Info about the songs of Notey and Noisy
I will complete this page asap!
Notey and Noisy is performed by Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan using beatboxing, guitar, mbira, trombone, slide trumpet, violin and melodica, all run though a little mixer and two loopers, a Boomerang III phrase sampler and an Akai Headhush, such that any combination of the voices and/or instruments can be looped. It's all done live in the show, i.e. nothing is pre-recorded.
Welcome / Perfectly Wrong
As described in the script, it's a 60 beat loop (on the Boomerang) based on whistled layers that divide the 60 into 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s, ascending a whole tone scale. I thought this geometricality made a nice, and kind of ironic, backdrop to lyrics of Perfectly Wrong. Whole Tone scale, for me, has a questioning vibe, as does the polyrhythm allowed by the 60 beat cycle. The first groove I beatbox against it is a 10 pulse* hip hop, only lightly swung, so it immediately mildly messes with the 60. Then I put a farty-lip bassline against that, which is quite African/tripletty, until I then put a 15 pulse pumping disco groove against it, essentially a 16 pulse funk groove with the end chopped off (4,4,4,3). It's actually a reworking of a groove (in 16 and not whole-tone) that I wrote which became the song "Wah Wah" for 90's Melbourne funk band, Yoyo,
I like Notes / I Like Noise
This song began as an instrumental called Plod, written for the soundtrack of Frank Woodley's 2012 TV show, Woodley. I do enjoy going from a 2 major chord to the 4 minor chord, which I first played with in my song Larry, in which the 1 is major, but in this case the 1 is minor, which is another world. Yes, the brushes beatbox loop (on the Headrush) that Houseband offers in Welcome (chat) gets used in the I Like Noise part.
Oscillators and Resonators
This loop is based around the falsetto part, where I'm cupping the mic such that there just a little hole that I'm bouncing against my mouth. The first beatbox part over it feature tongue buzz and a little sideways yodeling and the second part is all mouth clicks that mean you can hum through your nose while you doing them. I like how different the two beats end up being.
Resonance and Dampening
A bit of classical fun, with lots of wandering inversions, Neapolitan 6ths and the like. I like that it starts in C and ends in F, but has scant regard for either key throughout. And yet is still hopefully tuneful and unperturbing for the untrained listener.
Harmonics
This is based around what I originally called The Triangle, which, as the preamble mentions, I add 4, 5 and 6 pulse grooves to, allowing it to become a song. The Triangle is harmonically tuned (as accurate as my voice can be), so the equal temperament-ness of the guitar fights with it a little, but not enough to bother me. Someone who saw the show recently was baffled by how I was "changing the tempo on the loop" and when I explained that it's just different grooves over the same loop, it broke his brain a little!
ET
For this song, as explained in the preamble, I tune the high E string of my guitar down 14 cents to be the Just intonation major 3rd of C, and I use that string for the major 3rd of as many chords as possible, i.e. C, C#, D, Eb, E and F. For the remaining 6 chords, I avoid that string. The entire song is all 12 major in the sequence C E F A D F# G B Bb Eb Ab Db, as well as taking them around the cycle of 4ths, and only once, in the "Some soul singers sing really sharp..." section, around the cycle of 5ths. In its 12 rhythm, there's a riff we play that goes up the rhythm of the white notes and down the rhythm of the black notes. With the repeat of this riff at the end starting on the D and finishing on the C, it means that we stay true to the promise of featuring all 12 major chords equally (if you count the notes of the riff as representing the chords!) Oh, and keep an ear out for Ky spelling out the concepts in the lyrics with what she's playing on violin... clever!
Difference Tone
Difference tones can be tricky to discern, depending on the acoustic situation: We do our best to make it clear in performances: Ky mics the end of the melodica and I play the harmonica covered with my hands and with the mic pressed against my chin, as the two frequencies (voice and harmonica) resonating inside my mouth makes the difference tone into an actual sound wave of its own, rather than it just being produced in your ear canal. In the recording, I've brought them out even more with very specific EQ. The two hum/harmonica riffs and main beatbox loop are recorded on the Boomerang, synced to a short lo-fi beatbox loop that I delete in the middle of the second verse, to unsync the other 3 channels, and I use it later for the BVs at the end. As well as a fairly clean main beatbox groove, I also use a back-of-the-throat crunchy beatbox to add some more low-end, giving the groove a bit more to sit on. I use lip buzz an octave below what I'm singing, and later tongue buzz, to fatten up the melodic tutti bass riff. The solo at the end is also singing with lip buzz an octave below, but much higher: I'm not sure what instrument this might end up sounding like, but I like it!
I Like Nought
The melody of this song is a little high for Noughty's voice, so she sings a harmony while the guitar plays the melody. It makes it a nice contrast to the Notey and Noisy versions.
Nothing
I'm rather proud of this song, in that nearly every line can be read at least two ways, for example the line "Where next to nothing's so at one" could also be heard as "We're next to nothing, so at once" or "Wear next to nothing...". He he! And while Ky was finding the voice for Noughty she tried this song in Cockney and when the line "The only thing to silence this is death" sounded a bit like "The only fing to silence this is deaf!", we were sold!
*By "10 pulse", I mean the cycle of 60 beats/subdivisions is divided into 10, therefore there are 6 beats/subdivisions between each pulse. Yes, the word "beat" can mean too many things: It can mean the pulse (what you'd tap your foot to, as in "downbeat" or "backbeat") or the subdivisions (the little beats or subdivisions inbetween, as in "offbeats" or "upbeat") or the whole groove (as in "a latin beat" or "a disco beat"). And actors even use the word "beat" to mean a little pause! So in music, do have to be a little careful using the word "beat", as it can certainly get confusing!
