MacJams.com - Song: Skein by kristyjo

Skein
by kristyjo

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Guest profile visits: 849
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Song comments: 49
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Plays: 138
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Downloads: 59
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Submitted on: Nov 03, 2007 - 10:45:29 AM
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Keywords flute (101), courting flute (4), Native American flute (8), Autumn (27), geese (4), flying (19), nostalgia (16)

Description This song is the second of three that I played on the Native American flute in honor of the season of Autumn. The first, Perigee, has been posted. this one is also played on the Native American flute, but in a non-traditional style. I have three flutes playing together, and some background of a flock of Canadian geese who gather at a nearby pond. (Along with the sound, I got lots of interested looks from passersby, and goose poo on my shoes.) I remember as a kid, we'd sit on the rolled up snow fence, and watch the geese fly across the sky as if it was a parade. There aren't as many 'fly overs' here, but I still get that nostalgic stab in my chest whenever I hear their far off call, and then see a skein of them pass over our house.
The three flutes are all played by myself, sometimes in canonic style, sometimes in harmony, and sometimes with a backing ostinato. The micing has been tricky, but I'm getting better at placement and volume. You will hear some extraneous sounds from the goose track, that's the sound of a small cataract and us pulling the oars of our small boat up, so we could listen better. (No, it's really passing cars and the wind hitting the mic cable up against the stand, but if you try hard enough, you can make it sound like you're out on the lake.)

Hardware G4, Snowball USB mic

Software: GarageBand

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	peacepiano said 384 days ago
	Nice I like this one as well as its twin ;) The three tracks sync up well and the harmonies resonate nicely. I grew up in an area with lots of fly overs in the Fall and Spring, the sound was sometimes deafening :) We have geese in CT but they mostly live year around at golf courses and office building ponds. Plenty of poo LOL Thanks Bill

	kristyjo said 383 days ago
	Bill- I'm glad you came to hear this song, too, and you found it matched up with the first. It's actually wildly out of tradition, according to my reading, yet as a piece of music, I think it turned out pretty well. Sometimes getting the right sound effects is worth getting a little poo on the shoes.:)

	RickW said 384 days ago
	Astounding! Kristine, these last two flute pieces are absolutely astounding. I especially like this one, with the geese. It brings back fond memories of myself watching them. Thank you!! God bless, Rick

	Feter said 383 days ago
	Skein the real psecial thing about this piece .if someone says the nature sing , I ll tell him indeed and there's one sweet song to invite him to thats this awesome one .you made it all so true with the back ground .just wonderfull my friend !!

	Ibstrat said 383 days ago
	That's beautiful!You play extremely well-the geese in the background is fantastic.My daughter is a big nature lover...I played it for her & she loved it! I have to check out the previous one.Great!

kristyjo said 382 days ago

I'm glad you liked it.
and especially glad that your nature-loving daughter enjoyed it, too. My own daughter (age 12) was invited to come along and help record the geese. She, as well as her two brothers, was mortified at the thought of chasing geese around with a microphone and a laptop at a pond that's visible from the road. I actually recorded only the geese outdoors, the flutes I did in the comfort of my own home.

	kristyjo said 383 days ago
	Feter - What a nice comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed this, and that the geese made you feel the pull of nature. Thanks for listening.

	Kenta said 383 days ago
	Freedom This song makes me feel I want to move back home to the place I is born. There you can find peace in your mind YOU only hear the sounds from the nature :D and that is very healty AS your music....BRAVO.. I love it. Thanks for sharing this lovely song. Take care --- Kenta

	Moviz said 383 days ago
	Just think yourself lucky it wasn't cat poo on your shoes or you wouldn't have been able to take in deep enough breath to play LOL. Seriously, these sounds and the descriptions are wonderfully atmospheric and lovely to listen to. I was almost transported to the lake where you were... but the goose poo put me off LOL, regards M

	cchaplin said 383 days ago
	It's lovely ! The combination of the flutes with the sound of Canadian geese is so effective. I would love to know how you record outdoors ? Is it simply done on a laptop with a USB mic ?

