Music

Growing up, I learned how to play the Piano and Trumpet. I didn’t go too far with either.

Here are some of the instruments that I have (or had)

Harmonica
Slide Whistles
Irish Tin Whistle / Penny Whistle – C & D
Bamboo Flute
Peruvian Face Flute
17 Key Kalimba Thumb Piano
Coconut Kalimba from Bahamas (7 tines)
Carry-on 88 Key Folding Piano (donated to Friends of Samuels Library)
Roland FP-30X Digital Piano
Electric Piano Soldering Kit
Teenage Engineering OP-1 Synthesizer
Plans for a Senior Organ Grinder
Ukulele

Guitar

As an adult, I purchased my first an acoustic guitar when I was catching chickens, but didn’t practice with it much other than strumming the strings occasionally. I wanted to learn how to play tabs from Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness music book.

At one time, Guitar Hero became really big on gaming consoles. I refused to try it, as it didn’t look at all like learning how to play a guitar. Instead, it was a few buttons on a controller in the shape of guitar. After awhile, software became available called “Little Big Star” that could recognize notes being played on a guitar hooked up to your computer via USB. I purchased an electric guitar and a USB adapter and started learning. I learned quicker, but as always, came into problems with my wrists being in pain, and often had problems once I started learning chords. Eventually Rock Smith came out, which was a production quality version of the software that eventually made it onto gaming consoles. Rock Smith was problematic with DRM. Eventually it became available on the PC, but I had to buy the same songs again. As I upgraded to newer gaming consoles, I had to purchase the same songs, yet again.

Loops

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, looping became pretty popular where you could use looping sounds to create songs. I used Sonic Foundry ACID Loops along with many loops that I purchased to make a few songs. Eventually Sony purchased the software. Back then, people didn’t believe it was “real” music to take recordings and put them together. However, you often heard loops at raves and other events as DJ’s added in sounds on the fly.

Autotune

Around 2009, autotune became pretty popular and controversial. Every musician was breaking out using AutoTune to make up for the inability to sing. I experimented a little bit with various apps. After I turned in my resignation at Computer Sciences Corporation, I created a little song using “Songify”. I simply spoke a few phrases that the developers were all too familiar with, and the Mobile App turned it into a song titled “How did we miss this?”.

Another auto-tune app was Microsoft Songify. It plays a metronome sound as you sing. Afterwards, it added background music and removed the metronome ticks. I didn’t experiment much with it. I just sang about the software itself. Afterwards, I created a video with many screenshots from Second Life where I was known as “Dedric Mauriac”.

OP-1

In 2022 I discovered the OP-1 – a quirky hybrid instrument that combines a synthesizer with a virtual tape deck and gives you fine-grained control over sound. I’ve recorded a few short tracks with it and uploaded them to SoundCloud, but I mostly use it to experiment and decompress. The instrument has become a creative outlet for stress relief as much as for making music.

AI Music

Eventually AI music was all the craze, and I decided to experiment with it. Eventually I learned how to publish the music via a distributor and released a concept album “re: Cubicle 13” under the artist name of The Bard of Bizarre. I made a music video for the first song on the album as well.