Tag: self-promotion

April Bandcamp Friday: Péchés d’âge moyen II: One Week in March

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Today’s post is no April Fool’s joke:  I managed to eke out another release in time for the April Bandcamp Friday:  Péchés d’âge moyen II: One Week in March.

It’s half the tracks of Péchés d’âge moyen, which was not my original intent.  I’d hoped to record at least another ten, but with time dwindling, I opted instead to record the five pieces I wrote the week of 14-18 March 2022.

I managed to compose one piece each day that week, and it was an eventful one:  Pi Day (14 March), The Ides of March (15 March), and Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March) all fell within days of one another.

The track listing is as follows:

  1. “Pi Day” (Monday, 14 March 2022)
  2. “The Ides of March” (Tuesday, 15 March 2022)
  3. “Downpour” (Wednesday, 16 March 2022)
  4. “Saint Patrick’s Day Jig” (Thursday, 17 March 2022)
  5. “An Impressionist’s Friday Afternoon” (Friday, 18 March 2022)

There’s also a bonus track version of “Pi Day,” which I recorded at school on a Baldwin Acrosonic spinet piano (the same piano used in Péchés d’âge moyen.  Again, I’d hoped to record the whole thing on there, but it just wasn’t possible given time constraints and work commitments.  Instead, I played the tracks on my Casio CDP-S100.

And, if you’re feeling really generous—or would like something pretty to hang on your walls—I’m selling the one-of-kind painting I used for the album cover.  It’s called “Springtime.”

Finally, there’s all of my other great music.

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Even More Little Paintings

The Portly Politico8 Comments

I took a bit of a break from painting last week to finish up Péchés d’âge moyen, my short collection of twelve original piano miniatures, but by the time “More Little Paintings: Hearts and an Octopus” posted last week, I’d already churned out a total of fifteen of these little guys.

Rather than subject you to week after week of bizarre paintings, I figured I’d dump them all into one post:

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Lazy Sunday CLV: Péchés d’âge moyen Posts

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On Friday, I released Péchés d’âge moyen, my short collection of twelve original piano miniatures.  At the time of writing, I haven’t sold any downloads via Bandcamp, but its tracks have a total of 113 plays from forty unique listeners, which is pretty good.  Goth Kilts of The Sandwhich Press and Dr. Rachel Fulton Brown of Dragon Common Room have both been wonderful about promoting the recording via their respective channels.  I mean, considering GK was the muse for the whole project, she’d better be pitching it!

Anyway, it was fun putting the pieces together, and in the spirit of album promotion (get it here!), here are the four posts about the project:

That’s it for this Lazy Sunday.  If you haven’t already, take 6’35” and listen to Péchés d’âge moyen.  If you’re feeling so led, pay $5 and pick it up.  You’ll be helping me out in the process.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Rapid-Fire Recording

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Yesterday I released my collection of short miniatures, Péchés d’âge moyen.  It’s been getting a lot of plays on Bandcamp thanks to support from The Dragon Common Room and The Sandwhich Press, both chats/channels that I follow and participate in on Telegram (if you use Telegram, you should join/follow both; here are links:  DCR; TSP).

I’d hoped that in the few weeks I had between announcing the project and releasing it I’d be able to set up a more sophisticated recording rig.  Instead, I recorded the twelve tracks in a white heat, using my iPhone SE’s voice memo app, and placing the phone on the old Baldwin Acrosonic piano in my school’s Music Room.

These made for less-than-ideal recording conditions, but in listening back to the album, it worked better than I thought.

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Lazy Sunday CLIV: Behind the Songs, Part II

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Subscribers to my SubscribeStar page have enjoyed (I hope!) a series of retrospectives about the songs from my debut EP, Contest Winner EP.  I’ve dubbed this series Behind the Songs.  Today, I’m dedicating the second of two editions of Lazy Sunday to look back at this series.

Here are the second and last three tracks in the series, in case you missed them.  Access to the full articles requires a subscription to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more, but you should at least get a good taste for the pieces with these previews:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLIII: Behind the Songs, Part I

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Subscribers to my SubscribeStar page have enjoyed (I hope!) a series of retrospectives about the songs from my debut EP, Contest Winner EP.  I’ve dubbed this series Behind the Songs.  As such, I’m dedicating the next two editions of Lazy Sunday to look back at this series.

I’m thinking of compiling these posts—which are quite detailed and lengthy—into a short ebook, which I might also offer as a PDF download with future purchases of Contest Winner EP.  I’d expand these pieces with some introductory and concluding remarks.

In the meantime, here are the first three tracks in the series, in case you missed them.  Access to the full articles requires a subscription to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more, but you should at least get a good taste for the pieces with these previews:

Here’s to an enjoyable listening experience for you.  And if you haven’t already, pick up my EP and my other work on Bandcamp!

