Hello again everyone! In this week’s video I focus again on my song “Colored Balloon”; this is the second episode of the “Colored Balloon” series. More specifically, I go over the song’s organization and lyrics. The structuring of the song and the inspiration for the lyrics are here in focus. At the end of this video, I feature a full acoustic performance of “Colored Balloon,” which is meant to serve as a checkpoint along the way; it signals the completion of the songwriting process and the beginning of the recording process. Accordingly, then, my focus in the next video will focus on the latter. I did not intend for this video to be so long, but it is. Hopefully you enjoy and can take away something worthwhile from this video!
Tag: guitar
Laying Down the Sound: Colored Balloon – Episode 1
Hello everyone! I’m Dominic Manzo, a self-taught guitarist and musician. The video above is the first installment in my series titled “Laying Down the Sound.” In it, I introduce my intention behind the series. Namely, my goal is to illuminate the creative process behind my original songs; I’ll begin with each song’s starting point — a riff or chord progression — and work my way to its completion. The video serves also as the first episode of this series focused on my song “Colored Balloon,” which can be found on my YouTube channel (Mr.TheDom) and under my full name on Bandcamp. In this video, I touch on the development of the song’s fundamental chord progressions and vocal melodies. With “Laying Down the Sound,” I look forward to sharing my musical process with the viewer, and I have a feeling that I will come to better understand it myself. My hope is that my experience with writing and recording can be in some way beneficial to others who create or desire to create music. Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy!
Songwriting Resources
Hello, all! This week I figured I would share a few of my favorite websites/resources that have helped me with my music throughout my own artistic journey. Hopefully they’ll be able to inspire/instruct a few people just as they inspired and instructed me.
The big one: Ultimate Guitar. This is the place I find the majority of my chord sheets for different songs I cover. Users are able to upload and edit chords and tabs, and each sheet is able to be rated by other users so you can see what kind of quality the particular version is.
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
Chordify is another cool site. It takes youtube videos and mp3 files and turns the audio into chords on the spot. It’s not always 100% accurate or reliable, but it’s definitely a cool idea, and I’d say it’s worth checking out.
https://chordify.net/
For anyone who does any Christian religious music, SongSelect is my website of choice. This is a database of worship songs and other religious material which works great for printing out materials for church bands/worship nights/etc.
https://songselect.ccli.com/
Musescore is a great resource but you do have to have an account to gain access to its full features. This is a database of PDFs and sheet music available to purchase or download. It also allows you to create your own sheet music. I don’t have a lot of experience with this particular resource, but I have friends who swear by it.
https://musescore.org/en
If you write music note by note on a staff, Noteflight is the place for you. I’ve used it mostly for arranging for a cappella ensembles in the past, but I know people who arrange/write for choirs, piano, orchestras, bands, etc. on this site. It’s easy to use for the most part, and really allows for you to create whatever you can possibly think up: an A+ resource in my opinion.
https://www.noteflight.com/
OTHER TOOLS:
If you need an online guitar tuner, Fender has your back! I often forget my tuner when I bring one of my guitars somewhere, and this online tool has really helped me.
https://www.fender.com/online-guitar-tuner
The Ultimate Guitar mobile app also has a built in chromatic tuner, brain tuner, metronome, chord library, chord progression database, and much more. Honestly just download it right now. I use it almost every day.
RhymeZone is another big one for me. When I’m writing lyrics I often find myself stuck in a situation where I have one super strong line and nothing to pair it with. RhymeZone allows you to search for perfect rhymes, near rhymes, synonyms, descriptive phrases, and much more, It also displays single word results and entire phrases that may match your rhyme scheme as well.
https://www.rhymezone.com/
Australians Do It Better: Introducing Sam Lawrence
Over the years, Australia has given us a host of legendary bands from the Bee Gees to AC/DC. More recently, they’ve produced such gems as Miami Horror, Kimbra, and Tame Impala. Amongst these new-age musical talents is Melbourne native, Sam Lawrence. He’s been a figure in the Melbourne music scene for years and has forged collaborations with both Kimbra and Miami Horror as well as with a host of other local artists. Now Lawrence is preparing to drop an album called ‘Rheo- I Flow Away’ and has been putting out live performance videos of some of the songs from the album on YouTube.
Lawrence is an incredibly talented musician accomplished at guitar, piano, and vocals in a way that many musicians can only aspire to be. This innate musicality has lent itself well to his songwriting and makes for a style that is at once complex and intuitive. Though some of his songs may initially feel inaccessible to untrained ears, as a musician, I have developed a strong appreciation for Lawrence’s songs and am writing this article to share my love for his unique musical style with all of you.
Instrumentally, his choices are unprecedented. He uses a wide variety of chord voicings that are much more difficult to process than the average major or minor chord, forcing his audience to listen closer to what he’s doing. His unexpected chord progressions never allow listeners to let their guard down as he weaves strange vocal melodies around chords whose complexity makes them challenging to accommodate vocally. This tactic gives his songs a certain ambience and otherworldliness. His voice evokes a combination of Kevin Parker’s dreamy falsetto and Townes Van Zandt’s soulful, folk style. He is clearly a highly capable vocalist and casually displays this through his fluctuating melodies, never resting on any one note for too long and constantly searching for the next one in its key to transform what could be a straightforward vocal lick into a strange, modulating labyrinth of notes.
His instrumental mastery rivals his vocal prowess, though the two go hand in hand in the live videos of his recent songs. Initially recognized for his skill as a pianist through songs like Kimbra’s ‘Wandering Limbs’ in which he’s featured, Lawrence surprises listeners by playing acoustic guitar in his new songs. The decision to do so lends an earthy quality to the songs that would be difficult to accomplish with a piano or keyboard and is a wise choice for songs that are meant to be quasi-celebratory hymns. Not surprisingly, he is also an insanely talented guitarist. His knowledge of piano theory and chord formations help him to make unconventional yet informed choices on the guitar that add incredible emotion and depth to his music. Having this dual-instrumentality is a distinct advantage when creating music that both surprises and intrigues listeners, and that’s precisely the effect of his recently released songs.
Below is my personal favorite of his new songs and an excellent example of all the qualities I’ve discussed. Though his music is complex and at times unorthodox, I think it can touch the hearts of a lot of people. You don’t have to be a musician to appreciate Lawrence’s songs, but I hope this analysis helps you to form a better understanding of his general stylistic choices. Check out more of his music by following the link to his YouTube channel below and prepare to cry tears of every emotion on the spectrum.
Sam Lawrence YouTube channel
