for refining). (Some of this content, relating to Sound and Vibrations, can now be found found here.)
Also shown on the site were some instructional sheets (as PDFs) we had created as handouts for using during our instructional guitar sessions with various youth at our church. (As had happened with the video channel, the website too was eventually abandoned.) (Some of these PDF documents can now be found found here.)
In addition to videos and webpages at times we may also post audio files though not sure yet what the best way is for sharing these. Due to limitations with what can be done within this blog site, and limitations for what works on a Youtube channel, the storing of actual audio files seems not an option. The samples below (with HTML5 coding being used for their player controls) link to files stored elsewhere and may not work for some browsers/. For now though, if they do work for you, hopefully they too can serve as examples towards describing our overall intent for this blog site.
The test audio shown above links to an original composition (guitar) and I do not recall what this actually is for playing. I found it mixed in with years worth of old files. And per notes it seems at the time I must have been trying to incorporate a half diminished seven chord into a key of E chord progression. Often new compositions are created solely for incorporating new chords and voicing of chords I am trying to learn.
At times too we will try to provide documents, such as for showing song sheets, for some of our posts. Not sure yet what the best way of doing this is either. Initially some may be as PDF pages, and others may be as shared cloud documents.
Songsheet: Just A Closer Walk With Thee (pdf)
A favorite hymn of mine is "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" and the audio (above) is with guitar and voices. For thoughts on music structure, this song too is an example (along with many others) of how intriguing it is to see diminished chords being used in SATB hymn arrangements. As the four vocal parts move around, with the alto part, or the tenor, or the bass, moving to some unusual notes sometimes they create seemingly unusual chords. Also of interest to me with this song is how chromatic notes are found within the melody itself - three notes going up using half steps, then different haft steps used for descending notes (with one transitional chord being a diminished).
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Hopefully for this blog site with all of these avenues - for including video, for links to external sites, for including audio samples, and for showing documents - maybe we can now revisit this ongoing effort and desire to share thoughts on the broad topic of music.
Thanks for your visit, and please understand and tolerate the unpolished and unrefined nature of our initial offerings... Enjoy....
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