this was inspired by a student of mine, who apparently has a keyboard with a unicorn “sound.”  i asked if it just sounded like a horse, and she said something to the effect of, “like a horse, but you know, sparklier.”

this made perfect sense.  but having not heard said sample, i curiously went about creating my own.

if you attend Maplewood’s Halloween Party TOMORROW NIGHT and use my bathroom, you will here the following recording on loop.  if you do not attend Maplewood’s Halloween Party TOMORROW NIGHT you will not experience the visual accompaniment to this piece.  BUT you’re welcome to download this and use it as a loop in your own bathroom(s) anytime.

happy halloween

BATMAN (click for mp3)

hi friends,

for this year’s “do it yourself” party theme, we made a video invite!

thanks to all the Maplewood crew for your awesomeness making this thing:

Ben Miranda

Drew Durepos

Jon Steinmeier

Lara Shortridge

Rick Franklin

SandraTilmon

Steve Brackett

Steve Niketopoulos

Maplewood is Angry (click carefully)

this is dope jam number two from the “Maplewood Is” series.

it again features Steve Niketopoulos, Lena Yohey, and myself.

a year (or two?) ago, team maple home team made some dope jams for our myspace page.

remember myspace?

it made us really angry

j

p.s.  listen to this on the streaming steiny music box here:  www.jonsteinmeier.com

Maplewood is Happy!! (click it!)

a year (or two?) ago, team maple home team made some dope jams for our myspace page.  remember myspace?

the first one is called “maplewood is happy” and features the voices of Steve Niketopoulos and Lena Yohey, over my “happy” music.  happiness is so satsifying!

lena even makes a really good joke in this one.  prepare to laugh!!  haha!

j

find this and other tracks here – www.jonsteinmeier.com

www.youtube.com/johnnyamazingrocks

this is a new video series created by my dear friend Andrew Wonacott.  it stars me as Johnny Amazing, a washed up rocker that’s decided to make a buck selling guitar teaching videos.  we shot a lot of material early this summer, and will post new shorts weekly (or nearly weekly) for a while, so stay tuned!  right now, i think we’re up to 4 episodes.

hope you enjoy them, and hope you learn something!

-J.A.

THIS is a birthday song i wrote last year for Benjamin Brooks, friend and hubby of our dear pal Stephanie Larson Brooks.

Knowing Ben far better than i, stephanie gave me lots of lyrical material, which i then mixed in with my own nonsense.

listen back to this track now, i’m pretty happy with the harmonic/melodic material.  it’s a fun suprise to listen back to something you wrote a year or two ago and dig it!  also, if you listen long enough you’ll hear a GUITAR SOLO!  it’s pretty.

hope you dig it too.

thanks for listening, and happy birthday (observed) ben!

p.s.  Detholz in Indianapolis tomorrow night (friday 9/25)

p.p.s.  Yard Sale at Maplewood Saturday (9/26) 10 to 4

p.p.p.s.p.p.

listen HERE:  www.jonsteinmeier.com

get yer fingers warmed up for speedy time kids!

it’s “fast as you can” time!

etude number 8 works that right hand speed and dexterity to the max! it’s a shorty though, so take your time learning the parts and finding a good fingering and you’ll be performing it in no time (if you’re awesome).

GO!

and stay tuned for another “from the archives” post soon!

j

hey friends,

with some free time today i’ve rediscovered some oldies from the steiny songwriting archives and decided to post a few.

this first one  a song i wrote for my good friend Jaron Hilger for his birthday last year.  this is something i used to do more often for birthday gifts, and this one was particularly fun for me.  it also features “tiny steiny.”

happy birthday jaron 2008

hope it gets yer rump shak’n

j

listen here:  HERE!

two ideas in play here:

1. stacked 4ths.  for example, the opening chords are two separate stacks of fourths:

RH – C F# B

LH – E A D

these are not all perfect fourths, and resolve in different ways, but the color for the etude is established with these stacks.  when the blocked chords become a linear pattern a few seconds in, it’s the same stacks, broken up.  these six notes establish a rhythmic theme for the accompaniment part.

2. hand to hand play (not evident in recording) – the accompaniment part (above) is really a two handed part, with each hand getting a different stack of fourths, so the melody part that appears about 30 seconds in has to happen around this accompaniment part.  i should make a video.  basically when one hand or another is not playing the accompaniment run, it’s reaching up an octave for a melody note.  this makes for fun hand over hand work, and a bit of speed to reach some of the notes.  think of it this way, when you hear the melody come in, it’s played in this order:

right, right, left, right left

OK!

well, thanks for listening and reading.

p.s.  Hideout Soul Revue is August 15th (a week away!) and not to be missed

p.p.s.  OK!