I will complete this page asap!
Notey and Noisy is performed by Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan using beatboxing, guitar, mbira, trombone, slide trumpet, violin and melodica, all run though a little mixer and two loopers, a Boomerang III phrase sampler and an Akai Headhush, such that any combination of the voices and/or instruments can be looped. It's all done live in the show, i.e. nothing is pre-recorded.
Welcome / Perfectly Wrong
As described in the script, it's a 60 beat loop (on the Boomerang) based on whistled layers that divide the 60 into 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s, ascending a whole tone scale. I thought this geometricality made a nice, and kind of ironic, backdrop to lyrics of Perfectly Wrong. Whole Tone scale, for me, has a questioning vibe, as does the polyrhythm allowed by the 60 beat cycle. The first groove I beatbox against it is a 10 pulse* hip hop, only lightly swung, so it immediately mildly messes with the 60. Then I put a farty-lip bassline against that, which is quite African/tripletty, until I then put a 15 pulse pumping disco groove against it, essentially a 16 pulse funk groove with the end chopped off (4,4,4,3). It's actually a reworking of a groove (in 16 and not whole-tone) that I wrote which became the song "Wah Wah" for 90's Melbourne funk band, Yoyo,
I like Notes / I Like Noise
This song began as an instrumental called Plod, written for the soundtrack of Frank Woodley's 2012 TV show, Woodley. I do enjoy going from a 2 major chord to the 4 minor chord, which I first played with in my song Larry, in which the 1 is major, but in this case the 1 is minor, which is another world. Yes, the brushes beatbox loop (on the Headrush) that Houseband offers in Welcome (chat) gets used in the I Like Noise part.
Oscillators and Resonators
This loop is based around the falsetto part, where I'm cupping the mic such that there just a little hole that I'm bouncing against my mouth. The first beatbox part over it feature tongue buzz and a little sideways yodeling and the second part is all mouth clicks that mean you can hum through your nose while you doing them. I like how different the two beats end up being.
Resonance and Dampening
A bit of classical fun, with lots of wandering inversions, Neapolitan 6ths and the like. I like that it starts in C and ends in F, but has scant regard for either key throughout. And yet is still hopefully tuneful and unperturbing for the untrained listener.
Harmonics
This is based around what I originally called The Triangle, which, as the preamble mentions, I add 4, 5 and 6 pulse grooves to, allowing it to become a song. The Triangle is harmonically tuned (as accurate as my voice can be), so the equal temperament-ness of the guitar fights with it a little, but not enough to bother me. Someone who saw the show recently was baffled by how I was "changing the tempo on the loop" and when I explained that it's just different grooves over the same loop, it broke his brain a little!
ET
For this song, as explained in the preamble, I tune the high E string of my guitar down 14 cents to be the Just intonation major 3rd of C, and I use that string for the major 3rd of as many chords as possible, i.e. C, C#, D, Eb, E and F. For the remaining 6 chords, I avoid that string. The entire song is all 12 major in the sequence C E F A D F# G B Bb Eb Ab Db, as well as taking them around the cycle of 4ths, and only once, in the "Some soul singers sing really sharp..." section, around the cycle of 5ths. In its 12 rhythm, there's a riff we play that goes up the rhythm of the white notes and down the rhythm of the black notes. With the repeat of this riff at the end starting on the D and finishing on the C, it means that we stay true to the promise of featuring all 12 major chords equally (if you count the notes of the riff as representing the chords!) Oh, and keep an ear out for Ky spelling out the concepts in the lyrics with what she's playing on violin... clever!
Difference Tone
Difference tones can be tricky to discern, depending on the acoustic situation: We do our best to make it clear in performances: Ky mics the end of the melodica and I play the harmonica covered with my hands and with the mic pressed against my chin, as the two frequencies (voice and harmonica) resonating inside my mouth makes the difference tone into an actual sound wave of its own, rather than it just being produced in your ear canal. In the recording, I've brought them out even more with very specific EQ. The two hum/harmonica riffs and main beatbox loop are recorded on the Boomerang, synced to a short lo-fi beatbox loop that I delete in the middle of the second verse, to unsync the other 3 channels, and I use it later for the BVs at the end. As well as a fairly clean main beatbox groove, I also use a back-of-the-throat crunchy beatbox to add some more low-end, giving the groove a bit more to sit on. I use lip buzz an octave below what I'm singing, and later tongue buzz, to fatten up the melodic tutti bass riff. The solo at the end is also singing with lip buzz an octave below, but much higher: I'm not sure what instrument this might end up sounding like, but I like it!
I Like Nought
The melody of this song is a little high for Noughty's voice, so she sings a harmony while the guitar plays the melody. It makes it a nice contrast to the Notey and Noisy versions.
Nothing
I'm rather proud of this song, in that nearly every line can be read at least two ways, for example the line "Where next to nothing's so at one" could also be heard as "We're next to nothing, so at once" or "Wear next to nothing...". He he! And while Ky was finding the voice for Noughty she tried this song in Cockney and when the line "The only thing to silence this is death" sounded a bit like "The only fing to silence this is deaf!", we were sold!
*By "10 pulse", I mean the cycle of 60 beats/subdivisions is divided into 10, therefore there are 6 beats/subdivisions between each pulse. Yes, the word "beat" can mean too many things: It can mean the pulse (what you'd tap your foot to, as in "downbeat" or "backbeat") or the subdivisions (the little beats or subdivisions inbetween, as in "offbeats" or "upbeat") or the whole groove (as in "a latin beat" or "a disco beat"). And actors even use the word "beat" to mean a little pause! So in music, do have to be a little careful using the word "beat", as it can certainly get confusing!