{"id":25523,"date":"2022-03-23T16:27:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T23:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=25523"},"modified":"2022-03-28T20:11:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T03:11:57","slug":"making-the-nosillacastaway-shanty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/making-the-nosillacastaway-shanty\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the NosillaCastAway Shanty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A week ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/podfeet-shanty\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I released the NosillaCastAway Shanty<\/a>, the new &#8220;official&#8221; shanty of the NosillaCast. Since then, a few people have asked questions about how I made it so I&#8217;ll attempt to describe the process.<\/p>\n<h3>Problems to be Solved:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/qP-7GNoDJ5c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nathan Evans&#8217; Wellerman (Sea Shanty)<\/a> inspired me to create a NosillaCastAway shanty with the same tune but lyrics tailored to the NosillaCast. Writing the lyrics was just a matter of thinking about phrases that described the creation and evolution of the NosillaCast and then modifying the words to get some rhyming. The site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rhymezone.com\">rhymezone.com<\/a> really came in handy to quickly find words that rhymed with each other.<\/p>\n<p>I knew singing would be the most challenging part of creating this song. Starting with the melody from Evans&#8217; Wellerman, I tried singing the melody in the same key but found it was outside of my very limited range. So I had to bring it down a few notes and change the key to get the song into a range I could sing. Even so, I found I couldn&#8217;t quite stay on pitch throughout the song. Later, I found I wanted to add some harmony and maybe a musical instrument to the piece to help flesh it out.<\/p>\n<p>So I had several problems to be solved, here, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I don&#8217;t sing well and I can&#8217;t sing harmony at all<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t sight-read music for singing purposes<\/li>\n<li>I didn&#8217;t have an instrument I could play for accompaniment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I quickly realized that I needed a musical software tool to help me accomplish my goal.<\/p>\n<h3>Learning and Using Musical Software Tool:<\/h3>\n<p>I found a software package called Sibelius made by Avid (at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avid.com\/sibelius\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">avid.com\/sibelius<\/a>) that I ended up using. It has a free 30-day trial period which was perfect for me. The cost to purchase Sibelius is $99\/year or $13\/month. It has 3 key features that satisfied my needs:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Allowed me to write down notes on a musical score with multiple parts<\/li>\n<li>Supported playback of the notes using a variety of selectable musical instruments and synthetic vocals<\/li>\n<li>Provided the ability to export the played score to an aiff file<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It\u2019s a much more full-featured tool than I needed so I just stayed with the features that I needed.<\/p>\n<p>Composing the score was a bit of a hunt-and-peck, iterative process for me. In Sibelius, I could place a note on the treble clef staff and it would actually play the note for me. I chose an oboe as the instrument to play the melody. I sang the first note of the song in the pitch of the range in which I was comfortable singing and found the matching note in Sibelius. Once I had a starting point, I could add notes going up and down the scale, kind of humming along to guide my guesses. As I added more notes and adjusted them to sound right, I could start playing them back to hear the melody.<\/p>\n<p>Oboe Verse:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1NCShantyOboeVerse.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1NCShantyOboeVerse.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1NCShantyOboeVerse.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p>This took a significant amount of trial and error and was the most time-consuming part of the project, by far.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: center; margin: 10px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sibelius-Software-with-NosillaCastAway-Shanty-Chorus-300x216.png\" alt=\"Sibelius Software with NosillaCastAway Shanty Chorus\" width=\"1200\" height=\"864\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-25581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sibelius-Software-with-NosillaCastAway-Shanty-Chorus-300x216.png 300w, https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sibelius-Software-with-NosillaCastAway-Shanty-Chorus-768x554.png 768w, https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sibelius-Software-with-NosillaCastAway-Shanty-Chorus-650x469.png 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Sibelius Software with NosillaCastAway Shanty Chorus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once I had the verse and chorus composed, I exported the oboe tracks and used them as a reference to help me stay (mostly) on pitch as I sang. It was a big improvement over singing acapella but you&#8217;ll notice several notes still don&#8217;t sound quite right.<\/p>\n<p>I really like the harmony sung during the chorus of Wellerman but I knew I couldn&#8217;t sing it. So I decided to create a score for the harmony part and, instead of having it played by an instrument, play it as a background bass vocal which Sibelius can synthesize.<\/p>\n<p>Creating the harmony score was quite a challenge for me since harmony does not come naturally to me. I listened to a couple of versions of Wellerman harmony parts but they were done in different keys so I did my best at transposing those harmonies to the key of my shanty.<\/p>\n<p>Bass Vocal Harmony:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2NCShantyBassVocal.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2NCShantyBassVocal.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2NCShantyBassVocal.