kristyjo said 382 days ago

Thanks for listening
Yes, I charged up the laptop, and plugged in the mic, which is a Blue (Company) USB Snowball. I have it mounted on the shock mount, and then on a regular floor mic stand. I don't have a wind screen for it, but I'm not sure that would have helped in this situation, anyway. I shielded the mic from the wind with my body and held up my jacket on the side of the mic where the wind was coming from. I turned the mic towards the geese, and then I kinda ran towards them, careful to avoid anything slippery on the ground :) Not particularly technical, but it worked to get the sound I needed. The only thing that I forgot was that the mic cord was hitting the stand from the gusts of wind. I couldn't get that sound out of the file, so it's still there, faintly.

	Roxylee said 383 days ago
	Perfectly describes the geese with its melody following melody. Beautiful, Kristy!

John Stebbe said 383 days ago

Very Cool!
A haunting and beautiful sound. Reminds me of a track in our music text book CDs from a few years ago, called, "December Snow." Love the pentatonic quality of your melodies. And the little pitch bends -- very convincing!

Hmm -- are these real instruments or software? Makes me wonder. When you play the parts in unison, they are slightly out of tune, which is what you would expect in 'real life.'

Just looked at your hometown, "Marshfield." I've got relatives near Horicon, and we sometimes pass by Horicon High Schoo, home of the Marsh Men. Kinda sounds like marshmallows to me -- not particularly macho!

kristyjo said 382 days ago

Yup,
This is a real instrument, although it's made of PVC pipe, rather than wood. (The difference in cost is $25.00 vs. about $150.00 or more) The ornamentation works well on this flute, and I think the sound is fairly authentic. The airspeed, once it gets into the playing chamber, is quite slow, so tuning is an issue (because the tiniest change in blowing makes a difference.) And, this instrument is intended as a solo instrument. I've heard some modern music done with this flute and guitar, bass and rattles, but never more than one flute at a time. At some points, it took me quite a bit of time to pull all three flutes in tune on unison phrase endings, but, as you said, the out-of -tuneness is what makes them sound real. I like to think of it as ornamentation :)

Thanks for listening and commenting, John!

kristyjo said 382 days ago

Horicon-
Actually, as a girl, I went to Horicon annually to see the geese all hanging out at the marshes before they took off for their long journeys South. I now live quite a bit northwest of there, and our family doesn't make that journey, but we have a smaller goose confab near us in a state wildlife sanctuary. The marshes just south of us are where most of the cranberries in the U.S. come from, and geese hang out there, too, once harvesting is done.

paul f. page said 382 days ago

No. 2...
...is even more engaging than No. 1. I love the counterpoint. The instruments sound authentic and your pitch-bends work particularly well. This is haunting music. One can only imagine the effect it must have had done "live" on the plain... My only criticism (which is apparently not shared by others): geese at the top = great. Geese throughout = distracting. Maybe a compromise on the final mix: geese at the top to start out and set the mood...then fade them out in favor of your duet/conversation...then bring geese up again at the end.
This is going to be a very beautiful trilogy. So delicate and so evocative of nature.
Peace.
Paul

kristyjo said 382 days ago

Thanks for commenting
I have gone around & around with the 'geese' thing - I've already taken out the honking that has distracted me. Originally, they were honking like crazy through the whole piece. Perhaps there's a little more sound effect sculpting that I need to do. I also tried beginning and end, and I found it a bit empty during the long pauses in the middle, as if the geese are politely waiting for me to finish before starting their racket again. I think that the variety of responses means that it's going to be some subtle volume changes, so they're always in the distance if you listen, but can also come closer during the pauses. Thanks SO MUCH for listening carefully and sharing ideas for improving the mix!

	sonny jim said 382 days ago
	Lovely and more. For such an economy of means, you generate plenty of interest and forward motion. This could easily be longer for my taste.

	Justbase said 382 days ago
	Time for my ritual Me go Zzz. Beautiful again. Thank you madam!

