Johannes Schult

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)

This song was inspired by the season finale of Community. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that Community is totally awesome. If you’ve seen the last episode this song will make perfectly sense to you. If not, well, go watch Community!

I recorded this song in two takes with my digicam. It’s the last one I recorded while waiting for my new computer, so next week’s track will have a better production. As for future Community fan songs, I just had the idea to write a heavy metal meets glee homage to the episode “Modern Warfare”…

#37 Team Slater

No left-wing tendencies, a firm grip on life
A grown-up character, math power +5
Statistical knowledge along with a steady income
Attractive looks and then some
Go Slater, go! I’m on Team Slater
Go Slater, go! Winger plus Slater
Go Slater, go!

She’s the one who’s serious; she’s overcome her fear
She’s very much experienced – the decision should be clear
Go Slater, go! I’m on Team Slater
Go Slater, go! Bring Conan back
Team Slater

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Last Sunday, Richard Shindell played at the Twickenham Folk Club (upstairs in the Cabbage Patch Pub). It was the third time I saw him live. This time around Richard’s music was augmented by the very tasteful electric guitar playing of Marc Shulman.

I won’t bother you with boring details (keeping that for the Shindell mailing list). Among my personal highlights were a fantastic version of “Fishing”, the groovy new “Stray Cow Blues”, the 3/4-and-yet-no-waltz taxi drive meets folk song masterpiece “The Last Fare of the Day”, and finally “Wisteria”, the achingly beautiful song about a nostalgic encounter with a place from one’s past. It doesn’t get better than this! The timeless story of “Reunion Hill” and the soothing darkness of “Nora” deserve a mention, as well.

Both musicians were in excellent shape. I loved how the whole gig was not a preprogrammed set but a dynamic journey through Richard’s repertoire (along with a couple of cover songs in between). Concert stables like “Transit” were thus played along with requests like “Nora” and “Confession”, the latter featuring very good impromptu arrangements by Marc Shulman. Richard kept telling stories in between songs, which added to the already rewarding concert experience. I really hope he’ll be back in Europe next year or so.

1. The Kenworth of My Dreams
2. You Stay Here
3. Transit
4. The Last Fare of the Day
5. She Belongs to Me
6. Fishing
7. Nora
8. A Change Is Gonna Come
9. Confession
10. Stray Cow Blues
11. Wisteria
12. Satellites
13. Get Up Clara
14. There Goes Mavis
15. A Summer Wind, a Cotton Dress
16. Reunion Hill
17. Arrowhead
18. One Man’s Arkansas

This is a remnant from the time when my computer broke down. At first, I imagined the lead melody being played by a violin. But only on the piano did I find a proper way to continue the tune. This little piece of music is possibly a filler. But it’s one you can use to meditate on life and sound quality.

#36 Funnel Cloud

My current research requires meta-analytic procedures where variables that contain another variable’s mean come in very handy. Centering Variables is also something very reasonable to do when analysing regressions with an interaction term between a continuous variable and a dummy variable.

Centering variables sounds like an easy task. It is if you use Stata but I found it surprisingly difficult in SPSS (unless you enter the means by hand, which is error-prone and impractible for repeated analyses). Here’s how you can calculated a variable which contains the mean of another variable (which can then easily be centered or used in whatever way one wants to).

Let dres be the variable of interest. The new variable containing the mean of dres (for all obversations) will be named dresavg. I also show how to create a variable containing the number of observations (ntotal). cdres will be the centered variable.

Stata 10

Use

. egen dresavg = mean(dres)

and you’re done! You could also use summarize and generate commands:

. sum dres
. gen dresavg = r(mean)

If you want a variable that contains the total number of observations you can use

. gen ntotal = _N

or with the more flexible egen command (e.g., handy when dres has missings)

. egen ntotal = count(dres)

There are plenty ways to generate various variables containing sample statistics. As for the centered variable, use

. gen cdres = dres - dresavg

or without even generating the variable containing the mean:

. sum dres
. gen cdres = dres - r(mean)

PASW 18 (SPSS, you know)

Beware, long syntax ahead. Before you despair, there’s a simpler (but less flexible) solution below. The complicated approach starts with exporting the variable mean into a new data set. This data set is then merged with the master data set; a variable containing the mean for every observation will be attached. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a nod to my dark progressive country roots. And to Old McBiddy, who’s living happily on his farm in Scotland. (O hai, video!)

