The two that follow those are phone videos of me in my basement; the first one is me doing a left-foot-hi-hat solo, and the next one is me playing a slow, swung groove for thirty seconds.

The post On YouTube: Jazz drumming tracks with free-time-ish solos, showcasing my left foot independence appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

Just dropping in, because I haven’t put anything new here in a while. There is one bit of music-related news that’s public facing. The latest mix of Self Confidence dropped on July 18, 2023. It was a technical issue, and I’m basically 100% sure that I’m finished making technical corrections to it. There isn’t anything left to tweak that’s worth tweaking.

It’s been up on Spotify since July 14, the final mix and master of Self Confidence:
https://open.spotify.com/album/5q2tF7sFSRaFuc0l99AMue

It’s kind of embarrassing, but in a way only certain people would appreciate. I didn’t have the bass frequencies worked out “right.” I had them a certain way, with a certain rationale, but the more I listened and thought about it, and listened to other music as well, the more I decided I wanted to fix it. I did a set of fixes that improved the clarity in the 40 Hz-100 Hz range. It was a matter of de-prioritizing the kick drum to leave more room for the bass. As such, the bass is a lot clearer now.

There were also two significant artistic choices that were undone. “Lovers at First Sight” lost its double-tracked lead vocal in favour of a standard single-track, and “I Believe in You” lost its rhythm section in favour of a more subdued, acoustic-guitar-prioritized arrangement.

So that’s it. Lessons learned. Done. Videos re-released, links re-shared. Onward and upward if and where possible.

The post Update, Fall 2023 – Latest mix dropped this summer appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

I must say, it feels wonderful to hear someone call my track “excellent.”

Here’s NoEsFM’s website: https://noesfm.com/. If you check them out during January, you might hear my lengthy psychedelic epic, “Wonderful Time, Part 2.” Big thanks again to NoEsFM!

The post Big Shout Out to NoEsFM Radio for Online Radio Rotation and Spotify appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

Mr. Kadan seems like a very nice person. His list has this description: ” A playlist of songs that must be listened to before you die. The best songs in the world.” I will take it as high praise to be included in his list. Thank you, Mr. Kadan.

The post Thanks to Oguzcan Kadan for my first Spotify playlist inclusion appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Daniel Butterfield (@danielbutterfield22)

I must say, it’s by far the most comfortable typing solution I’ve developed since I’ve started working in my new office space in earnest. I am on the autism spectrum–I am an Asperger’s case, is how I like to put it–and physical comfort is very important for me when I’m working, and especially if I’m going to be doing a lot of typing and mousing and coffee-drinking. It really helps to like being in the space where I’m spending so much time.

I’ve been using this folding table from WalMart, and it’s been nice in terms of being a useful, height-adjustable work surface, but it has the drawback of employing legs that form a horizontal-x shape underneath, and therefore I can’t use it as a work table under which I put my legs, without weird posturing that I’m not willing to do. So today, the brainstorm struck–what if I stuck the keyboard on top of the drum-practice-pad-on-a-snare-drum-stand that I often use as a mouse rest or very small but sturdy coffee table?

And there it is. This is my new favourite posture. It’s not perfect. There might be one more thing to try, and it will likely involve a trip to Staples. But for now, this is pretty good.

(There’s that imperfection again. The part that wants to sit and relax and have it in the perfect position. I only really know it because I worked for a year-and-a-half in administration at the City of Hamilton and I helped out on a project where they did ergonomic optimizations on everyone’s workstation. My workstation was absolutely ergonomically perfect. It was a thing of beauty, and to duplicate it, honestly, would take over a thousand dollars. So for now, I’m happy with what I have. But I know that there are better possibilities. Someday. Somehow. I’m picturing certain catalogue items.)

The post New Office Idea: Drum Pad/Snare Stand Keyboard Tray appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

“Dance of Paradise” has a very short life span compared to many of my other pieces. I had recently re-attached my guitar cables, and in the course of confirming that the recording equipment was working on an instrument-by-instrument basis, I decided to throw down a drum beat, and island-inspired dance beat, and see if I could whip up a commercially viable piece of music in a relatively short time period. This was in May of 2021.

I’m pleased to report that it took three days plus another to come up with everything you hear on what I eventually titled “Dance of Paradise.” First–if it sounds like that old Six Flags commercial, that’s not a coincidence. It’s supposed to have that appeal. I tried to structure it so it had sections that would fit together as 15- to 30- to 60-second chunks of music, like you wanted to use it for a commercial for something, or for the closing credits of something, or even the opening theme song to something.

