Ryan Houck Music – Illustrated choruses –

Think I jumped the gun with infringement worry

August 22, 2010

I’ve produced more drawings this year than I did the previous decade and then some. There are over a 100 posted so far… I thought this site was about music?

A month ago, I was giving away over 30 drawings and I had over 20 takers in just two days. Yesterday, I mailed off those drawings. I’m not certain it was necessary to give them away, but it felt right to do so because I was worried I had borrowed from copyrighted photographs without sufficient comment or alteration. It’s been on my mind all month and I’m certain that I jumped the gun on it because many of the drawings would have no problem fitting under fair-use. Still, I’m glad that those drawings have new homes across the states, and even as far as England and Australia. I’ve had tens of thousands of people visit my site from across the globe because of the drawings so I best keep at it.

Copyright infringement and fair-use

I didn’t have a strategy or any worries about style to begin with, but I now enjoy *schticking* red-letter captions on images that I come across, and I’m going to continue this, but I would like to use more of my own photos (as well as no photos). I’m grateful for all of the many comments I’ve received from visitors, friends, #draw365-ers on Twitter, etc.

The red-letter captions pair with and parody most of the images (although there is sincere saccharine), but many of these drawings, while some are more altered than others, resemble the copyrighted photo sources quite a bit and this had me worried. I didn’t consider this to be a problem early on because I simply wanted to draw, but in early May, I hit a slump in output as I wondered if my drawings fit under the protection of fair-use as parody and satire, or if they were too similar and should be taken down.

My drawings had not been for sale and I was not asked to remove them, but in the unlikely case that a photo creator found my drawings infringing, I wanted to remove them.

There is clearly parody in the conflict between the words and the pictures in many of the drawings I took down, but there are a few I’ll leave unpublished because the captions are more of a title than a comment, and the image source is too recognizable.

Soon, I’m going to post all drawings under a Creative Commons license to encourage sharing and make collaboration less cumbersome.

Sketch 5: Donaji’s in Db

July 30, 2010

PlayLength: 1:10

This is Donaji’s tune since she seems to melt whenever I even start humming it. Not sure if it needs developing or if it should be a tune for the mobile over a baby’s crib. Might make for a soothing alarm clock or a calming ring-tone. Debussy’s Clair de Lune is my alarm/ring-tone and has been for nearly two years; it was also the song as Dji walked down the isle. Calming tunes help make for less disruptive phones.

Sketch: In memory of Chris Al-Aswad

July 29, 2010

Thank-you Chris Day

I was deeply saddened yesterday to hear that Chris Al-Aswad had passed away. He created the online art journal Escape Into Life, which he called a tribute to his mother who was an artist. It has quickly developed into an inspired community.

I was working on this musical sketch a couple hours before I heard the news.

Two weeks ago, I messaged Chris a birthday greeting and we had this brief conversation:

	Happy birthday Chris, many thanks for providing a great site
	thanks, love your art btw, reminds me of: David Kramer (click for article)
	Hey thank you, and thanks for the link– I had not come across his stuff. Love it! Just bookmarked his sites.
	I like what he’s doing; and I see a major trend in this type of painting; very modern in the best sense of the word
	I’m drawn to this type of stuff as well– the various levels of communication is overwhelming. A lifetime isn’t long enough to exhaust it.
	yes, our journal will be exploring this trend/movement/whatever you want to call it more and more . . .here’s one of the latest articles we did that does just that: (click for A Humument article)
	Really enjoyed that article. Reminded me of @austinkleon, though I identify more with Tom Phillips than him. Just ordered the Humument. Reminds me of a preacher I met who asked a man sharpie-ing his bible. “I was blackening out the unnecessary bits” the man said.
	wow, so happy to hear it made a big impact on you . . . maybe we’re on the same wavelength
	Now off to read the new Alison Jardine article.
	EIL is a philosophy, an experiment, a dream to fuse the visual and the literary in the most spectacular way possible (for @writeasongtoday)

A Humument arrived in the mail a few days later, and I wanted to talk with him about it when I finished exploring its pages.

I wish my condolences to his family and friends. Meanwhile, there is quite a remembrance going on today on Twitter as people share their memories of Chris and talk about his writings. Search the tag #TYCHRIS.

The above drawing is inspired by a panel of his Novel of Life Las Vegas graphic novel.

Visit Escape Into Life for a wealth of articles on artists, writers, poets, and more. His friends will be carrying on with its publishing.

Read his writings and poetry at his Blog of Innocence.

Thanks Chris.

Sketch 4: D Mixolydian Hindu. Bass, clav, mallets

July 26, 2010

If you write the key signature of a G Major and F Major on top of each other you get the sounds of a Mixolydian b13 scale. It’s actually the 5th mode of the Melodic Minor scale and is known as a Hindu scale.

This sketch is centered around a 4-measure bass melody using that scale.

Put simply, you are less evolved

July 21, 2010

Boring Picture

July 19, 2010

I want to taste what you see

July 15, 2010

Nothing in common ‘cept the memories we make

July 14, 2010

Sketch 3: Piano falling down stairs in E minor

July 12, 2010

This sketch is based on four ideas and then mix-matched. I made a wack piano loop that sounds like it’s falling down a staircase. There’s also a drum sequence and subtle guitars.

It sort of builds like a nightmare. Donaji says it sounds like it belongs in something by Tim Burton.

The Star-Spangled Banner

July 10, 2010

This is an arrangement I did for a Navy Day Ball in ’08. On two prior occasions I sang it acappela, but when I was asked for a third time to sing it, I picked up my acoustic and worked this out in a low Bb tuning. From the bottom, the tuning is: Bb-F-D-F-Bb-Bb. (see TABs below for chords and licks used)

My favorite version of The Star-Spangled Banner is the rendition by Jimi Hendrix as it captures the chaos the lyrics speak of.

Patriotic verses set to a drinking tune

It’s well known that Francis Scott Key penned the poem The Defence of Fort McHenry after witnessing the British attack the Baltimore ramparts; he was aboard a British vessel rescuing an American prisoner, but was not allowed to leave because of his knowledge of the attack to come. It’s lesser known that the poem was set to To Anacreon in Heaven, a song of devotion to Greek gods for love and wine, which was written in the 1770′s by John Stafford Smith of Gloucester, England. I visited Gloucester Cathedral in 2000 and there is a memorial stone for Smith that includes:

He will long be remembered as composer of the tune of the National Anthem of the United States of America.

Berlin blesses beautiful America

There was a movement to make the great Irving Berlin’s God Bless America the National Anthem, but opposing brows were raised because Berlin was a Russian emigrant. The movement never really died out, especially after 9/11, and God Bless America remains the “unofficial” anthem.

Now tradition is tradition, and a ball game of any sort wouldn’t start proper without The Star-Spangled Banner sounding– regardless that few understand the opening words about José, and that the only verse typically sung ends on a question mark– “….and the home of the brave?” (Verse 4 ends with the exclamation of ‘brave!’)

This Independence Day, an article was published by a musicologist in SFGate arguing that it’s time for a new anthem. He mentions Woody Guthrie’s answer to God Bless America with This Land is Your Land, but then arrives at America the Beautiful as it asks “God to make us worthy of his blessing.”

I think people should relax about it, but having sung The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, and America the Beautiful for different ceremonies, I do favor America the Beautiful. All three songs have peaks and valleys that make for a nice anthem melody, but there’s a grace about America the Beautiful and Ray Charles repeatedly proved it.