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p>My final check was to play each melody and harmony note together to make sure they sounded like a chord and not dissonant.<\/p>\n<h3>Recording:<\/h3>\n<p>I used GarageBand to capture all the vocals and instruments. I imported the oboe and bass vocal aiff files created by Sibelius into GarageBand. For my singing, I tried using Autotune (called Pitch Correction in GarageBand) to help my pitch problems but it gave some weird effects that I didn\u2019t like so I abandoned that whole path. Instead, I sang and recorded two tracks each for the verse and chorus parts and laid the tracks on top of each other, which helped somewhat.<\/p>\n<p>Verse with Double Vocal:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/3NCShantyVocalVerse.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/3NCShantyVocalVerse.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/3NCShantyVocalVerse.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: center; margin: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/GarageBand-NosillaCastAway-Shanty.png\" alt=\"GarageBand NosillaCastAway Shanty\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"1199 \" height=\"738\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">GarageBand NosillaCastAway Shanty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I also wanted to add a beat as Nathan Evans uses in the Wellerman. He strikes the backside of an acoustic guitar to the beat but I don\u2019t have a guitar. The closest I could find was a plastic recycling bin that I turned upside down. I put my mic under the cavity and recorded while I struck the bottom of the bin to the beat.<\/p>\n<p>Recycle Bin Beat:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-4\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/4NCShantyBeat.mp3?_=4\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/4NCShantyBeat.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/4NCShantyBeat.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<figure style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Recycling-Bin-Beat.jpeg\" alt=\"Steve holding upside down recycling bin over the mic\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"500 \" height=\"\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Repurposed Recycling Bin for the Beat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I used the oboe from Sibelius to help me hit the notes while singing the entire song but I wanted the chorus to sound different from the verses. So I took out the oboe from the verse and kept the recycling bin beat. For the chorus, I took out the beat but left the oboe and added the background bass vocal for harmony, both created with Sibelius. <\/p><\/div>\n<p>Chorus Oboe and Vocal Harmony:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-5\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/5NCShantyChorusInstr.mp3?_=5\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/5NCShantyChorusInstr.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/5NCShantyChorusInstr.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p>Finally, inspired by Nathan Evans&#8217; Wellerman, I wanted a good strong &#8220;Huh!&#8221; at the end of each verse for emphasis. For that I just recorded myself grunting &#8220;Huh!&#8221; four times and laid all four tracks on top of each other so it sounded like a group of people all saying &#8220;Huh!&#8221; at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Huh!:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-6\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6NCShantyHuh.mp3?_=6\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6NCShantyHuh.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6NCShantyHuh.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p>With all of the singing, oboe, bass vocal, bin beat, and grunt parts, I ended up using a total of 11 tracks in GarageBand.<\/p>\n<h3>Bottom Line:<\/h3>\n<p>I thought this adventure might take a day or two but I ended up spending close to two weeks to produce the NosillaCastAway shanty! It ended up taking longer partially because I wanted this song to be a surprise for Allison so I had to wait for times when she was away to sing and record my parts. In the throes of attempting to create the song and failing miserably, a fleeting thought came to mind: That is how well NosillaCastaway <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shaiyammanee.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shai Yammannee<\/a> would have performed the song. I&#8217;m sure he would&#8217;ve recorded the song had I asked, but I decided I didn\u2019t want to impose.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, I was pretty happy with how the song turned out and the reception has been pretty good. After the challenges I had, my respect for people who can compose, play instruments, and sing well has grown substantially. I can confirm I am not a singer and I will be keeping my day job &#8211; retirement.<\/p>\n<p>Shanty Outro:<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-25523-7\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/7NCShantyOutro.mp3?_=7\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/7NCShantyOutro.mp3\">https:\/\/podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/7NCShantyOutro.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week ago, I released the NosillaCastAway Shanty, the new &#8220;official&#8221; shanty of the NosillaCast. Since then, a few people have asked questions about how I made it so I&#8217;ll attempt to describe the process. Problems to be Solved: Nathan Evans&#8217; Wellerman (Sea Shanty) inspired me to create a NosillaCastAway shanty with the same tune [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[5135,5137,5134,5139,5136,5130,5131,5133,5140,5138,5132],"class_list":["post-25523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-avid","tag-chorus","tag-garageband","tag-harmony","tag-nathan-evans","tag-nosillacastaway","tag-nosillacastaway-shanty","tag-sibelius","tag-song","tag-verse","tag-wellerman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/NosillaCast-Pirate-Logo.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25523"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25670,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523\/revisions\/25670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}