Napster and You

Pitch to Pixel is now available on Napster! Search "Pitch to Pixel" in your Napster client and I should be in there (What Is Paragon and Zeitgeber are already in there. Its possible that Patience could be there by now too).

Pitch to Pixel featured in Gonintendo

You know, I've tried getting coverage in numerous "mainstream" gaming sites and blogs (and yes, in these times there are such things as "mainstream" blogs). Most don't really do anything, and I don't blame them. While my "industry level designer makes music" is perhaps slightly more interesting than "just some random guy does music," it isn't really "big timey industry news" to report on Pitch to Pixel.

So I'm always delighted when a well established, popular blog covers my stuff, which happened early Monday morning when Gonintendo.com's rawmeatcowboy posted a nice writeup on the album.

Of course, bigger isn't always better and I've benefited from having relatively new blogs cover my stuff as well.

Pitch to Pixel Song Profiles: Queretaro and Mystique

I'm going to cut the song profiles a little short and put the last two tunes in one post. I actually have a new album coming out this week! Yep, that's right, more music! That's just a few weeks after I got done the last album! I'm awesome, right?

Well, no, it is really because it is an unreleased album from 2004. But its really awesome. More on that later.

Anyway, back to Pitch to Pixel. Queretaro is, of course, about the city of the same name in Mexico. I have a bit of history there. My wife spent time there as a college student and we went there together on our "babymoon," a few months before my daughter Helena was born. The song is actually more South American than Mexican, but that's ok, because I was inspired to write it from watching a bunch of kids doing "Capoeira," a martial art from South America.

Mystique is two things really: a homage to a great Jeff Beck track from his "guitar shop" album, called "Behind the Veil," and a song form called the "minor blues," which I like to go back to every now and then.

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Run

Every song so far described from this album has had a pretty clear purpose or vision. That's pretty fortunate, since I gave myself barely over a month to complete this project. You see, in order for this to be a profitable venture, speed is key. I can't labor over the album for a year, because I want to get other stuff out to market (provided that I at least break even, which I still haven't done yet, hint hint HINT).

I think "Run" is maybe the only song that resulted purely out of the "speed" approach, so I guess "Run" is an appropriate title. I had no idea what to write when I sat down to compose. I just needed to write something. The latin groove that this song uses is kind of accidental. The melody comes from a technique that I use with my jazz guitar students; use a simple motif, over and over.

So, seeing is that I didn't have an artistic "purpose" here other than to make a song, how do I feel about it? I feel fine. Its a good song. Sometimes as a musician (or even as a level designer) you have to get beyond inspiration and just get down to work. If everyone only made art when they were inspired, then we'd have a hard time getting anything done.

Not sure exactly what to post as my "song profile YouTube" clip, so here is some cool chipmusic that isn't from me:

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Wooster At Night

Ah, the undergraduate days. My graduate school days (I did half a degree at Wayne State in jazz studies, then I made my big career change and got my masters degree at Southern Methodist University in Interactive Technology) were more career oriented. I was older, and a bit more focused. While I was a good student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio (where I did my bachelor's), I was certainly more connected to the night life, if only because playing gigs as a professional musician demanded it.

So, I would often see Wooster Street at night, when the drunks were shuffling back to their dorms/apartments/rented houses. The slow sections of this tune is a musical representation of the drunk's slow walk. The fast sections... well, those are in there because, well, they sound cool. No artsy reason! Guilty as charged!

However, I should note that the tune borrows heavily from a jazz composition called "Fables of Faubus," by Charles Mingus, shown here (this is a pretty cool rendition by a modern jazz group):



Fables doesn't have the fast double time, but the transition from "two beat" to 4/4 swing makes it feel that way. And while my little tune is about dumb drunks, I should point out that Fables of Faubus is a serious composition about segregation and racism (written during a time when it was very near and present danger in this country).

#1.... but how?

If you click to enlarge you'll see that this morning I was #1 on the CDBaby chiptune charts! YEAH!!!

Of course, I haven't recorded a sale since last week (my last recorded sale was from my Mom. Thanks Mom!). So I'm wondering how is it that my tracks keep climbing the charts?

Obviously one answer could be that perhaps there is a "timeout" on how long the sales count. In other words, if the sales for the other songs on the chart are older, maybe they "drop off the board," hence rising the chart position without any actual sales. Obviously I'd prefer it if I got real sales, of course (even breaking even, which I haven't done yet, would most certainly inspire more albums in the near future).  But I'm still very happy with this, as the CDBaby style page is where I get most of my web hits, outside of "direct reference" (which is how my web traffic report classifies it when you click a link in an email or directly enter it into your browser).

