Author: randylinguitar

Jazz and adult contemporary guitarist, vocalists, and composer. Writer of Taipei Midnight Bossa, Tokyo Love, Noriko at The Piano, and many other songs. Former keyboardist for the Shieh Yu Wei Band. Featured on the Taiwan Compilation Album "All about Men" which won the Golden Melody Award.

Noriko At The Piano

I have been planning to release some important songs that I had written back from 1991 onward, and I felt this one really had to be first. I wrote it in about 30 minutes on a piano alone, one day before I left Japan for the US in spring of 1992.

The song is built around 4ths and 6ths in the right hand, something I got from listening to Bruce Hornsby back in the 80s. That sort of chording has stuck with me all these years, even now. The two hands start apart, then meet for a brief time at the same chord, then move on. In that respect, it might be a tone poem of sorts.

So the two hands meet briefly, then move on. There is a happier part on the F chord, which makes up the bridge, and it signifies the time of meeting. The harmony is very empty, but in that emptiness, one can sense a person. The angel voices I added to bring the whole thing up a plane, but the song plays just fine solo. I have played it live many times without the other parts.

When I got back to the States, I kept the song for the longest time. I didn’t feel it should ever be commercialized because it was so special to me. Then, I pitched it to a TV show, but it never got accepted. Finally, it made its way to Taiwan with me, where it got played  in my shows and demos.

What’s the future of this song? I would hope that maybe it gets aired on a TV show or two. I think it fits certain types of scenes. I believe this song will find its place. It didn’t die all these years, and I think that’s testimony to the melodic strength of it.

Hope to have the sheet music out for all of you piano players soon.^^

 

Randy’s Ten Commandments of Recording

1. Fat in/ fat out, thin in/thin out – use a good preamp. There is no way to fix a weak signal later. All preamp, EQ, and compression is going in, not later.

2. Put each instrument you record in it’s own EQ range going in via high pass and low pass filter

3. compress what’s weak, limit what’s over, again, going in not later

4. record in mono, use stereo reverb later for width. An exception may be piano and drums, but not always.

5. record dry, reverb on monitor only. add reverb later

6. mix in mono, then pan to stereo, placing instruments according to an imaginary clock, ie bass at 11:00, acoustic guitar at 2:00, and so on.

7. use the same stereo reverb on all tracks via aux in, stereo out

8. Never use headphones for final reverb level. Do this on monitors or you will have too much reverb.

9. You need to know only three mics: A Shure SM58, a Shure SM57, and a  Stereo Ribbon with mono/stereo switch. The SM58 is for vocals, the SM57 is for amps, horns, and acoustic guitars, and the ribbon is for drums (from front and over the set) and for piano ( lid open high).

10. Curtains, wooden floors, and nice throw rugs are the functional sound furniture of a good studio, and never sing thru headphones.