Tao of Schuh » Music

Snake Oil Salesmen on WVBR

Paul — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:07:14 +0000

Thanks to Dan Cole, the host of WVBR’s “Tuesdays with the Band” program, we now have a copy of our broadcast interview from 29 January 2008.

You can listen to the show along with photos from the studio on the Snake Oil Salesmen website here.

RPM Challenge – recap of the first few days

Paul — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:30:53 +0000

It was nice that the start of the RPM Challenge this year was at the start of a weekend. It let me give my attention to writing new songs without much distraction.

My project, the “War Morgan Project“, is coming along. I’ve got bits and pieces coming together with either melodies or chord progressions defined for eight songs so far. I’ve got lyrics coming along for three songs so far.

No names other than Logic Pro filenames for the songs so far; it looks like its going to be a mix of rock, jazz, and electronic styles.

Everything here is subject to change, but this is what I’ve got so far:

WMP-1 – Catchy rhythm hook with variations on a lead

WMP-2 – Variations on a bass riff

WMP-3 – VIm IV V VIm ballad in D

WMP-4 – VIm I II IV VIm piece in Eb

WMP-5 – I IVm IIIb VIIb I in F

WMP-6 – I VIm IIm V I in A

WMP-7 – I IIm IIIm IV V I in Bb

WMP-8 – Ambient Electronic

WMP-9 -

WMP-10 -

One website I found very helpful was the Hot Frets Progressionator which is a Flash application that generates sample chord progressions. I find it a nice tool to help me get started.

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at with the project, between work and the upcoming gig with my band Snake Oil Salesmen at The Nines in Ithaca on Saturday, the 16th at 10pm, I’m not going to have much time to work on the songs until after that gig is finished.

– Paul Schuh

War Morgan Project

Paul — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:35:25 +0000

I’ve just finished signing up for RPM Challenge ‘08. The goal is to complete one album with 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February.

I set up a site for my project, the “War Morgan Project” — where I’ll post notes and media specific to the project. I’ve co-written a few songs with Snake Oil Salesmen, but never put out anything of my own, so this should be a fun experiment to get those music composition gears going.

About the name, “War Morgan Project,” it is a play on the name of an organ sample on my synth (Warm Organ) and my middle name (Morgan.)

– Paul Schuh

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