The Orbiting said 382 days ago

Magical
This is not only a lovely song, beautifully played, but a really terrific recording, too. What a stroke of genius to add the geese, KJ. Their voices really perfectly create the feeling that there are three musicians playing this outside that we just happened to come across and are lucky enough to hear.

It's interesting. Hearing this is a reminder that synthesizers can only do so much. I think a sound like this is one that we'd be so much more likely to hear sythesized than played live, these days, but I'm so glad you played live. Thank you.

Macaudion said 382 days ago

Nice - Very nice...
Now that was a PERFECT side treat w/ my cup-0-java, this morning, Or, maybe my java was the side treat..., Kristyjo. As I was listening, I was kinda waiting for something else to happen but after it was all over and it didn't, I was content to know that what I heard was all that you wanted me to hear. Spriritual, organic and quite the peaceful listen.

So you play the flute, guitar, Canadian geese and...

Thanks for the treat! Dion

Ejh said 381 days ago

Can't...stop...faving...
...must...get...help...

You're getting a very full, round, non-shrill, non-sibilant sound from the plastic flutes...PVC?...pretty amazing...

I really like the harmonies, and although I don't always go for the "sound effect" thing in music, I find that the geese are really perfect with the flute.

I tend to 'grade' people's melodies by whether I can imagine singing some words to them, whether they have a sort of cadence that feels like some kind of human speech or expression, and I think that you've got that happening here...

Ed

kristyjo said 380 days ago

Ed-
Glad you got to this one. I've been working through the flute shrillness, and as a matter of fact, just was busy tweaking levels on my final upload of the trilogy, which may go up on Thursday or Friday night. ( ok, it's music, not literature, but you get the idea of 3 pieces = trilogy, right?) It's amazing to me that a sound that's so low on the volume meter can have such shrill overtones that bother my ears, yet barely register on the computer. A mystery of life, I guess. So, I'm glad that this piece was easy to listen to for you. Thanks for the kind comments.

	Ejh said 380 days ago
	Hmmm...upon reflection.... I suppose there's the possibility that there ARE shrill overtones, but I'm simply not able to hear them anymore.... Anyway, what I can still hear sounds great! Ed

kristyjo said 379 days ago

Ed,
I actually can't hear them either, but I'm catching the additional disturbance in vibrations that cause my daughter to wince, so that's what I'm basing it on. I've done some judicious remixing, taking down some of the volume of the geese at times, and pulling back on the volume whenever I get to the high 'la' and 'do'. It seems to help - not enough change for me to repost, but a slight improvement, I think.

One of the mixed blessings of getting older, I guess :)

	Henri Roger said 381 days ago
	Nature Thank you for this journey , I left my noisy town and folowed you there , and felt far away in a peacefull place . Very good idea , beautifull and original piece .

	J.A.Stewart said 381 days ago
	Musical Nature Walk Thanks for another in your series of Musical Nature Walks, Kristy. This one with our fair-weather friends, the geese. A charming musical treatment, suggesting a plaintive farewell and god-speed on their journey. Nicely done. ;) --- Joe

jgurner said 381 days ago

Wow!
This is wonderful. The flute sounds amazing. I saw some artists earlier this year performing on the flute and other Native American instruments and I was just wowed by the sound. This is very nice and relaxing. Has a very Autumnal feel.

I think, though, one of the geese might have been just a little flat there in the middle. You might talk to it about redoing the part. ;)

This was very beautiful. I really enjoyed it.

	guitapick said 380 days ago
	I'm so glad... ...that you followed "Perigree" with this...and another one on the way! I like the extraneous sounds...puts me even closer...

	perceptualvortex said 379 days ago
	Oo That flute sounds great. The geese take me to the lake, which is perfect for the flute. Really beautiful!

paddler said 379 days ago

skein
I like soundscapes and sculptures.It sounds quite ritualistic which is appropiate as I guess the geese flying is a ritual for them.It definately sounds familiar to me as the lake by which I live is frequently populated by huge flocks of canadian geese.When I worked as a night porter sometimes I'd sit out on the balcony of the hotel in the dead of night with a glass of wine and a cigar (dont tell the boss) and just sit n listen to the calls echoing against the hill and across the water.Beautiful - enjoyed.Cheers

RG

sloparts said 377 days ago

The simplicity of a quiet
commune with nature and the way it can lift your soul. That is what you have brought to us here at MacJams with this wonderful piece of music.
One of the things that is missing in our rush to get to the next thing we feel we must do, is to stop and take the time to be still for a moment and join the natural world in it's celebration of life. That is the gift, and the reminder you have given us all.
Bravo Kristy , I salute your spirit.

