Here’s one I hammered out last night. I like alot about this song. For now, I’m calling it Falling Down:

falling_down.mp3

Here are the lyrics as of now:

I know what you’re talking about
No need to explain what it’s all about
I know where you’re coming from
And it’s ok

I know what you’re talking about
No need to explain what it’s all about
I know where you’re coming from
And it’s ok

For those following it, there are new practice recordings and pictures up on scribblinmusic.com. Mark works at Photo WORLD-WOrld-World-world…. and develops color photos, this time to the benefit of Scribblin’.

Blackcat FMOS (Featuring Members of Scribblin’), has changed names. In a gesture of good will, the Members of Scribblin’ have accepted me into their tribe as one of their own. We’ve dropped the Blackcat name, and rather than be called “Featuring Members of Scribblin'”, we’re playing under the abreviated name:

Scribblin’

As with any band starting up these days, the first thing to do is register a domain name, even before learning any songs. In an effort to “go international”, we’ll be starting up scribblinmusic.com and posting some pictures, biographies, music, and contact info.

Stay tuned for more from Scribblin’!

When I sold my Hammond Organ, I kept my Leslie 145 speaker cabinet. And part of the payment for the organ was a Leslie Combo Pre Amp.

This will allow me to play my midi keyboard/computer through the Leslie 145. It will also allow me to change speeds on the leslie with a foot switch. I’ve got some good virtual tonewheel organ instruments on my laptop, so I’m interested to hear how it sounds through the Leslie speaker.

I’ve got a 6-pin leslie cable coming from California, that I won on an ebay auction. Once that gets here, I’ll be able to test it out, and I’ll let you know how it sounds.

Well, I finally did it.

The Fender Rhodes and Hammond Organ which I bought separately years ago have moved on. I was lucky that a wonderful studio-session piano player from Nashville bought them. They will be used well.

These instruments were needing repairs and I was unable to invest the time and money needed to keep them in order. I also rarely afforded myself the opportunity to play on them, so they were gathering dust.

Here’s a picture of them a few days before they moved away.

Some day I may own vintage keyboards like these, but I choose not to take the time to care for them at this point in my life. I most definately have better things to do <cough , kids, cough>!

This weekend, my oldest daughter and I went to a Guitar Center in Raleigh and checked out the M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 they had on display. I wanted to try it before spending over $500USD on it, and boy am I glad I did!

This keyboard’s action is horrible. I sat down at the thing and started to play something in C major. So far so good. All the keys felt good and the hammer-action weight was nice. Then I switched to an F# key and was caught by surprise. The white keys felt fine, but the black keys were unacceptible. The black keys on every piano, vintage electric piano, organ, and midi controller that I’ve played NEVER depress to where the top of the black key is level with the white keys!

However, the top of the black keys on the M-Audio were level with the white keys when they were depresses. This was a deal killer. It was so very different from what I was used to that I couldn’t force myself to buy the thing. I play guitar and bass too and wanted to describe what this felt like for guitar and bass players. The closest thing I could think of was that it felt like when pushing down a string on a guitar, you were always directly above a fret. It felt unbalanced and out-of-place, clumsy and inarticulate…much like me trying to describe this feeling!

If there are any piano players out there, who grew up playing your mom’s “real” piano, I think you would be very dissatisfied with the M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

I’ve been looking for an additional midi keyboard controller. Initially, I wanted to get the M-Audio Keystation 88 Pro but found many poor reviews on this keyboard. After searching around, I came across some keyboards that look very promising:

CME UF8
Studiologic VMK-188

The CME UF8 and VMK-188 have monophonic aftertouch, yet the M-Audio Keystation has no aftertouch.

Aftertouch is a feature, which I’m just now learning about, which allows the player to push on the keys after striking and holding them down to manipulate the sound. Here are some good definitions of aftertouch:

Google Definitions of Aftertouch

I’ll let you know which, if either of these, I choose to get.

I’ve been lucky enough to have some time to play with the members of Scribblin’. It’s a real pleasure. These guys rock. I’ll be putting up a bio page on my site once I get a photo of us. We’re presently practicing under the name Blackcat FMOS (Featuring Members of Scribblin’).

For now, I’ve posted some recordings from a practice. Most of it is just incomplete ideas that we may come back to and finish off as complete songs.

The tracks are listed down the right side of the page under Blackcat FMOS.

Enjoy!

I just moved two more songs I’m working on over to joehungry. They are Soft Speak and Without You. Again, these are works in progress. I’m hoping to get my buddy Paul Coleman to lay down some drum beats to them. I think it would sound much better than the drum loops I’m using now.

hey y’all. been messing around on the piano and posted some of my creative sessions under Sharks Like Tea, where I just have fun and try to come up with inspiring stuff. now i’m sharing it with you.