The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #352: Musical Interlude – Making a C#m Descending Chord Progression on Synth
https://archive.org/download/podcast-352/Podcast%20352.mp3
This week, I’m making a repeating chord progression in C#m for a little collaboration with past show guest Jeff Finley, who recently told me about an instrument called a handpan, which is kind of like a steel drum you play with your hands, that, at least to my ears, sounds a bit like a synthesizer.
He mentioned that his handpan is in the key of C#m, so we thought it’d be fun to make another piece of music together. So this is me just starting something, and then I’ll send that over for him to add to, and we can go back and forth and see what we come up with, kind of like a remote jam session.
After playing around with a few, I ended up liking the descending chord progression C#m A E B and thought it might be fun to see what we could come up with around that. Though there is a bit of a melody, for the most part, I purposefully didn’t add much. It is just those 4 chords repeated again to allow Jeff to add to it. (Jeff – recorded this at 100 bpm with each chord held for about an 8 count.) Looking forward to what we can make together!
This was our last collaboration, by the way:
You can find out more about Jeff on his previous appearances on the show (episode 101, 102, and 176).
- Jeff’s Amazon author page
- Jeff’s portfolio here.
- Soundcloud (as Starbound Renegade
- Spotify (as Starbound Renegade)
- Youtube
- Etsy
- And, of course, the film that started it all with Brent Simon.
In other news, I’m almost done painting the Beverly Switzler figurines for Ernie Trinidad’s postproduction backers for his Howard the Doc film. These were tough! I used reading glasses to see the tiny details and am glad I chose to make her eyes closed rather than open since trying to paint eyes on a figure this small is always a headache in more ways than one. I didn’t realize I’d made so many – nine painted ones and four glow in the dark ones. There’s definitely more than I need, so I may auction some off for charity like I did with the Lego Rocketeers. Speaking of which, this past week, it was Star Wars Day (5/4), which is also United Nations Anti-Bullying Day (as of 2012). Combined those two things and the Lego Rocketeer in a little skit. There are some stills below the ones of Bev.
And the clip:
Stay tuned to episodes on more 80s fantasy and Rocketeer content coming soon!
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This spring, if you’re looking for an adult of child mask, check out Thirteenth Hour mask combo package on Etsy. This fall, it became really hard to find good quality masks for our kids as they were going back to school. There are still long wait times for some of the companies we like best, so I thought, why not try to find an alternative? I eventually settled on the triple layer masks available for printing on by the company Flashbay. They were one of the few companies I found that were transparent about their third party safety data (Junior: https://static.flashbay.com/images/certificates/Junior_REACH.pdf?v=1617870020, Adult: https://static.flashbay.com/images/certificates/Sky_Performance.pdf?v=1603078812) which is nice. I was impressed by how well these masks performed on the filtration tests, even after repeat washings. Also, I really liked how both the ears and nose piece could be adjusted for a good fit.
The Thirteenth Hour mask combo also comes with Thirteenth Hour hand sanitizer! (But of course.)
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
As always, thanks for listening!
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