The first day was recording and then quantizing the drum track. The bulk of everything was tracked on day two. Day three involved re-recording the violin and then mixing. Day four, which came months later, involving overdubbing acoustic guitars and adding a conga track (to double the bongos track, for some extra rhythm groove goodness).

Its two original working titles were “Plains of Marathon” and then “Plains of Abraham.” At one point, I devised an amusing partial lyric wherein the protagonist met a lovely Quebecois woman at a pub in historic downtown Quebec City, but her boyfriend didn’t show, and he found himself escorting her across the Plains of Abraham. But eventually, the name of “Dance of Paradise” won out.

Here it is, accompanied by its Winamp EQ, “Dance of Paradise.”

The post The Story: Dance of Paradise appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

Well, I’ll get the lyrics part out of the way first:

(I want) a wonderful time
(To be) going on
I want a wonderful time to be going on (repeat)
I want a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time (repeat, etc.)
[and at one point:]
I want a wonderful time to be going on
I want a wonderful time, good God, come on!

As for the recording of the piece, it occurred to me on a lark one morning in July of 2020. I’d thought of something: what happens if you try to play the melody of “Wonderful Time” as if the song is in B minor? So that the chord progression just goes Bm, E, Bm E, back and forth, such that the chorus now becomes I and IV in B minor as oppposed to II and V in A major?

That’s where “Wonderful Time, Part 2” comes from. I came up with the piano part based on that idea. And then, not long after that, I thought about what to do for a second verse, and I decided to see if I could teach myself the same melody and harmony on classical guitar.

That’s where “Wonderful Time, Part 2” comes from. Then I got the idea of writing out all the orchestration as software instrument tracks and keeping it around as a demo for about a year and a half after recording the first few base tracks. It’s actually very easy to tell what was recorded when: I started growing my current beard in the Fall of 2020, so anything where I’ve grown a beard is from sessions that took place in the Winter of 2021. Those sessions took place while I was recovering from a particularly bad knee sprain and was receiving workman’s comp. (It was the most pain I’ve ever felt.)

Here’s me playing most of the instruments on “Wonderful Time, Part 2”: drums, timbales, bass guitar, synthesizer, classical guitar, piano, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, and trombone.

The post Story & Lyrics: Wonderful Time, Part 2 appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This one’s kind of interesting, because it brings up a whole big, personal phenomenon in the development of my songwriting. At a point in my early twenties, it occurred to me that the emotional content of my expression seemed excessively negative, and at its worst, whiny.

I had a feeling that eventually I’d start getting my act (shit) together, so I told myself I’d just hang on to song stems as they occurred to me, and I wouldn’t get too married to any kind of lyrical meaning attached to the musical idea, unless it represented something which I knew would be worth keeping (i.e. would be good) in the long run.

This one came along in about 2010 or so, but might have had seeds dating back to 2008. I think I wrote it on my father’s Martin acoustic in its first guise, in terms of its tune and instrumentation–I wanted it to be something I could play solo with just an acoustic and vocal.. I was having a hard time there just now, remembering how it came to be, but I see now that I didn’t write this in its fullness until after I completed Essence of Being Mastery in 2016. That was when I first starting giving myself permission to write again.

This was written to be beautiful and uplifting, and I don’t know if it requires much in the way of explanation, other than to say that we’re all here on our own, special, challenging life journey, and the goal is to get better.

Verse 1:
The road it twists and turns now
But with each bend you learn how
To be even more of who you are
And I believe in you
And you’ll pull through
And there’ll be times when it gets harder
To keep going farther
But I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
And you’ll find your way back home

Verse 2:
The path it looks so dark now
But deep within your heart now
I know there’s a light that shines so bright
‘Cause I believe in you
And you’ll come through
And there’ll be times your heart gets wounded
But you’ll make it through it
‘Cause I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
And you’ll find your way back home

Bridge:
And on this road we’re walking
The wind it blows so cold
I’ll put my arms around you
And give my hand to hold
‘Cause I believe in you
And you’ll pull through
Just keep your eyes on the path of love

Verse 3:
We’ve come a long, long way now
And there’ll be another day now
When we reach the end of this long road
‘Cause I believe in you
And we’ll come to
A new world that’s free and giving
Where true love is living
I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
And we’ll find our way back home

Coda:
I believe in you
I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
Just keep your eyes on the path of love

Here’s me recording the original vocal on the track, “I Believe in You,” from 2022’s Self Confidence, with lyrics subtitled.

