Jutze 52 #43 – Night Shift

This song just happened after I put a new set of strings on my acoustic guitar.

#43 Night Shift

(music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Jutze 52 #18 – Etwas Gezupfe

Auch diese Woche gibt es ein instrumentales Stück. Wie so oft, bekam es erst einen Titel, als ich die Datei abschließend gespeichert habe. Eine andere Idee, die ich diese Woche nicht in ein ganzes Lied umsetzen konnte, lautete übrigens “Hier kommt die Kartoffelfrau”.

#18 Etwas Gezupfe

(music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Jutze 52 #4 – A Walk in the Wilderness

This instrumental had the working title “Week #4”. Very creative, I know. Even after recording (and filming) the tune it lacked a title. So I forced “A Walk in the Wilderness” upon it. Go figure.

#4 A Walk in the Wilderness

(words and music by Johannes Schult 2015 Creative Commons by-nc 4.0)

Jutze 52 #38 – My Heart Will Stay With You

This song took a couple of surprising turns. I started out with the last line of the lyrics and worked my way to the beginning. The acoustic guitar plays a reduced version of the original picking pattern, giving the track more space. I had intended to included at least two verses, but given the mood I barely managed to fit one into 52 seconds. I used a lot of reverb, possibly way too much. Experimenting with sound effects I arrived at the weird version of the guitar tracks you can hear in the background by applying a denoiser.

#38 My Heart Will Stay With You

I can hear you breathing, lying by my side
I can sleep no longer in the middle of the night
I know I don’t belong here; I have to start anew
But when I leave tomorrow my heart will stay with you

When I leave tomorrow my heart will stay with you

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Jutze 52 #12 – Clouds Are Passing by

This one started out with vocals. The melody still hints at the title, which I just kept, because I was running out of time to think of something else. A while ago I was looking at the sky and beheld shifting clouds (see video below). It was there that I came up with the title. I intended to make it a song with space between parts and notes. It ended up being rather packed, anyway. I also admit that the verse uses the same chords as “1998” (which Manticess made for Song Fu last year) and that the middle part is basically the bridge from “The Flower Song“. The end result justifies the self-citations, I think. The main reason I omitted the vocals was that I’m not a good singer. But I also figured there’s a pattern in the previous tracks (except for the first one): every third tune is an instrumental. And I’m a sucker for patterns. And, as I said, a bad singer, who didn’t want to spend what’s left of his weekend failing to sound fragile.

#12 Clouds Are Passing by

Jutze 52 #11 – Canada

This is a rather cryptic song that will hopefully become obsolete rather sooner than later. Hint: It’s not about Bryan Adams. The music is based on a little picking figure with the first three notes of the g# minor scale. I just built the rest of the song around it. Just like last week, I haven’t excelled in my playing. Still, it was a good exercise and maybe someone else beside Patrick will be able to make sense of the lyrics.

#11 Canada

Canada, why did you do this to me?
Canada, why couldn’t you just leave it be?
Canada, how could you go this far?
Canada, oh Canada
If it weren’t for Rush I’d just give up on you
Still it seems this time the joke is on you

Canada, I know you meant no harm
Canada, this ain’t no call to arms
Still I think you owe the world an apology
It’s not too late for you to see

Canada

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Jutze 52 #9 – Requiem for a Snowflake

This is an instrumental piece that could easily be incorporated in a lonely movie scene. I started out with the acoustic guitar part, double-tracked it and added some high piano notes to augment the atmosphere.

#9 Requiem for a Snowflake

Jutze 52 #3 – Castle Ruins in November

This is actually the first 52-second piece of music I wrote specifically for this collection. I stumbled over the first few notes on my keyboard. Eventually, I continued the idea on the acoustic guitar. I added a second track with just the chords. Still, the composition might well work in a film as background music. The title is somewhat arbitrary. But hopefully it conveys the atmosphere.

#3 Castle Ruins in November