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Contest Winner

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Well, here we are—the final installment of Behind the Songs.  I’m wrapping up this extended, self-indulgent walk through my debut EP, Contest Winner EP with the final and title track, “Contest Winner.”

“Contest Winner” is probably the first track I wrote for the EP, long before I ever conceived of releasing an album or EP of my own.  If I’m not mistaken, it dates back to 2012, so it’s ten-years old this year.

I wrote the song for my very first songwriting contest, figuring that I might as well as be confident.

It did not win the contest, but it did win the People’s Choice Award.  And it spawned an era of artistic inspiration—and a lot of songs.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Behind the Songs: Funeral Pyre

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Apologies to readers for the slight delay with today’s post.  It was a grueling but productive week, and after teaching eighteen lessons in five days to seventeen students (and it would have been twenty lessons and nineteen students, were it not for The Virus), I fell asleep a little before 8 PM last night, and slept until around 7 AM this morning.

Today’s post is the penultimate in my Behind the Songs miniseries.  I’ve been going through the stories behind each of the six songs on my debut EP, Contest Winner EP.  With “Funeral Pyre,” the fifth track, we’re nearly through the entire release!

I often conceive of “Funeral Pyre” as a companion piece to “Ghostly,” which I covered in detail last week.  Both are unusual songs, and it’s pretty easy to link ghosts and funerals thematically.

I thought I’d written “Funeral Pyre” last among all the songs on the EP, but it appears that I wrote it roughly three weeks before “Ghostly.”  Both tunes date to January 2014—6 January 2014 for “Funeral Pyre,” and 30 January 2014 for “Ghostly,” according to the original lead sheets.

Regardless, the two songs share some similarities.  Besides the thematic similarity, both are fairly dark in tone compared to the other songs on the EP.  They also were late additions:  originally, I think I was just going to record “Hipster Girl Next Door,” “Greek Fair,” “By the Light of the Laptop Screen,” and “Contest Winner,” and release a single.

But a gnarly ice storm meant that my recording session was delayed, and I wrote “Funeral Pyre” while sitting at home in my tiny apartment in Florence, South Carolina, while the world was covered in ice.  I was supposed to go that night to start recording the record, but the foul weather meant a postponement, which allowed time to write the song and, it seems, “Ghostly.”

One other similarity:  “Funeral Pyre” and “Ghostly” are the songs from the record I play live the least.  “Ghostly” does enjoy a lot of playtime during the spooky season, but for many years, I neglected “Funeral Pyre” in my live sets.

As we’ll see, I now think that was a mistake.

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The Re-Return of Bandcamp Friday

The Portly Politico11 Comments

Last month I boldly proclaimed “The End of Bandcamp Friday” because, well, their website said it was over.  Naturally, that announcement turned out to be premature, as Bandcamp is bringing back Bandcamp Fridays!

I really should take this opportunity to write some new material, as many of the readers of this blog have either a.) already purchased my music or b.) made it clear they have no intention of doing so.

Still, I should at least try to get readers to part with their money—right?—so here is an abbreviated version of my usual spiel:

It being the Bandcamp Friday—and nearly Valentine’s Day!—there’s never been a better time to buy my music, my merch, or my book.  Indeed, you can pick up my entire discography (seven albums!) for just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount.

On Bandcamp Friday, Bandcamp waives it’s share of sales, so musicians take home more of those dollars than other days.

Bandcamp also has some exciting news:  musicians can host livestreams via the platform now!  These can be free or ticketed, which opens up some enticing opportunities for musicians.  I’ll explore this option in the near future.

That’s all I’ve got.  It’s been a bit rough lately for yours portly, but things are good on the financial front for the moment.  By the time this post is published, I’ll have taught thirteen lessons this week, with six more coming up today.  I would have had twenty-one separate lessons this week, but a couple of students got sick and/or had to quarantine.  Needless to say, that’s helped beef up the coffers considerably after the doldrums of January.

Of course, there’s always room for more beef—or cheddar—in the coffers, so feel free to cough ‘er up.

Happy Friday!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: Behind the Songs: Ghostly

The Portly Politico6 Comments

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Today marks the fourth installment of the six-part Behind the Songs miniseries for SubscribeStar Saturday.  In this series, I’m going to reveal the stories behind each of the six songs on my debut EP, Contest Winner EP.  I’ll go track-by-track, in order, detailing the inspirations behind these songs.

This week’s tune, “Ghostly,” is perhaps the most unusual track on the record.  That’s by design.  I wanted to write a song in 3/4 time with a kind of creepy carnival feel.  I also wanted to write it in C minor, as I was not very familiar with the key, but it was similar enough to C major that I could shift into familiar territory (as I learned just this week, classical composers considered C minor to be particularly unstable and tumultuous, and Beethoven reserved it for his stormiest, most emotional works; I wish I could claim I knew that at the time, but it’s fitting for this song).

Needless to say, “Ghostly” remains the weirdest song I’ve ever written.  For that reason and others, I love it.

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