I'm teaching a new class (for me and school) in digital audio production this fall. Although I've been toying with audio in various ways since this blog debuted in 2007, I'm still learning my around more modern styles - specifically the concept of "making beats" (not in the sense of 'pulse' but rather as backup for raps, etc.) and working with loops, etc. Obviously the most fun way to prepare is to practice, so I remembered an idea which had come to me over the summer and decided to take it for a spin.
Over the last few years, I've found the most requested "song" non-pianist students ask to learn to play on the piano is the very simple looping hook from Still D.R.E., a 1999 song by Dr. Dre, featuring Snoop Dogg. It really only involves learning two bars of mostly repeated 8th note chords in the right hand with a simple three-note bass progression that is empty on beats 2 and 3. So when a student at summer chamber music camp asked if I could play this song, I confidently launched into it. However, having just accompanied a famous Vivaldi violin concerto in the same camp that week, an idea came to me, unbidden (as ever).
And that's mostly all that needs to be said. I think the connection, with the quarter pickup leading into repeated 8th notes, is pretty obvious. I'm proud to say that this was just a 24-hour turnaround from when I started to when I posted the "completed" video on YouTube. Although there are many options for how I might have handled the visuals (including a score animation, which however might give away some of my work), I settled on the simple idea of "stills" to go with the "Still D.R.E." theme. There is some very low-quality animation if you pay attention, but the images are really just space-filler. Since Snoop Dogg amplified his status as fun-loving, good-time celebrity during this summer's Olympic games coverage, it was a nice coincidence that he appears in the photo I used from the original song, so I put him to work a little.
One last production thing. I was having a hard time finding a good digital match for the lo-fi cello which plays the bass line at the beginning of the original song. Then I realized I'm a pretty lo-fi cellist myself, and my cello now has a pickup installed since my son will be playing it in a school jazz band this year. So, although most of what you'll hear is generated by synths, the cello line is played by a real life cellist! I still didn't really achieve the squeezed sound on the original, but that just means I have more to learn - or unlearn.
UPDATE: New rap version!
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