Ed

	Mystified said 377 days ago
	what a great idea... ...and a lovely result :) This was so nice to listen to Thank you :)

	Jarvoid said 187 days ago
	That Native American flute has a very singular and haunting tone,particularly to my British ears.Cos we don't get a lot of them over here really.But it sounds superb and the geese just made the piece "alive"...which it was ...so good. Jarvoid

	kristyjo said 383 days ago
	Rick- It's so interesting that a single sound can bring back such a flood of memories. Certain smells are the same way. When APB brought up the idea of having wolves on my previous song, it got me thinking of the 'signature' sounds of Autumn, and this was one that I could get authentically. I'm glad this brought good memories for you.

	kristyjo said 382 days ago
	Kenta - I think, too, of how our own home was 40 years ago. There was much more woodland, and lots and lots of birds and animals, as well as a variety of insects that I don't see today. There were some bad things, too, back then, but as time goes past, I tend to forget the bad, and only remember the good. Thanks for listening and for your kind comments.

	kristyjo said 382 days ago
	Yes - a cat in the mix would have made it a bit harder to do :) I'm glad your listening 'almost' brought you to the lake. Having taught Native American students in a fairly unspoiled part of the United States, I wish I would have learned more about this kind of music sooner, but 'better late than never'.

	kristyjo said 382 days ago
	Roxy- I'm so glad you 'got' that part of the geese taking off one after the other. Reading about how the aerodynamics of goose flight works, I am amazed by nature's creatures, and how things make sense. Thanks for listening and for your kind comments.

	kristyjo said 382 days ago
	I think longer- would be better, too, but it kind of ended there, and it was done, so - I quit playing. I have a couple more pieces in the set. Perigee has been posted, this one, and 'Frost', which I'm working on getting the levels right. I think the three movement idea helps put all three rather short pieces in perspective. Thanks for your very nice comments!

	kristyjo said 382 days ago
	Maybe - I could package this music as a sleeping aid! Thanks for listening again!

	kristyjo said 380 days ago
	Yeah- I like to play unique instruments, and 'canadian geese' is right up there with the uniquer instruments of my collection. LOL I'm glad you enjoyed this with your cup o' joe. Thanks for the nice comments.

	kristyjo said 379 days ago
	Henri- Thank you for your time and comments. I'm glad this song gave you a respite from daily noise and busyness.

	kristyjo said 379 days ago
	Thanks for listening and for coming along on the journey! Your presence is truly appreciated.

	kristyjo said 378 days ago
	That goose- was just expressing himself a bit differently. You get these 'nature types' to work with you, and that s what happens :). Thanks for stopping and commenting.

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	kristyjo said 378 days ago
	Bob- I'm glad you enjoyed this one. The next one is a single flute with a single melody line, so this was the 'big production number' of the set. Lots of fun to do, too. Thanks for your comments.

	kristyjo said 378 days ago
	I like the idea of going to the lake. Thanks for listening.

	kristyjo said 377 days ago
	Hi Don't worry, RG. I won't tell the boss a word. Still, I'm glad you shared that little memory. I'm glad you enjoyed the fluting and the honking! (I was going to say 'goosing' but that would have sent the wrong message.)

	kristyjo said 376 days ago
	What a nice compliment - It is a bit ironic that I posted this last weekend, as this past week has been among the most busy & stressful I've had for a long time. Still - a place in my mind to come back to and re-find that quiet is very important. I'm glad you found it, too.