Amado Ohland

Remember the dryads and naiads? In ancient Greek mythology, these are some of the names used for the spirits that they believed lived in and protected the trees and the small streams, respectively. I was given a challenge today: to sing a song that could serve as a theme song to a horror movie. Not my strong suit. But I do like Monsters [https://soundcloud.com/amadoohland/monsters]. So I wondered:...

This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 61: Sing for spring!” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org . Yesterday's song was about a side-effect of Spring. But today's... I thought about what Spring is. We tend to think it's when the natural world comes back to life, but it was never really dead. But it SHOWS its life, it leaps back into a more active state. And more hopefu...

Oooh, I hope I don't have to describe what this song is about. It's Spring.

Strange, today. I know that too much of my recent stuff is a bit on the maudlin side. So although I'm still feeling a bit tired, I needed to go the other direction. I haven't done a brisk walking swing in a while, so, it just started happening. Was I convinced? Was I committed? Was I convincing? Does it make you happy? Does it make ME happy? Who knows? Who should I ask?

y'ever get that feeling? You know you've been calling upon your emotional reserves, and been "strong"; now the immediate crisis is passed, and you know there must be something to process, something to get out of your system. But you can't quite seem to remember how to get at it, how to get it out. No? Just me? Ah well.

This track is a reply to “prompt 60: as loud as joy, as quiet as prayer.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org. You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing

53bpm, 3 measures to the loop, and an atypical (for me) mode. Not perfect--never perfect--but I keep stretching.

There's something I'm finally doing, and I'm finally on the cusp of being able to tell you what it is. Just a couple more people to talk to first. But to those of you who've gotten the preview: it's happening, it's official, it's real. FINALLY. It's only been 19 years...

So, first I made my loops for today's Daily Song Project song. My normal process, actually backsliding to a way of building arrangements that I've recently started exploring beyond, but today I felt the need for a simpler vibe and a more joyous and motif-centered song. Then, ready to do my normal thing with it, I remembered this week's Prompt. So before I let this song teach me what it had to say...

The challenge today was to find a core musical idea from a particular contrivance: turn the natural rhythm of a headline or phrase into the rhythm of a motif or theme, and build from there. So why, oh why, did I cram my thing into a 5/4 meter?!?

What condition? The human condition. A good case of it. A terminal case of it. They give me about 35-40 years to live.

when your voice is as messed up as mine is right now, you take advantage of what strengths that confers, and sing around the limitations. Hopefully. You tell me.

Ugh, it happened again. At the beginning of December, I got sick, and other things happened, and before I knew it the whole month was gone. Then I got sick just at the start of this month, February. Hopefully I can get back on course.

I asked for an idea, and someone said "cabinets. For spices." Well, I've never sang for furniture before (maybe a chair), and neither for food (that I can recall). So, Challenge Accepted. Something chill felt appropriate. The bass is a bit of a stretch performance for me, very busy and a really wide range. It forced the really high Motor part. But first, after that bass, was the motif/melody idea....

Came at this from the opposite direction. Meaning, yesterday (in addition to responding to Prompts and things going on around me) I built the piece from the Context, up. Yesterday I made Motif and Melody last, and tried to make three of 'em. Don't think I made it. But today I think I did: I started with melodic lines, and I think I introduce them here in the order I came up with them. It was real...

Isolated. Stuck behind feet of accumulated, frozen precipitation. No warmth of human contact. For so long. When your loneliness is this deep, this entrenched, how do you get back to a place where you can get out, or let somebody in? You dig out. One shovelful at a time. This track is a reply to “Prompt 52: Winter Comes Full-Cycle.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org...

When you hear something interesting early on, you've got to follow it. If it leads you to a place that has ...awkwardnesses... you've got to adjust. There's one in every crowd.

My reach keeps exceeding my grasp. I keep extending my grasp, but my reach keeps pace. It's one of the best problems to have.

It's so late!

Ah, Dr. Vaughan, you were making the pun, but did you know that the word font comes from the Middle French fonte "[something that has been] melted; a casting" ? The pun put me in mind of the question: even when we find a source of knowledge, how do we know what we know? Context can change the meaning of things. So while I tried to channel the mood of an oracle in this piece, I also sought a way to...

YOU know. What doesn't kill me, yadda potadda.

Now, it may actually sound kind of serious. But I got serious about playing around, and something about that extra beat every measure felt purty durn playful to me.

This says it best... http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/26077100.jpg

I don't think I have a "block." I sing, I border on being compulsive about it. No, I have "demons," I think. And every time I sing a daily song, every time I lead a circlesong, I'm screaming down the demons. "La la la, I can't hear you, you don't exist." Oh but they do. And I haven't been listening to them. Today, I did. And this is what they're saying. The fuckers.

very limited time today. so that was the challenge. what do (did) I have to do to go from zero-to-song in 33 minutes? Keep it simple, stick to formula, don't second-guess the parts that come to you... but use everything you've learned, and try to do the simple things with as much accuracy, energy, and musicianship as you've got. Here's that.