My Signature Sound

In any song I write, I have what I'll charitably call "my signature sound." I wrote about it a few weeks ago. It's the repetitive, broken-chord sound, root-fifth-root-fifth-root-fifth pattern, ad nauseam. I know it sounds crazy, but I never could figure out what else to do with my left hand. So anytime I played anything where the music wasn't dictated to me on a page, I would fill in the accompaniment with this signature sound.

A few days ago, I posted a tune/accompaniment that I came up with while working on major severth chords. I didn't realize it until a day or two later, but it's kind of a big deal this little song uses block chords instead of the old broken-chord signature sound in the left hand. This is huge! I'm choosing not to kick myself for not getting to this point when I was in my teens. At this point, I'm just happy to be returning to the fundamentals and filling in the gaps that have held me back all these years.

I don't hate my signature sound; I'm just bored with it. I've been bored with it for a long time, and I'm glad to have the chance to finally do something about it. But I do still enjoy some of the songs I've written/arranged using it. This video is of me playing my "signature sound" arrangement of "The Lovers' Waltz," by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. I probably should have used more of an oom-pah-pah style waltz accompaniment, but ... all I knew was my signature sound!

When I first heard this song (it was featured in Ken Burns's 1990 Civil War documentary/miniseries), I wanted to get the sheet music but couldn't find it anywhere. That's why I came up with my own version of it. Hope you enjoyed it!

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Picking Up the Pieces

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