Sample ballad in D on my Yamaha DGX-505

[ButchA]

This is a short clip of my playing my old Yamaha DGX-505 "portable grand" keyboard in the key of D. Somewhere I came up the chord progression and a melody on guitar and then translated them onto the keyboard. Hopefully you can use this for something, add to it, offer ideas and/or suggestions.

Standard 4/4 tempo ballad chord progression
D
Dmaj7
D7
G
Gm (with Bb bass)
D
Em
A (with A add9, A sus4, whatever flavor you want to add)
{repeat}

 

[happyrat1]

Nice ballad butch. It screams for a lyric. Something that tells a sad, funny story...

Gary

 

[ButchA]

Thanks... It was one of those moments where it popped into my head and I fiddled around with it. Then before I forgot anything about the chord structure, I decided to make a quick video capturing the idea.

I have no idea where it will go, if it will change keys in a "middle 8" or anything like that yet. Maybe someone could play around with it too and come up with something.

As far as lyrics, I have no idea. I am a terrible lyricist, and have tossed out so many song lyrics that I have tried to write, because I worry that they'd appear utterly stupid.

 

[happyrat1]

Then again the thing to remember about lyrics is, "STUPID SELLS!"

Who put the bop in the bop she bop?

My little deuce coupe?

Band on the run?

How many brain cells were murdered coming up with the lyrics for these and a thousand other top 40 tunes in the past century?

Just write something whimsical about something that moves you! Worry about the critics later

Gary

 

[ButchA]

Here's an update... I took that ballad in D a little further and expanded on it. I read through the manual about using the built-in multitrack recorder, and that was all it took.

 

[happyrat1]

Nicely done Butch. One thing though, it would have been a lot better if you'd just recorded directly as a WAV file thru the PC's Line In and then converted to MP3 and uploaded to Soundcloud.

The webcam's crappy mic really doesn't do it justice.

Gary

 

[ButchA]

Thank you! I'll get the track uploaded to my laptop using Audacity and save it as an MP3. Great idea!

 

[happyrat1]

You're very welcome. Looking forward to hearing some of your multi instrumental work on soundcloud as well. I believe Audacity allows multitrack recording capabilities. If not take a look at an open source program called Ardour.

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

Good job Butch. To quote a favourite saying of the drummer in one of my bands, "that has a lot of nice in it".

 

[ButchA]

Nicely done Butch. One thing though, it would have been a lot better if you'd just recorded directly as a WAV file thru the PC's Line In and then converted to MP3 and uploaded to Soundcloud.

The webcam's crappy mic really doesn't do it justice.

Gary

Here's that entire "Ballad in D" easy listening song, converted to MP3 and uploaded to Soundcloud...

https://soundcloud.com/butch-ammon/ballad-in-d

 

[ButchA]

Sorry... I removed the track from Soundcloud.

There was a section around 2:15 or so into the ballad (where I drop the orchestra/strings an octave (i.e. Cello melody), and the EQ didn't quite handle it properly, and it sounded bad. I'll redo it (again)... Sigh...

 

[ViLana]

This is a short clip of my playing my old Yamaha DGX-505 "portable grand" keyboard in the key of D. Somewhere I came up the chord progression and a melody on guitar and then translated them onto the keyboard. Hopefully you can use this for something, add to it, offer ideas and/or suggestions.

Standard 4/4 tempo ballad chord progression
D
Dmaj7
D7
G
Gm (with Bb bass)
D
Em
A (with A add9, A sus4, whatever flavor you want to add)
{repeat}

Hi ButchA,

That ballad was really nice. Enjoyed listening. I'm just a beginner on keyboard so I really appreciate that you included the chords. Now I can try out your music and maybe learn from you. Thanks.

 

[ButchA]

Thank you!! I was able to fix the original mixdown track that I uploaded to Sound Cloud (see post #10 and #11), so you can hear the entire thing now.

 

[ViLana]

Your melody in D sound very soothing. Why not continue with it and write a bridge, I think that's what it's called...a middle part...then the tune would sound complete. Like it, wish I could write something like that.