Ponder

This is the original recording of a song I wrote for my audition into the Perpich School for the Arts Education. Entitled "Ponder," I wrote and recorded this song simultaneously over the course of about 10 days in early 2008. Inspired by 5 words supplied to me by the music faculty at Perpich, this song is almost exclusively made up of my voice, layered over itself many times to create a complete work. I used Audacity to produce this piece.

Ponder

Wow, this was really enjoyable to listen to! I liked the odd 2 chord progression at the beginning. Great job, man. The whispering at the end was a little creepy...ok, very creepy, but the coolness of the rest of the piece lets me look past it.

Keep 'em coming!

Whatever - the first section two chords are Neapolitan 6th chord with an added 7flat 9th to B flat major chord with a major 7th and 9th. BUT the Neapolitan has a 7th (a B flat) which acts an anticipation of the B flat chord. The neapolitan =flat 2. What makes this cool and gives vocal jazz its unique timbre are the voicings - 7ths, 9ths and 11 ths will sound in the bass.

In other words (from bottom to top) B flat eflat G flat C flat D flat to A natural D natural, f ,B flat C natural. hearing the fluctuation of the D and D flat gives the piece a major minor ambiguity. Plus the bass movement implies D minor. - which is heard later in the middle section when you have more sixth chords - a V 6/4 to i6.

Still haven't figured where the piece goes harmonically after the two chord section and the movement to D minor.

I don't have perfect pitch so the exact key may be off but I believe the harmonic analysis is correct. Let me know as vocal jazz is tough to transcribe by ear.

You should've muted/deleted the metronome haha, or at least turned it's volume down. There's no real problems here, other than that, a few things with intonation but they're not that serious. Good job! Just curious, what were the 5 words?

I liked the whispering, it was like a surprise ending which sorta changed the meaning of that phrase you had been repeating.

Thanks for the responses! @composerorganist: This piece was recorded and written rather simultaneously and spontaneously, so I really just wrote it using my musical ear and not so much with theoretical knowledge. Still, I'm actually just finishing writing up the sheet music for this piece, with a 7-voice ensemble, and although it centers around D flat/C sharp (good ear, only half a step off!), I decided to compose it with no sharps or flats in the key signature and just use accidentals since the key and harmonic inflection seems to change very frequently. Good analysis of the chords, though! You're spot on, minus the half-step off. I didn't use all of the chord tones in those ninth chords and neopolitans, but that certainly is what they were. @last life, the metronome has generated controversy. I prefer it in, IDK, some people don't. It's opinion, I guess! I don't remember all of the words, but some of them were... Corner, Conundrum, uh... yeah.