#35 Old McBiddy’s Wedding

People came from far to see Old McBiddy’s wedding
Gather in the churchyard to celebrate the day
Oh what a joy it’s going to be: Old McBiddy’s wedding
So when he says, I do, the crowd shouts out, hooray!
Now we’re going to celebrate Old McBiddy’s wedding
Hurry boys, do not be late and let the music play

Watch the people as they dance at Old McBiddy’s wedding
Meanwhile Uncle Parker is getting drunk on wine
Come on folks, raise your hands at Old McBiddy’s wedding
Toast to the happy couple and their love divine

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is the first proper song I’ve recorded on my new computer. I still have a couple of digicam tracks which I’ll feature here, eventually. I had to force myself rather hard to create this particular song here. Thankfully, Russ chimed in with the suggestion to write about Tropical Heat’s popularity in Serbia. I pieced a few riffs together and assembled the lyrics on the fly, based on a few key words I had jotted down earlier. The whole thing would deserve a more elaborate song. But I only had a narrow time window this week and I was eager to experiment with the new recording software. I hope, however, that the song fits with the other 52-second songs I’ve done so far. (An epic instrumental MIDI-suite is in the works but that’s a different story – related to hybris.)

Želim da postanem poznata u SrbiJa. Ugoditi pomoc mene. Hvala. Ljubav i palacinke!

#34 Big in Serbia

I don’t expect to become an internet superstar
But I wouldn’t mind a bit more popularity
I wish I was big in Serbia
That people recognized me in the street
I wish I was big in Serbia
Just like Tropical Heat

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This little tune was written and recorded at an unlikely location: the camping ground of this year’s Headbangers Open Air. I had planned to record more tracks back home. But once I had come up with the melody I liked the sparse sound of the glockenspiel. I recorded the song with my digicam inside the car. I had to close the windows because the first band of the day was already on stage, thrashing away. It got quite hot. So for me it’s surprising how the track sounds nothing like the circumstances under which it came into being.

#33 Regentropfen im Nordwind

This is a song about F-sharp minor (as seen in Hank’s video around 2:25). If you don’t know who Hank Green is, check out his music at DFTBA Records.

“Hank Green Learned a New Chord” is yet another example for songs I hadn’t written without the 52-second constraint (and the need for brief song lyrics associated with it). Once again I had to record everything with my digicam, hence the bad sound. On the bright sight, you can watch me playing/recording the song.

#32 Hank Green Learned a New Chord

It was Wednesday the 21st
Hank played a tune on his guitar
There on the vlogbrothers channel
I almost couldn’t believe what I saw
It was like an epiphany
Though the part was rather short
It was plain for all to see
Hank Green learned a new chord

Until that day I had always thought
That Hank was a Horcrux of punk
A way to keep the lore of the three chord songs
Safe from boy-groups and funk
It was like an epiphany
Though the part was rather short
It was plain for all to see
Hank Green learned a new chord

Is he about to make the transition from wizard rock
To Slytherin Jazz for the Dark Lord?
Hank Green learned a new chord

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is the result of my overexposure to Star Wars. In a post-“Return of the Jedi” world I can imagine guided tourist tours over the Endor battlefield. Who needs Gettysburg when you can stroll through the ruins of the shield generator? Speeder bikes available for extra charge. Yet, given the vast green forests on Endor it must be raining rather often.

The lyrical idea and the main melody lay around for a while until I figured I’d use my digicam to capture me recording the individual parts. I completed the lyrics in a hurry, scrapping my otherwise favourite line “Like a rainy day on Endor with no fur to keep you warm”. The audio tracks are actually those from the camera, so please excuse the crappy quality. You can see excerpts from all five tracks in the video.

#31 Rainy Day

Now I’ve finally reached my aim
But it really ain’t the same
Without you by my side
Feels like a rainy day on Endor
Feels like a rainy day on Endor

I can’t enjoy my victory
Because I was too blind to see
Just what you meant to me
Feels like a rainy day on Endor
Feels like a rainy day on Endor

(words and music by Johannes Schult)