I actually emailed CDBaby today to ask about how they calculate their charts to get to the bottom of this. Its possible that they have sales they haven't reported to me yet, or their partners via their digital distribution program (iTunes, Napster, Verizon VCast, among many many others) have sales too. Now, I know I don't get paid from those services for awhile after purchase (for iTunes its supposed to be a couple of months of turnaround), but I don't mind that; I get a big cut out of those sales, so while "all things being equal" I would prefer you go to the CDBaby page and order there, I don't mind at all if people buy tracks from iTunes or other places.

Maybe CDBaby factors in *all* sales, even ones not on their site, which is possible since music submitted to CDBaby is digitally encoded (I think those are called "ISRC" codes or something), so they do show up in music industry sales charts. So something sold on iTunes would register as a sale on those charts, probably instantly, way before iTunes pays out the actual money from those sales.And, happily, I do know of folks who bought the album on iTunes (huge thanks to you folks... especially one who is a "great catch.").

In any event, I'm very grateful for the success the songs have had on the charts so far. Please do continue to support my efforts! I'd love to be able to make more Pitch to Pixel for you guys!

Update: Just heard back from the folks at CDBaby. They said that the chart is determined by a combination of sales and how many times the song is listened to. What isn't perfectly clear is by "listened to" they mean the sample you get when you go to the artist page. I'm thinking that's what it is (how can it be anything else?). Of course, that means lots of people are sampling the song, which is good... but more of you need to BUY IT!!! :-) 

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Street Struggle

Let's get something straight: I often think of my life as divided into video game "eras." For example, early elementary school was the "Zelda" period. Pubescence was the "Street Fighter II" era. The late teens was the "Final Fantasy VII" era (aka the "emo" period, heh). My college years were the "Halo I and II" era, while my graduate school years were the "Knights of the Old Republic" era.

It is the pubescent era that inspired "Street Struggle," most notably Street Fighter II's awesome, rockin' introductory music. I wanted something with power and fire, and of course I had the challenge of emulating power chord guitar with the emulated NES sound chip!

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Over The There

Last song profile, I talked about basing a song of off some silly thing I say to my wife. Well, this song is a silly thing my daughter says. Obviously "Over The There" is non-sense, but when a toddler says things like that it is, well, super cute. Basically, whenever she wants to tell me where something is, she says, "Dada, Over The There!"

The song itself is a bit of "bebop" jazz. Bebop refers to a style of jazz that came after the swing era, beginning roughly in the early 1940s. It included players such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Christian, and of course Charlie Parker, the most important musician of that era. Bebop is full of frenetic melodies and rapid fire ideas. Since my daughter is super high energy and "in your face," it seemed like a good choice for her :-)

The tune also resembles a Dizzy Gillespie composition called "Groovin' High," which in itself is based on an earlier American song called "Whispering."

Rising up the charts (but was it last weekend's sales?)

Some good news to report. I now have singles at the #10, #9, and #5 positions on CDBaby's chiptune chart. Is it from last weekend's sales, or is it, I hope hope hope, from new sales? Of course, if you haven't bought yet, you know what to do (it's only $9.99!!!).

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Did You Know I Love You?

Hmm, this seems like a strange title for chiptune, kinda. Well, there is good reason for that. This wasn't a chiptune originally. It was actually a medium/slow tempo jazz tune I composed as a Christmas gift for my wife. The title of the song refers to something I say to her alot (one of those cheesey things a husband says to a wife, I guess).

I think it translates just fine to the NES though, and I'm actually pleased with how the emulated NES "noise" channel sounds just like snare drum being played with brushes. This works great for jazz tunes.

Instead of the usual "here is an interesting YouTube video that is related to the song on some way," you are actually getting a real, live performance of this song in its original form: with *myself* on guitar, my good friend Jason Gahler on bass (he also plays bass on "What Is Paragon?" and "Zeitgeber") and Al Ashby on tenor sax. The pictures are from my honeymoon in 2006.



Did You Know I Love You? from Robert Howard on Vimeo.

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Pocket Change

Before we go into Pocket Change, one of my personal favorites on the album, let's review the most popular songs so far, not just in pure sales, but also in "attaboys."

The winner is a tie, between "Warrior," still on CDBaby's chiptune charts at #8, and "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," the hymn. Additionally, "Jumpin' Around" has gotten some kudos as well.

Between those songs, you have classical music, the Lutheran Chorale, and early jazz represented here. So that begs the question... what is MY favorite genre of music? Well, I'd say jazz, both straight ahead acoustic style jazz (really, to get specific for the muso nerds out there, I'm a hard bop guy) and fusion. And "Pocket Change" probably nails that side of me better than any of the other tracks.

