Music and I

When I was 7 years old, I got a guitar from the Easter Bunny. My dad had tried his best to learn a simple tune from a friend of his, in order to give me a kick off. I still remember that tune and my father trying to sing it on the first two strings of the guitar.
I never gave up guitar ever since; I took up some basic lessons, and then continued on my own.
 
At 11, I was playing guitar in a school group and kept that on for 4 years; then I founded a rock group with a bunch of friends.
We didn't have good instruments or anything really, but we were very enthusiastic and even had a few gigs that were acclaimed by the local crowds -- I guess it was too soon after the Revolution for them to know what's good and what's not :)
 

 
Later, I recorded some songs by myself. And then, I recorded and sang on 2 songs on an album named "Clasic" of a local group named "Nopti Albe". In total, I've been in 5 or 6 bands so far. Photos from the studio are here.

I am a registered artist on Garageband.
 
I currently own a Yamaha guitar with a Zoom processor and Yamaha amp, and a small MIDI keyboard. You can see the guitar in some photos, I believe, in the photo section. When I record, I use FruityLoops for rythm, Cakewalk Pro for MIDI and CoolEdit for mixing and postprocessing. Lately I've been also using GarageBand on my MacBook.
 

    Unfinished Dream listen on Garageband.com

    When I dream of a song, after I wake up I try to write it down before I forget it. But I usually forget it anyway. This is one of those attempts, and as such, it is "drastically unfinished" :) The entire song is made only with Apple's GarageBand.

     

    The Bliss Song listen on Garageband.com

    Another attempt at writing a full song after a long time. Writing it was a 6-hours process of practically eliminating every idea that I had started with and replacing it with something else. The result isn't quite as homogenous as I had hoped, but I've heard worse (especially from me).


    Cornfield listen on Garageband.com

    This was recorded in the summer of 2004. It's also a bit different from all the others. It has a recurring piano part, simple rythm and a happy lead guitar. The entire song is an expression of simplicity.

     

    On the News (with guitar and without guitar, on Garageband.com)

    This song is different again from all the others. First I wanted to do an "Electric Brother" kind of atmospheric electronic song, and then I thought about adding guitar. I liked both versions, so I kept both... The name of the song? If you listen carefully, you'll hear voices on track. I've taken the voices from a newscast that was on TV at the time...

     

    Summer Rain listen on Garageband.com

    This was based on an idea of mine to make use of a few clean chords that I really liked a lot. Just to make it sound better, I overimposed a guitar solo. The keyboards are MIDI. It's a nice quiet tune and my mother likes it a lot. I hope you do, too.

     

    Watching Her Sleep listen on Garageband.com

    This song has almost no rythm at all. It's just a play on MIDI, with recurring chords that (at least to me) appear to sound differently every other time (i.e., every other iteration closes the verse). The lead guitar is peaceful but a bit sharp. The entire song me took about 2 hours from inception to mp3 export. 


    Instrumental listen on Garageband.com

    Based on a simple tune that I've dreamed about one night, I recorded this instrumental with MIDI drums, bass and keyboards for a pretty long guitar solo. This is the second song I recorded, and more of an experiment than a work of art ;) Guitars are a bit sharp, I now realize, but perhaps they compensate for the soft, warm bass. Harmonics are also a bit muffled; I never could figure out a good way to record a clean guitar effect just the way I like it.

     

    Alina listen on Garageband.com

    First song I ever recorded (year 2000 I think). It's about my girlfriend at the time. It's also my only song that has my own voices on it, which is bad for it, but I suppose it was good for the girlfriend. I know my voice is no good, but the orchestration is, I think, ok -- especially the guitars.