I’ve finally finished my arrangement of “My Funny Valentine”, by Richard Rogers. It’s too bad I didn’t finish this by valentines day.

I’m not sure if any of you really care, but I will proceed to dissect it for you…

I decided I wanted a 6/8 feel to most of the song, to keep a feeling of movement.

Halfway through you’ll notice the song changes to a walking 4/4, I kept similar chords in this section. But I wrote a new melody and lyrics which hopefully fit the rest of the song.

The string pizzicato and clarinet staccatos are a hair offset to give it a syncopated feel. I also added a Mellotron Flute sample to add some texture.

Next came time to sing, it’s hard to compete with the likes of Sinatra, Miles Davis, or Chet Baker but I did my best.

This has been an enjoyable learning experience and I’ve found a new respect for songwriters and arrangers like Richard Rogers (famous for musicals like Sound of Music, South Pacific). These men haven’t received that much credit over the years although their songs seem to stay in our heads.

“How come it seems like everyone who comments on YouTube didn’t make it out of the first grade? Come on… who miss-spells ‘cheese’?”

— Anonymous

I recorded this song this past summer, I just recently discovered it in my music folder.

The song is called “He Knew Your Name”. It’s about God speaking each one of us into existence. It’s also about the love and mercy of God based on Psalm 136.

It’s a home recording, so I apologize for its “unpolished” parts.

We took another hike with Nicó/Bear Grylls. On this excursion he introduced us to a French guy named Romain who is working with him at the winery for the next month.

Nicó led all of us through a fairly treacherous path ending on a small ridge with a great view. Because it was so hot I decided to wear shorts, big mistake.

This area seems to be the breeding grounds for a whole world of cacti. In addition to that, the ridge we climbed up was made up of a lot of loose rocks. Climbing up wasn’t so bad, but on the way down it was more like skiing than walking. Made me think of the winter olympics.

After this excursion my legs felt like they were on fire. There’s no telling what different poisonous plants I rubbed up against. Romain just kept saying, “Wow, this is really intense.” Not sure if he knew what he was in for going on a hike with Nicó.

Tonight Nicolas is taking us on what they call a moon hike. It starts at 9pm and ends around 3am. I think I’ll wear pants this time…

Here’s a track from the film showcasing some of Ricardo’s playing. We actually started this off with mandolin. I wanted to create sort of a bed of mandolin strumming to add texture. Then he pulled out his guitar and went to town.

I just wrote out the chords (in Do Re Mi format) and I told him the rhythm I wanted (which is actually an Argentinean/Spanish rhythm). Later I added different percussion to accent the rhythm. (Believe it or not, the bassy drum is actually an empty water jug.)

I would guide his dynamics by just using my hand as he played, a form of conducting I suppose.

Hope you enjoy.

P.S. I encourage that you use some good stereo headphones for this and all recordings so you can really get the whole stereo picture.

Nicolás took us on a hike near Valle Grande (about 30 mins from the house). It was a black diamond of a hike, but fun. It was nice to get out in the hot-hot heat after spending so much time recording and mixing for the movie.

It was also nice to get my hands back on my camera again. It’s been a while since I’ve taken some pictures. All of my shots were with the ol’ 50mm.

We noticed some interesting things: A cute little yellow bird, random pools of water, and an unexplained zip-line wire. All in a days hike.

“Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.”

— Martin Luther

(Still frame from the film)

This is a sneak peak of a cue written for the short we’re working on. It started off with a simple chord progression. I played it with a local musician/guitarist Bruno and I asked him to play along in an Argentinian style. He started playing with a up/down/mute strum. I really liked it and ended up using it.

The song actually has lyrics in Spanish (not in this recording). Maria wrote lyrics for the song and taught me how to sing them. I’m not extremely good at remembering lyrics in English, so you can imagine how it is in Spanish… Not sure if the singing with lyrics will end up in the film or not.

We also wanted to get sort of a monastery sound to add color and flavor. This meant I wanted some sort of choir sound. I’m a bit embarrassed to say this but the choir ended up being mostly me. Once again I utilized the infamous Matthew choir.