Pocket Change is a fusion tune, named because it has a deep, groovin' pocket (yeah yeah, it's computerized and all that, but I still think the pocket is tight!) and it has some rather drastic *chord changes*, more simply put, it has weird chords. It also features a "bass" solo, done in the style of Jaco Pastorius. Jaco was a legendary electric bassist in the 70s and 80s with bands such as Weather Report.

Finally, this seems like a good time to bring up the style of music I do other than chiptunes: Jazz. You'll note to the left that I have a few of my jazz rock albums for sale on CDBaby. My solo album, Zeitgeber, is now available for a paltry $5 for the whole darn full length album. It represents me at the height of my powers as a guitar player, and has some great moments on it. Some clown also gave it a mediocre review on CDBaby, so maybe one of you guys can chime in and help me out by writing a better one?

Pitch to Pixel featured in Arcade Heroes and Waxing Erratic

One of the big challenges of doing a project like this is promotion. When you do something as an indie, you have to really hit the pavement hard (well, the virtual pavement of the internet at least) to get the word out. Especially since the very nature of this project excludes a pretty well worn business model: selling CDs at shows. I won't be doing shows anytime soon, except for maybe recording myself performing "live" for YouTube purposes (I currently don't have the right kind of equipment to facilitate that, but we'll see what happens in the future).

So I really, really, really (no, I mean REALLY) appreciate it when blogs and websites actually decide my stuff is worthy of their attention. In my experience, going back to my earlier days in music when I was in a jazz rock band called Paragon (whose debut album is still available, link to the left, and who may or may not have another album coming out soon... hint hint!), I've found that most places basically ignore you. And why not? There are countless people out there doing music. Why should you get special attention?

So the peeps that actually promote your music tend to be the people who connect with it on some level (i.e. they actually think its good).

Anyway, two websites have recently featured my stuff, and even though I've obscured the original intent of this post (to link to them and thank them) with my pseudo-philosophical ramblings, here they are:

Waxing Erratic has been an early and ardent supporter of Pitch to Pixel, and featured me in a post here.

Arcade Heroes, a really nifty site dedicated to coin-op gaming, features me here.

I'll have both listed in a new blogroll to the left for further reference. Thank you guys! 

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Jumpin' Around

Koji Kondo is, of course, one of the greatest video game composers of all time, and for my money, a great composer period. Along with Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy among other things), he really defined the sound of Japanese video game music (while The Fatman, of Wing Commander fame, Tommy Tallarico and others defined the Western approach).

What is always so terrific about Koji Kondo's music is his emphasis of early jazz in his work. Of course we see that in Super Mario Brothers, heavily influenced by early jazz and ragtime. So that was the spirit that Jumpin' Around was composed  in. It is meant to be a tune that could neatly fit into a mid-1980s NES platformer.

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Village

Ballads are hard for me to conceive sometimes, which is odd because some of my better compositions are ballads. Why is that? It is mainly because ballads require (at least for me) a little more inspiration than a rockin' tune.


Yet it is a little easier in Chipland, because we have such a wonderfully large palette to pick from: RPG town/village music. Yep, I've always really liked the nice little ditties that play in oldschool RPGs when you walk into towns to buy your silver swords, your iron gauntlet, and phoenix downs!

Village is created in this mold, but I do employ (musical geekout approaching!) the lydian mode to create something that is a little more exotic.

Anyway, here is a young lady playing a nice version of the Final Fantasy town music on an Ocarina! Enjoy:

Warrior From Pitch To PIxel #7 on CDBaby's Chiptune charts!!!!!!

Well, this is a real blessing. Happy dance time!

Thanks to everyone who has went out and bought this! And of course, you can help keep it up there by paying a measly .99 cents :-)

New YouTube Sample: Johnny One Note

Here is another preview cut from "Pitch to Pixel," Johnny One Note.

Johnny One Note is inspired by Thelonious Monk, the great jazz composer and pianist. I had a conversation with a coworker in the design department at Vicious Cycle about Monk, and how this particular coworker couldn't really stand him. Well, don't worry, this track doesn't really posit the most challenging aspects of Monk's music. It is influenced much more by his playful side (I personally think all of this music is terrific, though!).

The title refers to the fact that for much of the melody, a one note motif is heard. This is most obvious in the bridge, where the melody hammers on one note, while the harmony underneath changes.

One nice thing about music with a jazz influence is that it works very well for video games. In fact, many Japanese video games have a big time jazz influence, from the ragtime of Koji Kondo's Mario Bros. music to the jazz rock fusion styling of something like Streets of Rage.

Enjoy!