The post Story & Lyrics: I Believe in You appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This one is actually a rather old song of mine. It originally had a completely different set of lyrics, oriented around the chorus hook, “easy for you,” and that’s what it was called, “Easy For You.” I wrote it in January of 2000 while smoking a lot of weed, on a Vox Jaguar organ stationed in my family’s TV room with a manual typewriter on top, on which I wrote its first set of lyrics and chords. It grew out of messing around with chords on the organ.

By the time 2020 rolled around, I had another idea–what if this happy-sounding tune had nice lyrics, like where the guy actually wants to end up with the girl? It happened that there was a very lovely young woman around at the time that made me want to say things very much like these lyrics to her. Sadly, because of reasons related to my own mental health challenges and post-traumatic stress disorder, I didn’t get to say these things to her, and it died an awful, uncomfortable death.

But before it did, I really did feel like saying these lyrics to her. I also feel like I owe her a crazy huge apology.

Verse 1:
You’ve waited around when you don’t really need to
So I’ll call you up ’cause I want you to speak to
Just tell me you want my time
And I’ll make you feel glad you’re mine

Chorus 1:
‘Cause tell you what I want
To be there with you
Be there with you

Verse 2:
There’s something about you my heart wants to tell me
There’s something about you that seems to compel me
To make you my only one
And make love when our day is done

Chorus 2:
‘Cause tell you want I want
To be there with you
Be there with you
Be there with you

Chorus 3:
Tell you want I want
To be there with you
Be there with you
Be there with you
I’ll be there with you

Chorus 4:
Tell you want I want
To be there with you
Be there with you
I’ll be there with you
I’ll be there with you

Here’s Daniel playing all the instruments on “Be There with You,” from YouTube.

The post Story & Lyrics: Be There with You appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This song is quite special to me, personally. The tune and chords for the verses and chorus were “given” to me–basically channeled to me–in the summer of 2018. The feeling at the time was that the summer was winding down, and grown up time was about to begin. The original vocal hook I had in my head for the chorus was: “It’s been a hell of a time / But it’s over now”.

But I didn’t write this one until January of 2020, and by that time I was in a very special place in my personal spiritual development. (My apologies to the “rationalist-skeptic” types out there, but I do experience channeling-type things you wouldn’t be able to experience yourself and therefore couldn’t know about.)

This is one of those ones where I’m not going to explain very much other than to suggest two themes: one, the Law of Attraction, as taught by Esther Hicks, and this notion–that I had so many things visible before me that it was overwhelming and it was going to take some time even to just gather together what it was I needed to do first.

The line “Another thing that I want, and I’ll take some more time / Dreaming of a lifetime waking, and I feel so good” was channeled to me. I received that whole section, and “knowing I could” just slipped right on to the end as the perfect button in response. I had left it dangling at “Someday, I’ll see…” and Source responded immediately with those lines. It was beautiful and amazing.

The lyrics:

Verse 1:

I’ve got something inside and I can’t deny it
Everything I want is coming and I know it’s good
I know that I should
And there’s another one there and I can’t decide it
What’s it gonna take? I wonder what it’s going to be
Here within me

Chorus 1:
I want a wonderful time
To be coming on
I’ve got a lot to do
And I’ll see it through
I want a wonderful time
To be going on

Verse 2:
And I see where I am and I see what’s coming
Everything I see will happen if I see it through
What will I do?
‘Cause I can look so far and it makes me wonder
Where’s it gonna lead to? When’s it gonna all come true?
I’ll say it to you

Chorus 2:
I want a wonderful time
To be coming on (There it is again)
I’ve got a lot to do
And I’ll see it through (I’m in love again)
I want a wonderful time
To be going on (Here I am again)

Bridge:
Dreams I have I see them coming true
And I see more coming
Seems to be the way I want it to
And another comes, and another one’s coming

Verse 3:
And I know that it feels like it takes a long time
So I’ll just be happy knowing that it comes to be
Someday I’ll see
Another thing that I want and I’ll take some more time
Dreaming of a lifetime waking and I feel so good
Knowing I could

(Chorus 3 and 4)

Here’s video of me recording the original lead vocal of “Wonderful Time,” with the lyrics as subtitles.

The post Story & Lyrics: Wonderful Time appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.