I mentioned working with MIDI files on the Cakewalk post. I remembered (around 2005) I put this together using Cakewalk and mostly just moving notes around on the staff (on the computer screen). It's not meant to be a finished product.....I was just working out an arrangement in my head for a polka band.

I like what I did here....I'd love to do it on the arranger some day.

It sounds great to me as it is.

Thanks Bernie...I actually liked it myself. Would love to hear what it sounds like with live instruments.

I've noticed that hardly anyone posts a song here anymore. I'm wondering if it's because no one "compliments" like you took the time to do?

Mark ... do you mean you weren't actually playing that? ... could you explain more about the process? ...
thanks

I liked those clarinet runs. I hope you can have a live band play your chart. Are there many pro level polka bands in your area? Here in Texas, polka has merged into tejano and conjunto and in Northern Mexico they have Norteña music.

I was thinking about how I did that after I posted it. I figured it out when I listened to the little nuances. It's MY style of playing. Listen close and you can hear that it's live playing and NOT a MIDI machine.

The sequence of events was figure out in my head what I wanted the arrangement to sound like. After I got that down, I played it a couple of times into, I think, my keyboard at the time and recorded the best run as a MIDI file. The first time through I laid down the basic melody and the second time I overlaid the brass on another channel. The drum breaks I scored putting down notes with the software (using channel 10?). The very fast runs (clarinet, etc) I DID have to "clean" a few of the notes up, but just a few. Those runs are not as difficult as they appear to be. Just basically scales.

The whole thing is too stiff, it's really orchestrated for a live band.

I forgot to mention WHY I did the arrangement. I was talking to the leader of a nation-wide well-known polka band that I wanted to be a part of. I thought I'd have leverage if I came up with an arrangement that he could use. Well, I never got to present it to him and....I never got to be in his band!

Paul...if there were three wishes I was granted by some stray Genie, they would be go back to playing accordion full time

1) in a nationally known polka band
2) in a Mexican or Latin American band
3) busking in the streets of Europe playing French musette all day

There's nothing like enjoying what you're doing as compared to despising what you have to do (to pay the bills).

and.....

Nothing.....nothing tops an accordion when it comes to expressing your emotions.

Mark

I must say, you are quite a remarkable person. You are not only an accomplished musician, but a deep thinker and philosopher to boot.